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Right. Like I said earlier, the problem is that few of them want to be involved. That needs to be 100% of the focus. Not creating a situation that forces them to sit where they may not want to sit. Maybe they just want to go to the game for something to do, and would rather go to an open space and talk to their friends, or don't want to sit in a packed-in section, or don't want to stand the entire game, etc. How do you get them to WANT to be a part of that group?

Note that I meant that to be a commentary on our long-standing success winning home MAC games in general. But, that is interesting to discover that we haven't closed out the season at home in perfect fashion in past years. In fact, now that I think about it, we've lost several of those final home games vs. Can't in recent years, including last year the day after the Abreu issue, and the year Fisher hit that damn running 3 pointer from the corner. Dave is right. With this team, it is going to take a special effort.

Come on. Other than Ball State, and maybe NIU, they've all been a struggle, including the unbelievable late run to beat EMU. Hopefully the 2nd half we played last night is a sign of how we might be able to close out the last two games. But you bring up something else I want to comment about. Toledo did indeed whoop us at home at full strength. Right now, that's my top candidate for teams I don't want to play in Cleveland.

True. But, you have to ask yourself if this team ever had the characteristics of most of those other teams even before those events. When have we ever struggled like this to win home MAC games in the last decade?

Exactly. This should be 100% of the discussion. Why aren't they interested? Statistically, about 1% of the students attend a basketball game. That's so far beyond pathetic that the problem has to be far more complex than simply whether a courtside seat is behind the basket or on the side. Dissecting the problem is the only thing that is going to lead us to the answer.

The sad thing is that if we had just taken care of business at HOME, and beaten OU last weekend, none of this other crap would have been necessary. The #4 seed would pretty much be a lock right now, and we'd likely be playing Buffalo on Tuesday for the #3 seed. But, we now have a chance to save the season. Just win two HOME games. In years past, this task would have been automatic. Can this team suck it up and follow that tradition?

I agree with what you are saying here about more students making the game a better experience for everyone. But, we already devote both ends to the students, and they can't even fill up one of them. So, obviously making court-level seats available to the students isn't the answer. Few of them have interest in Akron Basketball. Why? The school can't just give them a $10 t-shirt for showing up every game, as someone suggested. It's not a simple answer. Personally, it sickens me that we even have to bribe them with any incentives to get them to show up. We never had to do that 30 years ago. And again, I never want to hear another Akron student say that they'll come to football games when we win. We WIN basketball games, and have won consistently, and they don't show up.

Both sections half full? I saw about 20 rowdies on the south side by the visitors bench. None on the north side. They didn't even appear to be students, and sat the entire game. You're right, the "seating" argument is lame. We've had plenty of lively nights of student participation in the past, in the same building, with the same seating. I heard Keith say that this was a "responsive" crowd. I didn't see it. I thought it was dead for its size. I've seen better electricity in that arena with much smaller crowds.

Bad offensive first half, but otherwise a pretty steady performance. Can't figure out why a crowd that size can make such little noise. Come on folks. Once again, the band is by far our most vocal cheering section. Did anyone see Carmelo, Deji, and Evans all on the floor at the same time? With Kwan and Tree? Is that the smallest lineup ever from this groups of players? Not sure what Keith saw that made him do that, but it was in the 2nd half when we were playing some of our best ball of the night.

Again, that's why Buffalo needed to lose to OU last week If Buffalo has lost, and we had won at Miami, the #3 and #4 spots would BOTH still be in play, and we would have controlled our own destiny against Buffalo because we still had a game against them at home to tack another loss on their record. Does this site have a PRAYING emoticon?

That sounds more like it.

Let me put it this way: I believe we won only 1 or 2 MAC Tournament games...total....during Hipsher's tenure (I think it was just short of 10 years) By contrast, we now win that many tournament games or more in any given YEAR. So, it's not a surprise that the young folks would not even know who he is.

I completely understand your point. That consecutive 20-win seasons stat is the measure of sustained success for this program, and certainly is a big part of the sales pitch to recruits every year. Ironically, playing several extra games this year in the MAC tourney against lower level teams is likely going to be the factor that gets us over 20 wins again. Of course, I really don't want to play those games. But, if we have to play them, we might as well use them to pad our win total.

That would be Reggie, hands down. Keith says it, and the statistics show it too. Now, that's not to say that Jake can't help us tremendously right now. And he can make 3's in bunches. But, he misses them in bunches too.

And the toughest two shots might have been the 2 Technical FTs he missed in the first half when we were building a good lead. The whole game changed after that.

Get my hopes up? After these last 3 games? It would be an unbelievable task. We have to find some way to make these 3 homes games work for us, and get into that #4 spot. If not? Very long odds to repeat as champs, even if we got totally healthy.

NOTE: Now, to win the MAC tourney, it looks like we're going to have to play 8 games in 14 days, starting this Saturday.

No, Akron losses it by playing about 30 min. of bad basketball out of a 40 min. game. We're a better team than they are, we just didn't play better. 3 losses in a row. Wow.

Do you want me to diagram it for you? I said, easier said than done.

Easier said that done. They're playing a zone.

I would have rather filed my nails than watch the last 15 min. of that first half.

A rested and hungry Nick Harney might be just what the doctor ordered. I'm ready for a 4-game win streak. The stage is certainly set for that.

Just in time!! Rested, and hopefully ready to give us his best effort for the next 4 games. Kretzer should be due to return also. Any new news on that?

That would make sense. I can't imagine this making it in a larger venue.

THIS is going to draw enough to justify a massive refurbishing of the Rubber Bowl?