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8 minutes ago, Bubba4three said:

Dambrot just isn't a March kind of guy. I realize it is still only February. He must've seen his shadow yesterday.

 

Funny.  Well, lets take a look.  

 

11 straight trips to the MAC Tournament Semifinal (an All-Time MAC Record)

9 of 11 of those trips were to the Title Game.  

 

Can you name us a coach in the MAC right now who wouldn't like to have his own 12 year history in March include that?

 

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4 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

 

Funny.  Well, lets take a look.  

 

11 straight trips to the MAC Tournament Semifinal (an All-Time MAC Record)

9 of 11 of those trips were to the Title Game.  

 

Can you name us a coach in the MAC right now who wouldn't like to have his own 12 year history in March include that?

 

Interesting that you didn't bring up his NCAA, NIT, CBB, CIT record.   Weren't some of those seasons where Akron got a bye all the way to the semifinal round?

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40 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

 

I like your post, but you aren't going to get me to take these games less seriously.  Sorry.  I just can't do it.  I'm too invested in Akron Athletics, emotionally and otherwise.  B)

 

But on your other point, I have always been someone who emphatically reminds everyone on this site that college athletes often do not perform like you want.  They're kids, for God's sake.  But, the problem right now with Akron, like every highly successful program, is that the bar is now set really, really high.  If it weren't for that, you wouldn't be seeing the posts you're seeing today.  If this was Keith's first team, everyone would be rejoicing in our season right now.  But it's not 2004 anymore.  Everyone expects so much more.  

 

Oh, by the way, we've now played in 4 D-1 NCAA Tournaments in this Century.  Are you forgetting about 1986?  

 

All you have to look at to validate that point is compare our football team to our basketball team. Getting to 6 wins and making it to a bowl game is considered a successful season in football. Anything short of winning the MACT tournament and making the NCAAT is considered a failure in basketball.

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33 minutes ago, dirtyolcrowe said:

Weren't some of those seasons where Akron got a bye all the way to the semifinal round?

 

Yes, which means that if we had not dominated the league the way we did, he'd have even more MAC Tournament victories because we would have played in more Quarterfinals. 

 

Let me also add that a couple of times, we actually had to play a Home Game plus a Quarterfinal game.  And both of those times we won the Title.  So, we were 4-0 on two separate occasions in the tournament during Keith's era.  

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We do expect a lot.  And rightly so.   If we are on this blog, we are invested in this team's success.   And while we can't psycho-analyze the players and their motivation, we all certainly see a pattern of stalled success.  With football, we expect little but with Dambrot we expect some results or we might as well be a team like BG who has empty stands and can get really excited about beating the MAC leader.  But as soon as I write this I think of the dark Hipsher years and how far we've come. Conundrum.

 

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MDZip,

 

I hear what you are saying and I agree on a certain level.  All of us should keep things in proper perspective and I think most of us try to do that.  This thread's stated purpose was presented as a vent thread and people were venting.  Very mildly, in my opinion though.  If you wanted to see real venting, perhaps we should start a thread where we post screenshots of out text messages during last night's game.

 

Anyway, you are right.  Balance is the real secret to happiness in life, but it's so hard to achieve.  I try to remember what my wife's grandfather used to say that nothing is ever as good as it seems or as bad as it seems.  However, give me passion over apathy any day of the week.  There are 459 threads on this board bemoaning the fact that not enough people care about Akron athletics and thousands of opinions of what needs done to remedy that problem.  People complain because they care.  There's some real value in that.

 

At the end of the day, even the posters who are judged as being the most negative are active in this forum because they love the Zips.

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Stalled success?  I don't think so.  Akron had never won a regular season title until 2011 and I think they have done it twice since then.  Unless the wheels completely fall off, they should win it again this year.  That is not stalled success.

 

What is lacking is the breakthrough season that finally puts the program on the map.  I still hear (from time to time) people still referencing George Washington University in bracket buster conversations.  They went to the Sweet 16 in 1993.  Their overall record in the tournament is 4-11, but even one successful Sweet 16 can mean something.

 

I think all Zips fans want to experience that thrill and are getting pissy waiting.

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Where do we go from here?

 

I think the Zips warts are exposed. By February, there's enough tape out on the Zips. People know how to best negate our primary threats.

 

The Zips shoot a lot of bad 3's, which lead to fast break opportunitiess. Big Dog is typically slow to get up/down the floor. So push push push the ball up the court.

 

Get Big Dog away from the hoop. Early in the year he was getting the ball on the low block. Now he's having to work his way inside. Once he puts the ball on the floor, a quick guard can make a steal...a quick double-team forces long cross-court passes...if Dog is 16 feet from the hoop with the ball, 3 things can happen...and two of them are bad.

