2014 Non-conference schedule?

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Now that the 2013-14 season is officially whoever, anyone have any insight into our future non-conference opponents? Or preferences?

With the Top 16 seeds in next year's NCAA tourney getting to host first and second rounds, a strong schedule and RPI are very important.

Last year we played:

UTSA
Texas State
New Mexico
Stanford
Syracuse
A&M
Memphis
Arkansas - Little Rock
Tennesse
Sam Houston
Northwestern State
Idaho

I assume Tennessee and Stanford will continue as fixtures. So, that still leaves 10 slots open.

Would be a treat for Celina if we scheduled a game at Georgia or Georgia Tech; with Ga Tech in the ACC, that would be worthwhile.

Playing a game in the Denver or Phoenix areas could be good exposure for recruiting in those states. Diani is from Colorado, so good for her to be able to play in her home state. We played a home-and-home with Arizona State a few years ago, and they do make the NCAA tourney more often than not.

And, for Imani, perhaps a game at UCLA or USC.

Lots of good teams in the Big 10, so perhaps a game against new-member Maryland would be exciting.
 
I sure hope that Stanford will be a continuing series like Tenn. I would love to add one of UConn, ND or another perennial top 15 team to the schedule to those two. Two home, two away. That would test the team big time.
 
I believe Angela Ortega handles scheduiing for the Horns. Would like to see Texas playing new teams like Notre Dame, Louisville, Florida State and heck, even Washington.

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Our strength of schedule and RPI was strong all season for 2013-2014. I think the staff knows what they are doing for scheduling.
 
hoopsalot, no one is saying the staff can't schedule. But which teams we as fans would like to see the Horns play is open to discussion.
 
As the team and program get better, so, too, willl the non-conference opponents. Plus, if they want ticket sales and attendance to increase, gonna need more than just one home game against Stanford or Tennessee each season.

A lot of those oppnonents don't require a home-and-home agreement, so I'm sure that has something to do with things. Regardless, I expect a more challenging list of opponents in order to challenge next season's squad.
 
Yep, discuss away. I was responding to this part of the first post: “With the Top 16 seeds in next year's NCAA tourney getting to host first and second rounds, a strong schedule and RPI are very important.” I want to see the Horns at home in first and second round games of the NCAA tourney next Spring. We can do that with similar scheduling to last year. The staff did a great job, imo, in putting together a non-conference schedule with enough challenging games to help the team prepare for conference games, enter conference with a decent win-loss record, and keep the SOS and RPI strong all season. The team received a 5 seed (which was about as good as a 4 last year) and could have gotten a 4 by winning a couple more of those games that were close or where the team had second half leads.
Karen has an ambitious time table, so we may see more ambitious schedules within a couple of years. I like to see top teams at home from time to time, of course. I’d also like to see more games with teams with RPIs in the 100 to 150 range and as few as possible against teams that are 200 or below. At a certain point, teams are good enough to want a home and home. Then other factors come in. One, Texas usually likes to stay home in December near finals. Two, major conference teams, as a rule, do not like to risk home and away series with teams that are good enough to pull the occasional upset when a loss will be considered “bad” but a win is just expected. I do not know Karen’s philosophy on those kinds of games.
I think we should continue to play Tennessee as long as Tennessee wants to do so. Pat Summit continued to play Texas home and away for many years when the Vols had little, if anything, to gain from the series. Stanford is good because the Cardinal is a reliably good team that plays a different style of game. I like the conference challenges. I remember upsetting North Carolina State in Austin as part of a ACC-Big 12 challenge one year when they were ranked number 5. That was a fun atmosphere.

How about playing the Aggies in a home and away? That should bring lots of fans from both teams to the arena.
 
I'd rather not play A&m again in anything if we dont have to. Recruiting wise, they no longer seem to be in the way so I would like to play the teams that are ie; UConn, ND, South Carolina maybe even Duke or UNC or MD if we wanted to get a taste of ACC country. I wouldnt mind playing Rutgers or Nebraska again either. 3 years from now we will be the highlight on everyone not named Uconn's schedule, so we might as well get into the grove earlier. Tenn and Stanford seem to be mainstays as of now so I dont see any reason for that not to continue.
 
No reason to play A&M inside the state lines. They have no in-state game exposure other than in College Station; too bad for them. They can go play SMU or Rice or UofH on the road if they want.

We definitely need a game in Houston every year, IMO. We already play in Fort Worth every season, so not sure a game in Dallas is needed, but it would be good for local recruits nonetheless.

LSU could be good, as would Arkansas, IMO.
 
