Interesting piece on the scheduling woes of successful mid-majors and how Siena is dealing with it. Luckily we're playing low major ball these days.http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=977709
Might lend a bit of credence to the "we were too good no one wanted to schedule us" line circa 2004-2007 and partially explain the anticipated majors (one specifically comes to mind from the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations) who've returned to the docket for GW's true 'rebuilding' in 09-10. As a side note, did it take a recent mid-major coach from Drake to make it happen? At any rate, the 09-10 schedule certainly beats any I can remember from the last 5 years.
During the 2004-2007 era, do you think think a GW assistant "...called or at least left messages with each Division I school as he searched for potential non-conference opponents. Even when a school said it had completed its schedule, [did he] call again just to make sure [?] " Would have been nice to hear more details other than the standard "of course Duke won't come to the Smith Center" dismissal. Maybe the Coach/AD are worried about 'bad-mouthing' the big boys who won't play nice once GW can compete so that we'll still be able to schedule them when we can't compete? Hopefully the paranoia runs deep enough that there are secret tape recordings that someone can sue to acquire and publish. We have some GW fans at the Post, right? Steinberg? Maybe Colucci can be "Deep Threat". Okay that's enough...
Also interesting: The coach mentioned trying to lock in multi-year contracts for next season before the NCAA tournament starts. How long does it take for a middling program to cross over to perenial mid-major contender (Memphis, Xavier, Gonzaga, Butler) and drop the mid-major tricks of the trade? Win your league (or league tournament) each year and make some noise in March year-in year-out for...... 5 years? 10 years? Survive key personnel departures like coaches and players? Reach the final four?
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