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Post by wsu97 on Sept 21, 2013 13:12:09 GMT -5
The schedule is set. There is nothing else that can be done about it for this year. What I do hope to see from Bob Grant, et al, is a commitment to trying to get the stands filled at games so we get back to having a real game atmosphere in the Nutter Center. I want a ton of student promotions. I want a good student turnout for every game. Nothing makes for a good game environment more that a rowdy group of students. I also want us to get the casual fans to the games. No one is going to buy tickets to our OOC games. I don't see that as a problem. I see it as an opportunity. Make every OOC game a 2 for 1 ticket. Hell, make the non-D1 games free for fans. We aren't going to get people to pay for those games. Might as well fill the stands and try to make some revenue off of the concession stands. Some of those freebies and 2 for 1 tickets might end up bringing some of those fans back for HL play when we will play some teams worth paying for. We have a good team this year. They deserve to play in front of big crowds.
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Post by wolf41 on Sept 23, 2013 10:03:37 GMT -5
I am anxious for the season to begin for several reasons. First is my concerns regarding Vest, Darling, and Pacher. If they can'y play the entire season, our prospects will be diminished. Secondly, I am anxious to see how GB, CSU, UDM, YSU, Oakland, and Valpo do this year. I saw one place where Valpo had the best set of recruits, which is what I had predicted in the spring. I suspect the other teams will be strong as well. I think anyone expecting us to waltz into the NCAA tournament will be in for a rude awakening, especially if the 3 seniors are handicapped by their off season surgeries. I am hoping for the best, but that isn't worth a single point. Our fate is in the hands of the team, which will be determined by who is able to suit up and play to their full capacity.
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Post by mrose on Sept 23, 2013 10:47:33 GMT -5
DrJ, Your comparison of WSU basketball to OSU football schedule and attendance is deeply flawed. First of all, OSU football is considered a National Title contender this year. I don't think anyone would be complaining or worried about our attendance if WSU basketball was a preseason Final Four pick. Second, OSU had to scramble and ONLY scheduled FAMU at the last second when Vanderbilt cancelled at the last moment. As far as I know, we didn't have home games scheduled with BCS conference opponents that were cancelled at the last moment forcing us to scramble for schools--Though our schedule sure looks like it.
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Post by wolf41 on Sept 26, 2013 9:05:48 GMT -5
I think most of us agree with you. With the few exceptions in the OOC schedule the OOC schedule is a black eye for WSU IMO. But we will attend every game when we are in town. I know for sure we'll miss games around Thanksgiving and the first 2 games in Jan., but other than those we should be present for all the rest. I am anxious to see the new kids play ball as well as all the returnees, especially the seniors. If the seniors are ready to play ball and are joined by Hopkins and Reggie as the starting five, I'll be happy and expecting good things. I'll also be happy if Young and Dixon are in the starting five.
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Post by keithfromxenia on Oct 23, 2013 10:04:16 GMT -5
Ok, let me get this straight. Our crappy home schedule is because our team is going to be so good. Average last year rpi of our home opponents is 284!!!! That is 284!!!! But dang we are so tough that no good teams want to come and play us. And of course, last year our home opponents had an average rpi of 256!!! That is 256!!! Now last year good teams would not come and play us because we were supposed to be so crummy. So apparently good teams won't come play us when we are good and won,t come play us when we are bad. Hmmm, what to do, what to do.
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Post by WrightStateFan on Oct 23, 2013 11:34:27 GMT -5
Donlon shouldn't have tried to bs his fan base because we are smart enough to know better. There are plenty of good mid-majors like us out there that are able to put together good schedules. This schedule is a failure and he needs to do a better job in the future. If he cannot, maybe he should let Grant take over.
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Post by wsuraider09 on Oct 23, 2013 13:36:22 GMT -5
If I was a AD or HC at halfway decent mid major, one similar to our status...I wouldn't want to come play at the NC. We have had several big upsets over the years at home, and I would imagine a team like Davidson or Wichita would bring the fair weather fans out to the court...making a very electric atmosphere. I think it's not just WSU they don't want to play, but the whole town of Dayton and it's basketball fan base...
