nice schedule

[razorbackjapan]

At first glance, the razorbacks non-conference schedule doesn't look too difficult.  Recently we are used to seeing them play a couple of legit teams from the Big 12 and then get fat on cupcakes  before the conference season starts.  A couple years back Dick Vitale even signaled Arkansas out for their weak schedule.   This year some of the names look the same (Delaware State, Charleston, Northwestern State, Appalachian State, La Monroe etc.), but these 5 teams were a combined 103-61 or an average of 20-11.  Add that to the Paradise Jam  where we could face Providence (18-13)and VCU (28-7) and to the Big 12 games against Missouri, Oklahoma and Baylor and it looks like this schedule will really get us ready for conference season.  And unlike years past, we should have a clear idea of how good this team can be by January. 

I'm really excited and can't wait. I wish I could say the same about the football razorbacks non-conference game this weekend. 

[dotnet]

We don't play one team that is even close to a lock to make the tournament.  The schedule is average at best.

[Hollywood_HOGan45]

We don't play one team that is even close to a lock to make the tournament.  The schedule is average at best.

true
nobody is a "lock" for the NCAAT yet but i get your point. We don't play any pre season top 25 teams but this pre season schedule still looks challenging. Playing at ou will hopefully get them ready for the road in the SEC. We need to win that game. Missouri at home will be a really big game. I expect a full, wild crowd for that one. Baylor at Barnhill south? I guess we were really really looking for an opponent to play in Dallas. Baylor doesnt get me fired up but its a BCS team. We also play Providence or Temple.

Some of the no name teams that could give us a game are App State ( we NEVER play well in little rock, NEVER)
ORU will be a pretty big game.
MIssouri State ( they just about beat us last time they came to the bud)
Also a possibility we play virginia commenwealth.
Not a cupcake city schedule but I'd say we have a shot at winning every single game in the non conference. Not saying i excpet 13-0 going into the SEC but it wouldnt surprise me.

[PiggoBitttys]

We were supposed to be playing Texas, which should be a lock to the NCAA's, can't help that we lost them. But yea, I wouldn't mind another marquee game or two besides them anyways.

[Hollywood_HOGan45]

We were supposed to be playing Texas, which should be a lock to the NCAA's, can't help that we lost them. But yea, I wouldn't mind another marquee game or two besides them anyways.

We still havent had an explanation of why texas chickened out of coming here.

We could have had Mizzou and Texas at home. Having Texas at the bud would have been amazing but they have to wait till we lose 7 seniors and then they'll come.

Still some big games to get up for Missouri and OKlahoma most noteable.

[Adam Stokes]

  This is the type of schedule that I prefer, why is that?  Because I'm an RPI guy, and this will help our RPI out big time.  I would have liked to play one top ten team, but beside that this schedule is perfect.  This is because we play a lot of teams that we should beat but aren't bad.  The RPI killers are when you play teams that are in the bottom 10% or the league, and the cancel out the great teams we play in the SEC.  This year I see no bottom feeders.  Sure there are teams that will finish with losing records, I just don't see any Longwoods or Stephen F. Austins that will kill our RPI.  That is the kind of schedule I want, alot of top 30% percent teams and no bottom 10%, that maximizes your chances for a good seed come March.

[hogfan98]

We were supposed to be playing Texas, which should be a lock to the NCAA's, can't help that we lost them. But yea, I wouldn't mind another marquee game or two besides them anyways.

We still havent had an explanation of why texas chickened out of coming here.

We could have had Mizzou and Texas at home. Having Texas at the bud would have been amazing but they have to wait till we lose 7 seniors and then they'll come.

Still some big games to get up for Missouri and OKlahoma most noteable.

you answered your own question on why texas isn't coming this year.  if you had a choice, would you come this year or next year?  i can't believe we agreed to it.

[alaback]

  This is the type of schedule that I prefer, why is that?  Because I'm an RPI guy, and this will help our RPI out big time.  I would have liked to play one top ten team, but beside that this schedule is perfect.  This is because we play a lot of teams that we should beat but aren't bad.  The RPI killers are when you play teams that are in the bottom 10% or the league, and the cancel out the great teams we play in the SEC.  This year I see no bottom feeders.  Sure there are teams that will finish with losing records, I just don't see any Longwoods or Stephen F. Austins that will kill our RPI.  That is the kind of schedule I want, alot of top 30% percent teams and no bottom 10%, that maximizes your chances for a good seed come March.

