Regular Season Nov 8, 2009
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With the first few weeks of basketball season now in full swing, we were wondering what coaches' philosophies were when it came to scheduling non-conference games? Is it better to have cupcakes to build confidence or tough opponents to challenge your team?
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David Ferrell
West Fork boys basketball |
 | I'll have a different answer than anybody because our football team is still in the playoffs. This year, our football team has got a bye and we're a No. 1 seed, so we could be in the playoffs two or three weeks. Our philosophy is we are not even changing the scheduling so we're playing our normal schedule. You want a good mix of tough games and not-so-tough games, but there's not a such thing as an easy game anymore because everybody is good. You want to play competition to make you better, but certainly you don't want to go out and get your kids beat up. You want a good mix, not 10 unwinnable games. We just hope that we're not the cupcakes for the other team. |
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Bobby Smith
Fayetteville girls basketball |
 | I think that depends on the confidence level you have in your team. You should always be looking for competition that is at least as good or a little better than you are, something that can challenge you and expose your weaknesses and then you can redirect your practice time. I try to schedule as difficult as I can, but there's been years where that wasn't a good idea. You can't play teams that are so far outside of your ability that you don't get anything out of it other than discouragement. You should play tougher teams mainly because it'll get battle scarred and ready for the conference season. |
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Eric Burnett
Har-Ber Boys Basketball |
 | I just gave this speech to my kids yesterday. I try to schedule the toughest games I can because when you play the toughest teams that are out there, you are going to find out your weaknesses in nonconference play. You try to play toughest teams to get you to conference and conference play is what gets you to postseason play, I've got Little Rock Parkview coming in here and I told them if we don't come out and play hard, they are going to let us know what are weakness are and then we'll come back to practice and work them out. |
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Brad Blew
Farmington girls basketball |
 | I really like scheduling tough opponents and bigger schools for nonconference games, just because we can identify where our weaknesses are early in the year and get past some of those obstacles before we get to conference play. I always enjoy scheduling tougher teams because it makes us better and the other reason is our league is so good that you need those tough games to get us ready for conference and postseason play. |
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