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As frustrated as I am with only winning 3 MACC games in 9 visits, I appreciate the comments below from Coach Dambrot last night. I appreciate his candidly accepting that it is his job to win. I hope and trust that he will continually evaluate what he and his staff are doing and can do better to increase their chances of being successful. (https://sportscripts.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/game-11-akron.pdf) I also appreciate that he cares about the "kids"; I've talked with him enough to know he does. It's good to hear (read) him reiterate. I, unfortunately haven't made the time to get to know our basketball players, but I do appreciate them and that they chose to come and play for Akron; I wish them every success on and off the court. I hope that they will find a way to get past this disappointment and compete in the NIT even though it's not what any of us wanted. Always strive to do your best, whatever life hands you. Giving up is a poor choice. ...So if it was misconstrued, but I just wish sometimes that people would just under stand that I am a good person and that I care about kids. I really don't care what anybody else thinks, but I care about kids. ... ...That's a really good question. All I can say is, look, we've been good enough to get in the championship game year after year, and sometimes the ball hasn't bounced very well for us. I know the first time they banked in a 40 footer on us with a clock malfunction, I think we lost one overtime game to Ohio, we lose at the buzzer last year to Buffalo. The league is so close that like the year we pounded Ohio, right? I don't think we were that much better than Ohio, it was just a weird game, right? They got really good players and we just played well and they didn't. So I mean it's disappointing. You get there, that's the hard part about sports, right? When you're good, then you set yourself up for disappointments. If you're no good, there are no disappointments because you're never in the championship game, right? I think the hard part about athletics is unless you're careful, the lows, the lows last a lot longer than the highs. Even for me, like I have to fight that constantly. Think about the young people. We just lost two tough championship games in a row, and ultimately when we don't win the championship game, that's on me. Like my job's to win championship games, period. It's not on our players, it's on me. So luck, not luck, make your own luck. Obviously we just didn't play well enough tonight. But it's disappointing, yeah, and I probably won't talk to my wife for about three days, which is unfair to her, but I just won't feel like talking to anybody. Maybe I'll talk to my dog, because I don't know. Like I'm sick for my guys, I just feel bad for them, and that's the disappointing thing because of our league. I love our league. It's a great league, but it's so hard because it comes down to one game every year. Unfortunately, we've been in that one game a lot. It's the way it goes.

My regrets regarding the pendulum swing of comments here. We certainly all would have preferred a different result last night. It's always amazing how the emotions on a forum get directed at the players when things don't go perfectly. It's as if some fans think the players and coaches didn't want to win as badly as we wanted to see them win. It's ludicrous, and not unique to ZN.O. You've lots to be proud of about your son. He's been a credit to our community, the jersey he wears and the university. Off the top of my head, I can't think of many players at Akron who have won back to back MAC titles .. and Kwan is certainly among that select group, and a big reason they've won while he's been here. And that's a small thing compared to how he's succeeded as a student at the U. I also send several of my youth basketball players to the summer camps at the University, including my own son. I can tell you that all of the boys really love the camps, primarily because of the opportunity to get to know the players and learn the game from them. Kwan is one of the ones the kids talk about when they come back after the camps. This fan for one appreciates his efforts and sacrifice while on the Zips. I look forward to following his continuing exploits, and hope to see him win his last game as a Zip. Go Zips!

I would have went with, "Sad." at the end. I always thought one of the toughest thing to do as an athlete is to lose a tough game, and then ten minutes later talk about it to the media. Here are some thoughts from Noah, ten minutes after losing an incredible emotional game. Noah: "I mean, it's tough now, but I think overall we had a good season. Obviously not the outcome that we wanted. I feel so bad for Big Dog and Kwan, Carlitos and Mark, guys that just come in and compete every single day. I came in here as a 17-year old kid, and I'm 20 years old now, and those guys just taught me a lot on and off the court. Just tremendous, I mean I'm hurting really bad inside, but I mean, I got those guys to fall back on. I know those guys will keep me sane for at least the next couple days. I mean, it hurts right now, but I'm appreciative to be a part of this university. Being from Las Vegas, moving to Akron, I appreciate all the hospitality that I've received, and I'm glad to be a Zip. It's a tough day today, but we're a great institution, the great president, great coaching, great players and we have a great support system. But it hurts now, but I'm appreciative of the opportunity that I just had."

