College hoops season is well under way, as practices are going full speed ahead with 351 teams setting their goals for this season. In just a couple of weeks, the regular season tips off and the games will count.
As teams put their schedules together this summer, they needed to make a decision on whether to take their two allotted games before the regular season and play a pair of public exhibition games against Division II or lower schools in front of their fans, have closed door scrimmages against fellow Division I teams, or some kind of combination of the two. The majority of schools will play one public exhibition game and one scrimmage against a D1 team that will give them a test as well as an opportunity to stop and setup certain game situations.
The resulting matchups from these “secret scrimmages” are better than many regular season games, which is unfortunate for fans. Who wouldn’t want to see Oregon take on Oklahoma in Las Vegas? Or how about Purdue vs. West Virginia? These are actual scrimmages planned to happen over the next week or two before the season tips off, and no one but the teams themselves will get to see them.
Within those parameters, several Big East teams took different routes than we’ve become accustomed to. Butler decided to play both of their exhibition games and forgo a scrimmage, while Georgetown and Seton Hall decided to schedule two scrimmages instead. Some teams will go on the road to a neutral site, like Marquette and Xavier, while others setup a home-and-home scrimmage style, like Creighton hosting Missouri this year after going down to Columbia last season.
Here are the behind-closed-door scrimmages on the docket this season for Big East teams:
- 10/29: Georgetown vs. Manhattan
- 10/29: Marquette vs. Dayton in Indianapolis
- 10/29: Seton Hall vs. Penn St. at Palestra
- 10/29: Xavier vs. Georgia in Nashville
- 10/30: Creighton vs. Missouri
- 10/30: DePaul @ Minnesota
- 10/30: Villanova @ Pittsburgh
- 11/5: Georgetown vs. Drexel
- 11/5: Providence @ Northeastern
- 11/5: Seton Hall @ St. Joseph’s
- 11/5: St. John’s vs. Rhode Island
Those are a lot of interesting matchups that would have made nice regular season games. Personally, I would have rather seen Creighton play Missouri in a regular season game than settling for a game against the likes of Truman State. But, there may be a lot the Bluejays will get out of their scrimmage similar to what they did last season that we may not recognize until later this season. We will see.
For more updates on Big East scheduling this season and future season’s check out our scheduling page.
Here are some other closed scrimmages of interest:
Creighton non-conference opponents:
- UMKC – 10/29 at Missouri State
- Wisconsin – 11/5 vs. Northern Iowa in Dubuque
- Washington State – 10/29 vs. Utah State
- Montana – 11/5 at Colorado State
- Ole Miss – 10/30 vs. UALR
- Saint Joseph’s – 10/29 at Towson; 11/5 vs. Seton Hall
- Oral Roberts – 10/29 at Wichita State
- Loyola (Md.) – 10/29 at UMBC
- Buffalo – 10/29 at Albany
- Akron – 10/29 vs. Michigan
- Longwood – 10/29 at Hampton
- Arizona State – 10/29 vs. Weber State
Teams of local interest:
- Nebraska – 10/30 at Iowa State
- Nebraska-Omaha –11/5 vs. Northern Illinois in Iowa City
- Iowa – 10/30 vs. Illinois State
MVC teams:
- Bradley – 10/29 vs South Dakota State
- Drake – 10/29 vs. Western Illinois
- Evansville – 10/29 vs. Saint Louis: 11-5 vs. Green Bay in Hammond, Indiana
- Illinois State – 10/30 at Iowa
- Indiana State – 10/29 vs. Cincinnati at Bakers Life Arena
- Loyola Chicago – 10/29 at Northwestern; 11/5 vs. Chicago State
- Missouri State – 10/29 vs. UMKC
- Northern Iowa – 11/5 vs. Wisconsin in Dubuque
- Southern Illinois – 10/29 at Middle Tennessee
- Wichita State – 10/29 vs. Oral Roberts
Other closed door scrimmage info courtesy of Jeff Goodman.