Scheduling improvements – Legends Classic

11-12 Basketball Future Opponents General Mark Gottfried NC State NCS Basketball12

Over the past few years, there has been plenty of discussion of the Wolfpack’s out of conference strength, or lack of strength, of schedule. Even as Sidney Lowe upgraded the top end teams that the Pack played, such as Arizona, Syracuse, Florida, etc., it was the other games that drug the OOC RPI down, way down. Instead of playing several teams in the 150-200 range, the Wolfpack played teams with RPI numbers greater than 300. And when you play too many of those teams, just getting to .500 in the ACC won’t be good enough to get into the NCAA Tournament. Look at Seth Greenberg. 10-6 in the ACC isn’t automatically good enough anymore.

One of Mark Gottfried’s first goals was to improve the schedule:

Gottfried, speaking to the board of directors of the Alumni Association today, said the schedule that was in place for next season “was way too easy.”
“We want to make it more challenging, more high profile,” Gottfried said.

Well, today it became official.

New NC State basketball coach Mark Gottfried vowed to strengthen their schedule and he didn’t waste any time doing so.

NC State is one of four schools in the 2011 Legends Classic that will host regional rounds from November 13-17. Texas, Vanderbilt and Oregon State will also be hosts in the field.

The four host schools will advance to the Championship rounds which will take place at the IZOD Center in the New Jersey Meadowlands Sports Complex, November 19 & 21. The remainder of the field will take part in subregionals held on various campuses.

My first thought is that I want to see who the teams are that will play against in Raleigh so I will hold judgement on that. However, two of the other host three teams are definitely very good teams. Vanderbilt and Texas are quality teams. I am not so sure about the strength of Oregon State. In fact, I don’t know much about Oregon State basketball outside except that head coach Craig Robinson has a pretty well known brother-in-law. The Pack sure owes Vanderbilt one after the debacle in the 2004 NCAA 2nd round game. And Texas…well we all know about the Wolfpack Nation’s fascination with Rick Barnes.

It has been a good week for Coach Gottfried. First, Torian Graham commits and now his scheduling improvements are taking shape.

About ruffles31

1996 NC State graduate who is still waiting on his first ACC conference championship in any of the four main revenue sports (football, men's basketball, women's basketball, and baseball) since enrolling. All I want is a ACC Champions t-shirt.

11-12 Basketball Future Opponents General Mark Gottfried NC State NCS Basketball

12 Responses to Scheduling improvements – Legends Classic

  1. packalum44 05/18/2011 at 9:55 PM #

    I sleep easier at night knowing that we have competent administrators and coaches now. Thank you little baby Jesus. Not rocket scientist, but Sidney Lowe just didn’t “get it” at any level.

  2. sautz 05/18/2011 at 10:34 PM #

    Its amazing what a difference a coach and AD who know what they are doing can accomplish. Night and day vs. what we’ve had for the last 20 years.
    It was all so simple… but NC State’s leaders have been so incompetent. It didn’t help we have so many “athletic supporters” like Kennel who cheered them on.

  3. wolffpride 05/19/2011 at 12:00 AM #

    Gottfried definitely gets it. This guy is going to be the best hire in the ACC since Roy Williams

  4. graywolf 05/19/2011 at 7:43 AM #

    It was all so simple… but NC State’s leaders have been so incompetent. It didn’t help we have so many “athletic supporters” like Kennel who cheered them on.

    It’s amazing that we have heard nothing from Kennel since the administrative change and coaching changes. Silence is deafening.

  5. Bubba 05/19/2011 at 8:51 AM #

    The ACC schedule will pull the rpi way down this year. Gott knows the non conference schedule is very important the next couple of years.

  6. Classof89 05/19/2011 at 9:26 AM #

    Sid had a thing for MEAC teams–and not the good ones like Hampton. I think our scheduling philosophy for the “non-made for TV” OOC games that you fill your schedule out with should be simple–either teams that were in post season play last year (NCAA + NIT + CBI) OR (for conferences that are so weak that no teams other than the champion went to postseason play–MEAC, I’m looking at you), the team finished in the top four in the league during the regular season.

    Are there going to be some minor conference teams that finish in the top four and the next year when we play them are sub-300 RPI? Sure–that will happen sometimes. But many of the top finishers in those conferences are at or near the top year after year. Think Rider in the MAAC, or East Tennessee State in the Atlantic Sun. But I think I’d be willing to bet that if you never play a team in a lower RPI conference that finished lower than 4th the year before, you won’t be playing as many stiffs like last year’s matchup against USC-Upstate–a team that finished DFL in the Atlantic Sun…

  7. howlie 05/19/2011 at 11:58 AM #

    Good point concerning our previous NOT-made-for-TV schedule.

  8. 61Packer 05/19/2011 at 12:50 PM #

    Our previous two coaches seemed concerned mainly about achieving an overall .500 record to keep from being fired. They didn’t seem concerned one bit that we continuted to host an endless parade of small and usually sorry small OOC schools at the RBC. The NCSU administration seemed to feel the same way, especially since most of the RBC seats were already sold anyway through lifetime rights. So why bother to upgrade the schedule?

    Piling up home wins over OOC small schools enabled Sendek to reach the NCAAs several times because his overall record looked better in a stronger ACC than when Lowe arrived. Lowe’s teams weren’t a whole lot worse, but in a much weaker ACC, these OOC wins were enough only to keep Lowe around three years longer than he should’ve been.

    While Duke and UNC were competing for national championships, we were struggling at home to beat the likes of UNCG, Elon, South Carolina State and many other small schools we hosted. The few OOC road games at small schools resulted in embarrassment in Charlotte and disaster in Greenville.

    We have a coach now who seems to get it. Maybe the NCSU administration does too. We fans who’ve paid for LTR seats for over a decade deserve better than what we’ve had. Our school deserves better also. If Gott and his staff can convey instructions to players during games, we may be on the verge of a long-overdue rivitalization of Wolfpack basketball. This attempt to upgrade the schedule makes me believe that finally we have a coaching staff that is more concerned about making the program better, rather than finding ways to simply hang on to a job that assures financial security if you can last 5 years or longer.

  9. Wolfy__79 05/19/2011 at 7:54 PM #

    it’s all really a breath of fresh air… i can’t predict how things will shake out year one with w/l’s.. but i’m excited with all the happenings this spring.

    i’m suprised there hasn’t been any mention of de thaey?? he seems like a good pick up. i’m hoping for some guard help but i figured sfn would have something on a roster pick up?

  10. THE NCSTATE U 05/19/2011 at 9:34 PM #

    This is very, very, very good…you can talk smack about Jersey but all of the big time schools make a trip up to NY/NJ area. Not only is this great for the RP this is also great for media exposure.

    Also – there is a ton of talent in the PA/NJ/NY/CONN area that we haven’t tapped into (minus Costner and Horner who were NOT NJ’s finest) who have not been exposed to NC State. This is great from numerous perspectives.

  11. ruffles31 05/19/2011 at 10:07 PM #

    Wasn’t Costner a McDonald’s All-American?

    Who was higher rated than Costner that year?

  12. THE NCSTATE U 05/20/2011 at 10:07 AM #

    some random guy…Andrew Bynum??????? ; )
    And an actual random guy…Tyrell Biggs
    Both were rated higher then Costner

    Costner was a McDonald’s All American but obviously that didnt translate for us on a consistent basis

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