skip-zip

Exactly. I know it's our rival, but we should really be rooting for the MAC in the post season. The more wins the MAC can garner, the better off the Akron program will be in the future. It's going to be Can't/Akron and a few other teams for the next few years. The better the conference is the better seed we get in the future. Don't misunderstand me here. I can never root for Ken+. But, my observation of the way they are being treated here is a sad commentary on how our confrence is being respected.

I know we've discussed this countless times, but let me clear this up, because some people are new to the discussion. Here's the simple explaination: 1) People will always "talk" about a new arena in the future because it gets fans excited. 2) The JAR is not old. 3) Replacing the Rubber Bowl had become a necessity that was too bad to ignore any longer. You want a new arena? Start packing the one we have. That's the only thing that will push this issue along any faster. A new arena is a more distant dream than some people want to believe.

This is a great post. Trust me. They truly are morons. I've been around this rivalty for several decades, and I'd need to write a book to displayed all of the classless behavior I've seen from them. Even when I am being completely impartial, I can't even remotely compare it to the few stupid things I've seen from Akron fans.

I guess this answers a question..... If Ken+ had won the MAC tourney, we likely would have gotten Buffalo's CIT bid. What a difference!!!!! I think it is another slap in the face to the MAC that Ken+ is a #7 seed in the NIT. And they've given them an awfully difficult task as a road team to cross the country like that. I laugh because it's Ken+, but it also saddens me to see how the MAC has fallen. As a conference, our #15 should be a wake up call too.

Lets look at the obvious first. Ever since the inception of the 3-point line, college teams have viewed it as an "upset tool". So, can we win a 3-point shooting contest in this game? One of the big questions will be whether we can shoot over their superior height on the perimeter. And with our inferior height, and knowing that they are a good 3-point shooting team, can we defend them effectively on the perimeter? This sets up as a classic example of us having to work the ball into the post in order to get the separation we'll need to get open 3-point looks. And if Zeke can score some points, that will be a big help towards opening up the floor since he'll really be our only offensive threat that has a height advantage at any position.

Interesting Observation: The MAC Champ got a #15 Seed The OVC Champ (our old conference) got a #13 Seed

Do we even know the time yet?

Wouldn't be too bad until you consider exactly how close Notre Dame is. As close to a home game for them as they can get. It would certainly be a HUGE upset if we could get it done. That's what I was thinking. We might as well play them on their home floor in South Bend. I also was still hoping that we'd equal our 14th seed from 2 years ago.

Tell me why Can't has more talent than Akron. I think we have some very talented players. My frustration with KD has been more about him not winning big games with what I consider having as much talent as the next guy in the MAC. Yesterday was one day and a great day. We need to strive to be this good all the time and string 2-3 years of MAC Championships together. This can be a great MAC program, but one day doesn't make it great. Where did I say that? I'm comparing our own teams to each other.

skip-zip, no offense intended, but in what world is it like this now? It is already closer to guys getting paid (actually, they are getting paid) than college students who happen to play a sport. Way closer. Let's not try to make believe really talented guys at schools like Alabama are there to get an education or that the coaches care whether or not they get an education. Should they get paid by the schools? No. Should they be able to go out and get a job? Yes. Oh, I know the situation. And I'm merely stating that if we you are an Akron fan, and we continue to see principles that allow things to drift further in the other direction, it's not good news for us. We need to remember that a college education will be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in these kids lifetimes. And knowing how expensive college has gotten in the 30 years since I attended makes it a benefit that I think these kids should value even more. And that's coming from someone who personally knows what it was like to struggle financially to get a college education. I only agree with the job restriction because it opens the door for the kids at the bigger schools to get some real sweet perks from supporters and boosters, therefore contributing further to an unlevel playing field, and a disadvantage for Akron. But other than that, I sure wish they could find a way to allow kids to earn a little part time money. Well then I'm against the job restriction. I think the NCAA should have restrictions that close the door for kids to get real sweet perks from boosters. Job Restrictions help prevent against boosters giving players a job that pays $20-50 an hr to do nothing. Simple as that. These players wont be working at Wal-Mart if the job restrictions rule is lifted. Exactly. GP1 - I have to ask. If these things are happening anyway, as you say, does that mean that we should just allow them to happen? I don't buy the argument that we should remove rules because they are being broken too frequently. I also would like to see you show that allowing money to flow more freely to "student athletes" would be anything other than a disadvantage to programs who bring in far less money, and have far less outside donors, like Akron.

skip-zip, no offense intended, but in what world is it like this now? It is already closer to guys getting paid (actually, they are getting paid) than college students who happen to play a sport. Way closer. Let's not try to make believe really talented guys at schools like Alabama are there to get an education or that the coaches care whether or not they get an education. Should they get paid by the schools? No. Should they be able to go out and get a job? Yes. Oh, I know the situation. And I'm merely stating that if we you are an Akron fan, and we continue to see principles that allow things to drift further in the other direction, it's not good news for us. We need to remember that a college education will be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in these kids lifetimes. And knowing how expensive college has gotten in the 30 years since I attended makes it a benefit that I think these kids should value even more. And that's coming from someone who personally knows what it was like to struggle financially to get a college education. I only agree with the job restriction because it opens the door for the kids at the bigger schools to get some real sweet perks from supporters and boosters, therefore contributing further to an unlevel playing field, and a disadvantage for Akron. But other than that, I sure wish they could find a way to allow kids to earn a little part time money.

