Mean Green Men's Basketball Schedule Released

[SUMG]

Today's D-RC has the game times. If you're wanting to be part of the pageantry associated with the Army football game (flyover?, etc)......you will miss the end of the Oklahoma State basketball game. Because it starts at 1 p.m. on 11/21. Our Army football game starts at 3.

[UNTLifer]

Who's in charge of scheduling? Is it Jones, RV, someone else, or a combination of the first two?

[Censored by Laurie]

Who's in charge of scheduling? Is it Jones, RV, someone else, or a combination of the first two?

I believe when it comes to filling gaps...like we were 2 weeks ago when we had a pretty good shell of what our schedule will look like...those responsibilities fall to the assistants to do the leg work. I remember a few years ago when we had a posting to fill a hole in our schedule, the coaches posting board listed Bill Foy as the contact.

To me this schedule says one of two things.

1. We're just in a spot where it does no team with post season aspirations any good to play us at home. We're right about the 100th ranked team in the country...if you're an OSU or an A&M you may travel to the 300th best team b/c you know you have a W or you'll travel to a WKU b/c a loss doesn't really hurt you, but a win looks good on the resume.

2. Our financials are so dire that we need to take as many pay games as possible.

[Green Lantern]

Baylor, SMU, and TCU won't fill crap. People don't even want to see them play at their own home arenas. I also wish we'd start refusing to play schools who don't offer a one and one. There's no reason Oklahoma State can't make the trip to Denton.

TCU was one of the best home crowds we've had in years outside of the OK State and Indiana games. I wish we had them on the schedule every year...either here or at their place.

[buff64]

Baylor, SMU, and TCU won't fill crap. People don't even want to see them play at their own home arenas. I also wish we'd start refusing to play schools who don't offer a one and one. There's no reason Oklahoma State can't make the trip to Denton.

Baylor draws well at home.

[ColoradoEagle]

The one in 2004? That game was heavily promoted (for basketball anyways), and still only drew about 3600 people according to MGS. I would rather have schools like UTEP, Houston, and Tulsa come in regularly, than TCU. Even if it ends up being average attendance, those would be quality wins.

Baylor draws well at home.

Just checked Yahoo! and you're right. For the size of crowds they get in Waco, they sure do travel terribly.

Edited September 9, 2009 by ColoradoEagle

[Travis]

Tulsa, SMU, Houston, Rice, Sam Houston, SFA, UTEP, BAYLOR, TCU, Texas State, La Tech, Mcneese St, A&M Commerce, etc. Those are some schools that I would much rather see us play than the crap we have on our home schedule... this is just weak! how can we not get some of these guys on our schedule... I don't expect some of these schools to travel that well, but i can see our average student wanting to come to a game of these opponents more than what we have now.

[NT80]

Who's in charge of scheduling? Is it Jones, RV, someone else, or a combination of the first two?

I don't know who does the scheduling but I know it's done much closer to the actual season than football. Where football may schedule OOC games up to 8-10 years away I think basketball OOC single games are just 1-2 years from the actual season. Some football deals also can involve a return game for basketball; I heard Fry did this with UT. Many schools are still looking for basketball single games and/or tourneys into late spring or early summer before the current season to finalize schedules.

Schools also like to combine road trips when possible to save on expenses, like our game at Rice then A$M two days later. Our record also plays a part; we did well last year and have a strong team returning, thus OOC opponents will balk at playing a tough game on the road if they don't have too and can schedule someone else.

The bigger complaint from fans should be why we again have to travel to WKU and no home game with them? There should be a set league rotation to keep teams from an unfair home advantage against another school.

Edited September 9, 2009 by NT80

[Censored by Laurie]

The bigger complaint from fans should be why we again have to travel to WKU and no home game with them? There should be a set league rotation to keep teams from an unfair home advantage against another school.

This is just a SBC scheduling quark b/c the league has 13 teams...we played Western at the Pit in both the 06-07 and the 07-08 seasons.

The game I'm more upset by is the road trip to Houston Baptist on a Monday in between 2 Saturday home conference games in the middle of February. That is piss-poor planning.

[KRAM1]

Baylor, SMU, and TCU won't fill crap. People don't even want to see them play at their own home arenas. I also wish we'd start refusing to play schools who don't offer a one and one. There's no reason Oklahoma State can't make the trip to Denton.

OSU did make the trip to Denton...and got beat! GREAT GAME!

[untjim1995]

I believe when it comes to filling gaps...like we were 2 weeks ago when we had a pretty good shell of what our schedule will look like...those responsibilities fall to the assistants to do the leg work. I remember a few years ago when we had a posting to fill a hole in our schedule, the coaches posting board listed Bill Foy as the contact.

To me this schedule says one of two things.

1. We're just in a spot where it does no team with post season aspirations any good to play us at home. We're right about the 100th ranked team in the country...if you're an OSU or an A&M you may travel to the 300th best team b/c you know you have a W or you'll travel to a WKU b/c a loss doesn't really hurt you, but a win looks good on the resume.

2. Our financials are so dire that we need to take as many pay games as possible.

I think #2 is the reality here. Look, the AD got us 6 home football games this year, and we only have one money game on the football schedule. Thus, as much as we hate it, the basketball program has to pay for it. This is why you have the games you have at the Pit. I will say that having no return games against A&M or Okie State are still good for the program. But having those no-return games against Boise State tells you that we need cash big time. Unfortunately, there is no surprise here when it comes to cash.

