Sadler, staff work to upgrade schedule
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BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
Take the “A&M” off of Alabama, and blot out “Eastern Shore” from Maryland. Replace “Central” with “State” when listing North Carolina. Or forget the extra word altogether.
Divide “Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne” into three games with Indiana, Purdue, and any school in Fort Wayne (maybe for an exhibition).
There. That’s better.
Now, wake up.
Scheduling men’s basketball games in Lincoln with marquee non-conference teams isn’t so simple.
Bear that thought and grin as you wonder where Oakwood College is located. That’s the team Saturday's opponent for Nebraska, Alabama A&M, has defeated for its lone victory in three tries.
Plenty of tickets are available for the 1:05 p.m. tip-off at the Devaney Center.
Sure, second-year coach Doc Sadler would like higher ticket demand for home non-conference games other than Creighton. Fans would, too.
Know that Sadler and his director of operations, Chris Croft, are trying. Sadler said Nebraska has contacted USC, UCLA, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Northwestern, some Big East schools and a few Southeastern Conference schools about future non-conference series.
The response? Thanks, but no thanks.
“The problem is getting teams to come to Lincoln,” Sadler said. “We can go play anybody on the road. But that’s not what our fans want. They want to be able to come and see us play Duke in Lincoln, or North Carolina in Lincoln.
“Well, people aren’t going to do that.”
Why?
The old “you-can’t-get-there-from-here” excuse might come into play. But mostly, the fact Nebraska – surprise! – isn’t bursting at the borders with Division I basketball talent is a downfall.
Teams love to play in California, Texas and Florida, or anywhere on the East Coast, to expose their programs to those heavy recruiting bases.
“Nobody’s recruiting Nebraska,” Sadler said, “so there’s no reason for them to come back to this area.”
Sadler, who wants to focus on recruiting California, is trying to schedule non-conference games there. With return visits, of course.
“I mean, we’re trying to play Long Beach State, Riverside, Irvine – whoever,” he said. “We can’t get any of those teams right now.”
Croft, who’s in charge of scheduling, said Nebraska has proposed home-and-home series with some BCS schools for next season, with Nebraska making the first trip. Schools have declined.
“We will play people, but we want to play home-and-home,” Croft said. “We don’t want to play somebody one time in their spot. We don’t think that’s fair to our program, our players, our coaches, but most importantly, our fans.”
But what if Nebraska gets hot in a few years, makes repeated trips to the NCAA Tournament, maybe a few Sweet 16s?
That, Sadler said, would make it even tougher to get major teams from BCS conferences to visit Lincoln.
Alabama A&M, 10-20 last season, enters today’s game 1-2, with losses to Central Arkansas by 10 and Gardner-Webb by 14. Kentucky’s loss to Gardner-Webb was by 16.
Sadler, whose Huskers beat Alabama A&M 82-55 last season, is quick to defend his team’s non-conference schedule. It includes a trip to Western Kentucky (22-11 last season), a game at rival Creighton and a neutral-site game in Omaha against Oregon, ranked No. 13, a year after going 29-8.
Nebraska next season is tentatively set to play at Arizona State in the Big 12-Pac 10 challenge and host Creighton. Croft is also looking into some exempt tournaments.
“Everybody wants to play a couple of really marquee games against an attractive opponent,” Croft said, “but at the same time, every coaching staff wants to be very careful of how many you schedule.
“It’s a balancing act.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
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