2K Classic field set for MSG in New York on Nov. 16-17
Just announced this morning that we'll be taking part in the 2K Classic at Madison Square Garden in November. Joining the Hokies will be Providence, Washington, Saint Louis, Belmont, Detroit Mercy, Houston Baptist, and Seattle. As part of the Classic, the Hokies will host two regional games in Cassell before heading north and playing in New York on November 16th and 17th.
Looks like a pretty good opportunity for us to get in some winnable games against some not terrible RPI opponents, and I believe these games are all broadcast on ESPN, so it should provide a little early season hype for the program. And before you ask, I didn't make that headline up about us highlighting the field... That's actually how ESPN describes it on their link on their main basketball page.
For clarity, I have been trying to read up on how this event works, and it seems to be as follows:
VT, Providence, Washington, and Saint Louis will each play host to two of Belmont, Detroit Mercy, Houston Baptist, and Seattle. After those games are over, VT, Providence, Washington, and Saint Louis will move on to play at MSG on Thursday, November 16th and Friday, November 17th in a 4 team tournament while Belmont hosts the others in their own "sub-regional" tournament. At the very least we should get 2 quality opponents out of the games in MSG alone. Could be a pretty fun weekend if you can plan for it.
Comments
I may have to catch a game in Cassell with my high school buddy who went to Belmont if we get them on the home draw.
for comparison purposes, this years current RPI
UDub: 204
Providence: 52
Saint Louis: 243
Belmont: 62
Detroit: 289
Houston Baptist: 157
Seattle: 269
So hope we play Belmont at home and Providence in MSG. UDub is bringing in one-and-done Michael Porter Jr, but they've got Fultz this year and Romar still has them stinking.
Best case is Belmont and Houston-Baptist at home, UDub in the quarterfinals and Providence in the finals.
Just for comparison purposes, if we just scheduled 4 games against Virginia competition, we could maybe get 4 of these:
VCU (23), Richmond (85), Mason (109), W&M (113), ODU (127), Liberty (167), Radford (227), JMU (252)
Do.not.schedule.VMI.who.has.a.RPI.of.328. Don't do it. That's how you get RPI death. (Or Longwood, who is at 341 currently)
You'd have to think Saint Louis will be better with another year behind Travis Ford. They were atrocious, in what's generally a real competitive A-10
Your spot on with Washington & Romar though - Fultz is a consensus top 3 pick and the Huskies were terrible even when he was playing.
I forgot Romar used to be at Saint Louis after Spoonhour. Romar has been at UDub since 2002 (!)
Saint Louis was 11-21 in two straight seasons under Crews, now the first season under Ford will be bad as well. I expect they will be better, but probably not top 150 RPI better. At best, they are an RPI neutral game.
He's gotta be on his way out, no? I dont think they have been in the tourney since Isaiah Thomas mini.
If they flop with the incoming Porter clan, that's gotta be it.
I can't imagine they fire him with Porter coming in.
I can't imagine he's still employed there if they don't make the tournament with Porter.
He's got one more year.
the situation you just described was effectively where we were after year 1 of buzz. i looked up st louis' team this year and their recruiting; they return their top scorer and their #2 scorer, who only played in 9 games this year. they also have a top 50 recruit coming. they very well could be a top 150 RPI team and all we need them to be is better than 200, depending on the rest of our ooc slate
I feel obligated to confirm what you are saying about SLU. Yes, they will be better under Travis Ford. They're already recruiting better. Bringing in some good local talent over the next few years, including a 6-9 PF with a 247 composite score of .9902 in the class of 2018. In 2017's class there is a 4* and 3*. Ford is building something. I hope he sticks around here. It's fun when SLU is playing well.
All my UMASS friends are hoping for a quick exit from the A-10 tourney so that they can fire Derek Kellogg. A few want Ford to return.
I dont know if you have ever been to Amherst, Massachusett.. but it's not a very appealing place. I have never been to St. Louis, but common logic tells me the quality of life is probably better in a big city. You think there is any chance he makes a lateral A-10 move?
