Re: 2018 Offseason Thread

[Geezaldinho]

The way I see it is the P5’s are just as vulnerable, if not more so than the mid majors.

Why would a top tier coach go after a player from a small conference when he can poach a star in a tougher conference?


And just because you are a star in the WCC it doesn’t mean you will do Anything but pick bench splinters out of your butt in the ACC. Meanwhile, he ACC player who isn’t getting time can fill out a mid major roster and actually play.

Besides, everybody knows how academically rigorous schools like, say UNC are for athletes. Could players  possibly keep up the load?

[dholcombe]

142.xyz days until November 9th.

[DoubleDipper]

142.xyz days until November 9th.

Haha, yeah and if your math is correct, only 139 days until November 6th when UP opens up at home against Darwin Cook and his University of Antelope Valley team.

On November 9th, 10th, and 12th the Pilots will be playing in Honolulu.

The rules changed this year to allow teams to get started a bit earlier so they could more easily avoid playing a game or two during the holidays.

[dholcombe]

I guess I haven't been paying close enough attention to scheduling this year. 138 days and change to go I guess.

[DoubleDipper]

Japanese national team roster for their upcoming game against Australia on June 29 was announced yesterday. Gonzaga and Japanese superstar Rui Hachimura made the list. Hugh Hogland unfortunately did not join him. Based on the few information from the twitters it sounds like UP wouldn't give him some time off from summer school to participate in this game, nor the FIBA-sponsored William Jones Cup that happened earlier this month with the B team.

I don't know if Hugh is attending the first summer school session that ends this Friday, but I'm sure he's expected to attend the second session beginning June 25, and also participate in organized team workouts that will start shortly thereafter.

I was wrong!

Apparently Hugh did attend the first summer school session and is not attending the second session. He will instead be at home and playing in the Hawaii Development League, a five-game summer season, before heading back to the Bluff for workouts.

https://www.khon2.com/sports/local-sports/rainbow-warriors-will-play-in-inaugural-season-of-hd-league/1252541060

[DoubleDipper]

Outrigger Rainbow Classic (in Hawaii)
Hawaii
North Texas
TBD

For those traveling to the 3-game Rainbow Classic in Honolulu, the Hawaii head coach has confirmed the games will be played on Friday 11/9, Saturday 11/10, and Monday 11/12.  There will be no games on Veterans Day, Sunday 11/11.

The Friday games will likely be at 4:30 and 7:00, the Saturday games at 2:30 and 5:00, and the Monday games at 4:30 and 7:00.

Still to be determined is the 4th participant (apparently a team dropped out), in addition to UP, North Texas, and Hawaii.

The Outrigger Rainbow Classic field is complete, UP, North Texas, Hawaii, and Arkansas Pine Bluff.  

Still no word on the order in which UP will play the three opponents.

[DoubleDipper]

142.xyz days until November 9th.

Haha, yeah and if your math is correct, only 139 days until November 6th when UP opens up at home against Darwin Cook and his University of Antelope Valley team.

Change/Update!!

It looks like UP will open it's preseason schedule much earlier than first announced...
10/20 Purple/White Scrimmage
10/27 Antelope Valley (exhibition)
10/29 Westmont College (exhibition)
11/6 Multnomah University
11/9, 11/10, 11/12 @ Rainbow Classic

I haven't confirmed this new start to the season, but like last season, exhibition games can be played earlier than the counting/regular preseason games that begin on November 6th.

[NoPoNeighbor]

I hate to see the Pilots open their regular season against an NAIA Division II opponent. I hate to see this game played in the regular season at all, but in particular, what an uninspiring way to start the season.

[DoubleDipper]

I hate to see the Pilots open their regular season against an NAIA Division II opponent. I hate to see this game played in the regular season at all, but in particular, what an uninspiring way to start the season.

Yeah, when I posted that the Pilots were opening with Multnomah I knew it would get you back on the board.  

Last year UP opened against PSU, and we all know how the inexperienced Pilots finished that one, and now with nine new players eligible to play, I believe the staff wanted to take it a little slower before heading to Honolulu to face at least two very tough D1 opponents.

