kreed5120

I really don't think we had the perimeter scorers for KJ to be a real solution. Think about it anytime you had Walton, Tribble, and Freeman in the lineup that's 3/5 players on the court that are no threat from beyond the arc. That just allows the opponents to pack the paint, which makes it easy to double Freeman in the low and it allows defenses to cut off Walton and Tribble drives to the hoop. It's a big reason why I felt we played so bad in Florida. Teams were leaving us unguarded behind the 3 point arc just daring us to shoot and we just kept missing.

A new arena isn't going to happen anytime soon unless magically some alumni steps forward with a check in the 10s of millions. I wouldn't count on that. The city/county made a play for a new arena and failed miserably. The university itself is a financial mess in part because of the money they spent on Infocision. The money just isn't there. Perhaps in 20 years when we're done off Infocision it could become a possibility.

Throw out the records. We always seem to struggle at Dekalb

I feel @1981 grad hit it on the head. Dambrot strength was always recruiting and developing players that fit his system. He did a really great job of never losing key contributors to the transfer portal. Now with NIL and the transfer rules change I just feel the game has passed Dambrot by. What he had success with before really isn't going to be a winning formula now.

Freeman should have a nice, long career in one of the better European leagues when he leaves Akron.

Before the baseball team came back I felt the perfect place for a new arena was building it where the current baseball field is. That would get you on exchange street so you would be in easy walking distance to bars and restaurants. Not to mention lot 9 parking and the Exchange parking decks right there. Personally, I'm not a big fan of a downtown arena unless the city/county is chipping in. Being in the middle of campus makes it more convenient for students to attend.

Yes, I really hope they wouldn't take those blue courts away from the students. Those courts were frequently used for intramural futsal, floor hockey, whiffed ball, and even open gym basketball.

The main positive I'll take away is I felt the Zips were the team that played with more effort. I can't say that for some of the previous games. We just lost to the better team. We're a vastly better team with Freeman on the floor vs him off. We need to get more quality minutes out of Aziz.

2 5 point possessions in a matter of like 3 minutes lol

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.