Quickzips

I don't like to be too overconfident, but the stars seem lined up for us on this one.We are MUCH healthier than we were the last time we played them. The guy who killed us isn't even in Cleveland. We've got revenge on our minds.

I'm not THAT worried about Can't right now. We need to take care of our business against Central and probably Western before we worry about Can't again.That said, I really liked what Toledo did against Can't earlier in the year. They forced them into turnovers and made the easy points on the runouts. I think Toledo is a tough matchup for Can't.

Initially, I really hate this schedule. Only 5 home games and I can't really see us winning more than two of them. At least we get two at home before October. I actually rather like the last half of the schedule. EMU, Toledo, Buffalo, Ohio and Temple are all games that we CAN win. I don't think for one minute we take all of them, but it's possible to win any one of them. The first part of the schedule is brutal though. Wisconsin is a game that I expect us to get thoroughly pounded in right off the bat. Syracuse is a team that we COULD beat on the road, but it's far from a guarantee. Ball State is probably the best team (and certainly in the top 2) in the conference. I expect to lose to them. I hate having to play Army b/c even when we win we don't look too convincing and we've gotten our tails handed to us by them before with a better team than I expect us to have this year. Cincinnati is an up and coming program with a lot of talent. The rivalry game with Can't is always a tough game. Then you have BG which is another one of the better teams in the conference. At best we could come out of those first 7 games 3-4, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is below that.

Can't plays a tough, aggressive, hard nosed style of basketball. Is it the refs job to keep that under control as best as possible? Yeah. If they aren't though you can't just sit around and wait for the refs to do it. You've got to take the aggressivness back to them. I watched them against Toledo earlier in the year and it was the same thing. Can't is a team that can and will fold if you pressure them hard. You can't sit back and try to play a finesse game against them when the refs are letting the teams play. You want to beat them you've got to get up and pressure. Fisher has proven on a couple of occassions this season that he will turn the ball over when he's pressured. Even Can't fans that I've heard from will admit that. You've got to pressure him and look for the easy buckets on the run-out. It's exactley how Toledo beat them earlier in the year and it was a big part of our comeback last night. If we see this team again in the tourney we've got to pressure them.

I would not call that a layup, that would be a dunk and Goddard went right up with him, weak and hopeless would of been just stand there and watch it. Again Goddard/Milum had nothing to do with the 1-20 at the three. Don't blame two guys for the teams shooting the whole night. Seriously did they make turnovers, miss shots, no, hell they didn't take a shot. Look elsewhere, I know you are trying to blame something, someone, but this game was over before it began.Q's 2nd shot was the dunk to put them to 4-0. His first one was an easy layup. FSN showed it about 6-8 times during the course of the game. I saw the same thing every time. Q gets the ball inside. Milum is horribly out of position. Goddard comes over for a weak, late helpout. Easy layin for Q.

Ummmm nope, I won't. It was apparent to every Akron or non-partisan fan in attendance. They bumped, they slapped, they swatted, they reached and more often than not, nothing was called. I won't bring it up if it doesn't happen.Everyone in the MAC knows the refs are horrible. Heck NIU's coach got escorted off the floor by the cops today from some of the bad calls. Fact of the matter is that it isn't going to change. The MAC isn't going to fire all of their refs and bring in an entirely new group just for the tournament. Unless you've got some kind of proof that the fix was in and the refs were purposely and consciously setting the game up for Akron to lose (I don't think you do) then you just look like a whiny cry baby.

3 games, 3 nights, most likely against 3 teams that we are 0-4 against. Gonna be interesting.Now's the time for this team to regroup, man up and make the big run. No excuses from here on out. No more, well we'll get better as the season goes on. No more just wait for this team to get healthy and come around. Throw the excuses out the window and put it all on the line. Win and you move on, lose and you go home. It's as simple as that. Time to get the job done boys.

Agreed that Goddard and Quade had no buisness starting tonight. It allowed Can't to set the tone early right in the first two minutes. Go take a look at Quantince's first bucket. Quade gets hopelessly out of position and then Goddard comes over for a weak and hopeless helpout and in goes the easy Can't layup. I know it's senior night, but you play to win the game. There is no obligation made to guys coming into the program that no matter who they are they get to start their last home game. Put the 5 guys on the floor that give you the best chance to win. Goddard and Quade aren't two of those guys.I have no problem with Dials emotion. I've honestly never seen it hurt the Zips that much. I love the kid and he's done a heck of a job here, but I can't say I won't be relieved to see someone (hopefully Humpty or Sullivan) with a little more athleticism taking over his minutes. Dials got owned on both ends of the floor by Fisher all night b/c Fisher is just flat out too athletic for him. I thought KD made some very nice halftime adjustments and got the team more or less settled down in the 2nd half. I don't think Christian outcoached KD for one minute. Christian has a more talented, more athletic team that should run us off the floor every night. The fact that we made a comeback shows me that KD has these kids coached up and in the right frame of mind.Please just stop with the tired old blame the refs game. We went to the FT line nearly twice as much as Can't did and the bad calls went both ways. Blaming the officials is a cheap and unneccessary way to get around the fact that we lost to a better team.McNees is what he is. He's a streak shooter who can play decent defense at times and run the point in spurts. You've got to utilize him almost like you do Quade. If he's on his game keep him in there and ride him as long as you can. If he's not you need to really limit his minutes or he will hurt you.As for the fans and whatnot, well I can't say a whole lot b/c I watched this one from home.

