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Citadel Basketball: Will an easy 2020-21 non-conference schedule pay off?

By Nathan Dillon

AUSTIN, TX - NOVEMBER 16: Matt Coleman III #2 of the Texas Longhorns plays defense against Matt Frierson #3 of the Citadel Bulldogs at the Frank Erwin Center on November 16, 2018 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Chris Covatta/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TX - NOVEMBER 16: Matt Coleman III #2 of the Texas Longhorns plays defense against Matt Frierson #3 of the Citadel Bulldogs at the Frank Erwin Center on November 16, 2018 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Chris Covatta/Getty Images) /
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As a global pandemic has forced schools to perform scheduling miracles, last-minute scrambling has played favorably for some teams. Among them: the Citadel Bulldogs, who have crushed more cupcakes than a birthday party.

Many schools load up on road games, ranked opponents, and preseason tournaments. This strategy has its benefits. Come March, your team is battle-tested. You’re tougher than other teams. Winning a few of these early games boosts your NCAA Tournament resume.

This strategy doesn’t always bring the best payoff, though. For at least half of the 32 Division I conferences, one’s only possible ticket to the NCAA Tournament is a conference tournament championship. Tough schedule or not, you just need to win three straight games in early March.

Last time, I wrote about 2017-18 Texas Southern, victims of the most grueling non-conference schedule imaginable. Today, we’re going the opposite direction. Meet the 2020-21 Citadel Bulldogs, who went unbeaten in nonconference play against teams I have mostly never heard of.

Schedule

Piedmont – W (89-64)

North Carolina A&T – W (78-70)

Toccoa Falls – W (100-58)

Columbia International – W (96-57)

Carver College – W (102-51)

Longwood – W (91-89)

Presbyterian – W (94-82)

This schedule is so easy that only three of the seven schools are hyperlinked on ESPN.com. They should have scheduled Kentucky this year- although even Citadel would be like, nah, that’ll hurt our strength of schedule.

What does this do for Citadel’s NCAA Tournament hopes? Well, nothing. But it doesn’t hurt their case either.

In a single year, the Southern Conference has NEVER put more than one school in the Big Dance, meaning there’s no such thing as an at-large bid for this league. For SoCon teams, the regular season is a lead-up to the conference tournament. You know what prepares you for the conference tournament? Playing teams in your conference. Citadel will do plenty of that in January and February.

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So, who does Citadel have to impress with their schedule? Nobody. If you don’t need the paycheck, why ruin your win-loss record playing a bunch of ACC teams?** Just win the conference tournament. If Citadel can keep up their high scoring pace (93 points per game), that just might happen. As of January 11, Citadel is 1-0 in SoCon play following a 92-87 win over Chattanooga.

**A key takeaway of the Texas Southern article is that most mid-major teams play tough nonconference schedules because larger programs pay handsomely for an “easy” home game.