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Big East teams should schedule strong non-conference schedules so they can get more teams into the NCAA Tournament each year. I cannot wait for the Gavitt Tipoff Games between the Big East and Big Ten conferences starting in 2015. I'd love to see Northwestern/DePaul, Wisconsin/Marquette, Ohio State/Xavier, Maryland/Georgetown, Rutgers/Seton Hall, Indiana/Butler, Nebraska/Creighton, and Pennsylvania State/Villanova (all interstate games) for the inaugural Gavitt Tipoff Games. Illinois/DePaul (Illinois and DePaul haven't played each other for decades) and Purdue/Butler Rutgers/Georgetown and Rutgers/St. John's would be good match-ups, too. DePaul usually plays Northwestern most seasons and beat them last season on Billy Garrett Jr.'s last second shot.

Here are compiled non-conference schedules for the Big East for 2014-15 and beyond that are known so far. Feel free to add in what is missing.

http://whiteandbluereview.com/?page_id=293

Boyee wrote:Big East teams should schedule strong non-conference schedules so they can get more teams into the NCAA Tournament each year. I cannot wait for the Gavitt Tipoff Games between the Big East and Big Ten conferences starting in 2015. I'd love to see Northwestern/DePaul, Wisconsin/Marquette, Ohio State/Xavier, Maryland/Georgetown, Rutgers/Seton Hall, Indiana/Butler, Nebraska/Creighton, and Pennsylvania State/Villanova (all interstate games) for the inaugural Gavitt Tipoff Games. Illinois/DePaul (Illinois and DePaul haven't played each other for decades) and Purdue/Butler Rutgers/Georgetown and Rutgers/St. John's would be good match-ups, too. DePaul usually plays Northwestern most seasons and beat them last season on Billy Garrett Jr.'s last second shot.

Goodness, I sure hope not. We already play Nebraska every year, so I hope we don't get stuck with them in this thing. If Depaul gets to avoid Northwestern because they already play, Creighton should be able to avoid Nebraska. If we are limited to proximity, give us Iowa. Omaha is on the Nebraska-border anyway...

Supposedly this is going to supplement games already scheduled between the conferences. So Creighton / Nebraska, Quette / Wisconsin, and Rutgers / Seton Hall should not be pairings that will take place. Television will drive much of this so I would not count on Rutgers / St. John's unless that game is being played at the RAC.

Boyee wrote:Big East teams should schedule strong non-conference schedules so they can get more teams into the NCAA Tournament each year. I cannot wait for the Gavitt Tipoff Games between the Big East and Big Ten conferences starting in 2015. I'd love to see Northwestern/DePaul, Wisconsin/Marquette, Ohio State/Xavier, Maryland/Georgetown, Rutgers/Seton Hall, Indiana/Butler, Nebraska/Creighton, and Pennsylvania State/Villanova (all interstate games) for the inaugural Gavitt Tipoff Games. Illinois/DePaul (Illinois and DePaul haven't played each other for decades) and Purdue/Butler Rutgers/Georgetown and Rutgers/St. John's would be good match-ups, too. DePaul usually plays Northwestern most seasons and beat them last season on Billy Garrett Jr.'s last second shot.

There is no way that PC is not playing in the first years games, they play on Dave Gavitt Court and they wear his initials on their jerseys.

Butler plays Indiana or Purdue already on a yearly basis, so my guess is unless that series is discontinued, they probably won't play them, though it would be great to finally force either one of those schools to have to play at Hinkle (games are currently played at Banker's Life Fieldhouse). My guess is the more likely matchups would be Northwestern, Illinois or Minnesota for Butler if the teams are paired up based on the previous season's results. Thanks, but no thanks to Rutgers.

I agree as well that there's no way they're kicking this event off without Providence. Maybe they don't play every year, but I guarantee you in 2015 they'll be in one of the games.

Irishdawg wrote:Butler plays Indiana or Purdue already on a yearly basis, so my guess is unless that series is discontinued, they probably won't play them, though it would be great to finally force either one of those schools to have to play at Hinkle (games are currently played at Banker's Life Fieldhouse). My guess is the more likely matchups would be Northwestern, Illinois or Minnesota for Butler if the teams are paired up based on the previous season's results. Thanks, but no thanks to Rutgers.

I agree as well that there's no way they're kicking this event off without Providence. Maybe they don't play every year, but I guarantee you in 2015 they'll be in one of the games.

Is the Cross Roads Classic continuing in the future? I liked that event.

The Skip Prosser Classic between Wake-Xavier will not be played this year. Starting next season, they will play 2 consecutive seasons, take 2 off, etc.

I'd expect Xavier finds a high-major home or neutral site game to replace it.

Personally, I think Marquette needs to schedule down a little this year. Not the kind of scheduling down we did last season (Grambling, New Hampshire, other 200+ rpi schools), but more in the 125-170 rpi range. We already have plenty of opportunities against Wisconsin at home, Ohio State on the road, and a pretty loaded tournament. What we need is a few chances for our team to play together against weaker competition to figure out who we are. Aside from the returning players from last season we have a transfer senior PG, a transfer C, and a freshman Pg/SG coming in. We need all the cupcakes we can get, especially in the early going when we have almost no front-court. Maybe Wojo will elect to take that foreign trip this year.