2019-20 MBB season opener: Appalachian State
The 2019-20 MBB non-conference schedule was just announced.
Michigan will open the season at home on November 5 vs Appalachian State, a team from the Sun Belt.
Michigan has never faced them before.
The full schedule- https://mgoblue.com/schedule.aspx?path=mbball
Never heard of them.
11/1 vs Saginaw Valley State (ex)
11/5 vs Appalachian State
11/12 vs Creighton (Gavitt Tipoff Games)
11/15 vs Elon
11/22 vs Houston Baptist
11/27-29 Battle 4 Atlantis
12/3 at Louisville (B1G/ACC Challenge)
12/14 vs Oregon
12/21 vs Presbyterian
12/29 vs Massachusetts-Lowell
Oh good, Oregon too. I remember this...
Ouch! But well played, man. Both you and The Maize Halo. Well played.
Still too soon way too soon
I'm guessing there will be two Big Ten games tucked in, between the Louisville and Oregon games.
Can't wait for announcers to mention The Horror 800 times.
Don't schedule them in anything ever!
We’re also playing them in Field Hockey on October 5 at home.
Bingo! And it's not like there aren't 350 other teams that can fill that slot.
Football or B-Ball opener. Never again. Warde and Juwan know better
Can't wait for App St to block a 3 to seal an upset win vs a top 5 team. Should be fun.
Fortunately, there won't be any top 5 teams playing in that game!
I thought it was next year's schedule. For some reason I assumed their schedule wouldn't be in flux a few months before the season starts.
So stupid, just give a MAC team the payout to come play instead.
While it is apparent why scheduling App St in a season opener is a dumb idea from a feelingsball perspective and I more or less agree they shouldn't have done it, its a pretty defensible schedule from an NET perspective. We should beat App St, but their 215 NET (209 KP) is in that range of "likely going to beat them but they are not going to be a NET anchor." Last year we played 4 teams in the 290-312 range on Kenpom, this year we only play 2. All in all the Warde-scheduled non-con is a little stronger this year by enough that it should help our NET but not so much that a dumb loss seems looming. Additionally the tourney is significantly stronger, but the Gavitt Games/ACC Challenge is weaker. Overall I think scheduling fewer true bodybags and more teams in the Kenpom 150-250 range is good.
Last year's teams by previous year Kenpom:
@Villanova (Gavitt Games)- 1
UNC (B1G/ACC Challenge)- 8
Providence (HOF Tourney)- 63
South Carolina- 80
WMU- 188
George Washington (HOF Tourney)- 192
Air Force- 237
Holy Cross- 290
Binghamton- 297
Chattanooga- 304
Norfolk St- 312
This year:
@Louisville (B1G/ACC Challenge)- 23
Oregon- 28
Creighton (Gavitt Games)- 55
Presbyterian- 179
App St- 209
UMass-Lowell- 258
Houston Baptist- 281
Elon- 309
Battle4Atlantis will have us play 3 out of: Gonzaga (2), UNC (7), Iowa St (15), Oregon again, Seton Hall (60), Alabama (64), Southern Miss (120).
+1 for the homework you put into this. I wish we were slated to play a top ten team.
Most of the homework was already done, I have a google doc with this info going back five seasons and just needed to look up App St, Elon, and HBU.
While it would be nice to play a top 10 team, playing both Nova and UNC in campus-site non-con games last year was really unique, and strictly speaking we didn't schedule either of those matchups, they were assigned to us. When you figure the Battle4Atlantis and the conference schedule, we probably are slated to play a top 10 team, we just don't have the games scheduled yet.
Well, if Michigan plays Gonzaga or UNC in the Bahamas that will likely be game against a top-10 team.
118 days until tip-off against App State!!!
I think it’s time to retire the nickname “the Horror.” Yeah, it sucked - I had a great view of that blocked FG from the stands - but people act like it prevented us from winning the national title. It was a season opener and that team had plenty of flaws (as Oregon demonstrated in week 2). Appalachian was in the midst of a 3-year FCS title run and we were stupid to schedule them. But if people are still traumatized by that game, I mean, come on.
Your post it totally rational, but it sorta underplays what a disastershow that game was from an emotional standpoint. That, and the enormous amount of interest the outcome generated from fans that would otherwise be neutral observers.
Do you have an alternate nickname to propose? Perhaps, "The Game That Shall Not Be Named"? Or maybe, "A Game That Will Live In Infamy"?
For us to completely retire "the Horror", we'll have to do what UVA hoops did to recover from their historic loss: Win a national title. We do that, and "the Horror" will be reduced to the same level as all the other gut punches in our football history.
52-14 in 2014 was enough for me. I know I’m part of the 1% but I don’t really care because it helped me cope with the trauma of that fateful day.
35-0 lead at halftime and I was still paranoid.
“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” Never forget!
Let’s hope this works out better than the last time we opened a season with App State.
Agreed. 52-14 was not a big enough margin.
Whose dumbass idea was this?
I agree - we never play them again in anything ever.
I'm going to go with David Brandon, since it's fun to blame him for everything. Even after he's gone.
This has got Bakich written all over it. No idea why we haven't fired that guy yet.
Well, fuck, I'm concerned.
In a word, why.
Oh great. New Jersey Tech not available?
I see what you did there. +1