2014-15 Mens Basketball Schedule

[Wick250]

Goodnews,

Four DI ooc home games is actually an improvement over past seasons.  (Kennesaw State and Northern Kentucky are new DI participants.)  That Oberlin game is a joke that is tied into that Eastern Michigan tournament.  Thiel and Wilberforce are embarrassments.  The reason that keeps happening is because season ticket holders (myself included) put up with it.  We should be ashamed of ourselves.

Your point about the quantity of DI schools within a one day drive is well-taken.  We know that delusional Akron will not play a home-and-home series.  Assuming the other Ohio MAC schools share that delusion, except for Kent State, here are the other candidates.  All of these schools play in conferences that are equal or inferior to the Horizon League:

Buffalo, Canisius, Niagara, Bucknell, St. Francis, Robert Morris, Eastern Michigan, Ball State, Fort Wayne, IUPUI, Northern Kentucky, Kent State.

None of those programs can schedule "big time" opponents at home.  Most if not all of them need early season home games.  Most if not all of them would be receptive to a home-and-home with a Horizon League opponent.

Play them all and that would give us six home/six road every preseason.  And very reasonable travel costs.

[ysufan0505]

My god, another horrible schedule. Wilberforce? WHO IS THAT lol. Just padding Slocum's win total I guess.

[OleYSUfan]

Horrible is not the word for this home schedule - it is down right shameful for fans who do attend. I don't care how many special incentives the athletic department announces, it won't draw any people to attend those" big named" teams. Every year the home schedule gets worst. No wonder we can't recruit well, who would want to play home games against these teams.

[IAA Fan]

Horrible is not the word for this home schedule - it is down right shameful for fans who do attend. I don't care how many special incentives the athletic department announces, it won't draw any people to attend those" big named" teams. Every year the home schedule gets worst. No wonder we can't recruit well, who would want to play home games against these teams.

I think you have a great point in the quality of the schedule, so I do not want to take away from it.

As for recruits ...I would like to say that recruits know that big teams will be on-the-road. Also winning the conference and getting a post-season invite are much bigger factors in recruiting.

[Dmorton]

If you are D-1 in the 12th toughest conference in the country.  Schedule like you're D-1.  Stop scheduling teams most nationally know high schools could beat. Thiel, Westminster, Wilberforce, Oberlin really!!!!  No wonder we have trouble in league play, those teams really prepare us well for our conference slate!

[goodnews]

I just think that YSU has ZERO leverage in scheduling so they need to be a little creative.... Maybe 2 for 1 with AKRON... Better than the travel expense to SDU.... If they would have started this 5 years ago they would have more attractable schedules for recruits, players and fans today...   Same story over and over with the ATH DEPT.... REACTIVE rather than PROACTIVE

[goodnews]

The closer you look at this schedule the worse it gets.  The UNC Greensboro game is part of the EMU tournament in Michigan which includes multiple games at a central location (smart and growing in popularity).  Then they return to Ytown and then go to Illinois.  Then back to Western PA and off to South Dakota before returning to Ytown.....  This all in 11 days................

Nov. 23 Sunday vs. UNC-Greensboro+ Ypsilanti, Mich. TBA
Nov. 26 Wednesday UMKC Beeghly Center TBA
Nov. 29 Saturday at Illinois State Normal, Ill. TBA
Dec. 2 Tuesday at Robert Morris Moon Township, Pa. TBA
Dec. 5 Friday at South Dakota Vermillion, S.D. TBA
Dec. 7 Sunday Thiel Beeghly Center TBA

[Dmorton]

I'm not sure it matters this season.  I think we lost too much talent from last year, and are too young.  Slocum tried to replace the talent lost, not sure he did that.  The younger guys need to play this year to get the experience for future seasons, and not sit the bench the whole year as in the past.  Some of the frosh need to be involved.

[ysufan0505]

Wilberforce hahaha I can't get over that. I didn't even know that school existed. Unreal.

