Future HL scheduling

[Jazzfan]

I am a fan of the back to back games we are playing this year in the HL due to the pandemic. Hopefully the pandemic is under control by next basketball season. I have been thinking about next year’s schedule lately. What does everyone think. Should we go back to the traditional travel partner games on Thursday/Saturday, Friday/Sunday or stick with this years model of back to back games at one place?

[refrigeratorraider]

No way! Besides it not being good for the players to play on back on to back days every weekend, it's just not a fair schedule for many reasons, including:

- Both games against a given team are either both at home or both on the road. It's not as much of an issue this year without fans, but would be very significant with fans. Would you want to play both games against NKU or Oakland at their places with the fans rocking?
- The 2 games being the same weekend can further add to advantages/disadvantages. The games should be spread out because one team could be very different at the start of the season compared to the end of the season. Any injury could be major in terms of scheduling. If a star player just gets a minor injury that requires resting a week, one team would get the benefit of playing 2 games against the team minus their star player, while every other team has to face the star player.

[Legend]

I think most people are going to pick the old model but personally I like this year's schedule for our program. It cuts down on travel costs by eliminating the cost of travel between travel partner sites and saves us a day of hotel fees. It also forces us to play 2 games in 2 days which I think helps prepare us for the HL tournament. One of our Achilles heels of Nagy's tenure here has been getting knocked out of the HL tournament when we have had one of the better teams. My guess is that we will do better in this year's tournament because of our schedule this year.

[Willie]

Jan 31, 2021 14:22:31 GMT -5 refrigeratorraider said:

No way! Besides it not being good for the players to play on back on to back days every weekend

I don't buy that. We play in at least one MTE every year where we play 3-4 days in a row. The HL tournament is also set up to play multiple games in consecutive days. Add to the fact that all these kids have come from an AAU culture where they play 5-6 games every weekend during their AAU season which is practically year round. If Nagy learned how to develop and play his bench like everyone else in the conference it would be even less of an issue.

[Hoops Junkie]

The new model also decreases time our players miss from the classroom because they are on the road less.

[Rush the Court]

Old model. I don't like the scheduling benefits some teams get this year. It will be even worse with fans in the stands in future years.

[Big D]

Interesting topic. I see pros and cons of both. I prefer the old model more from a fans perspective.

[wsuraider09]

This new schedule is horrible, especially for a team with bigger, stronger interior players. I've never played center in a d1 collegiate program, but I'm guessing these back to backs suck. The physics demands of this game added to the amount of exertion on larger, more musuclar bodies has to be exhausting.

Furthermore, this schedule is bullcrap. The fact that we didn't have to go to Wisconsin is great, but having to play at NKU at the end of the season is horsecrap. We were the regular season champ last year, and should have been rewarded with that series at home.

This schedule also muddies the waters across the board. There are teams that avoided having to play us this season, and there's teams that didn't get two cupcake wins against IPFW. This means that not all records are created equal, which makes conference tournament seeding a bit unfair.

We need to return to playing everyone, home and away with our travel partner. This ensures everyone played everyone at both arenas, and the best conference record represents the team that best excelled through the exact same gauntlet everyone else did.

[hhgreen]

We have the better coach to come up with a better game plan the second game.

[Dr J]

If we go to this model again, it would be better to have “travel partners” play at each other’s school on Thursday and Saturday or Friday and Sunday.

[raiderrunt]

I see benefits to both ways. I think I lean more toward the old model of playing league games.

[Raider3G]

I like the new model. One of the other potential benefits, particularly for WSU, is a boost in attendance. Friday night/Sat night games could be more likely to attract a stronger combined attendance than Thurs/Saturday. Coming off the pandemic, this probably would be much needed in terms of revenue for HL schools. Again, no way to know more sure, but just a possibility to consider. Even if the attendance bump on a Thurs. vs. Fri. game is 1000-1500 people, that makes a big difference in terms of not just money but also atmosphere at the game.

[ohiopirate]

I'm not sure how this current model would work with fans. As a season ticket holder, I assume I'd still go to all the games anyway but if we are playing the same team two straight nights I'm going to be more inclined to skip one of the games. And I know for damn sure I'll have a harder time convincing my wife to come see the same game two days in a row! lol
Same thing for the casual fan/ walk up crowd. You're asking a lot to get fans come see IUPUI play at the Nutter Center two days in a row.

[hhgreen]

Your last sentence summed it up right there. Go back to the old way.