HISTORY MADE, THE DROUGHT IS OVER!!! LET'S DANCE!!!

[triplec2195]

To make matters worse we’re in New York, the epicenter of it all. I’d have to think other programs won’t want to come here for the 20-21 season (if there is one). If the season is cancelled I could see Jalen coming back if there is a 21-22 season, but I’d have to think after 6 years Tareq would be gone.

That point is well taken here about schools not wanting to come here due to the virus but I'll loosely tie this in with schools in general not wanting to come here. I realize we have discussed this before our OOC schedule and our desire to get big programs in here and our inability to do so. Recently Joe discussed this saying we were trying to get an OOC schedule together and it was like an attempt in futility due to the success of our program schools just don't want to play us in our facility. I can't speak to the money end of this and what we need to guarantee visiting schools but like so many of you have pointed out many other mid-major programs can schedule P-5 schools so why can't we?? We should be playing St Johns every year not just Stony Brook and how about getting Syracuse in here, UCONN? Somehow we need to find a way. I'm attaching the post presser by Mick Cronin after we beat UCLA and you just get the feeling that he was probably scratching his head on why they played us knowing we just came off a 27 win season and were bringing back most of our starters. https://youtu.be/dkr5amFViSU

[HofstraPride1]

Big programs not wanting to play at Hofstra has always been an issue and all you have to look at is St. John's in our own region for that. The coronavirus will play no part in whether we can get decent non-conference home games in 2020/21 schedule.

[stuball888]

Lets see if Rutgers or Seton Hall will go 2 for 1. They should not be scared to play us. We just lost our two leading scorers. Also let see what Jay Wright can do at Villanova can do.

[Mikey77]

You're right Stu, you can add old conference rivals Temple and Bucknell to that mix. And, perhaps a MAC school like Buffalo. Wouldn't mind seeing some Ivy on the schedule as well such as Princeton this year, but there is no reason that Cornell, Yale, and the like should not come to the Mack. Might not increase our NET or RPI but its always good to play a few of the Ivy schools.

[Polito]

I don't think it's a question of 2-1's, which P5's do every yr - I think the challenge is with our staff's approach.

They're strategy is pretty clear, they fill it with a bunch of small locals and out of state no-names to max their opp to have winning seasons, and then sprinkle in a couple of big names / events to balance it out.

It's not a bad strategy actually, clearly it has worked to revive this program, it just stinks for us fans who deal with a largely poor home slate.

But I'll tell ya, having UK and Nova within commutable/drivable distance was pretty cool. I won't complain too much if they can continue to do local things like that. Seton Hall/Rutgers/UConn/Cuse in MSG should be next. And I've said for years that they should have UNC here - they play at a mid every year in a location where one of their players come from. Hard for me to believe they don't have any NYers . And I know we all want NC or the Arena, but the odds are very much against that.

But frankly, ALL that matters is the dance. They need to do that every 4-5 years and all else matters not.

[triplec2195]

Well if the only thing that matters is the dance then having an ambitious OOC schedule can only behoove us since it will help us recruit and get us ready for the CAA schedule. Coming off one of the most successful seasons ever we recruited well and hopefully we will build on this and have another strong season. The idea of getting Nova in here would be great and talk about Packing The Mack. They would have to find a way to create more seating for that one. Lets get it done and stop playing the Kennesaw states who went 1-28 last year their only victory was over a non D1 team. It looks like their average margin of defeat was by over 20 points. There has to be stronger opponents out there who are willing to play us.

[EvanJ]

Lets get it done and stop playing the Kennesaw states who went 1-28 last year their only victory was over a non D1 team. It looks like their average margin of defeat was by over 20 points. There has to be stronger opponents out there who are willing to play us.

Kennesaw State was horrible when we played them, but that was in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019. We didn't play them in 2019-2020. I know you just mean them as an example. In 2019-2020 the very bad team who came from far away was San Jose State.

You're right Stu, you can add old conference rivals Temple and Bucknell to that mix. And, perhaps a MAC school like Buffalo. Wouldn't mind seeing some Ivy on the schedule as well such as Princeton this year, but there is no reason that Cornell, Yale, and the like should not come to the Mack. Might not increase our NET or RPI but its always good to play a few of the Ivy schools.

I don't care about old rivals. Getting Temple or any AAC team to come would be significant, but getting Bucknell to come wouldn't be a big deal. Buffalo was 15th in the NET in 2018-2019 and won an NCAA Tournament game before being 146th this season. They got a 6 seed in the 2019 Tournament, which is extremely great by Mid-American (MAC) standards, and won 91-74 over Arizona State, who beat St. John's in the First Four for an 11 seed.

Do you think we could convince Stony Brook or another area school and two schools that are near each other to play like travel partners but out of conference. For example, one season us and Stony Brook go to Penn and Princeton and the next season Penn and Princeton go to us and Stony Brook. Other mid-major pairs that could be travel partners like that are two of Buffalo/Canisius/Niagara, Albany and Siena, Cornell and Colgate, Yale and Quinnipiac, Brown and Bryant, Harvard and Boston U, Hartford and Central Connecticut, Monmouth and Rider, and Loyola (Maryland) and Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC). I'm not saying we want to play all of those teams, but that's a bunch of possibilities, and other than the Buffalo teams they are under five hours from us by bus without traffic. It doesn't matter if the other two teams are in the same conference because they don't have to play each other as part of the deal. We can continue playing Stony Brook and would have at least two common out of conference opponents.