12-31-2012, 02:09 PM
|
#33
|
|
Rookie
|
Re: Hoops Dynasty: Career of Hooper15c
Livingstone Season 2 Preview
Looking over the roster, it’s safe to say I feel much more confident about our team’s make-up from top to bottom than I was last season. Of course we don’t have that all-around scorer that we lost in Goss, but hopefully collectively we’re able to pick up the slack that is left and pick up where we left off at the end of last season.
It wouldn’t take much time or effort to point out the biggest glaring problem last year was the non-conference schedule, where we went an appalling 2-9 against a not overly daunting schedule. So it makes sense to begin by looking at that part of the schedule for this upcoming season. I scheduled what I thought would be a top 50 SOS nonconference schedule this year for 2 reasons: 1) if we’re going to strive to be one of the better teams, we need to constantly challenge ourselves and measure ourselves against teams that have consistently been near the top and 2) even if we got 5-5 or so against much better competition it will benefit us in our bid for a national tournament trip much more so than going 9-1 against creampuff teams. Nothing shows off this step up in schedule difficulty than to see that we start the season off against back-to-back top 25 opponents, both on the road (#25 Henderson St and #4 Alabama, Huntsville). Our only other non-conference matchup against a preseason top 25 team is in our 9th game when we welcome #3 Alderson-Broaddus to campus. There is one major team on the schedule that didn’t make it onto the preseason top 25 that bears mentioning anyway… CSU, Bakersfield whom are the defending national champions will be our 4th game of the season.
Here is how the schedule looks…
@ #25 Henderson St (2 Straight NT trips, lost in 2nd round last season)
@ #4 Alabama, Huntsville (8 straight until last season’s PIT Championship)
Grand Canyon (0 trips in past 5 seasons, but won National Title 6 seasons ago)
@ CSU, Bakersfield (10 straight NT trips, defending National Champs)
California, Davis (16 straight, including 1 National Title, Sweet 16 last season)
@ S. Indiana (6 straight NT trips until last season’s PIT trip)
Minnesota, Crookston (3 straight NT trips, 1st round last season)
@ Anderson (2 straight NT, 1st round last season)
#3 Alderson-Broaddus (11 straight NT trips, 1st round last season)
N. Colorado (Have made 12 straight NT trips, 2nd round last season)
Realistically, with our team starting 3 sophomores, a junior, and a senior I think it’s realistic to shoot for a 5-5 nonconference record. Just looking at the rosters for all the teams it looks like we should be able to get wins against Grand Canyon, S. Indiana, Minnesota, Crookston, and Anderson so the trick is going to be finding that 5th win in one of those other matchups. It’s been awhile since I’ve found myself in this position, but just guessing how it will all play out should leave us with an RPI in the 50’s as we go into conference play. I plan to try to ramp up the difficulty of schedule for next season as well because I’m expecting big things from that last group of freshmen as they become juniors and into their senior years.
That takes us into our conference schedule and there is one team that made the preseason top 25 rankings and you’ll be surprised to find out who it is… N. Carolina Central comes into the season as the #20 team. Their coach just left them this offseason so they are now a Sim AI team and their reign as a top 25 team won’t be a long-lived one as historically Simmy recruits poorly compared to human coaches. Other notable happenings around the conference during the offseason is that Virginia St produced a top 15 recruiting class and should be an even bigger thorn in my side as our careers play out in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
Here is a look at the conference portion of the schedule…
Elizabeth City St
OFF DAY
@ Johnson C. Smith
Virginia Union
@ Bowie St
@ Fayetteville St
#20 N. Carolina Central
Winston-Salem St
@ Elizabeth City St
@ Virginia St
OFF DAY
Bowie St
Fayetteville St
@ #20 N. Carolina Central
St. Augustine’s
@ Shaw
@ St. Paul’s
Johnson C. Smith
As far as that stretch of games goes, I’d expect similar success as we had last season. As I’ve tried to lay out, my main goal with this season is to setup the team so that even if we get upset in the conference tournament, we’re still poised to get an at-large bid to the national tournament. I realize it may be a bit ambitious given we’re such a young team, but I hope I’m not being too ambitious and setting myself up for disappointment this season.
Exhibition games start today and hopefully give us some idea how the team is going to perform and where the scoring is going to come from outside of Davies and Tatum. It should also be noted that Robert Teran accepted the redshirt this morning and should be quite serviceable as a big man as a RS FR next season, likely backing up Gross at PF.
|
|
|
