2012-2013 Men's Basketball Schedule

[SLCBengal]

Non-conference home games with:

Montana Tech
Whitworth
Montana Western
Bracket Buster

Read more: ISUBengals.com: 2012-13 Men's Basketball Schedule Announced

The away schedule doesn't seem as daunting, but the non-conference home schedule is the worst one I can remember.

 

[Skippy]

Playing 20 conference games has certainly cut into the attractiveness of the non-conference schedule. Looking forward to Idaho's return to the BSC and -- hopefully -- a smaller and more manageable conference slate.

FYI, the roster for this year's men's team is posted on the ISU web site http://www.isubengals.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It includes Clint Thomas, a 6-1 F guard from McCall. He was a second team all-state player last year. I'm assuming he's a walk-on. I did find some video clips from his junior year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8mrbIRI6Xo&feature=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[IFBengalfan98]

Walters is listed as a senior, but as a sophomore for usu eastern last year. Any reason for the lost year?

 

[Skippy]

Walters is listed as a senior, but as a sophomore for usu eastern last year. Any reason for the lost year?

Don't know any details, but this was the tweet that came from the Jamaica Basketball Association about Walters' signing:

"Naveij Walters formerly of Belair High accepts Idaho State U as his D1 scholarship. Risks remain as the NCAA give him 1 year eligibility."

 

[SLCBengal]

The USU-Eastern student newspaper profiled him last year, and the article stated that he first played at Knox Community College in Manchester, Jamaica. The NJCAA and NCAA have different rules, so perhaps the NCAA considers his eligibility began at Knox CC whereas the NJCAA does not...???

Walters played for Team AAAH (Amazing Athletes at Heart) while in Jamaica. Then received a scholarship to Belair High School to play basketball with Coach Mike, his coach with Team AAAH. He was a part of an under-19 division team that won their region undefeated. The team went on to the All-Island Tournament where they left undefeated with the title of “champions.” After high school, Walters went on to play basketball at Knox Community College in Manchester, Jamaica. There, his team went on to win the intercollegiate tournament.
Walters came to USU Eastern last year to play for the men’s basketball team. He returned again this year as the “undersized center” for the Eagles and to further his education. In addition to basketball, Walters is also a “fantastic student,” as he was described by Coach Brian Edelstein.

The Eagle Online: "Ive got a gift; I should use it."

 

[SLCBengal]

“I wish we had more home games,” Evans said. “We only have one home game in November and December, and sometimes those things happen in scheduling. We want the ratio of home and road games to be better, and we think next year it will be.”

At the very least, Pacific should be a home game next year (returning last year's Bracket Buster game)...

Read more: ISU Voice: Pac-12 Teams Highlight 2012-13 Schedule

 

[tuffgong]

This is a dumpster fire.. 1 real home game (not NAIA) outside of conference?? This is some sick joke, which, thanks to the previous regime, our 'program' has become. How did Tim Walsh retain his job as an asst.? Seriously!? Even he should admit that he in no way deserved that. Our men's hoops is at or below where our football program was under Johnny Z. Hopefully, Evans will have the magic to get us back to respectability. At least our women's sports are good.. :/

 

[biobengal]

We seem to have this conversation every year... no home games of note, so many money games, etc.. Look at the football schedule, same thing only worse. ISU doesn't play a meaningful football game until week 5 and none of the first 3 helps to get to the playoffs. In fact, ISU has to win 7 of the last 8 to be considered for the playoffs. Not going to happen.... has rarely happened in the history of ISU football.

YET..... I've brought this up before.... and received personal messages stating "put up half a million or shut up". Nobody has a solution to the scheduling death spiral.

 

[PBP]

The fact is that it is difficult to get teams to come to Pocatello from a travel standpoint unless you are willing to pay a lot of money to them.

That's the reality of things. I don't know of anybody who likes that situation but it is what it is.

I don't know if working with the Pocatello airport / regional airlines might be able to come up with some sort of deal for other schools to come here, that's probably not practical but it's the only thing I can think of right now.

It's possible to occasionally get schools to come here, I can think of Utah, Utah State, Wyoming, Loyola Marymount, Air Force, South Dakota, Boise State in the past few years for men's and women's basketball...but to get three or four of them to come...every season...that's really, really hard to do.

PBP

 

[sasquatch]

It's not just a Pocatello thing. Mid-majors, especially the more rural ones, are finding it harder to schedule at home. I know some people hate the bracket buster, but at least the conference mandated participation in it allows for some scheduling help.

Look at some of the other conference members who are in a similar situation as ISU. Not counting bracket busters, SUU has 3 non conference home games, including one division I (San Diego). NAU has two home non-conference games, albeit both are division I (Loyola Marymount and Sam Houston). EWU has 3 home non-conference games, all division I, but geography helps them in 2 of them (Idaho and Seattle).

Boise State is on its own planet and doesn't want to associate itself with ISU or even Idaho anymore. I heard the former AD there Bleymaier felt it was a good idea to play the in-state schools, but I also heard that Joe O'Brien rubbed some the wrong way, especially when he cancelled out on the BSU series in order to play in the mid-west.

Does anybody have the definitive word as to why Utah Valley refused to play us? Everybody says the coach, Hunsaker, won't play us or even Weber if he can help it, but I've never heard a reason why.

 

[tuffgong]

All I hear at ISU is, why it CAN'T be done.. I'm very familiar with that. I want to hear now, why it CAN be done. If we are gonna be a D1 athletic dept. and school, let's at least attempt to start acting like one. Kramer is on his way. I can't say that about our hoops, yet. Sack up and make it happen, or get out of college athletics, coaches. We need no more excuses..

