Treasure Trove: Seton Hall has participated in quality tournaments with high caliber opposition and has also played strong opponents at the Prudential Center in league play, but the home out of conference schedule appears to have been lacking. What challenges are a factor to improving the schedule?
Pat Lyons: Scheduling is a difficult process because it involves so many moving pieces. Getting great teams to come to the Rock has always been our goal, but it’s not that easy to do. There are so many things that factor into the schedule - you want to have balance in the schedule, you want to have good non-conference home games, et cetera. I want the big names to come into the Rock too, we need the revenue. It’s not like I want to sit there and see 3000 people in the stands.
We’re excited for things like the BIG EAST/Big Ten challenge because it helps us get that process going. Were doing that alliance to help the league. I made a point that I wanted a game other than Rutgers to count for that challenge to at least get two big Big 10 schools on our schedule. It helps our non-conference schedule when the league can do things like that.
Just to show how long the process is, I signed for the AdvoCare Invitational Tournament, which is one of the premier early season college basketball tournaments while I was in my first year on the job. We got that through a relationship with someone at ESPN. I did the Wichita State series four years ago at lunch at a conference with their AD in Santa Monica, California. Had I not made that trip, the games might never been played.
Our plan is always to get good teams into the Rock, but Fox asked us, of all the BIG EAST programs, to play in the Pearl Harbor Invitational. It’s a special opportunity to play at Pearl Harbor on the 75th Anniversary. It’s a great experience for the team to educate them and be there for the remembrance on top of two tough games with Hawaii and California,
You can’t turn down an experience like that.
Then the Under Armour Reunion game came up, and we didn’t want to turn that down because it was a chance to play at Madison Square Garden at a quote unquote neutral court that is 15 miles away from campus where we feel like we will have a home court advantage.
Those 2 things popped up in the last six months that we couldn’t say no to. If we didn’t have those three games that would’ve freed up our schedule to maybe get one or two top 25 type teams to come to the Rock.
Those three tough away games go back to needing a balance in the schedule. I always say a program’s success is recruiting plus scheduling plus coaching. Think about it in that order – if the schedule isn’t right and its not balanced then it could make or break your season. Coaches are acutely aware of that and are careful in planning their schedules. Kevin and I will continue to work and to get more top 25 type teams. I want the team to be successful and have a balanced schedule.
Were still working and have some prospects of good home and homes coming in the next couple of years, but obviously not this year. So much goes into scheduling, and I’m not making excuses but that is the reality and I am hopeful that we will get there.
Nowadays there are so many opportunities for teams to play in the metropolitan area where they don’t need to play SHU at the Rock or St. John’s at the Garden. These arenas are getting good at doing their own events and it’s not hard for teams to tell their NYC recruits or metropolitan area recruits that they will play a game in the NYC area over their 4 years in school and not have it be a home game for someone.
Pat Lyons: Scheduling is a difficult process because it involves so many moving pieces. Getting great teams to come to the Rock has always been our goal, but it’s not that easy to do. There are so many things that factor into the schedule - you want to have balance in the schedule, you want to have good non-conference home games, et cetera. I want the big names to come into the Rock too, we need the revenue. It’s not like I want to sit there and see 3000 people in the stands.
We’re excited for things like the BIG EAST/Big Ten challenge because it helps us get that process going. Were doing that alliance to help the league. I made a point that I wanted a game other than Rutgers to count for that challenge to at least get two big Big 10 schools on our schedule. It helps our non-conference schedule when the league can do things like that.
Just to show how long the process is, I signed for the AdvoCare Invitational Tournament, which is one of the premier early season college basketball tournaments while I was in my first year on the job. We got that through a relationship with someone at ESPN. I did the Wichita State series four years ago at lunch at a conference with their AD in Santa Monica, California. Had I not made that trip, the games might never been played.
Our plan is always to get good teams into the Rock, but Fox asked us, of all the BIG EAST programs, to play in the Pearl Harbor Invitational. It’s a special opportunity to play at Pearl Harbor on the 75th Anniversary. It’s a great experience for the team to educate them and be there for the remembrance on top of two tough games with Hawaii and California,
You can’t turn down an experience like that.
Then the Under Armour Reunion game came up, and we didn’t want to turn that down because it was a chance to play at Madison Square Garden at a quote unquote neutral court that is 15 miles away from campus where we feel like we will have a home court advantage.
Those 2 things popped up in the last six months that we couldn’t say no to. If we didn’t have those three games that would’ve freed up our schedule to maybe get one or two top 25 type teams to come to the Rock.
Those three tough away games go back to needing a balance in the schedule. I always say a program’s success is recruiting plus scheduling plus coaching. Think about it in that order – if the schedule isn’t right and its not balanced then it could make or break your season. Coaches are acutely aware of that and are careful in planning their schedules. Kevin and I will continue to work and to get more top 25 type teams. I want the team to be successful and have a balanced schedule.
Were still working and have some prospects of good home and homes coming in the next couple of years, but obviously not this year. So much goes into scheduling, and I’m not making excuses but that is the reality and I am hopeful that we will get there.
Nowadays there are so many opportunities for teams to play in the metropolitan area where they don’t need to play SHU at the Rock or St. John’s at the Garden. These arenas are getting good at doing their own events and it’s not hard for teams to tell their NYC recruits or metropolitan area recruits that they will play a game in the NYC area over their 4 years in school and not have it be a home game for someone.
