CAHoya07
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Post by CAHoya07 on Apr 8, 2014 4:35:23 GMT -5
All right, it's officially next season... time to look forward. Not sure if it's posted elsewhere yet, but FWIW, ESPN.com's Eamonn Brennan has posted his " Way-Too-Early Top 25 for 2014-15," and we are listed as one of "15 more teams [not listed in his top 25] that may crack the list at some point before November." Villanova is the only other Big East team mentioned at #13, so it appears they figure to be next year's frontrunner in conference. So there's that. Now, to the schedule... we know what we're getting in conference: 18 games, 9 home, 9 away, against the nine other teams. Out of conference, we'll host Kansas (#9 in Brennan's rankings), and then we'll be in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament around Thanksgiving with a lot of strong teams: using Brennan's early rankings, #4 Wisconsin, #6 North Carolina, #8 Florida, #20 Oklahoma, #22 UCLA, UAB, and Butler (Butler will be in the opposite bracket, since the participants were set prior to the formation to the new Big East). That tournament should be a lot of fun and tell us a lot about our team early (I guess last year's Puerto Rico Tournament did too - showed us how schizophrenic the team could be). I think that's all we know right now. Please feel free to post and keep this thread updated with any scheduling news as it comes out. I'll try to do the same with this post. Go Hoyas! November: Battle 4 Atlantis (TBD) November: Battle 4 Atlantis (TBD) November: Battle 4 Atlantis (TBD) TBD: vs. Kansas TBD: vs. Villanova TBD: at Villanova TBD: vs. Butler TBD: at Butler TBD: vs. Creighton TBD: at Creighton TBD: vs. Providence TBD: at Providence TBD: vs. Xavier TBD: at Xavier TBD: vs. St. John's TBD: at St. John's TBD: vs. Marquette TBD: at Maruqette TBD: vs. Seton Hall TBD: at Seton Hall TBD: vs. DePaul TBD: at DePaul
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DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on Apr 8, 2014 6:38:50 GMT -5
I hope that the schedule proves otherwise, but it appears this staff has settled into a confortable pattern of relying on road games and distant tournaments to build RPI and is less effective for the home schedule. At most schools, an attendance drop of 16% would be cause to seriously bolster the home schedule, but it's just as likely that fans will be sold season tickets well before names like Winthrop and South Carolina-Upstate find their way onto a December schedule.
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Post by HoyaSinceBirth on Apr 8, 2014 8:03:57 GMT -5
Some suggestions for teams that might attract casual fans but are still cupcakes (based on this year's RPI excluding teams likely to move into the top 100):
100-150 Oregon St, Penn St, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, American, Texas Tech, Purdue, ND, FGCU
150-200 Georgia Tech, Auburn, George Mason, Temple, Rutgers, Mount St. Mary's
200+ BC, Washington St, Morgan St, James Madison, Virginia Tech, Loyola MD
Here are some posting's on the Basketball travelers who are looking for games that would be good:
Louisiana Tach (RPI 54) looking for 2 games where they're paid to play by a school and a 2 for 1 vs a "BCS" team
Mount St. Mary's is looking to be the guarantee opponent for a regional opponent December 22nd or 23rd would be a good game for us to pick up for over break since they're local.
Penn St is looking for a game on Dec 13th and is "open to all options" I assume meaning home or away.
Boise St(RPI 81) is looking for Home and Home that can start on the road.
St. Bonnaventure (RPI 86) is looking for a H/H starting on the road or a game they're bought on the road.
George Mason is looking for a H/H starting on the road on Dec 23rd.
James Madison is looking to go on the road for a H/H with a team within a 4 hr radius on Dec 6th
USC is looking for a road game vs. A top 50 BCS team for the start of a H/H for the season after next season.
Northern Iowa is looking for a home and home to start on the road.
Mississippi St and New Mexico are both looking for H/H's but don't specify if they need to start at home.
La Salle(RPI 98) is looking for H/H's and is willing to go on the road.
Miami is looking to start a H/H on the road.
Always plenty of options. Hopefully they can deliver.
It's hard to find home games against name opponents that aren't too hard but aren't RPI drags either.
