While the survey showed a minority of coaches schedule just one year at a time, that doesn’t mean there aren’t advantages to operating in this manner. This past season had several great examples of how holding a game or two may benefit a university.
When star point guard Patty Mills broke bones in his right wrist, Saint Mary’s fans knew that their team would be affected. What they didn’t know was that their non-conference schedule would also be affected, due to certain conflicts. Saint Mary’s was unable to schedule the maximum number of games during the offseason. This put the Gaels in the unique position to add a regular season game once they had already completed in their conference tournament.
After an exhaustive search, Randy Bennett was able to find an available opponent in Eastern Washington University. Because EWU had failed to qualify for the Big Sky tournament, the Eagles had played one game short of the NCAA maximum.
“Due to the unique situation, and the timing of Pat Mills’ return from his hand injury, adding a game at this time can help make us a better team in the post-season,” said Gaels head coach Randy Bennett . “We have a possible nine-day layoff, so adding this game during the break will keep our team in a regular routine. Fortunately, we have room on our schedule for an extra game this year, as did Eastern Washington. Also, it gives our seniors an opportunity to play one more game in front of their home fans.”
Despite this situation’s irregularity, it emphasizes a major strength in scheduling late: flexibility. Saint Mary’s didn’t plan on leaving one game unscheduled so they could schedule it late in the season once their star player injured his hand. But by leaving their schedule open they were able to reap the benefits later in the year.
In another unique example, The University of Washington was forced to cancel a home snowed out game against Lehigh. With a late December date and the start of conference play, Lehigh was unable to re-schedule the contest thus leaving Washington one home game short for their fans. Fortunately Joe Callero, the former Seattle University Head Coach, saved one game hoping for some type of opportunity. Not only did Seattle University receive a guarantee for the game played in February 2009, SU parlayed this occurrence into a series of games that will include Seattle’s new home court at KeyArena.
No coach would suggest leaving a game on the table, but waiting until late in the offseason may produce financial benefits. One scheduler noted that waiting as late as possible for guarantee games typically will increase the financial packages of the guarantees. When teams get desperate to complete a schedule they are more likely to spend higher amounts. This can be extremely important in our current economic state for schools that look for guarantees and schools that rely on guarantees as a major source of the athletic budget.
This approach can also produce home and home series for schools that otherwise wouldn’t have this opportunity. Note University of Buffalo’s Head Coach Reggie Witherspoon, whom has made a habit of waiting until very late to schedule one road game, but only if it a home and home series. This past season the Bulls put a scare into #2 University of Connecticut before losing by four points at Alumni Arena in Buffalo.
Coaches agree that the key to scheduling is understanding what is best for your team. Scheduling too far in advance may not allow time to know what teams will look like when the games are actually played. Due to transfers, one and done kids, and early entrants in the NBA draft, your team or the opponent that has been scheduled years in advance may not look anything like the past. Coaching moves also make significant changes into the landscape of scheduling. Does anyone want to play against Virginia (Tony Bennett) or Kentucky (John Calapari) in 2009-2010?
There is no exact science of what timetable to use when scheduling, but there are advantages and disadvantages on either side of the argument.
