Wednesday, July 09, 2014

"Smart" Schedule, Take 2

Last season Steve Donahue put together one of the most aggressive basketball schedules in the country. Instead of gaming the RPI (as intended) it blew up, crushed the team and led to Donahue's departure. As always when things don't end well in sports, the new guy usually does things differently from his predecessor. Jim Christian is no different as BC released its 2014-15 non-conference basketball schedule and it is very different from last year and very manageable.

The team plays traditional regional rivals like Harvard, UMass and Providence and the backend of the USC agreement, but everyone else is a middling Mid Major. The team is also committed to the Puerto Rico Tip-off. If the team overachieves and makes a run at the bubble, that tournament will be their best chance to impress the selection committee and the computers.

I don't know what to expect yet from this team, but the schedule should give them a better start than last year's. Six of these games are easy wins and the Harvard, UMass and PC games are all winnable. There will always be concern from ticket holders about the game times or lack of appealing opponents, but that shouldn't be the focus in Year 1. Now we need to win and this schedule is the first step.

1 comment:

Hoib said...

This looks like a typical BC hoops schedule. As always it'll come down to how u play in the league. Donahue the clueless never figured this out along w/ about a million other things.