A win @ Penn State is a slight possibility, but not @ Texas.  As good as Dan's team may be, two likely losses will not help in the NCAA selection committee's evaluation.  Need to schedule power 5 conference teams Duquesne has a likely chance of beating.

sperlman wrote:

A win @ Penn State is a slight possibility, but not @ Texas.  As good as Dan's team may be, two likely losses will not help in the NCAA selection committee's evaluation.  Need to schedule power 5 conference teams Duquesne has a likely chance of beating.

It helps your strength of schedule which helps your RPI which gets you in the discussion for an at large.   What good does it do to schedule  more P5 schools with RPIs like Pitt?   We get that with the upper teams in the A10.

I totally understand and respect your perspective.

When ESPN's Charlie Crème evaluated Duquesne's chances last season getting an at-large bid from the Committee, he pointed to strength of schedule, but (more importantly) demonstrating the ability to defeat teams with a high RPI.  Crème said the Committee was not going to look favorably on teams that just scheduled highly ranked opponents, but lost.  I love Dan and how he has elevated the program.  I have all the respect in the world for him.  I happen to think there are teams other than Texas with strong RPI's where Duquesne would have a reasonable chance of winning.  According to Crème, that will go a longer way to help secure a bid, assuming the Dukes perform well in the A10 and Tourney. 

I always appreciate your posts. 

 

duqkurt wrote:

Perhaps it is not that Coach Burt doesn’t want to schedule P5 teams with an RPI of 30-60 which they can beat.

Perhaps it is because those teams won’t play DU because they can lose. See Virginia last year. See St Johns a couple of years ago.

If they play DU and lose and they are on bubble with DU, they potentially get knocked out.

duqkurt, right on target.  It takes two to tango.  Scheduling is incredibly difficult for teams like Duquesne. And compared to men's scheduling, it's much, much harder on the women's side since there are not many exempt tournaments where you can put an attractive field together. 

https://mobile.twitter.com/Raoul_000/status/1026102379748446208

Unfortunate for Texas. 6’7” incoming Freshman star to be will not play against the Dukes.

TV note, this game is airing on the Longhorn Network. Check your local listings, but it's 320 on my FiOS system. You have to subscribe to the Sports Pass package to get it on FiOS. I think it's like $14/month but also gets you the ESPN College Extra channel (822), which is showing the Dukes-Wagner football game tomorrow.