Competitive scheduling from an MVC prospective

The Salukis constantly face challenges putting together a quality schedule. The idea is to ticket up with NCAA tournament caliber teams that you have a chance to beat, and also get a few of those premium match-ups on your home floor. However, getting both of those tasks done can be difficult for any MVC team.

Mid-major teams have to get their RPI up if they want a chance at an at large bid. There are a few ways to do that. The most conventional way to do that is to schedule games against other quality mid-major teams; the Salukis have done that in the past with games vs Western Kentucky, St. Louis, Saint Mary's and others.

The bracketbuster can also help if you are playing well enough to get a good opponent. The Salukis scored a game vs nationally ranked Butler a few years back and got a return game at SIU Arena for the next season. On the flipside if you aren't playing well then you'll get a poor bracketbuster matchup and most likely an undesirable return game the next season.

Another route is taking a "one and done" vs a major conference opponent, playing an away game without getting a return visit. The upside is that major conference teams will often pay schools like SIU for these "one and dones". The Salukis will get $80,000 for their visit to University of Illinois this season.

Paul Suellenthrop of The Wichita Eagle asked RPI guru Jerry Palm about the subject of mid-major scheduling and Palms says to be careful about scheduling road games with no return matchup. "Teams don't grab one of the 34 (now 37) at-large spots by playing the role of road loser."

Later in the article Sullenthrop gets MVC commish Doug Elgin's take who says- "We can't lose sight as a league of the importance of getting NCAA-caliber teams to play in our arenas".

Then in a related blog post, he digs a bit deeper looking at scheduling from a WSU prospepective. Check out the blog for yourself, but here are some interesting notes that also apply to SIU.

-Most of those at-large teams play in tournaments, play high-profile teams at neutral sites, play home-and-homes with BCS schools when possible and play other mid-level opponents.

-When thinking about scheduling, repeat this over and over: Coaches want to win. Road teams lose.

-Bradley coach Jim Les said the MVC-MWC challenge is good deal. However, he said the BCS conferences in challenge series cuts down on the number of those schools willing to go on the road. If Auburn is forced to go to Rutgers, it often isn’t looking for another difficult game.

The Salukis staff did a nice job getting a neutral site game vs Prudue this year. It's a game in which SIU will be a huge underdog but it's hard to complain about getting a high profile game at a neutral site. In addition they'll also get Wright State or Richmond in the same tournament. If the Salukis can go at least 1-1 in these games they'll get media exposure, a higher strength of schedule and an RPI boost.

It's never going to be easy for SIU to put together an at-large bid caliber schedule but I think I would have rather seen the Salukis take a 2 for 1 deal with U of I so they could get the Illini on their home court at least once. Another home and home series with Butler would be nice, but may not be a possibility now with the recent success of the Bulldogs.

Moral of the story- getting quality home games has to be the top priority for Lowery and his staff. Getting more good teams like Butler, WKU, and an occasional major conference team like Indiana to the revamped Arena will be critical for this team to return to a level of prominence.

Summer Saluki Roundup

As the Salukiway project continues to progress, lets take a look around the web at recent Saluki news.

Jason Maholy of the Reporter Online says that Fay, Bocot, and Teague form an impressive trio and predicts that the Valley could be a two or even a three bid league this year.

Big Gene Teague has shed 20 pounds this offseason, and indicates that team chemistry will be improved this season in this WSIL TV video.

Diamond Taylor tells the Bolingbrook Sun that he's ready to make the most of his second chance. He also adds that he's added 12-13 pounds of muscle after redshirting last season (thats the good "freshman 15"). The article doesn't mention this, but due to his transfer date from Wisconsin, I don't think DT will be eligible to play until the first semester is over.

Over at the Southern, Todd Hefferman gives updates on the pro careers of Falker, Shaw, and Mullins.

Last but not least, the folks at salukitalk.com have redesigned their message board. Looks good!

Saluki Hoops coverage for 2010-2011

Welcome back to the Saluki Hoops blog! It's been quite a while since I've posted here but I'm thinking of giving it another shot this season.

Last season, I shipped tidbits of information directly to the twitter feed (which you can still view right here on the blog) but this year I may get things back in full swing with thoughts on the team, interviews, links and other odds and ends.

Everyone knows that the Salukis have extremely passionate and knowledgeable fans. With Carbondale being in a smaller media market sometimes it feels like the Salukis don't get enough exposure to satisfy the rampant fanbase. The basic goal of this blog is to give the Salukis a little bit more coverage and allow fans to ask questions and get Saluki fans the coverage they want.

I realize its been a year and a half since there has been new content here so site traffic is light right now but we've had over 90,000 page views since the site began so I'd like to open it up for suggestions from any readers who subscribe to these posts via the RSS feed, follow on twitter, saw this post on the news feed at salukitalk.com, or otherwise stumbled back across this site.

The question is this- what would you like to see covered on salukihoops.com this year?

The comments section is open, and as I have in the past I'll always answer any reader mail at salukihoops@gmail.com. Let me know what you'd like to see!

Follow Saluki Hoops on Twitter

You can now stay up to date on Saluki Hoops by following our twitter feed. Or for those of you who haven't caught the "twitter mania", thats ok too. Just log onto salukihoops.com and check the update bar at the right hand side of the screen.

Saluki Hoops updates from the MVC Tournament

You can catch all the up to the second updates from the MVC tournament via the salukihoops feed at Twitter.

There's two ways to follow the action, you can follow the salukihoops twitter feed or just visit salukihoops.com and check out the new twitter sidebar that will post all the updates.

Also, don't forget to tune into the post game show on 103.5 FM ESPN radio after every Saluki game. I'll be chatting with host Phil Oskilanec live from the Scottrade center after the SIU/Bradley matchup.