kreed5120

I just don't see this team being able to put together 3 quality wins in a row. When Trimble is on we're capable of beating anyone, but he has more bad games than good.

We fell apart in 1st half when Freeman got into foul trouble. Have to do better defensively in the 2nd half.

I'm kind of surprised Akron would consider Dambrot as AD. Naturally Dambrot being a basketball guy would likely start funneling more of the limited amount of athletic dollars to basketball, which I don't disagree with. It just seems the opposite of what the university has been pushing these past few decades, which has been funneling money to football (IPF, new stadium, paying 6 figure buyouts on numerous occasions). Meanwhile, all the basketball program has received is a fresh coat of paint and a new jumbotron...

I honestly don't think him leaving was as much about the money as it was him wanting to try to cement his legacy by making a sweet 16 run. He had opportunities to leave for more money throughout the years but choose to stay. Duquesne promised him a renovated arena and a commitment to an increased budget. He looked at his age and knew he didn't have many seasons left as he's said numerous times that he doesn't plan to coach into his 70s. He thought Duquesne gave him the best chance to get those tourney wins that was the only thing his resume was missing. The fact it appears he won't make the tournament at Duquesne, let alone get tournament wins, I'm sure he'll view it as a mistake.

Miami struggles shouldn't be that surprising. They played much tougher schedules than the West teams. The MAC has since moved away from divisions so moving forward that won't be an issue. Also, with a 20 game conference slate the schedules are now more balanced. Akron 5 years ago was the class of the MAC. Before us it was Kent and before Kent it was Miami. I'd say Buffalo as of now is, but that will change. The MAC has no "blue bloods" and all schools have similar resources. You will see the best teams at the top cycle between one another instead of 1-2 teams dominating the conference for an extended period of time

We had another bad rebounding game against CMU. If we allow Toledo 16 offensive boards, like we allowed CMU, we will lose by double figures. Toledo is too good of an offensive team. We need to limit them to 1 shot opportunity per possession otherwise they will make us pay.

The one area that CMU is strong is in 3-point shooting. They're first in the MAC in 3P%, meanwhile, we're 9th in the MAC in defending against the 3 ball. We will need to be able to run them off the 3 point line otherwise they might be able to hang around with the 3 ball much like WMU did against us.

I'm ready surprised anyone would guard Trimble by going under the screen instead of fighting through it. 77.5% of his shot attempts are from behind the 3 point line. I'd 100% play him to run him off the 3 point line and force him to either pass or take a shot inside the 3-point arc.

But that's only if they get paid. Russian league is notorious for not paying the wages they promise

Overall a good game, but I find it concerning that we allowed 19 offensive boards. Not securing boards played a big part in us losing to Kent they way we did. We were able to mask it against BGSU because of our offensive efficiency, but it's something we definitely need to work on.

I feel it came down a lot to effort. Given the size Akron has there is no way they should have been dominated on the glass like they were. Kent seemed to just want the game a lot more than us by fighting (and winning) to get every 50/50 ball. While I do think this Akron roster is better than Kent, I don't think it's significantly better. This Akron team still has a ton to improve. As bad as it is to lose a rivalry game hopefully it serves as a wake up call.

Kent clearly wanted this game more. Coming off the NIU home loss probably hindered our chances this game as they wanted redemption. We never matched their level of intensity

3/18 from 3. Back to putting up out Florida shooting numbers. No chance of making a come back if we can't force stops.

Game is getting away

With mid-week MACtion there is no chance of that stadium being filled on a consistent basis. If we could average 15k-18k per game (and I mean a real 15k-18k, not this University buying 50k tickets themselves to inflate the number bs) I'd consider that a success.

I know we talked about attendance being down at the JAR, which is true, but Kent is having it a lot worse. The last two home games (both MAC opponents) they had 701 and 1423 reported fans. The actual butts in seat number was likely far lower as these figures would include season ticket holder no shows. It seems like if there was a year to go into Kent and steal a win, this is it. Fans haven't been showing up and this is the worst Kent team in a while. It would be great if we could capitalize, especially on nationally TV.

I think covid in large part has forced athletics hand in needing to adapt. They added beer to the JAR to entice fans that went a year without going to Zips games to come back. They likely had empty seats on the lower bowl from many deciding to not renew tickets after covid so it's better to give them to students to make the lower bowl look full than to leave it look like an eye sore on TV. In general though the changes were much needed. Students should have always had that section. They pay the bulk of the expenses through student fees. Forfeiting some short-term season ticket sale dollars to build the college experience is well worth it. The better time those kids have at games, the more likely they will grow up to be season ticket holders and alumni donors themselves. I don't know about you guys, but when I went to the JAR pre-covid I didn't really see many people between the ages of 25-35 at the games. That's concerning for the long-term health of Akron athletics. Hopefully this helps improve that.

Fordham hurts a ton too. Not necessarily because we lost, but the fact we lost by 20. Net factors margin of victory in its calculations.

Update through Jan 11 2022 74 Ohio 78 Toledo 120 Buffalo 150 Akron 158 Miami (OH) 206 Bowling Green 211 Kent St. 247 Eastern Mich 269 Ball St. 293 Northern Ill. 334 Western Mich. 342 Central Mich.

Kent has losses to 2-12 CMU and 4-8 NIU. They haven't looked good far. We need to find a way to capitalize.

Seems like a lot of points considering we don't even know who all for Akron is available.

I have doubts this game gets played. I'm not sure what the MAC guidelines are for a player returning after a positive test, but we only had Trimble out against Ohio so that means we had a lot of positive tests some point after. Our last outbreak we went 16 days without a game. Seems odd we can have an outbreak and get back in under 7 days for the next game.

I wonder what the MAC protocol is? How many positive players before they cancel?

There won't be forfeits. If games can't be made up there will be no contests.

Had 83 catches for 1010 yards and 34 carries for 190 yards in his 4 years at Pitt. Should be a decent playmaker in the MAC.