News on BU Hoops Non-Conference Schedule

Non-conference schedules in basketball are a pretty interesting thing. For your big programs out there, it's a delicate balance: do you go with a creampuff schedule of low majors in order to pile up the wins and boost your chances of making the NCAA Tournament, or do you make things tough, schedule some good teams, thus preparing yourself for conference play and boosting your RPI and SOS?

It's an incredibly underrated part of planning a season and is absolutely critical to a team's success. What scheduling is to a college basketball team is underrated in the way that the hotel worker from "The Hangover" is underrated.



Along with the dude's bride, easily the hottest chick in that movie.

I digress.

Per FoxSports college basketball writer Jeff Goodman, BU's compiling quite the impressive non-conference schedule.


http://community.foxsports.com/goodmanonfox/blog/2010/06/04/america_east_offseason_rundown


This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, seeing as last season Chambers put together an out-of-conference schedule that included Kansas State, Indiana, and Georgia Tech in the Puerto Rico Tipoff; playing at UConn; and playing at eventual NIT champion Dayton, with the last of those providing me to meet some of the best and most underrated (gathering there's a theme here) fans in the country.


Among the things listed in Goodman's article:

- BU will play in the Villanova pod of the preseason NIT. Don't know if that means that BU will get to play in MSG, but that'd be pretty insane.

- A November 30th date on the road against Kentucky, a team that will be bringing in the No. 1 recruiting class in the country and figures to be in the preseason top 15. This probably means that Chambers had to set something up and plan with that slimeball Calipari, but hey, a great opportunity for BU, even if it means they're likely going to get trounced.

- A nice regional matchup will take place as BU will travel to take on UMass in Amherst on New Year's Eve. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that the Philly connection between Chambers and new BC coach Steve Donahue can materialize in that series being given life.

- And at last, the home dates: as of now, at least based on Goodman's article, they have home dates set for December 21st against St. Joseph's and December 9th against LaSalle. No word on any of the others, although Harvard seems like a likely suspect.

Sounds like it is shaping up for another quality non-conference schedule, hopefully one that can prepare this team for conference play.

A few non-schedule related notes:

- Goodman's article also mentioned that Scott Brittain did indeed transfer out of the program and will likely play back home in Canada. Best of luck to Scott with his play north of the border.

- Just in that former UCLA coach and basketball legend John Wooden passed away tonight in Los Angeles. Goes without saying that Wooden will be sorely missed. The Wizard of Westwood is truly without peer in college basketball. Besides, nobody can pull off the bolo tie quite that well.



R.I.P

-CM