I don't think you'll ever see VMI on the schedule again while Buzz is here based on his post-game comments after that game this year. He put it bluntly "we don't have any business playing teams like this anymore". I actually don't believe we'll be seeing any teams with an RPI that high anymore, unless we're forced to play them in a preseason tournament.
That's true, he did say that, or was it The Citadel? Maybe he said it about both, but I remembered him referring to The Citadel's Loyola Marymount style and how that doesn't prepare us for anything we see in competitive games.
But we all thought Buzz wouldn't put us in this scheduling issue this season and we still have 6 wins >275RPI where much of our competition has 0 to 3.
I get the feeling that scheduling got away from us a bit last year, and maybe we were expecting to be included in an event that didn't materialize, forcing us to grab up whatever teams we could schedule to round out the OOC slate.
Either way, I would expect us to be far more proactive about this all this year,
Aren't you only allowed to participate in 1 tournament? If so, I don't know how that would have been the case.
It was the Citadel game. I remember when I heard Buzz's comment I almost spit out my beer, it caught me so off guard.
The Citadel coach is the old VMI coach, so that's why they are so familiar. He took that style to the Citadel with him.
And get zero national recognition in the process. I'd take VCU and then one of the CAA guys at home in December and be done with them. We really don't need these games. Plus, who knows what teams will have next season and what their RPI will be.
Schedule winnable/lock games at home, just not too many cupcakes, beat your Big 10 opponent, and put in a good showing at your national tournament and you're fine.
But you get more attractive home games for fans and may be televised regionally because of the matchup with a big school enrollment/alumni wise (ODU, GMU, JMU). Plus the better we get the more broadcasts we're going to get just on being good. In-state schools and competitive schools with name recognition will be more desirable to televise than Maine.
And may get a bad loss or two that will keep you out of the tournament. Wake did exactly what this board has been asking. Good OOC schedule, and still needed a win over us and Louisville in the last two games to sneak in the tournament. Beat us again and they're in for sure, but if not, they'll sweat out a bubble night.
It's about beating our ACC foes and one or two quality wins OOC. That's it. The rest doesn't matter if you win and avoid bad loses.
Fundamentally, yes
But it is also pretty easy to schedule the right cupcakes. Anyone over 200 rpi is a danger to fire their coach or they have a new one.
play bad teams, don't play awful teams.
Also worth noting that, barring any sanctions that deem teams ineligible to participate, we're going to be matched up with Iowa in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge next year.
You know, unless their coaches are able to find a clause to allow them to get into another matchup
Are the B10/ACC matchups already determined? I haven't seen that announced.
I was of the understanding that it was generally the previous years standings that determined the matchups but because of the alternating home/away goal for each time and not repeating previous year matchups, it usually takes a while for the actual matchups to be announced.
Iowa is probably a pretty good guess though. They tied with Mich St, NW and Michigan. MSU will probably be in a more premeire opponent (Syracuse?). We played Michigan last year. It seems like Iowa or NW would make sense, teams we seem to play often in the B10/ACC.
I mean, we're both 7th, and I figured they would seed by that.
That being said, if not Iowa, the teams around them in the standings are Michigan and Michigan State. I would suspect they wouldn't match us with Michigan again, so if not Iowa, then possibly Michigan State?
They like to match up the TV draws.
So Mich St, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan often get Duke, UNC, Louisville and Syracuse.
B10 teams scheduled to be on the road next year: NW, Penn St, UMD, Wisky, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana. Of that list, I would guess NW and Illinois make the most sense for VT. We played NW two years ago, so Illinois? Current RPI 57.
It would be great to get Wisky or Indiana.
here's a guess for the full rundown:
ND@Minney
FSU@Purdue
Wisky@UNC
Lville@MSU
NW@GT
UVA@Iowa
Illinois@VT
UMD@Wake
PSU@Pitt
Michigan@Syracuse
Miami@Nebraska
Duke@Ohio St
Indiana@NCSU
Clemson@Rutgers
This is really hard!
What a bunch of oranges.