What opponents would you like to see in the non-conference schedule
- Thread starter gocards827
- Start date
Cincinatti, potentially Murray St. (I come from Western KY so that would be a fun one). WVU.
How about what they do in Indiana? We call it a "Commonwealth Classic" instead of a "Crossroads Classic"....play it in Freedom Hall every year. 19,000+ would be a good ticket.
Louisville, Western, Murray State, and Kentucky.
Even Year
Game 1: Kentucky vs. Western Kentucky
Game 2: Louisville vs. Murray State
Odd Year
Game 1: Louisville vs. Western Kentucky
Game 2: Kentucky vs. Murray State
If not that, then would love to play teams in neutral sites like
LSU @ New Orleans
Memphis or Tennessee @ Nashville
Old Big East Rival @ NYC
Home and Homes with...
Cincinnati
Memphis
UCLA
Vanderbilt
Ohio State
Texas
Purdue
All this just off the top of my head...
Louisville, Western, Murray State, and Kentucky.
Even Year
Game 1: Kentucky vs. Western Kentucky
Game 2: Louisville vs. Murray State
Odd Year
Game 1: Louisville vs. Western Kentucky
Game 2: Kentucky vs. Murray State
If not that, then would love to play teams in neutral sites like
LSU @ New Orleans
Memphis or Tennessee @ Nashville
Old Big East Rival @ NYC
Home and Homes with...
Cincinnati
Memphis
UCLA
Vanderbilt
Ohio State
Texas
Purdue
All this just off the top of my head...
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I second having Cincy in there. Just a good old rivalry game along with Memphis State. I'd also like to occasionally see the Cards play Kansas and UCLA in the OOC as we rarely play them.
The best teams who will play here 2-for-1 or without a return game. They're meaningless and all exhibitions before the conference starts. We might as well make as much money as we can, try to save the arena, and keep our ticket prices down...
I would love to see us play UCLA and for us to have the Crum/Wooden trophy just like the governers cup trophy in football.
We need to play more west coast teams in home and home games.
Helps in recruiting and expanding the brand.
Wishful thinking but I honestly wish Jurich would persue it asap.
We need to play more west coast teams in home and home games.
Helps in recruiting and expanding the brand.
Wishful thinking but I honestly wish Jurich would persue it asap.
UC, Marquette, Xavier, Butler, Vandy, to name a few.
A neutral doubleheader in Chicago...
Louisville vs. Marquette
Notre Dame vs. DePaul
Like the home and home with Butler too. Hinkle FH is a cool old building.
The only teams I'm interested in playing OOC are high profile games with traditional programs. UCLA, Kansas, Indiana, maybe Ohio State.
I have no interest in revisiting rivalries with Cincinnati and Memphis State. Those programs left us for dead in the Metro, why should we help them now?
Beyond that, neutral court games in big cities for recruiting. Play in Chicago, Dallas, LA, New York City, but it should be against a team that can draw a crowd. Maybe play Texas in Dallas, Indiana or Kansas in the United Center.
I have no interest in revisiting rivalries with Cincinnati and Memphis State. Those programs left us for dead in the Metro, why should we help them now?
Beyond that, neutral court games in big cities for recruiting. Play in Chicago, Dallas, LA, New York City, but it should be against a team that can draw a crowd. Maybe play Texas in Dallas, Indiana or Kansas in the United Center.
What does that mean- UC and Memphis left us for dead in the Metro? Edit- I recall now. They left the Metro. No biggie, IMO. UofL has left a few conferences.
Football with South Florida (yes because of Charlie), Kansas State (great fans), Cincinatti, Tennessee-puncture that SEC bubble, and get at least 1 other SEC team (that takes football seriously). To be the best you have to play teams that can get you there!
I always like the two Indiana schools and two Kentucky schools:
Indiana vs Kentucky
Louisville vs Purdue
or Kentucky vs ND
Louisville vs IU/Purdue
Indiana vs Kentucky
Louisville vs Purdue
or Kentucky vs ND
Louisville vs IU/Purdue
It probably doesn't matter anymore to a lot of our fans, but it still bothers me. I had to watch us play a bunch of horrible teams year after year in the Metro after Cincinnati and Memphis State left. Younger fans, I'm glad you didn't have to go through that, it was horrible.
I just have no desire to help those 2 teams in any way after they abandoned us. Personal preference no doubt.
for some strange reason us losing to Kansas in late January 1986 wants me to renew that series. i remember we were so close to wining that game and lost at the last second. and they had beaten us at MSG to start the year. that was our 6th loss of the year but i think it bonded the team. we only lost once more to nc state and the rest is history. so Kansas is gets my vote
Cards usedto play UCLA and GT every year in the late 80s
Also like to play UC
Also like to play UC
UCLA and UC
Those two would be enough with our current non-conf schedule, UK, IU (which we should keep), another Big Ten team in the challenge.
Those two would be enough with our current non-conf schedule, UK, IU (which we should keep), another Big Ten team in the challenge.
UAB was good for a while. I'll never forget beating them on their home court in an NCAA regional finals. That was a brutal game too.
Stick it to UC and play Xavier instead. Though I doubt Rick would want to do that to Mick.
Playing in the ACC and needing all the revenue we can, there is no reason to schedule quality OOC games on a return basis that are not part of some type of tournament, competition, showcase, etc. Zero rationale from U of L's standpoint.
We can hope and wish all we want as fans...
We can hope and wish all we want as fans...
