Texas A&M women’s basketball reveals non-conference schedule as Taylor era begins
Texas A&M women’s basketball reveals their 2022-2023 non-conference schedule as coach Taylor begins her Aggies tenure on November 10th versus Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in Reed Arena.
The six remaining November contests include a home games versus Army on November 13th, a trip to Duke on November 17th, followed by a three game homestand versus Texas Southern, Texas State and Rice on November 20th, 23rd and 27th, respectively. The Aggies conclude the month of November with a trip to Kansas on November 30th.
The month of December begins with a home contest versus Morgan State on December 4th, a road trip to Little Rock two days later on December 6th, followed by hosting SMU on December 18th, and then participating in the Las Vegas Invitational with both Dayton (December 20th) and Purdue (December 21st).
Coach Taylor will look to get off to a hot, non-conference start in order to give her ladies the utmost confidence heading into conference play – a conference Joni is a proven winner.
Coach Buzz Williams and his new look Aggie hoops squad will look to get off to a hot start in the 2022-2023 campaign.
Texas A&M men’s basketball has announced their 2022-2023 non-conference schedule. Their home-heavy, non-conference slate features one exhibition game, one invitational tournament and ten additional contests.
The month of November will begin with an exhibition game against Texas A&M-Kingsville, followed by the University of Louisiana-Monroe, Abilene Christian, the Myrtle Beach Invitational, in South Carolina, and the month concludes with a trip to DePaul University and a home contest versus SMU.
December play will begin with a neutral site contest versus Boise State, in Dickies Arena, followed by Oregon State, Memphis, Wofford, Northwestern State and Prairie View A&M. The Aggies will only leave Texas one time in December for their trip to Memphis, TN in the middle of the month.
Look for coach Williams to continue to harp on strong non-conference play to begin the 2022-2023 season.
Tip-off times and viewing information will be announced at a later date.
We are officially one BIG step closer to basketball in Aggieland.
Marquette basketball announces the date of their matchup against the Badgers this season
On Monday afternoon, Marquette basketball released their non-conference schedule for the upcoming season, and the Wisconsin Badgers are scheduled to play in the yearly rivalry game at home against the Golden Eagles on Dec. 4.
Wisconsin basketball has only released the dates of a few games on its non-conference schedule including a game against Providence at home on Nov. 15 and an away matchup at Georgia Tech on Dec. 1. However, the Badgers have not yet announced the remainder of their schedule.
This year’s game will likely be another great one to watch between these teams, especially after the heartbreaking two-point loss the Badgers suffered against the Golden Eagles last season.
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Mountain West Basketball: Non-Conference Games Affected By PAC-12 Postponement Non-Conference games that won’t happen this year given the PAC-12’s decision. Contact/Follow @HardwoodTalk & @MWCwire A look at the non-conference games around the …
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Mountain West Basketball: Non-Conference Games Affected By PAC-12 Postponement
Non-Conference games that won’t happen this year given the PAC-12’s decision.
A look at the non-conference games around the Mountain West affected by the PAC-12’s decision to cancel all sports for the rest of 2020.
Well, it’s starting folks, after a month-long waiting game for college basketball fans around the country watching conference after conference make their own call in regards to the upcoming football season, normally set to kick off this month.
We finally have some news regarding games taking place on the hardwood. Though as expected, it follows the trend we are currently seeing around the college football world, no games anytime soon or at least not until the turn of the calendar year.
As of yesterday, the Pac-12 is the first conference to essentially postpone all sports for the remainder of the 2020 calendar year. Although other conferences such as the Ivy League made their own pioneering announcements back in early July, the PAC-12 is the first to include winter sports by not directly mentioning any change or postponement for any sports in particular. But by pushing back any further discussion surrounding the key words “all sports” until at least 2021.
This announcement should be the first of many in the coming days, with basketball beginning to mirror football around the country. With conferences taking the future of their upcoming seasons into their own hands and making difficult decisions across the country to either push back their seasons into the new year or going on as planned as we’ve seen with the ACC, Big 12 and SEC.
We’ve seen the scheduling fallout Group of Five conferences have encountered recently with Power Five conferences opting for conference only seasons along with FCS and FBS independent programs shutting it down completely and now high major conferences pushing all sports back to possibly the turn of the new year.
Conference Commissioners have gone on the record stating that college sports cannot be played in a bubble-like professional sports have demonstrated this summer and it seems that no such attempts will be made come 2021 either. At least, given what we know and are seeing happening around the country at the moment. Where smaller conferences don’t have the resources to begin their seasons at the moment and even some bigger ones don’t see the reward outweighing the risks should they decide to play in the coming months.