Kind of like 04-05 which was this senior team's freshman year.  Below is that year's schedule along with the RPIs of the teams we played.  Looking back it was pretty bad and we were 3-10 against the top 100.  Probably a good idea to decline the NIT bid since a 1st round exit would have been likely.  We finished with an RPI of 100 that year btw.

Non-Conference:
82 24-5  vs Winthrop (1) W 72-49 70
219 11-18  vs Troy (1) W 85-54
266 10-18  vs Eastern Michigan (1) W 82-64
156 16-12  Gardner-Webb W 79-63
243 9-20  Tulsa W 85-73
2 32-1  vs Illinois L 60-72
72 16-16  @ Missouri W 62-52
161 12-16  Tennessee St W 96-68
319 5-23  Prairie View A&M W 102-50
220 14-12  Lipscomb W 83-54
300 8-20  Hartford W 87-55
318 4-22  Jacksonville St W 73-67
317 5-19  UL Monroe W 85-43

Conference:
140 14-17 * Mississippi W 69-46
19 23-7 * @ Florida L 74-82
17 23-7 * Alabama L 61-64
29 22-10 * @ Mississippi St L 55-80
25 20-9 * @ LSU L 63-66 OT
137 14-17 * Auburn W 95-59
11 25-5 * Kentucky L 67-68
90 15-13 * @ South Carolina L 52-64
140 14-17 * @ Mississippi W 66-65
212 8-20 * Georgia W 62-47
25 20-9 * LSU W 65-62
17 23-7 * @ Alabama L 63-72
74 18-13 * @ Vanderbilt L 65-79
106 14-17 * Tennessee W 70-68
29 22-10 * Mississippi St L 55-57
137 14-17 * @ Auburn L 64-77
106 14-17  vs Tennessee (2) L 46-65


Below is the non-conference RPI from last year of the teams on this year's schedule.  I know basketball is different and teams can have major swings from one year to the next because of 1 or 2 impact players or players graduating etc. but here goes anyway.

296 Wofford
114 College of Charleston
76 Providence or 182 Temple
44 VCU (Assumption)
120 Delaware State
93 Missouri
90 ORU
36 Missouri State
318 TX-San Antonio
102 Oklahoma
157 Norhwestern State
59 Appalachian State
203 Louisiana Monroe
141 Baylor


This really isn't that good of a schedule and realistically we should expect to be 14-0 or at worst 13-1 heading into conference play without much test along the way which doesn't necessarily bode well for the SEC grind and the worst homer call league in the country.  It also doesn't help to have to go to UK and UT.  The West must be won convincingly with 3 out of 4 against MSU and Alabama.  LSU, Auburn, and Ole Miss must be swept.  If you're like me and think that anything worse than a 5 seed is not a successful season that's what has to happen because believe me, our SOS won't be that good.  A 12-4 or 11-5 SEC campaign would put us in the #4 seed or better category with a 25-5 record entering the SEC tournament and that tournament determining how high that final seed could climb.  I do this every year and like a lamb led to slaughter, I watched as Stan would fold in the SEC season after season.  I have a feeling this year's going to be different.  We shall see.

[Adam Stokes]

  This is the type of schedule that I prefer, why is that?  Because I'm an RPI guy, and this will help our RPI out big time.  I would have liked to play one top ten team, but beside that this schedule is perfect.  This is because we play a lot of teams that we should beat but aren't bad.  The RPI killers are when you play teams that are in the bottom 10% or the league, and the cancel out the great teams we play in the SEC.  This year I see no bottom feeders.  Sure there are teams that will finish with losing records, I just don't see any Longwoods or Stephen F. Austins that will kill our RPI.  That is the kind of schedule I want, alot of top 30% percent teams and no bottom 10%, that maximizes your chances for a good seed come March.

Kind of like 04-05 which was this senior team's freshman year.  Below is that year's schedule along with the RPIs of the teams we played.  Looking back it was pretty bad and we were 3-10 against the top 100.  Probably a good idea to decline the NIT bid since a 1st round exit would have been likely.  We finished with an RPI of 100 that year btw.

