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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.

Preseason preview from Mid-Major Madness: In his fourth year at Milwaukee, head coach Bart Lundy is in position to break through and make his first March Madness appearance. He put together an experienced backcourt through the portal that should be among the league’s best. Redshirt senior Amar Augillard earned preseason All-League first team honors, joining the Panthers after averaging 13.3 points at Fresno State last season. His running mate, Seth Hubbard, earned preseason All-League second team honors. Hubbard played two seasons at Western Michigan, averaging 14.1 points in 2023-24. He spent last season at Toledo and averaged 8.4 points. Lundy’s squad was near the bottom of the conference in 3-point shooting last season but should be much improved from deep with the backcourt portal additions. Joining the new-look backcourt on the preseason All-League teams is returning forward Faizon Fields, who earned second-team honors. He averaged 6.7 points and 4.9 rebounds last season for the Panthers and will anchor the frontcourt. Milwaukee led the league in both offensive and total rebounds in 2024-25 and will look to continue that success. Danilo Jovanovich will also return in the frontcourt, and Lundy landed three transfers to bolster the unit: Sekou Konneh from DePaul; Tate Mackenzie from JUCO Howard College; and Chandler Jackson from JUCO Parkland College. Being an elite rebounding team helped Milwaukee finish within a game of the regular-season league crown last year, and dominating the glass again will help them take the next step.

I guess he needed game tape and was running out of time?🤷🏼‍♂️

We spend $$$ and 3 years developing him & he has one good game for us and leaves.

In the post-game, Groce was critical of the Zips defense.

Schedule for the Round of 16 Saturday November 29 #13 UConn at #4 Maryland 1 pm #10 High Point at #7 Georgetown 5 pm Grand Canyon at #8 Portland 10 pm Sunday November 30 Hofstra at #16 Furman 1 pm Duke at #14 Akron 4 pm St. Louis at #11 Bryant 6 pm UNC Greensboro at #15 NC State 6 pm Washington at #12 Stanford 8 pm

Unless it's Virginia - then it's fine.

I would think the majority of it would go toward retaining players. That’s what most of the successful “have-nots” at the P4 level are doing anyway. I also think that approach would serve us best, as identifying, landing, and developing talent hasn’t been an issue for this staff.

Another one that finally does something and is off (probably) looking for a payday. I’m curious to see if he lands back closer to home at UConn or UMass.

Finally has a really good game and hits the door….

Ending a season on PKs has to be one of the worst ways to decide a game in all of sports.

Here my question: big assumption, but for the sake of argument let’s say Akron somehow raises a modest amount of money to use on NIL. Do they use that money to lure new talent to the program or spend it on some of the current players that are contributors? If I’m a productive starter that is getting nothing, I’m pissed if they spend it on new players. I’m sure other programs deal with this all the time but this would be a new issue at Akron

Yale shot 14 of 19 (73.7%) from the line against Green Bay and 11 of 18 (61.1%) against Charleston. They’re good, but we caught them on the wrong night. And there is a little bush league in that ivy. The fact that the refs let them get away with that hook and hold crap was driving me crazy. We do need better defense. There is still a lot of season left for everyone to improve, including hopefully Barre.

Townsend was just too good at reading the defense and picked it apart. They had so many easy buckets, especially in the first half. It felt like they just didn't have to work as hard to score as we did all night.

Milwaukee, Murray St, and Tulane will all be solid opportunities, plus the 2nd SBC game. If we only have a few losses come March and 2 of them are this game vs Yale and the Purdue game, that's a heck of a resume.

The doubling Townsend in the post just made sense, the problem was defending the cuts Yale was making. A problem we fell into in the second half, Townsend would get the ball 15~ feet from the basket, dribble in a little bit as if he was gonna take a baseline J, we would fall for it and he could go on by. That happened maybe 3 times in that second half just gifting him points

Evan never has been great offensively in the half-court. Where he thrives is when he's able to get out in space or when cleaning up misses. Akron wasn't really able to create turnovers nor were we missing many shots so his opportunities were minimal.

This is going to sound strange, but bear with me. Yale's shooting percentage was a plus for Akron as there were relatively few rebounds to be had ... and rebounding is where the bulk of fouls usually come from. I still think the Zips are lacking on the boards. To Akron's credit, the Zips shoot it well enough to overcome it and not get guys in fouls trouble. But as the season wears on I think this could be where the Zips are exposed,

Marvin was giving up 4 inches and about 30 lbs against their 5 when he was guarding him. Really tough ask, despite his giving his best as usual. Mentioned it earlier, but not using Barre or Brisco tonight makes me think neither will play much of a role on this team unless there's an injury.