It’s still very early and I’m sure the ongoing pandemic halted some further discussion between athletic departments. But there is some previously published non-conference games out there to review (Via the D1 Docket’s Twittter account). But at first glance we only have four officially announced games and three possible ones listed at the moment between the Mountain West and PAC-12 in jeopardy.
That probably isn’t a true representation of how badly schedules were affected around the conference yesterday. Since Mountain West schools took the floor against PAC-12 schools sixteen times last season, with four of those contests coming from San Jose State alone.Though in reality, I’m not entirely confident we would have seen a season that even slightly resembled what we are used to on opening night anyway.
Nonetheless, some highly anticipated matchups will be missed by local fan bases who were probably not going to be allowed inside the proposed venues anyway, or at least not in the volumes or traditional seating arrangements we’ve come to know and love.
Anyway, below are the games we can guess are canceled this winter, while also keeping in mind some games that are expected to happen annually like rivalry matchups between the Buffaloes and Rams not reflected below.
Nevada
A possible matchup against Oregon State in the Cayman Islands Classic, originally scheduled for late November.
San Diego State
At Arizona State on Dec. 10th, 2020
A possible rematch against Arizona State in the Diamond Head Classic, originally scheduled for late December.
San Jose State
At Stanford TBD
UNLV
California on Nov. 14th, 2020
UCLA on Nov. 17th, 2020
A possible matchup against Stanford in the Maui Invitational, originally scheduled for late November.
Wyoming
At Arizona on Nov. 20th, 2020
Make sure to check back on updates to the upcoming season (whenever that may be) right here, as we at Mountain West Wire will be keeping track all fall and winter for updates with you.
After back-to-back home tilts against Washington State and Southern Utah, Utah State will embark on the road for the first time in 2020 against the physically-minded Huskies. Even without the services of former head coach Chris Petersen, this Husky defense is going to be strong and look to punish an Aggie team that will doubtlessly be searching for its identity. The game is set for Sept. 19 but the TV network has not been announced.
Location: Seattle, Washington
Mascot: Harry the Husky & Dubs
Conference: Pac-12
2019 Record: 8-5
Head Coach: Jimmy Lake (Overall 0-0). There is no question Lake has big shoes to fill with the sudden departure of Chris Petersen last season. Luckily for the Huskies, the transition is all but guaranteed to be smooth with the amount of defensive experience Lake has to his name. He has been at Washington as a defensive assistant for the last six seasons, two of which he was the co-defensive coordinator and the last two as the full-time defensive coordinator.
Despite the loss of nine starters from 2018, Lake’s defensive unit limited opponents to 19.4 points per game in 2019, good for 15th best in the country. Though the Huskies’ record last year was disappointing, the defense kept them in every game and ensured all but one of their losses was within one score. This defense hits hard and makes absolutely nothing easy for its opposition. Lake helped build the culture at U-Dub into what it is under Chris Petersen and it’s genuinely terrific.
Quick Series Snapshot: Washington leads 2-0
These two schools have only played twice. In 1998, Dave Arslanian’s Aggie team got utterly embarrassed and dominated 53-12. The game was so bad it even prompted Arslanian to say in the post-game press conference this gem: “I must be a lousy football coach. I’ve never seen that bad of a performance. I apologize, especially to the Huskies, for being the inept opponent we were today.”
The Aggies at least showed up in the 2015 game. After a competitive first half, the defense faltered and the offense sputtered in a 31-17 loss. Then freshman QB Jake Browning showed off his arm and torched a largely helpless secondary, previewing to the college world how good of a career he was going to have in Seattle.
Washington Huskies, 2019 Season:
Though a few highlight games provided great thrills, the 2019 season will go down as a “what if” type of season for U-Dub fans.
The Huskies took care of business against their FCS foe Eastern Washington with ease in week one. The next week, they surprised everyone (including Cal fans) after losing a defensive slug-fest in Seattle to the Golden Bears. Cal got the go-ahead field goal with under ten seconds to go and Husky QB Jacob Eason couldn’t make late-game magic.
After the bitter loss, the Huskies righted the ship with three solid wins in a row against Hawaii, BYU, and USC. Washington dominated all three games and looked like a shoo-in for the Pac-12 North Division winners.
