Let'sGoZips94

Teams can take all the open 3s they want; they still have to make them. When Oakland beat Kentucky in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, nobody was talking about Kentucky's defense. The focus of that game was Jack Gohlke's unconcious shooting performance, making 10 of 20 3P. Oh, and the other point of conversation was Kentucky's awful shooting performance - 9/28 (32%) from 3P and 43% from the field. Earlier that day, in the same arena, Akron lost by 17 to Creighton. That Akron team was VERY defensive minded, but struggled to score. How did Akron's top notch defense do vs. Creighton? Creighton shot 57% from the field and 59% from 3P. How did Akron's offense counter? 38% from the field and 21% from 3P. A team that struggled all year offensively ultimately continued to struggle in the NCAA tournament; a team that was offensively superior all season continued to be offensive superior in the NCAA tournament. Through yesterday's games, there are... 9 teams with a higher FG% in the country than Akron - one of those is Yale (8th). 39 teams have more 3PA per game than Akron - one of those is Murray State (29th). 9 teams that make more 3P per game than Akron - Murray State is only 5 spots back and .2 less 3P made per game. 14 teams have a higher 3P% than Akron - 1 of those is Yale (2nd) and Murray State is not far back at 38th. 3 teams have a higher scoring offense than Akron - 1 of those is PCCC (3rd; puke), while Murray State (16th) and Yale (42nd) are not too far behind. My point is superior offensive teams are able to put the ball in the hoop no matter the defense to a large extent. Did Akron's defense leave open looks for Yale and Murray State? Sure, but I guarantee Akron's defense wasn't worse than some other opponents whom Yale and Murray State played and shot worse than they did vs. Akron. Yale vs. Akron 11/24: Yale shot 64% from the field and 47% from 3P Murray State vs. Akron 12/13: Murray State shot 58% from the field and 56% from 3P Yale vs. UIC (213 NET) on 12/7: Yale scored 80, shooting 43% from the field and 45% from 3P. Yale vs. Brandeis Judges (not DI) on 12/3: Yale shot 51% from the field and 30% from 3P. Yale vs. Green Bay (225 NET) 11/21: Yale shot 51% from the field and 44% from 3P. Murray State vs. Bellarmine (276 NET) 12/6: Murray State shot 53% from the field and 37% from 3P. Murray State vs. Morehead State (298 NET) 12/2: Murray State shot 43% from the field and 32% from 3P. Murray State vs. Little Rock (349 NET) 11/18: Murray State shot 51% from the field and 47% from 3P. I trust in Groce & his staff to get the defense tweaked enough to limit some of the open looks we've seen opponents have. However, we also need the opponent to miss the shots they take - no matter the defense - and both Yale & Murray State didn't miss much.

Offense wins. Houston is the one of the top defensive teams in the country and has been for several years. They have zero national championships in that span because in their final game of the season, they couldn't score more than their opponent. Akron isn't ignoring defense. Every single post game interview this season has included Groce harping that the defense needs to get better. However, if our opponent isn't shooting nearly 60%, we're winning by 20+. Akron has 3 losses, one of them to easily one of the best teams in the country. The other 2 losses, our opponent had to nearly set shooting records to outscore us; in fact, I'm not so sure they didn't. Those other 2 losses have been to some of the top mid majors in the country on neutral courts as well. I'm not so sure we lose to Yale if Barre is up to speed and playing significant minutes in that game, either. Defense is one of those things that takes longer to pull together with so many new pieces every single year in today's landscape. Shot making doesn't require chemistry and communication with rotations, help defense, etc. Maybe that's why we're seeing a shift at Akron and Kent. That being said, there aren't going to be many teams that will beat us this year without historic offensive performances because Akron's offense is legitimately that good. We've all seen Akron teams struggle to shoot 30% from 3. Didn't matter how good their defense was, they fell short plenty of times against competition that they shouldn't have because they couldn't put the ball in the hoop. The offense never came with those teams because teams can either score or they can't. Give me a team that can score at will with a coach who keeps defense a priority over a team that keeps defense a priority but struggles to score. I'm quite confident the defense will get better, but the blessing with this team is we don't have to pray for the offense to get better because history has proven that's not something that truly improves.

Starting their road trip from Hell off on the right foot. Losing to Portland before flying to UMass, then going to Purdue. Look what happens when they play a legit road game. Buffalo also lost a close one to East Carolina. WMU and Balls lost as well, but that was expected.

Scratched out serial number on a gun.

Ohio with an incredible win vs St. Bonnie.

I understand defense is going to be a point of conversation, but it's really hard to get mad when our only 2 mid major losses have statistically ridiculous box scores. Yale and Murray State could run simulated games in practice with zero defenders, take the same shots they did vs us, and not shoot nearly as well as they ended up shooting vs us. 56% from 3 on 32 attempts is unbelievably absurd. That's 54 pts from 3P alone. If Murray State shoots an above-average 40%, that's 13 3P which is 15 less points; Murray State won by 15, and they're a 36.1% 3P shooting team on the season. Murray State committed 18 turnovers; I know some of those are probably self-inflicted, but Akron was doing something right on defense as well. Yet again, a team needed to have a historic night to beat Akron and they did. Akron wasn't nearly as efficient offensively as they were vs. Yale, hence the 15 pt deficit, but they still put up 100 pts. If we start seeing MAC teams shoot ~50%+ from 3P vs us, then I'll be concerned. Until then, hats off to Murray State for an incredible shooting performance. Regroup and beat the feathers off EMU.

Back to back wins for UMass vs ACC teams. At one point, UMass was up by 18 pts late in the game.

I wasn't being serious. Boise State should be a tough job, though.

What about Akron's team O/U?

Someone who looked at a map.

Watching Xavier host Missouri State on TNT right now. Akron would run Xavier out of the gym.

What's the O/U?

Worse - Eastern Kentucky.

Embick deserves everything for his loyalty and commitment to Akron for all these years. Incredibly thankful for him.