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calhoya
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Post by calhoya on Apr 8, 2014 8:06:28 GMT -5
I hope that the schedule proves otherwise, but it appears this staff has settled into a confortable pattern of relying on road games and distant tournaments to build RPI and is less effective for the home schedule. At most schools, an attendance drop of 16% would be cause to seriously bolster the home schedule, but it's just as likely that fans will be sold season tickets well before names like Winthrop and South Carolina-Upstate find their way onto a December schedule. I agree completely, though it would also help to have games that did not start at 9:00 on weeknights.
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Post by ColumbiaHeightsHoya on Apr 8, 2014 8:18:49 GMT -5
You gotta assume that with the bigger TV deal, we are at the beckon call of Fox for start time stuff. I also don't think that one or two marquee OOC games changes the season ticket holder situation. Those folks can just pay a premium to come to those games without getting the whole package. Season ticket renewals will go up if/when we are a perennial top 15 team and we are challenging for titles. UConn winning four in sixteen years is a shocker with two of those coming in years where they essentially came out of nowhere.
I say we schedule them in a home/home.
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GUJook97
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Post by GUJook97 on Apr 8, 2014 9:42:09 GMT -5
I didnt realize Atlantis was that loaded. That will definitely be one the marquee early season tourneys. Yeah, between that and Kansas, I dont think Id get my hopes up for any other top 100 home games. Would be nice, though.
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CAHoya07
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Post by CAHoya07 on Apr 8, 2014 12:06:28 GMT -5
I didnt realize Atlantis was that loaded. That will definitely be one the marquee early season tourneys. Yeah, between that and Kansas, I dont think Id get my hopes up for any other top 100 home games. Would be nice, though. Same. The fact that we will be hosting Kansas at home is already an improvement and something to rally around. Last season's most well attended home game was the Butler Gray Out game during Winter Basketball Weekend at 13,011 - I imagine we'll be better than that vs. Kansas, no matter what day of the week it's played. I'm not getting my hopes up for much else on the home slate - maybe a decent mid-major or local team (American, George Mason, JMU, maybe even GW, though I doubt it at this point). I'm glad that we're always in one of those marquee early season tournaments. They definitely give us added exposure (Battle 4 Atlantis apparently will be both on ESPN and AXS TV) against some great competition. I suspect we'll hear something about the potential Syracuse series soon. I believe I remember JT3 saying it's not a matter of if they'll be added back to the schedule, but when, and that one thing that could be holding it up is a potential series with another conference (like the Big East/SEC Challenge we used to do). Also, I imagine Syracuse may want to finish up its multi-year series that it has going right now with Villanova and St. John's. But I hope that it happens sooner rather than later - it just makes too much sense to add the Orange to the schedule regularly. JT3 always has a knack of pulling some schedule surprises too (like the Armed Forces Classic vs. Oregon in South Korea last year), so stay tuned.
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hoyaboya
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Post by hoyaboya on Apr 8, 2014 12:26:07 GMT -5
Some suggestions for teams that might attract casual fans but are still cupcakes (based on this year's RPI excluding teams likely to move into the top 100): 100-150 Oregon St, Penn St, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, American, Texas Tech, Purdue, ND, FGCU 150-200 Georgia Tech, Auburn, George Mason, Temple, Rutgers, Mount St. Mary's 200+ BC, Washington St, Morgan St, James Madison, Virginia Tech, Loyola MD Here are some posting's on the Basketball travelers who are looking for games that would be good: Louisiana Tach (RPI 54) looking for 2 games where they're paid to play by a school and a 2 for 1 vs a "BCS" team Mount St. Mary's is looking to be the guarantee opponent for a regional opponent December 22nd or 23rd would be a good game for us to pick up for over break since they're local. Penn St is looking for a game on Dec 13th and is "open to all options" I assume meaning home or away. Boise St(RPI 81) is looking for Home and Home that can start on the road. St. Bonnaventure (RPI 86) is looking for a H/H starting on the road or a game they're bought on the road. George Mason is looking for a H/H starting on the road on Dec 23rd. James Madison is looking to go on the road for a H/H with a team within a 4 hr radius on Dec 6th USC is looking for a road game vs. A top 50 BCS team for the start of a H/H for the season after next season. Northern Iowa is looking for a home and home to start on the road. Mississippi St and New Mexico are both looking for H/H's but don't specify if they need to start at home. La Salle(RPI 98) is looking for H/H's and is willing to go on the road. Miami is looking to start a H/H on the road. Always plenty of options. Hopefully they can deliver. It's hard to find home games against name opponents that aren't too hard but aren't RPI drags either. Great list, thanks for posting it. From this group, the teams I'd give a look if I were the coaching staff are Miami, Penn State and USC. It would be great to have a SoCal game on the schedule for 2015-2016 to help with 2015 West Coast recruits like Chance Comanche. All 3 teams are high major conference programs but very winnable games - meaning at the end of the year, even if they have losing records, Miami, USC and Penn State should still have pretty solid RPIs (125+, most likely top 100).
