kreed5120

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 😉

I feel covid was equally to blame. You had people get out of the routine of going to games and they never returned once things returned to normal.

52 I don't think is old enough to be a concern. Coaches usually coach until early to mid 60s before they voluntarily retire. That would give whatever program that would be interested 10 years with him. That's much longer than the average coach stays at any program. If we was 57-58 I can see his age being a deterrent.

Some people feel the need more to be right than they care for their team to suceed. I was probably the biggest Bowden critic on this board(or at least one of them) because I felt settling for 5-7 season with a random 6-7 win season here or there wasn't what Akron should be striving for. That never stopped me from being a fan and still enjoying some of the highs, like beating Northwestern.

That's why I cheer for the MAC, excluding Kent, to do well OOC. Akron plays 18 MAC games and only 1-2 of those games the committee will look at and think that's a good win. Meanwhile, you play 16 Q3 or Q4 games and any of those that you lose will look like a black eye on your resume. Statistically if you play enough cupcake games, you will lose 1-2 of them. As was the case against Miami. Edit: Also, I'm an Akron fan, but am also a fan of college basketball as a whole. It's a lot more fun to watch Akron basketball games when the games actually matter. Based off attendance figures at games when a good Toledo or UB comes to town, it seems Joe Akron would agree.

What's the story there?

Had we beaten Utah State we would have played SFA instead of Drake. I think we would have had to beat Utah State, SFA (mainly because losing to them negates the Utah State win), and St. Bonnie to even enter the discussion. JMU is currently #63 in net and has a 20-3 record and nobody is discussing them as an at-large candidate. They would probably be a 4 or 5 seed in the NIT if the season ended today (assuming they didn't win their conference tournament).

I wouldn't put much weight into those rankings. Last weekend Ohio had 9k in attendance for their game against Miami. No way they should be behind CMU.

I didn't really think of that possibility, but I wouldn't be against it.

It's a Bobcat Attack inside joke.

I still think the Buffalo job is a pretty good one. They just whiffed badly when replacing Oats. The jury is still out on the new guy. They have shown a commitment to actually invest in basketball, which alone makes them a top 4 or 5 job in the MAC. The main reason the MAC has gotten so bad is the other 7-8 programs have completely given up on trying to run a competitive program. Akron this year is having a good year. Toledo lost a lot of talent to graduation, but still managed to put out an okay team in a rebuild year. Kent is having a down year. Ohio made what seemed like a good hire at the time, but hasn't panned out. Those are the programs that actually try to win in MAC basketball.

I get the connection to the University, but no thanks. He has no head coaching experience. He's an assistant coach on the 11th place team in his conference. What's attractive about the hire? That's not to say he can't become a good coach, but nothing he's done inspires confidence that he could keep the ball rolling. I would much rather poach an up and coming coach from an OVC, Horizon, or other smaller fish conference. The other option would be if a Groce type candidate is available. Someone who had prior success at the mid-major level, but couldn't get it done at a P6 school.

Mid-rangers are statistically the worst shots one can take. If one shoots 35% from 3, which isn't even good, you would have to shoot 52.5% from mid-range to be as efficient.

It seems Groce moved all the chips to the middle of the table trying for 1 last magical ride while you have a talent like Freeman on the roster. If Akron makes noise in March, Groce could gain attention. If not, next year will be a rebuilding year regardless. Although, with how bad the MAC is a rebuilding year still might be able to get you a 3rd or 4th place finish in the MAC. Regardless, I'm going to enjoy this run while it lasts. It will probably be a while before we see a talent like Freeman on Akron's roster again.