2005-06 Schedule Released

If you look on the left side of the page you will see the newly released 05-06 schedule, which will hopefully result in our third straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Out Of Conference Schedule is a little bit better in year's past, but the team is still playing too many cupcakes. We should know right off the bat if this team is any good as we play Xavier, Gonzaga, Michigan State and Tennessee in games 2-5. Xavier and Gonzaga are NIT/possibly NCAA teams, while MSU and Tennessee made the FF last year and have reloaded. The other key non-conference game is Arizona, which may be looking for revenge after last year's overtime loss in Tucson. Polk is still there so Crystal, Jade and Harper will have to play tall and stay out of foul trouble, but Wheeler is gone so this year may be a bit easier.

The ACC gave us home and homes vs. Duke, Virginia and B.C. this year, which means once again they didn't do us any favors. For the second straight year, Maryland gets to welcome a newcomer to the league as they play BC on January 5th. Then a brutal stretch in February with games at UNC, Duke then back home for BC and then back down to NC for NC State in a span of 10 days. This stretch will probably decide our seeding heading into the postseason. Maybe one day the ACC will realize that it's good to help out all the teams in the league and just not Duke and UNC.

Overall I am looking at a 13-1 OOC record and a 9-5 or 10-4 ACC record for a 22-6 or 23-5 mark heading into the postseason and hopefully a top 5 seed.