Scrolling through this thread I see several Bowden apologists being critical of Dambrot... I'm disappointed as anyone with how this season turned out. I'm losing faith that we will ever see Dambrot win a NCAAT game, which is a damn shame because there have been lesser coaches that have achieved that feat. Regardless, of how the final x-number of years of his career play out, he's going to go down as Akron's greatest basketball coach. Looking down the road 10, 20, 30 years from now when the Zips have trouble making it past the 1st round of the MAC tournament, which is bound to happen at some point, that's when we'll realize how good we had it under Dambrot.

To expand: L, 53-52 to Miami L, 74-55 to Kent W, 65-53 over Buffalo L, 81-75 to Ohio W, 66-65 over Kent L, 64-63 to Ohio W, 65-46 over Ohio L, 64-61 to Buffalo L,70-65 to Kent You can look at that a few ways: 1-We are 3-6 in MACC games, which is not good and should be better. 2-As skip-zip pointed out, we've won more MAC Titles in the last 10 years than anyone else. Combined with our number of Finals appearances, we're the best program - on paper - over the last 10 years. 3-The 9 title game appearances and 3 titles have been great, but damn, it would have been nice to win 1 or 2 more of those, at least. I'm in group #3. I'm proud of our accomplishments and wouldn't trade our results with anyone else in the MAC, but I also want more now.

Dambrot will NOT and should NOT get fired. let's put that to rest. We can't afford eating the rest of his 10 year contract, we can't afford upsetting Lebron, and great coaches are not dying to come coach at Akron. That being said, we need to stop worshiping him and he needs to feel some pressure. Here are a few starting points: 1 - He can't keep scheduling his way to get an inflated number of wins every year. We can't celebrate having x 21 win seasons when we all know it is fool's gold. The AD needs to step in and make him schedule better. 2 - He needs to hire better staff members, it is not Akron's problem to make sure that all his ex-players have good paying jobs. All his assistants are his ex-players and all what they know about college basketball is what they learned from him. Who is going to draw a new play when you need one? 3 - Hire an assistant coach who can coach post players. We don't have one. 4 - Practice free throws...it is EMBARRASSING! year after year after year. 5 - Stop this nonsense of being loyal to upperclassmen and playing them no matter how terrible they are. You play the best players on your roster. (Utomi over Kwan will be a good example).

Pretty much agree with this spot on. I like Dambrot and all that he brings, but I want more and I believe he does as well and at some point some changes need to be made. Back when Dambrot was first turning the program around, we lost Boals and Shaka to better opportunities.I may even be missing someone. That is a sign of having good assistants. When is the last time that has happened? I sense complacency with them. I liked playing Creighton and Gonzaga this year, but outside of that the OOC was incredibly weak. That should be looked at. As I said in the Kent thread. Give me Kent's lackluster regular season every year if it comes with playing better teams and making it to the dance. Maybe a philosophy change needs made. Some have said we missed out on Willie Jackson for the second time because he wants to be a focal point and Dambrot likes a balanced team. Nothing about this team was balanced this season. Big Dog was the focal point. Adjust your philosophy to bring in better talent. I'm also disappointed on losing Graves to Buffalo. Jimmys and Joes are worth more than X's and O's.

Just got back home and I was really a boiling pot all the way home. It was pretty evident from the get go that Kent showed up to play and Akron didn't. They deserved to win. We identified that this team did not have any Senior leadership earlier in the season and it was on display tonight. Keith made the decision to play Kwan 30 minutes. Jesus, it seemed like more than that. We all said at the Corner Alley that we needed Kwan to come up big and he came up snake eyes. I'm sure KD knew this was true as well that's why he left him in as long as he did but at some point he needed to see if Utomi could heat up. 20/20 hindsight. At the end of the tourney I have to summarize my weekend as follows: Days of vacation burned: 2 Hotel on Thursday night: $130 3 day bar/food tab: $500 High hopes for the Zips: Dashed again

Being a mid-major is a tough gig.

I'd like to point out that we can be upset about how the Zips have preformed, without calling for Dambrot to be fired. But on the culture side what are we building, a culture of meh? Just everything, and everyone around the Zips organization seems complacent with meh.

1) You don't follow college basketball very well if you believe that the NIT Champ is the 69th best team in the nation. 2) An NIT Championship would be absolutely incredible for this program. Unlikely, but incredible.

