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Here's the way I see it. There's enough cupcakes on the OOC to win half of those games. And we'd still be better than at least half of the teams in the MAC. So, we should still be above .500

Speaking of the Toledo game, do we possibly see a trend here? Based on yesterday and the Toledo game last November, we should schedule all of our home games for the month of November when it's frigidly cold and snowing. And play all of our road games in September, on days when it's incredibly hot and humid, like Pitt.

I want to follow up on something I started a little more than a week ago. Since the conference title was pretty much out of reach after BG, we still had 3 games left that could define the progress of the program. Game 1 - Blowout Loss to Buffalo Game 2 - Blowout win against UMass. So, where does everyone think we stand now? Are we moving forward? Still waiting on the last game to decide? Again, I don't know how we can possibly make any kind of judgment about this team from week to week. And losing a rivalry game on the road next week would seem to not be a catastrophe in most cases. It's a rivalry game. And it's not at home. But I still think we NEED that win to continue to move this program forward. Two wins to close the season....steadily improving record.

I'm not sure if those numbers are accurate, but those are the numbers to look at. How many teams are eligible, and how many slots are available. I'm sure many of you remember 2004. If I recall, we were the only "eligible" team who did not go to a bowl.

It would be interesting. We'd be eligible, but what are the chances we get chosen, and who are the other programs that are eligible for however many available spots are there. On a side note: I said earlier that the people sitting in seats would not exceed the number of people in the band. At one point in the 3rd quarter, I counted 54 people actually sitting on aluminum seats. I think there were more earlier in the game, but that's what I counted at that point.

I totally agree. Just plain stupid to be brazen enough to think that running another play to score was no big deal, instead of waiting for what would be an obvious review and overturn. Cost us 6 points. No explanation for this at all.

Please bring up this RPI the next time one of the delusional OSWho fans who invades this forum attempts to tell us that we don't compete with the "athletic program" down south......for the hundredth time.

Perfect. And acknowledging what Keith has accomplished with many of these young men has not been emphasized enough in this discussion.

I just said this to someone else..... If Quincy got booted for a similar matter, by the same conduct board, I'd anticipate that the same thing is going to happen here. My guess is that the "suspension" was issued just to remove him from the team until the matter gets a final ruling.

I was just talking to someone about the lack of stadium snow cleaning before the Nov. Toledo game last year. Expect a repeat, with less seats cleared off, and a few hundred less people in the stands. I said last week that we'd likely be counting people by the dozens or hundreds, rather than the thousands. I have changed my prediction: I say that the band will outnumber all of the fans who will actually sit on those metal seats for 4 hrs.

I'm sure he needs to account for the return on the scholarships that he is handing out. That matters to me too. But, why is this any different than all of the other D-1 schools in the country who go out on a limb a bit for some guys who can help the program win more? And I think his risk taking has been minimal. I believe he's only given scholarships to two non-qualifiers in 11 seasons? Come on. If he was handling the situations differently, I would be concerned. In my view, he's been consistently swift and decisive, and certainly hasn't shown that he would hesitate to penalize a high-level contributor over a low level contributor. And beyond basketball, I feel that in all of these cases, he's given great effort to be a positive influence on some of these guys lives, off the court. Maybe the best influence some of them have had in their lives.

I've mentioned this before. I'm hoping for the same thing. Others think we have it too, but I want to see it on the floor.

I would start by just hoping that at 6'-11" tall, he eventually takes a more aggressive stand on the defense end besides standing flat footed with his arms extended in the air when someone is about to score on him.

Like I said earlier, this is something to be proud of. And it is uncommon. Let others make whatever out of it that they want.

Don't misunderstand me. Read my earlier post about how I feel about disciplining student/athletes. It's still wrong. Very wrong. I just think this isn't the first time that information about the Akron Zips gets exaggerated or embellished, or simply reported incorrectly when there is a lack of information and/or no interest in gathering more information.

I love how the national people pick up these kinds of stories, and end up posting a bunch of incorrect information. Diggs was suspended for reasons that we still don't know? Tree "beat up" a guy in an Akron bar? Hitting someone isn't "beating them up". I guess this is part of being AKRON. We beg to get good information about us to go national. Unfortunately, it's usually only the bad things that reach that point, and they seem very uninterested in exploring the correct details.

LOL...that's exactly what I was thinking.

I have a scary thought... Remember last year when he had an issue, and it looked like he was going to just quit the team? Lets hope this doesn't go that far. And for what it's worth, I don't mind having the reputation as the school who is tough regarding student/athlete behavior. It is something to be proud of, even if the results suck sometimes. We'll rally behind the guys we've got, who know how to behave themselves, like we always do.

You're right. We've been like this for years. Our coach isn't dumb. He know what he has to work with. So ask yourself, how often do we have multiple big guys who can pass, catch, and finish in the post with some extra interior ball movement? The other way to get layups would be those dribble drives from the perimeter. Even a medium range shot off of the dribble. You're limited to what you have. We've had guys who are effective at carving out room and scoring in the post. We've had post players with some vision who can kick the ball back out to open shooters, and we've taken advantage of that 3-point line with some good shooters over the years. But some of the other skills to do other things have often been lacking, so you don't see much of that.

It's probably the best first half of offense that we played all year.

I really think this could be the key to whether we have a good scoring offense this year.

I have to say this. It was a relief to get away from the frustration of football. Here's a few observations. 1) From day one, I loved Kwan's versatility. He showed some of that last night in extended playing time in Big Dog's absence. Although, he did throw up a couple of 3-point bricks in the process. 2) I think we have to live with the fact that Pat is Pat. He continues to be frustrating to watch, and this was against undersized competition. 3) Really refreshing to see some small guards out front who showed poise, got the job done, AND had desire and quickness on defense. When was the last time we had that around here? And this was their first career games. Unbelievable. 4) Reggie really looked sharp shooting the ball. 5) Tree is really going to have to carry the load this year on the boards. We need the big dog more than ever. 6) With all the talk around here about Gladden's abilities, I was shocked to see him play very little last night. 7) I continue to be amazed at Deji's ability to elevate around the rim. I don't think any of our opponents ever see that coming. 8) I hope we find a way for Nyles to continue to contribute, even though he seems to have been somewhat forgotten by us with all the hype with the freshmen coming in. Keith said he didn't practice much lately, or he would have played more. We know now that he's not a 40 minute guy, but I think his experience in the backcourt will be very valuable to us this year. I like the way he's looked in the practices I've seen this fall. 9) I think our players, overall, showed a lot of hustle for an opening game against an inferior opponent, and Keith acknowledged that in his post-game.

I'm with you on this. I've been trying to point this out all along as some people on here had been beating this "we were fine until Pohl went down" drum. And it's not as if we were some marvel on Offense against Pitt either. We struggled most of the first half, and got a couple of great breaks with the a fantastic play on the ball by Bennett on a long pass, and a big play by Hundley to open the 2nd half. Truth is....We've struggled to get much going offensively for almost 2 years, with the exception of a few stretches of a very few number of games.

It sure seemed that way.

I had to laugh at this. Sad, but you might be right on both.