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THREE
PRONG FORK
by Greg Kampe
Scheduling is an often discussed topic in the world of
college athletics. There are nearly as many approaches to
the task as there are programs competing. For us it isn’t
the road less traveled but the road traveled most often and
we spend a lot of time on the road during the months of
November and December.
For Oakland University scheduling is essentially three-prong
fork with recruiting, coaching and money being the driving
forces behind our approach.
Players want to compete against big time opponents. When we
are recruiting kids we can point to the fact that annually
we schedule games against the likes of Kansas, Kentucky,
Tennessee, UCLA and Michigan State. In some cases we are
fortunate enough to have a program like Tennessee come to
Oakland to play (two for one), but more often than not we
are playing these teams exclusively on their home courts.
But that gives our players the opportunity to play in places
like Allen Fieldhouse, Pauley Pavilion and Rupp Arena.
In recent years we have had some very good teams here at
Oakland and those teams competed very well on the road in
some of those venues. We have lost more of those games than
we have won, but they were great opportunities and great
experiences for our players.
Another major factor in our scheduling has been the fact
that we are in a one-bid league. The Summit League is very
good, but it has never gotten more than one team into the
NCAA Tournament. Mid-Major conferences like the Colonial or
Missouri Valley get multiple teams into the Big Dance and
that process starts with scheduling in November and
December. A high percentage of the games they schedule are
50-50 games, giving themselves an excellent chance to win
and create an impressive resume for the NCAA selection
committee.
We certainly don’t go into games waving the white flag of
surrender, but playing Kentucky in Rupp is certainly not a
50-50 game.
The bottom line for us is that we have to win the Summit
League tournament in order to secure a bid to the NCAA
Tournament so our non-conference win-loss record is
irrelevant in the big picture. In the past four seasons we
have 94 wins. That’s over 23 wins a season. During that same
stretch we have played 26 games against BCS opponents. We
are 3-23 in those games. If I scheduled differently we may
have another 15-20 wins. Now you are talking about an
average of 25 to 28 wins a season, but those additional wins
wouldn’t help us in the Summit League standings.
Playing teams like Michigan State and Tennessee helps us
from a coaching standpoint in that those games completely
expose our weaknesses. We can effectively use the dribble
drive to beat an average mid-major team, but that won’t work
against the Spartans or the Volunteers so we need to adjust.
Our post players can have their way against lesser
opponents, but that won’t happen against bigger and stronger
teams. Those adjustments are good teaching tools and while
we may not have won at Tennessee, the adjustments we made
will serve us well in conference play.
The last prong on the fork is money. We bring in a lot of
money, playing BCS schools on the road and that affords us
the opportunity to charter to all road games. If we play a
game on Saturday night in the Dakotas we are home in our
beds before sunrise. Otherwise we would be up early to catch
an early morning flight that wouldn’t get us home until
Sunday evening.
Being able to charter rather than fly commercial has really
helped us within our own conference over the past few years.
And for us it’s all about conference play so that gives us
an advantage.
What works for one may not work for another, but the
three-prong fork has certainly worked well for us.
This article was written by Coach Kampe for
CollegeInsider.com.
http://collegeinsider.com/greg-kampe/coaches41/three-prong-fork |
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