ramster wrote:
Games next year I think are more important to win than the PC game (not getting more ticket sales, just more important to the NCAA or Bust Goal:
Alabama away
Vanderbilt Preseason NIT
Seton Hall Preseason NIT
Virginia Preseason NIT
Dayton Home
Dayton Away
VCU Home
VCU Away
4th Place Team in A10 Home and Away
5th Place Team in A10 Home and Away
What's your reasoning behind this? Ignoring whether or not PC is an important game due to the rivalry, it's still going to be a home game against a potential NCAA tournament team. VCU and/or Dayton might not even make the tournament next year or finish in the top 5 of the a10. Who knows if Alabama will be good and if they are in fact good it's still a road game. I personally think the PC game will be one of the more important games to win because it's a home OOC game against a team that will likely be considered a solid win on our tournament resume.
The reasoning goes back to early in the thread.
It's said that we must beat PC to get HUGE increases in attendance.
My point is that if you exchange the Belmont win with the PC loss then URI is still a mediocre 5-3 following the PC game. I don't think that PC win would have drawn huge increases in attendance over what we got and brought in a lot more money. That's the difference of opinion in a nutshell.
This is correct and we have the history of the Ryan Center to show that beating PC doesn't really move the needle with attendance. People that are going to come to the Ryan Center, URI fans, care more about how good URI is and how good we're projected to be then how we do one day in December. This myth of the casual fan just waiting for us to beat PC to come to the Ryan Center only exists as a way to find even more to complain about when we lose to PC. "not only did we lose, but we killed our attendance the rest of the season! To the Baron 2.0 thread, battle stations everyone!!!"
It's just like anything else in life. When one side uses hyperbole, the other side tends to react the same way. PC will probably not be the most important game of the season. It's very rare for it to be the most important game of the season. How often has it been since the late 70's? And winning it won't really have an effect on attendance. It doesn't mean it's not a big game, and it doesn't mean there would be a more satisfying win until March. I don't think you'll find someone on here that will argue that point, there's nothing on our schedule until the A10 championship that will be more enjoyable than beating them even if other wins will go further to getting us where we want to be.
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I agree with Ramster in most regards on this topic, one early season game (even a pretty big one) should not make or break attendance for an entire season. URI (or PC's season) will largely be determined by conference performance. However, the area I would tend to disagree is that if the season starts a little flat, the PC/URI game can be the one to keep people invested and excited. You can argue that for PC last year, the juice from the URI game kept people interested after a relatively sluggish start to the season and then a horrific stretch from December into early January. Had PC lost to URI, the angry herd after the blowout loss to Butler simply might have not cared anymore and just chalked it up as a complete rebuild. However a win (especially in a year where both teams should be good) can definitely result in hope and excitement going forward, especially if it's a dynamite of a game with both teams throwing haymakers at each other.
I agree for the most part that it is just 1 game, in most seasons. And it's usually not even the most important as it relates to our post season chances.
HOWEVER, this season it may be our only Top 50 home game...which makes it very very impt for post season resume.
AND, winning hearts and minds of URI alumni and the state at large is certainly a process that is helped by the added coverage and perception of beating PC. Perception isn't always equal to reality, and the PC-URI game is an example of that.
ramster wrote:
Games next year I think are more important to win than the PC game (not getting more ticket sales, just more important to the NCAA or Bust Goal:
Alabama away
Vanderbilt Preseason NIT
Seton Hall Preseason NIT
Virginia Preseason NIT
Dayton Home
Dayton Away
VCU Home
VCU Away
4th Place Team in A10 Home and Away
5th Place Team in A10 Home and Away
What's your reasoning behind this? Ignoring whether or not PC is an important game due to the rivalry, it's still going to be a home game against a potential NCAA tournament team. VCU and/or Dayton might not even make the tournament next year or finish in the top 5 of the a10. Who knows if Alabama will be good and if they are in fact good it's still a road game. I personally think the PC game will be one of the more important games to win because it's a home OOC game against a team that will likely be considered a solid win on our tournament resume.
The reasoning goes back to early in the thread.
It's said that we must beat PC to get HUGE increases in attendance.
My point is that if you exchange the Belmont win with the PC loss then URI is still a mediocre 5-3 following the PC game. I don't think that PC win would have drawn huge increases in attendance over what we got and brought in a lot more money. That's the difference of opinion in a nutshell.
You specifically said in your other post "not getting more ticket sales, just more important to the NCAA or Bust Goal". So as I said before, how is beating Alabama, VCU, Dayton, and the others listed more important than beating PC when it might be our only home game against a tournament team?
If we are 8-1 in our non- con schedule, and that one loss is to pc, locals will dismiss us as only playing well against weak competition, and will not come to our games...just one woman's opinion....
