Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State Announces 2005-06 Men's Basketball Schedule
8/23/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
2005-06 Men's Basketball Schedule!
Aug. 23, 2005
2005-06 Fresno State Men's Basketball Schedule in PDF Format
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FRESNO, Calif.--With seven schools advancing to postseason play, including four that qualified for the NCAA Tournament, Fresno State head men's basketball coach Steve Cleveland announced the upcoming schedule for the 2005-06 season.
While 14 home games are on tap, adding to the attraction of the home schedule will be Fresno State's appearance on ESPN's "Big Monday" versus Boise State on Feb. 27.
With 28 games on the docket, the Bulldogs' notable non-conference slate includes 2005 NCAA Tournament participants Iowa State (Dec. 3) and Pacific (Dec. 17). Both programs advanced to the NCAA Second Round and the Tigers earned a final No. 22 ranking in the AP Poll.
The `Dogs open their home schedule against Oregon State on Nov. 26. Fresno State then travels to Buffalo four days later before hosting San Francisco nearly a month later -- all three teams participated in the 2005 National Invitation Tournament. Rounding out its non-conference ledger will be contests against CS Northridge (Dec. 7), University of San Diego (Dec. 10), Norfolk State (Dec. 19), UC Santa Barbara (Dec. 23), Iona (Jan. 3) and a Bracket Buster game on Feb. 18.
The Western Athletic Conference season gets underway in early January. Playing two of their first four conference games at the Save Mart Center, the Bulldogs open league play against Utah State (Jan. 7) before facing Nevada (Jan. 18). Both programs were 2005 NCAA participants.
Utah State is just one of five schools in the nation to win at least 23 games in six consecutive years, joining Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas and Syracuse. The Aggies, who were the top shooting team in the country last year (.525), have appeared in a school-record six straight postseasons (4 NCAA, 2 NIT). In those six years they have tied for ninth in the nation for wins (152) while their .788 (152-41) win percentage is fourth best in the country.
Nevada is coming off a school-record 25 wins, winning the WAC regular-season title with a 16-2 mark. The Wolf Pack advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year and fourth time overall in 2004-05. Nevada received votes in the final two polls by finishing 29th (48 votes) in the AP Poll and 37th (7 votes) in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll.
In addition, nine of the Bulldogs' home games will take place from mid-December until the end of January. In this 12-game stretch, Fresno State will entertain Norfolk State, UC Santa Barbara, San Francisco (Dec. 29), Iona (Jan. 3), Utah State, Nevada, New Mexico State (Jan. 26), Louisiana Tech (Jan. 28) and Idaho (Jan. 30).
In Fresno State's basketball history, the Bulldogs will be playing Iona for the first time as well as playing three of its five oldest opponents in Pacific, San Jose State and UC Santa Barbara.
While the Red/White Scrimmage kicks off the preseason schedule on Wed., Nov. 2, the Bulldogs have two exhibition games at the Save Mart Center with Masters College (Nov. 9) and Fresno Pacific (Nov. 15).
The Bulldogs' regular-season tips off at Cal Poly, making it the second time in three years that the Fresno State opens on the road. The `Dogs also begin the year by playing six of its first seven games on the road before enjoying their significant home stand starting mid-December.
Nevada again will host the WAC Tournament, March 7-11, at the Lawlor Events Center.
"I'm thrilled to have a schedule, based upon the amount of time we had to work it," said Cleveland, who had to find seven games and two exhibitions starting last May. "The challenges we had this year relative to timing and schools already having schedules made, it was all we could do to find teams to play and find dates that coincided with the Save Mart Center and with our opponents dates. We were in a situation where we had to just do the very best we could based upon the circumstances and the late start.
"We have two BCS schools on the schedule with Oregon State at home and Iowa State on the road," Cleveland noted. "Those will be challenging games. It looks like we're a little home heavy in a certain stretch but that lends itself to the circumstances we had to work under in order to finalize a schedule. We want the fans to be happy but we don't want them to forget about us when we're gone for awhile. In the future we'd like to have a more balanced schedule.
"My philosophy in scheduling is to try to find two to three high profile teams, find games that, if we play well, can win at home and find challenging road games to help prepare us for conference play," Cleveland added. "It is very difficult for BCS type of conferences to come to Fresno State because they do not have anything to gain. Scheduling is the most difficult part of our business in college basketball today. You really have to depend on your relationships and have to depend on creating unique opportunities for teams to come in. It will always be a challenge.
"Overall, we are going to continue to work to find a very balanced schedule that prepares us for conference play," Cleveland stated. "We want to put ourselves in a position to have a good RPI and prepare for an opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament. We worked diligently on this year's schedule and I'm very pleased we were able to complete it and get some home dates."
