AH1971

We're in a tournament with two preseason top 10 teams and 2-3 other tournament caliber teams. Perhaps that factored into the equation? South Carolina was a tournament team last year and has one of the best young coaches in the game. I understand you don't personally like it, that's life. It's far from "soft". In fact in could end up being really tough assuming we don't flame out in the first round of the Bahamas.

Prior coaches routinely played 5, 6, sometimes even 7 sub 300 opponents in a single non-conference slate. This years schedule is nowhere close to that. I know teams like UNC-Greensboro, Winthrop, Sam Houston St don't jump off the screen but they are all significantly better than playing teams like Alcorn St, Mississippi Valley, Bethune Cookman, etc

Says who? You? South Carolina was predicted to finish dead last place in the SEC last season FYI. https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/sec-expert-picks-2023-24-predictions-projected-order-of-finish-overrated-and-underrated-teams-key-players/

It's adequate. Few tune-up games to start the season, fun preseason tournament with a mixture of good to elite teams, and we avoid a ton of cupcake/sub-300 opponents that drag down SOS in December leading up to conference season. Nobody has won a national title in November and December, schedule gives the team multiple chances at quality non-conference wins to pad the resume. I have no issues with it, nobody else should either.

In my scenario above, IU’s record changes by 1 game in the W-L column. I’m speaking to the lunacy and inconsistencies of the NET that unfortunately IU and many other B10 teams were a year late in discovering. The B12 besides Houston and Baylor was largely s*** last year despite a bunch of computers telling us otherwise. Because they had been manipulated. But you knew that.

Iowa State was a top 15 NET team before the B12 started by virtue of beating 9 Q4 opponents by an average margin of 37 points. This all despite not having a Q1 non-conference win. Should be noted that several B12 teams deployed a similar scheduling strategy and therefore completely manipulated the NET system. When you have a bunch of teams beat up on each other with artificially inflated NET rankings during the conference slate, the likelihood of dropping significantly is minimal. Had IU beaten Wright St, FGCU, Army, Morehead, etc by 20+ points, you’re probably looking at a 20-25 spot swing in the rankings. Beat any of the Q1 opponents and you’re looking at another ~10 spot swing. That’s roughly 30-35 spots. NET would have still been in the low to mid 60’s. Would have been close but not inconceivable.

I don’t care man. I didn’t the first time either.

Good for Josh

Iowa State’s non-conference ranked 345/362 on KenPom. 0-1 Q1 games (Texas A&M) 2-1 Q2 games Beat Iowa and VCU, lost VT 0-0 Q3 games 9-0 Q4 games They’re non-conference schedule sucked.

Results or not it was pretty bad, but nobody called it that in real time because nobody had an axe to grind with Woodson. 3 Q1 games 0 Q2 games 3 Q3 games 6 Q4 games This year you’re potentially looking at: 2-3 Q1 2-3 Q2 2-3 Q3 3-4 Q4

https://hoosierillustrated.com/indiana-basketball-takes-strategic-approach-to-2024-25-schedule/ A very fair and well articulated piece from a non-biased CBB pundit regarding IU’s schedule. Didn’t see the word soft used or even implied one time.

Appreciate you admitting this. The schedule is soft because “Woodson created it” not because there’s any data that actually supports it being labeled soft, at least not yet anyway. It certainly is shaping up to be harder than last years schedule and the general consensus on every forum I’ve participated in believed last years schedule was in fact not soft. One of the more grown up posts I’ve seen from you in my duration here.

