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Defense was definitely the story of this game. Offensively, it was clear for most of the game that we wanted to keep on pushing the ball inside, where Tree and Zeke had terrible shooting nights. Yet, we still kept BG at a clear distance for the majority of the night. Especially, I felt like BG went about half way through the first half before they were ever able to find a good shot. Maybe this will be the trademark of this team as we roll towards the MAC tourney.

We beat them by 13 on the road. We better beat them by more at home. We're WAY overdue for a blowout. I'm done having to visit the doctor to see if my heart is still working after every damn game. And something that hasn't been mentioned enough: Thank God that Walsh has been starting to step forward as a scorer.

And you can easily vote more than once

It was 2008. As I've said often, this is the team that would have absolutely gained an at-large bid, had they not won the MAC tourney. And I believe their RPI was in the 20s at the time. If we end up in a situation close to that, it will be interesting to see how the selection committee treats us, since we would be a team that doesn't have Ken+'s past tournament success and reputation on our resume.

I must answer this two ways. 1) On paper, there is only one game left that I would consider "tough" to win. 2) It's just so, so difficult to win every game. We've narrowly escaped defeat during this streak several times already. The odds are just so against it, and luck only stays on your side for so long.

Unfortunately, I think you can attribute our lack of depth and PG troubles to the number of people who have left the program over the last couple of years that can play that position. It left the staff with some tough situations in terms of bringing us back up to speed quickly. I must say, I do miss watching us run those isolation plays where we'd clear out the paint and watch Quincy all alone at the top of the key taking his man to the rim.

I'm just REALLY ready for an easy game. Please deliver, guys. With this win, and an almost sure win on Saturday against BG, I'll be curious to see how much more progress we make in the polls.

Amen to that. We could probably continue this discussion forever. Lets just hope that we find some way to make it happen this time around. But better yet, lets hope that we don't need that option at all.

Dave, It's always an interesting discussion. And don't forget that I've advocated for us to try to get to the NCAA tourney as an at-large for a long time, and want nothing more than for this to happen. But please focus on the fact that I said "AKRON with a high 30 RPI". We'd be a team that is virtually unknown in college basketball circles, with no former success in the tourney, and no high profile wins. Realistically, what are the chances that even 1 or 2 people in that room would lobby at all for Akron?

Because I am certain that the selection committee won't show any interest in Akron with an RPI in the high 30s.

Am I missing something? It says that if we get that 5th loss (losing the MAC title game), it puts us in the high 30s. That's not even in the neighborhood. I also keep thinking about the possibility of having NO wins in the Top-50. Realistically, even if our RPI could reach a number around 30, how many people on a selection committee would fight for a virtually unknown team like Akron under those circumstances? My guess? Zero. But let me continue to say that we should continue to want to do more to get at-large consideration. A couple more Top-50 teams on the schedule and our SOS would have been higher, and our chances of scoring some attention-grabbing Top-50 wins would have increased. Without that, as you can see, it looks like we were darn near faced with the daunting task of having to obtain near-perfection to have really made a strong case for an At-Large. Asking a bunch of college kids to only lose a couple of games in a season is quite a request.

That's the bottom line right now. Can we get into the Top-30 or so in RPI? Probably not. And if we can't get that high, people are going to be looking closely at our the Coastal Carolina loss, the Detroit loss, and the lack of any high profile wins. Although, I am going to scream and yell anyway if they ignore us, if we end up with only 5 losses. But, there's still a heck of a lot of work to do for us to get to that point.

Dave, Thanks for weighing in on the critique issue. But unfortunately for the Zips, this isn't a matter of delicately pointing out an area where someone can "improve their game". A twenty-some year old basketball player who doesn't have the ability to stay in front of an opposing player doesn't just suddenly develop that skill. In fact, some other circumstances that have been mentioned will likely only add to the problem. That's why I am pointing out a couple of options where we can compensate as a team for that deficiency. I anticipate that we'll continue to see the staff find even more ways to compensate.

Easy. We beat them by a slim margin, at home, and they forced us into overtime. I'd say those are really hard situations where you can make a resounding "We're better than they are" case.

You just noticed? And it's exposing itself even more this year with his apparent lack of conditioning. This is why Harney's play against Cooper was so critical in the OU game. It's also one of the key areas where we really miss Quincy sometimes. And it's also why we really need Carmelo to grow a little more offensively so we can have him on the court more to defend opposing guards. And we should stop right there since someone will surely say that fans are not allowed to be critical of players when you've just won 15 games in a row.

He's practicing. But, that doesn't necessarily answer any questions. If he's in the doghouse, he'd still be practicing. And if he's trying to work through an injury since he's down to only the last handful of games in his career, he'd be practicing too.

He also only played 2 min. against OU, and appeared to be very frustrated, and walked into the corner as well.

I recall that he followed up that statement by saying that we had a lot of passing attempts last year, but not enough completions, and that we might have to run the ball more in order to win football games.

Agreed. Auburn Hills is really nice. So is the Palace. Although it's only a short drive from Detroit, it seems like a world away. That would be awesome to be within 4 hours. I think a lot of people would make that trip.

Does anyone have a link to that SportsCenter Clip? I can't find it anywhere.

I gave Zeke props for following Treadwell's lead and playing an aggressive game against OU. What happened in two days? We were playing against a team with no Center who played, and was starting a 6'-8" and 6'-7" pair of freshmen listed as forwards in the paint. You'd think that he'd have a 20 and 12 game, purely by accident. I'm really disappointed. I wanted to believe that those days were finally in the past. Someone mentioned that this was a freshman year type of performance for Zeke. I can't help but to agree.

Of course, we can debate about whether we belong in that category. But, it still upsets me that a key person in our local media isn't advocating for us to get more national attention. Comments like this are only going to hurt our chances, when they come from people who matter.

Something else that has not been brought up: Someone sitting next to me pointed out that there were no handshakes prior to the opening tip. I wasn't watching the floor at the time. Is this true? I was even told that this has happened previously in Akron vs. OU game. I guess I haven't noticed. If true, I really don't know what to think. I like sportsmanship, but at the same time we know those guys are punks, and I love that we may have intentionally decided to get in their heads a bit and be a little intimidating.

ZipGrad...we were certainly on the same page here. But that guy ended up being Harney and not Deji. Let me add a couple other things that really stuck out for me: 1) This was almost certainly Alex's career game as a Zip. I'm sure he really wanted to shine at some point vs. Cooper and OU. He did just that. 2) This was probably Zeke's best game ever on the glass for the Zips. Especially what he did on the offensive glass, which has often bothered me. Most of the time, rebounding is purely about desire. Treadwell has it every night. And Zeke joined him last night. And the big rebounding advantage for the Zips was probably the biggest reason for the final margin.

I'm trying not to get my hopes too high either. We had a much higher RPI than OU going into the game, and were a favorite playing at home. It was a great night for us, but I don't think this is going to rattle too many cages nationally. Hopefully a couple of people will pay attention to the win streak and the good margin of victory over a quality opponent.