I know that it’s hard to get those game. It just doesn’t make me excited to keep dropping significant amounts of money to see the Kennesaw State’s and Navy’s of the world... especially if we keep missing the tournament.
If we can get Memphis to agree to a home & home that I know has/is being discussed, then that will change the perception of the schedule a bit.
The reality is most of us don't really know how good some of the teams on our non-conference schedule will be, particularly the teams coming to the Stu. I know I don't know anything at this point about Illinois State, Navy, Morgan State, etc. I assume Kennesaw State will be middle to bottom of the A-Sun, but I don't really know. Are they an older team? Did they get some good transfers into the program? I can't answer those questions.
The best thing we can do outside of scheduling Power 6 teams (Big East included) is to schedule teams who should be in the top 2-3 of their conference. The one caveat to that is a couple of cupcakes on the schedule never hurt anyone. In the end, I trust Jimmy and Mike to craft a schedule worthy of at-large consideration.
