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Juice Stand wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 5:52 pm Dean Wendel of the Collegian:

another home-and-home for UMass/Harvard after their series over the last two years concluded.

current UMass MBB OOC schedule:
@ West Virginia
v. Temple (Mohegan Sun)
v. Florida State (Mohegan Sun)
@ Harvard
v. Arizona State (Springfield)

https://x.com/DeanWende1/status/1807873 ... 7XhZw&s=19

This is a really solid group of games. None are in Amherst, but 4 out of 5 are in New England, so it should give casuals and out of towners a chance to see UMass in some high level games. Frank quoted and said he hopes to have the schedule complete by next week.

Best schedule in a decade and still building on it.

MAC teams all had a better OOC schedule than UMass last year. On the road almost exclusively, but that’s expected.

^perhaps we can beat out the other MAC schools for the teams they played...

Harvard Game will be Thanksgiving eve 11/27

I'm hearing that it will be a late afternoon start but nothing official yet.

umasscollective wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 11:40 pm .............

MAC teams all had a better OOC schedule than UMass last year. On the road almost exclusively, but that’s expected.

Surprised to see this observation, but the following backs it up with a really crappy OOC schedule coming in ranked at 233.

https://www.warrennolan.com/basketball/ ... dule/UMass

233 ranked out of conference schedule. This has been the poor out of conference scheduling that has been apparent for the past 10 years.

If your looking at the 5 ooc opponents

Harvard weak 14-13 in Ivy 5th place
Temple weak 16-20 in AAC tied for 10th place
Florida State weak 17-16 tied for 9th place ACC
Arizona State weak 14-18 tied for 9th place in old PAC 10
West Virginia strong 9-23 last place in Big 12 but have new coach and have added significantly to roster

This issue I have here is that I predict the balance of the schedule will be made up of assorted cupcakes.

^

Certainly name brand schools that you'd have hoped would be better, but you can't always control that. Teams have up and down seasons.


In defense of WV, when we signed the 2 games, no one knew Bobby Huggins would have a(nother) meltdown.

https://x.com/i/status/1808475025806160221

Some very high praise from Frank!

While they were weak last year, it's too early to judge how they will be this year. I think we were picked 13th in the A10 poll last year, coming off a 15-16 season (6-12 in conference). I do agree that most of the rest of the OOC will be cupcakes. However, we tend to lose a game or 2 to a cupcake (Harvard at home and Towson last year) so beware. Towson ended up OK but they were 3-5 when they played us.

69MG wrote: Wed Jul 03, 2024 8:34 am While they were weak last year, it's too early to judge how they will be this year. I think we were picked 13th in the A10 poll last year, coming off a 15-16 season (6-12 in conference). I do agree that most of the rest of the OOC will be cupcakes. However, we tend to lose a game or 2 to a cupcake (Harvard at home and Towson last year) so beware. Towson ended up OK but they were 3-5 when they played us.

I think with a more veteran team Frank will have them ready for a team like Towson. The week leading up to that game Frank was very clear he knew they would be a tough win.

tdmass wrote: Wed Jul 03, 2024 8:22 am https://x.com/i/status/1808475025806160221

Some very high praise from Frank!

Wow. With the way Frank likes guys to play defense, having a big time shot blocker on the back end would be exciting. I remember Rutgers way back coming into the Cage with Roy Hinson, who was a great shot blocker himself. The first few shots UMass took he swatted into the stands. On like the third one he just said " get that shit outta here". We were sitting Courtside and started laughing and he turned and looked at us and winked. Makes a big difference having that presence inside

So I will be contacted July 9th to pick my seats now that my season ticket deposit is down?

InnervisionsUMASS wrote: Wed Jul 03, 2024 8:14 am ^

Certainly name brand schools that you'd have hoped would be better, but you can't always control that. Teams have up and down seasons.


In defense of WV, when we signed the 2 games, no one knew Bobby Huggins would have a(nother) meltdown.

I think a great example of not knowing how good or bad the teams you schedule are going to be are West Virginia and USF last year. We thought West Virginia was the marquee matchup, but Huggins went full Huggins and they had a very down year. And then you look at USF, who nobody thought twice about when the schedule came out, we beat them by 10, and then they went on to have an incredible season. Definitely our best OOC win (78 net, 55 rpi), and right up there with Richmond and VCU as our best overall wins on the year.

I'm not going to judge these teams on what they did last year since every year is a fresh start. We've scheduled quality names, hopefully they turn into quality games.

Upstate10 wrote: Wed Jul 03, 2024 9:18 am So I will be contacted July 9th to pick my seats now that my season ticket deposit is down?

That's usually how it works. It might not be the 9th since they'll be reaching out to every season ticket holder, but sometime that week for sure.

Renewals will begin on 7/9 and you have until 8/16 to renew. This is from Warren Hayden so I'll call it 100% accurate.