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Z-Pouch....I love the ABSOLUTELY FALSE references, as if you are trying to prove a point by yelling the loudest. Nice try. Apparently YOU aren't listening.Racer said, "THE MAC HAS ALWAYS BEEN A ONE BID CONFERENCE" and my response was "THE MAC HAS HAD MULTIPLE BIDS".FACT: 1999 the MAC had TWO selections to the NCAA tournament. Yet, you call my statement ABSOLUTELY FALSE. So, Can't could not have gotten any at large bids during some of those years they won 20+ but won the automatic bid anyway?? How do you know that? Yet ...you say ABSOLUTELY FALSE to that statement.The only "what ifs" I've seen from a couple of you are "If only we won a couple more of the games we should have won". I have news for you. That's NOT going to get it done. It didn't last year, didn't during the Huggins era, and hasn't for almost 30 years now. And as someone with a considerable coaching background, I know how tough it is to get young kids to play consistenly enough to NOT have "bad losses" during the course of a 5-month schedule. YOU WILL LOSE GAMES YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO WIN...EVERY YEAR. Please, take a closer look at the kinds of resumes that get you at-large NCAA tournament bids, and you'll get a much clearer picture. I'm fine with moving on to discussions about the Can't game. I'm looking forward to the game very much. Maybe it's time we all have some unity. But please, don't try to keep on with the argument that we don't need major changes to improve our situation when it comes to post season opportunities. Like I've said before, you can feel free to join with a few of the others who appear to be happy with continuing on the same path that hasn't worked before, and yields the same results, year after year. But please, don't try to argue that "a couple more wins" would solve the problem, when it's never worked before, and our schedule strength has us WAY off of the NCAA radar.

I do understand the premise of the article, which is that Can't has accomplished something in longevity that is so hard to do at the mid-major level.But..what matters most is that, if we win on Sunday, we've won 5 of the last 6 games against them, which show's that, at least for a couple of years, we've certainly caught up with them.

Zipdiehard....your Thursday schedule can't be right, unless they've made a serious change from last year. We were the #2 last year, and played an evening game. Yet, you show the #2 seed this year playing an early afternoon game.

zippy5...do you also realize that if we keep doing what we're doing it might be another 20+ years until we get a bid to a tournament?Believe me. I was a senior when we went to the tournament in 1986. It's a very long time. Racer, although I can't understand what you are saying sometimes, let me decipher, and try to respond.1) The MAC has had At-Large selections, but not in recent years.2) Can't State had teams that would have been good enough to get an at-large, but they won the MAC Tournament, which, of course, eliminated the need for an at-large bid.3) Keith has done more than anyone in recent years .....agreed.4) Miami and Can't scheduled well enough to give themselves an OPPORTUNITY to get an at-large. We simply had another 20+ win season with absolutely no national recognition.Miami had themselves in at-large position until about mid-season. Can't had (and still may) themselves in at-large position until last week. Akron lost their chance for an at-large bid when they made out their schedule, and lost it for good by losing to Portland State. I know this is harsh, but true.You can sit here forever and say "Well, Miami had great schedule strength, and they won't get an at-large bid" all you want. But they gave themselves a CHANCE to get an at-large, and we did not. I ask again...which would you rather have? A Chance? or No Chance? Without a serious upgrade in scheduling, we're stuck with Option #2.

wOOt...that's exactly the consequence of all of this.....we are pretty much forced to win just about every game, and not have any slip-ups, and no bad losses. Especially this year, where our schedule strength was just way too far off the charts.That's too much of a challenge, even for a good coach, to get a bunch of 18-21 year old kids to play that consistently, every night, for 30+ games. Even the pros can't do it. So, you are always going to lose games you should have won. And in our present situation, we can't have bad losses. So, what do you do?At least playing higher ranked teams improves your schedule strength, gives you a better chance at post season play, and gives you the opportunity to improve your program. Again, I like CraftyMFer's proposed OOC agenda. That's probably right on the money.

CraftyMFer...that's probabaly the mix of opponents it would take to get it done.uakronkid...true, neither Miami or Akron is in a position for an at large NOW. But, Miami scheduled well enough to have that chance, and we did not. With our awful schedule strength, do you really believe that winning a couple of more games against teams that were rated far below us, and we should have beaten anyway, would have made much of a difference? At best, those wins would have put us right about where we were last year, which is a team with 26 wins, a weak schedule, and no wins that were big enough to really turn any heads.

My point, more than anything else, is that what we are doing now has never worked.Miami had themselves in a position to get at-large consideration by playing a tough schedule. We were never in that position to begin with, and probably could not have gotten any at large consideration unless we darn near won all of our games. Which would you choose? A chance? Or no chance? And which losses are helpful and which are hurtful? Losses to Portland St. and Arkansas Little Rock? Or a loss to a top-25 team?Adding a couple more mid-level teams to the schedule is very likely not enough to get it done.

uakronkid...thanks for the update on the RPIs and SOSs in the other thread.With all respect, what is your experience with college basketball? Ok, we get it. You DO NOT want Akron to upgrade their schedule and have a chance to get some national respect? We understand what you are trying to say, if that's it. Akron has won quite a few more games than Miami AND beat them twice. So, why are their RPIs pretty much the same? Because of the difference in schedule strength.We can keep doing what we're doing, and keep getting the same results. Are you trying to tell us that you are happy with that? That's your decision. Can't getting an at-large is sort of a double edged sword for me. I want to see them make it for the conference's sake, but I do not want to see Can't get an edge on us that could help recruiting, etc.