The Huskies then lost control of their season as quickly as they seemed to initially tame it. They lost three of their next four games, and each loss was a heartbreaker worse than the one before. Losses to the Ducks, Utes, and Cardinal all but ensured Washington would not head back to the Pac-12 championship game. Adding insult to injury, they even lost a road contest against a poor Colorado team in Boulder.
The Huskies closed out their 2019 campaign on a good note, however. They scored dominant wins against their in-state rival Washington State and then granted Chris Petersen the last laugh in a romp against Boise State in the Las Vegas bowl.
2020 Overview:
Offense:
With the departure of Jacob Eason, U-Dub is going to have a QB competition on its hands. Unfortunately for the Huskies, none of their prospects have much experience in games and not a single one has thrown a touchdown pass on game day. With inexperience and a new offensive coordinator comes growing pains. SO Jacob Sirmon is the early favorite to win the role, but FR Ethan Garbers and Dylan Morris can make it interesting in the coming weeks.
Though quarterback is an unmistakable weakness at this point, Washington still has excellent recruits and some proven playmakers on their offense. SO RB Richard Newton is expected to carry most of the load this season and SR Sean McGrew is more than capable of having a breakout performance. Newton had good numbers last season with 514 yards gained on 117 attempts, garnering 10 touchdowns. McGrew was used less but had a higher rushing average per play. Both of these runners saw less time than star rusher Salvon Ahmed last season, but they are now well prepared to carry the offense while their QB finds his feet in the scheme.
The Huskies return a pair of JR receivers in Cade Otton and Terrell Bynum to take over for Aaron Fuller and Hunter Bryant from 2019. Though their receptions last year are dwarfed by the graduated seniors, Otton and Bynum still totaled up more than 340 yards each to go along with their combined four touchdown grabs. They’ll undoubtedly need to help out their QB and get open against the DBs they match up against or else this offense could have the tendency to sputter.
Defense:
Unlike the question marks they have on offense, Washington is in excellent shape on the defensive side of the ball. SR Elijah Molden is back at corner and he’ll be looking to build on a stellar junior year where he tallied up 79 total tackles and made first-team All Pac-12. SR Keith Taylor will help Molden out at the other corner and is no slouch with 59 total tackles in 2019. This secondary allowed just over 222 yards per game last year and I expect them to improve due to the overall increased age and maturity of the unit.
At linebacker, the Huskies have some big bodies to work with. SO Edefuan Ulofoshio should increase his production from last year and JR Joe Tryon will be an absolute load for opposing offenses to plan against. Tryon is bigger than your typical LB and he can slide into the defensive line as a DE as well. He’s multi-talented and is slated to be a high round NFL draft pick for 2021. When SR Ryan Bowman is on the field as well, there will be many frightened QBs who don’t want to run into either of them.
The defensive line has a couple of stars who will certainly cause havoc for the Huskies. SR Levi Onwuzurikenabbed 45 tackles last season and a couple of sacks. SR Josiah Bronson rounds out the upperclassmen on the line and will need to step up his production from last season for this unit to shine to its fullest potential. He earned 23 tackles in 2019 and was recently granted another year of eligibility. The rest of the line is quite young, so the fortunes will largely ebb and flow with these two seniors.
Final Thoughts and Game Prediction
Historically, Utah State has not played well on the road against P5 teams. It pains me to say it, but they just haven’t. Though there’s no telling how much of a factor the crowd at Husky Stadium will be in the midst of a pandemic, the Aggies have a ton to prove.
In a similar twist to the Washington State matchup earlier in the season, this game will likely be a game of strength vs weakness on each side of the ball. Washington has a lot of retooling to do on offense and will be against an Aggie defense that should be substantially improved over last season. Conversely, Utah State’s offense has to show up against a traditionally very strong Washington front seven to have a puncher’s chance in this game.
The Aggies’ shuffling of offensive lineman last season hasn’t yielded a terribly consistent unit. USU started strong in this category last year, but once SO Andy Koch went down to injury early in the season, the sacks started to pile up and the Aggies finished 44th in sacks allowed. This offensive line can get pushed around versus a stalwart and beefy defensive line, so it will be critical for SR Demytrick Ali’ifua to get his occasionally wayward snaps under control. This will give time to Jr Henry Colombi to get the ball out quickly to his seasoned receivers, a potential match-up advantage over the Huskies.
