kreed5120

Riak certainly has ways to improve on the offensive end, but looking at the box score he still finished 3/4 shooting with 7 points, 0 turnovers. I can live with that production considering the value he provides on the defensive end. Frankly, not having him in at the end of the game was a mistake by Groce. No doubt in my mind he would have forced Turner into a more difficult shot attempt at the end with his help defense. Although the way Turner was shooting the ball in the 2nd half, the shot would probably have still found the net.

Dambrot also inherited a roster that had Romeo Travis, Dru Joyce, and Jeremiah Wood. Groce had to pretty much patch a team together as we only had 4-5 scholarship to start with and he wasn't hired until April after pretty much every HS already signed. Because we were pretty much forced to sign a bunch of players in year 1 who frankly weren't good enough to compete at a high level in the MAC in the 1st place, we then had to turn over the team again. I feel now the roster has finally been stabilized enough that we should be in a better position to recruit for the future instead of having to look more towards plugging an immediate need. I feel Xeyrius Williams will be a nice piece for us next year. Riak gets $#!+ on a lot here, but he's one of the best defensive centers in the MAC. If our guards weren't struggling so bad at scoring, his liability on the offensive end wouldn't be so glaring.

At this point I just feel it's a mental issue with Utomi and LCJ. Utomi shot over 40% from 3 each of the previous two seasons. LCJ made .348 of his 3s when he was at Long Beach State. Ivey is a career .312 3P% shooter so the case for him is I just think that's the one whole in his game and honestly he shouldn't be shooting them unless left wide open. Cheese with his .214 3P% shouldn't even be taking them when open. I'd honestly rather see Riak shoot a 3 over Cheese.

You're joking, right? Hugh Freeze was hired BEFORE Arth and most of the other new coaching hires. Despite this Akron managed to finish 112th in 247 composite rankings. Liberty managed to finish 134th, which is dead last among FBS schools and even behind several FCS schools. According to the composite rankings, which is an average of all the major recruiting sites, Liberty has 0 4* recruits. Peter Hayes-Patrick, an Akron RB commit, had listed offers from Florida State, Georgia Tech, Nebraska, Ohio State, and a host of other schools. https://247sports.com/Season/2019-Football/CompositeTeamRankings/ Liberty plays basketball in the A-Sun, the 22nd rated conference, compared to the MAC being rated as the 8th best. A-Sun teams are the type of cupcakes that we pay to come to the JAR to take a beating. Akron's record would be much better if instead of playing a ranked Buffalo, we were instead playing teams like Kennesaw State, Stetson, North Alabama, Jacksonville, North Florida, etc. At the same time Liberty wouldn't be 23-5 in the MAC. That's not to say Liberty isn't the slightly better team this year. They probably are, but at the same time I'd rank them behind several of Dambrot's teams that Akron has had in recent years past. Besides I never said Liberty can't compete at G5 in football or at the mid-major level in basketball. I however am a firm believer they will never be able to compete at a P5 level in football or a high major level in basketball. http://warrennolan.com/basketball/2019/conferencenet I'm not going on a crusade against evangelical Christians. I'm simply stating facts. Up to this point they have shown no evidence that they will be competing at a P5 level in football or as a high major in basketball. They competed at the FCS level for 29 years. Guess how many FCS playoffs they made in that time? The answer is 1. They couldn't dominate the FCS, but you expect them to come in and dominate the FBS at a P5 level right off the bat. On the basketball side, the only postseason tournament game they've ever won is a CIT game.

The last time we hosted Kent before the month of November was in 2007

The Ken+/Akron game should be played every year at the end of September/beginning of October. I get that's not the traditional rivalry week, but that's the part of the year that will generate the most fan excitement surrounding the game. Miami/OU should do the same. We can then finish the season off playing OU at the end of the year and Ken+ can play Miami or vice versa. Edit: I believe the 2009 Morgan State game is the only sell out we've had at Infocision. Anyone think we'll fill the stadium for Ken+?

Watching Zips basketball this season will have that effect.

https://twitter.com/MACSports/status/1098048013073899521?s=20

If we don't make it to the top next year, I'll seriously begin to question Groce. Pretty much everyone is graduating their best players so the MAC should be down. Meanwhile, we return everyon besides Ivey. We also will Xeyrius Williams eligible and heavens knows we need a big man who isn't a complete offensive liability. After next year we lose Cheese, Banks, Utomi, Williams, and E-Man. Personally, I think that will be a rebuilding year.

So let me get this straight. A team that hasn't been able to shoot the basketball for the past 3 months is going to miraculously start making shots in a week and a half for no other reason than it's March? Then again we heard for years how the Q depth perception made our great 3 point shooters of years past not so great. Perhaps the same depth perception issue will alter our not so great shooters shots enough that instead of missing, like they normally would, they will turn into makes

It's beginning to look like their is a decent chance this team won't even make it to Cleveland. If we don't finish with one of the top 8 seeds, I don't see us winning a road game to get there.

Well second game in a row...

So who do you guys having missing this 3?

He must have been referring to getting 3 point shots off, not making them.

Turner has been hitting a lot of difficult shots this second half. Wish we would have taken advantage in the 1st half and built a nice cushion.

Just gave up a 4 point possession to give BG the lead. I guess this is the part of the game we have our meltdown.

Right now Akron's path to the final based on the standings of today would be we'd host WMU the first round then play Toledo in the quarterfinals. In the semi-finals we'd play 1 of EMU, Ball State, or BGSU. I'd prefer to see Toledo surpass Kent as the 3rd seed, which I think they will, that way we would play them in the 2nd round and give Buffalo a tougher opponent on their side of the bracket. Playing WMU - Kent - BGSU is probably the most manageable path to the finals we can get, assuming no upsets on our side of the bracket. The hope would be that someone on the other end of the bracket would knock off Buffalo.

The MAC already regularly schedules the Horizon Leage teams. I looked at a handful of Horizon League schedules and all of them already had at least 3 MAC opponents. Detroit had the most with 6 MAC opponents. There is no point in having a tournament against them since we play them so often anyways.

Have to give it to Akron this year. They put up a better fight than I anticipated against Clemson and Nevada. I didn't know they had it in them to go from worst defense in the MAC to best defense in 1 season. Now if only we had an offense

It's not worth having one unless we get a conference like the A-10 or MVC to agree to it. Like you I don't see that happening. The CAA would be a better long-term option over the SoCon. The SoCon has been around since before the NCAAT, which has been around for 80 years, and not once has the SoCon had an at-large bid. Its been a historic season for the SoCon compared to how they normally do and still they are ranked as the 12th best conference this year. Most years they're in the 18-23 range.

I never said couldn't. I just see many being turned off to them due to it, especially 4* and 5* athletes who have a long list of options. You know the type of players you need if you hope to build a power house program. You're naive if you believe it has no impact. Do you not think teams recruiting against them aren't bringing up the issue? Edit: I really don't care to have a debate on Liberty athletics on an Akron board. You think they will be a great team in 5-10 years. I think they will be about what they are currently. Only time will tell which of is correct.

They can have the nicest facilities in the US and it wouldn't matter. Good luck trying to recruit African-American athletes when the university president is a neo-nazi/white supremacist apologist. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/21/us/jerry-falwell-liberty-university-trump.html

I stream the sports I want to watch for free. No point in paying $20/mo when I can get the content I want (Akron games) for $5.

There went any chance of getting a top 4 seed. Cheese needs to be the running the point to close out games. He's a much better decision maker in crunch time.

I say that and LCJ comes up with the steal. I guess that's why I'm not the coach.