Men's basketball looks to schedule Power 5 opponent next season
With North Carolina and Villanova set to square off for the NCAA Tournament Championship on Monday, many other coaches — including Central Michigan Head Coach Keno Davis — are also spending time in Houston.
Davis is attending an annual convention during the Final Four held by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The convention takes place from March 31 to April 4.
The convention is a time to meet with teams from around the country to make agreements for future nonconference games, Davis said. While conference games are determined by the Mid-American Conference office, programs are able to set their own nonconference schedules by making agreements with other programs.
Davis said his program had "a lot" of games to schedule before the convention last season.
“We really struggled with our scheduling last year," Davis said. "We couldn’t get any Power 5 schools to play us. We were pretty much willing to go play on any date. That’s because they (understood) on paper, we were going to be a really tough (team to beat).”
Davis said there were only two or three games to schedule heading into this year's convention. He said some matchups still have pending contracts and agreements from other teams.
One of the plans is for the Chippewas to play in another nonconference tournament, Davis said. This season, the team suffered a three-game sweep at the Gulf Coast Showcase in Florida.
Next season, Davis said the Chippewas plan to head to Texas for a tournament against "some quality, high mid-major programs." Davis said details regarding the tournament have not yet been released.
He also plans for a game against a regional Power 5 school. CMU has not played a Power 5 school since going to Northwestern during the 2014-15 season when the Chippewas defeated the Wildcats 80-67.
Teams are more likely to schedule CMU next season because the Chippewas are losing four seniors, Davis said.
His goal for scheduling is to play good competition while still having a good home-court schedule.
"To be able to have a game each year on your schedule where you play a high-major school can be good," Davis said. "You don’t necessarily want a lot of them, but being able to play one, I think, is something that can help prepare you for the conference season.”
He said he wants to attract teams to play in Mount Pleasant and credits former CMU player, NBA first-round draft pick and Grand Canyon Head Coach Dan Majerle for scheduling a home-and-home series with CMU in 2014 and 2015.
“When you don’t (attract teams), you have to be creative in finding other games you can get," Davis said. “Getting games here at home can get you ready for the conference (season), especially when you have talented teams coming in."
Davis said his team is in a good position with scheduling for next season, with the majority of games already in place. CMU released the 2015-16 schedule last summer, but could release the 2016-17 schedule as soon as this month if the contracts and agreements are in place.