Clark is right. Firing Keith would be a PR nightmare. The most famous basketball player in the world would be throwing the University under the bus for that decision. What effect do you think that would have on the next coach's ability to recruit and take the program to the next level? I mean, damn. I am pi$$ed off we lost too, but talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

I'm not pleased at how this season ended or many of the previous season endings. That being said, you have to be realistic in your expectations. Sure, there's room for improvement, but does anyone realistically think that UA is going to make a change? KD has won and won and won, and the school's most visible benefactor will always be in his corner. He's not going anywhere, so cool your jets Zips fans. Sure, there can be a reassessment of the recruiting process, a review of the assistants and a revamp of how they perform in the post-season, but it's going to be on KD's watch. The only way KD moves on is on his terms. As for an assessment of the season, my greatest frustration is that I saw no improvement as the season went on. If anything, they regressed. From game one to last night, they never figured out how to defend dribble penetration. They did an awful job with defending the pick and roll all season. Big Dog continued to attempt to defend guys with 10 foot shooting ranges 20 feet from the basket. Teams figured out how to defend Kwan and no adjustments were ever made to counter what the defense was doing. Players like Josh Williams and Aron Jackson regressed and no player appeared to get better as the season went on. In the end, far from perfect and things to work on, but jumping ship isn't the answer or even a possibility.

I really appreciate Rick's time at Akron and his commitment to the school, fan base, basketball program and KD. If he's interested in spreading hit wings to take that next step, I wish him absolutely nothing but the best and hope to see YSU on future home schedules (come on Rick, you KNOW we're tired of Coppin State, Malone, and Arkansas or North Carolina alphabet soup!). It will be interesting to see what success and philosophy he has regarding scheduling, offensive and defensive schemes, fostering intensity and focus and how his teams do when it ma... in crunch time.

why? he's entitled to his opine and that's got akron what? 6 pee down your leg losses & ZERO ncaa tournament wins

or maybe shaka smart? maybe this program will take two steps forward

Tom Withers ‏Verified account @twithersAP Feel bad for Akron's kids. Great season (26 wins) lost to hot team and now won't make NCAAs because some power 5 team will get gift invite.

1-Not going to even get into this debate again, but it's been shown in the past that scheduling has improved over the years. 2-Shaka Smart did pretty well for himself. Jeff Boals moved on to OSU. Rick McFadden is currently being looked at as a head coach by several schools. Couldn't disagree more on the quality of assistants. 3-I'm not at practice (and I know you aren't either) so who knows, but Zeke Marshall, Big Dog, and Pat Forsythe had pretty nice careers. 4-I'm sure they practice free throws. 5-Ivey (Soph), Williams (Soph), TDM (Fresh), Utomi (Fresh), and Olojakpoke (Fresh) all played significant minutes throughout the season and last night in the championship game.

The President weighs in:

vintage akron under dambrot...plow thru a meaningless reg season...pee down your leg AS USUAL in big games...told you...groundhog day...can't wait for that NIT selection show & listless loss to crapleton state...these trips to the mac title game will dry up someday

Collected my thoughts and read all your posts. I have some random musings that mean nothing since none of us have control over any of this. I am a battered spouse in a cycle of violence and have now reached the stage of resignation and acceptance: 1. We have been to more MAC title games and have won more in the last 10 years than the other schools. But what does that mean to the future of the program and the fans? 2. The season leading up to the tournament is meaningless because if you have to play at home on Monday night of tourney week it really isn't a detriment. 3. Worst game of the year last night for the Zips. 4. I agree this 21 win per year streak is also meaningless. As someone said a month ago, the home winning streak wasn't hard to keep going considering the level of competition at the JAR. 5. I don't know about recruiting. Should a player dictate to the coach that he wants to be the focus of the team? I do know that our staff and all the teams in the MAC are scrambling to get what is left over which includes small guards, skinny (or overweight) centers, and players who are notoriously inconsistent. Dambrot got burned so badly when he tried to go the JUCO/problem child route that he gave up on it. The problem child route isn't working for EMU but it worked for Kent this year. (Also, no injuries or suspensions this year. We can't use that as an excuse). 6. Coaching staff: just from looking at the staff, loyalty and familiarity appears to be #1 factor in being with Akron. I've never coached on any level, so i don't know what it takes to develop a coaching staff. Do you want a Geno Ford or Dan Hipsher as your asst? How on earth did Shaka and Keith ever work for Hipsher? Do you want guys under you who are looking to make names for themselves or do you want a loyal, comfortable group? 7. I know I would be happy giving up these 20 win seasons and wouldn't mind a bunch of losses in a row or at home or on the road to the big conferences if it can get the program out of the limbo we are in now. That win at Texas did a lot for the Kent team this year. Frankly, that game looked really similar to the game last night. 8. Don't you all secretly want John Groce as our coach for a few years? Why can't we be like those delusional Bobcat Attack bloggers and expect a whole lot more? 9. And for all of us and the program to keep coming back to..."well, we have more tournament final games than anyone else" or whatever benchmark we set on here really is a defeatist attitude. Mid Major basketball and life in the MAC promises fool's gold as someone said. The school and the coaching staff don't have to keep buying it. But they have to (obviously) decide what is their goal and how they will achieve it. 10. I'm really looking forward to a quarterback competition this Fall and another Bowl appearance. Football is so much more enjoyable because I expect nothing and am so happy with any win. It's just entertainment which is what basketball is becoming for me. P.S. Last night was a reverse of 2011. The basketball gods are really telling something to the Zips. The loss at BG (after "owning" them for years. Loss at home to Miami. The loss at home to Kent. These meaningless win streaks and domination of crap teams isn't going to work anymore.

