The Georgia Bulldogs have released the full basketball schedule for the 2007-2008 season. The non-conference line-up is highlighted by two solid home games (GT and Wake Forest), two solid road games (Gonzaga and Wisconsin), and a trip to Hawaii.
Interestingly, there are only five games against last year's sub-250 RPI teams, and only four of those will count in the rankings. This is an all-time snack cake low for Coach Felton. Still too sugary for my taste, but it's improvement.
The lowlights of the schedule include booking a Div II team (Augusta State), no neutral site game in Gwinnett or Atlanta, and two sub-300 RPI teams in Presbyterian (a new independent) and Jacksonville State. The RPI information based on Ken Pomeroy's stats for last season:
| Team | '06-'07 RPI | Conf. |
| Wisconsin (road) | 4 | Big 10 |
| Georgia Tech (home) | 52 | ACC |
| Gonzaga (road/neutral) | 60 | WCC |
| Delaware St. (home) | 120 | MEAC |
| Wake Forest (home) | 122 | ACC |
| ETSU (neutral) | 123 | ASun |
| Grambling (home) | 287 | SWAC |
| Elon (home) | 298 | So. Con |
| Jacksonville St. (home) | 315 | OVC |
| Presbyterian (home) | N/A | Independent |
| Augusta State (home) | N/A | Div II |
| Other likely teams in Hawaii | ||
| Rd 2: Tulane or St. Mary's (Ca) | 143 or 154 | |
| Rd 3: Hawaii or Ohio or St. John's | 98 or 105 or 133 |
Look for Delaware State and GT to slide significantly in the ratings while Wake and Gonzaga make a move up. Also, Presbyterian isn't as bad as it looks. Yes, they will stink, but statistically some of that will be softened by them playing the toughest schedule. They'll still stink badly though. Savannah State bad.
The Hawaii trip is especially well scheduled. The RPI system gives you .6 strength of schedule points for a home win, 1.0 for a neutral win, and 1.4 points for a road win. Losses are counted in opposite fashion such that a home loss counts as 1.4 points. (this is an over simplification, but you get the idea).
In other words, scheduling teams like Hawaii, St. John's, Tulane and ETSU is the RPI equivalent of scheduling teams like Iowa, Missouri, NC State, Nebraska and Oklahoma (based on last year's RPI). Even though it's not nearly as entertaining as actually...you know...playing those teams...you know...at home.
My overall feeling on the schedule:
I would've liked to have gotten a decent RPI top 150 game in Gwinnett Arena instead of the pointless Augusta State
Is it an overly watchable home non-conference schedule? Definitely not.
Will the early home slate sell non-conference tickets? No.
Will it help us make the tourney. Hopefully.
We should go 10-3 at worst vs. the non-conference schedule. If we can do that and add a 9-7 SEC record, we make the SEC tourney very interesting for a change. It would come right down to the wire...and 11 non-conference wins is very doable.
Other schedule tidbits:
-- UGA plays three of its first five SEC games on the road.
-- The middle of the schedule reveals 4 of 5 SEC home games in a row.
-- The schedule closes in brutal fashion with 4 of 6 SEC road games.
-- We play GT in Athens four days after playing Gonzaga in Spokane. Here's hoping we booked a heckuva well timed flight back home!
What's your reaction?
PWD
5 comments:
my reaction is the same as yours. Grambling I'll accept since Felton wants a Historically Black College or University every season (or so it seems). Jax St is where Hugh Durham spent his twilight years. But Elon, Presbyterian, and Augusta St I hope were last second adds when better teams turned us down (like was noted with West. Kent.).
But otherwise we agree in full, although I wish if we had to play an Elon or Presbyterian, we could have lessened the rpi hit they bring by making it neutral site in Atlanta or Charlotte or something.
Not having a game in metro Atlanta surprised me as well, but let's face it - the attendance for the Gonzaga game last year was not good at all considering they are a top 25 type team and about 50 people showed up for the game at Gwinnett the year before that(was it Georgia State?)....that's probably why they chose not to play a "no name" school at Gwinnett.
I'm sure Wake wouldn't have minded at all moving their game to Gwinnett from Athens, but there was no point in doing that and leaving us with GT being the only decent non-conference opponent coming to Stegeman.
Hugh Durham was at Jacksonville - Jacksonville State is in Anniston, AL. So, it had nothing to do with Hugh.
I was OK with it even before I saw your RPI analysis, Paul, which makes at least one of the home games look better from an RPI management perspective than you would think.
I live out of state, so all the dogs (as it were) in December don't bother me personally, but I do have sympathy for season ticket holders who would like another interesting game or two. Still, making the tournament has to be the top priority, and I think this schedule is pretty close to the best we could hope for in that regard, given that we have to play who we can, not who we want (see WKU).
I went to see Georgia play then-Augusta College at the Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center way back when.
Of course, that facility's name is now ... the James Brown Arena.
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