Column Bemoans Sorry State of MAC Basketball

[GP1]

I have a somewhat different spin on why the Zips need to play larger schools on the road regardless of whether or not they will come to Akron.

I agree to an extent. Do you need to play larger schools? yes you do, but you have to avoid "payday games" unless it is an home-home series.

You have created a situation where we will never play larger schools because the big boys don't need to play home-home. This reasoning has become the program's "escape hatch" for their bad schedule. There are schools more than willing to travel to the ATM 2-3 times a year and until the MBB team proves it can generate more income with the current schedule, I don't think it is unreasonable to ask them to step up to the ATM 2-3 times a year. This team is good enough not to fall on their face in a game like this. Heck, they might just win one.If by home-home you mean at their place and then at The Gund, I would agree. The truth is big teams don't come to the JAR because they can't rake in the money they can at home.

[Blue & Gold]

I'd like to see us schedule more games against the A-10, C-USA & Mountain West. Those teams have national name recognition and most would probably do home-home series. I've heard of Valpo - I remember What's-his-name-Drew's miracle NCAA shot against, who, Ole Miss? (Yeah, you can tell I remember it well.) But I don't think your average basketball fan has heard of most of the teams we're bringing into the JAR. Yesterday someone asked me where the visiting team was from. I said, "Somewhere in Indiana, I think."We really do need to step up the OOC schedule. Even though I love a good blowout, I thought the Valpo game yesterday actually got to be a little boring.

[Quickzips]

Change Arkansas Pine Bluff to a road game against an A-10 team in the top part of their league (maybe Temple?), Greensboro to a home game against a C-USA team in the top 1/3 of that division (say Marshall?) and St. Francis to a road game against a BCS program that has a realistic shot at the tournament but isn't necessarily a top-15 program (Maryland, Louisville, Minnesota, Vanderbilt all come to mind) and I would have been just fine with this years OOC schedule.Austin PeayNeut-NC StateNeut-DrakeNeut-Howard@TempleNiagra@Texas A&MMaloneMarshall@MinnesotaUICValpo@WyomingRhode IslandThat would have been a nice, reasonable OOC schedule for this team. Three games against pretty good BCS programs in NC State, A&M and Minn., only a couple of really big cupcakes in Malone and Howard and a good mix of decent to good mid-majors in Austin Peay, Drake, Temple, Niagra, Marshall, UIC, Valpo, Wyoming and Rhode Island. Three Neutral site games, 3 road games and 7 home games. No real games where we are just a sacrificial lamb.

[Dave in Green]

UA did not schedule Valpo. This was the obligatory return match for last year's BracketBuster game, where there is no choice of opponent.Having said that, Valpo is a good example of the type of program UA should try to schedule. They are generally recognized in college basketball as a quality program with a quality coach. Homer Drew is currently 7th among active D1 coaches in career victories. Starting in 1995 Valpo had a run of 7 NCAA tournament appearances in 9 years. Even though last year was their worst overall record in 20 years, they are still averaging about 20 wins per season over the past 2 decades. They play a much tougher schedule than the Zips, including playing the #1 team in the country for the last 5 years in a row.UA needs to schedule a good mix of weaker teams, some of comparable quality to the Zips and some that are stronger. Valpo has consistently been stronger than the Zips for most of the past 20 years, and only in the last few years has slipped a little. Scheduling a winning program is no guarantee that the program won't be having a down year when the scheduled game is played.