A rekindling of our rivalry with Nebraska would be good. Resuming the series with aTm is worth considering, maybe 10 years down the road and the aggies approach us and not us approaching them. I think it's good to play different non-conference teams to give Texas a more well-rounded test instead of playing the same teams year in and year out.
 
I don't agree with the sentiments not to play A&M in non-football sports. The defection of aggie to the SEC was 100% driven by football. Having healthy in-state rivalries is good for attendance for both universities. It's not like we are turning people away at the doors in basketball.

The rivalry is of no benefit to Texas in football without a better playoff format for sure. Playing a middle of the pack SEC west team when you are competing for Big 12 championships and a spot in the 4 team playoff would be ridiculous. Not so in the other sports.
 
To me it makes no sense in any sport to be honest, they're taking hits across the board w/ in state recruits due to lack of exposure within the state lines, and we are not. We can play teams just as talented, if not more than aggie and continue to suffocate them on the recruiting trail so why play them and risk a loss that would certainly dull the edge that we seem to be creating for ourself? If we play a team like Lousiville, LSU, UCLA, Uconn, Tenn or Stanford that the fans wouldnt come out? And once we prove that we can put a consistent winner on the court, we know that the city will support. Winning against the best will draw way more than playing aggie ever will.
 
Not playing them because of some mythical recruiting trophy we think they have lost out on is a stupid reason. We can out recruit A&M in any sport as long as we have a competent, competitive coach in charge of the program.

I have no problem playing teams like Lousiville, LSU, UCLA, Uconn, Tenn or Stanford. I for the life of me can't remember any point in time when we were able to get more than 2-3 of those on the schedule. Putting A&M in place of UT Pan American or Texas A&M Corpus Christi is going to get way more fans, help your RPI and give you more than just one in-state rivalry with Baylor. We have lost a worthy in-state rival as long as Tech stays down.

I agree that once you put a winner on the court, attendance takes care of itself. But last time I checked aggie went further in the tournament than we did, so for the time being we have a lot to gain by playing and beating them and proving ourselves better on the court. That adds to the recruiting momentum not shirking them because we think they might win and get recruits.
 
Temp- It seems as though we will differ in philosophy more often than not. Through my eyes, they're hurt far worse by not playing us than we stand to gain by playing them. The cy-fair shock AAU coach said it best "Kids from Texas love to play in front of their families as much as possible, and A&m not being able to play any top tier opponents in the state hurts them with a lot of the states better players"

In terms of our current in-state rivalries I think Tech will be back before you know it because some of the talent coming out of west Tx is quickly rounding back into what it used to be. If they can dominate that area of the state the way history suggests that they can, the rivalry will restore itself. TCU clearly announced to the state and conference last season that they're right around the corner in terms of competiting with the conferences top tier. If their new coach can impliment her system sooner rather than later, and take advantage of Medley similarly to what Ok State did with Riley while taking advantage of their interior athleticism they could improve on their somewhat unexpected season a year ago.

So as far as playing in state "quality" opponent that fans would want to come and see we will be fine, because not only will the talent be better these will be conference games that mean more. Should we upgrade the UT-Pan Am's and opponents alike? Of course, just not with aggie because we can get the same type of draw or fan support playing some other high quality team. So it looks like we will just have to agree to disagree.
 
The debate on whether to play A&M in non-conference games extends to all sports. In women's hoops, we played A&M this past season in a holiday tournament in the Carribean; and, we beat them (to the surprise of many). So, it's not like we refused to play them. Granted, it was at a neutral site, but the victory counts the same, for the most part.

Playing A&M (in the short-term) would definitely strengthen our RPI and SOS; no one is debating that. But, why give them exposure in Austin? We don't need the exposure in College Station, IMO.

If you look at A&M's non-conference schedule for 2013-14, they played the following road games in the state of Texas:

North Texas in Denton
Houston in Houston

The rest were in College Station:

Prairie View A&M
Nicholls State
Arkansas State
San Diego State
Washington
Louisiana Tech
UTEP

No Big 12 school has played them the last two seasons in any kind of home/road series. Mulkey is not going to let Baylor play them. Doesn't look like the Oklahoma schools will play them, so Courtney Walker will not get to play a game in her home state (unless they play at Tulsa).

Each year, we will play games in Fort Worth, Lubbock, and Waco. We need a game in Houston; perhaps another doubleheader with the men at Toyota Center like 2 seasons ago against UCLA.
 
seems like the season ticket renewal deadline gets earlier and earlier and the out of conference schedule announcement gets later and later. Sure would be nice to see what is on the schedule.
 
I agree Bab, other programs as well as the Mens schedule having been out a while ago Im just curious as to why we want to be at the end of the line haha. I think it would generate a lot more excitement building up toward the season. Unless its not loaded of course
 
I thought the delay could have been in part to the announcement of the WNIT field; but, that was announced yesterday, and Texas isn't a participant.
 