If you are an Akron fan, you should say "heck no". When money is involved, it only serves to create a more unlevel playing field. The closer we can keep everything to COLLEGE STUDENTS WHO HAPPEN TO PLAY A SPORT, the more chance Akron has of being competitive on a national stage.

Lunardi currently has us as a 16 seed, but personally I think we could go as high as a 13 or 14. Current 13 seeds according to Lunardi: Princeton, Bucknell, Belmont, Oakland Current 14 seeds according to Lunardi: Long Island, Morehead State, Indiana State, Wofford Current 15 seeds according to Lunardi: St. Peters, UCSB, Northern Colorado, UNC Asheville Current 16 seeds (not play-in games): Boston U, Akron Current Play-in games: Alabama State/Hampton, UALR/Texas San Antonio For comparison sake here are the realtime RPI numbers for all of the above teams (Akron is right now at 117 and trending upwards): Princeton-47 Belmont-52 Oakland-53 Long Island-76 Morehead State-79 Bucknell-80 Indiana State-85 St. Peters-93 Northern Colorado-99 Wofford-109 Boston U-132 UNC Asheville-148 Hampton-163 UCSB-171 UALR-189 San Antonio-202 Alabama State-269 Just going off of these numbers we should be a fifteen seed at least. zips can beat any one of those teams And we've also shown this year that we can lose to some of the worst teams in the league. I don't expect anything different than what happened 2 years ago. Put us at 14, and I'll be satisfied again. Put as at 13 and I'll be very happy. Put us at 15 and I'm dissappointed. I don't even want to think about 16, and since there's a lot of conferences weaker than the MAC, it's not gonna happen. But, the only good thing would be that we could see our team play in Dayton on a night where there are only 4 other games.

Speaking of the Cleveland media, this should be the first time ever that we will be going to the NCAA tournament in a year where Cleveland State will NOT be going. I wonder if we will notice any difference in the amount of coverage we receive up north? If it's typical, Cleveland folks will conveniently adopt the Zips as "a Cleveland area team" because their own team isn't there.

That should be hilarious. If there are a bunch of OSWho fans in there, they'll have to try to watch their game in the backdrop of our celebration. That'll turn the tables a bit from what we usually have to endure around here.

I know. I don't want to start this discussion until after I've enjoyed this week. But, I think anyone is fooling themselves if they don't see that there's some major work ahead for us to quickly become a competitive team again if we are indeed losing 5 guys at once who have that level of experience. Surviving the loss of Chris McK and Jimmy C. was pretty simple compared to that.

I think all of this will at least start discussions that he's not winning this tournament when we're in a favored position. But, there's certainly no doubt now that he's done an amazing job guiding some of his lesser talented or lesser experienced lower seeded teams to MAC tourney titles.

So he was our Greg Jennings tonight? I'm glad someone mentioned Steve. Without those early 3's, this game could have gotten ugly very early. And something I don't think has been mentioned yet......how the heck did we survive shooting 47 percent from the free throw line?

I wouldn't have given us much chance in a game against Ken+ where they "just let them play". And I'm obviously wrong

+1 Coming soon for 2012, the official complain about the refs thread. Hijacking game posts needs to be cleaned up. Again, I only touch on the subject when it's especially bad.

That's true. But again, I'll just settle for treating him equal.

Bring it !! And hope for a huge crowd. If you recall, 3 years ago the noise in that place was still disappointingly low for the Can't-Akron game because that place is so huge and cavern-like when the top level is empty.

Sure, the game is normally more fan friendly with less whistles. But, at this point, I'd just settle for the rules being interpreted correctly with some level of consistency, no matter how many stoppages occur. And with the matchup tonight, I'll be surprised if the officials aren't more involved than usual. AND a slow game might be just what the doctor ordered for the Zips to have the best chance to win.

Let me remind everyone again that I don't make a habit of criticizing bad officiating. I know that the MAC is always going to be shaky. But, I made particular note of how off they were on Thursday. But, I never imagined that Friday could have possibly topped it. I'll have a stroke if those guys mess things up on Saturday.

Game was officiated fair, too many whistles in general though. I had an Akron fan behind me jumping up and down screaming every time Akron got a foul called on them. He made me ashamed to be an Akron fan. If you stuck around for the OU game, and watched OU fans cry about fouls, that's how it looked to the unbiased observer. While I was eating lunch today a BigTen game was on, they went 7 minutes of uninterrupted time up and down the floor, no whistles. That's more fun to watch than tons of stoppage in play. I like watching basketball, not foul shooting and officials calls. This is a pointless argument as we've already established that many on ZN.o are obvious MAC official apologists but I saw the OU game...the officials were terrible there too. They made a few game changing calls that truly affected the outcome of the game. They made about 10 that almost did for us. It's frightening that these guys are repeatedly being chosen for these big games. It was way beyond their "normal bad". If that's not the case, I don't even bring it up.