Non-Con schedule out

[madguy30]

In the current landscape of college basketball, next years ISU team is going to have about as few unknowns as a P6 team is going to have.

In the end it all worked out last year, but I’d say it was in spite of the garbage early non con. I don’t think it was a coincidence that the first tests vs teams with a pulse at all - VCU, VT and undermanned Texas A&M - ISU wasn’t good.

ISU also really wasn't very good at the time.

Imo that tournament was a great gauge to use to tweak some things and provide good film etc. and a couple of players were very different after (in a good way).

It seemed calculated and long term, we saw a 2 seed emerge out of it.

 

[madguy30]

We'll likely be ranked in the top 10 preseason polls and this schedule is pretty weak. That is probably part of the equation why we were the last #2 seed this year. If we want to be amongst the best we need to schedule better non-conference teams. We may not get some to come to Hilton but beating teams on the road or neutral courts in the non conference could mean the difference in seeding in March.

That and they needed a reason to put UNC on the 1 line.

2 seeds are pretty awesome though. Amazing, really.

ISU is still rebuilding a bit on the front court. Losing those neutral/away games doesn't exactly help things.

 

[Cycsk]

This narrative needs to die.

This sort of rationale by the committee needs to die!

 

[Clone95]

Bad non-con team wins do us more favors than piling up a few losses against good teams start to finish. Any win > any loss.

I love how people act like beating up on 300+ ranked schools is the reason we were the last 2 seed when it really was that we lost to the only 2 teams with a pulse that we played. We’d have been a 1 seed if we’d have beaten A&M, even with our bad schedule.

 

[chuckd4735]

Ohio St would not play us at Hilton, we had to play them in DSM.

That's not true. BVD was an idiot and wanted a high profile game in Des Moines as Wells Fargo just opened. BVD was the one who set up that deal. JP tried to continue it with Bradley after, and got them to do a home and home plus the neutral in Des Moines.

 

[Malty Flannel]

Ya it garbage, but it'll be fine.

What if they play at Hilton South in the non-con for a game.

Last season 9 of ISU's 13 non-con games were against terrible opponents, and VCU, VT, and Iowa werent exactly high profile power teams.

This season 6 low-end opponents, a top 10 (Marq) and multiple top 25 in Maui. How much more do we want?

 

[theshadow]

How much more do we want?

31 Q1 games might be enough for some folks.

 

[Cyclonepride]

This sort of rationale by the committee needs to die!

I agree. There's no reason that a team's non-conference strength of schedule should override their overall strength of schedule, as that penalizes teams in strong conferences.

 

[madguy30]

Last season 9 of ISU's 13 non-con games were against terrible opponents, and VCU, VT, and Iowa werent exactly high profile power teams.

This season 6 low-end opponents, a top 10 (Marq) and multiple top 25 in Maui. How much more do we want?

But I'm melting down because ISU wasn't even ranked until mid-January and still got a 2 seed and was still a handful of plays away from an Elite Eight despite not playing very well!

What does this schedule do for ME!?

 

[CycloneErik]

31 Q1 games might be enough for some folks.

I don't know. Odd numbers are more of a professional thing.

 

[CascadeClone]

I still think it was ridiculous to penalize our NCAA seeding because of non-con strength of schedule. What we do in November and December means nothing compared to what we do in January and February. Can't wait to ask Pollard whether he really believes that non-con should be taken into consideration for NCAA seeding.

It's simple, imho. Non-con should matter a lot for teams from lesser conferences who go 25-6 but 17 of those wins were against little teams in conference. In that case, the non-con is the only way to show that they can beat bigger better teams, and are indeed a quality team. e.g. Gonzaga.

 

[madguy30]

I agree. There's no reason that a team's non-conference strength of schedule should override their overall strength of schedule, as that penalizes teams in strong conferences.

Aside from revisiting the school logo maybe just tweak the school colors and the initials too.

Go with like, oh, I don't know, Carolina or navy blue and white and change 'ISU' to 'UNC' or 'Duke' or something.

/s

 

[JimDogRock]

I don't know. Odd numbers are more of a professional thing.

Especially when they are prime.

 

[CRCySpy]

The only thing I don't like about the schedule is it's like a football schedule in November. Play a game, week off, play a game, week off...etc. The team will only play 3 games in the first 21 days prior to Maui. I know they only have 11 non-con games now, so they have to spread them out more but Nov 4 seems really early to start the college basketball season. More overlap with football now.

I would like to see their first game around Nov 11, and then play 3 games in the first two weeks. With 20 conference games this year, I thought ISU might have two conference games in early December, similar to the Big Ten. I guess conference season will start Dec 28th and no bye weeks, meaning two games every week until early March, maybe?

Edit: Actually every team will probably have one, Saturday to Saturday, week off in the Big 12. March 8th will be the last Saturday of games, so 20 games in 10 weeks and every team could have one Tuesday or Wednesday off.

 

[riceville98]

Minus Maui and Marquette, this is pure garbage again. We should be better than this ****.

I don't understand this. Every year, some on here dump on the schedule. We are playing in the best non-con tourney available and we are hosting a power 5 in Maquette, yet it's still not enough for some of you all.

What do you people want? I promise you if we played a Tough schedule like KU does and had 6 + losses in the non-con, you'd be complaining too!!

Get over it. Sorry but, I'm tied of the same complains every year!!

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

This narrative needs to die.

Why? That's exactly what happened!

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

The Bluebloods are also getting invites to games put on by promoters. Iowa State isn't going to ever have that luxury. It's stupid how the committee punishes non bluebloods and says thing like "schedule better teams". The average fan doesn't understand how hard it is to schedule home and aways now.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

IMO the committee needs to reshuffle NET and create three buckets instead of 4. Combine quad 3 and 4 and weigh them the same because they are. Those are all teams a top 40 team should piss rock so treating them differently is just dumb. I would also say there is a lot more variability on where these teams were predicted to land vs where they finished NET wise.

 

[NYCYFan]

Minus Maui and Marquette, this is pure garbage again. We should be better than this ****.

Sure but Maui is a stacked tournament so there should be at least 2-3 Quad 1 games in there so assuming they win most of them, they should have a strong enough OOC resume to compete for a potential 1 seed.

Iowa State never seems to play a strong non-conference schedule. The strong non-conference scheds usually belong to the blue bloods that get their showcase games.

It doesn't matter anyway because the Big 12 is going to bring the strength of schedule way up.

 

[cytor]

Some people just won't be happy unless we add Uconn, North Carolina and Duke to the non-con. ISU schedule is just fine. Stop whining.