Purdue nonconference schedule released

Other than two difficult road games (Virginia Tech & West Virginia), I'd label this nonconference schedule a disappointment. It's certainly not an overly taxing schedule for the Boilers. A team of this caliber, national championship material, would be better served playing in one of the premier in-season tournaments (i.e. Maui Invitational, NIT Season Tip-Off, Old Spice Classic, etc.), not the Chicago Challenge.

Nov. 14: HOWARD (330)
Nov. 17: ALCORN STATE (344)
Nov. 21: OAKLAND (52) -- Chicago Invitational Challenge
Nov. 23: AUSTIN PEAY (162) -- Chicago Invitational Challenge
Nov. 26: vs. Southern Illinois (170) -- Chicago Invitational Challenge
Nov. 27: vs. Richmond (25) or Wright State (80) -- Chicago Invitational Challenge
Dec. 1: at Virginia Tech (59)
Dec. 4: ALABAMA (102)
Dec. 7: at Valparaiso (186)
Dec. 11: NORTH FLORIDA (236)
Dec. 18: vs. Indiana State (88) -- Conseco Fieldhouse
Dec. 21: IPFW (224)
Jan. 16: at West Virginia (4)

Average RPI/All Opponents: 163.083
Average RPI/Home Opponents: 207.142
2010 NCAA Tournament Qualifiers (2): Oakland, West Virginia

The Quote from the Coach (courtesy of Purdue web site) --
"This schedule is built around the team we have," Purdue head coach Matt Painter said. "We're led by three first-team all-conference seniors and we have experience on the roster, so we wanted our nonconference schedule to help us be prepared to reach our goal of winning championships."

BIG TEN NONCONFERENCE SCHEDULE RANKINGS (3 of 12 complete)
Average RPI/All Opponents
1. Penn State (144.272)
2. Iowa (158.8)
3. Purdue (163.083)

Average RPI/Home Opponents
1. Penn State (163)
2. Iowa (193.142)
3. Purdue (207.142)

Painter

Has 22 W, then 27 W, and 29 W last year.

I like what he's doing. I hope 30 W this year.

Yes, it's a disappointing schedule but it cetainly wasn't because of a lack of effort. Elliot Bloom, who is on Painter's staff and responsible for scheduling has said publicly that putting together this year's schedule was almost impossible because nobody wanted to play them. They reached out to a lot of quality teams both BCS and mid-major and with everyone looking to pad their win totals, it has become a difficult annual process. Hopefully, the one and only positive to come from expanding to 96 teams (at some point) would be that coaches will start scheduling better teams in the non-conference since there will be more breathing room to get in the tournament.

Thanks for the history lesson, FOT. I wasn't aware that Painter is doing a great job at Purdue.

Let me rephrase my opinion about the Boilers' schedule:

"Matt Painter is perfect just like Tubby Smith, so this nonconference schedule is perfectly swell for a team expected to compete for a national championship."

Does that work better for you?

You May Have Overlooked This

SelectionSunday said:

Thanks for the history lesson, FOT. I wasn't aware that Painter is doing a great job at Purdue.

Let me rephrase my opinion about the Boilers' schedule:

"Matt Painter is perfect just like Tubby Smith, so this nonconference schedule is perfectly swell for a team expected to compete for a national championship."

Does that work better for you?

Click to expand...

The Boilermakers will potentially face five teams that advanced to postseason play a year ago, including three NCAA Tournament squads and an NIT participant. Purdue's scheduled and potential non-conference opponents combined to post a .512 winning percentage in 2009-10, with four teams that won at least 25 games last year on the slate.

MinnesotaBoiler99 said:

Yes, it's a disappointing schedule but it cetainly wasn't because of a lack of effort. Elliot Bloom, who is on Painter's staff and responsible for scheduling has said publicly that putting together this year's schedule was almost impossible because nobody wanted to play them. They reached out to a lot of quality teams both BCS and mid-major and with everyone looking to pad their win totals, it has become a difficult annual process. Hopefully, the one and only positive to come from expanding to 96 teams (at some point) would be that coaches will start scheduling better teams in the non-conference since there will be more breathing room to get in the tournament.

