Our schedule (or lack there of):

You can pencil me in with the folks that are concerned about our schedule and how the selection committee will perceive it.  Missing are the real marquee out of conference games that you need to find a way to schedule these days.  The Paradise Jam will be a good opening season barometer.  Drexel has the capability to test the Hoos, and obviously a potential championship game against Marquette will be a great matchup.  But the only notable non-conference road games are trips to Oregon and LSU, and I’m afraid they just don’t have the luster the committee will be looking for.  Oregon has a chance to be a much-improved team, and I for one will be rooting for them to give that game a little more credibility.  LSU and TCU are teams in serious rebuilding mode, and for that matter do not consider that Winthrop is of the same caliber as in the Gregg Marshall days or that Towson offers any real challenge coming from the CAA.  All four teams are trying to climb out of conference cellars.  By my estimation, Michigan and Marquette are the only non-conference games that really offer any big game notoriety, and we aren’t even guaranteed the Marquette contest.   You can hope the Oregon game falls in that conversation but that remains to be seen.   I applaud the athletic department for finally getting a George Mason game done, but it will be one we are expected to win at home.   The rest of the slate contains a host of perennial RPI drains. 

This out of conference schedule looks very similar to the type that has kept our friends in Blacksburg out of the NCAA tournament despite 20+ wins and top 4 finishes in conference.   The ACC is not garnering the automatic respect that it used to.  I would have been much happier with this type of schedule the last two seasons, as we were doing a little more building.   But now that I feel we have an actual legitimate tourney caliber team, it just seems we have little to really separate ourselves unless we blow through the league.

A quick note on our ACC schedule, I like that it’s balanced, there doesn’t seem to be any crazy scary stretches of games.   Late February will be a test for sure, but overall we could have been dealt a tougher hand.  Of course we get UNC twice for the first time in three years, right when their roster looks like a future NBA lottery draft, but hey, what are ya gonna do.  I still contend we are a nightmare matchup for Ole Roy no matter who they trot out there.