From what I can determine, UP will play 32 games before Las Vegas this year, two of which will probably be non-D1 opponents.

In the past a “normal” schedule consisted of 28 games, but as UP will be playing in a Multi-Team Event (MTE) in the Chiles Center at Thanksgiving, the 4 games associated with the MTE count as only 1 towards the team’s total games. As a part of the MTE, UP will play games on 11/21, 23, 24, and under the terms of an MTE, the Pilots must play a 4th game within 14 days of the MTE, and I’m guessing that game will be against a non-D1 opponent. Last season UP played OIT as the 4th game after playing 3 games in the PK80 MTE. (MTEs will be required of each WCC team starting with the 2019-20 season).

If you’re checking my math, that comes 31 games, but as one of the Pilots’ 3 games in Honolulu is against Hawaii, that game is also “free,” as teams that play Hawaii in Hawaii are exempted by the NCAA from counting that game against its total number of games as an incentive to travel all those miles and not be able to lie in the sun or sip drinks with umbrellas in them.

[DoubleDipper]

Worth sharing: it's a ranking of D1 schools by basketball budgets based on those Department of Education numbers.
https://www.facebook.com/enthusiadams/posts/2033130316961851

This article includes tabs that list conference comparisons and conference averages.

https://www.midmajormadness.com/2018/6/11/17441968/ncaa-revenue-expense-statistics-college-basketball-2016-gonzaga-mid-major

In the article you’ll notice that UP, the spender of $3,184,946 is 8th in that category in the WCC (Gonzaga spent $8,874,752). (As an aside, after Rev arrived at Georgia Tech he remarked on how nice the facilities there are, but also how many more support staff and and study facilities they have, but that stands to reason because according to the report, Tech spent close to $6 million more than UP on its program in 2016...9th most in the ACC).

UP is 123rd in the nation in spending (Duke spent $19,507,686).

And with an average of $4,354,816 per school, the WCC is on average the 9th highest spender of the 32 conferences (the ACC averages $10,165,847 per team).

[DoubleDipper]

As a part of the MTE, UP will play games on 11/21, 23, 24.

It looks like after playing 3 games in Hawaii on 11/9, 11/10, and 11/12, the Pilots will head to California to play Cal State Northridge on 11/17 before finally playing D1 opponents in the Chiles Center.  

As part of the Thanksgiving MTE, UP will play South Carolina Upstate on 11/21, Cal Poly on 11/23, and Texas State on 11/24, before heading off to Boulder to play Colorado on 11/28....I believe the Buffaloes are UP's only high major opponent this year until the postseason.

The schedule is speculation on my part, but after listening to a podcast and reading a couple of blogs and forums, I'm confident it's accurate.

[NoPoNeighbor]

I believe the Buffaloes are UP's only high major opponent this year...

Gonzaga and the conference office won't be happy about that. Isn't everyone in the WCC supposed to be putting together a more challenging non-conference schedule now? Then again, maybe we get a pass since GU and SMC don't have to play us twice this year, so we won't drag down their RPIs quite as much.

[Dean Murdoch]

No, no, we’re supposed to be sacrificing our own RPI for the sake of the top of the league. More wins over bad D1 teams = bad for our RPI, good for Gonzaga’s.

Honestly I’ve got no issues with only playing one high major with the amount of new players coming in this year. Hopefully it’ll be a different story in 2019!

[ExpatPilot]

I feel that the new rules probably went into place too late for significant changes to be made to the schedule for this upcoming season. Maybe the following year’s schedule will be different. Sometimes contracts are signed to play games years in advance.

[DoubleDipper]

I feel that the new rules probably went into place too late for significant changes to be made to the schedule for this upcoming season. Maybe the following year’s schedule will be different. Sometimes contracts are signed to play games years in advance.

Except for this year's WCC schedule, none of the other guidelines go into effect until the 2019-20 season.

I expect you'll give us scouting report on USC Upstate by Thanksgiving...