[YsuPride]

Just a horrible schedule at home and even away.   Good luck Strollo selling tickets to those weak home games.

[Lets_Talk]

1AA Fan, I think you might be going insane. Did you NOT see that I broke the attendance figures down into 2 groups? 1982-96 and 1997-2013. So, I took into account the fact the stadium is now bigger than it was for all but the final 4 years Tressel was coach. I understand you never said YSU has sold out every game in a season. The thing is, in order for YSU to get more than 200,000 fans for a single season, it requires YSU average at least 20,000 per game, since the most home games YSU would likely ever have in a season is 10. I was pointing out just how ridiculous it is to even think this could happen. YSU having some games with 17,000-18,000(although YSU never had 18,000 or more for a game until 1997) prior to 1997, does NOT mean YSU would be able to realistically average 20,000 or more per game with the current capacity. Especially considering YSU has only had 4 crowds of more than 20,000.

The largest crowd prior to 1997 was 17,795 in 1994 against Alcorn State. OFFICIAL CAPACITY at that time was 17,000 (according to the media guide). YSU averaged 16,181 per game in 94. That was the most fans YSU averaged from 82-97, as YSU only averaged 14,721 in 1997, the first season with the expanded capacity. I am going to give you the OFFICIAL AVG per season and largest crowd each season from 90-96. All previous seasons, avg attendance never went above 8,685(1987), and largest crowd was 15,833 in first game at Stambaugh Stadium -vs- Akron in 1982

1990 - avg attendance was 12,666 for 7 games. Largest crowd was 17,002 vs OU
1991 - average was 11,619 for 7 games. Largest crowd was 17,003 for playoff game against Samford
1992 - average was 11,935 for 7 games. The largest crowd was 16,826 against JMU. 
1993 - YSU averaged 10,717 for 9 games. The largest crowd was 10,717 against Samford.
1995 - average was 13,135 for 7 games. Largest crowd was 17,063 in season opener against SFA
1996 - average was 12,585 for 6 games. Largest crowd was 15,263 against UNI

As far as my age, I am 46, and attended YSU from Fall 86 to Spring 91. I went to my first game at Stambaugh Stadium in 1982. I attended at least 2 games per year in 82-85. From 1986-2001, I missed a combined total of 4 home games. 1 in 1987(Northeastern), due to being out of town representing YSU in an activity other than football... 1 in 1988(Towson State) for my cousins wedding, 2 in 1991 due to working(Liberty and James Madison). From the Nov 16, 1991 game against Slippery Rock, I attended every home game until the UNI game in 2002. I missed that game due to being in the hospital. I never stood in a line for tickets, because I always had tickets in advance. From 86-90, I was a student. In 92 and 93, my brother and several friends were students, so I always had a ticket prior to game day. 1994-2000, we had season tickets. Let me add I stopped going to games after the 08 season. In 03, I was at every home game. In, 04 I missed UNI(because it was cold and rainy, and the team stunk). In 05, I was at every home game. ). 06 I did not go to any games, and in 07 and 08, I only went to games when my brother went. I hope this meets whatever standards you have to determine my qualifications for discussing attendance at YSU football games. 

As for what any of this has to do with the basketball schedule played by Oakland, I have NO FREAKING CLUE. Then again, I am not the one who infused football attendance into this topic. I'm simply using FACTS to dismiss the notion of YSU drawing 200,000 or more fans in a single season for football. And, that notion was raised by YOU. 

[IAA Fan]

I guess that I am going insane as I am responding to an obvious comment that I made that football (Which OU lacks) is making it (revenue) for us ...on top of basketball. Just so you know, if we averaged 12k per home game & had 8 home games (that is 2 post-season games in the Ice Castle) ...it would take 40 home basketball games for OU to match ...34 home games to match YSU football averaging 10k.

To keep this in basketball ...we will do about the same as Oakland this year in MBB.

