Reply To: Scheduling: 2013-14

Forum Forum Lehigh Sports Lehigh Men’s Basketball Scheduling: 2013-14 Reply To: Scheduling: 2013-14

#10941

LU65
Participant

To ‘90’s’ point about scheduling local talent, i.e., Seton Hall, Penn and Princeton and doing away with the likes of Bryant, Quinnipiac, and Rider. I hear you and agree that while it would perhaps drive up local interest, I’m not sure it would do anything to improve our strength of schedule based on last year’s resulting RPIs of:

Seton Hall 133
Penn 180
Princeton 126
Three team average: 180

Bryant 167
Quinnipiac 194
Rider 139
Three team average: 167

Toss in LaSalle (155.3), Delaware (151.3), Temple (141.2), and Drexel (206) and we’ve down little to move the needle in the direction we’d all like to see. In short, Scheduling is a bitch. And, we hear it from around the nation. No one, with the possible exception of Holy Cross fans, appear satisfied with their non-conference array of talent. I give you these quotes from two message boards:

>American – rungmc says, “Our schedule blows.”
>Minnesota – afurry91 says, “Great. We actually play New Orleans and Coastal Carolina. And WTF? Texas A&M Corpus Christi? How many 300+ rpi opponents do we have? “

As for cupcakes, everyone wants them. It’s just the way it is these days. For example, I give you the upcoming 2013-14 non-conference schedules PRIs of……………

Marquette 188.2
West Virginia 183.5
St. John’s 181.2
Washington 172.6
Minnesota 172.1
Michigan State 164.8
Penn. State 161.4
Oklahoma 153.0
Nebraska 151.9
Ohio State 144.6

Around the PL you have (to date):

Holy Cross 145.5
Bucknell 172.6
Lafayette 180.3
American 209.0
Navy 259.3

Like Stabler Bum, I Iike the 1/3rd, 1/3rd, 1/3rd idea for all the reasons given. Now, while our schedule is not yet complete (I can only hope we fill in another game or two-please may they be at home) nor is it official, Lehigh is flittering with the desired 1/3rd – 1/3rd – 1/3rd arrangement with:

Top 1/3: Minn (30), Pitt (44), and South Dakota State (62)*

Middle 1/3: Rider (139), Byrant (167),Texas Southern (186)

Bottom 1/3: Fordham (238), Sacred Heart (253), and St. Francis (PA) (322)

• There’s always a chance we’ll play Howard (334) in the MTE and not So. Dakota State. Were that to happen, our non-conference SOS would certainly take a hit.