Bear Down Wildcats

are we playing in any neutral site games or tournaments?

I think we go to Hawaii for Maui invitation with a stacked lineup.

We're not in the maui or diamond head tourneys. So idk.

Your right, I was looking ahead. That ones during the 18-19 season.

ahh we play in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas with Villanova University, Purdue University, North Carolina State University, University of Tennessee, Southern Methodist University, Western Kentucky University, and University of Northern Iowa

Not very inspiring.

lol at hansen whining about asu getting a home game with kansas. kansas knows they can play in front of a 1/3 empty arena with 1/3 of the people there being kansas fans with asu. and they know they can win. i seriously, seriously doubt any major programs will want to come to mckale any time soon.

ASUHATER! wrote:lol at hansen whining about asu getting a home game with kansas. kansas knows they can play in front of a 1/3 empty arena with 1/3 of the people there being kansas fans with asu. and they know they can win. i seriously, seriously doubt any major programs will want to come to mckale any time soon.

He has a point. Sucks when two other schools play more EXCITING ooc opponents. Not saying their ooc sos are better but they are not nearly as exciting.

I don't buy this crap that we can't play Kansas or Duke or Kentucky etc. Make it happen and reward the fans you expect so much out of and you say are so important to you.

From what I have heard most of the big time schools refuse to play here and will only do neutral site games or want to do a 2 for 1. Which is bullshit.

I'm with phxcat on this. I get why it doesn't happen, but I sure wish it didn't.

It is getting more and more in big time basketball and football that teams are absolutely not playing tough road games at all anymore. Hell half of the SEC's big time ooc football games are played in neutral sites now.

ASUHATER! wrote:lol at hansen whining about asu getting a home game with kansas. kansas knows they can play in front of a 1/3 empty arena with 1/3 of the people there being kansas fans with asu. and they know they can win. i seriously, seriously doubt any major programs will want to come to mckale any time soon.

Kansas against ASU is Kansas scheduling down. It's a lot easier to get a team to commit to beating you.

UConn is a legit program, and LBSU is as good as anyone we had this year. It's pretty meh, but better than this year.

and also the lineup in the bahamas tourney is better than the one we did over thanksgiving this year.

We need a PAC 12 vs Big East showdown, like big 12 vs SEC, b1g vs acc

Oh man this years vegas that tourney was trash.

I refuse to believe that somehow Arizona is the only big time program willing to travel and so home and homes.

We can't "make it happen" by snapping our fingers.

If you feel we should sell ourselves out by agreeing to play 2 games in Kansas to get one here, than yeah, we might be able to get one. But most of the major programs have very few, if any, road games in their schedule. I am not going to research it again, but I posted on this topic last time it came up, and many top programs play ONE road game out of conference their entire schedule, and choose it for strategic purposes (UNLV hosted a few program's lone OOC roadie, likely due to the proximity of Findlay Prep and Bishop Gorman), and others go to LA (Kentucky) or to former recruits homes.

So, please, explain to me how we "make it happen" without giving ourselves a black eye to make an unnecessary bad deal? When Duke plays one road game, and MSU plays one road game, and Kentucky plays 2 road games, etc...how do we get on that when they have no interest in coming to Tucson? Nothing just "happens". Explain how, in today's game, we "make that happen"? Most major programs will only play neutrals and then in their own conference vs conference showcase (Big 10 vs ACC challenge). If our CONFERENCE can get one of those, we will get a good home game again every other year. But we cannot force Kansas to come to Tucson, and they ain't coming for a home and away. Gonzaga gets some by giving 2 for 1, but they are largely playing neutrals, too. That is the game now. ASU can get Kansas because Kansas wants to come to the Phoenix area, give their fans an excuse to go to the Phoenix area in the winter, it is not a threat for a loss (big difference), and for all I know, they scheduled that when USA Basketball was supposed to be in Tempe, which would have had a lot of teams coming to ASU.

Kansas is a good solid program with no stones. Hell they won't even play Wichita st in Wichita.

Found it:

again, look at the major teams in college basketball and their schedules. Look for the true "road" games OOC.

