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zippysgotagun...I know what you are saying. But the truth is, we're forced to play nearly flawlessly in a lot of different areas to win. It's because we lack the athleticism/talent/strength of the top teams in the MAC this year. I know that CMU had more turnovers than us, and I believe Can't was pretty close. And we still lost. Why? Because they had the personnel to make up for having an "off night", and we do not. So, we have to play clean games, and it hasn't happened this week.

If this has anything to do with what happened at the end of their game against OU, and they conveniently waited until our game was over before taking any action against the player, then I think it raises questions. I would guess that he will "conveniently" return to the lineup before they play us again.GP1...maybe some of us have been bashing them as of late. But, there's certainly some things going on that make you wonder if some of their players lack self-discipline, and whether their coach is losing control of his troops.

GoZips...thanks for the insight on our transition to a guard-oriented pressure defense team. Maybe that is the direction that we are going, and it would be fun to watch.However, having some coaching my my blood, I disagree with you that BMac is going to be a Jeremiah-type post player. Maybe he looks like him, physically, but it's obvious that he has played his basketball facing the basket. And that's a very tough transition for a player to make at any level. So, as far as next year is concerned, I think the continued development of Bardo and CMac is probably our best shot at having some guys with low post expertise. PizzaBreath...I think that's likely our starting lineup at the beginning of next season. And I do agree with you that Steve. M. is clearly being groomed as a point guard.

After spending some time (too much time probably) thinking about this game, and the Can't game, I've come to my own conclusions...so here it is.The turnovers themselves are NOT the problem. Heck, CMU ended up with more turnovers than we did. The real root problem is that we don't have the athletes or the bulk inside to compensate for making a lot of turnovers. And our last two opponents did. We gave up 12 offensive rebounds in this game, because they had guys who were outjumping us, and out pushing us in the paint. And because we have a lack of enough of these kinds of players, we have to box out better, and we didn't get it done.We also don't have the horses to overcome shooting under 40% from the field. This team wins games because we overcome our lack of size/athleticism by playing hard defense, holding our opponents to low fg%, and working smart on offense to get high percentage shots.When these aren't working, we simply do not have the personnel to overcome it.

Zip Watcher and lilroodude....nice comments.We know Nate is "there". I agree that Jimmy might also be "there", except that I'm not sure he will ever become a "scorer". Which leaves us hoping that McNees continues to mature...quickly...and the McKnight brothers and Roberts are poised to do more, once given more minutes. Beyond that, the guys that we will really need to come along quickly would be guys like Steward, Bardo and Sweich. But I don't see Bardo getting much of an increase in minutes as conference play really starts to heat up. And Sweich and Steward are going to have to pretty much develop on their own during the off season. I'm just not real confident that all of the pieces will fall into place quickly enough for us to come out of the gate next year and have another successful season.

I really wish I could be as optimistic as you Zip Watcher, but here is why I am scared that we're about the have a down year. And hopefully it is just one year.Look at it this way....We haven't had this problem for awhile. Dru and Romeo because regular starters, playing significant minute, very early in their careers. So did Wood and Dials. And so did Ced and Nate. So, we always had guys coming back that we knew would be big parts of the team the following year. But, if I ask the question to myself that I asked above.......Who appears to be prepared, right now, to become a consistent starter by November, give us 30 minutes a game, and become a big contributor? I'm only able to put Nate into that category. Sure, there is still a half of a season remaining. But, as the games get more critical down the stretch, the starters will be leaned on more and more. And rightfully so, since our goal will be to win games now. So, I think it's very likely that the development of the younger players will become a lesser and lesser part of these upcoming games. This is why I ask myself....besides Nate, who is showing, right now, that they are ready to be full-timers, and major contributors by November of thise year? And I am struggling to put more than one guy in that category right now.

skhorbotly...that's a legitimate point. Not that many of us are thinking about next year quite yet, but still a good thing to think about.Of course, we all thought that losing Romeo and Dru would hurt us a bit. But, losing the other 3 major pieces of the nucleus (Wood, Dials, and Middleton) will likely truly put us into a rebuilding state. These 5 guys together have been a major part of the last few seasons, and we're seeing very little experience developing behind them up to this point, in my opinion. With the exception of Nate, does anyone really strike you as a guy that has the experience to become a consistent starter, give us 30 minutes a game, and become a major contributor by November?I must admit...I'm a little scared.

