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Guys, take a look at something....Creighton leap-frogged over us in the mid-major poll. And I think they just won their conference tournament.Is this not a good argument to end your conference tournament early? So that the polls that week can take notice of your accomplishments before the NCAA Tournament Committee starts handing out seeds?

I think I know what some of you might be getting at here....The press release is calling this "Player of the Year", and not "Most Valuable Player". It's a slight difference in the definition, and I've seen this before. With that "player of the year" definition, the voters tend to feel that they need to flat-out give the award to the best basketball player in the conference that year. And I don't think there is a better player in the conference this year than Romeo Travis.However, when you label this award "most valuable", then they might tend to look at who meant the most to their respective team. And you can make the argument that someone else might have been more valuable to our team.Which leads me to another debate that we've had on here for a long time.....Does Romeo Travis now become a strong candidate to have his jersey retired someday? If my memory serves me correctly, he's our first conference POY/MVP since Marcel Boyce in 1986.

I'm sure that the MAC has to settle for, let's say, "not the cream of the crop" when it comes to refereees. But, this year seemed to be a particularly bad year. Funny enough, the Austin Peay game seemed to be the worst. Which makes you wonder, if the MAC refs are this bad, what is the quality of officiating in lesser conferences? The traveling call on Nate Linhart was particularly disturbing, for a number of reasons....1) They somehow thought they saw his feet move, but completely ignored the more obvious fact, which is that he was pushed. 2) His pivot foot never moved, which should have easily been seen by any of the refs on the floor. The position of someone's foot is normally not something that is easily blocked from someone's field of vision. 3) You best not call traveling at that juncture of the game, unless you are absolutely sure. Players are always gettting leniency these days on traveling calls, during any part of the game, let alone at that critical moment. I really believe that he blew his whistle, and then tried to decide what to call. If there is ever a clear case where a coach should complain to the league about poor officiating, this call really takes the cake.

Our faint chances of an at-large went out the window with the recent losses to Toledo and Miami.But, if some of you still think we have a chance, AND I HOPE YOU ARE RIGHT, you still need to consider this factor....It all depends on how many favorites win their conference tournaments. Every time an underdog wins a conference tournament, it usually means that the conference's regular season champ will then be thrown into the pool of potential at-large contenders.So, as this week progresses, keep hoping that the favorites win the conference tournaments. That would leave the maximum number of at-large spots available.

I talked about this weeks ago when it was starting to look like us and Can't were going to be the #2 and #3 seeds.My concern is if we win another emotional game over Can't on Friday night....will we be ready to play a championship game on Saturday?

I like how the dude with the "Can't Statecks" t-shirt got into the picture.

That's nice to see someone valuing some of the games we won during non-conference play. It looks like Niagara ended up being a decent team.I know I keep saying this, but we'll lose any chance a an at-large once they look at our resume next to that of any power conference team with an 18-20 wins, with a couple of wins over ranked teams.Which makes me ask my fellow Zips fans this question.....Does anyone think we would have gotten an at-large if we had beaten Nevada?My answer.....I think we'd be a solid bubble team if that had happened. OK...with that said.........LET'S JUST GO WIN THE TOURNAMENT !!

I see that Charlie Coles from Miami (OH) is on the coaches panel. Could it be that he didn't vote for us anymore after they beat us?

Zipsbandman...those are my thoughts exactly. But I am still shocked that we would not have at least held our ground, or improved in the polls with the way we played on the road this week.

For the most part, it looked like many of those 3-pointers were being taken early in the shot clock because they were open looks. The one's we made were big if you look back, and some of the others could have broken the game open. I think we were taking what they were giving us.Frankly, I was much more disturbed about our turnovers than I was about our shot selection. And here's something I stated on an earlier post. Can't's offensive rebounds were what kept them in the game. If not for them, this game could have turned into a blowout. They are very athletic, and we need to do a better job of blocking these guys out if we play them again.

uakronkid...I pretty much feel the same way.We only have two things working in our favor right now. We can make a case that our record gets us in, and that our ranking in these polls should get us in.Unfortunately, the committee will see our "bad losses", no wins over any ranked teams, and our strength of schedule. We also missed our chances to really make a statement by losing at Miami and Toledo. I still believe that when it comes down to it, those teams from the power conferences, with 5 more losses than us, that can show wins over ranked teams, will get the nod over us.But let's keep hoping.

