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The question becomes, can we make it to the final five minutes of the second half with the lead? 18-0

No need for Pat tonight.

"We'll get some minutes out of him, but we will be cautious" -KD with Frenchy on 1350.

Rice fixed my phone after I took it for a swim this weekend. Magical stuff I guess

Great story on Pat Forsythe today.

Kwan had a solid game at Can't and scored several inside baskets. The first half is the best I have seen him play all year. He did not score in the second half. I have said it numerous times that Kwan needs to learn to score inside the 3 line to be a consistent double digit scorer. Hopefully, he will come up big tonight.

Gravity screws him when he leaps at three point shooters.

What were we going to do with another guard? Besides, isn't St. V a little closer our back yard?

I'm afraid of the dreaded "bounce" tonight. We're coming off of a sky high intensity level effort against our biggest rival. Kind of reminds me of the spot we were in about 15 yrs ago when CMU came in here and whipped us by a hoop as a double digit dog. I think that Chris Kaman was just a freshman that year. I still remember Dan Hipsher chasing down the refs at the final buzzer. NIU is to be respected, They, along with BG and CMU, have greatly improved over last season. They are red hot and have taken down two of the top 4 seeds in Cleveland in the last couple of weeks. Anybody quickly penciling this in as an easy win may be in for a shock

So if Noah isn't ready to play decent minutes in the early portion of next season would there be any temptation to have him use a redshirt for next year given that he still has the option available and that we should have some other quality guards on the roster? Is it better to have a limited Noah in November and December or to have him at full strength for three more years? It could actually be a tough call. Hopefully he is well and fully ready to go by November and the question wouldn't even need to be brought up.

I really like the way we played at Can't and I think if we carry that over to the game on Monday we should have a good chance at winning. I like how Antino was working the give and go with Big Dog. He fed Big Dog some great passes. Antino played a solid game and yes, he was the go to player a crunch time when we needed a basket. He seems to get better every game and that is encouraging. Here are my keys to the game. Reggie and Kretzer continue to shoot the ball well. We get some inside scoring from Kwan, especially when Big Dog is on the bench. Diji stays out of foul trouble. That T was just dumb. The offensive foul was a bad call since they were letting it go all night. Antino continues to get better. Go Zips!!

Most medical sources agree that typical recovery time from a torn ACL is 6-9 months before normal athletic activity can begin again. Could be a little less or a little more, but that's the typical range. So it would likely be September at the earliest before Noah could begin seriously practicing. It's not likely that he would be in great game shape before the first game next season. But he might be ready to play short minutes early in the season. That makes Antino's tremendous progess at the end of this season so critical, and also likely means that Josh and Jimond would get more minutes in early season games than they would if Noah was 100%. After the Alex/Carmelo situation, I don't think we'll ever see Coach Dambrot short of qualified PGs again. To be safe you need at least three guards who can play the point well, even if one or two are combo guards who can play the 1 or 2 equally well.

Hold off on the "surpassing" and other miscellaneous doom and gloom. Buffalo has never been to the dance. As in EVER. Not even once. In fact, I'm not sure they've played in more than one MAC final ever. I am a little jealous of how their fan base has grown seemingly exponentially over the last 4-5 years, but they're still a ways away from overtaking even Akron's level of a solid mid-major.

Seeing stuff like this is why Akron is never going to be more than what it has peaked at - a consistent, but slightly above average mid-major. Here's a kid from essentially your backyard; you have one of his HS teammates, Cristen Wilson, on the roster; and yet you let him get away to a rival MAC program. Im not sure if KD even recruited him, and to be fair CSU and Can't also missed on him. But not getting him will come back and bite UA. Anyway, great pickup for Buffalo, a school that has surpassed what KD has built in 11 years in just 3 under Hurley (better the last two years and better talent already in/coming into the program). O'Field is a freak athlete with decent basketball skills. If he continues to develop, he will find a spot in the NBA.

UA boosts R&D spending significantly

Nice. I hope Hurley stays in Buffalo for a long time. It's good for us & keeps pressure on us to up our game as well. Plus, I like the budding rivalry with Buffalo. It's fun. We've already got two pretty epic rivals in OU & K.e.n.t. Let's have another; makes for more meaningful games throughout the course of the season.

Was it "foolish" to expect Zeke to start? Yes, you can never predict what will happen, but unless he's not 100%, Noah will be a starter. I think he, Antino, and Williams will all get heavy PT next season, and that we'll all thoroughly enjoy having the three of them.

Here's what I know....KD is paid a lot of money to coach UA basketball. Part of coaching is putting the best players on the field/floor that give you the best opportunity to win. I have a feeling that if Antino gives UA a better chance to win than Noah does (did), I'm pretty sure he would be the one "starting" and playing 30 minutes/game.