Non-Conference:
82 24-5  vs Winthrop (1) W 72-49 70
219 11-18  vs Troy (1) W 85-54
266 10-18  vs Eastern Michigan (1) W 82-64
156 16-12  Gardner-Webb W 79-63
243 9-20  Tulsa W 85-73
2 32-1  vs Illinois L 60-72
72 16-16  @ Missouri W 62-52
161 12-16  Tennessee St W 96-68
319 5-23  Prairie View A&M W 102-50
220 14-12  Lipscomb W 83-54
300 8-20  Hartford W 87-55
318 4-22  Jacksonville St W 73-67
317 5-19  UL Monroe W 85-43

Conference:
140 14-17 * Mississippi W 69-46
19 23-7 * @ Florida L 74-82
17 23-7 * Alabama L 61-64
29 22-10 * @ Mississippi St L 55-80
25 20-9 * @ LSU L 63-66 OT
137 14-17 * Auburn W 95-59
11 25-5 * Kentucky L 67-68
90 15-13 * @ South Carolina L 52-64
140 14-17 * @ Mississippi W 66-65
212 8-20 * Georgia W 62-47
25 20-9 * LSU W 65-62
17 23-7 * @ Alabama L 63-72
74 18-13 * @ Vanderbilt L 65-79
106 14-17 * Tennessee W 70-68
29 22-10 * Mississippi St L 55-57
137 14-17 * @ Auburn L 64-77
106 14-17  vs Tennessee (2) L 46-65


Below is the non-conference RPI from last year of the teams on this year's schedule.  I know basketball is different and teams can have major swings from one year to the next because of 1 or 2 impact players or players graduating etc. but here goes anyway.

296 Wofford
114 College of Charleston
76 Providence or 182 Temple
44 VCU (Assumption)
120 Delaware State
93 Missouri
90 ORU
36 Missouri State
318 TX-San Antonio
102 Oklahoma
157 Norhwestern State
59 Appalachian State
203 Louisiana Monroe
141 Baylor


This really isn't that good of a schedule and realistically we should expect to be 14-0 or at worst 13-1 heading into conference play without much test along the way which doesn't necessarily bode well for the SEC grind and the worst homer call league in the country.  It also doesn't help to have to go to UK and UT.  The West must be won convincingly with 3 out of 4 against MSU and Alabama.  LSU, Auburn, and Ole Miss must be swept.  If you're like me and think that anything worse than a 5 seed is not a successful season that's what has to happen because believe me, our SOS won't be that good.  A 12-4 or 11-5 SEC campaign would put us in the #4 seed or better category with a 25-5 record entering the SEC tournament and that tournament determining how high that final seed could climb.  I do this every year and like a lamb led to slaughter, I watched as Stan would fold in the SEC season after season.  I have a feeling this year's going to be different.  We shall see.

I like the research you did.  But this is why I like the schedule.  I would like to play one really good team like a Memphis or an Indiana, but besides that I like the schedule.  To say that our RPI will be as bad as the 04-05 season is way off.  Again a good RPI is determined by how many bad teams you do NOT play.  There are only three not in the top 200, as compared to the 04-05 season where we had 8, that is why our SOS sucked that year.  Believe me, our non-conference RPI SOS will be in the top 75.  After SEC play it will go up into the top 30.  It won't be a top 15 like last year, but it will be a lot of easy wins that will allow us to climb into the top ten when conference play starts.

[dotnet]

I agree this might help our RPI.  But if we struggle for whatever reason, we are going to have zero non-conference wins to hang our hat on.  A bunch of old guys in a room are going to look at our schedule and pick someone else because we didn't play anybody.

[BallHog1]

We don't play one team that is even close to a lock to make the tournament.  The schedule is average at best.

Realistically, we won't know who the locks are until the season gets rolling. Who would have predicted the success of S Florida, Conneticut, and Kentucky (as examples) in football this year?
Based on last year's results, I agree the schedule looks average but you never know.

[BallHog1]

At first glance, the razorbacks non-conference schedule doesn't look too difficult.  Recently we are used to seeing them play a couple of legit teams from the Big 12 and then get fat on cupcakes  before the conference season starts.  A couple years back Dick Vitale even signaled Arkansas out for their weak schedule.   This year some of the names look the same (Delaware State, Charleston, Northwestern State, Appalachian State, La Monroe etc.), but these 5 teams were a combined 103-61 or an average of 20-11.  Add that to the Paradise Jam  where we could face Providence (18-13)and VCU (28-7) and to the Big 12 games against Missouri, Oklahoma and Baylor and it looks like this schedule will really get us ready for conference season.  And unlike years past, we should have a clear idea of how good this team can be by January. 

I'm really excited and can't wait. I wish I could say the same about the football razorbacks non-conference game this weekend. 

Dick V is a lot of hot air and noise. He doesn't know anymore than the average guy in my opinion. He changes direction and prediction based on the last box scores available.

[PigSooie92]

I think we should play Southern Illinois every year.
I know it's random, but a lot of years we are even with them in talent and last year was a very close game.