kreed5120

That's not accurate. Perhaps he's referring to non-conference SOS. That currently sits at #67 in the nation. I'm not going to look through 20 years of data, but that could be accurate. Right now our overall SOS is #232 because MAC play has torpedoed it. I won't go through 20+ years of data, but last year our overall SOS was #206. In 2019 (the last year the MAC was decent), we finished at #110 in SOS. You play more conference games than you do non-conference so conference play more heavily weighs into SOS. Especially since several of those OOC games don't even factor in since they aren't against D1 teams.

The same way we lost to Miami. The better team doesn't always win. Some nights you bring your C or D game and your opponent brings their A game and that's enough for them to overcome the disparity in talent. We live in a world where a 16 seed has beaten a 1 seed. Nothing should be all that surprising.

Took them 8+ minutes before they even made their first fg lol

OSU football definitely dominates. When it comes to college basketball I mostly see apathy in Northeast Ohio until March rolls around. The people around here that are really into college basketball and actually watch the regular season seem to be UNC, Kentucky, or a program like that. Buckeyes basketball don't hold that same grip. Perhaps because they have never been as successful as their football counterpart or because basketball as a whole just gets overshadowed by football In these parts. When the Cavs aren't winning, the Q is maybe 50-60% full.

Yes, I was looking at their team stats yesterday. Despite their record, on a ppg basis they have been outscored 2-3 ppg. That kind of tells you that they win close games, but have been blown out a few times. It's not like their OOC schedule was brutal either.

They're honestly just not a good basketball team. They're all smoke and mirrors. They needed 2OT to beat both Bowling Green and NIU. That's not to say we can't lose, but this is a game we should win 9 times out of 10.

I'm not sure Akron can win if CMU scores 160 lol

I'll spread the wealth

I'm still not buying CMU. Akron is clearly the class of the MAC this season. Toledo is good enough to challenge. After that I feel it's a huge drop off to everyone else. Someone has to be in 3rd place.

I would have liked to see the Zips slow the game down offensively when Freeman was on the bench. Perhaps work on getting Ali into the low post or Hunter matched up with a smaller defender. Those missed jump shots, which lead to long rebounds, enabled Toledo to push the ball before Akron could get set defensively. Toledo struggled most of the night when they were forced to run a half court offense.

I bid $2 just to ruin your bid

Well Chicago State is without a league so they have to find opponents for January and February. I'm guessing Duquesne thought this could be a game they could regroup and clear the bench mid conference play.

The MAC has been spiraling downhill. Even in a rebuilding year we could potentially finish 10-8 in MAC play with a 4th or 5th place finish.

I didn't realize Buffalo was hosting games this year 😉

Overall record is irrelevant in conference standings. They are obviously ahead on one of the MAC tie-breakers, but I really don't care to take the time to figure out which one it is. We play them twice still so it will be decided on the court.

When you're below the bubble line, it's silly to look at bracketology this early. So much of where Akron would be seeded, assuming they even win in Cleveland, would depend on how other conference tournaments play out. There is no way of accurately predicting things in February, let alone January.

The way I see it is Toledo is Akron's only real competition in the MAC this season. Earlier in the year Kent looked like they had a solid team, but their wheels have since fallen off. That's not to say other teams aren't capable of beating us come March. Wacky things can happen in single elimination games.

And UCLA went on another 7-2 run to close out the game after Freeman fouled out. You can try to justify your argument however you want, but the Zips were badly outscored during the minutes Aziz was on the court. That can't be argued.

The Zips blew the game against UCLA once Freeman fouled out. Aziz didn't replace Freeman's impact. He didn't even come remotely close. When you're a mid-major and have a top 15-20 player at a position there is no replacing them. If they get injured or fouled out, you're screwed. This isn't UNC or Kentucky where you have 4* recruits sitting on the bench just waiting their turn.

And the only reason he got those minutes is Freeman only played 24 minutes due to foul trouble. Otherwise he would have only played 5-6 minutes. Ali was the PF on that team. The lineup Groce is running out today is bigger than that team. Edit: I do agree we need more production out of out pg. Castaneda didn't really figure it out and turn it on until mid-February or so. We're going to need one of our guards make some strides between now and March.

It's not that programs like Wisconsin or Iowa can't break even. It's that they choose to not breakeven as they would rather spend more in an attempt to keep up with the Jones's (aka UM/OSU).

It can happen. Generally though when the MAC produces an at-large caliber team that team wins the tournament making the point mute. Otherwise we would have had two bids a few years ago when Buffalo had that strong season.

The last team to go undefeated in MAC play was the 1957-1958 Miami team. They went 12-0 that season. No team has ever gone 18-0 in MAC play.

It's college basketball, not the NBA. Not like we can go out and make an in season trade to add a missing piece. We have to run with what we got.

Yes, usually when people start getting overly ambitious and talk about seeding or at-large (although not applicable this time), we have one of these humbling losses. I posted before that it had been 70+ years since the MAC last had an unbeaten team in conference play. Back then there were much fewer conference games than there are today. I like this team, but I don't think they're remotely as good as that Wally Miami team, that Elite 8 PCCC team, or that Buffalo team of a few years back. If those teams couldn't run the table in MAC, why would anyone think this Zips team could? What's important is that we don't let this snowball. Accept we had a bad night or our opponent played one of there better ones. I didn't watch the game so I can't speak to it. Identify areas of improvement and work to become better.