Scheduling

What are your thoughts on our pre-season schedule this year?

It obviously was a tough schedule, with few "cupcakes"... we will certainly be battle-tested, with mixed results, heading into WCC play.

Do you like scheduling this way? Or would we have been better off to schedule a couple "lighter" games? Oregon and NV were parts of a series, and I am not sure it was anticipated that Idaho would be as good as they are. Denver is solid, and Seattle is no cake-walk, and the turn-around from Anaheim to PSU was a bit tight.

I am generally a fan of scheduling up, playing tough games. But it would have been nice to have a "lighter" game in early December... (I suppose PSU was that game... )

I do like how our WCC schedule is panning out... starting out at home vs. GU, and then February could be great for us... after playing @GU, we have USD & SMC at home, @Pepp, @LMU, USF and SCU at home. Those last 6 games are a great chance for a nice streak going into Vegas... and heck, even 7 with a W in Spokane... it seems like recent years have had our WCC schedule front loaded with home games--this year we are back loaded.

I am just rambling at this point... thoughts?

I really liked our scheduling this year. In the end, we lost a few games that we shouldn't have, however, our RPI is #66 right now. We still are in position to finish the season with a top 64 RPI going into WCC play:

http://www.realtimerpi.com/rpi_Men.html

You really can't ask for much more than that. Unfortunately, we aren't a good road team right now, and if we had played worse teams on the road, we might have more embarrassing losses. Regardless of who we play, we have to improve on the road. I hope we play a pre-season tourney with heavy hitters every year now.

I agree that a high level tournament every year would be great... not likely, however...

Interesting, looking at the RPI's that you posted... look at USD's SOS (#14)! Pepp's RPI is 335 out of 347; ouch.

RPI	West Coast	Conf	All	RPI	SOS Rank	SOS
23	SMC	0-0	10-2	0.6288	48	0.5625
38	GU	0-0	8-3	0.6012	44	0.5646
66	UP	0-0	7-5	0.5715	37	0.5687
112	USD	0-0	4-8	0.5382	14	0.6026
184	LMU	0-0	6-7	0.4880	189	0.4915
195	SCU	0-0	5-6	0.4827	200	0.4857
228	USF	0-0	3-10	0.4611	62	0.5509
335	Pepp	0-0	3-9	0.3640	332	0.4131

I'm still of the opinion that we need a preseason "unofficial" scrimmage like BOTH the Zags and St Mary's has. This playing these tiny D-2 and NAIA schools ONLY has got to stop. Somebody at the Athletic Dept has to get their act together in that area. (And work with the coaches to formulate better that d-2 preseason oppostion).

Sometimes when I see the AD cripple Rev with poor tuneups like this. Then I look at similar WAC ,Mountain West , WCC basketball programs who do better(recruiting,scheduling) I wonder why Williams gets paid the mega salary that he does.I understand he came from Notre Dame and you guys mostly curtailed your educations to parochial and Catholic institutions so he's like a God straight from Rome to many. But , what has he done???? The Soccer and X-country teams were already dominate long, long before he got here... I guess he could have just been safe and instead of killing us with more of Holton's he ate his contract which propably raised a few eyebrows, I'll give him some big time credit for that. But , when you hire a up and comming young coach it's time to step up your own game--I am not to sure he thought Rev would become this popular,sucessful, this quick and people kinda say oh yeah Larry who?. Its time to give Rev all the LONG term contract with raise, loosen the pursestrings and hang on for the ride like the soccer and cross-country teams are providing YOU!!! (I don't wonder if a little learning seminar from some of his more sucessful peers at Arizona, Kansas, Duke, Gonzaga AD's would do Williams a whole lot of good with his continuing education?)

I know I'll be calling for his "head on a platter" if he lets Rev go to another school , and we go back to the "weak" status quo coach's since Avina. I count 3 decisions Holton out- Rev in,Locker Room upgrade,More Pub-Posters, Billboards, made by the AD that were favorable, anybody know anything else?????????????????????????????????????????? I would like to hear a few positives after a tough loss, and your not going to get them from me,lol.You guys are so nice and probably don't want to get into it but Rev's contract is coming up...... , I'll just leave it at a rhetorical question.