I'm not sure what criteria they use to determine the cross-division games, as far as who plays who on which team's court, but it appears as if we've run into some bad luck for the 2nd year in a row.If you recall, last year Toledo was the best team in the West. Can't played them at home, and won a narrow (I think overtime) game in Can't. We had to play Toledo on the road and lost. It was costly. It gave Can't a one-game advantage on us in the cross-divisional games, and forces us to have to win BOTH games against them in order to capture the MAC East title. AND, that loss to Toledo cost us an NIT bid, when it was all said and done. This year, unfortunately, might be presenting a similar scenario. Here's the scoop.Western Michigan appears to be the most formidable foe in the MAC West. And once again, Can't will be playing them at home, and we will be playing them on the road.Ouch. Let's hope this stroke of bad luck doesn't cost us, like it did last year.

Here's another observation....I felt that we looked a little "slow" at one point in the 2nd half, as the pace of the game started to pick up at both ends of the floor. I then come to find out today that Dials, Middleton, and Wood each played at least 34 minutes. Could this have been part of the problem? I might be wrong, but I don't think anyone on this team usually plays that many minutes in a game.

Yes, I did mean Chris McKnight. Does anyone here really think that Brett McKnight's role this year will be to play with his back to the basket in the low post? He certainly appears to be a guy who has played his basketball facing the basket. And if that is the case, it will take time for him to make that transition, if that is the plan for him. So, basically, it won't help our problem of not having a 2nd established low post player this year.

Ok...I've already aired my thoughts about the thuggery and the officiating, so let comment on something else....On defense, what concerned me the most about last night was our inability to seal off the cutter coming from the weak side when Can't would get the ball in the post. How many times did they kill us with that extra pass?On offense, besides the obvious turnovers, I think our shot selection was poor. I believe that KD preaches to his guys all the time about running the offense from the inside out. I think we abandoned that last night, and just started chucking it up from the perimeter. It worked in the first half, but not as well in the 2nd. Another weapon in the post is a MUST for us. But who? I have thought on many occassions that it should be C. McKnight. After his decent showing last night, is he finally ready? Lets hope his development continues. We need to get the heat off of Jeremiah.

As much as I like to look at things objectively, anyone who watched that game should clearly see that when the game got physical in the 2nd half, Akron was getting called for fouls, and Can't was not. Akron did not play a good game last night....Agreed. And yes, I know MAC officiating is bad in general. But, the one-sided calls during that middle portion of the 2nd half had a huge impact on the outcome of the game. Not only did it provide a disadvantage to Akron, but also changed the way we were playing on the defensive end. Please, someone tell me....objectively...how you could say that little Steve McNees, by grabbing Ham-n-Cheese, could possibly be called a "hard foul". And what makes that play even funnier is that Ham-n-Cheese was stupid enough to start something that could have cost his team the game. The "no-call" when Ham-n-Cheese knocks Middleton to the floor on the layup in the 2nd half takes "bad MAC officiating" to a whole new level of BAD. The way they were able to bump our guards out of the perimeter is also unexplainable. Once again, kudos to the classy Jeremiah Wood, who probably could have clearly justified going into that pile of players (especially the way he was getting hacked all night), but instead decided to take the high road and police the situation.

I must say....my initial thought would have been that Can't would shoot Ts, then Akron would shoot Ts, then the free throws would be shot for the personal foul, then Akron would get possession. I guess that's not the rule.

GoZips...I do like you bringing up the Ham-n-Cheese foul on Middleton. That was a blatant example of how the refs were letting the Flushes do whatever they wanted. On the replay, the shot is blocked AFTER he clearly pounds Middleton to the ground with his body. If that doesn't tell Can't fans that the refs were letting their thuggery go uncalled, I don't know what does. There were others, but that one was unbelievable. And to the Can't fans who like to jump on this board and start praising their greatness...Do you know that you are 1-4 against us in the last 5 games? And one or two of those losses were on your own court? Not really the kind of record that would normally lead someone to pound their chest in triumph. Can't fans....note that we played our worst game of the season last night, which only resulted in a 6 point win for you, on your OWN court. If I were you, I'd fear coming to Akron in March.

As KD said in his radio interview, Quade was probably wrong, but was doing what he felt he needed to do in the heat of the moment. It's not as if he went in there and slugged someone. He was just letting him know "hey Ham-n-Cheese...don't go shoving our guys". I'm not really upset about that. Zippysgotagun...I like your scenario. But, I am not sure if ham-n-cheese would have gotten a techincal if that whole thing had not escalated.I still want to know who the THUG was from Can't who had to get restrained by the neck by the ref. From what I could see, Can't players were all jumping in, and Akron guys were being calm and trying to separate everyone. Which is about what I expect, considering the history of Can't and Akron athletes. akronzip12345....if Quade stepped on someone's ankle, it had to have happened when the thugs from Can't started fighting.....because....when he bumped chests with ham-n-cheese, he was FAR AWAY from any fans.

