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hoopla...interesting observations.Let me comment.ANY guard getting added to this lineup is going help, even if it is an inexperienced PG. If nothing else. Cedrick and Nick need one more guy to give them some rest. They are playing too many minutes, and are sometimes playing at un-natural positions. I ABSOLUTELY AGREE with point #2. We will definitely see a little bit of a downturn in attendance this year in the post Romeo/Dru era. Not as if last year was anything great to write home about.I also agree that we get great leadership from Nick Dials. Heck, I thought that in a lot of ways he was a leader last year, at least emotionally. But he was waiting his turn to take over while Dru finished his career in the backcourt. But, I think most people's concerns are that he's not the prototype ballhandler/PG that you need at the end of a game. And they may be right. But he certainly provides leadership. I don't think that Bardo necessarily takes the pressure off of anyone, in terms of producing points, rebounds, etc., to help Jeremiah. But his physical presence alone, and his ability to bang, would go a long way towards giving Wood some longevity this season.

Maybe this helps some of the people who are always screaming for us to get a "high profile" coach understand why it's so difficult to get one.

I hope we don't drop too much. We lost a ROAD game to a team that is #60 in the computer poll, and we were at #101. But I am surprised that Winthrop is not even in the top 25 in this mid-major poll.

Quickzips...I like the point you make in #3.Jeremiah would best be served by having a Center next to him. And Bardo is all we have. Quade is a bench player. Even if McKnight plays a little bit more inside along with Jeremiah, that would help us too.We can't go through this entire season with Jeremiah handling all of our post scoring, rebounding, and all around "muscle" play. He'll wear down by mid-season.

Zip Watcher....games against teams like Temple and Winthrop are the best we have in our OOC schedule, but we HAVE to win them. They are all that we have right now to show that we have any credibility on a national level.YES, I still believe that the current OOC schedule is not nearly enough to get an SOS high enough to get serious at-large consideration at the end of the season. But we can still gain some ground nationally by winning the semi-high profile games that we DO have.

wow...yet another comment about "these games don't matter".Does anyone truly want us to play the entire season as a "warmup" for the MAC Tournament? Winning games against the likes of a Temple or a Winthrop gets you more respect on a national level, which increases the exposure of your program, and aids your recruiting efforts, and hopefully gets the attention of people that are on post-season selection committees.As far as the MAC schedule goes, if some of you recall, the MAC regular season champion is now receiving an automatic bid to the NIT. Then in the MAC tournament, having a good enough record to receive at least a first round home game, or better yet, a first round bye, dramatically increases your chances of getting to that title game.These games matter, and so do the conference games....If we ever want to grow this program.

GP1...to add to your comments about playing against better players tonight, KD seemed happy about the way we played tonight. And maybe he really was, if what you say is true about Winthrop having far superior talent. Nice to have a perspective from someone who was there, other than S. French.

uakronkid...I understand how you might think that the tournament committees might snub us, whether we win a lot of game, or don't win quite as many and have a higher SOS. That's understandable to feel that way, based on all of the frustrations we've experienced.But the problem is.....we've never tried it the 2nd way. We've never been in a position where we could lobby the selection committees by saying "Hey, we won 20 games, AND our SOS is much higher". I'd gladly give up a couple of wins a year for a higher SOS.GP1...we're pretty much on the same page. I love your point about "what are we building, and what are we really accomplishing by showing that we can win a lot of game?". The answer is nothing, based on how those situations have benefited us in our D-1 era. But besides the "measuring stick" you get when you play a big-time program a couple of times a year, and the experience you get for your players, you also get a TON of exposure, which helps recruiting. I'm certainly not saying that we should not focus on the MAC tournament. But simply throwing away our alternative opportunity to get into postseason play just makes no sense. Replacing just a couple of those games against opponents ranked at 200+, and replacing them with opponents 50 or higher, would certainly put us in a MUCH better position than where we've been in the past.