Open a dictionary, and locate the word insanity. The example is see Dambrot. The same schedule. The same game plans. The same offense. The same player development, or lack thereof. The same big game losses. The same disappointment. I'm not saying we fire him now, but something needs to change. The schedule, the staff, something.

I give serious props to Kent. Hall got his and Walker came to play. Some irony on this board for crapping on Senderoff for not meeting expectations. I would take their regular season any year if it meant a trip to the dance. Have my share of gripes with the coaching staff and certain players, but I just don;t have the energy to dwell on it. I'll miss Big Dog, even though I wish he could shoot his FT's better. Surely I'm not the only one who remembers all of the person attacks on him regarding effort/commitment/weight earlier in his career. Looking forward to another 1st round postseason loss to a shitty P5 team. At least "Joe Akron" showed up. Seemed to be close to a 3-1 advantage for Akron. I brought a few of his relatives. Its too bad the Zips didn't though. And people wonder why attendance is what it is.

Seems to be a common theme throughout Dambrot's tenure. I wonder if his pregame speech involved reminding the team that they have an NIT ticket in their back pocket to fall back on. They played like it. Tonight really kicked a supportive fan base in the crotch. That was a HOME game at The Q. It's not too often we out man the Can't fan base, especially by that much. And the team did not show any semblance of caring. Pitiful.

Same results different year. Can't wait to lose in the first round of the NIT by 20 to a bad P5 team

See you Kwan..... you suck!!!

A 5-foot-10, 210-pound junior who has stacked up double-digit scholarship offers from Illinois, Syracuse, Louisville & USF among others. 24/7 Sports Hudl Rivals Scout

Since we are in a parallel universe with 2011, we should win 3 games in the NIT on the road which will lead to our head coach being hired away by another program...with out without post-bolting lawsuit.

By what reasoning do you think the Zips could and would perform well in an NIT game? Seriously. I am curious.

When Akron lost on a last second bank shot years ago, everyone was upset that we did not get an NIT invitation and the NCAA changed the rule so that conference champions received an NIT bid. Now that we are in the NIT, all I have heard is negativity regarding this tournament. On the post game show, the announcers indicated nobody wanted to play in the NIT, and the asst coach on the post game did not seem thrilled about the NIT. I understand that the interview was right after our loss but it is the 2nd best tournament. It would be great if we could make a post season run in the NIT. We will be playing a high level team and if we win we could get another home game. We loss our bid to the NCAA and we need to get over it and show the country that we have a good basketball program. I remember last year how poorly the team played against Ohio State and I hope that we will not have a repeat of that game. Lets forget the past and make something happen in the future. Go Zips!!

The definition of insanity? People on this thread that are apologists for Dambrot. It's great that we make it and yes he's built this program...but we lose the same way in big games every year. He needs better staff around him or needs to reevaluate his predictable game plans.

Still doesn't take the sting away from MAC non-Championship, but hey, the Zips have 5 new All-Americans in Track and Field, which is, believe it or not, A BIG DEAL. Lucy Bryan, freshman, All-American in Pole Vault, finishing 4th with the second best Zip vault height ever. Terrell McClain, All American in Long Jump. Matt Ludwig, All American in Pole Vault and won the bronze. Second team All-Americans are Nikki Manson in High Jump and Jackie Seifirng in Pentathalon. Nice job, guys and girls. Plus nice work coaches....

Got it. I share your disappointment today. Trust me.

