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gmogmo · newbie Joined: 19 Mar 2012 Posts: 8

I saw a tweet last night from Matt Vautour that referenced Ohio coming to the Mullins Center next year as part of the 4 games UMass is now obligated to play vs MAC teams due to the football membership. Can't seem to find any "official" notification of this from any other sources, was wondering if anyone knew of a place that had any of next years games out there. Assuming Miami, FL will be making a trip up here (as will BC).

Edit: I did just find this via this site:

http://umasshoops.com/wiki/doku.php?id=season_2012-13

Blutrane93 · Senior Joined: 14 Apr 2010 Posts: 1261

I just wrote a huge, and premature, analysis of our OOC next year and my 1 year old walked up and hit escape erasing it all.

The short of it is that the 6 games we are already committed to for next year: BC, Miami (FL), Siena, Northeastern, Elon, and East Carolina are basically going to produce the same OOC SOS numbers for us.

The 4 MAC games, with Ohio as one, compare favorably with a group from this year's schedule consisting of Davidson, College of Charleston, Quinnipiac, and CC State. We should come out slightly ahead on SOS with that swap.

That leaves another group of 4 games that will make or break our resume. Florida St. (RPI of 11), Utah (274), NJIT (304), and Towson (311) came out to an average of 225 OOC SOS. That was probably the difference between us making the A-10 Final, or maybe even making the semi's, and going dancing vs. not. Obviously, no complaints, the NIT run has been amazing and I'm very excited about Tuesday, but of course, we want to find a way to put ourselves in a great position RPI-wise next year.

Two of those game above were tournament games, and two were one game series that have expired. If we can turn these 4 games into games that bring our SOS down from 117 to between 50-75, we'll have a chance to build a great resume. I'm not sure playing an early season tournament where we could encounter another Utah, or even a team that could end up with a mid-100's RPI would be that helpful to us. My hope is that teams in the expected 20-80 RPI range can be scheduled. Even if that means going on the road and/or playing neutral sites only. We are a team that will not be viewed as an RPI killer anymore, so we should be able to schedule some BCS schools at their place/neutral sites. Our team is battle tested and ready to rock now, there are already a lot of potential wins on the OOC schedule already, let's get on the road, get on TV if we can, and start next year with a strong statement against some of the better BCS schools. Sign up for two for ones, or just two at their place, I don't care.

OK, not so short, after all.

utterlyoptimistic · Junior Joined: 14 Apr 2010 Posts: 399

I think it's about time we get a game with Kentucky.

BTHoops · Junior Joined: 10 Jan 2004 Posts: 618

Florida State, Utah and College of Charleston were all in the Bahamas in an NCAA exempt 3 game event. With the scheduling rules, those 3 games only count as 1 for schedule limits. So based on the plan above, you have to find an event to participate in for 2012/2013.

Ideally, IMO, the field should have 3 games; 1 very winable game, 1 game that is an even game, and 1 game that it will be an upset if UMass can win.

Old Cage · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 3:03 pm Post subject:

I have not read all the threads, so I don't know if this "new news," but there is chatter on Twitterdom about Butler, VCU and GMU all coming our way for next year.

The suggestion is that the A-16 would have four geographical pods, with ours including URI, Fordham and Bona. That would mean 18 league games.

As Sgt. Schultz once said: "I know nuth-ing."
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Refuse2Lose83 · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 3:08 pm Post subject:

^ That would be amazing if we got Butler, VCU and George Mason into the A-10/14/16/18 whatever it may be
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Berkman · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 3:14 pm Post subject:

At the luncheon on Wed. it was rummored that UMass may be taking a trip to Europe in the summer to get Cady L. some playing time. Can do it once every four years.

mlaconte459 · Senior Joined: 01 Oct 2009 Posts: 942

^^ and air laguaree

Sheck · Junior Joined: 01 Oct 2004 Posts: 743 Location: Inside 128

Marty Peretz · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 5:20 pm Post subject:

I think 2012-2013 is the right time to bring bring Midnight Madness. Hold it at the Cage (because, with tickets in hotter demand next year, I'd think that a cage game during the regular season might not be in the cards again) and make it a great event. Get the students on board early, do some season ticket giveaways, a dunk contest, etc. I actually think midnight madness can be kind of boring, but hold some sort of formal kick-off event to get the fans fired up.
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vanmeter · Senior Joined: 02 Apr 2003 Posts: 1263

We have 4 games vs Mac teams - While Ohio should be a good rpi team, the other 3 are Miami of Ohio (rpi 246) Eastern Michigan (244) and Northern Illinois (323) are terrible.

The 10 games booked have no teams 50 rpi, 2 team under 100 (Ohio & University of Miami) 2 teams between 150-199 5 teams in the 200's and 1 in the 300's.

This schedule (we either have 2 or 4 games (if we get in an approved tourney) left. The schedule to date is worse than this years.

ktabz16 · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 6:01 pm Post subject:

the a10 itself will be better this year, with more top 50 teams.

Marty Peretz · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 6:05 pm Post subject:

Not necessrily, vanmeter. BC will not be nearly as bad as last year, as they bring everyone back. It was a total aberration that they were THAT shitty this past season. Ohio will be excellent. Top 20 or top 25 good. Miami returns a ton of talent and Larranganga will be in his second year there, so they will have adjusted to his style and be very good. No idea what Sienna brings back but they are almost always better than they were this year. If we can add one more quality game and one more that would probably be deemed out of reach, I'll be very content with our non-conference slate. You can say all you want about this year's schedule, but if we'd beaten Miami and, say, Charleston, there's a good chance we'd have danced. If we take care of business, we'll be fine.
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UMass87 · Hall of Fame Joined: 02 Apr 2003 Posts: 7335

Northern Illinois is a train wreck - they are the Fordham of the MAC. I don't understand why the MAC would want us to play them or them to play us. Nobody benefits from that. Eastern Michigan isn't much better. At least Miami of Ohio is usually pretty good and probably will be better next year.

If I were the MAC commissioner I'd be trying to get the top 4 MAC teams playing UMass and Temple in basketball. There is no upside for the bottom feeders.

As for the schedule as a whole - I'm not particularly concerned. Just as with this year, the schedule will not be what determines whether UMass will be dancing. Winning will. Had UMass beat URI, Miami, and FSU then UMass would have been in the tournament even with a crappy OOC SOS. The way it looks now, UMass will need to go undefeated OOC to go dancing but if their opponents suck (which, so far, they do) then that is not an unreasonable expectation.

LS71 · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 7:12 pm Post subject:

I'd love to see a home and home with Auburn.
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