I say all of this...when we had 8k last season for the blackout, we were the ones blacked out. But think about the MSU game, and the Butler upsets...Bottom line, the NC is one of the mid majors to avoid playing on the road. IMO
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Post by Big D on Oct 23, 2013 14:46:51 GMT -5
If I was a AD or HC at halfway decent mid major, one similar to our status...I wouldn't want to come play at the NC. We have had several big upsets over the years at home The Nutter Center is over 20 years old. We have had a handful of big upsets at home in that time frame. No decent team is afraid to play at our place. That excuse is a bunch of crap.
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Post by Willie on Oct 23, 2013 15:09:19 GMT -5
The idea that teams are afraid to play at the Nutter Center is a joke that our own fans don't even buy. He should be embarrassed for even trying to sell that crap. What team would be afraid to play in the NC? It holds 10,000 and is usually >60% empty. We don't have an intimidating student section and we don't even have a great winning percentage at the NC. We were 12-5 at home last year and 35-15 overall in Donlon's tenure here. That is a 70% winning percentage. The national average is that the home teams wins 72% of the time so we aren't even winning at the national average at home.
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Post by wolf41 on Oct 23, 2013 16:00:30 GMT -5
I would agree with the comments regarding our weak schedule and the Coach's comments trying to defend it. We have Mt. St. Joe, Manchester, Houston Baptist, plus the carry over of some other weak teams, such as NCA&T. We have, at a minimum, from March on to build the schedule, which ignores the fact that some building of it could have been worked on during the season. The HL accounts for over half of it. At least 5 teams were already contracted for this season. So I just don't believe that this represents the best we could do.
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Post by keithfromxenia on Oct 23, 2013 18:19:47 GMT -5
Let's face it, the coaches have figured it out. Build a non con schedule that virtually guarantees 10-12 wins. Get 10 wins or so + a couple in post season and voila!!!-20+ wins per season and guaranteed job security. Think about this, they only were building a 6 game home non con schedule and all they could manage was 2 div iii teams and four horrible, I mean horrible, div I teams. Ugly, really ugly!!!
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Post by Doliboabros on Oct 24, 2013 9:58:04 GMT -5
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Post by Willie on Oct 24, 2013 10:03:07 GMT -5
Donlon/Grant need to give up on the pipe dream of ever playing UD. They don't want to play us so it isn't going to happen. The time and energy they waste trying to get that game should be used trying to schedule teams we have a chance at scheduling.
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Post by wsuraider09 on Oct 24, 2013 16:00:20 GMT -5
If I was a AD or HC at halfway decent mid major, one similar to our status...I wouldn't want to come play at the NC. We have had several big upsets over the years at home The Nutter Center is over 20 years old. We have had a handful of big upsets at home in that time frame. No decent team is afraid to play at our place. That excuse is a bunch of crap. Coach said 'nobody will play us'...but all of the high majors will play us at home...Look at the last few seasons...who have we played? Wake, OSU, Florida...The only non-midmajor we've played at home that I can remember in recent years is Richmond...and that was because of the post season tournament last year. And the last 'power 6' team we've played was UC in the 2-1 series, and you could argue the only reason we played them was location. When was the last time we drew a decent mid major or 'BCS' team to the NC that wasn't part of a tournament or bracketbuster? I honestly can't remember. But they sure have no problem playing us at their place. That's my only point. No decent team is going to schedule a game that they will get a real fight from on the road. It just doesn't happen in this era of CBB. It seems this is a problem for middle of the road midmajors across the board, as I have read others complaining of the same...nobody will come to play us, and all we can get is crap major teams from the Sunbelt or the MAAC, or play great teams that we won't have much of a chance in beating on the road. Frustrating. Guess we just need to be the team that wins those games that we aren't supposed to have a shot in...and maybe the tides will turn.
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Post by Big D on Oct 24, 2013 16:30:34 GMT -5
Coach said 'nobody will play us'...but all of the high majors will play us at home...Look at the last few seasons...who have we played? It is very hard to get majors to play at a mid-major. It isn't hard at all to get decent mid-majors to schedule home/home contracts especially when you are in a high rated conference like the HL. If you do not believe me, take a look at the schedules local MAC teams are able put together. The MAC is a much lower rated conference than the HL and they are able to put together much better schedules than us. Hell, look at the rest of the HL. We are predicted to be one of the top 2 teams in the conference and we have one of the worsts schedules in the league. The problem isn't that we cannot get good mid-majors to come play us. I believe the problem has been that Brownell and now Donlon want a crappy schedule because they can use it to build their resume.
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