Leaderboard

Here's how I look at it, I like these guys and I want them to do well and I want them to represent the University well but for crying out loud (seems like a very appropriate idiom right now) its a college basketball team/game. It has no real effect on your life other than entertainment. Yep I get upset with them sometimes too and maybe they are not playing very well right now but give these guys a break. It's a long season and you're not going to be at the top of your game every game. I hate calling out individual players for any reason (especially since none of us expert commentators can do anything of what they do - even if I was 6'10"). We have had an unprecedented run of success in Akron basketball over the last decade or so, I think any team in the league would trade places with us. So we haven't won an NCAA tournament game and might miss it this year even though it started off very promising - boo-hoo - its tough to win in the NCAA tournament period and especially out of the MAC. So the MAC has had a couple good runs over the last 15 years, what about the other 13? I've been to all three of the NCAA tournament games in this century and had a great time, its fun being part of it (well maybe not so much the VCU game ;-)). Would it have been more fun if we won? Sure but that's not why I go. There are 12 teams in our conference alone who are fighting for the top and under Keith the Zips have been consistently the best team in conference. It make it interesting every single year as opposed to what we lived in the 90's when it almost never mattered. /rant

I know everyone is frustrated and concerned... trust me I'm feeling the same way I wish I had an answer but I'm even lost for words. This is a team that has so much upside and they are just struggling for whatever reason. I truly believe they will figure this out and win and win BIG! We just got to Trust the Process and believe in these young men!

FTFY

When do they play this tournament?

I did not get this bobblehead when it came out because I am not a season ticket holder for MSoc. I was very hopeful that I could score one at the EMU bball game but that was unsuccessful. Thanks to a fellow ZN.o contributor who saw my posts, there was a package on my porch when I got home from work last night and inside the box was a Yedlin bobblehead. Thanks a million to 72Roo. I owe you one.

You know something? Had you told us at the beginning of the season that we'd be sitting at 12-3 with a full 2 game lead in the MAC, we would've given anything for that. And you know something not only are we going to Buffalo ZN.O, we're going to Akron and Kent and then we're going to Cleveland to punch our ticket to the NCAAT BYAAAA!!!...We will not give up.

No one should be too surprised. We all saw the weaknesses in this team but it was easy to look the other way when they kept pulling games out. Those weaknesses are now getting magnified. I heard two or three weeks ago that the team had a "morale problem" and I dismissed it. I'm beginning to wonder now if there's an issue as I see no fire in these guys. Also, again, could someone tell me who the leader(s) is/are on this team?

Y'all need to P.M. the apologists from the football board to come in and make excuses for the basketball team. You'll feel a lot better.

Guys shooting 3 point shots in transition is great if they are making them. Antino had the worst game in a while. One for 8 shooting and 3 turnovers. Kwan 2 for 10 with 2 turnovers and 0 offensive rebounds. These guys both having bad games is a killer. I really think these guys are wearing down at the end of the season. Utomi played 15 minutes and only took one shot. We need him to get involved in the offense. Dunn Martin played well. At the end of the game would liked to see him in there instead of Antino. For the last shot would have like to see Poke in there for his jumping ability and maybe an alley oop to win the game.

I feel this is retribution from the basketball gods for threads about our at-large prospects.

Lazy. Lethargic. Listless. Lousy.

We look like the Zips of old with all the layups we miss in this game. I thought BD got hacked a few times with no call also. Still Akron looks to have no interest in this game.

There is an explosion joke in there somewhere....

Every year I just buy the cheapies and end up sitting wherever I want. Spend my saving on beer at the Corner Alley. Still waiting for the Ohio Lottery deal to surface...

Picture of LZ after he broke his arm patting himself on the back.

Yeah, who would want another MAC POY candidate on the team?

