mrelegazna

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).

There's a nice list of them here:http://www.vandelaysports.com/boards.htmlNotice that the only school that didn't have a their own message board on their own server (or a server sponsored by the state like MLIVE) is Can't, who just uses the NCAAbbs site exclusively.I'm one of the voices (userid Dorado) taking up for Akron on the busy MAC general message boards on NCAAbbs, so I hope you drop by there too and help us out the Flush fans are pretty froggy there...

I watched on TV. It certainly looked like the worst snow-game I've ever seen...most games where there's snow on the field, it's just a thin patina of it. It looked like the players in this game, though, were practically ankle deep in it no matter how furiously the grounds crew tried to clear it away. Just my 2 cents.

Man, you're giving Can't fans WAAAAY too much intellectual credit. I predict they will try the EXACT same prank that we did, right down to "Were Akron fans from the....um, K ent Stark Campus."

Um, yeah. That's what I, and then the Miami guy afterwards, were saying. Either you misunderstood it or you skipped several posts.......Can't read, Can't write...they make it so easy, don't they?

Who's hating on Dru? Who's even saying Ced is better? I think he has been playing better than Dru of late, and it seems like it would be a nice reward to have Ced start against his brother. Doesn't have to wreck team chemistry. So what if Dru comes in with 16:00 left in the first half instead of starting? Wow. If this very mild, hardly critical, purely hypothetical thread about strategy is too critical and "unsupportive," then I don't think you'll find any threads here to your liking except maybe ones that just say "GO ZIPS!"

If you ever come across any of those crazy Memphis fans again online or in person, ask them if they have that same piss attitude when it comes to their in state giant Tennessee. I can tell you this: they don't. I talked to a few of them at the bars in Detroit and was surprised to learn that they steal kids from Tennessee and the other surrounding SEC schools all the time. That showed on the field in Detroit. They are the same size school as Akron and deal with the exact same problems, yet they are doing it. Especially with our new facilities, campus looking great, and a new stadium on the way, we can steal recruits from OSU. But as long as kids know even the fans of the program think small time, they aren't going to come here. We as fans need to start expecting a lot more because we now have the potential to be a lot more. Right, I have a "piss attitude" because I'm not declaring war on Ohio State. And we all have anecdotes. Go to scout.com and pull up all the kids who had Tennessee on their offer list but committed to Memphis. I'm not saying this program shouldn't think big. I'm not saying the new facilities won't help recruiting. For sure, we are on the same recruiting ground of the lesser Big Ten schools. But if your point is that the very best prospects in the country (which is generally whom Ohio State makes offers to) ought to be considering Akron as well, and if they don't, it's the fault of NE Ohio fans who have the gall to root for Ohio State, then that's ridiculous. That's looking for a scapegoat and a reason to feel victimized. You won't help this program grow by being unrealistic about where it's at, or should be at, right now.

I wish you were right, 'cause Akron could benefit, but the italicized portion of the below makes me think otherwise:2. Winning percentage* vs. ranked conference teams (top to bottom, regardless of division; vs. common opponents, regardless of the number of times played)

...just on Wednesday. Then back to Joyce for Can't and the MAC tournament. My reasons:1). Middleton has been a hell of a spark plug at times and I think rewarding him with a start, he just might go nuts and give us a 10-2 lead to start by himself.2). He'd particularly appreciate starting against Buffalo where his brother plays. PR and all of that.3). Send a little message to Joyce. I'm tired of him hoisting 25 footers with plenty of time on the shot clock and trying to take on the opposition by himself. Am I way off base?

So we have one remembered list of a recruit having both Iowa and Akron on their short list and all the sudden we are competing with Ohio State for recruits? Iowa (and Purdue, Indiana, etc) may be in the same conference as OSU, but even they are not on the same recruiting plane as OSU, Michigan and Penn State by and large. Let's not kid ourselves.

On he heels of the ugly Can't girls thread, does Kevin Warzynski remind anyone else Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket, pre-Marine haircut? I can see him in the visiting locker room's toilets after losing to Akron, holding a shotgun..."I am...in a world...of shit!I couldn't attach it, but if you don't know what I'm talking about, try this:http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews9/...-PDVD_00901.jpg