mrelegazna

Planting yourself in the other team's huddle has always been just the biggest douchebag move.

Psst...it's "voila." 🙂

Sorry if my sarcasm detection meter malfunctioned.

Me too. I trust Groce, and he's forgotten more about basketball than I'll ever now. I'm also a card-carrying member of the 3-pointer revolution. But the thing about relying on the three pointer (because teams are double/tripling Freeman down low) is that off shooting nights, like last night, are gonna happen, regardless if more players besides Castaneda find their shooting stroke. Golden State can afford an off shooting night loss to Sacramento or a Game 2 loss in the WC semifinals. A college team does not have that luxury, where every regular season loss effects tournament possibilities, and each team tournament game is win-or-go-home. I think therefore multiple scoring options down low is a must. We've had it in the past. This is, recruiting-wise, possible for us. But will Groce ever recruit more than a minimal amount of frontcourt offense? I don't know, but it was said in another thread that he recruits players that fit his system rather than building a system around the strengths of his recruits. And his system seems like one that will have a hard time making that deep-ish Big Dance run we all dream of, where you have to beat a team or two of high-major size. Side note, I still have a good deal of faith in Garvin Clarke.

You're right, this game was a terrible harbinger of how the rest of the season is sure to go. Remember last February when we lost to last place WMU? Sure enough, we would go on to get bounced in the first round of the MAC tournament and not play any postseason ball. Right again. Any coach worth his salt would've convinced Bates that, instead of going home, he should...not do that, and play for a conference foe of said home school instead. Surprised Groce hasn't resigned in disgrace yet.

Related: Penn State Greater Allegheny is one of 14 PSU braches that plays in the PSU Athletic Conference. ALL of the schools are named "Lions" or "Nittany Lions." They all seem to use one of the two common Penn State logos. Your own identities, who needs 'em? And who needs games that don't look like practice scrimmages?

Tribble with the mid-range jumper - longest make of his career?

Under 8 timeout, 16-14 MSU, bad shooting and turnovers abound for both team, Akron playing good defense.

Aziz led Utah Valley in scoring and minutes last night in their loss to Utah State. Kalle started and led Evansville in rebounding in their win at Miami. Take from that what you will.

Here is the "controversies" section on their Wikipedia page, which gives a good summation on why I'm not crazy about having to give them clicks to watch the stream. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barstool_Sports#Controversies

Kind of a mixed bag in MAC play last night. Western Michigan lost by 1 to Minnesota. Quality wins by Toledo, PCCC, and Bowling Green as well. But Miami lost at home to a very bad Evansville team (or at least very bad last year, and forecasted to be very bad again this year by KenPom), and as someone mentioned NIU lost to a D2 school. In fact, 3 D1 teams lost to D2 teams last night, and sadly all were Midwestern teams. NIU, Missouri-Kansas City, and none other than Cleveland State, who lost to not-that-Notre-Dame.

This would be a good win. It would not be a BAD loss, but it's the kind of game a team like Akron HAS to win to have any hope of being able to snag an at-large bid in the NCAA tourney (as unlikely as that seems in the MAC). Same with the Bradley game at the other end of the non-con schedule.

Anyone who wants to be mad at Tribble instead of fist bumping him and telling him don't worry about it is gonna have to fight me.

Has a chance to be the best Zip Nate since Lindhart.

If you're a basketball purist, you gotta like SDSU's style of play. Good shot selection, high percentage passes, nothing too cute, no big mistakes, good teamwork. Little wonder SDSU ran the Summit League regular season and tourney. If Akron can pull this off, it's a good-ass win.

I'm so used to Akron games being games of huge runs and momentum swings (although that trend has decreased a bit under Groce), but the lead went 4/2/4/2/4/2 FOREVER, it felt like. At least until X GON' GIVE IT TO YA

Just in case, I'm on support chat with ESPN+ (I'm a subscriber). I'm 16th in line! If this is a matter of someone simply forgetting to flip a switch, and Michael Reghi and Jackie Windon are blissfully unaware, commentating into a void, I'ma be mad.

Nope! Per the radio feed the game is well underway! 4-0 SDSU, 3+ minutes in. EFFFFFFF ESPN3/+ and there constant, constant, constant technical issues.

No no no. That's not the Message Board Way. For that matter, why hasn't anyone suggested yet that the most practical, just, and right solution would be to swap conferences with Ohio State?

That's my only complaint too. I'm not crazy about even one non-D1 opponent, but two or more feels like what teams ranked 300 or lower do to keep their team from getting completely demoralized. But, filling a schedule is probably not easy - who knows, for example, if someone backed out at the eleventh hour. Some of you guys act like we can just name our opponent and venue. Bradley and South Dakota State - these two opponents are the ones that set this schedule apart from past ones. THESE are the type of schools we can challenge ourselves against but also can be scheduled to a home-and-home. It's like they created their own bracket busters. SDSU went undefeated in conference play, including their tournament (that being the Summit League, formerly the Mid-Continent Conference which Akron once played in). Bradley's was less successful, but played in a tougher conference. Both finished last year in the top 100 of KenPom (Akron was 126).

Also worth noting, less than half of D1 schools (132 out of 363) have released their non-conference schedules, according to @d1docket on Twitter. Speaking of him, I guess it's a common complaint..

He's headed to Montenegro:

Zips headed to Peoria to play Bradley on December 22, per Bradley schedule release:

Bought a cool Zips t-shirt today (from an Ohio company, no less) and I'm trying to figure out of the logo on it was a) an actual U of A logo at some point (70s, perhaps), or b) a creation of the t-shirt makers. I'm 46 and from Akron, don't remember anything before the A-inside-football-shape logo that was similar to BYU's. Anyone know? https://www.homage.com/products/akron-zippy-the-kangaroo

Oh gross, Barstool. Anyway, I first saw this on the indispensable Blogging The Bracket, who each year keeps studious track of all early tournaments and events. They have this listed not under their tournaments section, but under their "2022-23 Men’s College Basketball Conference Challenges and Neutral-Site Games" section. In other words (assuming that's correct), this is one of those showcases that include multiple games at one site, but it's not a tournament (not unlike the annual Akron/YSU/CSU/PCCC event that was recently scrapped, come to think of it). They have a second game listed now too: St. Bonaventure vs. UAB. Seems like they might've sold a few more tickets if they made it Akron vs. St. Bona and Mississippi State vs. UAB, but what do I know?