2013 - 2014 schedule

[MontanaRabbit]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

I also think that playing a schedule like we've played this year can be very deflating. I'm guessing the women don't feel all that great about where they are after the last three games. Maybe that makes them work harder....maybe they carry that with them the rest of the year.

I can't remember the exact year, but I recall Nagy saying that the schedule they played was just too tough and that he wished they would have not scheduled so many high quality non-conference opponents.

[91jack]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

I agree that the OOC did not gain any points in the seeding category. However, if we win MTSU or UALR or BYU-then we could have been in the light for higher seeding. Winning cures the problem. Winning against the cupcakes does not improve our seeding when SOS is involved either.
In response to attendance(support), the fans have dropped off. I would guess that we had another record season ticket sales, but that does not translate into rumps in the chair. Many of those fans missing are the students. The athletic department may need to get into action to draw some students back to the games. Last year the men had a bump with better student involvement as Nate brought attention to the team. When you have 12,000 students and less than 100 or 50 students make the game, that is a hard thing to understand.

I think that this sums it up really good.

Unless you are going to find and beat 6+ BCS schools you won't get a high seed by playing cupcakes. The best way to get a good seed is by playing powerful mid-majors and beating them year in and year out. They will help your RPI and the wins will impress the committee. Bad RPI plus not beating teams that are in the tourney spells low seed to me. Plus, if you are talking about attendance, less people will show up if you play a weaker schedule. They will show up for a few BCS games but if something else comes up do you really want to show up in bad weather to watch them play NJIT?

I think fans have changed over the last couple/few years. You get a few hundred students for the men's games but only about 50 or so for the women's games. Back when the men weren't very good more casual fans went to watch the women play. Now there is more interest in the men's games and that hurts the women's games. When the women won the Summit League tourney there was a celebration but when the men won the students stormed the court. The most vocal students for the mens games don't even show for most of the women's games. The athletic department are giving away pizza, giving away shirts and having other contests to have students show up but they just don't. It doesn't help matters that we have mirror scheduling. You used to show up for some of the women's games to watch the mens game in a doubleheader. Now you can just listen to the mens game or watch it on go.jacks or somewhere else.

I won't say that playing a tough schedule makes you win the Summit League tournament but it sure can't hurt. If you get challenged, you can have that "been there done that" attitude. Most coaches like to be "battle tested" and I think the schedule that we play now prepares us for that.

[mitchellrabbit]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

I also think that playing a schedule like we've played this year can be very deflating. I'm guessing the women don't feel all that great about where they are after the last three games. Maybe that makes them work harder....maybe they carry that with them the rest of the year.

I can't remember the exact year, but I recall Nagy saying that the schedule they played was just too tough and that he wished they would have not scheduled so many high quality non-conference opponents.

Maybe, just maybe our women are a little more positive than some of the fans are and arent feeling deflated.

[MontanaRabbit]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

I think fans have changed over the last couple/few years. You get a few hundred students for the men's games but only about 50 or so for the women's games. Back when the men weren't very good more casual fans went to watch the women play. Now there is more interest in the men's games and that hurts the women's games. When the women won the Summit League tourney there was a celebration but when the men won the students stormed the court. The most vocal students for the mens games don't even show for most of the women's games. The athletic department are giving away pizza, giving away shirts and having other contests to have students show up but they just don't. It doesn't help matters that we have mirror scheduling. You used to show up for some of the women's games to watch the mens game in a doubleheader. Now you can just listen to the mens game or watch it on go.jacks or somewhere else.

I would agree those factors exist as well. There are probably some fans that are used to the women winning. There isn't that wow factor anymore to the women playing and beating a BCS school. Not sure what the answer is, but it's crazy that only 1700 people see the Jacks beat the #12 ranked team in the country.

[MontanaRabbit]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

Maybe, just maybe our women are a little more positive than some of the fans are and arent feeling deflated.

I'm far from deflated. I'm going to support the women just like I always have. I just think I've seen this show before. Women will win the Summit, get a 14 seed (which our play during the OOC portion our schedule helped us get) and draw an incredibly tough opponent and get beaten badly. I hope I'm proven wrong.

Our women are probably better suited to confidence blows than our men were a few years ago. God knows our men needed all the confidence they could get just a few years ago.

[SanDakotaState]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

I never said anything about getting blown out by Notre Dame and I completely understand the gap between the top 10ish teams in WCBB and the rest of the field. That's my point. We need to stay away from them in the first round of the tourney. If we want exposure that's where were gonna get it.....winning some games! Finishing 9-7 OOC isn't going to help us do that, especially if you consider that 4 of those losses were to fellow mid-majors and we didn't compete in any of those games.

