kreed5120

Probably only as the current TV deal lasts. That's me assuming the Crown tournament survives and keeps swallowing many of the teams that help drive ratings.

The Stryker family is one of America's richest families and big donors for WMU. They have given the University hundreds of millions of dollars over the years. 10s of millions to athletics as well, but I think those went to facilities. If they decide to play the NIL game, they could easily cut WMU basketball a 6 figure check every year for NIL.

The NIT pays travel costs and gives players and coaches per diems. That's why many programs accept NIT bids, but decline CBI or CIT bids.

TBF so did Nate Oats weeks before he high tailed it to Alabama.

Odd that both Akron and UMass are in the field. I'm sure they will place us each on opposite sides of the bracket. That way we could only meet if both make the final, but usually you don't see 2 teams from the same conference in a tournament.

Yes, I saw some statistics earlier. I forget the exact numbers, but something like only 2 teams that were the 12-16 seeds shot above 30% from 3. A common theme for Cinderellas is they get hot from 3. That's probably more important than ever since top teams are more experienced and deeper than they have been in recent years past. It just didn't happen this year.

It's really hard to tell. Sometimes teams come out and are ready to play. Other times they look disappointed to be there and it shows in their effort.

I think it was Tennessee who already implemented a "talent fee" on tickets, which goes to the NIL.

The difference here is Steph played at Davidson and seems to have passion for it. LeBron, post Dambrot, is more likely to be found sitting courtside at OSU or Duquesne than at an Akron game. Maybe it changes in the future post retirement, but outside of sending out an occasional tweet, he doesn't seem all that interested in Akron basketball at the moment.

The MAC office can't force boosters to spend money. Nothing can really change until university presidents decide they want them to.

Without knowing what the other players plans are, this would give us a solid foundation to build off of.

Buffalo looks like a complete rebuild again. Is this their 4th transfer on what wasn't a good team to begin with?

Yes, that was my biggest complaint about the Akron tournament. It took away our opportunity to play programs like Clemson, Nevada, LSU, etc. on a neutral court, which gives you your best chance of beating them. I'm not sure exactly why Akron opted for hosting a tournament instead of competing in a more established one. Maybe we had no good outstanding offers? IDK

To offer an actual constructive comment, I think our best bet is to get bigger at the wing. A 7' would require us to play a half court offense as they can't run up and down the floor. Lyles could play some minutes at PF, but Okonkwo would be a clog to the offense as he doesn't have much range. Adding an Ali Ali type and pairing him with Harris would give us a lot more size in the starting 5 at the 3 and 4 position. It would also allow us to keep our fast paced offense. Embrace the positionless basketball movement.

The same issues that plagued us earlier in the year against Yale and St. Mary's (which is on par with those P5 teams you wish we scheduled) resurfaced when we faced a similar type team. We were able to mask those weaknesses during MAC play as no MAC team had the size and athleticism on their front court that an Arizona or St. Mary's has. We could get away maybe playing someone like Harris as our starting PF, but asking Gray to guard someone who is equally athletic and is 5-6 inches taller was just never going to work. So much talk about how Akron was unlucky that Arizona shot the ball well. They shot it well because they had so few contested shots. All their shots were for the most part wide open 3's or shots in or near the restricted zone. Excluding the first half turnovers, they ran a clinic on how offense should be ran.

More importantly you have to win the measuring stick games. Had we beaten St. Mary's and Yale during OOC play we probably would have been a 12 seed. Scheduling tougher doesn't mean anything if you just lose those games by double figures.

Akron's only stayed some what in the game during the first half because of Arizona's 12 turnovers. Once they solved that in the 2nd half, they could do pretty much whatever they wanted in the 2nd half. I would have liked to see Akron scheme more ways to create looks beyond the 3-point line instead of attacking the rim. Trying to trade 2's with Arizona was never going to be a winning formula. In general this was a very poor matchup for us. They both had size and their bigs could run the floor. There was very little we could try to exploit.

How many of those made 3's there wasn't a defender within 7 feet? Non contested shots lead to a higher percentage of makes

This game will get out of hand fast if Arizona is knocking down 3s.

It starts in 19 minutes.

Only if you have the Paramount+ & Showtime bundle.

I can't remember which game it was, but there was one that started later than scheduled for this exact reason. My guess is Akron will tip-off closer to 8PM.

If he had a subscription with TrueTV than he wouldn't have a need to find an alternative way to watch.

Yes

My former high school just won state minutes ago. It would be a fantastic sports day if Akron can pair it with their first tournament win.