CBSSports: Top 50 Non-Conference Games

[milksteak]

I know I posted a similar list recently. Here's another: http://www.cbssports.com/college-basket ... 17-season/

1. Michigan State vs. Arizona, Nov. 11 (Armed Forces Classic)
2. Kansas vs. Indiana, Nov. 11 (Armed Forces Classic) thrilling as an extreme sport.
3. Villanova at Purdue, Nov. 14: Love the reigning national champions playing a true road game against a likely NCAA Tournament team within the first week of the season. This is the first of eight Gavitt Tipoff Game tilts (the concept pits Big East teams vs. Big Ten squads). Most importantly, it forces teams into non-conference, true road environments. For Purdue, let's see how good Caleb Swanigan looks out of the gate. He could have a big-time year.
4. San Diego State at Gonzaga, Nov. 14
5. Oregon at Baylor, Nov. 15
6. Wisconsin at Creighton, Nov. 15: Another Gavitt Tipoff Games entry. Both teams should be in the AP rankings when this game goes down, and if Creighton isn't there, then the collective voters probably dropped the ball. The Bluejays are going to be very good and very entertaining this season. Tough test for Wisconsin here.
7. Duke vs. Kansas, Nov. 15 (Champions Classic)
8. Kentucky vs. Michigan State, Nov. 15 (Champions Classic)
9. Maryland at Georgetown, Nov. 15: Most thankful for the Gavitt Games because of this matchup, specifically. Inter-school politics and hubris prevented these two geographically natural rivals from playing for years and years. Now we get the rematch; Maryland won last year's contest, 75-71. Hoyas and Turtles should be playing every season.
10. Monmouth at Syracuse, Nov. 18nd projections for every game.
11. Rhode Island vs. Cincinnati, Nov. 19 (Hall of Fame Tipoff)
12. Saint Mary's at Dayton, Nov. 19
13. Oregon vs. Georgetown, Nov. 21 (Maui quarterfinals): We don't have a lot of naturally nice quarterfinal tilts in these big November tournaments because said tournaments are built to give us the most compelling possible games in the semis and finals. But Ducks vs. Hoyas is a top-50 non-con game for me because I want to see GU's Jesse Govan go up against Oregon's solid front line.
14. San Diego State vs. Cal, Nov. 21
15. George Washington at Georgia, Nov. 21
16. VCU vs. Baylor, Nov. 23 (Battle 4 Atlantis quarterfinals)
17. Rhode Island at Valpo, Nov. 29
18. Syracuse at Wisconsin, Nov. 29 (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)
19. Michigan State at Duke, Nov. 29 (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)
20. UNC at Indiana, Nov. 30 (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)
21. Ohio State at Virginia, Nov. 30 (Big Ten/ACC Challenge)
22. Purdue at Louisville, Nov. 30 (Big/Ten ACC Challenge)
23. UCLA at Kentucky, Dec. 3
24. Xavier at Baylor, Dec. 3: Chris Mack doesn't run from a tough schedule. Xavier's entering this season with the most expectation in program history. It's not like the Musketeers to start a campaign as a top 10 team, but that's what's going to happen. Baylor, you'll notice, will have a lot of chances for good wins. No reason to think Scott Drew fails to get BU to the NCAAs for the sixth time in the past eight seasons.
25. Arizona vs. Gonzaga, Dec. 3 (Hall of Fame game)
26. West Virginia at Virginia, Dec. 3
27. Oklahoma at Wisconsin, Dec. 3
28. UConn vs. Syracuse, Dec. 5
29. Texas at Michigan, Dec. 6
30. Washington at Gonzaga, Dec. 7
31. Iowa State at Iowa, Dec. 8
32. Cincinnati at Butler, Dec. 10: Parrish and I are going to start compiling out our list of the top 101 players in the country soon enough, and I'm going to insist Kelan Martin is in the top 40. I think he'll be outstanding for Butler this season. But above him on that list will be Troy Caupain, who should push the Bearcats to a seventh straight Big Dance showing.
33. Wichita State vs. Oklahoma, Dec. 10
34. Florida at Florida State, Dec. 11
35. Middle Tennessee at Belmont, Dec. 14
36. North Carolina-Kentucky, Dec. 17 (CBS Sports Classic)
37. UCLA vs. Ohio State, Dec. 17 (CBS Sports Classic)
38. Arizona vs. Texas A&M, Dec. 17
39. Indiana vs. Butler, Dec. 17 (Crossroads Classic): IU's OG Anunoby is a player who should have plenty of chances to give commentators a reason to drop Victor Oladipo comparisons. Butler guy who I like a lot: Tyler Wideman.
40. Georgetown at Syracuse, Dec. 17: Syracuse's true rival returns to the Carrier Dome. Thank you to both of these schools for reviving this series. Georgetown will have a tough test here, but I wouldn't put it past the Hoyas to pull off a mini stunner here. Syracuse fans are very hopeful about this team's overall chances this season. That Final Four run last year was unpredictable, to say the least. Longtime Orange fans know that Boeheim's had some problems in years past with too much expectation. But he said this is his most talented team in a long time.
41. Princeton at Monmouth, Dec. 20
42. Virginia at Cal, Dec. 21
44. Louisville vs. Indiana, Dec. 31
45. UConn at Georgetown, Jan. 14: It's still weird to know these two aren't league foes anymore. I think UConn will be a top 25 team for almost the entire season. Georgetown, which needs a big year in a big way, gets a chance to make noise outside of its league schedule in the middle of January.
46. Xavier at Cincinnati, Jan. 26: When the team predicted to be better has to go on the road in a big rivalry game, those are the best rivalry games of all. Edmond Sumner, who nobody, not even Xavier's coaches, thought would be this good this fast, is on track to be a first-round draft pick.
47. Texas A&M at West Virginia, Jan. 28 (SEC-Big 12 Challenge)
48. Texas at Georgia, Jan. 28 (SEC-Big 12 Challenge)
49. Kansas at Kentucky, Jan. 28 (SEC-Big 12 Challenge)
50. Virginia at Villanova, Jan. 29: Villanova has a schedule challenging enough, worthy of being attached to a national champion. Here, it gets to host one of the most consistent programs in the toughest conference in the country. Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Phil Booth ... Nova's going to be really good again. Also: Jay Wright vs. Tony Bennett in a battle of the suits. Wright wins against everyone, but Bennett is a worthy adversary!

