#13 Wisconsin @ #15 Iowa 2:30 on ABC

[chuckleslove]

Are they doing a pre season tournament this year? Usually they run into 1-2 quality opponents in those but I know there is a limit in how often you can do those so maybe this is a year where they aren't/can't.

[trwi7]

Usually Wisconsin has a pretty good non conference basketball schedule, that is pretty surprising.

Agreed. That's why it was so shocking when I looked at it. Last year we had Gonzaga, Maryland and Duke. The year before UCONN and Texas. Year before that Duke, Marquette and Texas. Year before that Marquette and Pittsburgh.

Last time we had a non-conference schedule this crappy was 2005-2006 when we had this schedule:

vs Norfolk State
vs Eastern Kentucky
vs Old Dominion
vs Coastal Carolina
@ Wake Forest (they finished the season 17-17 and get ousted in the first round of the NIT)
vs Pepperdine
vs Green Bay
vs Marquette
vs UNC-Wilmington
vs Milwaukee
vs Louisiana Tech
@ Pittsburgh (finished 21-6 and lost in the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament to Bradley)

[MikeIsGood]

Are they doing a pre season tournament this year? Usually they run into 1-2 quality opponents in those but I know there is a limit in how often you can do those so maybe this is a year where they aren't/can't.

Yes, they are in the Old Spice Classic. The field is Boston College, Cal, Georgia, Manhattan, Notre Dame, Temple, Texas A&M, and Wisconsin. We'll play three of those teams. I think the first one is Manhattan because of the way the draw was made up. I haven't seen a bracket so I don't know who goes where after the first round, but I'm hoping for Temple (who's supposed to be good this year - ranked 20ish preseason) and either Cal or A&M.

What sucks is that for some reason we got matched up with NC State this year in the B10/ACC challenge. They're 35 in the pre-season Coaches poll - don't know if they'll turn out good or not but I would have preferred a more marquee opponent.

Overall, that non-conference schedule for Ohio State isn't that much stronger than Wisconsin's.

I've been looking for a link for 20 minutes now and can't find it, but I saw a breakdown of the SOS for the top 15 teams in the BCS standings yesterday and Wisconsin certainly did not stick out. Ohio State and Wisconsin were essentially equal somewhere in the 50s range, a couple teams were higher (I think the highest was 7th IIRC), and there were multiple teams ranked lower or much lower. Someone's SOS was in the 100s.

Although they certainly aren't swinging for the fences with a really big opponent, they are trying to get one good OOC game per season. IIRC, Arizona State and Washington State (whom we play two years in a row starting 2014) were both up when they were scheduled. Same goes for Oregon State - hopefully they stay good as we play them the next two years. Problem here is that you're scheduling schools that aren't consistent, and instead peak-and-valley.

But anyways, although it would be cool, my main issue isn't with them not going out and scheduling a football titan. My contention comes from the other schools they use to fill out the OOC schedule around the one "good" match. San Jose State? Austin Peay? Couldn't we add in even a Rutgers-level opponent (random example)? Or like when we played Fresno State - how about we play BOTH Fresno State AND Oregon State. Add in another school that's perennially a solid team and drop one of those competing-for-worst-team-in-the-NCAA schools.

Sidenote: The conference is talking about adding an extra conference game in 2015, which would likely (hopefully) be a second protect game. In that case, Wisconsin would play Iowa, Ohio State, and Penn State every single year, and in most years would also see either Michigan or Nebraska, sometimes both. Point being, adding in another protect conference game would be in our favor SOS-wise because it'd add Iowa every year. Also it'd be awesome just because Iowa is usually my favorite game, personally, and I'm pissed we're going on a two-year hiatus.