UIC getting better is good for college basketball in Chicago. I had hoped Howard Moore would have built something there, I liked him a lot. When Loyola left the HL it was like UIC lost all their motivation to excel.... Or maybe it was being depressed about not going to the MVC. I used to be a fan of Chicago State being Division I, but now I'm not so sure given their repeated financial and academic issues.
I guess with BasketballTravelers.com being blacked out for non-verified members, it's much harder to get a handle on what we're looking for vis-a-vis scheduling. It seems like we've got a blank slate for the first time in a while.
I'd really like to see us get a couple of home and home or 2 and 1 series with teams usually in the 70 to 110 range in the RPI. Typically, that's lower level P5 programs (think Penn State, Arizona State, Wake Forest, Northwestern, Kansas State, Nebraska, etc.), mid-major near contenders (George Washington, Kent State, BYU, Milwaukee, Richmond, Pepperdine, Wright State, Rhode Island, Akron, etc.) and smaller conference star programs (Belmont, Iona, TAMUCC, Old Dominion, Stony Brook, etc.).
Unfortunately, P5 teams simply don't do true road games anymore. If we want to play Northwestern or DePaul, we'll probably have to start a Chicago-area double-header showcase at a neutral site. How about UIC vs. DePaul followed by Northwestern vs. Loyola at the UC? It would probably have to sell 12-15k to be worthwhile, and that would be a heavy lift at a neutral site without a TV or newspaper sponsor.
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