Hoops Schedule: UGA vs. UNC-Asheville

More of Mark Fox's schedule is beginning to take shape for the 2009-2010 Georgia Basketball season. The latest mid-major addition is the UNC-Asheville Bulldogs at home on Tuesday, Nov. 24th at 7:00 pm. (ht - macdaddy)

UNC-Asheville went 15-16 overall on the season last year and finished with an RPI of 200. This year, they return 4 of their top 5 scorers and 4 of their top 5 rebounders. The #1 guy in both categories appears to be gone.

They will have played Tennessee and Charlotte before our game so they should have their act together when they roll into Athens. Incidentally, they face Kentucky after us. Those four games combined with returning the bulk of their talent should give them an RPI in the 150-200 range next year.

Also, Coach Ed Biedenbach of UNC-Asheville was an assistant coach at Georgia for Hugh Durham from 1981-1989.

The existing 2009-2010 Georgia Basketball schedule so far:

Home:
Georgia Tech
New Orleans (Billy Humphrey's return)
UNC-Asheville

Away:
St. John's (Big East Challenge in Madison Square Garden)
Missouri
Virginia Tech

Neutral:
Illinois

You won't find many SEC or ACC schools playing five BCS schools in a year. In fact, last year Kentucky lead all SEC and ACC teams by playing six non-conference BCS conference members. Most SEC and ACC schools played 2-4 such opponents. UGA faced four of them.

Plus, rumblings indicate that one or two quality mid-majors (RPI 50-100 caliber programs) will still be added to the slate. It'll be a manageable schedule that the computers will like. The trick to basketball scheduling is to avoid the sub-300 RPI teams that Felton booked extensively.

I still think it's an NIT team at best, but that would definitely be an improvement over all but 4 days of the past two years.

PWD