You need to look again. Penn State's toughest scheduled opponent is #87 Virginia Tech. They also have scheduled: 331 Binghamton 171 Ft Wayne 238 UMBC 356 Buffalo 187 Drexel 189 Penn That doesn't include the preseason tournament they're in that includes Chicago St, San Francisco, Radford, Clemson, Fordham, and Eastern Tennessee St. Nebraska has 332 UT Rio Grande Valley, 358 Bethune Cookman, and 334 Fairleigh Dickinson to go along with their tournament in Honolulu that includes Hawaii, Oregon State, Charlotte, Loyola, Charleston, Oakland, and Murray State. Props to them for playing St Mary's in a neutral site game and then obviously they play rival Creighton like they do every year. Neither of those teams have schedules that will come close to Indiana's in terms of degree of difficulty top to bottom. Maryland has 6 sub-300 opponents scheduled and Iowa has 5.

Will end being slightly above mid-pack in terms of difficulty when all said and done in regards to fellow B10 peers.

And I'm sure you all had that same energy last July when the schedule was announced! Oh wait no you didn't lol.

Uh no, the BS the other teams pulled last year (looking at the majority of the B12) was scheduling 8-10 sub-300 NET opponents (Q4) and running up the score to artificially inflate their initial NET ranking while manipulating the system in the process. That isn't in the realm of what IU is doing. At most, IU is playing two sub-300 teams, also the first two games of the season, something 99% of P5 teams do. At most IU is playing 5 Q4 opponents (most likely 4). They played 6 last year. I will agree that IU's top end competition last year is likely going to be better than this years version, but you never know, especially if they play both Arizona and Gonzaga down in the Bahamas. Fact of the matter is that IU played 3 Q1/Q2 opponents in the non-conference last season and this year has the ability to play 4 or 5 with way less Q4 opponents. IU's non-conference schedule will end up being "tougher" than last years schedule. Mark it down. Nobody bitched about a "soft" non-conference schedule last year because at the time nobody had an ax to grind and/or a narrative to push. You know that, I know that, everybody on here knows that. This is a typical P5 non-conference schedule with a good mixture of tournament resume opportunities and tune up games to get ready for a 20 game conference slate. Nothing more, nothing less...unless you want it to be. And we all know why. If Dusty May or Bruce Pearl were coaching this team this season with this schedule we'd still be on page 129.

As another poster pointed out (as did I prior to him actually laying out the data), the schedule is on track to be tougher this year than last year top to bottom. I wasn't here beginning part of last season, but I'm sure I can guarantee that nobody was calling last years non-conference schedule "soft".

Can't tell if I'm more excited for the emotional meltdown that will almost certainly ensue from those who have doubled and tripled down on stupidity or the fact that there will be 4-5 less clowns with an opinion around these parts. Either way, it'll be a win.

I'll stick to facts while forming opinions when participating in a message board setting. Facts don't care about your feelings. Feel free to choose your path.

So much easier to reason with somebody who uses actual logic instead of feeling/emotion. Thank you for doing this. Further proves that people are going to b**** and moan regardless.

It's almost as if 3 potential games in a pre-season tournament littered with Q1 and Q2 opponents aren't on the list. Hmmm. Add Providence/Oklahoma/Louisville, Gonzaga, and Arizona to that list and now tell me what the schedule potentially looks like?

Good catch. Oklahoma should be the third team.

JFC, Purdue "scheduled" two of their five good non-conference games. The rest were by virtue of playing (and winning) in Maui which is no different than us playing in the Bahamas this year. We will play at worst a Q2 opponent in round 1 and then likely Gonzaga/Arizona in round 2. Win your first two games in the Bahamas and there's a good chance you're leaving with 3 Q1 opponents on the schedule, the same amount as last years non-conference schedule.

I'll eat my foot if Providence, Louisville, and Providence all end up sub 60 in the NET by seasons end. In fact, I'll bet 2/3 are tournament teams.

I have zero issues with the schedule. There's enough Q1/Q2 opportunities to bolster the tournament resume and we avoid playing several sub 300 teams like in years past. For those that follow and understand college basketball outside IU, teams like UNC-Greensboro, Sam Houston, Winthrop, etc are all solid mid-major programs who are good enough to win their conference, conferences that have been to known to pull upsets in the NCAAT. These aren't sub 300 level opponents who significantly drag down SOS.