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I guess this perspective depends on which side of the fence you are on. If you're one of the people who are fine with just taking our chances in the MAC tournament, then why does it matter if everyone in the league stinks next year? If you want some national respect, and a higher seed, and/or the possibility of getting in without having to win the league tourney, then you'd want our league to be strong.

Yep. Don't take our foot off the pedal now !! I know Iona's At-Large is getting some criticism right now. They didn't have any Top-50 wins, and I believe we didn't either. But they did have a #41 RPI. So, it would seem that being Top-40 in the RPI might be the MINIMUM number for us to get into any serious discussion. Maybe a few big wins can get you in with a lower number, since I believe the lowest team to get in had a #53 RPI. It's interesting to look at this. Gives us some kind of guide, at least.

Well, we could be sitting here with NOTHING right now. I want more too, but, I say Thank God we won the MAC season title. Yesterday = Another great example of why you cannot afford to rest all of your hopes every season on winning an incredibly unpredictable tournament.

First of all, the statement I highlighted above is hilarious Secondly, great statement about fouls. It's ridiculous if anyone thinks a well officiated game means that a near equal amount of fouls were called, or that since one team had more foul shots means that they were given the most favorable end of the foul calls. And just because Akron is a scrappy team does not mean that we necessarily have any advantage if the refs decide to allow the inside play to turn into a free for all.

Thanks for the perspective from a fan of a school with similar challenges. I especially concur with you that you have to do something BIG to change things siginificantly. We both are winning, often. We both are competing for conference titles yearly. Do some of your fans also have that "just win and the people will show up" explaination? That obviously isn't the problem for either of us.

They do it at other places (West Virginia, for example). So, it's not as radical of an idea as you might think.

I think that's why you rarely notice when there is a large contingent of Akron fans at the Q. Most of the time, they are just "with the team". That doesn't help influence the atmosphere or the game. Many people estimated that there were probably 7,000 Akron "supporters" in that crowd, which seems accurate. But, you didn't know that except for a few times during the entire game.

They've beaten us 5 of the last 6 times they've played us, including a few blowouts, and two championship games. Wouldn't we talk as if we are dominating them, if the shoe was on the other foot ?

Let me preface this by saying that I am almost 50 years old, I'm a donor with major involvement in Zips athletics, and I am speaking for myself and on behalf of several of the people sitting around me this weekend. As someone mentioned earlier, we outnumbered OU fans easily by a 3 to 1 margin last night. And certainly moreso over Ken+ on Friday. But, you often didn't notice. As is often the case, it took until we made a couple of defensive stops and buckets around the 4 minute mark late in the game yesterday just to get everyone to rise to their feet and make some noise as OU was bringing the ball up the floor. The arena exploded. So, where was everyone during the other 35 minutes? OU may have had a much smaller group, but they were consolidated, and made some noise. They had organized chants, even during timeouts. It looked like everyone was involved, young and old. And I noticed it 2 years ago as well. So,I thought this was a good time to open this discussion again. Why does everyone sit on thier hands until the final minutes of a close game? We do it at our home games too. Is having all of the older/money people in the best seats a bad idea? Although, that would be a really hard philosophy to reverse. We've successfully put the "A-K-RON" chant into the fight song, but nobody wants to do it except the cheeleaders and dance team. Why? That could make a big difference. Some people think we need a great basketball venue. Well, we were at a GREAT venue last night, and nothing changed. The Rowdies were right next to us, and we could have all joined in with them, and we choose not to do so. We had the numbers last night to ROCK that place. I'm just very disappointed. For the most part, our fans sit around waiting for something to cheer about, instead of cheering and yelling to influence the game.

To the NIT bashers: Be careful about what you are bashing. If we didn't win the MAC this year, we would probably be PRAYING for a CBI bid right now. So, we truly earned this opportunity. Take it and make the most of it.

Unfortunately, they return EVERYONE !!