 

[PBP]

Sas:

The story that I heard and I don't know if it's true or not, is that there was a real disagreement on the quality of the officiating when ISU came to Utah Valley as opposed to when they came to Pocatello.

There were some issues during games that ISU couldn't believe, they asked for some changes on who was going to be calling the game down there. Those requests were apparently rebuffed so ISU said they would no longer play there, and paid to get out of the scheduled game. There were legally entitled to do so I had heard because that was written in the contract.

Don't know if any of that is true but that's what I heard.

PBP

 

[FormerISUSID]

When UVU came to the dome in Joe's first year, it was pretty chilly in the building, and Hunsaker went off on O'Brien prior to the game and afterwards after we beat them. He also was pissed at the scoreboard locations (the boards weren't hung yet, and they were mounted to the end zone bleachers for that game.)

Joe informed me at that time through some "choice" words that he was never play a game again as long as Hunsaker was there, and Paul backed him up on it. That next year, I believe one of the guarantee games paid us an extra $20,000 to get out of the game.

Those are how these scheduling things come about. I can GUARANTEE you when ISU goes up to North Dakota, the UND folks will be as minimally hospitable as they can be, as we bagged out on going there to play Oklahoma instead. I would think Cal Poly would be the same way.

Scheduling itself is a game...a very tricky little game, and it's the same everywhere, even here at UNM, where we have to pay folks to come to The Pit to play. Luckily, we ended up with a nice schedule and 18 home games (16 regular season, 2 exhibition), but it's tough anywhere to get home games.

If ISU could get 5,000 per game, based on ticket prices, it could afford guarantees to get better teams in. It's hard because going to Poky is a one-game only trip most likely. I'm not sure working with Utah State or Weber State or Utah would even be a benefit, because if you are going to fly into SLC, just play those guys...

It's a tough deal...I lived it for 12 years...I don't envy Jeff and the hoops staff at all on the scheduling nightmare...

Former ISUSID

Edit: I should add that when Jeff first took over scheduling, and had the $$$ mandate put on him, how he got that first ISU football schedule together was nothing short of amazing for a rookie A.D. He got out of the Cal Poly game without a penalty, and got Cal Poly and Weber State games in order to move things on our schedule around to get an extra money game. ISU will get out of the scheduling mess when they can get one money game that pays about $6-800,000 instead of two games that pay $3-400,000 apiece...

 

[biobengal]

ISU will get out of the scheduling mess when they can get one money game that pays about $6-800,000 instead of two games that pay $3-400,000 apiece...

That doesn't look to be the case, ISU is getting $600,000 to play at Nebraska according to ESPN.

IMO, the double body bag will continue, rendering the playoffs an impractical goal.

 

[FormerISUSID]

I believe the Nebraska thing came along late, and part of that is being used to finish off John's contract I believe, or to help recover from that. I think if they can get one big one, Jeff would do that instead of two smaller ones.

Former ISUSID

 

[Skippy]

Just my :twocents: I agree with Biobengal that ISU will likely continue to play two money games in the future. Mike Kramer has extolled the virtues of these games, and ISU will reap near $1 million from this year's games, so as long as Nebraska, Oklahoma, Georgia, etc, are willing to put the bucks on the table, I think it will be difficult for ISU to walk away from it. If $600 K is good, $1 M is better. I asked both Kramer and Jeff last year on the radio show if two money games per year was the new "norm," and both agreed that it probably is.

Playing those two money games will, as Biobengal pointed out, make it very difficult to make the playoffs, but not impossible. The Bengals will have to a) pull a major upset; b) go 7-1 or better in league play or c) play an FCS non-conference opponent and beat them, then go 6-2 in league in order to get the requisite 7-Division 1 wins to get into the playoffs. With the current scheduling philosophy of two money games and one lower division foe, that means the Bengals will have to either get a D-1 upset or go 7-1 in league.

The Bengals are still probably a year or two away from worrying about all that, however, and if they get the talent level up to where they can compete with the best teams in the league, they can always adjust the scheduling philosophy accordingly.

One other thought -- since Northern Colorado came into the league in 2006, no Big Sky team has made the post-season with a conference record of less than 6-2. With four new football programs in the league, the competition to get into the playoffs is going to be fierce, and going 6-2 is going to require a damn good football team, no matter what kind of non-conference schedule you play.

 

[SLCBengal]

For what it's worth, I believe 2013 and 2014 are years in which FCS schools are allowed 12 games. The last time that was allowed was 2008, and ISU played 5 home and 7 away. Playing a balanced 6 home vs 6 away schedule could prove helpful, I would assume...

Washington, next year's FBS opponent, paid Portland State $425,000 for last week's game. I would guess ISU will be within that same neighborhood, perhaps a little more (Portland to Seattle is just a 3 hour bus ride).

There was an article concerning Wyoming a few weeks back, and it made mention that lower level FBS programs are also relying on "money games."

With a short-term forecast of decreased revenue from TV, a pending 8 percent cut for all state agencies by the state and a fall in natural gas prices that affects all of the state’s economy, more money games are on the horizon for UW.

"You have to be careful. You don’t want to schedule yourself into a situation where you can’t be successful. But on the other hand, you’ve got to pay your bills.”

"I don’t want us to put in a situation where it becomes how we run our operation. That’s not our goal,” Burman said on money games.

“Once you’re living off them for your general operating budget, it’s hard to get away from it. We’d prefer not to do that. We prefer to use that money for special projects.”

Read more: WyoSports.net: Playing BCS teams is good money for UW but not a habit

For the record, I hate 2 FBS games a year as well...