Non conference schedule is LOADED

The Badgers just released the nonleague schedule for the upcoming season, and I think this could be the toughest slate they have ever had in the Bo Ryan era.  Here it is in its entirety.


Wed. Nov. 7:  UW-Oshkosh (exhibition)
Sun. Nov. 11:  Southeastern Louisiana
Wed. Nov. 14:  at Florida
Sun. Nov. 18:  Cornell (part of the Las Vegas Invitational)
Tues. Nov. 20:  Presbyterian (part of the Las Vegas Invitational)
Fri. Nov. 23:  Creighton (Las Vegas Invitational semis)
Sat. Nov. 24:  Arizona State or Arkansas (consolation or championship game of Las Vegas Invitational)
Wed. Nov. 28:  Virginia (Big 10/ACC Challenge)
Sun. Dec. 2:  California
Tues. Dec. 4:  Nebraska-Omaha
Sat. Dec. 8:  at Marquette
Wed. Dec. 12:  UW-Green Bay
Sat. Dec. 22:  UW-Milwaukee
Sat. Dec. 29:  Samford

Bo must be really confident in the players on the roster to create a schedule like this.  They play 5 teams that made the NCAA tournament last year, with 3 of those games being away from home.  This definitely has the making of a top 10 ranked strength of schedule, which could help bump them up a seed line or 2 in March.
 

I for one, like it! Test'em early and see what how the new pieces fit together. A win over Florida (very, very tough on the road) would be huge. A respectable loss wouldn't kill them. Virginia was good last year and MU will be tough. Good preparation.

The conference schedule has now been released.


Thurs. Jan. 3:  Penn State
Sun. Jan 6:  at Nebraska
Sat. Jan. 12:  Illinois
Tues. Jan. 15:  at Indiana
Sat. Jan. 19:  at Iowa
Tues. Jan. 22:  Michigan State
Sat. Jan. 26:  Minnesota
Tues. Jan. 29:  at Ohio State
Sun. Feb. 3:  at Illinois
Wed. Feb. 6:  Iowa
Sat. Feb. 9:  Michigan
Thurs. Feb. 14:  at Minnesota
Sun. Feb. 17:  Ohio State
Wed. Feb. 20:  at Northwestern
Tues. Feb. 26:  Nebraska
Sat. Mar. 2 or Sun. Mar. 3:  Purdue
Thurs. Mar. 7:  at Michigan State
Sun. Mar. 10:  at Penn State


Here are a few of my initial thoughts:

1.  The opportunity is there to get off to a strong start, as the first 3 games are very manageable before the tough game at IU.

2.  A difficult stretch from the IU game to the game at Illinois on Super Bowl Sunday, as 4 of the 6 are on the road.

3.  There won't be too much love in the Barn on Valentine's Day.

4.  Kind of tough to have the final two games on the road, even with one of them being Penn State. 

thats a loaded schedule? wow wisconsin has low standards. if this is bo ryans toughest non conference schedule, then maybe thats why he has made the tourney all them years and never made a final 4. whatever happened to all the wisky hoop fans that used to be on here? trolling sparty boards telling us how bo owns izzo, like we cared....we only care about tourney games. so now dekker is the new jordan taylor? 4 years ago fans on here were telling me how taylor was gonna be so good and get bo over the hump and his first final 4. i miss the rivalry with wisky...its like everyone already knows what they will do this season.....win enough games to make the tourney, prolly no big 10 title this year tho, then they will lose early in the tourney to some team like cornell or UNLV. and we will all hear how great bo is because he made the tourney again. wheres that phishy guy or a few others who said winning the big 10 is a bigger accomplishment then going to a final 4....that was classic...i miss getting a good laugh for the day.

Talk about a misinformed troll.... wow.... I shouldn't even respond but I will. Your knowledge of CBB is astoundingly poor, your knowledge of what consitutes a top 10 schedule is astrocious and it's clear your just a sparty troll. I'll stack up this years Badger schedule against anyones in the country and it will be right ther ein the top ten. Now go away troll and learn something about CBB before you return..

just wondering what makes this non conference so tough....i see florida....virginia is not good......creighton is good but still a mid major...havent heard much about marquette being good.....so please what makes this schedule soooo tough? thats all i was asking.....just figured if this was the toughest non conference schedule of bo ryans era, i was wondering who they were scheduling in the past....now i will follow to see how high their SOS schedule will be this year....top 10 huh? florida and creighton give you a top 10 schedule?

I didn't say it was the toughest of tthe Bo Ryan era but it's definitely tough and top 10 worthy. 

