Starting schedule is key to season

Every coach on this campus will tell you that they want to win the Pac-10, beat USC and finish the season on a high note.

But that doesn’t mean out-of-conferences matchups aren’t important.

Scheduling is one of the toughest decisions UCLA coaches face. Because of the school’s athletic reputation, Bruin teams can usually dictate the type of nonconference schedule they want, unlike smaller schools that often have to work hard to build a schedule.

The opportunity to choose their out-of-conference schedule puts coaches in a bind.

An easy schedule to start the season has obvious benefits. A great start obviously gives a team confidence and bolsters its postseason chances.

But weak competition to start the season can leave a team unprepared when it begins the grind of Pac-10 play.

If anyone knows the importance of out-of-conference play, it’s Karl Dorrell.

Dorrell’s football team slipped up in two of its three out-of-conference games this year.

In the Pac-10, though, the Bruins have looked great. After the win over Cal, they’re in a tie for first place with Arizona State. And the Sun Devils still have Oregon, USC and Cal on their schedule.

Still, it’s hard not to wonder what could have been. If the football team won all of its out-of-conference games, it would probably be the No. 1 team in the country right now. Instead, the Bruins are unranked and essentially eliminated from national title contention.

The stakes might not be as high in sports that have a postseason tournament, but men’s soccer coach Jorge Salcedo can certainly feel Dorrell’s pain.

Those Bruins had a bad start, too. Salcedo’s team lost five of its first 11 games and fell under .500 at one point after entering the year as the No. 1 team in the nation.

Their schedule partly explained the team’s struggle. The Bruins lost on the road to Notre Dame and Indiana, two top-10 teams. And another loss came at Santa Clara, one of the best teams in the country.

But, like the football squad, the men’s soccer team has bounced back. The team has won three straight conference matchups and with a 3-0-1 conference record, the Bruins are in first place in the Pac-10.

The stories of those two teams may seem similar at a glance. But there’s an important difference.

The men’s soccer team can still win a national championship.

If Salcedo’s team wins the Pac-10, it will be in the NCAA tournament. And with the experience the Bruins have from last year’s run to the College Cup final, they’ll be a contender in the postseason and their out-of-conference experience will be seen as an advantage.

Ben Howland is taking a similar approach with his basketball team’s schedule this year. The Bruins could face Michigan State in the CBE classic, and the Spartans’ Drew Neitzel may be one of the only point guards in the country who can challenge Darren Collison. The Bruins also take on an upstart Michigan team on the road and an underrated Davidson team at the Wooden Classic.

The women’s basketball team is taking an even more extreme approach. The team, led by Kathy Olivier, plays national powers Maryland and Tennessee this year. For a team as inexperienced as the women’s basketball team is, that type of challenge can go a long way in development.

Dorrell, Salcedo, Howland and Olivier all chose a schedule that they thought would enable their teams to meet their goals. Ultimately that’s what coaches should ““ and usually do ““ keep in mind when scheduling. The schedule needs to challenge the team enough, but not too much so that the team can’t realistically compete every week.

It’s not as easy as it may sound. Just ask Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr, who thought Appalachian State would be the best way for his Wolverines to start the season.

E-mail Allen at sallen@media.ucla.edu.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *