mrelegazna

Some people will always, always, always see the glass as half-empty. The accomplishments we are achieving this year are great, but would've been outstanding if not for the coaching lapses in this game or that game....woulda, shoulda, coulda. Players sometimes have bad games, coaches sometimes make bad decisions.I'm just glad no one like that is making the UA hiring decisions. Otherwise we'd go through two coaches a year in every sport, a la Steinbrenner in the 80's going through managers in the 80's.KD....THANK YOU for what you have done for this basketball team!!!

It is the teams first win in postseason play at the D1 level. What I find sad, is your need to try to diminish this win with your vitriolic comment. We get bashed a lot from our MAC foes for our unimpressive past. I think it's because they see the present and are worried about the future.

I'm not telling you what to wear. I'm also not trying to talk down to you. Your telling people how to cheer is foolhardy. In the first place, all you will accomplish with this dialogue is to piss off long time Zip fans and the ones that don't leave will tell you to piss off. So, you're left with a whole lot of piss on you at the end of the day. Are you part of some cheer police? Of course not. Did you act the way your parents wanted you to? I doudt it, I didn't. Can't you step back and see that you're at the wrong end of this argument. People can't be coerced into doing something they don't want to do much less be insulted into doing it. Can you point me to where SGM said, "You must cheer for Ohio State?" Because that's what you seem to be accusing him of.On the contrary, I'm getting the message that those of us who cheer on Ohio State in addition to Akron have "piss attitudes" and are just a hair shy of being traitors. Seems to me you're the one telling people who to root for.Like all of us, I hope Akron can reach the top levels of the NCAA someday. If Indiana can support 3 BCS schools, Ohio can damn well support TWO. (Can we really count Cincitucky other than as a technicality?) I won't say jealousy is involved, but I think a lot of people not only want to see Akron rise, but they are looking for someone to blame that they aren't at the top yet.

Thanks for not making me the first to have to say it out loud. The lack of athletic talent will be on full display in Philadelphia this week. Get ready for an ugly one the way this team has played since the Nevada game.How about some more harsh reality. The reason we did not get a home game is that our stadium is so small compared to Temple. We've never even sold more than 4,000 tickets for an early MAC Championship game. Temple could have 4,000 walk ups buy tickets. The NIT needs to fund the tournament so they give games to teams with bigger stadiums and play the percentages. Eh....Temple's no Nevada. We might lose big because the team is in a funk, but if they can find inspiration to play hard, it should stay reasonably close.

YOu can watch the quarterfinals (and semis and finals if you were so inclined) on collegesportsdirect.com, for nine bucks a game or 25 bucks for the whole tournament.

Mostly because that guy's a troll who's not giving us grapevine info but just talking trash. Anything can happen, but also keep in mind this thread was a month dead before you brought it back.

More practice maybe, but 20 NIT games do not equal the exposure of 1 NCAA game.

Plus, no ranking system is gonna be perfect anyway. I don't have a beef with the RPI formula (or what I know of it, anyway).

The first poster seems to be asking which would benefit the program more, not which you would LIKE more. I'm pointing that out because some people seem to be approaching the question as if it's asking which one you would prefer.But the answer is STILL getting knocked out of the NCAA's in the first round. By a mile. It's great that the NIT final four is on ESPN and in MSG, but do recruits make a point to watch the NIT? Do you? Quick, name the final four participants from last year's NIT.I'm grateful for any post-season trip this team will take. But there's no question that making the NCAA's, even they lose by 100 in the first round, benefits the program more. It's the Big Dance. It's what people cut out of work early for. It's what people fill out their brackets for. They can say to recruits, "We are 2006 MAC Champions. As champions, we represented the conference in the NCAA tournament. That will grab them exponentially more than "We beat some middling BCS teams and made it to the NIT semifinals."EDIT: Me and Feat the Brown Roo made the exact same point the exact same way, but I missed his post the first time around. Great minds think alike!

I'm glad to be playing a team that's slumping a bit. They had a chance on Saturday to wrap up the MAC West title at home against NIU, but lost by double-digits. Then last night they had to come back to beat EMU at home.But you never know. We will be in for a dogfight Thrusday if we are too busy looking ahead to the semis/finals.