Hey Guys....Can't's classless fans are apparently VERY proud of their "F U Akron" chant. They did it at the Rubber Bowl this year.....and....POSTED IT ON YOUTUBE !!!!Now, there's the ultimate in class

I can clear some things up....I watched the entire game.At the end, McNees fouled Ham-n-Cheese. He then pushed McNees as if he was fouled hard. And it WAS NOT a hard foul. At that point, Quade Milum jumped in and bumped his chest against Ham-n-Cheese. Then, it got out of hand. One loser Can't player even had to be restrained by the neck by the refs. We really never got a great look at the melee as the tv coverage was AWFUL. But I can tell you that our guys were being very calm, and were trying to separate people, and it seemed as if the Can't State thugs were trying to get into the middle of it. Not surprised. It ended up being called as a double technical on Quade and Ham-n-Cheese. After the game ended....According to French and Joe Dunn.....Ham-n-Cheese was TOTALLY CLASSLESS. I guess getting your butt kicked for 4 straight games make a THUG like him act this way. I don't know.Here's some other game observations....1) Obviously, we can't turn the ball over 23 times.2) We need Ced, and he is not producing offensively.3) They are more athletic than us (as KD admits) and made some great plays around the basket, and got some key steals in the 2nd half. Hats off to them. 4) They shot twice as many free throws as we did. Draw your own conclusion there. 5) In my opinion, when the refs let the game get physical in the 2nd half, WE got called for fouls, and they got a lot of "NO CALLS" as they went after our guys. As always, another typical night for MAC refs.

You know.......I didn't think we played well tonight, but I do think that when the game got physical, they were getting the "no calls" and we were getting the foul calls. What really surprises me is the way we got on the lopsided side of the fouls during the HOME GAME against OU. For the first time in my 30 years following Zips athletics, I am really starting to buy into the theory that we really are still treated as the "newcomer" to the MAC. And therefore, have to overcome the inferior treatment we get from the refs.

Once again, it all comes down to OOC scheduling.

Has it been confirmed that this game is on tv? As of last night, that was not the case.I'm supposing that some of the K.e.n.t fan's "fear" of this game comes from seeing our score from last night.

zippy 5...I'm sorry. When I said that the south side was half-full, I was referring to the fact that the band takes up the other half. So, lets say that there were 60-80 students on the south side, and another 20 on the north side. I don't know how accurate that is, but I would think that we'd have to turn people away from sitting in those seats because everyone would want to sit there. I would have done anything to sit down there when I was a student. Tell me if this is still the case, but don't the students still get into the games free? And isn't it only like a $10 fee to get a membership to the Rowdies club to sit down there? Seems like a small price to pay for an excellent view of the game. I think that there has always been a lack of student awareness that Akron plays D-1 athletics. But still, you would think that there would EASILY be 300 or so students that would love to sit in those seats, game after game.

First of all, our defense created that blowout win tonight. And that will keep us in most any game this year. So, let's look at the offense, and I have two concerns.1) Mike Bardo HAS to contribute. I continue to see him shoot 2-foot shots sooooo tentatively. He seems to lack confidence. And I rarely see him snag a good, strong rebound. And to add to that, I see him get faked off of his feet all the time on defense. Again, I'm really concerned that Wood will wear down if we can't get some quality minutes from Bardo. Was it a mistake to redshirt him last year? When he could have come into this season with at least a little bit of experience under his belt?2) Is our effectiveness starting to tail off from long range? We don't appear to be shooting well from the perimeter the last couple of games. And that is a MUST for this team, and our lack of scoring in the post.

I don't mean to be critical here, but I still can't figure out why AT LEAST 300 students are not beating down the door at an opportunity to sit courtside for a basketball game. I'm assuming that's about all it would take to fill up both of the sections behind the baskets. The OU game looked pretty promising, and I had hoped it would continue. Tonight, I think I saw about half of the south side filled (the half that the band is not occupying), and then only about 20 or so people on the north side, and a lot of empty seat. Back when I was in school, when the JAR was first built, we would have JUMPED at the opportunity to sit in those seats. I just don't get it.

BigZipGuy....Yes, I have said that our glaring weakness is Wood being our only presence inside. And I still believe that is the case. I guess I am just kind of shocked that someone thinks Can't is that good that they are sure that we won't win this game. That's really, really bold. It's one game, in the ever-unpredictable MAC, with the 1st place involved. Kind of an odd situation in which someone would be so certain of a loss.