Looks like another season where, even if we perform well, we’re going to have to earn our way in compiling wins the last 8 games. The Purdue/MSU home game sandwich will be huge to make or break the resume - obviously assuming we survive the non-con and January above water.
We’ll know a lot after this:
Whew. Characters
Not convinced we can handle the Tominaga affect on the final day of the season?
I kinda like getting St. John’s that early. Completely new team will be way better in March than November.
he’ll be out for our game @Neb after pulling a muscle three days earlier celebrating his 13th made 3 of the game against Illinois. he’ll be back for revenge in the finale, especially because, as a huge national TV game (battle of 29-0 michigan and 28-1 nebraska), he’ll want to cement his spot as the no. 1 pick in the upcoming draft
Well we can pencil in a loss to Purdue at home since the atmosphere will be dead since it’ll be spring break 
I’ll just have to yell loudly to make up for it
Michigan finally comes to Philadelphia on Sunday Jan. 7th making it real easy for me to go expect hopefully I’m in Houston for the football game the following night.
Seven tough opponents in the first ten games. Yikes.
i dont see a single loss on that schedule
YSU and UNC Asheville are very good teams too, FWIW.
So… panic and run around screaming???
Eh, playing a tough schedule is almost always a benefit more than a drawback.
Obviously that’s true from a resume point of view, but I don’t know that I agree from a team development and growth point of view. When I read the breakdown post and hear…
- The beginning of the season is hard
- The holiday portion of the season is really hard
- The end of the season is hard
I start to wonder about developing the new players, finding enough wins overall to survive, and also being prone to injuries/sickness/slumps with such an unforgiving schedule. Just no breathing room.
The reality though is that if you play poorly, you can lose to anyone. It’s sometimes better if you lose to good teams (Arizona at UNC two years ago) rather than mediocre to bad teams (Arizona State, CMU last year).
Playing teams like UNCA and YSU really helps on the margins of the NET, as well.
As far as if you’d rather play your heavy road stretch in February or January, I think you can probably make a case either way. If it comes in January and you struggle, the whole season can come unglued.
is there an argument that this is the hardest schedule in the United States nation?
Nah, I’m sure there are more difficult ones. Not really any top-ten level teams in the non-conference, right? Depending on what happens in the Bahamas.
Maui bracket this year is absolutely LOADED this year too. Winner of that tourney might have the No. 1 SOS in the country based on those three games 
Purdue could play Gonzaga, Tenessee, Kansas to win it. 
It’s the hardest schedule in the entire world. If they manage to survive, they can call themselves World Champions.