Back in the day when conferences were small enough that you could count the number of teams in them on two hands ? sometimes without even using your thumbs ? basketball scheduling was simple.
Teams would play what is called a double round-robin: They would play every other team in the league twice, once at home, once on the road. By the end of the season, everyone has played identical schedules and no explanation is required to identify the league?s best team.
That doesn?t work in an economy-sized league like the Atlantic 10, which has gone from 14 teams to 16 last season to 13 this season. With that many teams, you?re more likely to see an opponent just once a year. Last season, A-10 schools played one school twice (in SLU?s case, Butler) and the other 14 teams once. Who you got at home and who you got on the road was a factor in how the season played out.
This season, with 13 teams in the league, there are four teams you get twice and eight you get once. With six games to go in the regular season, 10th-ranked SLU (22-3, 10-0) finally sees someone for a second time when it makes its first trip to suburban Washington to face league newcomer George Mason (9-16, 2-9). After that, SLU will get second looks at three teams it has already beaten, Duquesne, VCU and Dayton, while getting first looks at George Washington and UMass.
In a world where return meetings were once commonplace, now they stand as exceptions to the rule.
?It?s hard to win one,? SLU coach Jim Crews said. ?It?s hard to beat someone twice.?
The league office chose who would get who twice on reasons both regional and competitive. Nearby institutions such as Richmond and VCU, UMass and Rhode Island, La Salle and St. Joseph?s or SLU and Dayton, play each other home-and-home ? but to keep the RPIs of the league?s best teams strong, teams of comparable quality, like SLU and VCU, were also paired.
Next season, when Davidson joins the Atlantic 10 to give it 14 teams ? unless there are other defections ? the league will also expand the conference schedule to 18 games. That will mean there will be eight teams SLU will play once and five teams it will play twice. (An even number of teams in the league will also mean elimination of the two off-days A-10 teams have had in the middle of conference play.)
SLU was among the schools that wanted to keep the conference schedule at 16 games. The more successful teams in the league were in favor of having more flexibility scheduling nonconference games while schools like St. Bonaventure, which has a hard time convincing anyone to come to western New York, were glad to pick up a quality home game.
The Billikens may be unfamiliar with the building they?ll be playing in, but they certainly know who they?re facing on the court. SLU gets to revisit one of several close calls it has had in its school-record 17-game winning streak. SLU beat George Mason on Feb. 1 at Chaifetz Arena, 87-81 in overtime. Mason had two chances to win the game in the final six seconds but couldn?t score, and SLU then pulled away in the extra period behind Rob Loe, who scored 10 of his career-high 23 points in those five minutes.
The most glaring stat in that game was Mason?s 14 offensive rebounds, most of them in the second half, which the Patriots turned into 15 points. George Mason had one possession in the second half that lasted about a minute because it twice got offensive rebounds late in the shot clock. Mason?s 51.5 shooting percentage in the game was the best by a SLU opponent this season.
?We?ve got to come ready to play,? guard Jake Barnett said. ?Over and over again, especially on the road, you can?t get away with turnovers, can?t get away with not playing hard on defense.We had a lot of turnovers vs. VCU and we play them again on the road. We have to stop ball screens when we play George Mason. On the road, everything is against you. We have to play a good game.?
Teams would play what is called a double round-robin: They would play every other team in the league twice, once at home, once on the road. By the end of the season, everyone has played identical schedules and no explanation is required to identify the league?s best team.
That doesn?t work in an economy-sized league like the Atlantic 10, which has gone from 14 teams to 16 last season to 13 this season. With that many teams, you?re more likely to see an opponent just once a year. Last season, A-10 schools played one school twice (in SLU?s case, Butler) and the other 14 teams once. Who you got at home and who you got on the road was a factor in how the season played out.
This season, with 13 teams in the league, there are four teams you get twice and eight you get once. With six games to go in the regular season, 10th-ranked SLU (22-3, 10-0) finally sees someone for a second time when it makes its first trip to suburban Washington to face league newcomer George Mason (9-16, 2-9). After that, SLU will get second looks at three teams it has already beaten, Duquesne, VCU and Dayton, while getting first looks at George Washington and UMass.
In a world where return meetings were once commonplace, now they stand as exceptions to the rule.
?It?s hard to win one,? SLU coach Jim Crews said. ?It?s hard to beat someone twice.?
The league office chose who would get who twice on reasons both regional and competitive. Nearby institutions such as Richmond and VCU, UMass and Rhode Island, La Salle and St. Joseph?s or SLU and Dayton, play each other home-and-home ? but to keep the RPIs of the league?s best teams strong, teams of comparable quality, like SLU and VCU, were also paired.
Next season, when Davidson joins the Atlantic 10 to give it 14 teams ? unless there are other defections ? the league will also expand the conference schedule to 18 games. That will mean there will be eight teams SLU will play once and five teams it will play twice. (An even number of teams in the league will also mean elimination of the two off-days A-10 teams have had in the middle of conference play.)
SLU was among the schools that wanted to keep the conference schedule at 16 games. The more successful teams in the league were in favor of having more flexibility scheduling nonconference games while schools like St. Bonaventure, which has a hard time convincing anyone to come to western New York, were glad to pick up a quality home game.
The Billikens may be unfamiliar with the building they?ll be playing in, but they certainly know who they?re facing on the court. SLU gets to revisit one of several close calls it has had in its school-record 17-game winning streak. SLU beat George Mason on Feb. 1 at Chaifetz Arena, 87-81 in overtime. Mason had two chances to win the game in the final six seconds but couldn?t score, and SLU then pulled away in the extra period behind Rob Loe, who scored 10 of his career-high 23 points in those five minutes.
The most glaring stat in that game was Mason?s 14 offensive rebounds, most of them in the second half, which the Patriots turned into 15 points. George Mason had one possession in the second half that lasted about a minute because it twice got offensive rebounds late in the shot clock. Mason?s 51.5 shooting percentage in the game was the best by a SLU opponent this season.
?We?ve got to come ready to play,? guard Jake Barnett said. ?Over and over again, especially on the road, you can?t get away with turnovers, can?t get away with not playing hard on defense.We had a lot of turnovers vs. VCU and we play them again on the road. We have to stop ball screens when we play George Mason. On the road, everything is against you. We have to play a good game.?