Don't agree with the order of the list at all. At least they covered a lot left off by NBCSports.

[stever20]

the order of the list is chronological. Not the order they think they are.

[Savannah Jay]

Milky,
Agree that the order seems whack...UVA at Nova is number 50, but Monmouth at Syracuse is number 10? Rhode Island-Cincy 11 and Saint Mary's Dayton 12? Yawn.

I see the several games for the University of Georgia on there. No one in the state of Georgia cares about UGA basketball, why would someone outside the state care?

After another review...Monmouth, Rhode Island, and Georgia have as many "Top Nonconference Games" as Villanova? Credibility fail.

[stever20]

The only Nova OOC game you could add to this list would be Nova/Notre Dame. The rest of their OOC schedule isn't all that strong. Big 5 games don't really resonate(and Temple is down).

[milksteak]

After another review...Monmouth, Rhode Island, and Georgia have as many "Top Nonconference Games" as Villanova? Credibility fail.

Didn't notice this. Monmouth and URI will at least be good. Georgia though? Sheesh...

[Savannah Jay]

The only Nova OOC game you could add to this list would be Nova/Notre Dame. The rest of their OOC schedule isn't all that strong. Big 5 games don't really resonate(and Temple is down).

DebbieD,
Then we can agree that the Villanova - Notre Dame game is significantly more compelling than a number of the games on this list. If you need me to list them, I would be happy to do so but I will refrain for now for fear of an unsolicited string of charts, graphs, and statistics that you will put forth to prove to yourself that you are never incorrect about anything.

And your mom is calling...the meatloaf is ready.

Go Jays

[stever20]

I TOTALLY agree that the Nova/ND game should be on the list. To me it's pretty inexplicable that game isn't on there....

But that's the only one that could get added. look at the others...

Lafayette
Western Michigan
Charleston
Penn
St Joe's
La Salle
Temple
American

I also do think that the person doing the list- favors true home games rather than neutral site games(see the comment with Villanova/Purdue game). He's only got 14 neutral site games listed, which is extremely low.

[David G]

Milky,
Agree that the order seems whack...UVA at Nova is number 50, but Monmouth at Syracuse is number 10? Rhode Island-Cincy 11 and Saint Mary's Dayton 12? Yawn.

I see the several games for the University of Georgia on there. No one in the state of Georgia cares about UGA basketball, why would someone outside the state care?

After another review...Monmouth, Rhode Island, and Georgia have as many "Top Nonconference Games" as Villanova? Credibility fail.

The list is in chronological order, not in the order of actual interest.

To your point, I think the GW v Georgia game is only interesting because the winner will most likely get Kansas, and if GW can still be good after all the crap that's gone on there then this little four game tournament is their chance to prove it. As far as picking the game against Texas it looked as though he was just running out of games and felt he had to pick something. Nova v ND is infinitely more interesting.

[marquette]

I am absolutely biased but in my opinion the MU-UW game could have easily been on this list. My reasoning may be flawed but you have a top 25 team that returns the majority of their production going on the road to face their rival (returning all but 1 starter) who beat them in their own building the previous year. That seems pretty compelling to me, although with the somewhat low expectations for us this year I can understand not including it.