See you chaps in a couple of weeks, I hope to meet MikeMac this year if your at the Chiles Center



MesaPilot1

Larry Williams (and University President Fr. Beauchamp needs to be included here, too, as he has stepped up on these items as well) has done several things during his tenure, aside from buying out Holton and hiring Rev.

He developed the new logo. I know that not everyone liked it at first, but it was WAAAY overdue, and they did a good job with it. The previous logo wasnt even trademarked... UP now can control it's use (and when the hoops team makes the NCAA tourney, profit from the $ale of more merchandi$e). This was also a large investment in new uniforms, signage, apparel, etc. for all teams and facilities.

Renovated Chiles Center. Not only the locker room expansion, etc... but the complete re-do of the lobby, painting the interior, new trophy cases, etc. I cant discuss it yet, but there will be another large improvement for next season, that we will all very much enjoy. I also have to think that a new/expanded basketball locker room is not far off.

Renovated Merlo Field. New bathrooms, concourse, etc.

Pilot Club. Membership in the Pilot Club has skyrocketed in the past could years (thus the move from the HOF room to the Chiles Mezzanine at halftime).

TV/Media exposure. Remember 2 seasons ago when GU thought that they should come in and use their broadcast team in out gym? No way. Rev has developed the contract with Comcast SportsNet as UP's broadcast partner. General

Williams has also significantly increased the salaries of the Men's Basketball Assistant Coaches... think about it; we have had the same staff since Rev started--this is no small or cheap accomplishment.

New indoor batting facility for baseball.

Academics. Williams has provided excellent academic support for all student athletes.

I think the best thing LW has done is bring a focus to basketball that was not there previously. LW and Fr. Beauchamp are committed to success, and continue to show that they will back it up financially and ideologically... I have no doubts that they will step up and do whatever they can to keep Rev around.

Williams is doing an excellent job with the relative resources available... I hope that we can keep him around as well as Rev...

PilotNut wrote: I cant discuss it yet, but there will be another large improvement for next season, that we will all very much enjoy.

I thought the Pilot Nation 1,000 post sky box was just a joke? I really need to get my post count up.

I may have come off a little harse, but I'm really quite interested to see if and when Rev re-sign's to a new contract with the Pilots. Sucessful coaches always put a little more pressure on their bosses to preform their jobs at a little higher level. I just hope it works out.......

MesaPilot1 wrote: I'm still of the opinion that we need a preseason "unofficial" scrimmage like BOTH the Zags and St Mary's has. This playing these tiny D-2 and NAIA schools ONLY has got to stop. Somebody at the Athletic Dept has to get their act together in that area. (And work with the coaches to formulate better that d-2 preseason oppostion).

Sometimes when I see the AD cripple Rev with poor tuneups like this. Then I look at similar WAC ,Mountain West , WCC basketball programs who do better(recruiting,scheduling) I wonder why Williams gets paid the mega salary that he does.I understand he came from Notre Dame and you guys mostly curtailed your educations to parochial and Catholic institutions so he's like a God straight from Rome to many. But , what has he done???? The Soccer and X-country teams were already dominate long, long before he got here... I guess he could have just been safe and instead of killing us with more of Holton's he ate his contract which propably raised a few eyebrows, I'll give him some big time credit for that. But , when you hire a up and comming young coach it's time to step up your own game--I am not to sure he thought Rev would become this popular,sucessful, this quick and people kinda say oh yeah Larry who?. Its time to give Rev all the LONG term contract with raise, loosen the pursestrings and hang on for the ride like the soccer and cross-country teams are providing YOU!!! (I don't wonder if a little learning seminar from some of his more sucessful peers at Arizona, Kansas, Duke, Gonzaga AD's would do Williams a whole lot of good with his continuing education?)

I know I'll be calling for his "head on a platter" if he lets Rev go to another school , and we go back to the "weak" status quo coach's since Avina. I count 3 decisions Holton out- Rev in,Locker Room upgrade,More Pub-Posters, Billboards, made by the AD that were favorable, anybody know anything else?????????????????????????????????????????? I would like to hear a few positives after a tough loss, and your not going to get them from me,lol.You guys are so nice and probably don't want to get into it but Rev's contract is coming up...... , I'll just leave it at a rhetorical question.

