Powerhouse tourney! 

Wright State was a solid top 100 team last year that was the 1 seed in the Horizon tourney, but lost first round.   However, their huge big man, who was their best player, graduated and their best shooter transferred.   I assume they will take a step back next year.

And after Wright St, not much here. 

Middle Tennessee was outside of the top 300 last year.

Ball state was KenPom 149 last year... with 3 senior starters.  No idea of their transfers, but I think they should be one of the worst MAC teams next year.

That’s a tourney we need to win (and should with the athletes we have now).

Not hawt ...

It is obviously way too early to draw definitive conclusions about the OOC schedule as a whole but if this is the MTE we are competing in, this does not bode well.  MTE's represent GW's either one or very limited in number opportunity at an upset over a high major or very strong mid-major on a neutral court.  Our better teams this century have knocked off Michigan State, Maryland, Creighton and Wichita State at MTE's. 

Before you argue that our 2021-22 team will not resemble those earlier GW teams in any way, understand that we will be featuring players who have played for LSU, Maryland, Nebraska (hopefully), Arizona, Virginia Tech, and UCONN, plus anywhere from 1-3 freshmen who could have possibly played at major programs.  This is an influx of talent and while it may not resemble a successful KH or ML team, it should certainly not resemble either of JC's first two teams at GW either.

With this MTE being what it is, I would foresee maybe two true road games at Top 50-like programs.  Assuming this works out to a very soft OOC schedule, I do understand the philosophy behind taking a program that has been down in the dumps and beginning to build a winning culture.  I'll refrain from getting into the debate of whether compiling a gaudy record against a soft schedule prepares a team properly for competitive conference play.  

My point is that I would like to see any GW team take on some challenges with their OOC games.  Beating a subpar 300 team at home is not much of a challenge (and it really shouldn't be with the 2021-22 team) and for that matter, neither is a true road game on a Top 10 opponent's home court.  However, there is a lot of middle ground between these two things.  It would be nice to see GW play some opponents who they should lose to on paper, but who might have a realistic chance at pulling off an upset.  Plenty of games still to be scheduled so we shall see.

Agree with GW18 that it takes two to tango.  Is there any indication that either better OOC opponents or tournaments asked us to play and we said no?

Last edited by GW0509 (6/04/2021 2:01 pm)

The Masters, ....Mailvan complains about the schedule...

Traditions like no others

I am not that worried about the schedule. We need to win games period no matter who the opponent is. This team minus Ira can return intact for 2022-23. Let's get some wins and build up confidence. At that point, the A-10 schedule will await. Everyone is bitching here that we can't beat Navy, Hampton etc. Well maybe we need to beat Navy and Hampton first before we can move up in class. SOS for 2021-22 will only matter if we finish in the top 4 of the league. That will be a great problem to have. We are in the let's just get to a winning season mode at the moment and then see what happens. There will be plenty of time for a stronger SOS in the future once we change the trajectory of the program. That's not to say we won't play anyone decent.. 

I expect the schedule will be a lot more stable this coming year.  The NCAA should require vaccines for all who wish to participate in NCAA sports including players, coaches, support staff (including GWRising ) and cheerleaders.   

GWRising wrote:

I am not that worried about the schedule. We need to win games period no matter who the opponent is. This team minus Ira can return intact for 2022-23. Let's get some wins and build up confidence. At that point, the A-10 schedule will await. Everyone is bitching here that we can't beat Navy, Hampton etc. Well maybe we need to beat Navy and Hampton first before we can move up in class. SOS for 2021-22 will only matter if we finish in the top 4 of the league. That will be a great problem to have. We are in the let's just get to a winning season mode at the moment and then see what happens. There will be plenty of time for a stronger SOS in the future once we change the trajectory of the program. That's not to say we won't play
anyone decent.. 

AGREED ITS Super simple. Look organized and win some games! That’s my bar for next year

I was expecting to be in the minority on this one.  There are several reasons though why I believe that a cupcake OOC schedule is not in this program's best interest:

1) My most important team is that the 2021-22 team should not resemble the 2020-21 team in practically every way.  The key returnees will be James Bishop whose role may be dramatically altered from a season ago and Ricky Lindo who only appeared in a handful of games.  It may have a key player returning from injury who did not play at all last season.  It will feature newcomers who have been playing at several big-time programs.  It should have at least 1 and as many as 3 freshmen who realistically may make the rotation.  While this is a team that will need to learn how to play together, it does not figure to be lacking in confidence.   It does not need to go 12-1 against a consistent diet of subpar opponents to make any type of statement or prove anything. 

2) The gaudy record against a poor OOC schedule has not really proven to help or hinder one's chances in conference play.  A few years back, I believe Fordham was 11-2 in their OOC when we played them in the opening conference game.  We took that game by double digits and Fordham again failed to manage to escape the play-in game that year.

3) On the notion that none of this discussion really matters unless GW is a top 4 conference team, my question is whether we know at this point that they will definitely not be this?  The off-season tendency is to look at last year's team and hope for some measured improvement.  That said, I feel that this upcoming season may very well be an exception.  Again, it barely resembles either of JC's teams here.  It has a very high ceiling relative to any MoJo or JC coached team.  This is not to predict a Top 4 finish but if this team was good enough to get to this point, why would you hinder any postseason chances with an exceptionally weak OOC schedule?

4) Related to this, no to GWRising when he asks whether this would be a nice problem to have.  Go back to 2005-06 season and witness how a GW team that went 26-1 during it's regular season, playing just 1 top 25 OOC game and losing it to NC State, received an 8 seed and a second round matchup against Duke, the tournament's overall #1 seed, in Greensboro.  The injury to Pops might have caused that team 1 seed, arguably two at the most.  But make no mistake about the fact that this seed and draw were the direct consequence of playing a ridiculous, non-challenging OOC schedule (and to a lesser extent, the result of a below average A10 that season).  So to sum it up, I do not believe this would be a good problem to have, particularly when it can be avoided by simply playing several high quality OOC opponents. 

GWRising, you yourself have said in the past that every season is different.  New players, new chemistry, a unique set of circumstances.  So if this was really true, then why would the preceding year's results even matter?

But let's acknowledge that they do, wouldn't you have to factor the composition of the team into your analysis?  Why should the results of the past few years pertain to this year's team given how vastly different these rosters are?   If this were a typical season in which say 4 players depart and are replaced by 3 freshman and 1 transfer, then your point makes a great deal of sense.  But as I've pointed out, the 2021-22 team will be comprised of prior major conference recruits plus one and perhaps more very talented freshmen.  It should be such an improved team and I think you know that.  Given this, why would you treat this specific team with kid gloves or a you have to learn how to walk before you can run mindset?

I'd much rather see these guys play 4-5 high quality OOC games, giving them 4-5 opportunities to impress an NCAA selection committee, than the 1-2 I'm afraid we will be seeing.  I know this sounds crazy to some but if you don't think this way, then you're not testing a team to be as good as it can be.  Again, not at all suggesting a John Chaney-like schedule, but not 11-12 cupcakes either.