2024/25 Men's Basketball Schedule

[refrigeratorraider]

I like having an exhibition. We haven't had an exhibition since 2018-19. I'd rather not have 2 non-D1 opponents, but this might be a good season for it with a new coach and many new faces. They are early in the season too, so hopefully they help the team and coaching staff figure things out.

[ohiopirate]

While I agree it's a better year to have an exhibition and some non D1 games earlier in the season to work out the kinks, it's going to be a long wait until November 30 until the home crowd gets a chance to see our guys take on a team with a pulse. Woof.

[raiderrunt]

I am starting to get the Wright State basketball itch. First, we have a few college football games to get out of the way, but Raider basketball will be here before we know it.

[keithfromxenia]

Fridge, we have had two exhibition games every year since donlen started . This year we have three. So if I am reading this right we have 5 home non con games and 3 of them aren’t even div I. 3 out of 5.

A year or so ago I had a discussion on here with someone, maybe runt, about whether our scheduling of non d I schools was because we had a hard time getting div I schools scheduled or because we deliberately wanted those games. This pretty much settles it for me. We actually want games against overmatched opponents, maybe so we can feel good about ourselves???

Maybe one day we will believe in ourselves enough to stop playing these podunk games and schedule real teams from top to bottom.

Btw, the naia school we are playing has 700 full time students. 700. The least we could do is challenge ourselves a little bit by playing quality d ii. Although I guess challenging ourself is not the idea.

[hokieraider]

Sept 5, 2024 14:26:54 GMT -5 raiderrunt said:

I am starting to get the Wright State basketball itch. First, we have a few college football games to get out of the way, but Raider basketball will be here before we know it.

Before I can get the basketball itch, I have to get the volleyball itch.  First home volleyball games in McLin starting tomorrow against the school not to be named.

[refrigeratorraider]

Sept 5, 2024 20:47:47 GMT -5 keithfromxenia said:

Fridge, we have had two exhibition games every year since donlen started . This year we have three. So if I am reading this right we have 5 home non con games and 3 of them aren’t even div I. 3 out of 5.

A year or so ago I had a discussion on here with someone, maybe runt, about whether our scheduling of non d I schools was because we had a hard time getting div I schools scheduled or because we deliberately wanted those games. This pretty much settles it for me. We actually want games against overmatched opponents, maybe so we can feel good about ourselves???

Maybe one day we will believe in ourselves enough to stop playing these podunk games and schedule real teams from top to bottom.

Btw, the naia school we are playing has 700 full time students. 700. The least we could do is challenge ourselves a little bit by playing quality d ii. Although I guess challenging ourself is not the idea.

Keith, I believe you are just referring to all non-D1 games as exhibitions, but there is a major difference for the classification for scheduling...

Regarding the non-D1 games. I don't think any fan wants these games. The main reason for this is money. The athletic department wants to maximize the number of home games so they can make more money --by ticket sales, but even more so from sponsors. More home games makes it more attractive to sponsors to pay for signage/advertising.

I personally would rather see these games replaced with home/home games with a peer institution like a MAC school. Giving up 2 non-d1 games for 2 home/home games would result in 1 less home game each season, but I guess the athletic department isn't willing to do that.

Another alternative is paying a low-level D1 school, such as one from the SWAC, to come play at the Nutter Center. This really makes no sense though. There is a very small number of D1 opponents that would even be an option for this, which would make agreeing on a date more difficult. Most importantly the going rate is > $70,000. There are hundreds of non-D1 programs within a few hours of WSU and it costs WSU < $2,000.

[Big D]

Alternative #3 would be to stop playing games that aren’t part of a home/home series. We have 2 non D1 games on our schedule because we scheduled 2 events without a return game: the trip to UK and the tournament we are participating in. I think most fans would prefer the schedule the way it is vs giving up one of those events. If I had to choose, I’d play in the tournament and give up the UK buy game. I’d rather remove UK and one of our non D1 games from the schedule and add 2 home/home games vs good mid-majors and only have 1 non D1 game on the schedule. Most years, I think playing 2 mid-majors would help prepare us for HL play better than beating the shit out of St Mary’s for the blind and getting our asses kicked by UK. This year in particular, I would have scheduled completely different if it was up to me. I don’t care how many fluff pieces are written about this team in the DDN right now. When we lace em up for real, I don’t think this team is going to be very good this year. We don’t have a good point guard and you can’t win without a good point guard. We also have the most unathletic group of starting guards that I can remember. I would have watered down the schedule as much as humanly possible for this year and next year by scheduling as many home/home contracts as possible with low mid-majors and low majors as possible. I would try to pad the win column as much as possible right now to give Sargent the best chance to build the type of team he wants through recruiting as he can. If we end the year sub .500 or as I fear with less than 10 wins total, it is going to make recruiting very hard for him to finish out this class in the spring and to start recruiting for 2026. I really really hope this team proves me wrong. I honestly do for the programs sake and for Sargent future as a D1 head coach.

