Cyclones Release Non-Conference Schedule
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CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Get me one.
Let's do this!
I hate buying tickets to see most of our non-conference opponents. I love Cyclone basketball past the point of reason. Still, this ticks me off every year.
Agreed. I know we need easy wins but i hate games that are over half through the first half.
To be fair, we likely won't be playing NJIT unless they upset Buffalo, which had an RPI of 173 last season.
Now Houston Baptist, Northern AZ, MVS, and New Hampshire are all worse than a 250 RPI. Those games are likely bloodbaths. It'd be nice to exchange one of those for at least a Creighton or So Dak St or something.
Now Houston Baptist, Northern AZ, MVS, and New Hampshire are all worse than a 250 RPI. Those games are likely bloodbaths. It'd be nice to exchange one of those for at least a Creighton or So Dak St or something.
These games aren't going to prepare us for the Big 12 and these wins won't mean much in the committee. Luckily in women's tournament wins and losses don't determine who gets in the big dance, but attendance figure do.
Honestly, we are young in the guard court. As much as I would like to see more interesting games on our schedule, this might not be the year to load up the non-con. Now, next year, if all goes well, my expectations might be different. Last year, our wins in Virgin Islands went a long way for our reputation last year.
CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
Really?
RPI matters in women's just as it does in men's. There are some quality teams we will be playing this year that with wins will be good for us. I wouldn't mind seeing one or two more quality non-con teams for our RPI boost, but goodness knows the Big 12 this year will be tough enough.
BF usually knows exactly how to pace the non-con to get his teams ready to play. With so many options in the guard court, he needs to figure out a whole bunch quick, and playing high level teams every night won't do the team any favors. These freshmen need to be built up and incorporated into the system and need to be able to build confidence.
I agree. I think if you look back you will see my griping about our non-con last year.
Personally, I would love to see the Iowa/Drake/UNI games go away, but that won't happen. I would much rather us play a Vandy, or Arizona St., teams that are on our traditional level.
This doesn't entirely mean a lot because it's from old RPI numbers (2011), but I was just curious as to how our nonconference schedule matches up to others in the Big12. It's also a little scewed due to some teams not listing their opponents in various tournaments.
Iowa State is actually about middle of the pack from what I've come up with. I just averaged the RPI for the teams each team plays.
Texas A&M 55.73
Kansas State 104
Oklahoma 119.29
Baylor 142.4
Iowa State 154.27
Kansas 160.3
Texas 177.42
Texas Tech 180.08
Missouri 195.56
Iowa came in with 125.27.
Baylor is participating in the preseason WNIT, Oklahoma is in the Vanderbilt Thanksgiving Tournament, and a few others that don't know which teams they will be playing in tournaments. If they were like Iowa State and had two teams listed (Butler & Nevada), I took the lower RPI.
I still haven't found Oklahoma State's 2011-2012 schedule, so they aren't included. I just thought it was interesting to see how our nonconference schedule somehow matched up.
Iowa State is actually about middle of the pack from what I've come up with. I just averaged the RPI for the teams each team plays.
Texas A&M 55.73
Kansas State 104
Oklahoma 119.29
Baylor 142.4
Iowa State 154.27
Kansas 160.3
Texas 177.42
Texas Tech 180.08
Missouri 195.56
Iowa came in with 125.27.
Baylor is participating in the preseason WNIT, Oklahoma is in the Vanderbilt Thanksgiving Tournament, and a few others that don't know which teams they will be playing in tournaments. If they were like Iowa State and had two teams listed (Butler & Nevada), I took the lower RPI.
I still haven't found Oklahoma State's 2011-2012 schedule, so they aren't included. I just thought it was interesting to see how our nonconference schedule somehow matched up.
I think its made up. Kind of like South Harmon Institute of Technology of the movie Accepted.
Although Big 12 wins obviously will improve RPI, this partly explains how ISU seeding tends to suffer come tournament time.
Bill's better teams do well enough in conference, but non-league should have a few more opponents that, while not high-caliber, should rival Big-12 teams that ISU tends to beat frequently (like ex-XII'er CU; KU prior to last couple of years; Missouri, etc.)
Maybe low-RPI in non-conf will be OK this season since there's double round-robin (of course, that means at least splitting with Tech/Baylor/Texas/OU et al, not relying on home-court rotation vs. South).
I think BF has been at ISU long enough and has had definite success, I don't know why we need to have unchallenging non-conference slates.
In addition, it would be a nice "thank you" to the great fan base that the women's program enjoys at ISU. When you lay out a home non-con schedule like this, it appears they are taking the large crowds for granted.
I agree with the above posts. After 15 years of success and NCAA tournament bids and two Elite 8s and 5 Sweet 16s I don't understand why we persist in having a pansy puff-cake non-conference schedule. YES, ok, we get it, the Big 12 conference is HAAARD! And you want a lot of wins before you get to conference play! Ok we got it! But how about the other teams? Do they take naps in non-conf?
Baylor's non-conf slate includes Tennessee, UConn, Minnesota and Yale, plus the pre-season WNIT.
TAMU plays UConn, Purdue, USC, TCU.
OU plays Vanderbilt, Ohio State, TCU, plus a holiday tourney.
And look at Texas. They have had 10 years of quite a few disappointing first round losses in the NCAAs, and didn't even make the tourney a couple times. Iowa State has been WAY more successful than Texas WBB over the last five years. But check out the Texas non-conference schedule this year: Tennessee, Stanford, California, Virginia, and Michigan State. High expectations.
I understand the frustration about the schedule, but we do have two top-50 teams (based on year-end RPI) visiting ISU in the non-conference. The fact that they are Iowa (#23) and UNI (#41) may not make for great novelty, but it doesn't make them pushovers. Additionally, we are playing @ Michigan (#60) and in Reno vs. Penn State (#30).
All of those teams finished the season with a higher RPI than TCU (#71), Minnesota (#120), Cal (#88) and Yale (#210), and three were higher than Purdue (#42) and Virginia (#58). USC (#33) and Vandy (#36) are in the same neighborhood as our opponents.
All of those teams finished the season with a higher RPI than TCU (#71), Minnesota (#120), Cal (#88) and Yale (#210), and three were higher than Purdue (#42) and Virginia (#58). USC (#33) and Vandy (#36) are in the same neighborhood as our opponents.
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CycloneErik
Well-Known Member
What is the relevance of the last paragraph?
I have more frustration that the mens' program does this, but it really does smack of taking sales for granted. At least have one home game with an opponent people recognize while keeping the in-state games.
They are schools NYCy listed as good opponents fellow Big 12 teams are playing in non-conference.
Though TX's reputation is about on it's last leg. If GG doesn't produce this year, TN, Stanford, etc. will not be scheduling TX. Futhermore, TX has made it's program look bad by having major blow out losses to some of these teams the last couple years.