I disagree. We were an unbelievably bad 3-23 behind the arc against the best team on our schedule and they needed a last second three to win.You can't be serious? We had no business being in that game in the final seconds. None at all. We got killed, KILLED, all night long up and down the floor. It took a miracle comeback in the last 2:00 minutes for us to even be in the game. Forget their last second three for a minute and focus on the first 38 minutes of basketball.

Live by the 3, Die by the 3. Never held more true than tonight.Give our team a lot of credit for the comeback, but we play just a little better here and a little better there............

DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMNWood miraculously hits the 3 then Al Fisher hits a fucking offbalanced 3 from the corner for the Can't win.Zips made a MIRACLE comeback. Absolutely unbelievable. Topped off by a 30 footer from Dials and a 3 from Wood of all people. Good to see them stay resiliant, but that was like a kick in the groin. Eerily like the Championship game last season.DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN

Live by the 3. Die by the 3. If anyone fails to see it by now you're blind.

Hate to say this guys. Can't is flat out a better team than us this year. They are better on defense. They are better in the paint. They are better athletically. They are just a better team than us. I know there's still 8 minutes left, but this game is over. OVER!

And just as soon as we get a little mo. goin we start turning the ball over.

Time Warner Akron it is Channel 30 FSN.Nice start to the 2nd half for this team. 6-0 run. Playing good D and hitting some open looks on offense. Gotta keep it up. We need the 2nd half to go as well for us as the 1st half did for Can't.

Pass the cyaniad, put me out of my misery.

What a HORRID first half. Where is our offense? Where is our defense? What is going on? We can't hit a 3. We can't get a layup. We can't get an offensive rebound. Wood is missing his FT's. We've turned the ball over. We can't defend the paint. We keep giving up open 3's. What did I miss???

For as bad as we've looked, I'm REALLY surprised we aren't down by 20 already. We've got to settle down and start playing Zips basketball. Take care of the ball, crash the glass and hit your open shots. I'm hoping we can get it down to single digits by halftime.

I want to correct myself....Right now, Eastern Mich is beating Northern by about 20, meaning that they would finish 8-8, and with Central losing to Toledo by 6 with just under to go, they could finish 8-8. I just looked and Eastern holds tiebreaker with their win over Western Michigan. So, if that happens - Central losing/Eastern winning. Eastern jumps to the #6 seedIf I'm reading whats being posted on MACbbs right the results from todays game should put the seeding like this:Can'tWesternAkronOUMiamiCentralEasternToledoBGBall StateNIUBuffaloThe first round would be:Miami-BuffaloCentral-NIUEastern-Ball St.Toledo-BGThe bad news for us is that the 2nd round has us playing either Central or NIU who we are 0-2 against.The good news for us is that in round 3 (if we make it there) we would play OU, Miami or Buffalo who we are 6-0 against.

I don't think Can't and OU are the teams we want to model our recruiting efforts against. Those teams play a very high risk high reward game of recruiting JUCO's and players with questionable pasts and attitudes. If they can consistently get those guys in, keep them eligible and get them integrated into the system you can be successful for long periods of time (Can't). If they struggle to get guys to campus, can't keep them eligible or focused on the game of basketball and can't integrate them into their program they end up being a decent individual team that can't play together and frustrates their fans (Ohio).I'll take KD's method of recruiting over that kind of approach any day. You look at what he's done this year with what appears to be a load of talented kids who are good both on and off the court and the very real chance we have of recruiting a kid like Zeke Marshall for next years class and I think you're starting to see it pay off.

Concerns me a bit, but our big 3 were injured when we played those two teams and we were playing our worst ball of the year. With Dials and Middleton looking healthier and playing better and Wood getting better and better each game I'm much less concerned. Plus, the loses to those teams SHOULD just serve as motivation for a little payback.I'm more concerned with the style of game we play than anything else. Agree or disagree with the statement that we live and die by the 3 ball, the fact of the matter is that when the 3's aren't falling we struggle to win games. That's not exactley a recipe for winning 3 games in 3 days. We're going to have to utilize our depth a lot over the course of the tournament. If we're gonna rely on Dials, Cedrick and Wood to carry us for 3 straight days it's gonna be tough. The McKnights, Bardo, McNees, Linhart, Roberts, Quade and Conyers are each going to have to step up at some point in time next weekend and take the load off of those 3.

What uakronkid said.No way does KD make a major change like that for the Can't game. MAYBE I could see him giving Quade the nod to try and match up with the athleticism of Can't a little and see if Quade has a fire under his ass from the last game. No way in the world will he start Goddard or Sallee. You starting lineup will more than likely be the normal 5. Dials, Cedrick, Nate, C.McKnight and Wood.

I've honetly given up trying to predict what this team is going to do from week to week, game to game. If we come out and play as good as we are capable of we look like a tournament team and can certainly beat anyone in the conference. If we come out struggling to get the ball in low to Jeremiah, turning the ball over and missing our 3's we can get beat by anyone in this conference. Right now I'm just along for the ride. That said, everyone knows this is the big rivalry. Sold out game. Bad blood. Revenge (on both teams minds). Even without any real seeding implications, if you can't get up for this type of game you don't deserve to play or enjoy D-I college basketball.

On another note, haven't watched the game really, but is anyone playing any defense in the 2nd half???Both teams have scored 50+ in the second half. So much for Can't's vaunted defense. And it's officialBG-89Can't-83Can't's at large bid-->

Back to a one bid league for the MAC. Can't goes out and wins that statement road game OOC in the braketbuster, gets in the top 25, then chokes their chances away by not showing up to take down BG. Falcons up 10 with under 4 minutes to go. They've answered every time Can't has tried to get back in it. Zips can't fall into the same trap against Buffalo at home today. Show up and take care of business. We need that 3 seed.