See you chaps in a couple of weeks, I hope to meet MikeMac this year if your at the Chiles Center



MesaPilot1

I don't feel this a time to take any pot shots at the Pilot's athletic dept.
Soccer wise was a good year by any standards and I don't see how anybody could argue that point.
Cross Country, what more do you want.
Basketball has the women off to to one of their best starts in years, with only one senior.
The men have stumbled a couple of times, but there is the Anahiem tournament, plus Oregon and 7 and 5 is not too bad at this time
A number of our peerswould love to have this situation I believe.
Also this is just a guess , but attendence seems improved.

MesaPilot1 wrote:I may have come off a little harse, but I'm really quite interested to see if and when Rev re-sign's to a new contract with the Pilots. Sucessful coaches always put a little more pressure on their bosses to preform their jobs at a little higher level. I just hope it works out.......

I agree we need to keep all our good coaches. But coaches who push too hard for contracts can have that backfire . . . see Mike Leach!

So he made a guy with a concussion stand in a shed during practice...it toughens 'em up...

Interesting to see that in a recent RPI update, we were #61 and the Minnesota team we beat earlier this year was #59. They've rebounded to a 10-3 record. I expect our RPI will drop after the scheduling of Army and Evergreen before going back up with the WCC games.

onetouchfutbol wrote:Interesting to see that in a recent RPI update, we were #61 and the Minnesota team we beat earlier this year was #59. They've rebounded to a 10-3 record. I expect our RPI will drop after the scheduling of Army and Evergreen before going back up with the WCC games.

Evergreen wont effect our RPI, as they are not Division 1.

Our RPI will suffer in WCC play. While GU and SMC are ranked ahead of us, everyone else is significantly below us, RPI-wise... Playing Pepp (currently #335 out of 347) will bring us down... (We cant complain much here, as there have been MANY years in recent history where we were the team pulling others down.) Current RPI's (source):

29-Gonzaga
36-SMC
61-UP
128-USD
188-LMU
229-USF
246-SCU
335-Pepp

I have no problem scheduling the military academys. The learning experience for the players, plus getting a pic taken next to a certain cadet picture (Coach K-Duke) was a great experience for the young men. It gives Rev a recruiting tool , during winter break,and opens the posibility of playing a game alowing a quality East Coast recruit to have his "Home" game with his family in attendance.

In addition, it was entertaining to watch my Dad during the game , beating Army , one of his Alma Maters was so important to him. I thought he was cheering to beat the Bulldogs he was rooting for the Pilots so hard,lol.

Evergreen State,give me a physical break, what a wasted game. I would have rather seen them against the top YMCA team in the PDX area if it were NCAA legal. How many more years do we have to listen to excuses about the Evergreen States of he World. I know Grand Canyon University with two ex-Pac 10 players and another former D-1 starter and Russ Pennell (Former Arizona Wildcat Coach from last year) would gladly face UP "anytime, anyplace".<sicko,bulldog saying ,couldn't resist> It would be great for both schools, super competive game for Pilots....Playing at the Chiles Center for Grand Canyon University.

I'd love to see us schedule a series or two against teams ranked in the mid-major top 25 or who have had recent success...outside of our conference. Teams like Sienna, Davidson, or Butler would be nice to have on the schedule, and I think we would play those teams well. At this stage in our program, our wins against Pac-10 teams with better athleticism like UW or Oregon are going to be hit and miss, but, I think we could play the mid-majors with more consistency and continue to build a name for ourselves as a program.

Mid-major teams are going to have to schedule more games against each other because the power conference teams are scheduling fewer mid-majors each season. This season there have been more mid-major over power conference wins than last season, yet the total number of games against power conference teams has been declining. Not a coincidence when you consider the big teams don't want to put themselves at risk against good mid-majors.

The only catch I can see with scheduling teams from outside the West is that you would have to combine more than one game into a road trip to make the travel costs work. That said I would love to see how we match up with some of the better teams in the A-14, Missouri Valley, or the other strong mid-major conferences.