Where do we go from here? I think the Zips warts are exposed. By February, there's enough tape out on the Zips. People know how to best negate our primary threats. The Zips shoot a lot of bad 3's, which lead to fast break opportunitiess. Big Dog is typically slow to get up/down the floor. So push push push the ball up the court. Get Big Dog away from the hoop. Early in the year he was getting the ball on the low block. Now he's having to work his way inside. Once he puts the ball on the floor, a quick guard can make a steal...a quick double-team forces long cross-court passes...if Dog is 16 feet from the hoop with the ball, 3 things can happen...and two of them are bad. Kwan has forgotten how to let the game come to him. If you're red-hot, and the basket looks as big as Terry Bowden's old trousers, by all means fire away. But when you aren't...firing up shots as soon as the ball hits your hands...regardless of your balance, distance, or openness of your teammates, that will quickly run us out of games. Anyone know why Kwan now sits at the complete end of the bench, even beyond the trainers, when he gets subbed-out? We need to execute in tight games. We choked against OU, playing like we were behind 5 when we were up 5. We got lucky against Ball State. Our luck ran out against Kent. And BG simply out-hustled us as we hoisted our way into a hole. The bungled "what the hell was that?" inbound play after 2 timeouts was flat-out pathetic. We had 1.3 seconds, which is ample time pump fake and shoot, or to dribble-shoot, and we panicked. I guarantee in the same scenario, Buffalo would have gotten a good look at the hoop. I said a few days ago that we need to get our swagger back. Instead, we tossed more swagger away. We'll be a force in Cleveland. We always are. I remain confident we'll cut down the nets at The Q. But we have some key players that need to get their act together asap. Guards and bigs alike. You don't lose to BG because 1 guy had an off night...you lose to BG because you collectively stunk up the joint.

I don't think I'd use that word. It makes it sound like the success has stopped. Instead, the success keeps repeating itself every year. I like to describe it as we keep hitting a Ceiling.

MDZip, I hear what you are saying and I agree on a certain level. All of us should keep things in proper perspective and I think most of us try to do that. This thread's stated purpose was presented as a vent thread and people were venting. Very mildly, in my opinion though. If you wanted to see real venting, perhaps we should start a thread where we post screenshots of out text messages during last night's game. Anyway, you are right. Balance is the real secret to happiness in life, but it's so hard to achieve. I try to remember what my wife's grandfather used to say that nothing is ever as good as it seems or as bad as it seems. However, give me passion over apathy any day of the week. There are 459 threads on this board bemoaning the fact that not enough people care about Akron athletics and thousands of opinions of what needs done to remedy that problem. People complain because they care. There's some real value in that. At the end of the day, even the posters who are judged as being the most negative are active in this forum because they love the Zips.

I like your post, but you aren't going to get me to take these games less seriously. Sorry. I just can't do it. I'm too invested in Akron Athletics, emotionally and otherwise. But on your other point, I have always been someone who emphatically reminds everyone on this site that college athletes often do not perform like you want. They're kids, for God's sake. But, the problem right now with Akron, like every highly successful program, is that the bar is now set really, really high. If it weren't for that, you wouldn't be seeing the posts you're seeing today. If this was Keith's first team, everyone would be rejoicing in our season right now. But it's not 2004 anymore. Everyone expects so much more. Oh, by the way, we've now played in 4 D-1 NCAA Tournaments in this Century. Are you forgetting about 1986?

On air now. • Coach explained why it's so important to recruit South Florida (I4 down). It's his area of expertise, since he has been doing it all his life. He has built relationships with many high school coaches. Too many athletes in South Florida for the amount of colleges. Those athletes have to come north because there are more schools to play at. He explained how he sells a Florida kid coming north. It's too hot during football season in the South, the North offers more tolerable weather during football season, when it's cold, they are inside. They are one of the few schools with a 100 yard indoor practice facility. • Jimbo Fisher was coaches first QB he signed when he was coaching at Salem International. • Jim Vitaro was questioned by coach about local fishing (coaches hobby). Jim told coach that Portage lakes is a good place to fish for bass..."you got grass, you got bass." Jim told him the Cuyahoga river is good for small mouth in deeper holes. Jim explained Lake Erie is on of the best to catch small mouth, but not as good as it was 20 years ago. • Coach seems to be a big Matt Wilson fan. He mentioned what a great communicator he was (agree), and how many high schools he has visited since starting. • Matt Newhouse spoke with coach. He spoke about the ESPN contract and how it effects the game times, and mentioned how they are trying to figure out trends of the student body. He spoke of how they are going to get involved with youth football, and make them aware of Zips football. They are going to try to get some fundraisers going to help with uniforms and then get those kids and families to the game. He wants to start making kids Zips fans as early as he can. He thinks this will help with the community support, coach agreed and said what a great job KD has done with this. Matt also mentioned president Wilson and his excitement working with him. He mentioned they are still trying to figure out what to do with the JAR, and they realize it's still a big issue. Nothing to earth shattering. Matt speaks really well. • Coach heaps lots of praise on the basketball progrum. He loves the home atmosphere and likes to take his recruits to games. • Athletic director, Larry Williams. First thing he mentioned was just being on a call getting an explanation of a "bad call" that cost them a basketball game. He mentioned how they are dealing with financial issues. His challenge is to argue the value and importance of athletics. Mentioned what an impact Jatavis Brown is going to have on the world, and not just athletics. Larry asked Terry what player stood out in terms of growth, coach answered Jimbo Fisher. Then mentioned both Buddenbergs playing for him. Larry mentioned what a great socialization opportunity tailgating is during football games. Coach asked Larry about president Wilson. Larry is impressed with his vision of growing from the ground up, and doesn't think he sleeps. He can't wait to see his work start to flourish. Larry thinks president Wilson has a unique skill set and says Akron is lucky to have him. • Terry Pluto is coming up (12:10), I'm going to have to check out. If someone wants to take over, I think the show was done well. Worth the time. ---- I tuned back in at 1:20 ---- • Coach said the University is going to do something with Jason Taylor for his HOF induction. He doesn't know details. He said he would like to glass in a permanent locker with his jersey in it. • Jatavis Brown is training in the facility right now. Isaiah Williams is on the Redskins practice roster, and is also training with the team. • He mentioned after watching Big Dog play, he thinks he could be a left tackle. He was half kidding. • Coach finished up by saying this was his best recruiting year, because he married an Akron girl, his now wife, Audrey. Entertaining show, coach Bowden, Matt Newhouse, and Larry Williams are very well spoken, and represent the University well.