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josephski wrote:
What's your reasoning behind this? Ignoring whether or not PC is an important game due to the rivalry, it's still going to be a home game against a potential NCAA tournament team. VCU and/or Dayton might not even make the tournament next year or finish in the top 5 of the a10. Who knows if Alabama will be good and if they are in fact good it's still a road game. I personally think the PC game will be one of the more important games to win because it's a home OOC game against a team that will likely be considered a solid win on our tournament resume.
The reasoning goes back to early in the thread.
It's said that we must beat PC to get HUGE increases in attendance.
My point is that if you exchange the Belmont win with the PC loss then URI is still a mediocre 5-3 following the PC game. I don't think that PC win would have drawn huge increases in attendance over what we got and brought in a lot more money. That's the difference of opinion in a nutshell.
You specifically said in your other post "not getting more ticket sales, just more important to the NCAA or Bust Goal". So as I said before, how is beating Alabama, VCU, Dayton, and the others listed more important than beating PC when it might be our only home game against a tournament team?
Because Alabama will be a Top 25 Team on the road, VCU and Dayton will be Top 2 or 3 in the Atlantic 10 Conference (as most every year) that we could need to beat out to obtain the coveted NCAA bid. I don't see PC as more important than those 5 games.
But the discussion was around needing to beat PC to bring in huge numbers of local fans. Again if you exchange the Belmont, Brown or Marist win with a loss and give URI the win over PC last season, then we are still 5-3 and I see the 5-3 record as somewhat disappointing. PC is nice to beat but the 5-3 record was not exciting the fan base. The overall record and strenghth of the team will bring the local fans.
Nice to have as a home game with no return game - good get
Deyshonee Much was red hot in the game they played at our place. He is now a senior.
Zach Lewis was originally at canisius, then UMASS, now will play for Iona.
Iona was in Sacramento with URI. They got beat by Oregon in the first round game.
Seem to recall quite a few here liking Tim Cluess in the locked up Baron 2.0 thread.
Well we need 4 more OOC games to complete the schedule.....let's hope we can get a couple more top 50 or at least top 100 games.....
Enough with the hassling over the implications of the PC game on attendance....last thing I'll say on the matter is if we win it, it will give us a nice little bump for a while at least.....still have to win other big games to keep interest up, like ramster just said.
That Iona game was a mess....we were lucky to win it, we played like dog crap.
Scheduling Iona again is a solid move. I don't think Cluess' schtick would necessarily work at a higher conference, but some people do love to fawn over him. Their roster is hard to keep track of with all the transfers, but they lose their top two scorers in Washington and Severe.
This just in from a source well positioned in Florida, URI will host Florida Gulf Coast this year. Still waiting to hear if this is a buy game or a home and home.
The OOC schedule looks like it is shaping up nicely, with chances to get good RPI wins:
Likely Top 50 RPI - Providence, Alabama, Virginia
Likely Top 75 RPI - Vanderbilt, Seton Hall
Likely Top 125 RPI - Iona, Florida Gulf Coast (if/when this is confirmed)
Likely Low-RPI Games - Brown, Holy Cross, Pre-Season NIT Games (x2)
That leaves us with 3 games left to schedule, if my math is right. Assuming one of these games is a season opening game versus a low-RPI team, this would leave us with 2 games to schedule against teams that could be decent RPI wins. A team like Belmont would fit well into this season's schedule and RPI goals.
Around a month ago I had heard rumours from Iona boosters we were doing a home and home with them. I Wonder why it's only this one game? I would much rather play Iona away the year after instead of anther low rpi scrub... Selfishly it would give me an excuse to do down to New Rochelle and see a game with some old college buddies. First game I ever went to was an Iona home game vs Dan Hurley led Seton Hall.
Iona is losing it's best player to graduation but has a few nice transfers including that guard from Umass. Should be a chance of at least an RPI top 100 win. So it's much better to have compared to another Umass-Lowell or another rpi 200+ team.
While that's convenient and fun for you, I'm sure almost every other URI fan would prefer a home game as opposed to an away game against Iona. There really is no reason for us to play a road game there.
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RhowdyRam02 wrote:While that's convenient and fun for you, I'm sure almost every other URI fan would prefer a home game as opposed to an away game against Iona. There really is no reason for us to play a road game there.
Iona usually has a decent RPI and therefore beating them on the road would be a bonus.
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RhowdyRam02 wrote:While that's convenient and fun for you, I'm sure almost every other URI fan would prefer a home game as opposed to an away game against Iona. There really is no reason for us to play a road game there.
Iona usually has a decent RPI and therefore beating them on the road would be a bonus.
Indiana lost at Fort Wayne this year, there's nothing guaranteed on the road in college.
RhowdyRam02 wrote:While that's convenient and fun for you, I'm sure almost every other URI fan would prefer a home game as opposed to an away game against Iona. There really is no reason for us to play a road game there.
Obviously I'd rather they play a home game but the question was not "home game vs away game". It was home game + no return game vs home & home.
