No, URI is not a Top-25 team, but it is on the rise, say a Top-65 team, and it is led by a "name coach." How did PC get to play Kentucky? They were in a better "on-the-rise trajectory" than URI.TruePoint wrote:The problem is we are not a perennial Top 25 team yet. Teams just aren't going to take risks with their schedule for a team that could beat them on any given night but could finish 125th. We haven't shaken that yet, reputation wise.bressler3south wrote:Why is it that people think that URI can't get big boy teams to play at the Ryan Center or that they won't invite the Rams to their gyms? Other perennial Top-25 schools do it all the time, playing each other, and Top 26-50 teams are part of that scene, too.
"Other" was a reference to "Big Boy Teams" and could have been written better. The point is this: People overrate other coaches pissing their pants that their teams go into a match-up believing that they're going to lose to an upstart. They go into games thinking, How am I going to prepare my team to win? Not, "Oooooh, if I lose to URI I'm not going to get a contract extension worth $10,000,000,000." If the latter were the case, that coach is a loser and a goner.
When CFL led URI to its annual race to a 14-1 record and always fell short in match-ups against Duke, et al., and the most-important NCAA bid, I remember Krzyzewski saying something to the effect of: "Not only do you have to start out the season well, but you have to sustain it and finish better."
Schedules are made upon the foundations of relationships amongst the coaches, (head coaches, and likewise, their assistants) and the athletic directors' offices. This is what baffled me, pissed me off, and frustrated me beyond belief when I read on more than a few occasions the URI coaches bemoaning how difficult it is to create a schedule and having to go online, etc.
Are you telling me that amongst all of the people in the Athletic Department/Basketball Staff, that there aren't enough friendships/strong relationships to get the ball rolling?
I've stated it before: Do the Jon Chaney/Calipari UMass Thing: Anytime, Anywhere.
Gonzaga does it.
Whatever………..