skip-zip

Bingo

I can't disagree with you, but what else are we losing because of it? You're only true perimeter guy who can finish at the rim, and he'd be doing all of the full-court ball handling too? Lets just hope things change so we don't have to have this discussion anymore. Carmelo and Nyles aren't the first Akron point guards to struggle early in their tenure. Even Abreu, who some people rave about, had his starting assignment and his role diminished significantly as a freshman because he wasn't getting the job done.

This is the primary reason why I don't want Quincy handling the ball, full court. We need his contributions in so many more areas. It's a waste to have him tired on the floor with everything else that he could be contributing. There's no reason why Nyles and Carmelo can't be bringing the ball up into the half court, while Quincy is walking up the floor.

I'll say this... When I first saw him 2 years ago at the JAR, I thought he totally had that WOW factor. In just one viewing of his performance, I thought I was seeing the most gifted guard in the MAC, and he was only a sophomore. I'll be curious to see where he's at two years later. I just hope he doesn't WOW me this time.

Absolutely. But as I said, it's still not the same as accepting a weekday evening football game, as we've done in the past. Or, getting to play a South Carolina or Iowa State in Hawaii on an NFL football night. This is an intra-conference game, on a Sat. morning, on ESPNU. If you live in the Eastern time zone, you are doing something else at this time, and most of the rest of the country is just waking up.

I have to agree with all of you that this game time is ridiculous. Saturday daytime kids activities are common. I understand playing football and basketball on odd weekday nights in order to meet TV schedules, but Saturday mornings don't cut it.

If this game turns into nothing more than a simple tune-up for Toledo, I will be very, very happy.

As I've pointed out many times, there's many more benefits to challenging yourself against higher level competition than just a higher SOS and RPI.

And not being able to hit a single bucket in the last of those 3 meetings.

But at the same time, that's what made those 3 victories last year so much sweeter.

Heck, now that an OU road win is in the books, a 14-4 conference mark is certainly well within reason. And if we get past Toledo on Saturday, I may even change my mind about whether there's even 4 losses out there. But for now, I will hang onto having serious doubts that this team can play with nearly the consistency of the teams of the last 7 or so years, in MAC play. So, 4 or more bad conference performances is still on the table. But, will we have the guts to pull any of those out in the end? We have absolutely no answer for a guy as big and as athletic as N'Dour without playing a zone.

On this note, I will point out that they were around LONG before OSWho. And at least when they chant O-H-I-O, they are the actual school that is named OHIO.

I saw that. That was hilarious

Plenty of sloppy and dumb plays. The problems remain. And I can't imagine getting through the season without some costly losses with that horrible free throw shooting. But WOW, I saw some of the old Akron guts and determination tonight. Starting conference play with 2 road wins, including 1 at OU is a great start. Lets pray that Keith can work on these guys and clean up some of the other crap before we self-destruct any more, and lose the good jump start that we just gave ourselves to start conference play.

Could you imagine??

I forgot to mention something about my man Quincy... Again, he's probably the best player we've had in almost 30 years who can take the ball from the perimeter and finish at the rim. However, when he's being guarded one-on-one, he seems to take the step back jumper far too often, too far away from the basket, and is rarely balanced. For the remainder of the year, I'd really like to see 80% take it to the rim, and 20% jumpers. He has the ability to destroy the MAC with that formula.

Same here. I really wish I could have a glimmer of hope about his future pro prospects, and I could get interested in this. I at least wish he could have been chosen at the end of the draft, to give UA and himself a bit of publicity. But right now, he's on a D-League team, and plays behind a Center who averaged 4 ppg in college. I'm guessing it would take an incredible amount of good fortune and development to ever climb up to a pro opportunity from there.

I should have added the word "projected" to my post. Playing the way we did against a poor West team (projected) should be alarming to everyone. Keith has his work cut out for him. And I'll keep saying this phrase: "Lack Of Focus"

Let me just say this.... I hope last night's close game in Muncie between maybe the worst team in the West and one of the best teams in the East is not indicative of the relative strength of the two sides of the conference.

There's a pattern developing, and I hope it doesn't continue. In the past, our scoring droughts were notorious, and seemed to always be due to not putting the ball in the hoop. Now, it seems like it's poor shooting, AND turnovers. We played a bad team tonight. It only gets tougher from here. I keep using the words "Lack of Focus" to describe our offensive woes. We must get it figured out.

I agree with you 100% on that. Go back and look at the BCS era, and see how many times OSWho got a "Wild Card" bid to a BCS Bowl game, when they wouldn't have qualified otherwise. Do you think that has anything to do with the size of their school, and therefore the size of their alumni population?

But, you can't rely on a team's record either. That's the whole debate. How do you determine the best teams? Can you imagine what you would have seen on Monday night if the Little 10 had never played a championship game this year, and the "perfect" OSWho team would have been inserted into the National title game? This is why you can't put a team into the #2 spot at the beginning of the season when they don't play anyone. Their path to the national title game becomes way too easy.

It's because that area can easily swell when hit, which opens up the gash even more.

Oh, I don't disagree with you. I just hope you paid close attention to the fact that I am willing to try a new system for other reasons, as I stated. But, it could very well turn into a mess.