That's a valid point. The ACC schedule is going to be brutal, so the OOC schedule isn't going to be any more difficult in any year than it has to be. This year it was pretty good. Playing Baylor, IU, Purdue, Wichita State, and UofK out of conference along with the cupcakes is about as good as it's going to get.
when i learned we were moving to the ACC i was excited to renew the georgia tech series.
to expand on zipp, he's right but i also like lpt's practice of having games on neutral site big stadium venues that are more akin to final four settings. gets the kids used to shooting in the big stadiums instead of college arenas. so in that sense the opponent doesn;t matter but finding places to get the final four feel i think is good.
Unfortunately, you can't compare our scheduling situation to LPT's. We're at opposite ends of the spectrum. They need every good OOC opponent they can schedule because their conference sucks out loud.
We don't have the luxury of risking a loss simply to give our guys the opportunity to "shoot in a big stadium". Or for any other reason that isn't money-related directly. Our conference schedule is ridiculous, and those OOC games way back in 2016 are a distant memory at this point. Really no need to be playing most of them against Top 25 opponents and anywhere but downtown Louisville...
Zipp makes a great point, but we could opt out of going to Atlantis or Hawaii and play in one of those stadium type tournaments instead. The issue with that though is losing a good recruiting pitch. Telling a youngster they'll get to see places a lot of people only dream about seeing is appealing.
I enjoy the conference schedule a great deal. This year, I've enjoyed the schedule as a whole. It's been the perfect balance of really good competition and cupcake games for the team.
I enjoy the conference schedule a great deal. This year, I've enjoyed the schedule as a whole. It's been the perfect balance of really good competition and cupcake games for the team.
We need the early cupcake games to gel, but our conference is brutal. No Pitino speak needed.
Now playing a stadium game can be accomplished with our schedule like we played indiana in the fieldhouse and have played them in the garden in the past.
Maybe add a kansas or a ucla as I suggested and call it the crum/ wooden cup and make a trophy like we have for the rivaly against uk.
Our schedule does not need much tweeking, but could use some west coast flavor. Grand canyon was a nice trip.
just for shiggles, i wouldn't mind home and home's with Gonzaga, Butler, UCLA, IU, KU, Michigan, UConn, or Michigan State. No need to play any of these games but Denny Crum used to go out and play everyone everywhere and it seemed to have some success. sometimes it's best to get beat by a better team than blowout a lesser one. not always but sometimes
All true about Denny but he took it to the extreme. He would play anyone anywhere, and anytime. I remember the team actually playing back to back road games over one weekend when Denny was coaching (or maybe I dreamed it). Just imagine if he had scheduled easier out of conference games instead of playing the tough games all the time. He would have won a lot more than 675 games. He could have won over 800 had he scheduled like Jim Boeheim did during the same time frame.
A few other points...
I don't know if the rule is still this way, but the early season mini-tourneys like Atlantis used to be "exempt" games--as a group, they only counted as one game. If that's still true, each participant gets to play a couple of games that don't count against their schedule limit. The coaches regard that as a great opportunity to play more and improve. It's why we will continue to play in those tourneys even if there's no big financial payback.
If Pitino wants badly enough to "shoot in a stadium", we can book Lucas Oil ourselves for a one-off game like Indiana State or Ball State. The rent will be ridiculous, and the crowd will be light. But we can take any of our home games somewhere else to play. I just don't think he cares enough to do that.
Also, Denny Crum coached in CUSA and the Metro Conference. He had Pitino Lite's and LPT's situation as far as scheduling...
I don't know if the rule is still this way, but the early season mini-tourneys like Atlantis used to be "exempt" games--as a group, they only counted as one game. If that's still true, each participant gets to play a couple of games that don't count against their schedule limit. The coaches regard that as a great opportunity to play more and improve. It's why we will continue to play in those tourneys even if there's no big financial payback.
If Pitino wants badly enough to "shoot in a stadium", we can book Lucas Oil ourselves for a one-off game like Indiana State or Ball State. The rent will be ridiculous, and the crowd will be light. But we can take any of our home games somewhere else to play. I just don't think he cares enough to do that.
Also, Denny Crum coached in CUSA and the Metro Conference. He had Pitino Lite's and LPT's situation as far as scheduling...
True. We played watered down teams like Memphis State, DePaul, Cincinnati, Marquette, Houston, St. Louis, and Tulane in conference. Terrible conference for sure. (Sarcasm button initiated)
Had Denny played easier out of conference games, he would have won over 800 games. I'm convinced of that.
Denny's head coaching career spanned almost four decades, and those teams didn't all have their runs at the same time...True. We played watered down teams like Memphis State, DePaul, Cincinnati, Marquette, Houston, St. Louis, and Tulane in conference. Terrible conference for sure. (Sarcasm button initiated)
Marquette averaged over a dozen losses annually for two decades (1980-2001).
DePaul averaged 13 losses annually after Ray Meyer retired.
Memphis State averaged almost 13 losses after Dana Kirk retired and while Denny was coaching.
Houston averaged more than 14 losses after Guy Lewis retired in 1986 and has not recovered much.
Those are just four of the teams I checked. Like I said, if those are the best teams, it's no comparison to our conference schedules today...
Never meant for it to sound like it did. I'm just saying those teams weren't terrible all the time, and we had some epic battles throughout the years while in the Metro (FSU, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, Memphis State, Cincinnati among others), and CUSA which also had some great years. The competition back then was better than what the SEC has today from top to bottom. That's for sure. Add the fact coach Crum would play THE toughest out of conference schedule he could possibly play, it stands to reason he would have won a whole lot more games had he watered down the OOC schedule some. He wouldn't. He didn't. He never would. It was out of the question, and he STILL won 675 games in 30 years. That's why he's in the HOF.
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