There will be one or two. If there is more than one, it is usually some kind of inter-state compulsory game or game with ties to the program. And the other one is often an opponent in a recruiting hot bed. Duke, Kansas, and Oregon (and TCU) are all playing UNLV in Vegas. And not in Thomas and Mack, so is that a neutral? Let's say it is a true roadie..it is the only one.

Duke has ONE OOC road game OOC this year...@ UNLV

Michigan State has ONE OOC road game this year. @ Duke

Kansas has TWO OOC road games this year. @ UNLV, @ Kentucky. Remember, they have the draw of being a Phat 5 and HUGE TV ratings.

Louisville has ONE OOC road game this year. @ Grand Canyon. Phoenix, or maybe a favor to Colangelo and USA Basketball?

Wisconsin has TWO OOC road games this year, and one is an in-state but non-conference rival in Marquette. The other was @ Creighton, and I would bet that was a two for one.

So, again...where are these magical opportunities for us to play big opponents home and road in OOC play? Every one of those road games mentioned, the 1.5 average OOC road games big programs play, had a reason behind it that we don't have to offer. We are an elite program, but we do not generate the same level of rating for CBS that matchups with Kansas or Kentucky does. I think we would be absolutely fine with playing a major OOC opponent each year in home/away, but someone has to agree to do it.

It seems like this is a circular, never-ending argument. Someone new posts a thread about our bad home schedule without looking at the other 15 threads about it that explain the challenges with changing it and we are off again.

If no one wants to come here, we should schedule a preseason tournament like Maui and a classic. Like the CBS sports classic, msg, coaches vs cancer, cbe classic, hall of fame tipoff, battle in the Navy ship etc.

UNC did that and I like that system. They had Maui, CBS sports classic, and had the Big Ten vs ACC challenge.

While not ideal, what is the honest worst that comes from doing a 2 for 1 with Duke or Kentucky or Kansas? The lost revenue for hosting a crappy game like North Texas? You aren't going to lose coaches or recruits or respect from it.

NYCat wrote:If no one wants to come here, we should schedule a preseason tournament like Maui and a classic. Like the CBS sports classic, msg, coaches vs cancer, cbe classic, hall of fame tipoff, battle in the Navy ship etc.

UNC did that and I like that system. They had Maui, CBS sports classic, and had the Big Ten vs ACC challenge.

that'd be great, but Arizona wouldn't participate in it.

PHXCATS wrote:While not ideal, what is the honest worst that comes from doing a 2 for 1 with Duke or Kentucky or Kansas? The lost revenue for hosting a crappy game like North Texas? You aren't going to lose coaches or recruits or respect from it.

I'll task you with the mission of convincing the AD and Sean Miller of your line of thinking. I'm sure they will agree completely.

scumdevils86 wrote:

PHXCATS wrote:While not ideal, what is the honest worst that comes from doing a 2 for 1 with Duke or Kentucky or Kansas? The lost revenue for hosting a crappy game like North Texas? You aren't going to lose coaches or recruits or respect from it.

I'll task you with the mission of convincing the AD and Sean Miller of your line of thinking. I'm sure they will agree completely.

You won't task me with anything. I asked the question. is it too complicated for you?

PHXCATS wrote:While not ideal, what is the honest worst that comes from doing a 2 for 1 with Duke or Kentucky or Kansas? The lost revenue for hosting a crappy game like North Texas? You aren't going to lose coaches or recruits or respect from it.

Never. Never stoop to whoring yourself to those who think they're better. It's always a loss in the long run.

PHXCATS wrote:While not ideal, what is the honest worst that comes from doing a 2 for 1 with Duke or Kentucky or Kansas? The lost revenue for hosting a crappy game like North Texas? You aren't going to lose coaches or recruits or respect from it.

If the average ticket price is 25-30 dollars, a single home game involves $350,000-$400,000 in revenue from ticket sales alone.

Arizona basketball is very profitable and subsidizes other sports. It's not a small thing giving that up.

Yeah...we aren't going to give up

1. Prestige (that would never be used against us in recruiting)

2. Money of a home game for an extra year at $400K

3. The ability to ever negotiate a home and home, because once you have changed the currency, the new currency rules (two for one)

4. Why? McKale is full. We are making money. We are making the tournament. If someone wants to come play us in a fair deal, great, but what, exactly, is the impetus to bend over for Kansas and do a 2 for 1 and give them double revenue and miss a home game slot in that extra year? What do we gain?