I'm pretty sure the RPI doesn't take into account head-to-head matchups against teams below or above you. I guess that would be hard to do.I do know that Miami had a tremendous OOC schedule stength. I'm sure that's why they have a much better RPI than Akron. But, I am not sure where Ohio's SOS was this season, although I know it was better than ours. This is one of things I talk about all the time when the issue of scheduling comes up. It appears that adding more difficult teams to your schedule historically is beneficial to you, even if you don't win.

I'll miss Bubba too. He has a knack for hurting his team, and only rarely gets on a roll like he did last night. zipfan..I will admit that there were a few anxious moments there at the end.

That's awesome. Dials gave the "O" sign to the OU students as he left the floor. It can't get any better than that.

GoZips88...If I were French, I would have so much trouble calling a OU/Akron game. He is an OU alum. But, he is such a homer for the Zips now.That's funny that he did that. He's a Zip now...and he shows it (I guess he knows where his paycheck comes from)

Wow..I don't want to forget something.....Nick Dials is not a point guard....but isn't he really emerging as the guy that you want to be holding the ball at the end of a game?What a warrior. He's always been that guy. But now he's our man to have the ball, make the key pass, and shoot free throws at the end of the game.

I've thought for awhile now that the #3 is the best place to be (as long as Can't is #1). This gives us a good quarterfinal draw, and a matchup with WMU in the semis. And.....a possible Can't/Akron Final....something THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED. It would be a great day for the MAC, and a great day for Akron and Can't basketball fans.Here we go..it will be an exciting week

This one deserves its own topic....We break OUs 12 game home winning streak. And score far more points than they ever give up at home.How about all of us fearing this stretch of road games at OU and Miami, and we win them BOTH. Unbelievable!!Wood seems to have benefited from 3 weeks rest (he needed it), and C. McKnight FINALLY gives us that other piece of the puzzle in the paint. Our inside/out game is working again...FINALLY.Cedrick...he's really come on. A few of games ago, we were all pretty much counting him out for the remainder of the year...weren't we??Thank God for 60% shooting. Great offensive execution tonight. Only 9 total turnovers. We made the most of our offensive opportunities. Have to keep doing that. We got our butts beat on the board tonight. Have to improve that before the tournament. Could this be yet another example of a team that peaks at the END of the season...and wins it all??Stay Tuned.Go Zips!!!

This is really funny.....If we get the #1, and Can't gets the #3, our semifinal matchup is going to be Ohio or Miami, the teams some of us want to avoid.However, if we get #3, and Can't gets #1, we seem to get a better matchup in Western Michigan in the semis.But keep this in mind....if we are the #1 seed, we are declared the MAC regular season champ, and that assures us of an NIT bid if we lose the tournament.

I was thinking the same thing....nobody in Akron is carrying this game?

I'm certainly not happy about this.Isn't OSU still playing Bowling Green at Browns Stadium this year also?And we play the worst team in D 1-A in front of 18,000 people.Unbelievable.

bigzipguy...you know how much I think it's important that Chris M. touch the ball in the post. I think that will be a key in the tournament to take some heat off of Jeremiah. If not, we better continue to play great defense, and shoot 60% from the 3-line if we want to win the title. Woot...I totally agree with you. We'll see how the seeds work out, but I'd say avoiding Ohio or Miami in the quarterfinals would be a huge bonus. And avoiding Can't in the Semis wouldn't be bad either.With that said, Can't #1, WMU #2, and Akron #3 is probably the best scenario for us.

Meatwad...very true. What we call "bad losses" are very hard to overcome, regardless of schedule strength.

1) I'm still concerned that Wood's supporting cast in the paint still has not really developed like I had hoped.2) Living by the 3-point shot really concerns me if we intend to win a MAC title with that philosophy.

All I remember is that we had to leave the Fairlawn Lizard when they could not get the first Akron Can't game this year. We ended up having to go over to Rocknes on Merriman. But, if it's not a televised game, it's not going to be on anywhere. I haven't heard the latest.

Racer...if there was any grammatical structure to your comments, we might have a better idea of what you are trying to say. But, I think you might be trying to make a point about Can't's scheduling, and I might want to remind you that Can't, like ourselves, has no control over their conference schedule.

I'd just like to see a game that might indicate that we are ready to play our best basketball down the stretch, and are ready for the tournament. Akron by 20+

Well, since the #1 seed still remains pretty difficult to obtain, I would probably rather us be #3, and play Western in the semis, and Can't in the finals.