It's great that we have this board to discuss/debate these kinds of things with fellow fans.I think the point some of you are trying to make is to build the schedule slowly, whereas some of us are of the opinion that each and every year we need to put ourselves in a position to get the national exposure and ranking needed to make a post-season tournament, if an at-large is our only possibility during that given year, because we did not win our conference tournament.On several occassions, just winning was not enough for us. We know that. It's happened now several times in our D-1 era. And this schedule, although it's an improvement, is not nearly what is needed to give us a shot at an at-large. I hate to keep bringing up the Miami example, because I hate those guys, but they seem to have the right mix where they can win enough games, and still have a high enough SOS to get a shot at an at-large. I just want to be in that same position, but this year's SOS won't get that done.

I agree. Imagine what J. Wood could accomplish if he was playing alongside a legitimate Center.According to my research, Winthrop, at #62 in the Sagarin, represents the highest ranked opponent we will play in our OOC schedule.With this being a road game, and an OOC, we have nothing to lose. But a win would hopefully turn a few heads on the national level.

Miami has climbed to #49 in the Sagarin this week, and they are only 3-3. This relates back to the point I made in another thread about how SOS plays such a huge role in the amount of national attention that you are attracting.

That's exactly the point....You don't have to be put in a position where you have to win 25+ games IF you play a higher SOS. With the kind of schedule we have right now, we have to win nearly every game to garner any kind of national attention. And we've already slipped once. For 30 years now, I've watched this program face disappointments at season's end from the tournament committees. If we don't change our mentality, we'll keep repeating this misfortune. Sure, the MAC conference affiliation is not helping. So, we need to provide our own solution, which boils down to the control we have over the 10 games we schedule before conference play begins.

ZipWatcher....I think you're missing the point that you need to upgrade your schedule to GET to that point. You don't have to "wait until we get better, and then schedule bigger teams". You do that now in order to bring your program up to that level. Again, this mentality will continue to be a recipe for disappointment, just as it has been for the last few decades, if we don't change it.You don't need to play top-20 teams every night. But teams of that caliber need to be on your schedule. Miami being ranked #51 in the Sagarin, with a 3-3 record, should show all of us all that we need to know in terms of the level of respect you get when you increase your SOS.

Yikes....although it is an improvement, the tournament committees are not going to look at us any differently than they did last year, unless we run the table. And we already have a loss to a team ranked far below us in the computer rankings. We simply have WAY too many games against teams in the lower level of D-1. After 30+ years of following Akron Basketball, I have to say that Miami's scheduling is right in line with that I think is the best thing to do to grow a program. 1) A few marquis opponents to get some NATIONAL exposure, increase your SOS, and add some fuel to your recruiting efforts.2) A few games against winnable programs that are somewhat on the same level as they are.3) A few games against lower level teams.Last week (I have not checked this week), Miami was #51 in the Sagarin ratings, yet they've LOST 3 GAMES. If we don't start adding some #1s to our schedule, and play less of the #3s, we'll continue to encounter the same frustrations that we've faced many times in our D-1 era when Selection Sunday rolls around.

Isn't a safety a DB?At that size, if he is playing defense, the only position he could possibly play would be CB. But KR or WR seems more likely.I'm going to assume that this guy is MAC level talent, at best, unless he does some growing.

Historically, the numbers tend to be a little weak around the holidays, and then pick up again when conference play starts in January. Plus, by that time, there is nothing else going on. Those games right around Christmas could really end up being embarrassing in terms of attendance. The departure of Dru and Romeo surely has an impact. If nothing else, some of the locals that may have followed them in high school became pseudo-Akron fans during that period of time to see them play in college. How big the effect will be is yet to be seen.Crowds of 2,500 against quality opponents like Temple and Wyoming does not send a positive signal for where attendance is headed this year. The lack of interest is obvious, and I sure hope that changes. I'm thinking that the "talk" of a new basketball arena will probably die off again if this trend continues. GP....I'm totally in agreement with you on scheduling