Click to expand...

I think it's a good schedule. Boilers need lots of W in OOC this year because Big 10 will be tough.

Well SS, I'm sure you will be disappointed in OSU's schedule if you think Purdue's is bad. I don't think Purdue's OOC sched is bad - it's not an MSU schedule, but then again, why should they have to schedule a lot of marquee teams? I get that it could be one of the best years in Purdue history, so this theoretically should be a year when they should load up on the teams that are always looking for top nonconference opponents (Texas, Tennessee, Gonzaga, Memphis, etc.). Virginia Tech is a preseason top-25 team in my book. WVU made the Final Four last year and should be pretty good although they appear to be in for a rebuilding year. Alabama still has some very talented players. Richmond, if PU plays them, will be a quality opponent - Kevin Anderson is one of the best guards in the country, but not many people see the Spiders play. So that is at least three solid opponents, 4 if they play Richmond.

OSU, on the other hand, is clearly going to have a predominately weak OOC schedule - they have a road game at Florida in their second game of the season, then they have a game at FSU in the ACC-Big Ten challenge. Their only other BCS/high major nonconference opponent is South Carolina (most likely the #6 team in the SEC East this year), who Matta said was the only high major team they called that was willing to play a home & home starting this year with the first game in Columbus. The 4th-best team on the OSU nonconference schedule is Miami of Ohio. Now, maybe Matta wants to use the soft OOC schedule to help ease the new players into the sport (after all, half of the scholarship players on the roster now are freshmen) before Big Ten play hits rather than throwing them into the fire right away, but still you'd like to see some more difficult competition there. I think it really doesn't make much of a difference how many good teams are in the OOC schedule if there's at least one really strong test in the OOC schedule that the team can use as a measuring stick for the level of play they need to be at to compete for a Big Ten title. Sure, as a fan I'd like to see more of the high profile nonconference games, but are they really necessary? I don't know that they are.

OSUfan, do you have any kind of a link for the Buckeyes' schedule? These are the only OSU games I've been able to dig up (with dates).

Nov. 16: at Florida (Exempt Tournament)
Nov. 20: NORTH CAROLINA-WILMINGTON (Exempt Tournament)
Nov. 26: MIAMI OF OHIO
Nov. 30: at Florida State

I certainly understand your point about Anderson and Richmond. I saw Anderson in person last year in Providence, and he's certainly a talented guard. The Spiders should be a factor again, but they'll miss David Gonzalvez.

To be clear:

"I'm sure you will be disappointed in OSU's schedule if you think Purdue's is bad."

I didn't say Purdue's schedule was bad. I said I was disappointed it wasn't stronger considering how good the Boilers should be this season.

Here's what's known now of the OSU schedule (basically copied from Columbus Dispatch OSU basketball blog):
Nov. 12 - North Carolina A&T (11-22, 299)
Nov. 16 - at Florida (21-13, 59)
Nov. 20 - UNC-Wilmington (9-22, 236)
Nov. 23 - Morehead State (24-11, 90)
Nov. 26 - Miami (Ohio) (14-18, 144)
Nov. 30 - at Florida State (22-10, 44)
Dec. 18 - South Carolina (15-16, 98)
Dec. 27 - Tennessee-Martin (4-25, 338)
Four opponents remain to be identified.

Thanks OSUfan, appreciate it.

Kind of odd that South Carolina is playing two Big Ten teams (also Michigan State) on the road this season.

South Carolina = Great head coach! Probably not going to be a real pretty year for them, though.

Purdue guys - sorry to hear about Molock.

Gopher Warrior said:

South Carolina = Great head coach! Probably not going to be a real pretty year for them, though.

Purdue guys - sorry to hear about Molock.

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Torn ACL. Out 12 weeks. Probably miss some of junior season.

Carl Landry recovered from similar injury. Hopeful Molock will, too.