I've been worried about this since we wrapped up the bye. A week off is good and bad. Sure the rest will help, but my fear is the legs and 'game" will become stale. The regular season calls for play at least every 3-4 days. This will be a 4/5 day layover.I can only assume that KD will account for this and will play these guys hard in practice throug tuesday and mentally prepare from there. Am I missing something? It's 5 days off, not a week. We're playing Saturday, then Thursday. Most of they year we have been playing Saturday, then Wednesday. So this is just one extra day. If anything, I wish they had more time off!

I remember "rooting" for Can't during their Elite 8 run, and it was just a weird feeling. It was almost like, "Well, hell, I guess I want them to win." Any other MAC school, I'm a lot more enthusiastic about their successes.

I'm wondering this too, and I want to put it the program insiders who post here.Whether or not there was a GOOD reason or not DP played sparingly most of the year, their had to be A reason, and the TV announcers seemed to be guessing the reasons (back spasms, KD possibly being unhappy with his defense). So anyone have more than a guess?

Dials and Joyce both need to stop shooting 25 footers (unless there's one second left on the shot clock). Not happy to see this yearlong habit of Joyce seem to rub off on Dials today. I know it looks badass when they fall, and I know they probably fall a lot in practice, but c'mon.But yes, Dials more than made up for his first half miscues in the second half, and I still have a lot of belief in Joyce but......more and more and more, Ced looks like (to me) our best guard and a future MAC POY candidate (you heard it here first! ). He's usually the fastest guy on the court. He finishes his fast breaks. He can exploit the thinnest of lanes when the Zips are running their offense and explode to the basket. His our the plays the create momentum for us. I'm very much looking forward to the next couple years with him.

GREAT posts, Fear The Roo.I don't envy you. Without speaking to the officiating on this game, refs are always and will always be a very easy target. I'm of the opinion that if you want the refs to "let the kids play," particularly in the last few minutes, and not call "ticky-tack" fouls, then your gripe is with the rule book, not the refs. The refs have not only a right, but an obligation to call fouls as they see them REGARDLESS of the game situation. The only time I honestly noticed bad officiating today was on the Futch call. And it's not because I like to give the refs a free pass...the officiating in the Cal game sticks out in my mind as just one that was REAL one-sided.

Exactly.

msopher, you might want to turn your sarcasm detection dial up to 11 at this point.

I disagree. Some losses warrant a strong reaction and some do not. I don't think this one did, and I certainly don't think the Miami game (one of the three best teams in the MAC, on the road, lost by three). If you feel like we "failed" because we lost these games, then I would think your only definition of success is to go 18-0 in the MAC. I hope we can some day, but we are not there yet. Do I think we are capable of winning the MAC tournament? Yes. Do I think we are the best team in the MAC (assuming everyone plays at their highest level)? Possibly. At this point my vote would have to go to Can't. Do I think it's such a given that no MAC team can beat us - we can only beat ourselves? No. I don't mean I'm satisfied with double-digit losses to Buffalo, but these losses just don't scare me into thinking we're gonna choke in the tournament and it sounds like KD feels the same way.

Our numbers (and, based on what I heard on the radio, our effort) in this game weren't really that bad. Buffalo played like one would hope you're gonna play on senior night, especially going up against Baby Brother (for one of them). If we look bad on Saturday, I'll worry. Now? Not wringing my hands over this.

Buffalo played a great game (52% shooting, 8 TO's) on senior night. They always play well at home, Can't had to come back from 13 down there to win here in double overtime. While I'm not happy that we were not able to do the same, I'm definitely not panicking over this loss and it sounds like KD isn't either.

GoZips nails it! Nice work!So GoZips, since you obviously have Dambrot's ear, tell him to beat Can't.

I hope you're wrong about this one being more exciting.

I would've preferred the 1 seed to the 3. The 3 is fine, but the 1 would've been better. That's why it's disappointing that OU didnt even show up tonight. Can't is very good. They're not unbeatable.

Wow. Bu-bu-buh....how can I rip on him if he just ripped on himself? Damn it! A Rocket has outsmarted us agin'!

I've only been posting there for about a week, but so far that hasn't been my experience (except for that it's crawling with Can't guys).