-top ten team Florida ON THE ROAD (you gotta give a bit more credence to where games are played than you are)
-Creighton at home very good team
-You obviously are ignoring the potential neutral court matchup with either Arkansas or Arizona State, both quality BCS conference opponents
-Virginia is off to a rough start due to missing some key players. But to call them not good is disingenuous and shows your lack of CBB knowledge yet again and let's not forget who coaches Virignia, you don't think that doesn't bring an extra element to that game (now that won't show up in the SOS but still, it factors)
-California, they are picked to finish 3rd in the Pac12 this year... seriously the preseason pick to finish 3rd int eh Pac12 is not a good schedule... you are beyond ridiculous
-At Marquette, seriously you don't know that Marquette is good?? They are top 25 worthy, are just barely on the outside of the top 25 in both polls and will be there... seriously do you even watch hoops if MSU isn't playing??? and again it's a road game
-UW-Milwaukee, in state rival and very good midmajor this year
-UW-Green Bay, in state rival very good midmajor, capable of pulling an upset on alot of teams in the nation

I guess I am curious as to what you think a top 10 schedule looks like if Wisconsin doesn't have one. Show me ten schedules that are definitively better than Wisonconsin's because I am not seeing them. I mean MSU's is surely not it so who's is??? I mean sure UCONN, Kansas and Texas sound nice on paper but in reality this season they are not better than Florida, Creighton & Marquette and Miami is no better than Virginia and well who do they have on their sched that can even match Cal & Arkansas/AZState oh wait, no one..... oh well. good try cleaves, again go learn something about CBB then come on back

I am a Badger fan and Lansing, MI resident. I agree that Wisconsin typically has an easy non-conference schedule. I am fine with your comments regarding that as MSU does a great job of scheduling some really tough non-conference games. I will disagree with your comment on why Wisconsin always make the tournament. The reason they make the tournament is that Bo has never finished below fourth place in the conference. That is pretty much a guarantee of making the tournament every year. We will see if he can continue that this year as the Big Ten is really good this year. My best guess is that Wisconsin will not, but one thing you cannot discount is that Bo is very effective at getting the most out of his players.

SSLATER5, you aren't much of a fan if you think Badger basketball has typically easy nonconference schedules because that is beyond stupid. This is not football it's basketball, Bo Ryan teams TYPICALLY, as in pretty much ALWAYS (save last season and even that could have been better but a coule teams faultered unfortunately) have nonconference schedules ranked in the Top 25 if not the top 10 in all of D1 basketball. IF you don't know that then you do not know basketball at all. There are over 330 D1 basketball teams and Bo's nonconference schedules are always ranked in the top 25, that is FACT and his schedles have frequently been top 10. I think most uninformed people don;t realize because of the breadth of college bball (which is NOT anything like football) that the nonconference schedule will include some "midmajors" at ALL PROGRAMS. I thnk also some Badger fans get disilliusioned with the schedule because some years the best games are away games so the fans just don't get to see the tougher games at home so they cry about it but in reality that does not mean the schedule was not tough, in fact it actually means it was tougher. So you are actually dead wrong about Bo Ryan coached Badger teams typical schedules, in fact you are so wrong it's pathetic. Do some research, you will see I am right

Had to reboot this post since i think the poster kaara is an idiot and he called me a misinformed troll........first off congratulations on the big win vs scUM....i never said bo couldnt coach in the regular season.....i hate UM and wisky but i respect wisky......sparty and wisky and maybe OSU have been consistent over the years and UM has one good year and their fans are everywhere talking smack. So great win...was rooting for u.....now back to the idiot known as kaara.....who argued with me a few years back telling me leuer was going to be a star in the NBA because he was athletic....so on this post he called me misinformed. All i was saying, is that if this was wiskys toughest non conference since bo was here....thats not that great...their SOS last i seen was 33 and thats because they play in the big 10.....i was told how CAL was good? 13-9? Ill give em florida and marquette. But arkansas? Really? Creighton? A mid major? It isnt tourney time for bo yet. Virginias OK....nothing to write home about. Would get pummeled in the big 10. Uwmilwaukee? Very good mid major? They barely got a winning record i believe. UwGB? Very good midmajor? A very good mid major has 5 wins? You brought up spartys schedule.....i never said this was one of izzos toughest....in fact it prolly wouldnt even be top 5....and we played miami UCONN kansas......we never care who we play....we want to play the best to get us ready for march for another run for another final 4 for izzo and maybe another title. Still laughing at this idiot trying to tell me CAL and UWGB were good.....now whos misinformed?

Creighton I would say, mid-major or not is a tough opponet. Virginia is not a game UW has control over, the schools do not pick their opponent for ACC/BIG challenge. I am not here to defend their schedule but taking away the BIG schools on their schedule they have payed 3 teams, Creighton, Florida, and Marq. in last weeks rankings. MSU has played two Miami and Kansas. Non-conference schedules are tricky and sometimes getting schools to agree to home and home series is difficult. Wisconsin has attempted to schedule some home in homes with some of the tradiitonal powers and they will not agree to come to the Kohl Center.

Virginia is actually up to 19th in the pomeroy efficiency ratings (44th in the ESPN BPI). They are an impossible team to figure out. 6-0 against the RPI top 100, which sounds impressive, until you realize that all 6 of their losses were to junk teams.

The non conference schedule for UW is always fairly strong. It always includes Marquette, a solid November tourney, an ACC challenge game, and at least one other games against strong programs (e.g. Florida, UNLV, Texas, Pitt).

