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Thing now get real from here out, starting with the opener against our OOC rival from up I77 (and the school I actually grew up rooting for before I went to the light and became a Zip. Now, I love beating them nearly as much as beating Can't). Anyway, Cleveland State is a cautionary tale, IMO, to what happens when you begin to recruit too well at the Mid-Major level. Cleveland State "should" have a three headed monster in Bryn Forbes, Trey Lewis and Anton Grady. Instead, they have nothing but question marks. Forbes, after a solid Sophomore season at CSU, transferred to Michigan State, where he was granted a hardship and played right away last year, and was a rotation player for the Spartans, and should be in it again this year as a senior. The blows kept coming as both Lewis and Grady, who are both hometown kids, took advantage of the graduate transfer rule and went to bigger programs this off season. Lewis, who averaged 17 points a game last year, will likely replace another Cleveland kid, Terry Rozier, in Louisville's backcourt. Grady, who statistically is one of the greatest players in the program's history, left to go to Wichita State. He was also a first team All-Horizon player who averaged about 16-8. Talk about a kick in the you know where. Hopefully, Akron never has to feel that wrath. But something you have to keep in the back of your mind. As for the current CSU team. It is one that Akron should roll. The top returner is Andre Yates, a solid guard from Dayton who transferred from Creighton. He'll have to pick up a lot of the slack from losing Lewis. After him in the backcourt, they have a couple other transfers who are eligible this year. The first is Myles Hamilton (Kenneesaw State). He was solid player at St. Edward in HS, and Im guessing will be in the rotation. They also got another transfer, Bobby Word, from Oral Roberts. Word put up pretty good numbers as a sophomore at ORU (8.5 points per game). Those three in the backcourt could be decent. In the front court is where Akron has a huge advantage. The only returnee with much experience is 6-8 Vinny Zollo. And since he is from SE Ohio, I'll compare him to Jake Kretzer, though Jake is much more proven. They have two 6-9 guys, but neither have much experience. Pat and Big Dog, and maybe Kwan, could feast down low. It will also be interesting to see which team gets more out of their SVSM freshman. Akron, of course, has Josh Williams and CSU has Jibiri Blount (who also is a nice prospect). Since Josh is starting, Im gonna go with Akron there. Plus, while I think Blount can be good down the road, I think Josh is more college ready. Barring any "typical Akron" early season shenanigans between now and next week, I think this will be a nice 15-plus point win against a team that still has a bit of name cache out in Can't.

And with announcers who don't regurgitate the same crap weekly. Feely and the other guy did pretty good for it being their first time with us.

Get. A. First. Down.

Grounding by UMass. Nice

The Russian Roulette offense finds consecutive bullets.

They've been one of the worst teams in the country for years, and we're always in a dogfight with them. We do have issues, but wait till the game is over to blow up about those problems.

It gets old watching Evans get burnt over and over again.

Our offensive line is horrible. The scary part is that they are all seniors and no underclassmen are apparently good enough to steal some playing time.

Sweet! Kegs and bongs at keeners house for the game!!! I'll bring the Funyuns.

Nice write up wadzip, very informative. 1981 - The big fat zero in the NCAA tournament wins makes me inclined to disagree.But for the record, I think Tree would have been that "star" last season. Too bad that it didn't work out. Zeke received similar praise (up there for the MAC POY), but while I think Zeke was more talented, he didn't have that mean streak to take over a game like Tree played with.

That sucks that CSU has lost 3 good players who have transferred to bigger programs. The only transfer I can remember of any significance from Akron was Bubba Walters who made a lateral transfer and went to Ohio University. Nick Dials transferred from Ohio State to Akron and Bubba may have lost some playing time. It was about 10 years ago. Akron has always benefitted from the transfer rule and Pat is a prime example. Maybe KD always playing 10 players and never developing a true star might be a good thing?

This is a must win for me to maintain optimism.