There has to be some balance to the schedule.

I'm not sure you can attribute our OOC schedule to winning the Summit. Maybe we win the Summit because we are just better than the other teams. I don't think you can definitively say we win the Summit because of the OOC schedule we play.

Beating cupcakes by 20+ points is getting any exposure either. Beating teams by 20 means nothing expect that the team is playing against lower competition. By playing the big name schools they are gaining experience and learning how to close out games. A good example of the just happened this year against a #12 Penn State team. They were up big but PSU came back and SDSU had to make plays. Knowing that they can play and beat big schools helps with confidence. If the SDSU women didn't play the tough schedules like they do, i don't think that they would be near as good when March comes around. I don't mind having 1 or 2 cupcakes like we did this year since they do give the players a break. We would definitely get a low seed if we play average or cupcake teams with a couple of good teams. SOS means a lot to the committee especially for mid-majors. The fact is that it takes a lot of talent and luck of the draw to get passed the 1st round. I think a lot of people don't realize how fortunate the women's team has been. Who would have thought SDSU would be in the dance every year since becoming eligible.

[MontanaRabbit]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

Beating cupcakes by 20+ points is getting any exposure either. Beating teams by 20 means nothing expect that the team is playing against lower competition. By playing the big name schools they are gaining experience and learning how to close out games. A good example of the just happened this year against a #12 Penn State team. They were up big but PSU came back and SDSU had to make plays. Knowing that they can play and beat big schools helps with confidence. If the SDSU women didn't play the tough schedules like they do, i don't think that they would be near as good when March comes around. I don't mind having 1 or 2 cupcakes like we did this year since they do give the players a break. We would definitely get a low seed if we play average or cupcake teams with a couple of good teams. SOS means a lot to the committee especially for mid-majors. The fact is that it takes a lot of talent and luck of the draw to get passed the 1st round. I think a lot of people don't realize how fortunate the women's team has been. Who would have thought SDSU would be in the dance every year since becoming eligible.

So MTSU, ULAR, BYU are all playing down? Lol.

[OldHare]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

So MTSU, ULAR, BYU are all playing down? Lol.

You have to decide if we should have a challenging OOC that includes teams that will spank us from time to time or coast along looking for "Centenary" to schedule. Green Bay was a road win that might have been a feather in our hat since Green Bay is 6-5 and still rated #12 in the mid majors. Are their fans looking for easier games since Wichita St, SDSU, Purdue, and wisconsin all ate GB's lunch 4 games in a row? They will probably win the Horizon again. BYU is 1 of 4 West Coast teams in the Top 5 midmajors. MTSU left the midmajor conference this year. UALR is conference favorite of the Sun Belt. These are teams we should schedule and we need to beat to get the elusive higher seed. The seed does not show up with a large winning percentage, the seed arrives with a a large winning percentage against qualtiy opponents. If we win 3 more games in OOC, this conversation would not be on the board. If we leave out Notre Dame, Stanford, and FGCU and play Centenary, Augustana, SF College, and a Wayne St doubleheader with the men-we would not be any closer to a #7 seed.

[sdsu_drake]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

I think that part of road issues had to do with the officiating this year. If you listen to the UALR or watched the ND game we picked up quick fouls early and then played tentatively defensively after. In the UALR game we had offensive fouls in the early possession causing us to go away from trying to penetrate. Each conference seams to adapted their own version of the rules and it is more of a home field advantage than most years. I think we also benefited from this in some of our home wins.
I also think the extra OCC games that were scheduled because of Oakland left caused us to get wore down more than normal, and ORU coming back will help even out the schedule.

[MontanaRabbit]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

You have to decide if we should have a challenging OOC that includes teams that will spank us from time to time or coast along looking for "Centenary" to schedule. Green Bay was a road win that might have been a feather in our hat since Green Bay is 6-5 and still rated #12 in the mid majors. Are their fans looking for easier games since Wichita St, SDSU, Purdue, and wisconsin all ate GB's lunch 4 games in a row? They will probably win the Horizon again. BYU is 1 of 4 West Coast teams in the Top 5 midmajors. MTSU left the midmajor conference this year. UALR is conference favorite of the Sun Belt. These are teams we should schedule and we need to beat to get the elusive higher seed. The seed does not show up with a large winning percentage, the seed arrives with a a large winning percentage against qualtiy opponents. If we win 3 more games in OOC, this conversation would not be on the board. If we leave out Notre Dame, Stanford, and FGCU and play Centenary, Augustana, SF College, and a Wayne St doubleheader with the men-we would not be any closer to a #7 seed.

