kreed5120

Funny I haven't seen many of those "critics" post this season. I'm sure they will reappear when it's an opportune time for them.

The double bye was used for 4 years and 3 of the 4 years it resulted in a 1 vs 2 final. The 4th was a 1 vs 3. It made the tournament too predictable.

I've heard of jersey retiring, but what exactly is jersey honoring?

Yep, this has been my one complaint about KD since he left. When he was the coach at Akron he talked for years about how no good teams would ever agree to come to play at Akron. He even name dropped former Akron coach Bob Huggins as an example. Now that he's moved onto Duquesne he's doing the same exact thing by not coming to the JAR. The game wouldn't even need to be played in Akron every year. They could rotate it back and forth between the two cities. I really like the idea that part of the game proceeds would go to the I Promise School. It would seem like a good way of drumming up good publicity for both schools. Also, both schools could certainly use a boost to their OOC schedule.

Regardless of if we keep divisions or go to a single table, certain teams will have an easier schedule and other will have a more challenging one. Personally, I'd rather to continue playing Ohio, Kent, and Buffalo 2x per year even if that means we have a slightly tougher schedule.

These numbers are a little off as they still show LCJ has only played 5 conference games, not 6. Right now in conference play we have 3 of the top 11 3P% shooters and 4 of the top 21 during MAC play. Cheese and Banks may be able to maintain their averages, but no way LCJ and Xeyrius are going to continue to shoot .550+ over the long haul. What's great is Banks, LCJ, and Cheese have been able to all use their 3 point scoring threat to blow past defenders, who are trying to close out, and finish at the basket. Xeyrius has attempted to do the same, but he still needs to work on finishing near the hoop. That's probably the only flaw in his game.

There is a lot of things to complain about the MAC, but they have done a terrific job with the tournament. Outside of MWC, who plays their games tournament in Vegas, it might be the best run mid-major conference tournament. They would be dumb to move it.

The issue with a 22 game conference schedule is that only leaves 9 OOC games, 3 of which would be some exempt tournament. That means you only have 6 OOC games that you can schedule opponents for. That doesn't really give you much flexibility for scheduling. Not to mention it reduces opportunities for MAC schools to get tournament building wins. The NCAA would need to raise the number of games teams are allowed to play before that becomes a reality.

Maybe not, but an extra trip from Buffalo to DeKalb or Kalamazoo would certainly make a major difference.

If the MAC coaches wanted to do away with divisions, it would have already been done. Divisions minimize travel costs and makes it easier for student athletes to attend class.

I'm pretty sure @NWAkron was using sarcasm. Duquesne still has TDM as well and Weathers who transferred from Miami after Cooper was fired.

Akronzips71 wouldn't want him in an Akron uniform anyways as he's 6'8. That's 2-4 inches below his minimum height threshold for a big.

This is our chance to improve to .500 for the academic year in revenue sports.

It's just a list of teams for fans of college basketball to keep an eye on. None of them are anywhere close to being a lock to make the tournament, and honestly the only two that have any prayer of getting an at-large would be Duquesne and NIU.

Yardbarker lists Akron as 1 of 5 Cinderellas to watch. Duquesne was listed as another. https://larrybrownsports.com/college-basketball/five-teams-cinderella-stories-march-madness-2020-yale-akron/534272

I actually thought the Zips let up. They started milking the shot clock with 7-8 minutes left, which led to them forcing some pretty not so good looks. In reality we could have won by 30-40 had we kept our foot on the gas.

Pretty sure he's 1st in attempts too.

Also, these announcers obviously never seen Akron play. They sound so surprised the Xeyrius is a perimeter player and not a post up player.

Miami is already in the bonus...

If anyone is curious what Saul is up to these days, apparently he spent his Friday evening rescuing a women in labor who was trapped in a snowstorm. http://www.startribune.com/former-ndsu-coach-saul-phillips-helps-rescue-woman-in-labor-trapped-in-blizzard/567158672/

The key difference is those Ohio rosters that Groce was coaching wouldn't have come close to sniffing the tournament had they been in the Big 10. Groce's best Ohio team went 11-5 in the MAC. That translates to what a 5-11 Big 10 team? They would have had to of won the Big 10 tournament to get in, which wouldn't have happened. Shaka produced a final 4 team and 3 additional top 30 kenpom teams. Those VCU squads would have been able to compete in the Big 12 with the caliber of players he was getting there.

A good article talking about the reason Shaka is failing at Texas is because he's gotten away from what he had success doing. https://sports.yahoo.com/shaka-smart-lost-his-way-by-abandoning-what-made-him-successful-094336729.html

Realistically the men's MAC will never reach the height of the women's side. The large schools just aren't plowing the same type of money into it that they're the men's game.

33% from the field, 21% from 3, and 40% from the line. What a terrible display of shooting.

Part of why Toledo was able to shoot such a high clip was they were able to get Sayles and Riak away from the basket. Both looked extremely exposed on the defensive end when they were forced to guard out on the perimeter. Reece isn't as flat footed as Riak or Sayles so I do believe he would have been able to do a better job on contesting shots when he got switched on a guard. He certainly couldn't have done worse than what Riak did on Marreon Williams.