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I agree. Why in the world would we want ORU to lose?

It's at least a barometer for us, to see a team at 21-5, with a road win against a Top-10 team, and they see their chances as pretty remote. That should be enough to continue to fuel the argument about the value of SOS. It's very hard to expect a college basketball team to go through a season with much less than 5 losses.

I've said this many, many times. But, it's still fun to think about where we could be if it were to happen

Well, we survived again, so the discussion about what would happen if we run the table is still a valid discussion But, winning the remainder of our games puts us in the Top-20? And maybe as high as #13 ? That can't be possible. But if it does, you think were in At-Large Territory? With a #13 to #18 RPI, I would GUARANTEE an At-Large bid.

Do you think that's the way Keith looks at it too? I'll officially put you in the "glass half full" category

I think we'll probably always say that. I'd be happy if they stopped showing that on the big screen at the Q every year when they show their highlights of past tournaments. I can't watch.

Ok. That makes more sense.

Ha Ha. I was waiting for someone to do that. Hilltopper, even the very best teams, in every sport, pro or college, will have critical discussions among fans. And with 4 of those games going down to the wire, which very easily could have gone the other way, there's a lot to talk about.

I keep hearing the old line, "good teams find a way to win". I think in some cases, I hear it used here as more of a hope that it is true. It's not some kind of standard answer that fits every situation. And it's not some kind of character trait of a great athletic team. In the case of the game last night, we played horribly, but still happened to have more points than the other team in the end, despite doing many, many things that would cause a team to lose. I've heard this from both coaches and players. This team simply isn't doing enough things right, often enough. And until they can learn to play like that, we will continue to have the kinds of games we have seen over the last several weeks. Thank God we've made just enough good plays so far to put those games in the win column in the meantime.

I heard that story break, and I knew it would spread pretty quickly. It makes perfect sense for us to obtain that as our next area of expansion.

Maybe its the fact that we used to be in the OVC that makes this laughable: Murray State / Austin Peay is bigger than Akron/Ken+ ??

Do I even need to look at the rebounding stats right now?

This announcer stinks. And no color commentator. Pretty boring. I'd love to turn on French, if it wasn't a few seconds off.

Thanks, Dave. That's the year, right there. And there's no way we can get anywhere close to that number. Does anyone even have an idea where we could possibly be if we win out and lose in Cleveland? Even if we probably drop a bit over these next couple of games against the MAC West? And I just looked it up. Ken+ was a #9 seed that year. There were At-Large teams as low as #12 seed. So, that probably tells us that they were going to be an At-Large. But, that won't stop people from arguing that a loss to Akron in the MAC title game would have been devastating, if someone really wants to believe what they want to believe about the MACs "zero" chances at At-Large bids.

Sorry. My bad.

I think Kangaroo might be thinking of the wrong year. I was thinking about thier 07-08 team also. And that was indeed the year that UNLV clobbered them in the tourney. Are you sure their RPI was Top 30? If so, I don't think we can even remotely get to that number, even if we win out. I said this in another thread: Based on the fact that Ken+ got a #8 or #9 seed that year, you'd have to think that they would have been an At-Large selection. We're only left to wonder if a loss to Akron in the tournament final would have had any impact.

I've mentioned this before as a comparison. But didn't they have a much higher RPI ? Does anyone know? I agree with C. Kangaroo that people need to stop whinning about an At-Large not being possible. We have to try, every year, to give ourselves a second chance to get into The Dance, no matter how long some people think the odds might be. The schedule still needs to get a little better and/or we needed to post a few more wins, and/or we needed another big win or two. But, we weren't that far off. The higher SOS at least put us in the ballpark. I hope this is just a taste of what can happen if we make a concerted effort to keep getting better in all aspects needed to achieve an At-Large.

I see it this way. If At-Large becomes an option for us, that means we'd have at least 8 losses, because we didn't win the MAC tournament. I think that's a few too many. And we still have a brutal 3-game stretch coming up to end the season, with two of them on the road, and it's very hard to imagine surviving that stretch with a 3-0 record. In looking at head to head, you'd have to figure that Middle Tennessee, Cleveland State, and WVU all would go in ahead of us, if any of them are also in consideration. Don't we only have ONE win against an upper tier team (Miss. State)? I think that weighs heavily against us. How are the Duquesne and Valparaiso games going to look in front of a selection committee? The RPI is close to putting us in the ballpark. But in my opinion, with our SOS being down near the 100 mark, although better than in the past, probably still required us to have no more than 5-6 losses. Thanks MAC West

Oh yes they do. They consider Akron worthy when something good happens in Akron, and they can tie it to themselves by saying that it happened "in the Cleveland area" or "in Greater Cleveland". But, when something good happens in Cleveland...it belongs to CLEVELAND. Look at how long they claimed LeBron as "our hometown boy". Now that it's not beneficial to them anymore, he's clearly from AKRON.

This was the West division game that scared me the most, particularly with it being a road game. We've finally shown that we can play relatively consistently from game to game, and we've finally shown that we can blow someone out. Can we show tonight that we've truly turned the corner, and are ready to make a big run to the finish? Akron 67 WMU 62

Scott, Unfortunately I know quite a few Cowlumbus State fans, and THEY EVEN ADMIT their embarrassment that their fellow fans act like such complete idiots towards fans for teams like Akron. So, that goes far beyond our own individual experiences in validating that point.

Every team in the East is ranked higher than any team in the West? Can we just eliminate that part of our schedule next year?

That's the only time I heard "Akron" too. The Cleveland news stations lasdt night were loving mentioning local high school players that were in the game, but never mentioned that Chase played at Akron.

The funny part is that Ken+ admitted this guy into their graduate program. I guess the high standards they apply to athletes are applied to the rest of the student body as well.

He should have been the MVP !!!!!