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At least you're not painting with a broad brush.

Kwan is a fantastic young player and I love the way he represents the team. I'm so excited to see what these guys do next year!

The silver is pretty cool if you ask me. Also love the shorts.

Yup.

Potential replacements if TW isn't renewed.

I'm in

Anyone hearing any names?

I feel there might be more separation at the top, unlike this year. I agree with Dave that CMU will open as the favorite. I think Akron and Buffalo will fill the 2 and 3 spots in the preseason voting (not sure who will be higher). Both are losing some good players but bringing in some top talent to make up for it. My way-too-early is one of those three will be the champion in 2016.

Zips will not play in the postseason, per Dambrot himself.

And then recruiting starts...and summer camps...and coaching clinics...and everything else they do 365 days out of the year. I imagine Coach D and his staff could really use that week or two to spend with their families, get "away" for a short time, and recharge. With the year they went through, they surely need it.

Can't has 4 coming in, all rated 2 stars by Verbal Commits. Toledo has the same.

Here is who everyone is losing at this point: Akron - Deji Ibitayo, Nyles Evans Central Michigan - Austin Keel Buffalo - Will Regan, Xavier Ford Can't State - Kris Brewer, Devareaux Manley, Derek Jackson, Craig Brown, Blake Vedder, Xavier Pollard Toledo - Julius Brown, Justin Drummond, J.D. Weatherspoon Bowling Green - Richaun Holmes, Jehvon Clarke, Damarkeo Lyshe, Anthony Henderson Western Michigan - David Brown, Austin Richie, Tim Brennan Miami - Will Sullivan Eastern Michigan - Karrington Ward, Mike Talley, Anali Okoloji, Jerome Hunter Northern Illinois - Aaron Armstead, Pete Rakocevic, Kevin Gray, Anthony Johnson, Jordan Threlofff Ohio - Maurice Ndour, Javarez Willis, Stevie Taylor, Chandler Thomas Ball State - Matt Kamieniecki, Jeremiah Davis That's a pretty good amount of talent leaving the MAC. Can't State and Toledo seem to be especially taking big hits.

A few snippets pulled from a recent Elton Alexander piece: That was soon topped by the painful and personal loss of Dan Peters, Dambrot's good friend and Akron assistant coach, after a year-long battle with cancer. "That one really hit me hard,'' Dambrot said. "You hate to see somebody that you really like go through that. He deserved better. These were supposed to be the good years of his life." As if that has not been enough on his mind, Dambrot's 84-year-old father, Sidney, was hospitalized in serious condition with pneumonia in Florida through the bulk of Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Dambrot flew back and forth between games and practices to be by his side. Sidney, now recovering, had a tough challenge four years ago when he was given a two-percent chance at survival after cardiac arrest in Akron. Going through his toughest of 11 seasons to date as Akron's head coach, the 56-year-old Dambrot has been losing weight, prepping himself for off-season hip surgery. "I'm getting a little jittery about it,'' Dambrot said. "But I'm probably going to do it in May.'' It was interesting to me that, after downplaying the chances of playing in a tournament, KD said something along the lines of "we'll probably play in the postseason every other year until we retire." We need to remember our coaches are human. They are away from their kids, away from their families, and are always putting the team and the program ahead of themselves. I get that that is why they are paid so well and that they know what they're signing up for, but still, I think the sacrifices they make aren't always acknowledged enough. This team is beat up from top to bottom. Mentally, emotionally, and physically. If they need to pass on a CBI or CIT invite to get themselves right for next season, I'm OK with that. They've already shown me enough this week to make me strongly believe they'll enter 2015-2016 as one of the favorites in the MAC once again.

After the way Buffalo chose to finish last night's game instead of running out the clock, I hope they get absolutely stomped.

It'll be hard, but it's a great competition to have. The extra depth should allow them to ease Noah back in as well.

Yep!

I think it's an absolute insult to call this team and coaching staff cowardly. They could have folded when Tree went down and didn't. They could have folded when Noah went down and didn't. Pat could have sat out and not played through the pain. And yet they didn't - they were a few plays away from getting back to the Final.

A few things to consider... 1) It sure sounds like the players are expecting their season is over if you check out their Twitter feeds. 2) It's been a rough year for KD personally. Dan Peters passing, his father having medical issues, all of the on-court adversity they went through (Tree, Noah, Pat, etc). The mental exhaustion might be worse than the tired legs. 3) I'm not sure what they'd be playing for other than pride.