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skyhoya
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Post by skyhoya on Apr 8, 2014 15:22:45 GMT -5
they better do something to get a better OOC schedule soon, this year was the pitl for season ticket holders. Maryland will be in the BIG this year and all the BIG teams will be happy to satisfy their DMV akum base. We saw what the BE alum base didn't do for attendance this year at the booth. The home schedule was close to a mid-major schedule and wasn't worth the NBA prices to see this year's team. Sometimes, you just have to vote with your wallet.
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hoyabinx
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Post by hoyabinx on Apr 8, 2014 15:51:14 GMT -5
they better do something to get a better OOC schedule soon, this year was the pitl for season ticket holders. Maryland will be in the BIG this year and all the BIG teams will be happy to satisfy their DMV akum base. We saw what the BE alum base didn't do for attendance this year at the booth. The home schedule was close to a mid-major schedule and wasn't worth the NBA prices to see this year's team. Sometimes, you just have to vote with your wallet. I'm confident this year's OOC home schedule will be better than any in recent memory. Remember, last year the conference was formed very late in the game, which probably made it difficult to pick up big home games. With the regular time to prepare, an understanding of what the conference home schedule brings with a year under our belt, and Fox having a vested interest in Big East home games drawing well (and throwing its weight around accordingly), expect some good ones. Remember, the Cuse series is till out there, and we have Kansas at home for sure. I like the idea of scheduling scrubs from the other major conferences. Grab some teams with a big football fan base and crappy basketball team and roll.
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skyhoya
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Post by skyhoya on Apr 8, 2014 17:42:49 GMT -5
they better do something to get a better OOC schedule soon, this year was the pitl for season ticket holders. Maryland will be in the BIG this year and all the BIG teams will be happy to satisfy their DMV akum base. We saw what the BE alum base didn't do for attendance this year at the booth. The home schedule was close to a mid-major schedule and wasn't worth the NBA prices to see this year's team. Sometimes, you just have to vote with your wallet. I'm confident this year's OOC home schedule will be better than any in recent memory. Remember, last year the conference was formed very late in the game, which probably made it difficult to pick up big home games. With the regular time to prepare, an understanding of what the conference home schedule brings with a year under our belt, and Fox having a vested interest in Big East home games drawing well (and throwing its weight around accordingly), expect some good ones. Remember, the Cuse series is till out there, and we have Kansas at home for sure. I like the idea of scheduling scrubs from the other major conferences. Grab some teams with a big football fan base and crappy basketball team and roll. It is time to get real, this is Georgetown, we don 't get good home OOC games without being a part of an ESPN package. I hope you are right, but in the meantime, can I have some of what you are smoking?
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Apr 9, 2014 8:21:25 GMT -5
they better do something to get a better OOC schedule soon, this year was the pitl for season ticket holders. Maryland will be in the BIG this year and all the BIG teams will be happy to satisfy their DMV akum base. We saw what the BE alum base didn't do for attendance this year at the booth. The home schedule was close to a mid-major schedule and wasn't worth the NBA prices to see this year's team. Sometimes, you just have to vote with your wallet. While I agree with you that the home OOC schedule was not great, turn down the hyperbole a bit. 'NBA prices' is a reach - a quick ticketmaster search for the Wizards - Bucks game yields a price of $179.40 for a seat in a comparable location to mine. That's a far cry from my $32 per game season ticket price.
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tashoya
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Post by tashoya on Apr 9, 2014 9:12:30 GMT -5
they better do something to get a better OOC schedule soon, this year was the pitl for season ticket holders. Maryland will be in the BIG this year and all the BIG teams will be happy to satisfy their DMV akum base. We saw what the BE alum base didn't do for attendance this year at the booth. The home schedule was close to a mid-major schedule and wasn't worth the NBA prices to see this year's team. Sometimes, you just have to vote with your wallet. While I agree with you that the home OOC schedule was not great, turn down the hyperbole a bit. 'NBA prices' is a reach - a quick ticketmaster search for the Wizards - Bucks game yields a price of $179.40 for a seat in a comparable location to mine. That's a far cry from my $32 per game season ticket price. Silly Dan. Using facts and all. If you keep paying those "NBA prices" for seats, you won't be able to afford a shelter for when the sky actually falls. I blame the coaching staff for recruiting such crappy fans.