 

Kwan has forgotten how to let the game come to him. If you're red-hot, and the basket looks as big as Terry Bowden's old trousers, by all means fire away. But when you aren't...firing up shots as soon as the ball hits your hands...regardless of your balance, distance, or openness of your teammates, that will quickly run us out of games. Anyone know why Kwan now sits at the complete end of the bench, even beyond the trainers, when he gets subbed-out?

 

We need to execute in tight games. We choked against OU, playing like we were behind 5 when we were up 5. We got lucky against Ball State. Our luck ran out against Kent. And BG simply out-hustled us as we hoisted our way into a hole. The bungled "what the hell was that?" inbound play after 2 timeouts was flat-out pathetic. We had 1.3 seconds, which is ample time pump fake and shoot, or to dribble-shoot, and we panicked. I guarantee in the same scenario, Buffalo would have gotten a good look at the hoop.

 

I said a few days ago that we need to get our swagger back. Instead, we tossed more swagger away.

 

We'll be a force in Cleveland. We always are. I remain confident we'll cut down the nets at The Q. But we have some key players that need to get their act together asap. Guards and bigs alike. You don't lose to BG because 1 guy had an off night...you lose to BG because you collectively stunk up the joint.

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9 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

The Zips shoot a lot of bad 3's, which lead to fast break opportunities.

 

Not bad 3's.  Any missed 3's.  I think some teams have seen how our perimeter people have reacted this year after missed shots, and they have taken advantage.  I've seen this happen more times than I've ever seen it happen in the past.  

 

It's not just fast breaks.  Even when the numbers weren't there, many have used missed 3's w/long rebounds to get into the half court quickly and use the brief open spacing to make passes and create offense.  It's hurt us.  

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26 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

 

Not bad 3's.  Any missed 3's.  I think some teams have seen how our perimeter people have reacted this year after missed shots, and they have taken advantage.  I've seen this happen more times than I've ever seen it happen in the past.  

 

It's not just fast breaks.  Even when the numbers weren't there, many have used missed 3's w/long rebounds to get into the half court quickly and use the brief open spacing to make passes and create offense.  It's hurt us.  

At best, we only ever get 4 guys back when other teams push the ball.  The bear that Big Dog's grandpa, Walter Johnson of the Browns, used to wrestle back in the 60's gets up the court faster than Dog.

 

I'm looking forward to see if KD mixes things up for Buffalo.

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1 hour ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

Where do we go from here?

 

I think the Zips warts are exposed. By February, there's enough tape out on the Zips. People know how to best negate our primary threats.

 

The Zips shoot a lot of bad 3's, which lead to fast break opportunitiess. Big Dog is typically slow to get up/down the floor. So push push push the ball up the court.

 

Get Big Dog away from the hoop. Early in the year he was getting the ball on the low block. Now he's having to work his way inside. Once he puts the ball on the floor, a quick guard can make a steal...a quick double-team forces long cross-court passes...if Dog is 16 feet from the hoop with the ball, 3 things can happen...and two of them are bad.

 

Kwan has forgotten how to let the game come to him. If you're red-hot, and the basket looks as big as Terry Bowden's old trousers, by all means fire away. But when you aren't...firing up shots as soon as the ball hits your hands...regardless of your balance, distance, or openness of your teammates, that will quickly run us out of games. Anyone know why Kwan now sits at the complete end of the bench, even beyond the trainers, when he gets subbed-out?

 

We need to execute in tight games. We choked against OU, playing like we were behind 5 when we were up 5. We got lucky against Ball State. Our luck ran out against Kent. And BG simply out-hustled us as we hoisted our way into a hole. The bungled "what the hell was that?" inbound play after 2 timeouts was flat-out pathetic. We had 1.3 seconds, which is ample time pump fake and shoot, or to dribble-shoot, and we panicked. I guarantee in the same scenario, Buffalo would have gotten a good look at the hoop.

 

I said a few days ago that we need to get our swagger back. Instead, we tossed more swagger away.

 

We'll be a force in Cleveland. We always are. I remain confident we'll cut down the nets at The Q. But we have some key players that need to get their act together asap. Guards and bigs alike. You don't lose to BG because 1 guy had an off night...you lose to BG because you collectively stunk up the joint.

This is the best analysis of last night so far.  The only thing that could have made it better is if you could have described the previously mentioned unhappiness on your couch.  When we walked the ball up, stalled, threw it into Big Dog and turned it over at the end of the game, my Samsung Galaxy Tab 3™ very nearly got flung across the living room.  Luckily, cooler heads prevailed.

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1 hour ago, morris buttermaker said:

 I still feel that anything short of an NCAA tourney win will be a disappointment... a loss here or there in the MAC reg season is inconsequential to my feelings on this team.

But regardless of the their post season success or failures this year, I plan on taking a break next year and giving up my season tickets. 

If you give up your season tickets, you will lose your ZFund priority ranking and your front row seats for the Mac Championship!  Speaking of that...Ticket office has perfect timing and called today about purchasing tickets for the Q.  I responded, " let me get back to you on that." (Of course, I will cave in and go)

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