[Guest]

As part of the Thanksgiving MTE, UP will play South Carolina Upstate on 11/21

I've heard of directional schools, but they're usually east, west. etc., not up or down.

[Geezaldinho]

I've heard of directional schools, but they're usually east, west. etc., not up or down.

Not as weird as Eastern West Virginia.


There’s a whole slew of Centrals.


The State University of New York Health and Medical school  has Upstate (Syracuse) and Downstate (Brooklyn) campuses.

And the Iowa system has an Upper Iowa in Fayette. No lower that I know of.

But there is a Lower Columbia College  in Longview.

And a Lower Chicago.


Let’s not forget that Stanford is a Junior University

[Dean Murdoch]

And the Iowa system has an Upper Iowa in Fayette. No lower that I know of.

The Peacocks! They came into the Northern Sun conference while my wife was still playing volleyball. Think she smashed them around pretty good

(Also, I think there's an Upper Canada College AND a Lower Canada College)

[DoubleDipper]

Let’s not forget that Stanford is a Junior University

Really just Junior's farm in Palo Alto…

[Geezaldinho]

(Also, I think there's an Upper Canada College AND a Lower Canada College)

....and a Canada college in California, (Cañada, actually) But it must bug our neighbors to the North that they own the Canadacollege.edu URL.

Probably as much as it bugs the Cal system that California University of PA owns the CalU.edu URL.

[DoubleDipper]

....and a Canada college in California, (Cañada, actually) But it must bug our neighbors to the North that they own the Canadacollege.edu URL.

Earned 2015 Nor Cal Freshman of the Year honors after leading the Cañada College to a 24-7 record and an appearance in the CCCAA state semifinals… averaged 15.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game while reaching double figures 26 times and scoring 20 or more points in eight games… shot 47.2 percent from the field and 35.6 percent from three-point range, eearned All-CCCAA First Team honors and was named to the All-Tournament Team during Cañada's run to the state semifinals.

[Geezaldinho]

...and you thought I wasn’t staying on the thread topic.


Does École de technologie supérieure count as an upper/lower school?

How about Baja California?

[ExpatPilot]

Except for this year's WCC schedule, none of the other guidelines go into effect until the 2019-20 season.

I expect you'll give us scouting report on USC Upstate by Thanksgiving...

1. Forgot about that timeline.

2. USC Upstate is a university that is housed in the University of South Carolina system, which is why it is USC Upstate. It is located in... Spartanburg? Spartanburg is home to Wofford College, a BMW factory, and Denny's Restaurants. USC Upstate moved from the A-Sun to the Big South recently. They are the Spartans, which makes sense because they are located in Spartanburg, I guess. They have a basketball team that plays games sometimes and then doesn't play games during the offseason. I guess that's normal. That's about all I've got.

I've heard of directional schools, but they're usually east, west. etc., not up or down.

3. For simplicity's sake in South Carolina there are three major regions: Upstate, Midlands, and Lowcountry. There's other areas like the Pee Dee and Grand Strand, but I will keep it simple. It's easier to refer to things as upstate and downstate since "Northern South Carolina" is kind of confusing. Also, with Interstate 26 being the major thoroughfare connecting the Greenville-Spartanburg, Columbia, and Charleston areas, it is an East-West highway that runs slightly more North-South in a way (everything here is Northwest to Southeast). I guess that upstate just makes a lot more sense to people here. Honestly, it's weird to think that Charlotte is directly north of me and Atlanta is directly West.

[Dean Murdoch]

....and a Canada college in California, (Cañada, actually) But it must bug our neighbors to the North that they own the Canadacollege.edu URL.

Fun fact, .edu domains are only for American schools. We just use .ca addresses for our schools here so Canada College can have it without causing yet another international incident between our two fine countries!

[NoPoNeighbor]

After strong arming the WCC to create an unbalanced schedule in order to avoid playing two RPI-drag games against weak conference opponents, Gonzaga has announced the opponents it will be playing this year instead of our Pilots and Pepperdine: North Dakota Stake, CSU Bakersfield, and North Alabama.