It depends where the ball is at. If it's still in the cylinder, he intereferred with a free throw, and the free throw counts. However, if it's out of the cylinder, and the defender touched the rim and someone is trying to tip the ball back in, then it should count as a field goal.

Nice comments. We're now MAC Champs, 2nd in MAC tournament, and an NIT qualifier. There have been years where we would have BEGGED to have such an outcome.

That's definitely what I see too. In which case, a defender interfered with a free throw, and the free throw should count. So, it changes nothing. I just wish that the refs would have made THAT call right the first time, and not allowed a field goal to count, and then just change it to a made free throw. If any evidence surfaces that there was a tipped ball, I would really like to see that.

It was BETTER than that, actually. We sold out our allotment, and had to get another several hundred tickets on top of that to meet the demand. But, I'm sure that was nothing compared to the great OU fans, who certainly must have numbered about 200 strong last night

Not when you consider a team like OU, who is not very deep or strong on the interior, and you just got beat up by a team as physical as Buffalo 20 hours earlier.

We're you at the title game in Cleveland 2 years ago? Are you delusional or just very forgetful ? And were you paying any attention last night? I noticed your group of approx. 200 people last night on the other side of the court. Nice showing Buffalo was just as loud as you guys, and they came down all the way from Canada. Akron sold out 5 sections last night, just from people who went through our own ticket office for their tickets.

Geez. How do you put the #1 Seed as a 1.5 point underdog, playing an hour from home. Is the loss AT OU really impacting the prognosticators this much? I'm going to predict this game based on fatigue. OU will be playing their 3rd game in a 48 hour period, including playing the late game last night. Tired legs make it difficult to hit 30-foot 3-pointers, and they are going to need those shots to fall in order to beat us. Akron 75 OU 68

I was rather surprised when Greene picked Alex up off of the floor. A very nice gesture of sportsmanship that deserves a mention, especially when it's coming from an individual player on a team full of bad apples. There's one thing that really surprises me about this thread in which we are praising a Ken+ player. And it prompts a question: Could it be that we are all starting to despise OU more than Ken+? I never thought it would happen. But the timing is GREAT, considering our opponent tonight !!

Thanks for reminding me why I will probably die of heart disease before the age of 60.

That's what I'm thinking. It's the ultimate reward that matters. If Akron only has to play two games, and can get to next Thursday's NCAA tourney matchup without being totally exhausted, is anyone really going to complain? Plus, do I need to remind anyone of some of our poor performances in recent years in the quarterfinals? Less games equals a better chance of winning the MAC tourney title. And it gives significant meaning to the regular season again. I'm all for it.

Agreed. Despite the late WMU comeback, Ken+ virtually cruised in the 2nd half. EXACTLY what you want to happen when you have to play a game again in 24 hrs. WMU could have won, or made it very difficult on Ken+. It didn't happen, and WE didn't gain much of an advantage. And that would have been the most important thing.

Well, I am going to say he failed his debut. They won the MAC regular season last year, and he had 4 returning starters, all now Seniors, and only had the 4th best team in the MAC. And if this was 2011, they would have only been the 5th seed in the tournament. I would certainly have expected much better if I was the coach in that situation.

Zach's numbers should tell us all that we were moving in the right direction this year. We need to continue to push ahead aggresively at this point, instead of retreating. If not, we'll continue to play the #2 and #3 seeds each year, with little chance of advancing. Or worse yet, a hot team will knock us out of the tourney completely (OU 2010). At-Large Consideration = You are getting more attention nationally = higher seed = better chance of advancing. THAT IS WHY you should play the regular season as if you are playing for an at-large bid. Retreat back to a mentality that the conference tournament is all that matters, and we'll continue to get awarded with a bottom seed well into the future.

Yes, just get them from the Akron ticket office. And if you are a donor, that will help your seating priority even more. I haven't heard that our sections have been determined, but it looks like Dr. Z has the scoop.