kreed5120

He had to win 3 tournament games before Illinois came calling last time. He inherited a depleted Akron roster so this is really his first year achieving anything. Akron simply making the tournament I don't see changing much. If he wins a game or 2 in the tournament, I could see an A10 or AAC team becoming interested. Whether it's actually much of a step up I'd guess would depend on which school in those conferences came calling. I feel it would take multiple years of success before he gets another chance at a P6 school. One good season at Akron isn't going to make those schools forget his 5 year sub par tenure at Illinois. Edit: Akron should be returning MPOY (Yes, I'm already calling it) LCJ and has some nice pieces to plug into the roster next season. If he follows up this year with another great year next year, I'd think that would be his quickest ticket to return to a P6 job. One could argue a mid-table to below average AAC job would be an upgrade over Akron, but then he'd also have to spend x-number of years rebuilding the roster enough to compete.

In their defense the MAC tournament has been around for something like 40 years and they are the only MAC team that hasn't won it.

I don't think that's much of a surprise. Every key metric (NET, Kenpom, BPI, etc.) has us well out in the lead and even by the eye test we've looked like the best team. The problem is, as we're all well aware, in a single elimination tournament the best team doesn't always win.

Man has the video quality on phones improved dramatically in the last decade.

We really just need to take care of our own business and focus on going 1-0 against Ohio tomorrow. We'd already have the #1 seed clinched had we won @BGSU, but we didn't. We lost our right to control our own destiny.

There is still 1 scenario where we'd win a tie-breaker. We lose to Ohio, beat Kent BGSU loses to Buffalo and beats Kent From there we'd need CMU to finish ahead of Toledo in the standings.

It he stays it probably means he had a Rob Senderhoff type tenure. Dambrot turned down some offers throughout the years so if Groce is anywhere in the realm of what Dambrot accomplished, I see him taking the first non-dead end step up offer he gets. Unlike Dambrot he has no connection to Akron so he has nothing keeping him here except not having a better current option.

I hope Groce gets hired away as that probably means Akron won at least 1 tournament game and had multiple seasons of success. Dru needs to land an assistant job somewhere then have a successful few seasons as a head coach at someplace like Stony Brook (like Boals) before I'd feel comfortable giving him the job. All in all that would probably take 6-8 years, probably more. Akron, along with Buffalo and Ohio, are probably the best coaching jobs in MAC basketball. I don't think we should just give the position to someone because he played here.

Just because we were dumb enough to add two sports that we can't afford doesn't mean Kent should do the same. We should be cutting sports to reduce our deficit, not adding.

Beating them

This has trap game written all over it. Sandwiched between a big road win and our season finale against our main rival. Ohio has been playing some good basketball of late. Not a team that we want to take lightly.

I'm going to be feeling dirty cheering for Kent Tuesday. I may have to take a shower after the game to wash the filth off of me.

Yes, that's true. They're 7-0 in MAC games decided by 3 points or less.

A lot of that had to do with the volume number of shots Akron missed. It's easier to secure a defensive rebound than it is an offensive one.

We would be, but I want the benefits that come a long with it. Namely the NIT auto-bid as an insurance policy.

It looks like we were correct. BGSU is still in the #1 spot. Toledo also moved ahead of CMU in the standings so even if they end up 1-1 against Buffalo, they'd still hold the tie-breaker as they have a better record against Toledo than we do. In reality we need to finish we a better record to win the conference at this point.

I actually thought it was a 2 man race between LCJ & Turner heading into this weekends games. LCJ dropping 35 today while Turner scored 4 on 1-11 shooting might have sealed it.

I wonder how we're number 1? I thought BGSU would be ahead of us based off of tie-breaker C. They're currently 1-0 vs Buffalo, meanwhile, we're 1-1. Not that I'm complaining.

His list only includes players he's seen play in a Zips uniform. Len Paul would have been before he started following.

I'm shocked how this game was even picked to be televised. Akron-Buffalo and NIU-Ball State are both bigger games.

Given that Tribble and Dawson are really no more of a threat from the perimeter than Riak is, I wonder if we see any lineups where Xeyrius plays the SF and we play two of Riak/Sayles/Reece at the 4/5. I say this because our floor spacing is going to be screwed anyways, but at least with a lineup of say Xeyrius, Riak, and Sayles we should be able to hold our own in the rebounding department.

Any scenario of Akron winning a head-to-head tie-breaker against BGSU would require Akron winning this game. Akron's only chance of winning the 1 seed with a loss tomorrow would be to win the last two games and for BGSU to lose its last 3 remaining games.

The punishment was fair and just. We did it to ourselves.

In regards to the Cheese suspension I suppose we just have to make the best of the situation. We've talked all season how we needed at least one of Tribble, Dawson, or Ali to step up. With Cheese out they will have an opportunity.