Alabama Basketball G11 vs Xavier
Alabama faced Xavier in Coleman Coliseum on Dec. 21, 2013.
(file photo)
There's a well-defined list for Avery Johnson. Recruiting and filling the coaching staff are priorities as he completes his first month on the job at Alabama.
There are other matters, of course, and they include scheduling non-conference games for Year 1. The Crimson Tide had games with Xavier, South Florida, Wichita State, UCLA last season, but all four were the second meeting of two-year deals.
The only series that carries over to next season is a return trip to Southern Miss after the Golden Eagles visited Coleman Coliseum last season.
Alabama will also play in the Orlando Classic from Nov. 26-29 along with Dayton, Notre Dame, Wichita State, Xavier, USC, Iowa and Monmouth.
Scheduling philosophy was a topic when Johnson met with reporters last week in Dothan.
"We've been invited to quite a few tournaments and games to play against other conferences," Johnson said. "I think early on in the season, we have to play teams that we can be very competitive with, but at the same time keeping our RPI in mind. We have a nice looking tournament coming up in Orlando with some really good teams, but that's something we're taking a hard look at right now."
Newly hired assistant coach Bob Simon will be instrumental in the scheduling process, Johnson said. The final schedule for last season was officially announced Aug. 15.
Increasing the strength of the non-conference schedule was a priority in recent years after it hurt Alabama's NCAA tournament bid in 2012-13. Last year's schedule ranked 59th, according to ESPN's RPI and 43rd in Sagarin's strength of schedule formula.
"It's important, but again, this is our first year," Johnson said. "I don't know if we're ready to play the teams that are ranked first, second and third in the preseason whenever that comes out. But we have to have a competitive schedule but at the same time we have some bye-game situations that we're going to play some teams that we should have a lot of success against.
"We have a lot of young players. We have a lot of young players and obviously everybody is new so we don't want to jump out there in the deep water and try to bite off something that's too much for us to chew on, especially in this first year."