kreed5120

I would tend to agree, but based off the success Toledo had pushing the ball in the second half, I expect them to make that a key part of their game plan. It really comes down to which team can dictate pace.

I'm most confident in Ali figuring it out within the next month. Mainly because he has shown in the past that he can be that player and isn't coming off of any major injuries. I don't think he'll be a .400 3P% shooter moving, but .350-.370 is serviceable. Especially since he's been very efficient inside the arc. We'd probably have another 3-4 losses right now had he not returned. We really need one of the other guards to step up and provide some floor spacing. The longer this drought continues, the more aggressive teams will become at clogging the paint and double teaming Freeman. You just aren't going to win games that matter if you can't make 3s in today's college game. It's way overpowered.

Has anyone seen a spread yet for this game? My guess is that it will essentially be a pick'em. Perhaps Akron favored by 1/2 a point

Outside of joining some board or being consulted in a coaching search, if something opens up, I agree.

Teams at or near the top of college basketball can change. Florida was dominant for a few years when they were getting NBA players. OSU had their run. UMass had theirs. That has never changed. I'm not even referring to the best of the best players. A basketball team is made up of more than just one player. Emoni Bates was drafted by the Cavaliers and we saw how badly EMU was last year. I'm saying the 500th best player today in college basketball is vastly better than what it was 20-30 years ago as the player pool is exponentially larger. There are many more competent players that teams can fill out a roster with. Go back to the Wooden days at UCLA. A big reason why they were so dominant is the talent pool surrounding them was very bad. It has been a similar case in the women's game. Only just now in the women's game are you seeing more and more teams compile competitive rosters. Edit: Also, I mentioned cohesion in my prior post as a factor. Both can be true. The teams at the top don't have as much chemistry as they used to and the teams under them have more complete rosters therefore they can't simply dominant on talent alone.

Those players playing overseas aren't guys who would have been playing in college basketball 10, 20, 30 years ago. European born players have generally always played overseas before coming to the NBA. Look at Dirk, Tony Parker, Gasol brothers, etc. The difference now is that in the last 10-15 years the sport has grown a ton there so now they're producing more high caliber players. What you should be looking at is which Americans are going overseas or joining the G League. Those would be the players that are being taken away from the college game. In my previous post I didn't mention how much the game has globalized in recent times. We have more people playing basketball than ever. That could also be a factor in why top teams don't look as dominant. Mid-tier teams have a much larger pool of players to recruit and the scraps they settle for are better than the player they settled for 20-30 years ago. It could also be why we've recently seen a 16 seed beat a 1.

I also think NIL is a factor. You used to see a school like Kentucky have a super team of freshmen. Now those McDonalds All-Americans are more spread out. Sure Kentucky can afford to land a couple top recruits, but they can't afford to pay a full team of them. A school like Maryland, Iowa, etc can sneak in and outbid them if they view that player as a star player, but Kentucky views them as a 4th or 5th option. Edit: I would add in the transfer portal exploding is another thing. Basketball is very much a team sport. There is value in players playing with one another for years to develop chemistry. It's not like baseball where you can easily plug and play.

If Wally was playing today there is little to no chance that he would have returned to Miami for his senior season. Someone like Kentucky, UNC, or Duke would have offered him low to mid 6 figures to transfer. If you're a mid-major, you have to win with team basketball. In reality, Freeman is probably the closest thing we'll see to Wally in an Akron uniform for a long time.

Even if that does happen, they're still vastly better than any MAC team. On a neutral court they would be favored by double figures against Akron.

It's because the numbers are based off of tickets sold, not the number who scan tickets to get in. When I was a season ticket holder I'd make it to roughly 10 out of the 15 games. Life happens and the vast majority of season ticket holders can't make it to every game.

Yes, for starters Wake Forrest is very much in the discussion for at-large. They would curb stomp the MAC this year if they were in this conference.

The blown defensive assignments was what jumped out to me. You will have bad shooting nights over the course of a season. Defense is supposed to be what travels and helps you win on nights your shots aren't falling. JMU tore our defense apart. It seemed every shot they put up was a high percentage opportunity.

He's already 65 and was pretty vocal when he was at Akron that he never planned to coach into his upper 60, 70s. I feel his intention was to always retire around 65.

MAC is a clown show this year.

Probably the ranked team up until Abreu got arrested. Perhaps that LCJ, Cheese, Xeyruis, Banks team could have been great, but we were robbed of knowing.

This team is just good, not great. Beats the bad teams. Loses to the good ones. We have 1 month to figure out how to be great.

JMU is the better team. Offensively they're moving the ball around better to get easy looks. Akron is settling for more difficult looks.

Yes, there is actually a path to get at-large bid in the A10 unlike the MAC. That said, at-large bids are still given to teams, not conferences. Those Akron teams he coached weren't talented enough to get at-large bids even if they played in the A10. This isn't me trying to take a shot at Dambrot, but I feel he underestimated how much more he needed to improve his recruiting to contend in the A10 and be in line to receive one of those at large bids. It's easier right now to win the MAC than it is to finish in 2nd or 3rd place in the A10.

Toledo and choking...name a more iconic duo

Back up to 6.5. I just locked in my bet.

ESPN Bet has Akron as a 6.5 point dog if someone is looking for better odds.

Top to bottom the Sun Belt is the better conference this year and the Sun Belt is hosting the games. They're currently favored in all 12 match-ups. I think the MAC will only win 3-4 games this round.

Yes, I will also add the MAC is just as weak, if not weaker, than the conferences of the teams we're chasing. Winning out wouldn't allow us to leap anyone unless the teams ahead of us stumble down the stretch. Either way we don't control our own destiny to be a 12 seed. We would need help from others.

An 11 seed would mean we'd be seeded better than at least 2 at-large teams. That isn't attainable whatsoever. A 12 is possible, but that would require multiple teams, like Samford, to lose their conference tournament. I use Samford as an example because they have a better resume than Akron. That said, if they lose their conference tournament and another team in that conference wins the AQ, Akron would be seeded ahead of them. The same is true of McNeese in the Southland conference. It's a common misconception that the top 68 teams make the field. It's really more like the top ~48 with 20 random conference AQ add-ins. The way to get a 12 seen is be one of the top teams among those 20 1 bid AQ. In Akron's case since their resume isn't strong, they will need teams placed ahead of them to lose in their conference tournament.

I would have no objections to that. Now only if we could get a Knights Arena 😉