I would personally like to see us start to play UCLA on a regular basis. Becuase quite frankly, Corie Close is kicking *** on the recruiting trail. And to me one of the best ways to keep her out of Texas is to show on the court that she cannot beat Texas. I would also love to get to a point to where we schedule a Tenn. type of schedule. They seem to play a ranked opponent every week. Thats how they lose multiple games and still stay top 5-10. When you have a schedule with only a few highlighted games, those losses are magnified. When you can turn around and play another top tier opponent in that same week everyone can move on a lot faster.
 
Our ratio of top teams vs. lesser opponents is on par with the country's top programs, and actually better than all but a few. Even during KA's first year, when our schedule was a little lighter than usual, we still had a top 30 SOS. Otherwise our SOS is almost always top 15, and most years we're top 10. We had a top 10 SOS for four of five years from 2007-2011. RPI also looks at overall record and conference finish and teams in the top leagues generally schedule 2-4 'tougher' contests during their pre-conference slate. And that's the top programs...many don't even schedule that many and usually pay when tourney selection time comes around. I wouldn't mind us playing UCLA; perhaps one more quality pre-conference opponent would by okay if these next few years go as well as many expect them to. But we simply can't add any more than one top program to our schedule without other longstanding contests going away to make room for them. As far as UCLA recruiting goes, I'd say we're right there with them, and our 2015 class is stronger at this point. They did nab one from Texas for both their 2014 and 2015 classes, but we're full for those years anyway. And I certainly wouldn't trade Atkins, McCarty, Hosey or Higgs for either Caldwell or Hearn. I love the recruits we have coming in!!
 
Looks like it could be as late as the last part of July or early August before the non-conference schedule is announced based on the last two years. Of course, it could be as early as Monday.
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Also, still waiting for the 2014-15 roster to be put up.

07-31-12: non-conference scheduled announced for 2012-13 season.

5-14-14: non-conference schedule announced for 2013-14 season
 
Looks like we are playing A&M in Little Rock, AR in December 2014 as part of the Big 12 / SEC Challenge. We will play Arkansas in December 2015 in OKC.

Perhaps this year's games will be televised by the SEC Network.

The Link
 
While I would prefer other high profile opponents, this isnt a game thats all that bad to have since it will have national implications. I also saw on the website that we would play Oklahoma City University in our first preseason game.

I look for the rest of the schedule to be released in the next few weeks.
 
The Non-Conf schedule is finally up, and I think its a really good mix of "confidence builders" and three games that will really test where we are as a program. I look for us to go 11-1 in that stretch, no worse than 10-2. Not all of the games will be easy or clean wins seeing Mcneese St. and New Mexico on the schedule again. I also look for us to win both games on our trip out west to LA and Palo Alto since they're still rebuilding. With Stanford losing 4 starters, and UCLA's most talented players being their incoming freshman, im hoping that will be the difference in what will be only the third game of the season. Our experience and our upperclassmen already being adjusted to the speed of the college game should be just enough to grind out a 10+ point win. A&M and Tenn stand out as the biggest challenges thus far, but we beat aggie last year and we stand to be much better this year. And with a game that was within reach the whole time last year, hopefully being at home vs the Lady Vols will be what we need to get over the hump this year.

Now im pumped to see the on the court product mirror our offseason work

Schedule Link:
The Link
 
I understand that re-building this program and the fanbase is going to take time. But, the home schedule certainly isn't going to attract many fans to the arena, let alone buy season tickets. Basically, you have Tennessee coming to town.

Stanford and UCLA are sort of what I was expecting as far as a West coast swing; good that Imani will get to play in front of friends and family in the L.A. area.

The A&M game at a neutral site concludes the opponents from power conferences.

After that, I'm just not sure what to think. The breakdown on where the other opponents finished in their respective conferences last season is as follows:

- UTSA (15th)
- Texas Pan American (5th)
- New Mexico (9th)
- Southern (1st)
- Northwestern State (3rd)
- McNeese State (8th)
- Rice (9th)

That's six home games against teams from Texas and Louisiana.

No games against opponents from the ACC or Big 10. Very surprising to me.

Perhaps I am overestimating where our program is, but if we are a legitimate Sweet 16 caliber team, that schedule doesn't challenge us except for maybe 5 out of our 11 non-conference games.
 
With our conference being as tough as it is, having a "loaded" preseason schedule beyond 4-5 games it runs the risk of hurting us more than it'd help. You never want to be in a situation preseason wise where you could look at a 3 or more game losing streak because you don't want your players losing confidence before you even start playing the games that matter.
 
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