Calling it "loaded" this year is a bit of an overstatement, but isn't that what this website is for?

Sauza i never said spartys schedule was all that.....were used to playing duke UNC kansas whoever wherever.....i just thought it was a reach saying it was loaded....or if this was the toughest of bo ryans career, what does that say about his past schedules? I just had a problem with kaara acting like bucky played murderers row.....and for anyone else to say different was a misinformed troll....i enjoy wisky and spartys rivalry.....2 teams that have been doing it for 10+ years consistently......just cant stand the dumb wisky homers, and every team has them, including sparty, that never see anything wrong with their teams...

-UW-Green Bay, in state rival very good mid major...............that right there bothers me.....they got 5 wins.......thats like me saying C Michigan, W Michigan, E Michigan, Oakland are all tough teams because they are in state rivals and very good mid majors...you usually play in state mid majors in your OCC.

Bo plays UW-Milwaukee and UWGB because it is good for the state of Wisconsin. Some years those are good games and help our strength of schedule, other years they are not. It just helps with in state recruiting and fan support. Some of MSU tough Non-conference games are because they are considered a more elite program and when pre-season tournaments are looking for teams to invite MSU is appealing. Just like when they match teams for the ACC/B1G challange, MSU is going to be matched with UNC or Duke becasue ESPN who does the match up want to televise what the whole country will view has a must see game. Because Wisconsin's style of play is not appealling to many people outside of Wisconsin they don't always get invited to an elite pre-season tournament or get the best match up for the B1G/ACC challenge. And that is okay, I do know Wisconsin is always looking to upgrade their non-conference schedule but it can be difficult. I do like the them continuing to play the in-state schools because I agree with Bo's philosphy on scheudling those games.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas
ketball/bracketology/sos

According to the above link from CBS Sports, UW's non-conference Strength of Schedule is 140.

ESPN has it at 150


A few really good teams and then a lot of horrible teams this year.  Always hit or miss with some.  Cornell was solid a few years ago but are dreadful this year.  UW Milwaukee is in the same boat.  Interesting to see that most of the top teams in the Big 10 have horrible Non-Conference SOS rankings.  According to ESPN, UW is at 150, Michigan at 124, Michigan State - 87, Ohio State 141 and Indiana - 54.  [http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas
ketball/rpi/_/groupId/7].

According to the above link from CBS Sports, UW's non-conference Strength of Schedule is 140.

ESPN has it at 150

The bottom line ranking is not very helpful. Essentially, every team worse than about 200 is crap. Complete garbage that any respectable team should beat. However, since D1 is bloated with worthless conferences and teams, the SOS calculation offers a team an inordinate amount of credit for beating team #200 as opposed to team #300. Sure, team #200 is better, but they both still stink.

This is how crafty mid major teams attain such lofty RPI and SOS numbers (see: New Mexico).

If you see a team with a high RPI with very few top 25 wins, just take a look at the 10 worst teams they beat. They probably got that high RPI/SOS because they avoided the killer 200+ games.

A strong non conference schedule, in my opinion, means playing 3-5 teams that will be locks for the tourney as at large bids. Florida, Marquette, and (until very recently) Creighton all fit that bill, and none of those games were at home. And Virginia, Cal, and Arkansas are all probably NIT teams at worst. This is an above average non conference schedule, but not "loaded".

LOL, wow thanks for the reboot troll (I mean cleaves)...... First I don't recall starting this thread, oh that's right i didn't, I also did not say this is the toughest schedule under Bo Ryan, in fact it's far from it, there have been many schedules tougher than this one, off the top of my head the year the team went to the Maui Classic and also played Duke and Marquette was a pretty dang good schedule as I recall and there have been many others...... As for Cal, I'm still laughing that a guy is trying to call a Cal team that just beat Top 10 ranked Arizona a bad team, they also have a winning record in the Pac10 but yea they are bad...... but that is what you get from trolls

So now the PAC 10 is good? Arizona is suspect....havent you been seeing everyone on here saying how over rated arizona was? And oh yeah, cal has 9 losses.....can you say NIT? I never said it wasnt a decent schedule. I just couldnt believe it was their toughest ever.....then kaara came on huffin and puffing telling me i didnt know anything.....did you not say GB was a good mid major? Scroll up and read dummy. You got all defensive when i questioned this being the toughest ever under bo. Scroll up and read dummy.

"Talk about a misinformed troll.... wow.... I shouldn't even respond but I will. Your knowledge of CBB is astoundingly poor, your knowledge of what consitutes a top 10 schedule is astrocious and it's clear your just a sparty troll. I'll stack up this years Badger schedule against anyones in the country and it will be right ther ein the top ten. Now go away troll and learn something about CBB before you return.." Thats what you wrote, dummy.........top 10 schedule eh? I seen it somewhere in the 100's....dummy .....you said you will stack it up against ANYONE in the country.....but we know.....you didnt start the thread.....dummy. Stop giving the decent wisky fans a bad rap.