kreed5120

Miami definitely treating this like a tournament game. They usually play their bench a lot more.

Not a great announcing crew. Akron has been the team attacking the basket.

They're getting much cleaner looks. We're honestly fortunate as they just missed two open looks. We need to bring back that defensive intensity that we saw in the first half.

I haven't looked at the boxscore, but a good chunk of their points have come on 2nd chance point opportunities before the defense gets set. We've done a terrific job of contesting shots this game.

Like the defensive effort in the opening minutes. We just need to do a better job of securing rebounds after misses. Miami is too good offensively to give 2nd chance point opportunities.

A chunk of those FTs were in the last minute when we had to foul. If we played better defensively in the first 39 minutes it wouldn't have mattered if they went ~15/15 or whatever from the line. We would have won comfortably given the way we played offensively

There really is no need to have that large of a gap. IMO they should move up the start of the playoffs. Have the semifinals on New Year's Day with the Championship the week after. They can then open up the portal the day after. That way there isn't all these problems with the portal being open when the season is still ongoing.

I would actually like to see us pressure the ball less this game. Trapping and then being late to rotate has been what has led to those easy baskets where someone cuts to the basket or is in the weak corner for an open 3. We are the more athletic team. I feel if we force them to beat us 1 on 1 they will struggle. Their recipe to beat is by shooting 40%+ from 3 while limiting turnovers. Let's instead focus on running them off the 3-pt line and have to settle for contested 2s.

Did you pay $20 to watch the Murray State game? They had insane shooting performances because in large part we allowed them high percentage opportunities. In basketball you want to limit uncontested 3s and 2s at that basket. We did neither of those. Yale and Murray St. capitalized as great offenses do. Both offense and defense matter in basketball. You seem to only look at the offensive numbers and pretend defense doesn't matter. I'm sure if you tried talking this nonsense to Groce he would very much disagree about the level of our defensive play in those games. That can be seen by how he changed the lineup after the Murray St. in an effort to sacrifice some offense for better defensive play. At the end of the day we played as good as we reasonably could offensively against Yale and Murray St. but it wasn't enough as we had too many breakdowns defensively. If we had a hand in their face when they were shooting those 3s they wouldn't have shot those high percentages.

This is how I'm feeling as well. We've been able to run up the score on the cupcakes we've faced, but pissed down our legs against the 2 quality mid-majors we've faced. Mainly due to being out of position defensively. I'm hopeful we can turn it around, but on the road against a quality opponent this will likely be our toughest test in MAC play. History shows no MAC team has gone undefeated in conference play since 1958. If I had to pick a game on the conference schedule that we're most likely to lose it would be this one.

All this talk the prior few months about how only 2-3 teams have a chance, meanwhile only 1 of the 4 teams in semi-finals has won a title this century (Miami 2021). Ole Miss last won a title in 1960. Oregon and Indiana have never won a national championship.

Miami after last nights action currently sits at #58 in NET. Akron slightly improved to #48. On paper this has to be one of the best mid-major matchups of the season across all of college basketball. It's a shame that it wasn't picked up for TV. Edit: It was also a failure on the MAC's part as they should have made sure these schools played twice. There aren't many opportunities to pick up Q1 & Q2 wins in conference play. The MAC should strategically schedule to maximize the opportunities.

I think next year is the first full season that UMass will see that financial commitment for football they have talked about. Even then with the state of the program it will probably take them time to compete. Basketball is a different story. IMO Frank Martin is a washed has been who the game has passed by. His tough coaching style doesn't work in today's player empowerment era. Not to mention despite having an NIL budget that is 2-3x+ most MAC schools he seems to struggle at evaluating talent as his roster is on par with several MAC schools who are shopping TJ Maxx and Walmart clearance bins for players.

Both those teams have had a very up and down season. Hard to know which team shows up for each of them, Jekyll or Hyde.

OU @ CMU game on ESPN+ right now. Sloppy play by both teams.

It doesn't really make a huge difference who wins between Miami or BG IMO. One is ranked 79 and the other is 82. The metrics the committee uses views them about the same.

Season tickets are down to $53, which is an incredible deal for 8 home games. The Kent game alone tickets start at $25 so you pretty much get tickets to 7 other games for $28.

For those of us without ABJ subscription can you summarize?

BG is at home and Miami is missing a key starter. Not to mention a lot of pro gamblers use advanced metrics or have their own. Looking at Kenpom and NET both are viewed as about equal. On a neutral court it would pretty much be a coin toss.

It will be important that we run them off the 3-pt line. I feel we're the better team, but the 3-pt line is the great equalizer in basketball and they're good enough to make us pay if we leave their shooters unguarded. Especially since this is @ Miami.

Iona just lost by 7 to the team that entering today was #326 in NET. Not great for us since that is our best win this season.

Ball State must be playing Sisters of Charity School for the Blind as they were up 48-8 at the half.

They offered discounted season tickets as stocking stuffers. Even if we were slightly under 1k season ticket holders at the start of the season we have probably added a few dozen since then.

I would have to imagine Akron has 1k season ticket holders and has had that for quite a few years. Even if they don't show they will still appear in the official attendance.

In grand scheme it doesn't really matter. We play them in a week. If we win they will no longer receive votes.