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I see this as a must win. Win this game and the home game against Miami secures the MAC championship, a number one seed and at the very least an Nit bid. Lose this game and we possibly will have to win at Buffalo or at Kent to get the No. 1 seed. More importantly, we want to finish strong at the end of the season. During the Eastern Michigan game, one of the analyst commented that he thought Akron was a good team but indicated that he wanted to see the team drive more to the basket because on some nights you will not be hitting the 3 ball at a high percentage. I think those words ring true at the Kent game. We have to have a more balanced attack when the 3 ball is not going in the basket. Does anyone know why we are starting at 9? The game does not appear to be on national TV.

No worries, I typically hold off on creating game threads expecting (hoping) that someone else will. Its been very quiet around these parts for the past 2 days and I didn't see a thread up for the game so I went ahead and created it. Oddly enough I believe I've only created 1 other game thread all season and the same thing happened. I got a laugh out of it more than anything.

I couldn't agree with this proposal more. It can save college soccer because it is in miserable state right now. It will be better for the athletes physically, academically and developmentally. It could also turn the sport into a revenue stream and help produce better American players. A poll of Division I coaches showed overwhelming support for the Fall/Spring season. We all know the NCAA has done virtually nothing to market its post season tournament. With the finals in the spring all universities could be potential playoff sites and excitement for the tourney could be built over months not the last week of the season as it is now. This would be much like Ball is done now. Because this makes way too much sense and there is no money upfront look for the NCAA to do nothing intelligent.

I am very much in favor of this. The NCAA championship would be in the spring. Right now, it is only being discussed for div. 1 men. With only 1 game a week in the fall, students would do better in classes and the quality of play would be much higher as the coaches and players have more time to prepare for the next opponent. I think that injuries would be reduced as these young players would not be playing games on Wed. and Saturday. Currently, the coaches can't start working with the soccer players until 10 days before their first game in the fall. That is not enough time to get prepared. The spring season is pretty meaningless right now. In Akron's case, Jared and his staff can't start coaching the players in the spring until Monday Feb. 20th and they have their first exhibition game on Saturday Feb. 25th. That short preparation time leads to poorly played games and probably results in more injuries. With the advent of MLS academies and MLS sponsored teams in the USL, college soccer needs to change or we will continue to see more and more talented players bypassing college soccer.

I think it is safe to say from George's last two columns, that he wasn't a statistics major in college. I would also say the statistics don't need to be rehashed to tell the tale of last night's game. Kent simply wanted it more. They hustled down the floor after every missed shot. Their double-teams on Big Dog were lightning quick. They disrupted what the Zips like to do offensively, and we obviously struggled. What a joy it would have been for me to see Hall frustrated, sulking at the end of Kent's bench. Instead it was our all-MAC candidate. If you aren't mentally tough in the Akron-Kent game, you're no help. Thankfully Utomi stepped up, or we'd have been blown out. Who showed up? Ivey was rock-solid yet again. Big Dog played tough. Utomi, of course. And although Dunn Martin (9 minutes) didn't score, he had 4 assists compared to Robotham's 0 in 33 minutes. Robotham continues to offensively rival Carmelo Betancourt. If your point guard that's playing 30+ minutes per night is repeatedly putting up goose eggs in the points column, and not offsetting it with a bucket full of assists, it's a problem. As we entered the arena I said to my friend "The book on Kent is they're tough, aggressive, and they can't shoot." I received a pretty good scouting report. Joe Akron got a good show last night. A riveting game...packed house...electric atmosphere...even if he was underneath the heat lamp on a wooden bleacher he couldn't have complained he didn't get his money's worth. All our goals remain in front of us. Wins against BG and Miami will give us another regular season MAC Championship. But our road, and post-season nemesis Buffalo is getting hot. Kent's dangerous and confident. We need to get our swagger back soon.

Who knew Andrew Bogut played in the MAC?