Bradley @ K-State

[Ace Dad]

I wish Drake would do one of these each year. What can it hurt?

you run the risk of whoring out your program to the highest bidder. glad marshall doesn't and won't take a check from anyone - now we have the respect and good programs coming to play us without playing at their place twice or having to take a buy game on the road to face good competition.

Over-reaction. Nothing wrong with playing a good competitor on their court and walking away with money to help your donor programs (swimming, volleyball, track, baseball). People who whine about whoring are into xickmeasuring and do not consider the whole athletic department. When GM was at Winthrop University, he walked away with many checks for buy games and Winthrop University had an excellent reputation in college basketball.

[Cdizzle]

I wish Drake would do one of these each year. What can it hurt?

you run the risk of whoring out your program to the highest bidder. glad marshall doesn't and won't take a check from anyone - now we have the respect and good programs coming to play us without playing at their place twice or having to take a buy game on the road to face good competition.

Over-reaction. Nothing wrong with playing a good competitor on their court and walking away with money to help your donor programs (swimming, volleyball, track, baseball). People who whine about whoring are into xickmeasuring and do not consider the whole athletic department. When GM was at Winthrop University, he walked away with many checks for buy games and Winthrop University had an excellent reputation in college basketball.

They also won their league every year, had to win their conference tournament, and then still got a 15 seed, and Marshall left. I'm not against this game, but it all depends on what type of program you are trying to build.

[AndShock]

I don't have a problem with taking buy games, but taking one from K-State seems a little weak.

[ptownbraves]

I don't have a problem with taking buy games, but taking one from K-State seems a little weak.

Take what you can get, I guess? I remember the past couple of years when other MVC fans were ragging on BU for the weak schedule...and I don't disagree, but at least they're making an effort. Losing to K-State on the road is certainly much better than losing to IPFW or IUPUI at home.

[Mikovio]

Bradley played at top ranked national champion Duke in 2010 on ESPN and it was a disaster 5 minutes in. I think it would be a huge mistake to try our luck in Durham or Chapel Hill. Kansas State should be in the 20-30 range of teams which is more reasonable.

[CaliRdBrd]

I have no issues with taking a buy game. Get paid for the chance to beat a Power 6 team, and a decent one at that? Yes please. So what if there isn't a return game, if you're a team with NCAA aspirations then playing a team like KSU is way more valuable, win or lose, than a home game against XYZ State Tech.

I completely agree. I loved playing at Louisville a few years ago. Who cares if they never come to Redbird. Sure beats playing Quincy...any day!

[BUDude]

Braves also playing at Memphis next year.

[rlh04d]

Given how bad Bradley has been for the last few years, I doubt many top 25 programs will agree to a home and home. If we want to play top 25 teams (except WSU) we need to rely on in season tournaments, do buy games, or hire a coach's son as DBO like we did with Beilein/Michigan. Hopefully we can elevate our play soon and lure some top teams to Carver straight up again.

Why do you need home and hoome games with top 25 programs?

WSU can't even get home and home games with top 25 programs. Neutral site with Memphis is about the best we're doing at the moment.

Bradley isn't even close to being a top 25 team, so I don't understand why you'd want to play a top 25 program. What's the point of getting crushed by a team on the road significantly better than your team? If the issue is SOS, schedule teams hovering around the 100 mark home/home. Those are teams that would improve the SOS and offer a realitsic shot at a victory.

Maybe you have more of a shot at being on TV against a K-State, but again, the chance for victory is remote, so I don't see how the loss on TV helps much.

I don't buy the "whoring" argument, but I do believe in scheduling intelligently. Schedule teams that offer a realistic chance at victory ... if you think the team has a realistic shot at beating a top team on the road, then sure, take the buy game and go win it. But if you're taking a buy game for a 5% chance at a victory, and then you're still scheduling 250+ RPI teams, all you're doing is scheduling a loss and making sure the RPI benefit is irrelevant. Look at what WSU's doing: rather than taking buy games on the road to get top opponents, they're stacking the schedule with solid teams with realistic shots at the tournament. WSU actually has a realistic shot at winning road buy games, unlike the rest of the MVC, but isn't taking them, and is instead taking teams that most MVC teams CAN schedule. Probably not as buy games as some of ours have been, but they could still be scheduled home/home.

WSU didn't have a single marquee nonconference opponent last year, but still ended up with the #28 noncon SOS and wins over four tournament teams, and of the other teams, #1 CUSA, #2 Sun Belt, #3 Colonial, #1 Southern, and only one flat out bad team (Tennessee State).

That's the blueprint for MVC teams to follow, not buy games against teams they can't beat. Schedule teams that are consistently in the top 100-200 RPI range. Try to get a few top 100 home/home games against smaller teams, and buy really small teams that tend to sit around 200.

[TheAsianSensation]

Bradley isn't even close to being a top 25 team, so I don't understand why you'd want to play a top 25 program. What's the point of getting crushed by a team on the road significantly better than your team? If the issue is SOS, schedule teams hovering around the 100 mark home/home. Those are teams that would improve the SOS and offer a realitsic shot at a victory.

You just sneakily pointed out Bradley's problem. We can't even get home-and-homes with top 200 teams right now. I don't know whether it's incompetence, bad luck, reputation, or whatever, but BU is having significant issues finding teams of any kind of quality to play in Peoria.

And to broaden the point, it's starting to become harder to get home-and-homes with top 100 teams. The access to those series that Wichita has isn't accessible for everyone.

[Snaggletooth]

You just sneakily pointed out Bradley's problem. We can't even get home-and-homes with top 200 teams right now. I don't know whether it's incompetence, bad luck, reputation, or whatever, but BU is having significant issues finding teams of any kind of quality to play in Peoria.

It is money, the money your program is willing to buy those teams to come and play. They are refusing to play you because you are not good enough, they are refusing to play you because your program is to cheap. Marshall remarked last year about how there are some buy teams holding out for bigger $$ to play knowing program want to buy those wins, but they don't want them to have 300+ RPI - you pay a price for that.

Now for Top 100 programs is probably a combination of competitiveness and money (for those Top 100ish programs) who are looking for buy games.