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Post by purplehaze on Aug 13, 2021 17:22:18 GMT -5
Harvard's schedule includes home games vs. Morehouse (Ga.), MIT and Babson (and a road game at Kansas)
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Post by bigfan on Aug 13, 2021 17:59:47 GMT -5
The OOC home schedule stinks. There is no reason why we should be playing D3 & D2 teams. Play all D1 schools and if we lose, try to improve the team for next year. We season ticket holders should not have to pay to watch D3 teams. I know we lost to Williams & Umass Boston those still hurt.
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Post by hchoops on Aug 13, 2021 18:12:02 GMT -5
Getting D1 home games was a huge challenge
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Aug 13, 2021 18:30:05 GMT -5
With 2 D-3 teams in the schedule, does anyone want to revise their predictions on the number of wins? I'll put up our annual prediction thread as we get close to the season
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Post by hchoops on Aug 13, 2021 18:39:17 GMT -5
We have to go all the way to Daytona to possibly play Bryant - lunacy. That Lunacy got us into a multi team tourney, with a schedule exemption, and a game with BC. As well as a November trip to Florida
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Post by longsuffering on Aug 13, 2021 20:43:52 GMT -5
With 2 D-3 teams in the schedule, does anyone want to revise their predictions on the number of wins? Yes. I'll up my win total by one.
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Post by DiMarz on Aug 13, 2021 21:13:34 GMT -5
Back in the day when I coached at he HS level, I liked to schedule 3 preseason scrimmages...One we could dominate so we could run all our "stuff" and see what needed improvement and what went well..One against a team that was our equal, so we had to work hard and do a good job running our stuff..And a third against a team that was much better than us, at least one level up, so my players could see how hard they had to work to be a good team......
Seems like this schedule is built about the same way.....I'm looking forward to seeing how this team has progressed in one year with a normal off-season regiment...
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Post by Non Alum Dave on Aug 14, 2021 4:03:02 GMT -5
I had thought Gonzaga and Xavier were coming to the Hart, so I am very disappointed.... Seriously, I can accept the D3 games if they represent a one time thing coming out of Covid. Haven't seen the team live in almost 2 years, so I would rather see games against NAIA schools in person than another 2-3 games I have no shot going to. I'm assuming that was their mindset, and that these games came about after reaching out to dozens of D1 schools about coming to Worcester. If not, shame on them, but I'm sure they made the effort. We also should remember that, outside of Gates and Dorsey, no one on this squad has faced ANY non conference opponents. I'm with DiMarz about tailoring the schedule to suit your current squad. In a couple of years I'm hoping those A-10 games can be against the Daytons and VCUs of the conference.
And think about it from the staff's point of view - to get the program going in the right direction, they need to start making some serious progress THIS season. Do they really want their guys to be going into PL play at 1-12, totally demoralized? I don't think so. I can't get on the coach/AD at this point.
At least we know now.....and I think this is actually early for HC!
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Post by sader1970 on Aug 14, 2021 5:17:22 GMT -5
I wonder how much of this schedule has to do with preventing a de-moralized team but a team that's gone 8-40 over the last 2 years shouldn't be overly demoralized with a 1-12 start if the competition is solid. So, better being 3-10 beating 2 D-3 teams?
I also wonder how much of the weak schedule has to do with this program which, in a word, has "stunk" starting over the last 3 coaches but exponentially worse under the current coach. Who wants to play Holy Cross, especially away in the Hart Center? They'd take a hit on their strength of schedule even if they win.
This may simply be the best that we could expect under the circumstances. Can't speak for anyone else but my expectations have been justifiably lowered.
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Post by trimster on Aug 14, 2021 5:41:33 GMT -5
I wonder how much of this schedule has to do with preventing a de-moralized team but a team that's gone 8-40 over the last 2 years shouldn't be overly demoralized with a 1-12 start if the competition is solid. So, better being 3-10 beating 2 D-3 teams? I also wonder how much of the weak schedule has to do with this program which, in a word, has "stunk" starting over the last 3 coaches but exponentially worse under the current coach. Who wants to play Holy Cross, especially away in the Hart Center? They'd take a hit on their strength of schedule even if they win. This may simply be the best that we could expect under the circumstances. Can't speak for anyone else but my expectations have been justifiably lowered. I think you are placing too much of the blame on our current coach for his 8-40 start to his HC career. Let's see what happens this year. If it's another disaster, we have good reason to be very concerned.
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Post by sader1970 on Aug 14, 2021 6:23:18 GMT -5
Curious as to what would qualify as a disaster for you this upcoming season? If he wins 6 or 7 games would he be "safe" if you were AD?
And, yes, maybe I'm being too harsh on the guy but as I've posted before, this is his team, regardless of how late he was hired his first season. And, yes, I simply don't buy that the high turnover was not at least partially his fault so he's got his guys now and unlike the old joke of POTUSes leaving the note for their successors when things go wrong to "blame your predecessor," this season is totally on him.
For me, it's bottom of the 9th and he's got 2 strikes against him. He needs to hit a Field of Dreams walkoff home run.
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Post by trimster on Aug 14, 2021 6:55:46 GMT -5
Curious as to what would qualify as a disaster for you this upcoming season? If he wins 6 or 7 games would he be "safe" if you were AD? And, yes, maybe I'm being too harsh on the guy but as I've posted before, this is his team, regardless of how late he was hired his first season. And, yes, I simply don't buy that the high turnover was not at least partially his fault so he's got his guys now and unlike the old joke of POTUSes leaving the note for their successors when things go wrong to "blame your predecessor," this season is totally on him. For me, it's bottom of the 9th and he's got 2 strikes against him. He needs to hit a Field of Dreams walkoff home run. I would say 6-7 wins this year would equate to a disaster. Not sure what I would do if I were the AD although I doubt HC would buy out his last two years. After all, we got out of the entertainment business a long time ago. This is his first normal off season and the team now consists entirely of his players. Let's see what happens.