I was there...here's my observations....Ak-Rowdies.....about 40 on one side, 5 on the other. I still can't understand why 200+ students aren't coming to games, with the incentive of getting to sit courtside.Overall crowd...too many no-shows in the lower bowl.Quade...was not only getting dunk opportunities, but was getting his left-handed hook shot to fall.Jeremiah...a beast as always. And a great one-handed dunk. Just hope he doesn't tire out carrying the load inside by the end of the season.Nate...came back and played hard in the second half, even though he looked sort of dissinterested early in the game when Conyers got the start. But he did hustle, and we need him.Nick and Cedrick...showed why senior leadership at the guard positions often makes the difference in the MAC.Nick...improves our FT percentage when he takes the majority of our FTs.McNees....might be showing that he can give us a true PG for the future.Bardo....can give Jeremiah a rest, but I hope he can give us more than that as the season progresses. Would like to see more from McKnight...that could be a big plus for us if that happens. Our depth won this game tonight. No question about it. We wore then down with a 10+ man rotation, which they could not match. That was the story of the ball game.

Ha Ha !! I laughed at the Miami recap too.You know...what's with all this talk I always hear about if Miami is close at the end of a game, Coles will find a way to beat you?Didn't we win a 1 point game against them at the JAR last year? And then I read about this game. And I'm sure they have many, many close games that they do NOT win.

Ok....I guess this is officially the last thing I will say about football for while, so here goes...I've been reading this "power ranking" thing all year. More out of curiosity than anything else. But I've always been somewhat befuddled by how we have seemed to bounce up and down from week to week. I even saw us climb a bit a couple of weeks ago, after the LOSS to Miami.But now this one takes the cake...How could we have dropped a couple of spots after posting a 3-point loss to the team that should, and likely will, win the MAC title next week? AND, we've now dropped behind two teams that we've beaten, yet we were ahead of them the previous week?OK...I know this is all just one person's opinion, and obviously that sways dramatically from week to week, but the way these rankings change dramatically from week to week just makes no sense to me.

Let me add this....When I was a student in the early to mid 80s, I would have gladly paid $10 for a chance to sit at courtside for the entire season. Our student section was always in the bleachers. I just don't understand how those two end sections are not full of students every game.

Wow...that would be an interesting debate. Actually, I didn't even know that Victor Green had that many interceptions. I was a big Vic Green fan when he was here. I think he may have been a more complete defensive football player than Smith. I know this for sure. If you go back 25 years or so, we've sure had some good defensive backs here at Akron. Bobby Lyons...Ozzie Jackson...Shawn Vincent......(feel free to add to the list...it's past 5pm and I'm brain dead)

Lack of size from Temple?They were playing with a 7' center, and a 6'-9" forward. And their two big studs, Christmas and Tyndale, are both 6'-5".

Zip 81...no problem. Thanks for the quick game recap I appreciate it.

Sorry to point out something that was incorrect, but John Chaney did NOT coach in that game against us in the 2006 NIT. His assistant coached that game, and then Chaney resigned at the conclusion of the season. I'm sure the lack of attendance against a good, quality opponent from a good, quality conference will be talked about. It certainly does not give a positive sign for where our attendance figures might be headed as the year progresses. I really felt that we'd see somewhat of a lull in attendance this year after the departure of Dru and Romeo, but I had hoped that I would be wrong.

Guys, this is what I keep talking about....If we are going to play in tournaments against #340, #169, and #280...this is the kind of respect you get. ESPECIALLY if you finish in 3rd place. Hip Zip...let's hope Portland State lights it up this year, and makes that loss not look so bad.Bleacher Bum...playing against premier teams helps you in a lot of way, win or lose. I'm not surprised at all that Miami and OU have replaced us in the "also receiving votes" category, based on who we've play, and how we've peformed. As opposed to who they've play, and how they've performed (although OU might be off the radar again after a loss to Colgate tonight). I'm sorry, but I've been around this program for 3 decades, and I've experienced all of the heartaches. And it's not going to change unless we upgrade our schedule. We could run the table in the OOC schedule that we have this year, and still not be on anyone's radar in terms of national ranking because the overall SOS is so weak. So are we really growing our program?Ok...forgive my rant....we just had a good, quality win tonight. So, let's enjoy it and go and trounce Wyoming on Saturday. Go Zips !!