Worthy of note is Willard’s blog posting on the matter:
http://www.coachralphwillard.com/blog.html
With this continuity of success has come challenges in scheduling all successful mid-majors face. Two factors have magnified this problem for us. We are in what is considered a low major conference, with only 14 conference games, that requires us to go out and schedule 15 non conference games. We also play a so-called match-up defense, that requires a special preparation, that teams would rather not play against in the non conference schedule. I say so-called match-up, because for the last four years it has basically been a 2-3 zone, that varies slightly with each opponent, and a switching man to man. However the fact that in our four NCAA and one NIT appearance we have been able to largely negate any opponents physical superiority, by causing them to think on offense, the defense has taken on a life of its own. This spring we called 131 BCS and mid major schools for games that said no. To be fair, some just didn’t have matching open dates, but the vast majority simply did not want to play against the match-up. When George Blaney, a Holy Cross alum and head coach for 22 years, told me at a charity golf tournament we were both at, that "we (UCONN) will never schedule you", I guess that crystallizes the problem. It is a perception that creates a reality that I don’t see an answer for. It is untenable going forward.
I’d encourage everyone to read the whole blog posting, where he cites age (he’s 63) and new challenges (assistant at Louisville) as other reasons to leave. But I find it striking that he spends most of the blog posting talking about scheduling difficulties – tailing into the fact that Holy Cross is interested in scheduling "money games" to help balance the athletic department’s books. That and he used the words "untenable going forward" twice in his post. Is he talking about his situation – or the Patriot League in general???
ngineer 15 years, 7 months ago.
