Basketball Nonconference Schedule Upgraded To "Brutal"
Michigan already had a pretty tough nonconference schedule lined up this fall, with a home game against UConn, BC in the B10/ACC challenge, and a serious nonconference tournament. Now, uh, well, here's another game:
A rematch of the 2008 NCAA National Championship Game against Memphis, trips to UCLA and Tennessee and home games against Cal and Michigan highlight the non-conference schedule for the Kansas University men’s basketball team in 2009-10.
Yipes. I'd rather fill out the schedule with some moderately difficult games—like the ND series I keep advocating—instead of death on a platter, but better a tough roadie against Kansas than IUPUI.
Good thing for recruiting. That Kansas team is going to be nasty next year, though.
Looks like Beilein is utilizing the Tom Izzo strategy of nonconference schedule here. Love it! Even when MSU gets beat up early by a brutal schedule, playing tough teams always prepares them for March. With our high variance offense consisting of tons of 3s, we're likely to add a couple major scalps to our resume, even if we do get a couple more losses along the way. Regardless, we'll be able to tell pretty early on whether Andy Katz is a fool or a prophet.
Best Inside-Outside combo...
Collins-Aldrich
Harris-Sims?
I'll go with KU, but I love the scheduling, it payed off last year big time.
UConn doesn't return a game in Ann Arbor until the 10-11 season. I saw MS and his wonderful reporting at the Freep also had this game this season. It is not.
is scheduled to play at Crisler for '09-'10 season which is next season. There will be UConn in Michigsn's schedule to go along with Kansas, Old Spice Classic(a bunch of solid teams), BC, Utah and so on.
The UConn game is on Sunday, January 17th at Crisler.
http://mgoblue.com/basketball-m/article.aspx?id=180000
Call it brutal or whatever... With Duke out, we needed another game like this.
Gotta play the best teams... A road game against a truly elite top 5 team is really a no lose situation when it comes to the RPI as well.
love it - michigan might get slaughtered - but to take that next step we have to play these upper echelon teams whenever and wherever.
I love it! I'ma be pissed if we get slaughtered but PR like this announcing Michigan is back on the map and we're not going anywhere. I think it will bring Trey, Ray Ray and other future recruits...
Look at the trip to UConn as an example of how Beilein's allegedly overmatched team performs in a hostile environment against one of the top teams in the country. I expect nothing less in Lawrence. My hat's off to Beilein. He has been pitch perfect in every respect since taking the reins and leading this program back.
I love how a newspaper site dedicated to a university's team gets the name wrong. It may be "KU", but it's the University of Kansas. It would be like calling the Sooners, "Oklahoma University".
Minor thing, but just jarring that a hometown site would get it wrong.
In any case, I hope Michigan University can beat them.
They're both widely known as KU and OU desptie that they are the Universities of Knasas and Oklahoma. This is intentional. Just like tuos
UK is Kentucky. UO...doesn't exist.
What?
UO is Oregon btw.
Kansas University, didn't it? also, if you're the University of Kansas, you should change it to UK or UofK.
also also, you're Kansas so who cares.
I have no idea why they do KU (University of Kansas), OU (University of Oklahoma) and MU (University of Missouri). Maybe it was a condition on joining the Big 8 long ago you had to invert things!
And I doubt they did to avoid confusion with other schools (e.g., Kentucky or Oregon). Trust me, if you ever talk to someone from Minneapolis and mention you went to "U of M", they're thinking you're a Gopher, not a Wolverine. Same thing in Memphis. There are only same many abbreviations.
Oh well, at least they don't have to struggle with being called "Miami (Ohio)" vs. the "proper" "Miami University" (per Brian's funny note during the Frozen Four about the RedHawks trying to get the media to get their name right).
University of Colorado goes by CU.
Florida would flip their abbreviation around.
I like it. With just about everyone coming back, you probably do want to step up the non-conference schedule a bit. I'd rather have 2, 3 maybe 4 losses heading into big ten play with a real good non-conference schedule then have 0 or 1 loss with a non-conference schedule that is completely full of cupcakes.
A strong strength of schedule is a key component to making the ncaa tourney.
I love the non-conference schedule this year. This will really help us get prepared for the tourney.
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