Nov. 8
Scheduling is such an important factor for a coach preparing his team for the season. There are three phases of a season: the preconference schedule, league play and finally postseason play.

Arizona opens with five games against teams that made the Big Dance last season.

Some coaches believe in scheduling lots of cupcakes to get easy Ws. While it can boost confidence, it often gives your team a false sense of security, and you can't get a true evaluation of your talent. Other coaches want to prepare their team by playing the best of the best over and over. That gets a team ready for league play, where the intensity is there night in and night out.

Playing a tough schedule also gets you ready mentally for conference tournaments and the NCAA Tournament. You have to figure that if your kids can handle a series of rough non-league tests, they can be ready for just about anything.

All-Hard Knocks Teams: It's time to salute teams of both ends of the spectrum. First, my All-Hard Knocks Teams, giving them credit for playing challenging non-league schedules.

Let's start with Arizona. Coach Lute Olson plays quality competition in the Pac-10, facing the likes of UCLA, Stanford and USC. Olson gets ready for that with a rugged preconference schedule, starting with Thursday night's game against Maryland. It's never easy to open against a top-five team, one with more experience that also appeared in the Final Four last year.

The Wildcats open with five games against teams that made the Big Dance last season -- Maryland, Florida or Temple, Texas, Kansas and Illinois. Think about it, four games against top-20 competition, and possibly top-10 teams, in the first five!

Then add Michigan State, Purdue, Pepperdine and Connecticut on the non-league plate, and you have to salute Olson for taking on all comers.

At Arkansas, coach Nolan Richardson has the same philosophy. His Razorbacks open in the Preseason NIT. They could face Wake Forest in the second round. Should they advance, the semifinal opponent could be Fresno State, USC or Wyoming. If Arkansas makes it to the finals, Michigan State, Oklahoma or Syracuse could be the foe.

Richardson's club also travels to Illinois, Memphis and Tulsa. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are also on the schedule before the SEC gets under way. This schedule should prepare Arkansas for the likes of Florida and Kentucky.

Cupcake Award: The winner of my annual cupcake award goes to Colorado State. The Rams of the Mountain West play Montana Tech, Gardner-Webb, Arkansas-Little Rock, Denver University, Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne and Morris Brown.

Now before all the people in Fort Collins write in, this is done for fun. Coach Dale Layer, this is all in jest, baby!