kreed5120

There is a lot of things to complain about the MAC, but they have done a terrific job with the tournament. Outside of MWC, who plays their games tournament in Vegas, it might be the best run mid-major conference tournament. They would be dumb to move it.

The issue with a 22 game conference schedule is that only leaves 9 OOC games, 3 of which would be some exempt tournament. That means you only have 6 OOC games that you can schedule opponents for. That doesn't really give you much flexibility for scheduling. Not to mention it reduces opportunities for MAC schools to get tournament building wins. The NCAA would need to raise the number of games teams are allowed to play before that becomes a reality.

Maybe not, but an extra trip from Buffalo to DeKalb or Kalamazoo would certainly make a major difference.

If the MAC coaches wanted to do away with divisions, it would have already been done. Divisions minimize travel costs and makes it easier for student athletes to attend class.

I'm pretty sure @NWAkron was using sarcasm. Duquesne still has TDM as well and Weathers who transferred from Miami after Cooper was fired.

Akronzips71 wouldn't want him in an Akron uniform anyways as he's 6'8. That's 2-4 inches below his minimum height threshold for a big.

This is our chance to improve to .500 for the academic year in revenue sports.

It's just a list of teams for fans of college basketball to keep an eye on. None of them are anywhere close to being a lock to make the tournament, and honestly the only two that have any prayer of getting an at-large would be Duquesne and NIU.

Yardbarker lists Akron as 1 of 5 Cinderellas to watch. Duquesne was listed as another. https://larrybrownsports.com/college-basketball/five-teams-cinderella-stories-march-madness-2020-yale-akron/534272

I actually thought the Zips let up. They started milking the shot clock with 7-8 minutes left, which led to them forcing some pretty not so good looks. In reality we could have won by 30-40 had we kept our foot on the gas.

Pretty sure he's 1st in attempts too.

Also, these announcers obviously never seen Akron play. They sound so surprised the Xeyrius is a perimeter player and not a post up player.

Miami is already in the bonus...

If anyone is curious what Saul is up to these days, apparently he spent his Friday evening rescuing a women in labor who was trapped in a snowstorm. http://www.startribune.com/former-ndsu-coach-saul-phillips-helps-rescue-woman-in-labor-trapped-in-blizzard/567158672/

The key difference is those Ohio rosters that Groce was coaching wouldn't have come close to sniffing the tournament had they been in the Big 10. Groce's best Ohio team went 11-5 in the MAC. That translates to what a 5-11 Big 10 team? They would have had to of won the Big 10 tournament to get in, which wouldn't have happened. Shaka produced a final 4 team and 3 additional top 30 kenpom teams. Those VCU squads would have been able to compete in the Big 12 with the caliber of players he was getting there.

A good article talking about the reason Shaka is failing at Texas is because he's gotten away from what he had success doing. https://sports.yahoo.com/shaka-smart-lost-his-way-by-abandoning-what-made-him-successful-094336729.html

Realistically the men's MAC will never reach the height of the women's side. The large schools just aren't plowing the same type of money into it that they're the men's game.

33% from the field, 21% from 3, and 40% from the line. What a terrible display of shooting.

Part of why Toledo was able to shoot such a high clip was they were able to get Sayles and Riak away from the basket. Both looked extremely exposed on the defensive end when they were forced to guard out on the perimeter. Reece isn't as flat footed as Riak or Sayles so I do believe he would have been able to do a better job on contesting shots when he got switched on a guard. He certainly couldn't have done worse than what Riak did on Marreon Williams.

Where are you getting that? I didn't see any reputable bracketologist have us higher than 12th.

Yep, people say this every time Akron loses a game. We weren't going to go 18-0 in the MAC. The last team to go undefeated in MAC play was Cincy 70 years ago.

You aren't going to win many when you allow the other team to score 90+. We went 0-1 today. Let's try to go 1-0 Tuesday.

I'd also like to see us push the ball after misses. We have the athleticism advantage and they can't get setup into a zone when they're forced to play in transition.

Toledo is passing the ball faster than we can rotate which is leaving wide open 3 point shooters. We may need to quit doubling Knapke in the post as we keep getting burned from 3 when we do.

Knapke is nearly a 40% career 3P% shooter. Teague I was questioning why Riak was guarding him 20 feet away from the basket. Against Knapke you better not give him any space to shoot or he will burn you. For that reason I feel Reece, despite being undersized, would be the better option to guard Knapke.