kreed5120

Ali and Freeman made 1st team. Tribble was an honorable mention. Freeman and Tribble made all-defense.

It's kind of funny looking back on some of the comments on this board from earlier in the season. In January people were trying to claim we would be a 10 or 11 seed in the tournament. Others were saying there was a good chance Groce would be leaving for a better job at the end of the year. Now it's more us praying this teams figures themselves out. What a roller-coaster of a season.

I assumed Balsy got banned because he often brought politics into the discussion. I could be wrong however. I was very vocal about wanting Bowden replaced, but I never was banned. There is a way for one to vocally criticize without verbally attacking others. I don't know the details behind all of the bans, but I have at times seen some conversations get overly heated in my years here.

None of Toledo's teams have been strong defensively. That's why they come up short in March. Offense wins games, defense wins championships.

The MAC representative will most likely be a 14 or 15 seed. It depends on who wins and what upsets happen in other mid-major tournaments

I feel you guys are overlooking the fundamental problems of this team. We didn't lose to WMU and EMU because of poor shooting. We shot over 50% from the field and 41% from 3 against WMU. We shot 48% against EMU. Those are percentage you can and should win with. We're losing because of lack of effort and fundamentals. Outside of Freeman, nobody is boxing out and fighting for 50/50 balls. We're losing because We're giving up too many second chance points. We need to play better defense and secure rebounds once we force a miss. Giving more minutes to players that don't give up their body to make plays at the defensive end won't fix anything.

COY I might actually give to coach K since he won the MAC in what was a rebuilding year. Overall though nobody is all that deserving.

Going 1-8 in conference play is horrible. Would have they been competitive in the MAC? Sure, but by P5 standards they were horrible.

He's under contract until 2027. I don't see Akron firing him. The following year he could be on the hot seat, but that would also be his 4th season so there is no excuse if he's still winning 2-4 games then.

That Indiana team was also among the worst P5 programs in the country. Rutgers, who we will be playing, beat them by 17.

The issue is quality bigs that can give good minutes are in short supply. I'm sure nearly every team in America wishes they had another 1-2 bigs.

As of right now, this is probably Groce's worst coaching effort during his Akron tenure. There was obviously some top end talent missing at the pg position, but on paper coming into this season this looked to be his deepest team. Also, it was spearheaded by 2 players that were projected to be 1st team All-MAC. Given how bad the MAC is this season, this team should have went 16-2 or 17-1 and ran away with the conference title. Instead, players have regressed and disappeared. This post isn't really me trying to criticize anyone in particular. It's just me voicing my disappointment and coming to the realization that we had a player of Freeman's caliber and couldn't turn it into an NCAA tournament win.

Honestly, this was a fitting end to a game the Zips didn't deserve to win.

Sure, maybe if we were Toledo those 2 P5 games could be winnable. I haven't seen anything from this program during Moorhead's tenure that leads me to believe we will be remotely competitive in those games. Let alone have any chance of winning them. This is the year I'd like to see the program begin to take strides. It would be great getting to 6 wins, but I'd be content getting to 5.

CMU is just returning to the mean. Everyone could tell CMU wasn't as good as their MAC record indicated.

The game is played at a faster pace today and there are more players today that shoot the 3 ball more frequently and more efficiently. Scoring is up at all levels. I think what's more shocking is that we were able to keep a player of Freeman's talent for 4 years in this day and age.

At the moment I think I prefer him coming off the bench and leading the 2nd unit. I always felt the 5 you finish the game with is more meaningful than the 5 you start the game with.

I think you will be seeing more and more of these smaller privates close. Moving forward I wonder what, if any, impact it would have on Akron's enrollment. I'd imagine the vast bulk majority of what would have been incoming freshman will just select a different private school.

Most likely not because not only would they have to invest $100+ million in facilities, but they would then need add women's sports to stay title IX compliant. I do think the MAC should adopt a more eat what you kill mentality when it comes to paying out NCAA tournament credits. The current system gives little to no incentive for the Northern Illinois, WMU of the world to try to contend. They get their money regardless so they have no further incentive to want to improve.

They would make a lot less money in the MAC. The A10 is an eat what you kill conference. That means the schools that earn the tournament credits are the ones who receive the payout for them. The MAC gives a little extra to the team that earns them to cover travel costs, but they're mostly split evenly.

Richmond, VCU? You guys realize that UMass only moved to the MAC because it needed a home for its FBS football program, right? What would Richmond or VCU have to gain by coming to the MAC?

I don't think it's a given that a Purdue or Indiana would never make the playoffs in the expanded 12 team format. Forever is a long time and its not like bad P5 programs don't have runs where they find themselves in the top 10-15. Kansas has been one of the worst P5 programs this century. Now they look like a program that will be contending for one of those coveted playoff spots. A 4 team playoff I'd certainly agree.

I could understand that argument if they were having similar success to a Dayton or VCU. Reality is for the last 15-20 years they've performed like an upper mid-tier MAC team. The guys talks about Kenpom, but if he took the time to go through it I'm guessing on average Akron, Toledo, and Buffalo have all outperformed UMass. Ohio and Kent are probably around the same ballpark.

Why would a Northwestern or Rutgers walk away from $60M-$100M in annualized revenue just so they could compete against Toledo or Marshall for a 2nd rate championship?

I wouldn't say they should be perennial favorites, but they should be perennial contenders. I'd place them in a similar category of an Akron or Toledo.