I'm going to bump this because this group already has me excited for next season. Losing Deji's leadership and defense will hurt and losing Nyles' veteran presence in the backcourt will be tough but we will have the players to be a much better team next season. This is my new, updated guess on what we'll see (assuming Noah is ready to go day one): F-Cheatham/Agba F-Kretzer/Gladden/Jackson C-Forsythe/Johnson G-Williams/McAdams/Ivey G-Robotham/Jackson/Walters Redshirt - Olojapoke I know there will be those in favor of starting both Antino and Noah, but I don't think KD will go that way. If they both start you're relying on Josh Williams to run backup point guard, and I think they view him as a little more of a 2 on this team. I also look at what KD has done with Middleton, Diggs, Deji, and a few others and think he like's an energy guy off the bench 5-6 minutes into the game. I do think Antino and Noah will play a lot together and may even finish games together, I just don't think they both start. I'm excited to see what Pat Forsythe will do as a senior. I am amazed at how much better he played this season and how he stepped up when we lost Tree. He's developed some nice post moves and could have a really great senior season. I'm hoping Pat being back to full health will open up the inside/outside game a little more for Jake and Reggie. They've both been great Zips and I'd love to see them go out with a championship. I'd like to see Reggie try to evolve his game a bit more and take more mid-range jumpers. He's an outstanding shooter and I'd like higher percentage shots from him. Big Dog needs to try to work on his conditioning, although I'm not sure it's realistic for a drastic change. His biggest issues are finishing around the rim and avoiding frustration fouls, which should both improve with experience. Kwan needs to develop his inside game a little more. I appreciate that he can shoot from deep, but he doesn't take advantage of his size and length nearly enough. I think he ran out of gas toward the end of the year and I expect him to be one of the most improved going into next year. BJ Gladden, Aaron Jackson, Peter Agba, and Jimond Ivey are the wild cards. I honestly expected bigger things from BJ this year, but he might not fully break out until next season. Aaron plays with great energy, but he has too many in front of him on the depth chart. You can tell by Ivey's Twitter feed that he's a confident young man, but it'll be a crowded backcourt to get PT with. Finally, Peter Agba. The coaches are really high on this kid and he could be an impact player off of the bench immediately. Adding another big to the rotation will be great for this team. As for the coaches, I hope they take some time and spend it with their families. It's been a tough year for KD, losing Dan Peters and his father having medical issues - I hope he at least takes a little time away before he starts the grind back up for 2015-2016. I hope the entire coaching staff does as well - they deserve it. Overall, I'm incredibly excited for next year. This is a high character bunch in the mold of KD's early teams. I'd even go as far as to say I think we beat Buffalo and Central Michigan if we are playing on equal rest. We weren't, of course, and UB and CMU both earned that rest by taking care of business during the regular season, but the hits this team took and how close they STILL came to another championship game goes to show you how talented this team really is. Here's to each of our players working hard this offseason, staying healthy, and getting back to The Dance in 2016!

I was driving home, thinking about calls like the charge on Pat (a huge 5 point swing), a few no calls toward the end, etc, and then I told myself I just needed to stop. It is what it is, and this is what it is - generally, the officiating in the MAC is mediocre. I felt that way tonight, I felt that way last night, and I felt that way Wednesday night. The biggest issue is consistency - they go from letting them play to calling ticky tak to letting them play and so on. It kills game momentum, it swings momentum when it shouldn't, and it often makes games tough to watch and enjoy. Personally, I don't care if a game is called close or not, I just want it to stay one way for 40 minutes. With that said, it is what it is. It isn't changing, and there's no sense in continuing to get angry over the same thing game after game. The conference employs mediocre officials and there is nothing we can do about that, so the team just has to worry about what they can worry about on the court.

I'm torn. On one hand, I'd love to see these guys keep playing and, unlike past teams, I think they'd actually want to be there. On the other hand, we're at 9 players, many of them gassed, Pat isn't 100%...we're just beat up. It may be better to pass and look toward next year.

I don't mean this as snark, so please don't take it that way, but I didn't even notice the Rowdies there all game (and I was close) until we won.

To add to what Dave said (and he's spot on), there's a big difference to me in taking bad threes and taking good looks within the offense. Most of what they hit Monday was a result of ball movement and playing inside-out. That's very different than running 25 seconds off of the clock and chucking an off-balance three, which we've seen at times this year.

Pump the brakes. I'm impressed by Buffalo, but winning on rivals.com and winning on Saturday at The Q are two very different things. Maybe Buffalo will do so starting this year, but until they do we need to stop with the Buffalo has surpassed Akron as a program talk, especially since it'll all crumble when (not if, when) Hurley moves on.

I knew someone could find something to complain about despite an incredible performance from our Zips tonight, nice work!