I just don't see how a single home game is better than a home and home given we seem to play some awful rpi teams each year. Plus we are likely paying Iona to come next year and we will likely have too have to buy another home game in place of that possible return game next year.
I guess some people would rather just not take the risk vs reward of laying decent teams n the road however.
Why do you say we're likely to play Iona again next year?
We're already playing Providence on the road next year and we always seem to play top teams in these neutral tournaments. We do need to have some easier games as well mixed in. and they want to guarantee a certain amount of home games to sell tickets. Playing a team away that may not be top 100 and if they are it's just barely isn't a scheduling priority when we can just buy them out and keep all of our options open.
Would you have any interest in us scheduling this game home and home if it was someone other than Iona and you couldn't go to the game? Would you want us doing a home and home against Northern Kentucky? Furman?
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Take down the Robert Carothers banner and fix the concession stand lines
We did a 2 for 1 with Holy Cross. It's much easier for the majority of our fan base to get to Worcester than it is New Rochelle, NY. Holy Cross is 17th on our most played list with 41 games, Iona's 34th with 12 games and they're the next state over, so there's more of a "rivalry" aspect with Holy Cross.
This fetish people have with Iona and Tim Cluess is amazing. Trust me, if we decide next year at this time that we want to play at Iona for some unknown reason, they're not going to say no. We don't need to lock up that once in a lifetime opportunity to play in the Hynes Athletic Center or else someone else might swoop in.
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Take down the Robert Carothers banner and fix the concession stand lines
Be it Iona or some other similar school taking the occasional road game vs OOC teams likely to be in the top 100 RPI makes tons of sense for URI or any school that fancies itself a possible at-large bid.
It's a game we should win for one. Games like that are big and easy boosts for your RPI. RPI is weighted so heavily towards road wins it makes it a very easy choice to take games like that as it could easily be worth 10-20 points in your final RPI compared to a home game vs holy cross or sacred heart.
We have a 2-1 with Holy Cross and their "1" is at an arena they play in once and a year and close to use so that was as a huge financial score for us. The money we saved not having to buy those games can go to buying other games now. We should look at 2-1's like that often.
I am with those who like the home game v Iona but don't want to go play at New Rochelle
I like the home game vs Fla GC nice
I love what DH is doing with the schedule seems like he is sitting down with staff and saying what is our best path to the NCAA and then he schedules accordingly I love it
RhowdyRam02 wrote:While that's convenient and fun for you, I'm sure almost every other URI fan would prefer a home game as opposed to an away game against Iona. There really is no reason for us to play a road game there.
Iona usually has a decent RPI and therefore beating them on the road would be a bonus.
Indiana lost at Fort Wayne this year, there's nothing guaranteed on the road in college.
Gimme Iona in Kingston, please and thank you.
Absolutely no need to play at their place.
I will give you a reason to play at Iona - to not be hypocrites. We can't stand up and say that a really good P5 program should play in Kingston and then say we are too good to play at a team that is lower than us. I am not saying we should play an away game at Maine, but a solid 75 to 150 RPI team should get a shot at us at home. Wouldn't bother me in the least. I really liked the 2 for 1 with holy cross for that reason.
I think bemoaning the inability to get a P5 opponent on the schedule at home is a 2005-10 KeaneyBlue topic. Our team went in the tank. Nobody cared about scheduling at that time. Then Hurley got Nebraska and we have since danced.
I think everyone accepts that we are going to take our shots at good teams in neutral tournaments. Against PC. and maybe a few others against teams that could be strong/weak (Houstons of the world). Bama will be here next year.
All this to say that we don't need to play AT Iona in order to not be hypocrites. That's a 2007 thing.
The College BB scheduling game is established. Only schools playing home games OOC against good programs are like Kentucky.
To follow up on that, when looking at the top six conferences (Big 12, ACC, Big East, Big Ten, SEC, PAC 12) for non-conference scheduling, here's the scheduling breakdown in 16-17:
88.6% Home/Neutral (64.0% Home)
11.4% Away
The AAC and the A10 are the next two conferences:
AAC: 80.7% Home/Neutral (64.4% Home)
A10: 76.2% Home/Neutral (71.6% Home)
Getting a home and home, plus the PC game and quality tournament invites, each year is quality scheduling, given those numbers. Mark Adams talks a lot about budgets and scheduling, and those numbers are from his research. The conference rankings are from KenPom.
Last edited by ace7 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
Florida Gulf Coast is a great addition. Was always surprised this was the best that Dooley could land but not surprisingly he's done a very good job. One criteria in building a schedule for Dan is he has to respect the other coach.
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UCH21377 wrote:A Nov/Dec road trip to Fort Myers would be cool. I spend time there. The team has a decent arena, pretty good attendance, and good media coverage.
Already planning on going even though it is two years out. Curious that this isn't for 2018-9.
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