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So the same refs that are reffing the MAC are also reffing games for MSU and Indiana? Maybe they are a little better than a lot of people make them out to be.

and most of us didnt notice a travel in real time, but we expect the refs to?

No matter how you want to spin it, Kwan ABSOLUTELY did not do the right thing. If you think you see a travel, you don't quit playing and hope the ref blows the whistle. The "risk" of being called for a shooting foul is irrelevant if a travel was called. Travel would have been before the shot.

we drew NIU.

Now lets play nice.

What's the point of beating the same dead horse after nearly every game (and especially every loss)?. Deji shouldn't have put himself in the position for an iffy call when he had 4 fouls. Don't leave it up to the officials!

valiant effort Zips, but looks as if we will come up just short. As we have so many times this season.

had to LOL at the Can't student holding up as sign saying "We want Kentucky"

Can't students are putting the rowdies to shame. Also, I realized Big Dog has no left hand. At about the 8 min mark, he posted up and went one way where he beat his guy, but then pivoted back to shoot the ball right handed. Was guarded and missed the shot.

If this Zips would go undefeated they are certainly going to be in a New Year's day/BCS bowl/whatever they want to call the big bowl games now. I don't see any team from the "other 5" ever making the playoff in the current format. They would certainly be ranked higher than Marshall was when they were undefeated last season. Marshall somehow managed to avoid playing any team from a P5 conference. Schedules don't get any easier than that.

Hardly any students are sitting at home watching the game on ESPN3 rather than going to the game. They aren't watching at all.

I got my license the day I turned 16. I'm only 23, so we had Xbox, Playstation, iPhone, all that good stuff. Way to generalize though.

You are correct, but who sets the men's basketball marketing budget? In governmental/non-profit accounting there can be restricted funds (interest on principal can only be spent - think endowment), temporarily restricted funds (ex- I will donate 5 million dollars, but only to go towards a new business school). However, both of those funds come from donors. I highly doubt anybody is donated funds to be used specifically for men's basketball marketing. My point is that the men's basketball marketing budget 99% likely comes from a general fund that is set from the AD or whoever. Meaning the U has full control of the budget. I get that, in the end, the promotion didn't end up costing much. But I think setting an amount of 800/avg with a MAC title on the line with games against Toledo and OU was a reasonable guess beforehand. Meaning the U was willing to spend ~16000 on the promotion. I think thats a fair estimate. Which takes me back to my main point that IF (not saying it is because I don't know, just what I've heard on here) the men's basketball budget is stopping the team from winning games because we can't make reasonable travel plans, we need to set priorities.

Who should I use as an example as to why students come to games? Some other perennial horrific mid-major football program or some other decent mid-major who has never won anything other than games against weak conference foes? Their attendance isn't going to be anything other than marginally better than ours. You can't show me a program who has never won anything or doesn't win anything and has great attendance. 2) What it takes to win at a high level seems like it would be a much more valuable conversation to me. If you win at a high level attendance takes care of itself. Seems much more productive than talking about the next failed gimmick that attracts an extra 200 students to a single game and never come back when we lose. Skip wanted to know the root of the problem and I gave him it. Create a product the fans want and demand will be there.

I don't think there is anything wrong with it at face value. However, being that budgetary reasons have been blamed for many shortcomings of the program (ex. losing a game because of travel logistics), then I do have a problem with it. Its either A) budget isn't as big of a problem as some make it out to be or B)we aren't being smart with money. Winning is the ultimate goal here. I think this promotion is good as was the professional soccer player night. But should we really be running costly or potentially costly promotions when we cant even give our team reasonable travel from Charleston, SC to State College, PA?

My apologies if I've missed the point. Coming from a recent graduate (less than a few years removed), you can try to put lipstick on the pig all you want with all the gimmicks, but the only thing that matters is making basketball or whatever sport relevant for people to come. I realize we aren't a "pig", we are actually a decent mid major program, but the point still stands. Please don't turn this into an OSU bash fest, but not many people grow up Akron fans believe it or not. They don't go to games just for the hell of it. You obviously have your core group of students that attend every game, you have your students that attend some games (OU, Toledo, Can't State), and then you have your students that attend zero games. What is an acceptable number of students you are ok with? You can complain all you want about it, but the fact is that more students are at least attending some games now than ever before. What games are they coming to? GAMES PEOPLE CARE ABOUT. You want people to come to the games for good? Stop losing to Miami and NIU, and go out and beat somebody that people and ESPN will talk about. Take the program to another level. You can only do so much with your conference opponents, but there are definitely chances in the OOC and the tournament(s). And no im not talking about taking our OOC schedule from an average RPI of 200 to 100. I'm talking about scheduling teams people have heard of and beating them. OSU, Cinci, Xavier, Michigan, Michigan St, Notre Dame, anyone. USC sucks, but beating them made us feel a little better about the loss of Tree right? I have a friend who transferred from Akron to OSU. She has zero interest in sports, but bought season tickets for OSU football because attending football games is the thing to do at OSU. Why is it the thing to do at OSU? People talk about them because they win games that people care about. How many corny ass promotions does OSU run to get buts in seats? Marketing? Winning markets itself. Students camp out for a week just to get tickets to a Duke/NC basketball game. Do students at Akron stay in and study while Duke students make time to go to basketball games? No. I just can't beat this point enough and its been had over and over which is why I may come off edgy. Take the program to another level and attendance will rise. Create a product people care about. The program looks topped out for the time being (even though I think the young talent level is higher than ever). Attendance isnt going to change permanently unless you give a reason to. Getting students to go to games to watch the team should be the goal. Not coming to a game to get $5. How to take the program to another level is a much better discussion really. Its really simple economics. If there is demand for your product people will buy it. Make your product in demand. OU had an average attendance increase of ~800 the year after they made the sweet 16 compared to the prior year, a 34% increase in ticket revenue, and a 53% increase in season ticket holders. I feel the potential is even greater in Northeast Ohio with no elite college basketball within a reasonable distance.

ESPN3 makes every game watchable on TV!

15-0. National Championship or bust.

Good point morris. The general consensus for this board when discussing university issues is that the problem is everybody else who doesn't make a living associated with the U. Football is holding the basketball team back. They have no money. They can fly in soccer players from all over the world, pay students ~15000 (assuming 800/game for 3 games) to come to games, refuse to play at any high profile team's place and take a pay day(and a chance to get a big win and generate excitement for the fanbase/state/country), but money is a problem. So much of a problem that is cost us a game at Penn St due to crappy travel plans. Lets set priorities straight and have accountability.

skip or anyone else who wants to talk about the good old days in an attempt to attack the current generation of students, please take a look at who has broken the student attendance record multiple times the past few seasons. newsflash- you guys didn't have better student attendance back when you had to walk up the hill 5 miles both ways to class.

How often do businesses change their name for the hell of it?

My thoughts: Stupid. Not even a directional name like NEOU. Directional state school names sounds generic. So many things need work with the U/sports/fanbase, and a lot of it deals with a lack of identity. Starting over from scratch sounds amazing. /sarcasm

I dont think its going to happen either, but who wouldn't be interested is a better question. I dont have a reason to think there won't be plenty of options.

I agree with this. This is KDs most talented roster in the 5-6 years I've been following the program. Maybe just not on the high end (Tree), but not much you can do about that. Someone should develop though. I am probably more critical than others, but cant knock KDs recruiting the past 2 seasons.

All that depth paid off in OT. Too bad a go to scorer can't be developed out of it.