Easy Skip. It was a joke and an expression of disappointment.

Bound to happen? It's a reality for many schools in our league right now, and we've been there ourselves. We went from 1992 to 2004 with ONE MAC tournament win. No, not a title win. Winning ONE SINGLE game....total...in all of those MAC Tourney appearances. So, for all of the schools who have done nothing in the MAC Tournament over the period where we've had the most title game appearances (9) and most titles (3), we can only feel so fortunate that we're not in their shoes.

Also, let's not forget, the players have a role in this. I don't think KD and his coaching staff are going to stop a kid from taking a leadership role or showing a little fire.

"great support system" = ??? great fans? great academic advisors? ??? I remember a winning coach at Akron who used to apologize to the fans for missteps. I didn't really feel that he always needed to do that, but thinking about it, it was comforting to hear the term "fans" as opposed to support system, etc., leaving no doubt that the coach/players empathize with us as well as we with them.

Just a quick thing about Big Dog defending so far out on the perimeter: there's typically 3 ways to defend the pick and roll. You can switch off the screen (leaving Dog on the ball handler), you can "hedge" the big man over top the screen to give the other defender a chance to recover (this is what we do when Big Dog when he ends up so far away from the hoop), or you can "ice" the big man and have him sag off to try to stop the dribble penetration. The issue with icing Big Dog is it gives the ball handler a full head of steam going to the hoop against him. When you have a 300 lb. center, there's not really any good options guarding the PnR, you have to pick your poison. I'm not trying to excuse the defensive lapses this season but there are limitations to the personnel we used this year. We were also a little spoiled with Zeke, because you could just funnel everyone down to him and he'd just block it.

Losing in the finals last year didn't sting as much to me as it did this year. Last year after losing to Buffalo I was confident that we were returning the #1 team in the conference. I can't say the same for next year. We clearly have no replacement ready in the wings for Big Dig and Utomi has shown flashes of being great, but he will be a very undersized 4. Big Dog was the one that created open looks for everyone else. We are pretty much going to have to implement an entire new offense. All that being sorry I can't get excited for a 2nd rate tournament. This might have been Akron's last best chance to make some noise under Dambrot.

1. There were 2 offenses I saw this season. One involved going into to Big Dog with the end result being Big Dog taking it to the hole or a kick out for a 3. The other occurred when teams played more of a zone and Ivey or Poke were in, we'd dribble drive and when the defense collapsed, Ivey/Poke would back cut and we'd dish. The only problem is, regardless of which offensive strategy we wanted to execute, once shots started falling, we'd settle for 3s and the ball movement stopped. And that's on Dambrot. He is not good at drawing up plays to create ball movement, off the ball movement, and open shots. We do the same stupid inbounds play under our basket, or a failure of an inbounds play on the sideline. And on defense, from the beginning to the end of the season, our 300lbs center was caught guarding out near the perimeter. Dambrot & Co. have been so bad at adjustments, we've had our center caught out of position around the perimeter since Zeke. 2. That says something about our defense then.

i don't see anything average about jaylin walker...i'd luv to have that kid on the zips...i said it before..this is your ceiling with dambrot...never win a ncaa game under him...just not gonna happen...as far as the mac reg season, the only thing i can tell it determines is whether you play four or 3 games to win the mac...

Help me out here, so that you aren't exaggerating to prove a point. Other than a random Sportswriter who mentioned his name in a list of people that he thought could be candidates for the YSU job, where is there any evidence anywhere that he's a candidate for any job, and when did this suddenly become "several schools"?

Not trying to be confrontational, but I am having trouble seeing any real benefit. I don't see how the team will be motivated for one. I don't see Dambrot not playing the seniors to try to get the young guys more experience, and lastly I do not see an extra week of practice making any real difference. I believe we've turned down lesser tournaments before.

He's not a big game coach. Can't win the big game. Can't win on TV. Couldn't win a bracket buster game. For all you homers out there if you want him. You better change his staff cause they are making him look bad.

Thank you. I thought I was not going to be allowed to complain. We never seem to have the "stuff" that is instilled in you to do what it takes to be a champion, instead of just "good enough". Three quarters of the season in, we have national press coverage, a ho e winstreak being talkedabout, and compared to some big programs on the net with twelve 20 plus winning seasons, and we completely implode amd are now just a footnote to the 2017 success story of kent-state-still-sucks....why?

Shooting 16.7% from 3 right now. That has to change.

6'2", 280

Wasted opportunities