kreed5120

I think we need to attack early. EMU has a lot of guys with 2 fouls. Personally, I'd like to get Toure a 3rd or 4th foul ASAP. I don't see Reece being able to match up with him.

If someone told me before the game that Xeyrius, Banks, and LCJ would have a combined 2 points at the half, I would have guessed the Zips would be down by 20 at the half, not 3.

We need to attack the basket. Maybe if they see some free throws fall in, they'll start making shots.

At this stage I can't imagine there are that many places he'll be able to go. I'm surprised he waiting until now to make this decision instead of prior to national signing day.

EMU is going to slow this game down and try to limit the Zips to a point total in the 50s to low 60s. Banks, Cheese, and Xeyrius need to get back to making their open perimeter shots.

Personally, I'll be cheering for DeKalb & Canada as I think the Flushes and Chipps are more serious competitors to us for an improved seed.

Out of curiosity, why are some players highlighted blue and others gold? I imagine it's supposed to distinguish between something, but can't figure out what exactly.

I would have guessed that Marreon Jackson would be the top contender as he's the only other MAC player consistently putting up gaudy scoring totals in MAC play. I guess when your team is 3-6 in conference play that automatically disqualifies you. Turner is probably another guy to keep an eye on. His numbers aren't as good as LCJ, but BGSU is currently in 1st place.

Akron hasn't participated in one of those pay-to-play tournaments since the 2013/2014 season. One would have thought if there was a season to do it, it would have been last year since we were returning LCJ, Banks, Cheese, Riak, and Sayles. Also, Xeyrius was around so even though he couldn't play, he would have been there to practice.

I hate having a bye after a loss. The nice thing about basketball is after a loss you only normally have to wait a few days to get a chance to get a taste of defeat out of your mouth.

Winning the MAC regular season title still means something. Obviously the goal is to win the tournament and get the NCAAT bid, but having a consolation prize of guaranteeing yourself an NIT bid is a plus. It's not the NCAAT, but it's still a huge step up from the CBI or CIT. Edit: I doubt we'd even accept a CBI or CIT bid if it came to that as we're such a senior heavy team. If we fail to win the MAC regular season title, odds are it'll be win the MAC tournament or no postseason play.

BG hit their rough patch earlier in the year. Fortunately for them it was during OOC play.

I'm never a fan when down milking the clock for a final shot. You should be looking for a high percentage shot. Banks was forced to put up a not so good look. In the end we made some bone headed plays throughout that cost us the game. We had the ball stolen on us twice on an inbounds, we didn't rebound after that missed free throw, and we committed a foul to put Kent at the line when they had 10 seconds left on shot clock and back 80 feet away from the hoop.

Had we rebounded with this kind of effort against Buffalo, we would have won by double figures. Whatever Groce said to them after the game appears to have worked so far.

http://mainscore01.blogspot.com/2020/01/b30b5c6b.html

Akron's poor rebounding against Buffalo was for multiple reasons. The two big ones I noticed... 1) Buffalo just wanted the ball more. I remember on one play there were 3 Zips jerseys with 1 Buffalo player sandwiched between. The Buffalo player came away with the rebound. A different play Riak secured the rebound, but a Buffalo player ripped it out of his hands. Rebounding is about effort as much as anything else. You need to want the ball more than the other guys. 2) Our guards failed to keep their man in front of them. This forced Riak or Reece to rotate over leaving nobody to box out the opposing bigs. We need to have a hunger for the ball and we need to box out. If we can do this, I think we'll win by 8+.

Wasn't exactly sure where to post this, but the B1G has proposed legislation that would allow all players a 1 time transfer without having to sit out a year. This proposal would impact men's hoops as well along with other sports. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/big-ten-proposal-would-allow-every-athlete-to-transfer-once-without-sitting-out-a-year/

I can't lie, I do like Mike's Place.

I remember seeing a few posts earlier in the year saying how much better we're off without Utomi, but I think he's exactly the type of player we're missing. He could have started at the 3, opening up the opportunity for Cheese or Banks to be the 6th man. He'd also be able to spell Xeyrius at the 4. Not to mention in late game offense for defense substitutions you could roll out a LCJ, Cheese, Banks, Xeyrius, and Utomi lineup. All 5 would be a threat from deep and have shown the ability to drive to the hoop. Obviously Utomi didn't want to be here so that ship sailed.

Reece got T'd up earlier in the year and there have been 2-3 dunks since that I was concerned he might get T'd up for based off his immediate reaction afterwards.

Groce staggers the minutes so you're going to always see at least 2 of the 4 on the court at a time. The issue isn't whether Cheese 16 points comes from the starting lineup or the bench. It's the fact there are x-minutes of the game that LCJ, Xeyrius, Cheese, and Banks need rest and in those minutes we're getting little to no positive production out of anyone.

Even outside of the stat sheet, it's hard for me to see what they bring. All I see is offensive turnovers, ill-timed fouls, and lackadaisical defense.

Drake, Wright State, and Murray State are all solid mid-major, but those are the types of teams you should try to schedule H&H with. These neutral court tournaments are the type of games we should be looking to play the Louisville and WVU of the world as this provides us the best opportunity at getting those wins.

Interesting use of the word rebound in the title considering that's something we're struggling with...

Akron's playing better on the road than at home during conference play.