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The Toledo Rockets Women’s 2013-14 basketball schedule has been released and it features competition that last year’s team, and NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, would have found pretty compelling. Unfortunately, this schedule is too late to help Naama and Friends reach the NCAA Tournament but let’s take a look at what Tricia Cullop’s new roster will be facing this upcoming season.
| Nov. 3 | Ashland (Exhibition) | Home | 1:00 PM |
| Nov. 9 | Drexel (Glass City Tournament) | Home | 2:30 PM |
| Nov. 10 | Mississippi Valley State/Villanova (Glass City Tournament) | Home | 2:30 PM |
| Nov. 17 | Purdue | Home | 2:00 PM |
| Nov. 20 | Missouri-Kansas City | Away | TBD | Nov. 29/td> | Cal State Fullerton (Thanksgiving Classic) | Away | 12:00 PM Pacific |
| Nov. 30 | Saint Mary's (Thanksgiving Classic) | Away | 2:30 PM Pacific |
| Dec. 6 | Detroit | Home | 7:00 PM |
| Dec. 7 | Valparaiso | Home | 7:00 PM |
| Dec. 15 | St. Bonaventure | Away | 1:00 PM |
| Dec. 22 | Dayton | Home | 2:00 PM |
| Dec. 30 | Evansville | Away | TBD |
| Jan. 4 | Central Michigan | Away | TBD |
| Jan. 9 | Northern Illinois | Home | 11:00 AM |
| Jan. 12 | Miami | Home | TBD |
| Jan. 15 | Buffalo | Away | 7:00 PM |
| Jan. 18 | Western Michigan | Away | TBD |
| Jan. 23 | Ball State | Home | 7:00 PM |
| Jan. 26 | Ohio | Away | TBD |
| Jan. 30 | Akron | Home | 7:00 p.m |
| Feb. 2 | Bowling Green | Home | TBD |
| Feb. 6 | Miami | Away | 7:00 PM |
| Feb. 9 | Kent State | Away | TBD |
| Feb. 15 | Ohio | Home | 2:00 PM |
| Feb. 19 | Eastern Michigan | Away | 7:00 PM |
| Feb. 23 | Western Michigan | Home | TBD |
| Feb. 27 | Northern Illinois | Away | 7:00 PM Central |
| Mar. 2 | Central Michigan | Home | TBD |
| Mar. 5 | Eastern Michigan | Home | 7:00 PM |
| Mar. 8 | Ball State | Away | TBD |
Non-Conference Highlights
This season sees the return of two local competitions: the Glass City Tournament and the Toledo Invite. The Glass City Tournament opens with a guaranteed match up against the 2013 WNIT Champions from Drexel. Toledo will potentially play against Villanova the day after.
Purdue comes into town one week after Glass City for what would be the third straight difficult game to open the season for the Rockets. The Rockets then travel to California to participate in the Saint Mary’s Thanksgiving Classic.
The Toledo Invite starts the first weekend in December with the Rockets facing off against Detroit and Valparaiso.
Toledo wraps up their non-conference schedule with games at St. Bonaventure, a revenge game at home against Dayton and then back on the road at Evansville.
Key Opponents
- Drexel (2013 WNIT Champion)
- Villanova (2013 NCAA Tournament)
- Purdue (2013 NCAA Tournament)
- Dayton (2013 NCAA Tournament)
- St. Mary’s (2013 WNIT Tournament)
MAC Highlights
The difficulty continues for Toledo right from the jump of MAC play with a road opener at Central Michigan on January 4th. January 9th features a home game against Northern Illinois which would, quite frankly, be unremarkable except it’s the annual Education Day at Savage and the game will be attended by thousands of screaming elementary students. Ball State travels to Savage Arena on January 23rd to start a three out of four home game stretch that also includes contests against Akron and Bowling Green.
The Rockets get a bit of a break in MAC play after Bowling Green until March when a home game against Central Michigan and a road contest at Ball State round out the regular season.
Key Opponents
- Central Michigan (2013 NCAA Tournament)
- Ball State (2013 WNIT Tournament)
- Bowling Green (2013 WNIT Tournament)
Summary
As I mentioned at the top, with a schedule like this (and, obviously, wins to back it up) last year’s team would have probably sailed into the NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid. But this is a new year with a new roster and this is going to be a tough slate of games for a team that will feature many new players and a potentially suffer from a lack of veteran leadership with the loss of five seniors to graduation.
Even if Toledo struggles early against a difficult non-conference schedule these are the kinds of opponents the school needs to schedule in the future to improve the program. It should be an interesting season.