Seawolves Fans

I just voiced my concern to Mr. Heilbron on Twitter. We got dooped!!!!!

With the MERCHANT MARINE ACADEMY just two days away here, it's worth discussing again: How in the world have some of these local Division I schools not been brought out here? These Division III games do nothing to improve this team. You will learn nothing about the new guys and nothing about what the veterans have done this offseason. You could if we scheduled these metro area teams. The top four teams in the MAAC last year are all in NY or NJ. Play them. St. Francis or LIU can take a train and walk to the arena. Play one of them. If a Connecticut team wants to take the ferry over, I'll even pick them up on the other side. Whatever.

Listen, I'm a season ticket holder not because I expect major programs to schedule road games here. Whether with family or friends, I'm going to enjoy the games regardless. And when Greg Gumbel says "the 14th seeded Seawolves of Stony Brook" in a few months, I'll be ready to sign up for the 2016-17 season too. And if he doesn't, well, you can bet I'll be there anyway. It's a great time. All that said, if you want to be a big-time program, you CANNOT schedule these games. As exhibitions? Fine. In fact, yes, absolutely, I encourage it. But as your first TWO home games of the season? That is reprehensible.

Quote from: Checkmate on November 12, 2015, 10:53:57 am

With the MERCHANT MARINE ACADEMY just two days away here, it's worth discussing again: How in the world have some of these local Division I schools not been brought out here? These Division III games do nothing to improve this team. You will learn nothing about the new guys and nothing about what the veterans have done this offseason. You could if we scheduled these metro area teams. The top four teams in the MAAC last year are all in NY or NJ. Play them. St. Francis or LIU can take a train and walk to the arena. Play one of them. If a Connecticut team wants to take the ferry over, I'll even pick them up on the other side. Whatever.

Listen, I'm a season ticket holder not because I expect major programs to schedule road games here. Whether with family or friends, I'm going to enjoy the games regardless. And when Greg Gumbel says "the 14th seeded Seawolves of Stony Brook" in a few months, I'll be ready to sign up for the 2016-17 season too. And if he doesn't, well, you can bet I'll be there anyway. It's a great time. All that said, if you want to be a big-time program, you CANNOT schedule these games. As exhibitions? Fine. In fact, yes, absolutely, I encourage it. But as your first TWO home games of the season? That is reprehensible.

I feel your pain checkmate, but after talking to numerous people about this issue for years it always come down to money.. Coach P will tell you the larger institutions are afraid to play us at our house  but that's all BS. When a team comes to our house we have to pay them $$$ and  vise versa.. But if a large school like Uconn, St. John's, Maryland, agrees to come to our home to play us we would have to chalk up huge amounts of $$$ to make up the difference that university is losing had they played another large inst..All of this has everything to do with TV and and commercial money and contracts with conferences.. SB is a lower mid major team and gets little to no $ from TV.. This is a business and SB, as of now, is a small client in a crowded field of institutions..

So this is eye-opening to me. I thought for sure if I checked the other AE teams' schedules I'd see maaaaybe a D-II on the home schedule. It turns out these matchups are common - Fisher, Oneonta, Lyndon State, Worcester State etc., and that was just checking three teams. I guess when you build a big arena, you build a big athletic complex, you're on the precipice of the tournament, and you feel like you can beat some of these mid-major and even major teams, you expect more. But it is what it is. Without TV, it's tough to pay the bills. Still, hitting us with these two Division IIIs right off the bat is tough. Sprinkle them in instead.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology/_/iteration/134

Joe Lunardi has us as a 14 seed, against Gonzaga.

HYPOTHETICALLY, if we went undefeated this year, considering our schedule, I don't think we'd be higher than an 11 seed.  As a low mid-major, that is the best we can hope for.  Once you make the dance consistently, and you make some noise, you can start to bring in the money and bring in the better competition.  But right now, we're not in a position to move up the totem pole.