kreed5120

The scouting report is out on the Zips. Whoever we face will send double teams at Freeman to force him to pick up his dribble. The Zips supporting cast have to prove they're able to make perimeter shots before teams adjust.

The main difference between the 2022 and 2024 teams is that the 2022 team was playing their best basketball in March after struggling early in the year. This year's Akron team is probably better on paper, but that hasn't really translated on the court. I don't think this year's team ever reached their potential, but they were playing their best basketball in November/December. They stumbled to the finish line in March.

The NIT is already dying. For the past several decades American media has been preaching if you're not first you're last when it comes to sports. Numerous teams are now declining the NIT. Players on NIT teams are entering the portal. It's not just college basketball being impacted either. Minnesota booster had to pay their third string QB $30k just so they would have a QB for their bowl game. OSU was playing in the Cotton Bowl, which outside the playoff games, was one of the top 2 bowl games. Numerous players sat out or transferred. It's kind of funny how places like ESPN has been preaching that the only thing that matters is championships, but now they're shell shocked when fans don't care about games without title implications. I kind of view the NIT changes as they were trying to revamp it to make it gain interest. It has been dying for many years now. What would help it more than anything is if the NCAA moved the transfer window portal back to April 1st or so. By then 95% of the teams would be done playing.

I wouldn't watch the tournament even if it had Toledo instead of BGSU. I didn't watch the NIT in years past when they gave mid-major auto bids unless Akron was playing. And even then I'd only watch the Akron games. Outside of March Madness, the average American doesn't care about college basketball. There are already tons of college basketball games on this time of the year. People already spend all of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday watching the tournament. They aren't going to want to do the same on a Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for games that don't matter.

Akron, per Kenpom, had the #42 rated non-conference SOS. There were plenty of opportunities to get statement wins, but Akron lost each and every single one of those times. They also lost several games in MAC play that they had no business losing. The 14 seed was very justified.

The tournament you mention already exists (CIT). BGSU is actually participating in it. Nobody wants to watch it and teams don't want to participate. They couldn't even get 16 teams to fill the tournament and they had to of called every school. Alabama A&M is in it with an 11-22 record. https://www.collegeinsider.com/tournament/schedule-results.php

I never heard this suggestion, but I wouldn't be opposed given the changing landscape. Ideally the MAC should be working towards their regular season champion being a top 60-70 team. That way they would be in line for an NIT appearance regardless.

Could be. There might have also been a spike in demand as fans were rushing to buy as soon as they knew where their team was playing. I just looked this morning so I don't know what the prices were showing last night.

I don't think the NCAA selection committee did Creighton any favors. They will still probably have more fans make the trip than Akron as their fans are more conditioned to traveling, but even if they outnumber us 2:1, it will probably still be a very pro Akron crowd. The South Carolina and Oregon fans will most certainly be cheering for Akron. I assume the neutral fans attending from Pittsburgh will be cheering for the upset as well.

The ticket allotment isn't even enough to cover the blue seat down below. Assuming the 550 allotment is accurate. If the game was somewhere like Spokane where it required flying, then maybe some tickets would make it to the general public. That's just not going to happen now given the proximity. Ticket prices on Stub Hub aren't unreasonable. It probably helps none of the other 3 schools in Akron's pod are close to Pittsburgh.

Yes, I still look back on those team and think what if. We actually had 3 bigs with P6 size. I haven't been following Akron as long as many of you, but between him and Kwan, that was the best Akron front court I can recall. We really could have used a Castaneda or LCJ. We had good guards, but nobody was elite.

If I recall correctly, he was actually the starter Big Dog's junior year and Big Dog was the 6th man.

Yes, this article is from 2005 so it might not be the most up to date, but according to it only 550 tickets are given to each school for the first round games. https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2005/03/16/ncaa-tickets-advancement-increases-allotmentbrschools-given-550-tickets/61950783007/

My guess is it was sent out to boosters first. I'm not sure how many tickets Akron was allocated, but I wouldn't be surprised if very few of them make it to us peons.

If the game was on Friday I'd go as I already took that day off. Thursday unfortunately I have mandatory meetings so can't attend. Be sure to cheer extra loud for me for those of you attending. If we miraculously survive, I'll be there Saturday.

I assume that's supposed to be Freeman.

Dukes would be slotted ahead of Akron so it really doesn't matter how that game plays out for us.

Honestly, I'd rather be a 14 seed playing someone like Illinois in Pittsburgh than be a 13 seed playing Kansas in Omaha.

Yes, on one side I like to see Kent fail. On the other side, I like seeing Akron play Kent in meaningful games as it makes the season more thrilling. Senderoff is easily a top 3 coach in the MAC and has been for nearly his entire tenure.

Honolulu, Hawaii

Yes, 14 seed would be my guess. I saw some projections that had Akron playing Kentucky in Pittsburgh. As fans, that's probably the best we could realistically hope for.

I still don't know what the Kent player was thinking fouling with 4.8 seconds left. I haven't seen such a bone head basketball play since JR Smith during game 1 of the NBA finals.

I got you.

Your revisionist history is claiming that the program was in a state of decline when the last 2 seasons the Zips won 26 and 27 games. Also, by ignoring his 27-10 record in the MAC tournament. There are 12 teams in the MAC and they all have relatively the same amount of resources and facilities. How many MAC tournament championships were you expecting? If I went to the football forum and told them I could guarantee them a coach that would win make 9 MAC championships games and win 3 of those 9 over a 13 year period, every single poster on this board would accept that immediately without hesitation. If anything Dambrot was a victim of his own success. He took a bottom of the barrel MAC team and built them into a team that if they didn't win the MAC the season was viewed as a failure.

Just not a lot of great ball movement. We're settling for a lot of tough shots at the end of the shot clock. Even on the few times it looked like we had a chance for fast break points, Ohio made plays to prevent it.