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Post by rgs318 on Aug 14, 2021 7:03:18 GMT -5
Patience is a virtue and HC fans have more than demonstrated over the last few years/coaches that patience is something we have (...except for the few who wanted/demanded a turnover of players and immediate success.) This group of players seems, as a team, to have talent and depth that we have not seen in some time on the Hill. I agree we need to see some clear success and better overall team play. Coach Nelson and his staff have now had a full offseason to develop the talent they recruited, one that can produce. We'll see what the coming season brings.
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Post by sader1970 on Aug 14, 2021 7:10:59 GMT -5
Well, at least we'll have a nice parking lot for the games, right?
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Post by Tom on Aug 14, 2021 7:52:01 GMT -5
I'm not sure what to think about last season. 5 wins in a short season was an improvement. HC got beaten by the class of the league. Had a bad sweep at the hands of Lehigh. Split with the other two teams they played. If Coach Nelson's rookie season earned an "F", I think last year was so weird it earned an "Incomplete" but showed improvement. I'm not one to say a certain win total. I will say I will be disappointed if this squad does not finish in the top half of the league. Some might think that I'm setting the bar too low, but I based on where we were even last year, I think challenging for a league championship is a stretch ---------------------- I don't like playing D-III (or even D-II for that matter). After not seeing the team in person at all for the first time since grammar school, I'll take them this year. That being said, if either game is a loss, I will be using bad words and hope the squad is denied food. ----------------------------- As someone who spent the early years of Hart hiking up from the Carlin lot (now known as Stein for the younger people here) because my father didn't want to sit in traffic on college hill, I think the new lots are about 40 years too late (disclaimer - like that insurance ad when people turn into their parents, if Hart gets back to the point where traffic is backed up all the way down the hill, I will absolutely pull into Linden Lane and walk up )
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Post by DiMarz on Aug 14, 2021 8:12:19 GMT -5
----------------------------- As someone who spent the early years of Hart hiking up from the Carlin lot (now known as Stein for the younger people here) because my father didn't want to sit in traffic on college hill, I think the new lots are about 40 years too late (disclaimer - like that insurance ad when people turn into their parents, if Hart gets back to the point where traffic is backed up all the way down the hill, I will absolutely pull into Linden Lane and walk up ) Back in the day, I use to park on Electric Street..There was a gate leading to the practice fields that was chained, but there was just enough room to slip in..That was an easy in and out, and I drove away from college Square....
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Post by trimster on Aug 14, 2021 8:29:47 GMT -5
People can kvetch about the schedule until the cows come home but let's face, right now we are correctly perceived as being at the level of CCSU, Quinny and Bryant, maybe. Hopefully that changes this winter and future schedules reflect an improvement in the perception of Holy Cross basketball.
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Post by bigfan on Aug 14, 2021 8:49:44 GMT -5
We need to improve our future schedules or we will never get top recruits, the kids now want to play against the best teams. We need Uconn, Umass, BC, Providence every year on our schedule, maybe St. John's, Seton Hall etc.
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Post by sader1970 on Aug 14, 2021 8:53:22 GMT -5
Sadly 😢, I agree except we may not be perceived at the level of those “fine institutions” and I don’t mean we are higher than them.
There has been a lot of complaining about the softball program on another thread. But that’s softball. Here we are discussing men’s basketball. There is no legitimate reason why this program has failed for over a decade other than the incompetence of those running the program and significantly worse of late.
If we can succeed in football, we should be able to succeed in basketball.
I will believe that the current roster is better than the players we’ve lost when we start winning games not based on recruiting hype.
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Post by rgs318 on Aug 14, 2021 9:03:21 GMT -5
So you started believing in this roster when HC won those games at the end of last season?
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Post by sader1970 on Aug 14, 2021 9:07:29 GMT -5
😂😂😂😂😂. Yeah, right! Believe we are technically on a 2 game winning streak. Weee-ooooo!
Let’s extend Brett’s contract for another 10 years.
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Post by rgs318 on Aug 14, 2021 9:13:11 GMT -5
That is a bit of a bizarre jump, but yes as you pointed out the team is on a two game win streak. Don't all wins matter?
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Post by sader1970 on Aug 14, 2021 9:36:08 GMT -5
Yep. All wins matter. But all losses matter too. I would even bet that we’ll get our winning streak up to 3 after we beat Regis. Would anyone like to bet that streak will end on 11/12/2021?
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Post by hchoops on Aug 14, 2021 9:48:11 GMT -5
We need to improve our future schedules or we will never get top recruits, the kids now want to play against the best teams. We need Uconn, Umass, BC, Providence every year on our schedule, maybe St. John's, Seton Hall etc. We may need them but they do not need us now or in the foreseeable future, even, or maybe more so, if we turn the record around.
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Post by Non Alum Dave on Aug 14, 2021 12:17:38 GMT -5
Just checked the Regis website: one player @ 6-7 and then 2 @ 6-3 are the tallest players. I like our chances to control the boards. I think this should be--had better be--very ugly....... The roster on their web site is from the 2019-20 season, when they went 8-18. They did not play last year, so who knows how many players are even left from that team. Would be surprising if HC doesn't win by more than 35 points. Well, thanks for putting the first unofficial point spread out here on the board, so some can get worked up in a lather for a week if they win by only 27.....but you knew that.
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