Non-conference basketball schedules may look as if they’re a bunch of names drawn out of a hat, but according to the area’s six Division I head coaches, those schedules have been put together with an incredible amount of detail.
The result isn’t something random. The coaches insist that the art of scheduling games before conference play begins has reached critical importance in both how to build and maintain a program.
“Absolutely, scheduling is equal to recruiting,” said coach Larry Eustachy at Colorado State University. “It ranks right there with recruiting.”
Colorado coach Tad Boyle said he and his staff puts in a lot of homework in devising a schedule to test the Buffaloes before entering Pac-12 Conference play in January.
“It’s like putting together a jigsaw puzzle,” Boyle said. “We have a fulltime assistant coach working regularly on that job.”
There are a wide range of objectives for a coach, one being that a schedule is difficult enough to ensure recognition if games are won to be considered for a potential NCAA tournament bid.
“I told myself after my first year here and we were left at home that Colorado would never again miss the NCAA tournament because of a weak non-conference schedule,” Boyle said.
Where it becomes an art is mixing the difficulty of the schedule to the quality of your team. No coach wants to be overmatched.
“You try and build a schedule that fits what you think your team will be,” Eustachy said. “You don’t want to break your team’s back with a schedule that is too difficult.”
Denver coach Joe Scott added, “The goal is to have a schedule that helps build and develop your team.”
Coach Larry Shyatt at Wyoming is an open critic of what he regards as an elitist attitude by the recognized power conferences. Shyatt would like to schedule teams from the top conferences but those teams rarely will agree to come to Laramie.
“We’re pretty much down to taking who we can get for a non-conference schedule,” Shyatt said. “But we still have some pretty good choices.”
Scott doesn’t see the attitudes changing. The big schools have a huge advantage in playing non-conference games where and when they want to and at what price tag.
“The top teams aren’t going to have a change in attitude because they don’t have to change,” Scott said. “They’re living in a professional college basketball era.”
Coach Dave Pilipovich at Air Force and B. J. Hill at Northern Colorado face different problems. With seating capacity in Clune Arena at Air Force and Bank of Colorado Arena at Northern Colorado in Greeley far below what it takes to attract an elite opponent, a neutral playing site needs to be considered.
“Everybody wants to play at home in non-conference,” Pilipovich said. “It would be helpful if the teams in the power five conferences were a little more flexible. We have to be very sensitive to time away from the classroom for our players. We want to be challenged in our non-conference schedule, but there’s a fine line between challenged and over challenged.”
Hill said UNC faces issues other schools might not.
“We don’t have the budget that would allow us to bring in teams from the power five conferences,” Hill said. “We try to find some games we think we can win so we don’t go into conference play beat up physically and mentally.”
Boyle was lauded by his area counterparts for his willingness to play other Front Range schools. CU has played CSU, Wyoming and UNC in the preseason during Boyle’s term and DU will be added to non-conference play within the next two years.
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296, imoss@denverpost.com or @irvmoss
