After the announcement of the game against Stanford, the out-of-conference schedule for the 2009-2010 JMU Men's Basketball team is complete. Looks to be a pretty good schedule with a couple really tough opponents that should push the Dukes to play their best. Brady is showing he has confidence in his team and definitely doesn't seem to be one content to do well, but wants to push to be the best. Unfortunately for the first part of that schedule, we won't have transfer Denzel Bowles until after Fall semester exams are finished (December 11). This means that the first game he should be available to play in is at Eastern Michigan. Additionally, it means that he will have four games to warm up before the game at Stanford, which could be crucial for post-season play. End of the year 08-09 Pomeroy rankings are in parentheses.
Nov. 12 (Thu) - @ Ohio State (37) - Coaches vs. Cancer Classic
Nov. 20-23 (Fri-Mon) - Coaches vs. Cancer Classic @ Florida International
(Murray State (137), North Carolina Central (343) and Florida International (262)
Nov. 28 (Sat) - UMBC (256)
Dec. 2 (Wed) - Norfolk State (297)
Dec. 12 (Sat) - @ Eastern Michigan (306)
Dec. 17 (Thu) - @ Gardner-Webb (252)
Dec. 19 (Sat) - Radford (188)
Dec. 23 (Wed) - Fordham (317)
Dec. 29 (Tue) - Stanford (49)
Feb. 20 (Sat) - Bracket Buster
Feb. 22 (Mon) - Longwood (313)
That puts our average opponent's rank at 230...not that difficult. Considering we ended last year at 140, the only teams that finished ahead of us were Ohio State, Stanford, and Murray State (barely). Let's hope we can take care of everyone we should beat, and at least play Ohio State and Stanford close. If we do that, hopefully we'll pick up a great team for Bracket Busters and get it televised. Also, the last time we played two BCS teams in one season was in 05-06 when we played Georgetown and Virginia Tech.
We'll have to wait another month before we get our CAA schedule, but so far it looks like we should be able to take care of business without too much trouble for most of these. We lost a couple crucial players, but we have a great group of guys coming back and an incredible recruiting class coming in that could possibly be productive from the beginning. Looks to be a great year for the Dukes and this writer has full faith in Coach Matt Brady.
An RPI builder?
Looks to be a "pretty good" schedule? Four teams that finished 2009 above 300 in RPI, four more above 250 and only four against sub-200 squads? Other than the two games against mediocre BCS teams, toughest non-conference foes are Murray State and Radford. Please, don't squeeze the Charmin!
ReplyDeleteLooks like Brady "has confidence in his team" is really "pushing to be the best," huh? More like, Brady is looking to rack up as many wins as possible so he can ditch Harrisonburg and its second-rate men's basketball program.
Tell us how you really feel... I guess I forgot to point out that many of these games are the second game of a home/home series, so the control is kinda out of his hands on part of the schedule. Let's not forget that 2 years ago we couldn't have beaten most of these teams, which is when these games would have been scheduled. Let's give it till next year to really get a good schedule. And he's racking up wins against RPI's higher than 200 so he can move on to a better program? I'm sure an expert such as yourself can find a flaw in that logic.
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