mrelegazna

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?

Zips are apparently playing Mississippi State in...Philadelphia. You figure it out. https://bracketeer.org/nonconference/sec

Also worth noting re: Steele that he was axed after their first round NIT game, and THEN his team went on to win the NIT crown. 😶

Hankerson was in the game 84% of the time for NIU, which led the team and was 9th in the MAC (for Akron, only Ali was higher). Despite that, he was only a "role player" by KenPom's definition, which are players that ended just 16-20% (5th on NIU) of the team's possessions (made a shot, missed a shot the was not rebounded by the offenses, or committed a turnover). He also got a steal on 3.11% of NIU's opponent's possession when he was in the game, third in the MAC. Still, the analytics are not eye-popping. Still still, while Groce isn't infallible I generally trust him to find more Castanedas than Waltons, and kids who put up meh or worse numbers (this goes for Hankerson and Hunter both) and do not have all-conference recognition still might be good fits, just as their previous schools might've been poor fits.

Edit: Never mind, I'm sorry I missed the point.

So you're saying that's not the point of this thread you made, then. What is?

I mean, yes, other programs have it tougher both with losing players in the transfer portal specifically and just more suckitude generally. And yes, some fans need to gain some more perspective. But we're still allowed to feel bad about any adversity affecting our team, just like I'm allowed to feel whatever feelings I want to about my own problems, even though others have it worse.

I think the answer to that is, "he doesn't think of himself as a mid-level player." I think any player worthy of playing time needs to think of himself as, at very least, having a very high ceiling. So I don't begrudge him that. Also, while Butler sucked last year and I can't be arsed to look into how good or not they stand to be next year, the Big East tends to be bunched up, and so going from 6-14 in conference to, say, 11-9 and on the bubble is probably not out of the question. Finally, while we have misgivings about Ali (especially now that he's gone), statheads and analytic nerds tend to love his game. Maybe there's something to that, and maybe the "actually, he's not that good" camp is right, but again, you can't blame him for believing in himself. For better or worse, this is the transfer portal reality now, and this is gonna happen from time to time (and hopefully not more frequently than that) with our good players. I for one am not gonna try to take such transfers personally as a Zip fan (although I would be f***ing heartbroken if Enrique left, I would try not to be ANGRY). I hope that Groce and his staff respond to the advent and popularity of the transfer portal by scouting low-major transfer portal diamonds-in-the-rough thoroughly, and well. If any of our players feel like Butler is a step up, well then, maybe we are a step up from Nebraska-Omaha, or whoever. Or even D2 (Max Strus went from D2 Lewis (Ill.) to DePaul to the Miami Heat).

Here's an excerpt from another pundit who is high on Akron, and Ali (a subscription site I belong to, Staring At The Floorboards): "The Zips really came together down the stretch run in the MAC, and were probably undervalued going into the MAC tournament with SQ judging three of their losses as analytical wins...UCLA wasn’t handed any favors by the committee. This Akron team can play, and we saw that in the early OOC schedule when they nearly knocked off Ohio State. Ali is a high major talent who will test Jaquez, but Freeman’s going to have a hard time getting established vs Johnson. Akron’s comfort level at a low 60s possession game combined with the ease in which their guards operate out of ball screens has big Purdue/North Texas energy." The Pick: Play Akron +14 (sprinkle on the ML), under 128.5"

Kenpom has it 71-58 UCLA

(forgot to include quote tweet, can't delete)