[bballraider]

Instead of 2 non-D1 games, I would rather we take another buy game on the road, and with that money buy some other decent mid-major to come into the Nutter Center if we can't get more Home and Home games.

I am little more optimistic about the Raiders this year, and hopefully I don't regret my expectations. I think we will be a very good shooting team. I am guessing the Raiders finish no worst than 5th in the HL, and most likely even higher. I think if they play some more zone, and do it efficiently, and change up the defense more often under Sargent, then their shooting will overcome their lack of athleticism/quickness on the defensive end at times. I'm also hopeful that our freshman make big strides this year, and Sargent plays them and the whole team more in the non-conference, to figure out the best substitution patterns and rotations for the league games.

I think Norris will do a decent job at point. Having Gentry as a coach and having had a year off watching will greatly improve his game, but he will have to be more of an offensive threat, so that we are not playing 4 on 5 on offense like it seemed when he was on the court in the past. I also think Callaghan could be a good option at the point too, if Norris hasn't progressed like I think he will.

[Big D]

Sept 6, 2024 12:41:38 GMT -5 bballraider said:

Instead of 2 non-D1 games, I would rather we take another buy game on the road, and with that money buy some other decent mid-major to come into the Nutter Center if we can't get more Home and Home games.

That would be a nice option but I highly doubt you can find a decent mid-major willing to get bought to come to the NC to play us. They get nothing out of it except a paycheck and they can get a bigger paycheck from a team from a higher rated conference than us and the NET SOS benefits that come with it.

[willgrahamsbanked3]

Have not looked into it myself...any reason for the major change to the Horizon League scheduling? Only 2 two-game road trips (Michigan & Wisconsin). A lot of weeks with one home game & one road game

[nomeara]

I’m assuming it was a majority vote throughout the league. Too many 1-1 weekends making it very hard to have any potentially impressive resumes the last few years? The way I see it, the top 2-4 teams could be 16-4 / 15-5 with this type of conference scheduling.

[refrigeratorraider]

The Horizon moved away from the travel partner aspect of scheduling last season (23-24). There were negative aspects that resulted from the travel partner approach that many coaches did not like: one day off between games, having long stretches of road games causing more fatigue, and long stretches of home games that can hurt attendance.

[willgrahamsbanked3]

Thanks. In sure players & coaches must prefer playing 2 conference games in 3 days just twice this season - as opposed to 6-8 times in the past

[hokieraider]

Several of the coaches were lobbying for this change. Nagy would give a rant in the media at least twice a year (usually before/after the season). His biggest public complaint was it hurt attendance as the fans would get tired of 4 home games over two weekends (i.e, 9 or 10 days), then often almost a month until another home game so the casual fan had then moved on to the NFL playoffs.

I suspect his real complaints were:
a.) it creates a few very tough road trips (MKE/GB, PFW/CSU, and for the rest of the league WSU/NKU)
b.) traveling with NKU usually made that 2nd game of a trip or a home stand against a more motivated opponent -- we are often having to face a team wanting to rebound from a loss. It would be much easier if we traveled with IUPUI.
c.) back when the primary competition for the league title was us and NKU, the remaining schedules down the stretch were always identical, which is weird and makes it hard for whoever is behind to gain any ground.

One other factor the ADs needed to consider is with the travel partners, the HL has to have an even number of teams, which affects potential expansion or teams leaving. The one year the league had an odd number (when UIC left, I think), IUPUI traveled alone and blamed that inequity as part of why they finished last (they also stayed in last place the prior and following year with a travel partner, so there's that)

[hokieraider]

Nagy would also point out that building availability often led to going 2-3 weeks straight on the road. If Nutter was unavailable one weekend for the monster trucks or Disney on Ice, and NKU's arena was in use for concerts or the rodeo the next weekend, then both teams were forced to play on the road for 4 consecutive games. With the new setup, they could each have one home weekend, and one road weekend.