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GolfDiveNCougsMWC Scheduling threw us a couple of curveballs, but they also threw us a bone or two as well.
Regarding home and away games: The MWC tries to schedule all teams with 4 home and 4 on the road each conference half-season, but sometimes it just doesnât work out that way. This year they did a really poor job of it.
Curveball: BYU is one of two teams that has just 3 home games in the last half of conference play. Granted, we got 5 of the first 8 games at home to start, but in a league that pays to finish strong and is murder on the road, our playing 5 roadies in 28 days to end the regular season is tough. Wyoming joins the Cougs with 5 roadies out of the last 8. The beneficiaries of this issue are Air Force and UNLV who have only 3 road games in their last 8. In my opinion, this was a bit overly nice to UNLV, as theyâll have the opportunity to play as many as 8 out of 11 on their home floor before the NCAA tourney.
Bone: Seeing as we only get 3 home games in the second half, it is nice at least that two of those home games are âbig fourâ teams, in San Diego and New Mexico. Further, our Vegas trip is the first game of the 2nd half of the conference season, and itâs following two home games, so at least we wonât have to worry about fatigue wearing on us when we play them. My biggest concern fatigue-wise will be the trip up to Salt Lake for the next-to-last game of the season. It sure looks like theyâre going headlong down the road to mediocrity, and theyâd just LOVE to play the role of spoiler that close to the end of the season.
Regarding order of games: It worked out this year that the first half of each teamâs conference season is in the exact same order as the second half (except, of course, that home and away games swap). Also, because weâre a 9-team conference, each team gets half a week off through the course of their 8 games (you either have one mid-week game off or one Saturday game off in both the 1st and 2nd half of conference), and these byes also occur in the same place in the order for each team.
Curveball: Our âbye-half-weekâ doesnât do us much good, as it comes before a home game against Air Force. Not much weâll need extra prep time for. The following two games, however, will be on the road, so the extra rest will be timely, even though those roadies are CSU and Wyoming. Another concern is that our bye-half-week comes after only one game of the eight in each conference half. That means we wonât have a break the last 7 games of conference play (4 of which are on the road).
Bone: None of this yearâs âbig-fourâ have their bye-half-week before playing us either. The team with that honor is CSU. Still, the first go-round theyâre playing in Provo, the second go-round (as was mentioned before), theyâre getting us rested with only a home game against Air Force between our bye-half-week and them. Not a likely upset.
In fact, the only âbig-fourâ school who gets a bye week before playing another âbig-fourâ school is New Mexico, who has extra time to prep for San Diego State. Again though, not as much an advantage for them, as their bye-half-week comes before their second SDSU game, and then the Conference Tourney, so theyâre not getting two cracks at SDSU with extra rest, just one. Still, having the last Saturday before the UNLV Invitational would be very beneficial.
Regarding amount of days between games:
Bone: I was pleased to see there werenât really any curveballs in this department, as this has a tendency to hit BYU hard because we choose not to practice on Sundays. We play only one game that weâll have fewer than 2 practice days before gameday. That game is against TCU, played on a Tuesday, giving us only Monday to prepare (okay, giving us only Monday to PRACTICE) ;) Itâs really a blessing in disguise, however, as the next game is that Saturday at UNLV, arguably our toughest road game, and the extra day to prepare and travel will be advantageous.
If I were to guess, Iâd bet BYU requests that MWC scheduling keeps Tuesday games to a minimum for this reason, or at least requests them at home. Itâs nice to see that such requests, if made, are accommodated (for the most part. I noticed that last year we had a Saturday-Tuesday pair, BOTH away, BOTH contenders. How we split that I have no idea). For those fans still chapped about the mtn. deal, just remember what BYUâs basketball schedule WAS on ESPNâs hide-your-game-special coverage: Saturday night at 10 followed by Monday night at 10. Anyone care to game prep with ZERO days to practice between games? LONG gone are those days. :)
All that said, I still don't have any idea how the next 16 games are going to go. So far we've done what we expected to do, but I just can't bring myself to expect us losing fewer than 3 times before the MWC Tournament Championship is over, especially with 8 out of 11 on the road. I agree that we COULD take two of three on the road against SDSU, UNLV and UNM, but I could also see us dropping one we shouldn't on an off night. And I still can't bring myself to hope for a Conference Tournament Championship, even though we ware probably favored to win it. Too far to fall. I couldn't handle it.
