Basketball Team Gets The Message Loud-And-Clear

Basic Info: Just today, the Men's Basketball Team announced its 2009 non-conference schedule. Highlighting the slate are contests on the road @ Virginia (ACC-Big Ten Challenge), @ Temple, and a neutral tournament which includes the likes of Miami (Fla.), South Carolina, Davidson, and South Florida. The Nits also have at least one marquee home game before Jan. 1 when Virginia Tech visits the BJC on Dec. 12. Finally, perennial mid-major contenders American U. and and Robert Morris also make the trip to Happy Valley.

The Key Statistic: Most importantly, out of next year's opponents only one--Penn--was in the RPI's bottom 1/3 of teams, compared to last year's schedule which featured approximately six teams in the bottom 1/3 of the RPI rankings. And frankly, Penn is an Philly school, so I'll give that game a "pass" since we're still trying to break into that area in our recruiting and fan-support efforts.

Areas For Improvement: There are still two areas where the staff could improve the schedule:

1. First, there is no reason why we should not try to resume a home-and-home rotation with Pitt, or at least another high-profile Pennsylvania program like Villanova. (Sorry, Temple doesn't count).
2. Second, we should try to schedule another "national" program like we did before, even if it means we need to play it on the road with no guaranteed return trip to Happy Valley. (See, for example, Kentucky, N.C. State, Texas A&M, Rutgers, and North Carolina). Possibilities? How about Syracuse, Notre Dame, Tennessee, or Cal?

Final Thought: In the end, this schedule is a HUGE upgrade compared to last year and should continue to improve and grow in terms of strength every year that the program itself grows stronger under Coach DeChellis.