Washington was strong against the run last season ranking 28th in the NCAA and yielding just 126.4 yards per game to their opponents. Since USU’s passing game is a question mark right now, the Aggies will have to rely on getting the ground game churning with SR Jaylen Warren leading the way. USU was middle of the road rushing the ball in 2019 at 152.2 yards per game, so Warren will need to stay healthy and get help from one of the younger backs to elevate this offense.
The Aggies are most likely going to have a rough outing against Washington. Though USU’s defense is probably good enough to keep the Husky offense in check, it’s going to turn into a murder slog quickly if USU can’t keep the chains moving against a schematically sound and disciplined Husky defense. They’re athletically superior and quite talented with the highest rated signing class in the Pac-12 for 2020.
I stopped believing in Utah State’s ability to win a P5 road game a long time ago. They won’t get it done until they actually get it done. This game will be largely a repeat of the 2015 affair, just uglier and more drawn out.
The Schedule is out for USU football: Let’s break it down.
The Mountain West recently put out its full football schedule for the 2020 season. Outside of the non-conference games, USU finally knows which order it’s going to play its opponents in.
Here’s a quick look at strength of schedule using ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI):
#54 Washington State
FCS Southern Utah
#29 at Washington
#62 at BYU
#88 San Diego State
#51 at Boise State
#124 New Mexico
#98 at Nevada
#77 at Wyoming
#93 Fresno State
#96 at Colorado State
#76 Air Force
Tough road to start
Aggies are going to start out the season with a solid non-conference slate. Newly staffed Washington State will roll into town with head coach Nick Rolovich leading the charge. Though Wazzou is likely to take a step back with the loss of their star passer Anthony Gordon, Rolovich has a strong reputation for pass heavy offenses. He’ll throw everything including the kitchen sink at a youthful Aggie defense.
After playing the Southern Utah Thunderbirds in the teams’ first meeting since 2015, Aggies will take on the Washington Huskies in Seattle. Even with Chris Petersen stepping down, the Huskies are in great hands with defensive guru Jimmy Lake. Aggies haven’t won a road game against a P5 opponent since the Nixon administration, so it will no doubt be tough sledding against an elite Husky defense.
Aggies will get a bye week before facing the BYU down in Provo. Though I generally am not a fan of early-season bye weeks, this one comes at a great time. Sandwiching strong Pac-12 teams around SUU should set the Aggies up to be both battle-tested and rested before they look for revenge against the Cougars in October.
Bonus fact: Aggies are 2-0 against BYU when coming off a bye.
Lighter load down the stretch against new coaches
With the exception of the defending Mountain West champs Boise State, the rest of the opponents are quite manageable for the Aggies. San Diego State and Fresno State both come to Logan, and both teams have new head coaches in charge. The Aggies will close out the regular season at home with a likely rebuilding Falcon squad as well.
Road tilts at Wyoming and Nevada are difficult, but winnable. The Wolf Pack’s QB situation is completely up in the air, and Wyoming appears to be toying with the idea of a two-QB system. As strong as the defensive culture has become in Laramie, their offensive prowess still leaves much to be desired.
On the very light end of the schedule, Aggies will face New Mexico in Logan and Colorado State in Fort Collins. The Lobos were an absolute disaster last season and the storyline will only improve as much as Rocky Long is able to coach up their defense. Last season, the Lobos ranked dead last in the FBS in pass yards allowed. They can only improve, but there will be plenty of growing pains along the way.
And let’s be real: nobody knows why Steve Addazio ended up with the Rams. He has virtually no ties to the west and he had plenty of baggage at Boston College. Time will tell if he’s a good fit for the pass-heavy Rams.
Final Thoughts
There are only a handful of what could be considered “easy games” on this schedule. It starts out as genuinely challenging but lightens considerably after the mid-October date with the Broncos.
One nice variable the Aggies have going in their favor is they’ll be facing six teams who all have new head coaches. Whether at home or on the road, taking advantage of another team’s growing pains and variable chemistry can open some prime opportunities for wins.
The Aggies themselves are transitioning back to a 3-4 “attacking” defense they had in 2018. With Stacy Collins and Frank Maile taking command of the defense, the transition will likely have fewer issues than it would have otherwise. If the unit can get near where it was in 2018, USU will have a puncher’s chance in most of their games.
Projected record: 7-5
“Body bag” games (Sure loss): at Washington, at Boise State
Difficult games (can win, but likely loss): Wazzou, at Wyoming
Toss-up games: at BYU, San Diego State, Air Force
Should win: New Mexico, at Nevada, at Colorado State, Fresno State
