GoldandBlack.com Purdue Basketball Mailbag: Scheduling
Off and on throughout the year, GoldandBlack.com fields readers’ questions to provide in-depth, long-form analysis on Purdue basketball topics we might not ordinarily cover. Today …
GoldandBlack.com Purdue Basketball Mailbag
Q: Given the elevated status of Boiler Basketball, is it harder or easier to schedule games now? Any changes forthcoming for non-conference? Thanks!
A: Yes and no to the first part of the question.
It has long been very difficult for Purdue to get high-end teams to come to Mackey Arena in non-conference play, but the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and Gavitt Games generally assured them at least one strong game on the home schedule. Those series are over, and things have trended more toward home-and-homes becoming neutral-site events like the Indy Classic. But Purdue’s going to keep trying to get those premier home-and-home or one-off high-major games.
The Alabama and Marquette series were significant gets in that regard, but it won’t be easy lining such things up in the future. It’s not just peoples’ reluctance to come to Mackey but also just the general challenges of scheduling. A lot of schools still have pre-determined events to work around where things have to line up well — and I think it still remains to be seen how much TV is going to meddle in scheduling — and I think there are now differing views on sweet-talking the NET rankings. Purdue has been of the view that challenging oneself at the risk of taking losses is the best way to both build a résumé but also develop a team; the Big 12 showed everybody there’s more than one way to do it résumé-wise by playing batting-practice schedules this season. Purdue won’t change its approach.
What the Final Four and the three straight seasons as No. 1 may do is make Purdue a sought-after commodity for high-level MTE invitations. But, Purdue was already in PK85 last year and is a regular Maui participant anyway, so we’ll see how much that matters long-term, since they’ve already been playing in premier events. And Purdue is going to keep trying to align those trips best it can with the team it projects to have. But it does bear mentioning.
It does also raise the possibility that with those neutral-court arrangements, maybe the the Dukes and Kansases (?) come into play at some point. Remember, the Sports Corp just got Arizona to come to Indy when it was originally going to be either St. Mary’s or N.C. State. That was a big get.
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