What I saw last night was a team sleepwalking and just going through the motions. Akron had beaten BG 17 times in a row and in that streak, some less talented Akron teams than this one had beaten some more talented BG teams than that one last night. BG truly sucks. They are a ragtag bunch of losers. So, I am chalking last night up to disinterest, which brings me to my next point. . . Where's the Senior leadership? These 2 guys could have gone anywhere in the country and wanted to play their Senior year at Akron to take care of some unfinished business. Where's the leadership coming from these two guys? The number of half-hearted, lazy, unfocused passes that were committed last night was a perfect time for our two 6'10" big men to be up someone's ass with a size 18 sneaker. Instead, I saw very poor body language out of those two last night with Kwan bordering on full-blown crybaby reactions. Also, as the season has worn on, Big Dog has become an absolute liability on defense. Any player he is defending with any quickness blows right past him for an easy basket. I love the guy, but the book is out on his defense.

I agree. We're missing Jake this year.

People keep saying our record is a mirage, but we're losing now because our offense has regressed. 2-3 weeks ago we weren't shooting the ball 36% from the field. Any team is going to lose more times than not when they shoot that poorly. Hell we would have gotten smoked earlier in the season shooting that badly, but we have gotten a little better defensively since. What is going to be key is getting Kwan back to playing how he was for the first 20-25 games of the season. Kwan is vital to our success and if he goes 2/10 shooting in Cleveland, we will likely lose. If the pieces do come back together and we start resembling the offense we had earlier in the season, I don't see us losing in Cleveland.

Need to win two games. That's what.

We had much better ball movement earlier in the year. Now it seems we run down the court looking for the 1st contested jumper. Our defense has much improved, but our offense has suffered.

Number one seed has still not been clinched.

How appropriate. One more shitty pass on the inbound.

Big Dog put his arms forward. He wasn't vertical. They'll call it every time.

Didn't look like Johnson was moving at all.

Horrible, horrible call. BG player was out of control and Big Dog was just standing there.

Ugh. Ugly start. Would someone please play defense on Jimmy Chitwood? They look tired and uninspired. The 7 BG fans are starting to get into the game.

After the Dayton game ended, we have 5 minutes of commercials and then a Spectrum Sports update. It then joined the Akron game already in progress.

I'm wrong in simply picking the winner every freaking game. So if I pick BG then

If the alternative is hoisting a 25 foot three, what would you rather he do? I don't care if Kwan gets hot and cans a couple consecutive 25 footers. I get it...it's a shot he can make. But it is very low percentage, and it is the opponent's dream that the Zips hoist 25 footers when games get tight...because the percentage that we fail is very high. It's not just Kwan...in crunch time the Zips lack poise, and begin chucking bad 3's instead of taking what the defense gives them. That's why we don't blow anyone out. That's why we lost to OU. That's why we lost to Kent.