We play an aggressive neutral site schedule, have been scheduling other majors (sometimes the timing works with a Texas A&M and sometimes it doesn't with a Mizzou), but basically playing the tough money games at neutral sites, packing out McKale, and being a consensus top 10 program with zero reason to change.

If the change was just "schedule someone normal", fine. But "give away money and prestige and, likely, a W in an additional year just to get a crumb of a home game from a team at our level that we really don't need?" Nope. No one runs a business like that.

We do play Texas A&M in Phoenix next year too.

30 years in a row leading the conference in attendance tells you something about the loyalty of the local fan base. But I'm not sure you want to keep testing that loyalty.

Chicat wrote:30 years in a row leading the conference in attendance tells you something about the loyalty of the local fan base. But I'm not sure you want to keep testing that loyalty.

I am just asking questions and not saying do it at this time. I just don't see the negatives in the same way as much as others.

I am not the target as I live in Phoenix but if Arizona added Duke even if was a 2-1 at Duke I would be more likely to go to Tucson more than I do now for basketball games

PHXCATS wrote:

Chicat wrote:30 years in a row leading the conference in attendance tells you something about the loyalty of the local fan base. But I'm not sure you want to keep testing that loyalty.

I am just asking questions and not saying do it at this time. I just don't see the negatives in the same way as much as others.

I am not the target as I live in Phoenix but if Arizona added Duke even if was a 2-1 at Duke I would be more likely to go to Tucson more than I do now for basketball games

We sell out every game. Demand is not an issue for us.

If we need something to keep demand high, it is team success, not opponent profile.

http://tucson.com/sports/arizonawildcat ... c4ea4.html" target="_blank

UA also has one more opening remaining on its 2017-18 nonconference schedule, during the weekend of Dec. 9-10, according to UA basketball operations director Ryan Reynolds.

UA could toughen up its schedule with that game or tone it down, depending on what Miller finds most appropriate.

“All options are open right now,” Miller said. “Some of it might have to do with who returns from this year’s team and how we finalize our recruiting class, how that looks. Balance is everything. You want to make sure you have confidence going into your conference season and yet, at the same time, that you have a competitive nonconference schedule.”

I reported that sked to the BBB.

never to early for next year. You can add tickets to your hotel stay today. Just booked mine.

http://www.atlantisbahamas.com/b4a" target="_blank

Still need to get the A&M ticket on sale date for Phoenix.

Want to fill that final Dec. 9-10 slot with a ballsy move that no other power would attempt but would stoke a great new rivalry?

Do a return game with Grand Canyon at Talking Stick or Gila River. 'Lopes are better now than ASU and don't back down from the big boys. Led at Louisville for more than a half this past December.

Would be a great TV event and solidify the nexus of power with in-state recruits.

I too am extremely disappointed with the crappy home / OOC schedules....I understand the challenges behind scheduling but refuse to give up.....How come UCLA got their Kentucky series?

Whatever it takes to play tougher competition.....maybe our Ops staff isn't doing a good enough job? Ok to more 'neutral sites' then as our fans travel and represent well....tired of the cupcakes....I used to always criticize Duke for this.

Beyond making really bad deals, I refuse to believe we can't do better in our scheduling! Lute used to rock in this area....I remember attending Duke and Michigan State games at McKale.

gumby wrote:I reported that sked to the BBB.

Lol, good one gumby!

PHXCATS wrote:

scumdevils86 wrote:

PHXCATS wrote:While not ideal, what is the honest worst that comes from doing a 2 for 1 with Duke or Kentucky or Kansas? The lost revenue for hosting a crappy game like North Texas? You aren't going to lose coaches or recruits or respect from it.

I'll task you with the mission of convincing the AD and Sean Miller of your line of thinking. I'm sure they will agree completely.

You won't task me with anything. I asked the question. is it too complicated for you?

Let me ask you a few things. Have you ever scheduled any games? do you have any real insight or knowledge of what goes into scheduling? Or are you just criticising without having any understanding?