Wednesday, July 14, 2010

AUHoops Exclusive: Men's Basketball 2010-11 Schedule (PLEASE NOTE DISCLAIMER)

Gooooooood evening AUHoops fans! I'm pleased to bring you what is the EXPECTED schedule for this upcoming season. Some high profile games for sure this year, even more than last year. I'll post the schedule here, let everyone get their comments in for a day or two, and then post my initial thoughts on it in a few days. Please read the following disclaimer:

THESE ARE THE EXPECTED OPPONENTS FOR THE 2010-2011 SEASON. THESE OPPONENTS MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. DATES AND TIMES ARE UNAVAILABLE FOR SOME OF THESE GAMES.

Home Schedule
Randolph-Macon (exhibition).
St. Francis (PA) ( 11/12)
UMES (11/17)
Columbia (11/28)
Florida* At Verizon (12/5)
Brown (1/3)
Lehigh (1/8)
Bucknell (1/12)
Army (1/19)
Lafayette (1/29)
Colgate 2/12
Holy Cross 2/19
Navy 2/23

Away
Albany
Florida Atlantic
Howard
WVU
UMBC
Northwestern
Mt. St Mary
Pitt
Cable Car Classic tourney ( Santa Clara Univ)
Colgate
HC
Navy
Lehigh
Bucknell
Army
Lafayette

Enjoy! What are everyone's thoughts on the schedule?

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!

17 comments:

  1. First thing I notice is that only 4 home games before Patriot League play (other than Florida and R-MC) is kind of a bummer, but still better than two seasons ago. That's the way the pendulum swings though, as we have a lot of home-and-home agreements to fill that gave us a lot of pre-PL home games last season.

    Second, it looks like both John Thompson III and Gary Williams have decided that we're not worth beating this year. Also, still bummed that neither GW nor George Mason are on our schedule again - I love local matchups, but it looks like the closest we're getting this year is Navy in Annapolis.

    Third, I'm excited to get the opportunity to put R-MC in its place. The fact that "revenge" and "Randolph-Macon" have great alliteration will make coming up with a slogan that much easier.

    Fourth, I'm excited to see Northwestern there. While they're certainly better than, say, DePaul, we'll be better this year too. I predict that game could be close.

    Finally, and fortunately, I suspect it won't take 8 games for us to win one this year.

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  2. Oh, and participation in not one, but TWO tournaments (BB&T and Cable Car Classic) is awesome.

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  3. I too am surprised we won't play Georgetown. I would of course like to play GW and show them that high tuition doesn't correlate to success on the Court.

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  4. It turns out we've participated in the Cable Car Classic once before!

    In the 1982 Cable Car Classic the Eagles down UNC-Charlotte 86-75 before falling to Santa Clara (who had just offed the Texas Longhorns by a 14 point margin) 90-72. Shooting guard Mark Nickens was named to the all-tournament team...the same Mark Nickens that helped defeat 5th-ranked Georgetown the following December, and was the 4th overall pick of the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1983 NBA Draft.

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  5. Fla, Pitt, WVU, Northwestern, plus the Cable Car Classic: looks like we will have some tough challenges on our hands.

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  6. Cable Car classic is going to be Dec. 29-30
    The participants are American, Delaware, Fordham, and tournament host Santa Clara.

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  7. why the need for the disclaimer?

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  8. So looking back, I was slightly remiss in my assertion that there will be "no local matchups." We are playing Howard again this year. Kudos to the Bison for that.

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  9. @John K, the disclaimer is necessary because a similar disclaimer appears on the document from which I sourced this information...I've come to understand that it would be irresponsible of me not to include it. My personal (and I do mean personal, not professional, not that I'm professional enough to have beliefs) belief is that this is the schedule as it will be.

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  10. "Fla, Pitt, WVU, Northwestern, plus the Cable Car Classic: looks like we will have some tough challenges on our hands."


    80% Right. The first four are tough, but the Cable Car opponents are all mediocre or worse.

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  11. The Cable Car Classic opponents are definitely beatable...West Coast Stunners!

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  12. I'm excited for the Cable Car Classic - I can see us beating any of those teams, and both Delaware and Fordham are relatively local (CAA and A10, respectively), so it means something. I also doubt this is the same Santa Clara that was capable of demolishing both us and Texas in the fashion that it did in 1982.

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  13. To put the Cable Car Classic's pathetically weak field in perspective, here are last year's Sagarin rankings of the teams:

    233 Santa Clara (9-21)
    256 Delaware (7-24)
    307 Fordham (2-26)

    267 Average (18-71)


    This is one of the worst tournament fields in the country. For some perspective on these teams, here is how a few middle-of-the-pack Patriot League teams were ranked by Sagarin:

    246 Lafayette
    255 Bucknell
    262 Army

    254 Average


    So the teams in the Cable Car were worse in 2009-10 than what AU faced in a down year for the Patriot League.

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  14. i know from a very reliable source that both the Terps and Gtwn were early on contacted about the coming season and chose not to play us because they expect us to be "too good and cannot risk a loss and RPI damage."--to paraphrase that source.

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  15. That is awesome, BLB. Thanks for letting us know that tidbit!

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  16. As far as the Cable Car Classic goes, I don't think it's quite as bad as Anonymous thinks: clearly teams can fluctuate in quality from year to year. For example, I can only imagine our Sagarin ranking last year was pretty abysmal, but I predict we're about to have a much, much better season. While I don't know too much about Delaware, Fordham, or Santa Clara this year (but by golly I will as we get closer to playing them), it's possible they could have all just been on a downswing last season too, and will be much more competitive this year. That being said, I still like our chances.

    BLB, thanks for the info, that's good to know!

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