Big East Non-Conference Schedule Breakdowns

This year several of the Big East's top teams played a really pathetic schedule, so now I'm going to take a look at every team's non conference schedule and call those out who scheduled "like Syracuse" this year. Even though I don't really care about the rankings anymore and too much of the early season bracketology, I'm tired of seeing teams in the Big East get more votes and more praise than they deserve. I hate seeing teams get more national spotlight because they are like 11-2 out of conference because they played nobodies when there are teams that have 3 or 4 losses that went out and played people but couldn't beat them all and are paying the price for it.
Each Big East team will fall into three categories: Jim Calhoun's for pathetic scheduling, Jamie Dixon for okay scheduling, and John Calipari for really challenging your team and getting them ready for conference play.

The Jim Calhoun's of the world:
First and foremost Jim Calhoun- UCONN has played two quality teams this year. Memphis and Gonzaga on neutral courts much closer to UCONN than their opponents. Guess what, they lost both. They are the only two opponents in the Huskies non-conference (NC) slate to have an RPI better than 100. If this team doesn't win at least 11 games in the Big East, they won't be dancing. The selection committee will look at their resume and see no quality wins before the Big East and see a NC strength of schedule below 100. Their best win in the NC? RPI 104 Central Florida which was their only road game of the NC.

Tom Crean of Marquette- They have two solid games in Wisconsin and Duke, winning one of those games. Those two games look nice, but after that the list of teams they played is mind-boggling. RPI 326 Sacramento State, 267 IPFW (a cookie to the first person who tells me what that stands for), 256 Savannah St., 172 and 1-11 Coppin St., 226 Utah Valley State. They have no other games than Duke and Wisconsin that are top 100 RPIs.

Bob Huggins of WVU- I'm guessing Huggins didn't put a lot of this schedule together since he joined the team during the off-season, but man did they play a lot of bad teams. The good games they played are enough to get into the Jamie Dixon category, but the number of RPI 300s games they played is too high. They've played four games against teams 300 or worse, but they tried to still boost their schedule by going to Radford (323) and Canisus (320). They do have several decent games in the NC against Tennessee and Oklahoma, but they lost both of those.

John Thompson III- HAHAHA. HAHA. HA. That's what most people will do when they look at Georgetown's schedule. They played Memphis and lost, Alabama and won. Those are the only two games this year Georgetown could have any chance in the world of losing. The rest of their conference games come against teams 170 or worse in the RPI. If they want a one seed in the NCAA tournament, they'll need about a 16-2 record in the Big East.

Jay Wright- NCST, George Mason, and Temple. Those are the three best teams 'Nova played in the NC. Temple wasn't much of a road game and they played George Mason at home (ed. note. George Mason was a neutral court closer to GM. My mistake, the site I was using didn't specify it was neutral court.) After that, seven games against teams 150 or worse in the RPI.

Rick Pitino- They played two games against BCS schools RPI 226 Kentucky and 117 Purdue. Their four best games came against mid-majors and they lost two of those. This team's best win came against UNLV. With no marquee wins on the resume and several injuries, making the NCAA tournament could be tough for the Cardinals if they don't start winning lots of games in the Big East early.

Fred Hill of Rutgers- Another joke of a schedule. This team is trying to rebuild, but at least play a few a teams. Recruits are going to want to play a few tough games somewhere. They have two decent games- at UNC and at Florida- two games they have no shot to win. If they are going to schedule games against BCS schools with top 100 RPI's at least schedule games against someone they can beat. They also have seven games against teams 250 or worse in the RPI, one of which they lost to St. Peters.


The Jamie Dixon's of the world:
Jamie Dixon of Pitt- Pitt went with the philosophy of, we'll schedule six ridiculous cupcakes and then play some people. I give them credit for then actually playing a few teams and being successful against them. They schedule three top 50 RPI teams and won of those against Duke and Duquesne as well as two more games against BCS schools in Washington and Ok-St. They have a solid NC resume which should help them get in should they falter significantly after losing two of their top four players.

Mike Brey of Notre Dame- They challenged themselves with games against Baylor, Kansas State, Georgia Tech, and Brown. They managed to go 2-2 against them which means they'll have a couple of quality wins on their resume.

Louis Orr (Ed. Note: Looked at the wrong roster, Bobby Gonzalez is the new coach) of Seton Hall- They played three games against top 100 teams and several more against top 150 teams. This program is trying to rebuild, so a moderate schedule like this was necessary. They could have gone out and scheduled maybe one more marquee game. They got lucky that St. Mary's College who they played turned into a very strong team this year.

The John Calipari's of the world:
Jim Boeheim- In the past Jimmy B has been a Jamie Dixon and Jim Calhoun, but not this year. He went out and got this team in the preseason NIT and a road game at Virginia. He also got games on the NC schedule against some of the best mid-majors in the Northeast. In total, they have nine games against top-100 RPIs, going 6-3 against them. They also didn't play a single game against teams below 200 in the RPI.

Providence's Tim Welsh- Seven games against top-100 RPI schools in which they went 5-2 against. Plus a game against another BCS school South Carolina in which they lost. Welsh probably thought he had this team ready for conference play, but they opened 0-2.

South Florida's Stan Heath- This school is trying to build this program and go to at least the NIT. Heath built a schedule that will help them do that. They played six road games in the NC schedule and four games against top 100 teams. They went 2-2 in those games including a road win at number 40 Florida State.

St. John's Norm Roberts- Their SOS is ranked 27 after playing games against six top 100 RPI schools, unfortunately for the Red Storm they lost 5 of those. It was a solid schedule for a team trying to rebuild. None of those six games were against teams they didn't have a shot at. If this team was a little better, they could have had a solid resume going into conference play.

Jerry Wainwright of Depaul- Their SOS is ranked 11 after playing games against five top 50 RPI schools. They lost all five, with four on the road to Creighton, Mississippi, Clemson, and Kansas. This team lost their best players to the draft last year, so a tough schedule seemed a bit odd. It paid off though going into conference play. The Blue Demons won their first two conference games over Providence and Villanova before losing to Georgetown.

Mick Cronin- Their last five NC games were against top 60 RPI teams. Again this team looked prepared coming into conference play, upsetting Louisville in their opener.