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hoyasaxa2003
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Apr 9, 2014 9:56:14 GMT -5
The best way to improve attendance is the hardest one out there - winning in March and getting less involved fans to actually come out to the games. The fact is that the "core" fans already have season tickets and/or attend a lot of games during the season anyway. Since we have a relatively small student body and alumni base and an NBA sized arena to fill, we cannot possibly hit the high attendance numbers we would like (10,000+) without getting more casual fans to come out to the games. It's true that this can be done in part with a better home schedule, but ultimately, the biggest jolt would come from a postseason run. Hopefully we can do that next year!
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Post by ColumbiaHeightsHoya on Apr 9, 2014 9:59:30 GMT -5
I would be thrilled with one other big conference team at home along with Kansas and then couple that with fun small schools that have regional ties like American, George Mason, GW, Howard, James Madison, Towson, etc. I really would like a curtain for the 400's though for the small early season OOC games. Push everyone down to the 200's and make it feel a bit more occupied. I don't know if that is impossible with season ticket holders or a contract with Verizon that makes that undoable. It couldn't cost too much to do.
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skyhoya
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Post by skyhoya on Apr 9, 2014 10:05:29 GMT -5
While I agree with you that the home OOC schedule was not great, turn down the hyperbole a bit. 'NBA prices' is a reach - a quick ticketmaster search for the Wizards - Bucks game yields a price of $179.40 for a seat in a comparable location to mine. That's a far cry from my $32 per game season ticket price. Silly Dan. Using facts and all. If you keep paying those "NBA prices" for seats, you won't be able to afford a shelter for when the sky actually falls. I blame the coaching staff for recruiting such crappy fans. actually a Wizard 12 game package in your seat is the same price as a season ticket for the HOYAS if you include the $750. required donation. Which is a better buy, 12 Wizards games or 16 HOYAS game? NEITHER, but that's what it is.
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Post by ColumbiaHeightsHoya on Apr 9, 2014 10:23:17 GMT -5
Sky, $750 is a donation to your University. If you didn't go to GTown or don't donate to your school as an alumni (unacceptable in my book), then I can see your point but I would much rather they raise the donation level then the ticket price. If you don't support your University and you only donate to be able to buy the tickets, then yes, you should probably just stubhub the games you want and stop complaining on here.
The people I sit with & around have been the same people for the past fourteen years and I don't expect that to change because we play Penn State or Temple in a home & home.
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Apr 9, 2014 12:13:26 GMT -5
Silly Dan. Using facts and all. If you keep paying those "NBA prices" for seats, you won't be able to afford a shelter for when the sky actually falls. I blame the coaching staff for recruiting such crappy fans. actually a Wizard 12 game package in your seat is the same price as a season ticket for the HOYAS if you include the $750. required donation. Which is a better buy, 12 Wizards games or 16 HOYAS game? NEITHER, but that's what it is. I would donate that money to Georgetown regardless. I choose to support the basketball program with it. That cost increases the price to $78. That's still less than half of $179.40. Value is in the eyes of the beholder. If it's not value to you despite the above, you can certainly decide to take your wallet elsewhere.
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Post by centercourt400s on Apr 9, 2014 14:07:49 GMT -5
Or join us in the center 400 section(s). $20/seat/game and no donation to the university required. (I'm not an alum, just a fan since the 70's, so not contributing to the university doesn't make me feel guilty.) We get great sightlines, sit with the same people every game, and don't have to worry about being injured by t-shirts and parachuting cows falling on us every game.
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skyhoya
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Post by skyhoya on Apr 9, 2014 14:50:56 GMT -5
Or join us in the center 400 section(s). $20/seat/game and no donation to the university required. (I'm not an alum, just a fan since the 70's, so not contributing to the university doesn't make me feel guilty.) We get great sightlines, sit with the same people every game, and don't have to worry about being injured by t-shirts and parachuting cows falling on us every game. I admire you for voting with your wallet. I did the same thing last year and bought a trac chair for a wounded warrior and yes, it was tax deductible.
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