Non-Conference Play -- we stink

It's been truly depressing watching our gradual slide from a top 12 league to a top 15 league to now not even a top 20 league.

Meanwhile, a league like the Southern Conference suffered significant membership losses in the middle of the decade like the HL (Davidson, College of Charleston, Georgia Southern, Appalachian State, Elon all left) yet has now rebounded into one of the best mid-major leagues in the country. Obviously they didn't lose a Butler, but Davidson was a significant loss.

But they had forward thinking leadership and have invested into their men's basketball programs.

From this story last March, when the SoCon had a pretty decent argument to get 3 teams in the NCAA Tournament - Wofford, UNC-Greensboro, and Furman:



The SoCon also made smart additions with Mercer and ETSU much like the HL did with Oakland and NKU. But then it seems like the HL office had a mindset switch saying having a solid men's basketball program isn't a requirement for membership anymore and added another bottom-dweller in IUPUI.

The "legacy" members of the HL also need to get their shit together though, including my team. Better investment, better scheduling, WINNING D-1 games against like-minded mid-majors.

The SoCon has proven it can be done.

Does anyone know how the HL used the exit fee money from Butler or Loyola or Valpo? I'm sure it's long gone now unfortunately.

By the way, here is the SoCon's RPI ranking out of 32 leagues from the above article:

2018-19 — 11th
2017-18 — 16th
2016-17 — 16th
2015-16 — 19th
2014-15 — 24th
2013-14 — 30th

I did some research what helped is that the 4 best teams in the league (Wofford, Greensboro, Furman and ETSU) won the games that they were supposed to. Those teams had good records and the other 6 league members all had losing records.

What stood out to me was some of the scheduling, but it wasn't that complicated to be honest.

All four of the top teams played 2 non D1 games. Wofford played 3.
All four of the top teams played at least 2 buy games. Wofford played 5 and had a 6th cancelled. They only beat South Carolina and like the other 3 top teams lost to everyone else.
Beyond that the schedules had a mix of mid and low major games. Some home and some on the road but most of them wins.
In confernce play Wofford was 18-0, UNCG was 15-3, Furman 13-5 and ETSU 13-5. In those combined 13 losses only one came against the bottom six teams in the league, the rest was amongst the group of top 4 teams.

Here is the point. The Horizon League needs to schedule more winnable games and then win those games. The teams that aren't capable of that need to be beat by the top teams in the league during the conference play.

The league already has some facilities and online streaming so those can't be catch up items. Now the league needs to push forward with new ideas and challenge the members to be better. IUPUI can't hire another cheap coach. GB and UDM need to find the money to play winnable games at home. Oakland, Wright State, UWM and UIC need to win these mid major games on their schedule. The So Con didn't do anything other than schedule games that their top teams can win and then didn't trip on themselves in league play. Winning is always the most important metric. This is why the league was better with Butler. Even when they weren't going to final fours they created separation from top to bottom and gave everyone something to chase.