[GrandGreen]

I think #2 is the reality here. Look, the AD got us 6 home football games this year, and we only have one money game on the football schedule. Thus, as much as we hate it, the basketball program has to pay for it. This is why you have the games you have at the Pit. I will say that having no return games against A&M or Okie State are still good for the program. But having those no-return games against Boise State tells you that we need cash big time. Unfortunately, there is no surprise here when it comes to cash.

A bit of a reach there. First it would take a whole lot more than a couple of guaranteed basketball games to cover the lost of one guaranteed football game. There are only two no return games on the schedule if Vito is right; Bosie and A&M. A very large basketball guarantee would be a hundred thousand and I am very doubtful that NT is getting anything close to this from Boise. Finances would have little or nothing to do with NT's lackluster home schedule. In fact, several of those games are guaranteed games to the opponents. Basketball is a big losing situation at NT every year with the average ticket revenue probably less than $20,000 a game which might pay the guarantee for a Cameron to play. Regretfully with a home schedule like this year, there is very less chance ticket revenue is going to be up.

[NT80]

I think #2 is the reality here. Look, the AD got us 6 home football games this year, and we only have one money game on the football schedule. Thus, as much as we hate it, the basketball program has to pay for it. This is why you have the games you have at the Pit. I will say that having no return games against A&M or Okie State are still good for the program. But having those no-return games against Boise State tells you that we need cash big time. Unfortunately, there is no surprise here when it comes to cash.

That makes no sense, or cent$ either. Why schedule opponents that are not attractive? University of the Southwest?, Jackson St., Cameron again? You're almost telling fans to stay home with these teams, plus the holidays and Sunday games make it even less likely for fans to show.

[UNT90]

The sad thing is, with this schedule, we have zero... ZERO!!! Z E R O!!!!! chance at an at large bid!!! Lose in the conference finals and we are done for the year, I don't care if we are 23-6.

Really disappointed that we have a team that will probably be favored to win the conference, and we don't give them 1) a chance for an at large bid 2) ANY challenging OCC home games (and how embarassing if we lose one?). After thinking about it, I won't be attending any home games against the non-D1 programs and may not come until conference play begins.

Come on RV, I know you have been concentrating on the stadium, but this is sooooooo embarassing.

[ColoradoEagle]

Agreed. We just haven't changed our mindset to that of a good basketball program. The AD is trying to pad the win column to increase attendance instead of allowing the team to make quality wins that actually count when March comes around.

[SUMG]

I think the Athletic Director does the football scheduling......but in the other sports, the coaches do it.

[untjim1995]

That makes no sense, or cent$ either. Why schedule opponents that are not attractive? University of the Southwest?, Jackson St., Cameron again? You're almost telling fans to stay home with these teams, plus the holidays and Sunday games make it even less likely for fans to show.

I guess the question here is how much does it cost to have a home and home series with someone? I have no idea, but I assume that there is a cost. If there is a cost, and you have little to no money (like we know we do), then paying Cameron to come here is probably much less than La Tech or Missouri State. That's all I am saying. Season ticket holders and student fees probably cover the costs for home games against the teams we have scheduled. With the economy being in the state that it is, I can't imagine that donations are anywhere near where they were last year, so this seems like a plausible reason to me. Maybe its not, but it seems more feasible to me than believing RV and the basketball program just decided to not even try and get any team at the Super Pit that would appeal to fans or help out your team's strength of schedule. Trsut me, I don't like it at all, but if the reason is money, then I understand. If its not money, then none of it makes sense at all.

[Censored by Laurie]

That makes no sense, or cent$ either. Why schedule opponents that are not attractive? University of the Southwest?, Jackson St., Cameron again? You're almost telling fans to stay home with these teams, plus the holidays and Sunday games make it even less likely for fans to show.

Its cost analysis. It will cost next to nothing to bring in Jackson State (actually maybe a 2 for 1 deal extending from last season, so this should cost us a thing), Texas Southern and SE LA. You can probably break even on these games with 1000-1500 people in the Pit. Say paying for Tulsa to come here you bump up the break even number to around 3000...are you confident Tulsa pulls 3000 into the Pit?

I'm not creating an excuse...just explaining what I hope (b/c the other thought in my head I don't want to have) is the rationale behind this home OOC schedule.

That said, this fan base deserves at least one quality home game or some sort of series with one of these good road games (Boise, A&M). I think if we improve noticably (or suck) it will become easier to get better opponents at the Pit.

[untjim1995]

Its cost analysis. It will cost next to nothing to bring in Jackson State (actually maybe a 2 for 1 deal extending from last season, so this should cost us a thing), Texas Southern and SE LA. You can probably break even on these games with 1000-1500 people in the Pit. Say paying for Tulsa to come here you bump up the break even number to around 3000...are you confident Tulsa pulls 3000 into the Pit?

I'm not creating an excuse...just explaining what I hope (b/c the other thought in my head I don't want to have) is the rationale behind this home OOC schedule.

That said, this fan base deserves at least one quality home game or some sort of series with one of these good road games (Boise, A&M). I think if we improve noticably (or suck) it will become easier to get better opponents at the Pit.

I completely agree with you. Your analysis seems to make sense, and cent$