In Reply to: Bruins' Challenging Non-Conference Schedule Revealed posted by mh on August 21, 2024 at 10:30:32
The New Mexico game is in in Las Vegas.
There may be a couple of Big Ten games in early December.
This seems like a well-designed schedule. With so many new players, our schedule starts with 7 relatively easy games in November. 6 of the 7 are at home. This lets Mick try out lineups and lets the team get used to playing together in real games.
EXCEPT -- New Mexico is a good team. They were 26-10 last season and a #11 seed in the tournament. They had two wins over San Diego State. They will be returning four starters: Jamal Mashburn Jr, Donovan Dent, Nelly Junior Joseph, and JT Toppin. Torvick projects them as the #55 team in the country. I suspect they will be higher.
We have some tough OOC games to help our SOS, but they all take place after our schedule of "warm-up games".
Here are last season's KenPom ratings for each team:
#225 Rider Broncos (Home)
#29 New Mexico Lobos (Neutral)
#297 Boston Terriers (Home)
#263 Lehigh Mountain Hawks (Home)
#258 Idaho State Bengals (Home)
#235 Cal State Fullerton Titans (Home)
#242 Southern Utah Thunderbirds (Home)