Those wondering what Illinois State’s basketball schedule will look like next season will have to wait a while.
ISU coach Tim Jankovich said this week “we’re working on it. We have a long way to go.
We have a number of games to get and they’re not coming easy, either.” Assistant coach Rob Judson handles the bulk of the scheduling and is on the telephone every day.
Besides the Missouri Valley Conference games, Jankovich said the only definite games right now are home against Central Michigan, Niagara and the BracketBuster in mid-February, and on the road at Utah in December. There is a possibility of a Thanksgiving weekend tournament at home, but it has not been finalized.
Jankovich reiterated his stance of not playing a “guarantee game” on the road against an opponent that will not play a return game at Redbird Arena. He wasn’t sure whether ISU would think about a 2-for-1 arrangement, but those opportunities aren’t coming the Redbirds’ way.
The Redbirds have inquired about playing in two-game tournaments, but have been rebuffed. ISU is probably in the worst position of a mid-major right now. The Redbirds have won 25 and 24 games the last two seasons. Opponents don’t exactly want to schedule the Redbirds at home.
Think about it: If you are hosting a tournament, you want to win it. Having Osiris Eldridge come into your building and put 30 points on you won’t help.
Stop the excuse making and go on the road and play Northwestern, Iowa State or some good mid majors – play some name teams you can compete against and stop worrying about a return game. You’ll only get return games when you make the Big Dance and make a name for yourself. In the mean time step up and stop playing the excuse chip.
i hate to say it but it looks like there are other games besides the one on the court.its sad that other people are making the rules.for the short term it seems like u will have play the scheduling game with someone else’s rules. imho schedule a few there way then beat the pants off them. GO REDBIRDS.
Jim,
We are hosting another tournament on Nov. 27-29th through basketball travelers. (http://www.basketballtravelers.com/pages/m_bticlassic.htm)
Teams Playing:
Illinois State
Norfolk State
SE Missouri State
St. Bonaventure
Only team on our schedule with potential for being a good win is St. Bonaventure.
Oops. I meant to say that in that tourney the only team we are playing that has potential to be a good win is St. Bonnies.
The unfortunate thing is that the two best games on our schedule next year weren’t even schedule by Jank and company. You can thank Elgin for the game against Utah and also ESPN for our game against Niagara and a potentially good game against another team later in the season. Yikes! Jank can for sure recruit em, but he can’t schedule em. I agree with the poster above that we must have a game in the Chicagoland area for recruiting purposes. Let people know there is still a team in Bloomington-Normal.
Go play some big boys on the road w/o the return game. You’ll be battle tested when you get to the Valley tournament. No excuse for a more talented team to lose to Northern Iowa. Last year’s cream puff schedule didn’t prepare ISU for post season. And, ISU responded by losing many close games in the last few minutes.
Gonzaga goes everywhere w/o getting return games. That’s how they built their program. ISU needs to swollow it’s pride and stop demanding return games.
Seems to me the article says that the Thanksgiving tournament isn’t set in stone Brian. If that’s the case I’m happy to know that we won’t be playing cupcake city in Normal for Thanksgiving. As die hard of a fan of this team I am, I want to see us test ourselves. If that means going on the road for a 1 and done, or doing some 2 for 1’s then so be it. Let’s get it done already.
All these wizards that think scheduling is so easy! My guess is that Northwestern will not play us in Chicago or anywhere because we would likely win. Ditto DePaul. Same goes for Iowa State. The better we get the harder it will be to play BCS schools even at their places. Makes sense that we are limited in getting into 4 team tournaments also because they are hosted by a school that expects to win their own tournament. Oh, to be back in the days of Richardson & Moser when we could play anybody!!!
Playing the Chicagoland BCS schools would be nice, but it shouldn’t be our singular goal for scheduling name-brand teams. Let’s go out an get any big name that will play us. Face it, Jank–we’re not good enough to bypass 1-and-dones. Go out and play ‘em!
[...] Two perspectives on scheduling. Though things seem the same for Illinois St. and Wisconsin, it is totally different. C’mon Wisconsin. Schedule a home-home with a Valley school if you are really running into that much trouble. I’m sure they would jump at it. [...]