[Lets_Talk]

1AA fan, I do not want you to go insane. So, let me see if I can explain my FIRST post to you, without discussing football attendance. I like the way Oakland plays a strong OOC schedule. I like that they are willing to play multiple NCAA tournament caliber teams from major conferences on the road. And, I like that they are able to put together a much better home schedule than does YSU.

The comment about "blood games" for basketball is because I remember Italian Penguin stating that the kind of teams myself and others would like to see on the home OOC schedule would only consider playing at YSU if given a financial guarantee. I came up with 3 or 4 games, because YSU usually plays 15-16 OOC games, depending on if they are in an exempt tournament. Football plays 4 OOC games in a year where 12 games are allowed. They play 3 in a season when only 11 games are allowed. 1 of 4 is 25%... 1 of 3 is 33 percent. Football is REQUIRED to do this in order to help fund not only football, but EVERY other sport at YSU. So, since lack of money is an issue for the men's basketball team, it is not unreasonable to REQUIRE the basketball team to play 3-4 "blood" games (25-35%) as part of their 15-16 OOC games. This money would then be put back into the basketball program.  The players would get to play against major programs, in front of large crowds. The games might even be carried on cable networks, such as Fox Sports, Big Ten Network, PAC 12 Network, or SEC Network. And, if this were to happen, that would mean being able to sell recruits on playing teams like Kentucky, UCLA, Oregon, Michigan, OSU, Indiana, UNC...etc, and also being able to play on TV. Not ESPN 3 or HL Network, but actually television. Also, YSU fans willing to travel, or who live close to where these "blood games" are played can go to the games and experience a great atmosphere.

So, for this discussion, let's say 4 "blood games" on a 15 game OOC schedule. That leaves 11 games. YSU could still play 2 games against non D1 teams at home, since Slocum seems to like doing this. That leaves 9 games. YSU plays KENT and RMU every year. When they play at RMU, the game with KENT is at YSU. This gives YSU 3 home games and 5 road games, with 7 spots left to fill. Use the money from the "blood games" to schedule 3 quality HL level teams and 2 teams from bottom tier conferences at home. This gives YSU 8 home games and 5 on the road. Provided there are no return games owed any schools other than RMU and KENT, then use the last 2 spots for D1 games. If possible, schedule 2 more home games against D1 teams, even if they are against teams that are not very good. Try to schedule teams that are within 2-3 hr drive of YSU if possible. Even 4-5 hour drive leaves alot of options, and plenty of schools that people in Ytown are familiar with, and with whom YSU has played in the past in basketball, and also other sports.

This would be 10 home and 5 away. Maybe there is a road game owed, so YSU ends up with 9 home and 6 away. Depending on quality of YSU's team, they may only win 4 or 5 OOC games. A better YSU team might win 7 or 8, and then be well tested and prepared for HL competition. They also will have played a decent home schedule, which means more fans, and more fans is good for the players and the program. What good has it been doing YSU to win 9 or 10 OOC games against a weak schedule, only to have a losing record in the HL?

[Lets_Talk]

I promise this will be a shorter post, and apologize for the other lengthy posts on this thread. I wish I could say I was surprised by this schedule, but I am not. To me, it looks like a schedule set up to artificially inflate the teams record, and also help Slocum add wins to his career total.

I have no idea why anyone would go to the games against Wilberforce, Oberlin and Thiel, let alone buy tickets for any of these games. As for the D1 teams on the home schedule, the only game worth going to see is
KENT.

There is NO excuse I will buy for YSU to have this OOC schedule. 

[ysufan0505]

I usually try to attend every home game, but after seeing this schedule. Nope, I will only attend the Kent game. The team is going to stink, and so does this schedule. I'm not gonna sit there and watch them run up the score on some team that there tallest player is 6-4. It's disgraceful. Go ahead and pad the stats for Jerry boy, I won't be there. They have lost my support