Tracker lives here:
Just added Lipscomb:
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Last year turned out to be way too hard and I’m worried it’s happening again
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Dylan is typing out a big rebuttal to that as we speak
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Don’t think Michigan’s SOS really hurt it last year. If anything, it helped get it into the NCAA Tournament in the end.
It’s always better to lose games against a tough schedule than lose games against a bad schedule.
Biggest things that stood out about last year’s schedule: Big Ten ended up being deep and U-M played a very difficult league schedule, and U-M didn’t play enough home games really (but one of those was COVID).
My least favorite thing about that was the UCF game on the road though… bad scheduling.
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Lipscomb had some really good years under Casey Alexander but they’ve fallen on some leaner times since he left for Belmont. Mid-200s on KP which is kind of blah but better than a SWAC 350, I guess.
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yeah amen. swap that out for Fart State at home and the season feels different earlier on. Might have kickstarted the improvement, that game was a real blow psychologically
when is the B1G schedule determined?
Just my opinion, but I would have swapped it for a real Q1-type of home-and-home. Not a lesser game.
I was surprised that Michigan agreed to a H&H with UCF. Don’t think UCF is a team in the position of being able to demand a return trip.
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Fart State is Q-1A fwiw.
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Are they an offshoot of Dixie State?
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Example of trying to be too cute IMO. I know some people pitched it at the time as shrewd scheduling maximizing the SOS, etc. but it felt like a way to try to skim and get an “easier” home and home.
Personally, I’m a huge fan of home and homes in CBB and it is at least a little bit disappointing that U-M hasn’t really set any meaningful ones up since Juwan Howard was hired. And I understand that COVID is a factor, etc. They tried with UK but even that was part of a neutral event.
Now the Jordan Brand event in Charlotte for the next three years is another data point that → fewer home-and-homes.
From a pure scheduling POV, the neutral games are probably the “smart” play but I will be pro-home-and-home forever.
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I loved that UCF game. Love scheduling home and homes against the non usual suspects.
Why not against better programs?
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I did not love it
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Oh sure. I’m not opposed to that. But it’s better than your standard home buy game against sisters of the poor.
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Yes – the problem with the UCF game is that it replaced a real home-and-home, it didn’t replace a buy game.
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Big thing is gonna be getting an easier big ten draw with single plays (and not losing to Minnesota at home).
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Yeah, can’t ever lose home games to bad teams.
At the end of the day, when you get into the NCAA Tournament with a record that everyone says is impossible… it is a credit to your schedule.
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By the quadrants, the loss to UCF last season was “good” (Q1), but we know that UCF wasn’t anything close to a good team, so from the narrative standpoint (supposed upper echelon Big Ten team losing to a who-dat AAC team), it was a bad loss.
Additionally, Michigan got nothing out of the home win in '21 (Q3). The best case scenario was UCF being really good in both seasons and that came nowhere close to fruition.
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UCF game was Q2, not Q1. That’s the issue. You want home and homes to be guaranteed Q1 away and hopefully Q1 at home.
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