I'm not saying schedule a bunch of DII teams. Understand that. You keep posting inferring that's what I'm saying. I realize in one post I mentioned cupcakes, but I clarified that that was probably a bit too strong of word choice and I didn't really mean that we should be scheduling 300 ish RPI teams. But it's possible to not schedule a top 30 OOC schedule and still play a very very strong schedule. It would be nice to have a nice balance between tough games and games we should win against quality opponents.

Lots of comments on here about hoping the team finishes above .500 in the OOC portion of our schedule. Basically saying man I'm happy with a 14 seed. Everyone is also saying how much talent this team has and we're hoping for a .500 OOC record? How about replacing some of the above teams with a middle of the road BCS team? I would guess BYU, MTSU, and ULAR would be better than most middle of road BCS teams. So switching them for a BCS school might help us win a game or two more. Maybe AJ can't get those teams to play us. We've been successful so that also adds a dynamic to scheduling that makes it difficult.

And one more thing. You act like I'm looking to get a 7 seed. I would like a shot at an 11 or 12. The odds of drawing a winnable game go up a lot once you get below a 13 seed (re: http://mcubed.net/ncaabw/seeds.shtml). Winning percentage: 13-16 seeds: 2% 11-12 seeds: 25%. That's a big jump.

We wouldn't be having this conversation if we would have won more games. We also probably wouldn't be had we not been completely blown out by four teams that I see as our peers. Teams that we will be compared with come time to get an NCAA tourney seed.

I appreciate the back and forth. Just think we need to find a balance.

[bigticket1]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

Some things to think about when talking scheduling : 1- Some of the tough games we played this year (Stanford and Florida Gulf Coast) were part of a tournament. When you agree to take part in a tournament , you do not know who you will be playing. 2- Schedules are made a few years ahead and the quality of teams can change greatly in two years. For example , Xavier was a top 10 team when they beat us in the NCAA's a couple of years ago - this season they are ranked 177th in the country. 3- Middle of the pack teams in BCS conferences basically know that the only chance they have to get in the Big Dance is to get an at-large bid which requires 20 + wins. So the Wisconsins,Minnesotas and Washington States of the world , who we have gone in their house and beat in the past, may not be very eager to schedule a home and home with a high mid-major like the Jacks and get a loss that they would see as hurting their chances of getting in the NCAA's. The one thing I would have changed about the Jacks schedule this season would have been not scheduling those three tough road games in a row at the end of the non-conference part of the schedule. It would be nice to have a winnable home game or two to get some momentum going into the conference.

[OldHare]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

This year is a little different with 3 freshman getting about 20+% of the minutes. Most of those minutes are played during crunch time in the games with 2 of the freshmen starting a game each. The regular starters are logging about 55% of the minutes. The result has been a few uglier than hoped for contests. If we are resigned to another high seed, then I hope we can get that experience to bear some dividends in March. SDSU has been above average since joining D1. It has not been Top 10. I believe that is the goal down the road. Meanwhile, I think that we are getting closer as I watch the team at Frost. If they reach the tourney again in March, it will be against tougher teams in the Summit overall than earlier years and it will be an indication that better things are coming. We saw a D2 championship, but the next level is elevated much higher.

[jackdaniel]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

If we could consistently get 11 or 12 ( top 8 mid-majors, excluding any ranked) seeded,instead of 13 and 14,we'd see our W-L record for the NCAA tournament improve dramatically.Certainly do-able,since seeds 16-11 are all mid-majors.See my earlier post,#58, for why i think this
Gonzaga does every year,that's why they steadily improve.They understand ,you have to show results for recruits to sign up.That said,we get good recruits though.

[Southeast]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

There IS a lot of middle ground in between top-15 teams and low-major bottomfeeders (i.e. "cupcakes"). It does not have to be one or the other on the schedule. A lot of people seem to be hung up on the extremes here, both in terms of our opposing teams and the NCAA seed we would be shooting for. Find a way to get a #11 seed!

[MontanaRabbit]

Re: 2013 - 2014 schedule

There IS a lot of middle ground in between top-15 teams and low-major bottomfeeders (i.e. "cupcakes"). It does not have to be one or the other on the schedule. A lot of people seem to be hung up on the extremes here, both in terms of our opposing teams and the NCAA seed we would be shooting for. Find a way to get a #11 seed!

Yes! It would be nice to find that balance. This year it seems we have played a lot of teams toward the top end (top 60 ish RPI teams). It will be interesting to look back at this thread at the end of the year to see where our OOC opponents ended up in terms of RPI.

I realize it's not easy as the schedules start to come together a couple years in advance so predicting how strong a team will be is impossible really. Look at ORU. Who would have guessed they would have 1 win at this point?