How an innovative scheduling system might benefit the Charlotte 49ers
The Charlotte 49ers are in real danger of missing the Conference USA men’s basketball tournament for a second consecutive season.
With five regular-season games remaining, Charlotte (6-18, 3-10 C-USA) is in last place in the 14-team league, 2 1/2 games out of the 12th and final spot for the tournament, which is scheduled for March 13-16 in Frisco, Texas.
“There’s something to play for,” first-year coach Ron Sanchez said of making the tournament. “It can be an injection of energy for us. It’s important to our program.”
But an innovative scheduling approach by the league - designed to help bolster the NCAA tournament resumes of the league’s top teams - could potentially help a team like Sanchez’s in a last-ditch effort to finish in the top 12.
Beginning next week and for the final two weeks of the regular season, C-USA’s “bonus play” schedule will break down the league’s 14 teams into three groups. The first group, made up of the top five teams in the standings, will play only each other over that time. Playing a tougher schedule will, theoretically, boost those teams’ chances in the eyes of the NCAA tournament selection committee - both for receiving potential bids or receiving higher seeds.
But it also means the teams in the bottom four will also play only against each other. So, rather than having to potentially make up ground by playing opposition from the upper echelons of the conference, Charlotte will do so against teams it still has a chance to leapfrog into the 12th and final conference tournament spot.
The 49ers, who play at first-place Old Dominion (20-6, 10-3) Saturday before bonus play begins, will likely be joined by 13th-place Texas-El Paso (3-9, 8-15 entering Thursday’s game against Louisiana Tech) in the final group, along with two other teams that are currently in a five-way tie for eighth place with 5-7 league records entering Thursday’s games (Louisiana Tech, Florida International, Florida Atlantic, Rice and Middle Tennessee).
Two of Charlotte’s three league victories came against FAU and Louisiana Tech. The 49ers also beat Ala.-Birmingham, likely a second-group team. The “bonus-play” schedule will be released Saturday night, with games beginning a week later on Feb. 23.
“It’s new, so I don’t really know what to expect,” Sanchez said of the system “We don’t know where we’ll play, travel is up in the air. We have no experience in this, nothing to reflect back on.
“But not to have to play (potentially) three of the top three teams in the league down the stretch is obviously beneficial. It puts us all in a position to get in there.”