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I actually thought earlier this morning having Okonkwo might have been nice. He's not as offensively gifted as Lyles, but defensively he plays much bigger than Lyles. He might have done a better job at disrupting the shots near the basket while still being athletic enough to get up and down the court. I also think with Lyles developing more of a perimeter game they could both be on the court for stretches together if you needed to throw a different look in certain situations. Looking at his numbers in Utah through 3 games they have been underwhelming. I haven't watched Utah, but I wonder if they have buyers remorse.

"Virtually the only fault of Groce this offseason was not finding a true big to backfill Okonkwo's spot." I had the same thought last night in that we really needed somebody to match up with Towsend. However, we gave up speed with Okonkwo on the court. If we had a better science program we could have cloned Freeman when we had the chance.

It will be interesting to look back on this game at the end of the year.

Nice article on Terry Weigand and his son's battle with a rare cancer- https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/sports/college/zips/2025/11/25/terry-weigand-family-optimism-cancer-akron-zips-mens-basketball/87271567007/

We gave up the wide open 3s because the game plan was to go with a zone that especially focused on doubling Townsend. Yale was smart enough to go baseline and find the open man in the corner. They made 75% of those 3s as a result which is absurd. Virtually the only fault of Groce this offseason was not finding a true big to backfill Okonkwo's spot. We will essentially always have matchup problems in the paint with teams that have athletic bigs and/or can drive to the basket. Yale was flawless in exploiting the matchup down low and always having a guy slashing to the basket when the double came on Townsend. The defensive game plan and execution gave up 97 points, but I'm really not sure there was a legitimate solution. We needed Yale to shoot 55% from the field instead of 63% or shoot 42% from 3 instead of 47% or make 80% of their free throws instead of 100% or turn it over a couple more times like we did; they didn't do any of those things. Groce, as a coach, has to harp on the defense - I get it - but his failure to bring in a legit big for games like this is why we ultimately had to rely on Yale to be imperfect. He didn't have the right game plan or the right pieces to truly stop Yale defensively. Credit to Yale for essentially getting a basketball 4.0 - nerds. Akron proved yesterday that no matter the interior matchup advantage an opponent may have (aside from Purdue who builds their entire front court with fully grown redwood trees they chopped down themselves in California and hauled to West Lafayette, IN), the opponent still has to be nearly perfect to beat Akron (as long as Akron doesn't have a historically bad shooting night). Our system works. This team has an incredibly high ceiling. I've never felt this good after a loss to an unranked team.

I liked this tournament as well. I wonder how you get invited back, etc.

Plus, they'd get to play in the JAR. That's like playing in the Palestra, Madison Square Garden or Cameron Indoor.

I normally don't watch the replay of a loss but today might have to be an exception

Home and home would be great since we did 2 years with princeton already. Their next game is @ vermont so I don't think they'd be appalled to travel to akron

I'd sure like to play Yale every year. Hopefully the last two years have planted a seed.

Yale basically played like how we always wanted us to play in 24 with Enrique except we could never hit as many of those kick outs

One Tavari bucket that almost went down too.

When Yale took their big off the floor and moved Townsend to the 5 I felt we actually did better defensively with Lyles on Townsend. Yale still scored, but at least the shots they were taking were more challenging. We made it too easy for them in the 1st half. In hindsight we probably should have mixed up the defense more frequently. Throw zone a few possessions, play some man, and sprinkle in some hard double teams here or there. Running the same defensive set for long stretches made it too easy for Townsend to disect the defense.

I guess the question is: will one good game translate into a better situation and some money??

They also lost a lot of guys on cuts to the basket.

I know Yale played a perfect game but I'm sure their fans are saying the same about us. We had an answer for just about everything they had. Just one bucket short

Even the have programs, like OSU, use it to mainly return talent while treating the portal like FA and using it to just plug a hole here or there.

I know it’s just not the same because we lost, but Hardman was put in at the end and boy did he hit an incredible deep three with a hand in his face.

My man the other team making every shot was in fact not good for us

They played really well, but I agree with Groce that the defense wasn't good enough. Part of that was gameplan (doubling Townsend didn't work), but we gave up a ton of open shots, especially in crunch time. We tied it with 5:02 to go and proceeded to give up wide open 3s on the next 4 possessions (they hit 3/4). Yes, they had to knock them down, but we absolutely could have made it more difficult on them to do so.

Yep. That Yale team was sure clutch. EVERY time they needed to make a shot they did. I'll give our kids credit for sticking with it and fighting through.

We have seen a decent chunk of games now to start formulating some opinions on this year's team. Tavari Johnson has been fantastic. He's averaging 19/5, taking care of the basketball, and playing good defense. He has turned into a phenomenal player. Shammah Scott has been superb as well, averaging 14 a game while shooting 43% from deep (best in the MAC). Bowen Hardman is right behind him at 41%. Evan Mahaffey has been a difference-maker. His offensive game is limited, but he can create a bit for others and plays excellent defense. Eric is the future for Akron (assuming we can keep him). I think he'll be our 3rd best player by March after TJ and SS. MMK has done a great job, although I contend he will struggle to contain opposing 5s on good teams like Yale. But the effort and motor are valuable to this team. It's tough to judge much from Stankovic and Barre so far. Stankovic has shown flashes of enormous potential, and I expect a lot of growth this season. His defense has improved. I don't quite understand Barre's role here. He has good size and plays hard, and seems to fill a need for this team, but he's pretty clearly at the bottom of the depth chart. Maybe we will see that change over time. Halligan has brought good energy off the bench. Groce has played hard. We haven't seen much of Brisco. To me, the key players the rest of the way are Lyles and Young. We are going to need Lyles to rebound and play good interior defense to have a shot against good teams. We need the guy who averaged almost 10 a game in the MAC Tournament last year. Sharron just needs to find his shot - his shooting percentages are down from last year. He's provided significant energy off the bench, though, and I love the young man's heart.

Props to Yale. They played perfect basketball for an entire 40 minutes. 🤯 They made tough, contested shots, always found the open man out of a double-team, never cooled off from 3, made all 21 of their free throw attempts... ... and we still only lost by 3. Great game.

Which is fine and expected, but Yale still had to make their shots and they did. Easy to fault Akron's defense and as a coach he should, but it was just one of those nights where the opponent was perfect.