Groo at expressed this better than I will, but Georgia needs to improve its basketball scheduling. Many fans clamor for improvements at the top of their non-conference schedule. However, I think Georgia needs improvement at the bottom end of its out of conference lineup. As Groo pointed out:
This year Georgia played Southern (RPI 289), Jacksonville (RPI 198), South Carolina State (RPI 288), Alabama A&M (RPI 334), Gardner-Webb (RPI 268), and Kennesaw (277). Those games are boat anchors to a team’s perceived strength. The Dawgs couldn’t even count a win over Valdosta State (in terms of the RPI) because the Blazers are a Division 2 school.It's important to note that Georgia isn't a HBCU institution; therefore, we probably don't need to play 3 HBCU schools per year.
As Groo pointed out, playing schools with an RPI sub-250 is a major drain on RPI. When Georgia beat Kennesaw State in February, our RPI dropped 8 spots. Groo also correctly points out:
"Hold on a second," you say. "Georgia had the #14 schedule according to Palm’s collegerpi.com. Why are you talking about schedule?" Sure they did. They play in the SEC East. The only SEC East team without a top 30 schedule was Florida. The strong conference schedule masks the fact that the nonconference schedule had problems.If you play the #1 RPI team and you play the #300 RPI team, they only average at 150. So you beat one and you lose to the other. If you played two RPI teams in the 50-100 range, you might get two wins AND the two teams would have an average RPI at around 60-75. Now, I'm no bracketologist, but I think the latter offers a greater opportunity for post-season success / participation.
I'm all for playing 1 or 2 "Ben Hur" type non-conference games. I loved the epic overtime game with #1 UNC in '97 (loss), the thrilling victory over #2 Pitt in '02 and this year's Wisconsin game was good for the program.
Not scheduling hard.
Jim Harrick had lots of flaws, and many of them I've beaten into the ground here. But the guy was the absolute master scheduler. He correctly saw the value in scheduling teams with an RPI around 30-125 and avoiding the real dregs of college basketball.25
What we can learn from Harrick's scheduling:
-- Load up on mid-tier power conference and mid-major teams. Harrick signed and extended multi-year deals with Colorado and Minnesota. He also played Pepperdine and Villanova (when they were medicore) on the road.
-- Utilize neutral site games as much as possible. He scheduled Georgetown in Springfield, Ma (W), Cal in Oakland (W), Texas in Madison Square Garden (L), NCSU in Atlanta (W). He even played Georgia Southern in Savannah, which was brilliant in that the RPI gives you greater credit for winning in a neutral setting than winning at home.(Image: Ezra Williams vs. Georgetown)
-- Utilize REAL pre-season tourneys. The sham Paradise Jam tourney that Felton signed us up for in 2006 was a mockery. We played Old Dominion (RPI: 73 loss), Fordham (RPI: 126 Win) and EKU (RPI 267 W). Harrick sent us to Maui (a variety of mid-tier guys + Hawaii), Alaska (KU, Louisville and Grambling) and San Juan (Indiana St., Utah and Stanford). The Alaska thing was overly aggressive, but otherwise a good model to consider.
-- Avoid the worst of the worst. Harrick did a great job of steering clear of the bottom feeders of college hoops. Sure, we played Mercer, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Appy State, UW-M, South Alabama and Belmont. But he didn't play them all in 1 year! In fact, in glancing at Ken Pomeroy's RPI archives, it looks like Harrick only scheduled 1 or 2 sub-RPI 250 teams per year, and he only played an RPI sub-300 team once (Grambling in Alaska).
Whereas, Felton has been scheduling 4-6 of those teams per year.
Who fits the profile of ideal teams for us to play?
I thought Felton had struck gold with the Oregon State match-up. A bottom tier Power Conference team is always a great scheduling move to fill up the lower half of the non-conference slate.
Others that might fit the profile of traditional mid to lower tier power conference teams include Baylor, Colorado, Nebraska, Northwestern, Minnesota (pre-Tubby), Penn State, Iowa State, Rutgers, DePaul, Seton Hall, Miami, Clemson, Arizona State, or Oregon State. See also: Tulane, Houston, UAB, Southern Miss, UMass, St. Louis, St. Joe's, Colorado State, etc. Yes, some of these are currently ranked below 200 in the RPI, but they are consistently going to pull a respectable RPI.
Next year's Schedule
- Road: WKU and Wisconsin
Home: GT, Wake and Clemson (if we renew)
Neutral: Gonzaga (Seattle), Duke (NYC / Rumored) and TBD (Gwinnett/ATL)
PWD