Your thoughts?
Regarding home and away games: The MWC tries to schedule all teams with 4 home and 4 on the road each conference half-season, but sometimes it just doesnât work out that way. This year they did a really poor job of it.
Curveball: BYU is one of two teams that has just 3 home games in the last half of conference play. Granted, we got 5 of the first 8 games at home to start, but in a league that pays to finish strong and is murder on the road, our playing 5 roadies in 28 days to end the regular season is tough. Wyoming joins the Cougs with 5 roadies out of the last 8. The beneficiaries of this issue are Air Force and UNLV who have only 3 road games in their last 8. In my opinion, this was a bit overly nice to UNLV, as theyâll have the opportunity to play as many as 8 out of 11 on their home floor before the NCAA tourney.
Bone: Seeing as we only get 3 home games in the second half, it is nice at least that two of those home games are âbig fourâ teams, in San Diego and New Mexico. Further, our Vegas trip is the first game of the 2nd half of the conference season, and itâs following two home games, so at least we wonât have to worry about fatigue wearing on us when we play them. My biggest concern fatigue-wise will be the trip up to Salt Lake for the next-to-last game of the season. It sure looks like theyâre going headlong down the road to mediocrity, and theyâd just LOVE to play the role of spoiler that close to the end of the season.
Regarding order of games: It worked out this year that the first half of each teamâs conference season is in the exact same order as the second half (except, of course, that home and away games swap). Also, because weâre a 9-team conference, each team gets half a week off through the course of their 8 games (you either have one mid-week game off or one Saturday game off in both the 1st and 2nd half of conference), and these byes also occur in the same place in the order for each team.
Curveball: Our âbye-half-weekâ doesnât do us much good, as it comes before a home game against Air Force. Not much weâll need extra prep time for. The following two games, however, will be on the road, so the extra rest will be timely, even though those roadies are CSU and Wyoming. Another concern is that our bye-half-week comes after only one game of the eight in each conference half. That means we wonât have a break the last 7 games of conference play (4 of which are on the road).
Bone: None of this yearâs âbig-fourâ have their bye-half-week before playing us either. The team with that honor is CSU. Still, the first go-round theyâre playing in Provo, the second go-round (as was mentioned before), theyâre getting us rested with only a home game against Air Force between our bye-half-week and them. Not a likely upset.
In fact, the only âbig-fourâ school who gets a bye week before playing another âbig-fourâ school is New Mexico, who has extra time to prep for San Diego State. Again though, not as much an advantage for them, as their bye-half-week comes before their second SDSU game, and then the Conference Tourney, so theyâre not getting two cracks at SDSU with extra rest, just one. Still, having the last Saturday before the UNLV Invitational would be very beneficial.
Regarding amount of days between games:
Bone: I was pleased to see there werenât really any curveballs in this department, as this has a tendency to hit BYU hard because we choose not to practice on Sundays. We play only one game that weâll have fewer than 2 practice days before gameday. That game is against TCU, played on a Tuesday, giving us only Monday to prepare (okay, giving us only Monday to PRACTICE) ;) Itâs really a blessing in disguise, however, as the next game is that Saturday at UNLV, arguably our toughest road game, and the extra day to prepare and travel will be advantageous.
If I were to guess, Iâd bet BYU requests that MWC scheduling keeps Tuesday games to a minimum for this reason, or at least requests them at home. Itâs nice to see that such requests, if made, are accommodated (for the most part. I noticed that last year we had a Saturday-Tuesday pair, BOTH away, BOTH contenders. How we split that I have no idea). For those fans still chapped about the mtn. deal, just remember what BYUâs basketball schedule WAS on ESPNâs hide-your-game-special coverage: Saturday night at 10 followed by Monday night at 10. Anyone care to game prep with ZERO days to practice between games? LONG gone are those days. :)
All that said, I still don't have any idea how the next 16 games are going to go. So far we've done what we expected to do, but I just can't bring myself to expect us losing fewer than 3 times before the MWC Tournament Championship is over, especially with 8 out of 11 on the road. I agree that we COULD take two of three on the road against SDSU, UNLV and UNM, but I could also see us dropping one we shouldn't on an off night. And I still can't bring myself to hope for a Conference Tournament Championship, even though we ware probably favored to win it. Too far to fall. I couldn't handle it.
Your thoughts?