No posts necessary. Very minor progress. Still a LONG way to go to even be competitive, in their OWN conference. That just about wraps it up for another year. Enough said.

timmy..I will add that as a side note also...No contribution from Conyers....or McKnight....or Rybak. And very little from Quade. We got this done with 6 guys, and a few of them were in foul trouble. Ok...we won three straight road games, which I didn't think they could do. But, did we develop some "helpers" during our time without Nate Linhart? I really don't think so.

Guys. As an old timer, I will say that this is our best win since we joined the MAC in the early 90's.Someone on here referred to Dials as a WARRIOR. He is that, and then some. It was nice to see him and Woods decide the game tonight. They are going to be the key members of this team next year. Those steals by Dials towards the end of regulation were HUGE.The traveling call on Linhart with under a minute left in regulation tops every bad call that the MAC refs have made all year. Someone needs to look into how incompetent these guys are. Why was the game so close? ALLOWING OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS. Can't is a very athletic team. It's something we need to prevent in the future.I want to give A BIG HIGH FIVE to The Univ. of Akron Dance team. I was sitting with a big group of alums at the Winking Lizard in Fairlawn. And, the girls from the dance team were there, and promised us that they would do their dance routine to our fight song if we won. And they did just that, with all of us clapping to the song as they did their thing. THANKS GIRLS...it was a great capper to a fantastic evening.Have we swept Can't since we've been in the MAC? I'm not sure. But this game was SWEET!! I can't even sleep (and Dambrot said during the post game show that he isn't going to sleep either) because I really want to enjoy this one.Go Zips........and..........

Several of us fans and alums that live in the W. Akron/Fairlawn/Bath area always go to the Winking Lizard on Ghent Road in Fairlawn (the place where they do Zips Live). We'd love to see more people that live out that way join us for televised football and basketball road games. It seems like during football season, when Ohio State and Akron are on at the same time, there is 1 Zips fan in there for every 10 Suckeyes fans. If any of you live in that area, come out that way and help the rest of us make some noise !!

Something makes me think that Gary Watters wishes he had stayed at Can't as well.

I simply think he's being asked to be more aggressive offensively. He's been pretty unselfish all season, and we need his points now.

Update me guys.Are we now assured of at least the #3 seed after what happened tonight?If so, that sort of dampens my anticipation of a Can't/Akron Championship game since Can't might now be the #3 if we are the #2, or vice versa. Which means our matchup with them would be in the semi-finals. Or...is there still a chance that Can't can slip to #4 if we beat them?I really wanted the chances of a Can't/Akron championship game to stay alive. I really think that it would be great for NE Ohio college basketball. A huge crowd, in Cleveland, with both of the area's big universities......and...hopefully....great hype from all of the Cleveland TV Stations.

I think, by far, the biggest key for next year will be to get our new point guard established. Maybe that's McNees, or maybe it's Steward, but I hope they come along quickly. I still think Dials and Middleton can only handle that role in limited duty. Plus, we need both of them at that 2-guard spot. Secondly, Jeremiah Wood is going to need some help in the paint. McKnight needs to progress, and hopefully Sweich will give us some much-needed size. If this all goes well, I think we have a chance to be better than we were this year. But those are some pretty big IFS.

Yep...I'm not as old as Jack Lengyel, but I do know about his legacy. Actually, you still see him around here from time to time being honored for something or another. He's held in pretty high esteem here as a distinguished and successful alum.Has anyone else seen the movie? I loved it. Great story. I was still a teenager when that happened, but I do remember it.There is actually a part in that movie where Matthew McConaghy, who is playing Jack Lengyel, mentions AKRON. I almost jumped out of my seat in the theatre. There is even a clip at the end, where it talks about Marshalls future success in football, where it shows Byron Leftwich getting carried down the field during that game where he broke his leg at the Rubber Bowl. For those of you who don't know this part of the story, Jack Lengyel had a hand in us getting Mike Bobinski as our athletic director. Bobinski was an assistant AD to Lengyel at Army at the time, and Jack recommended him for the job at Akron. I didn't like Bobinski at all, but I just thought I'd share another part of Lengyel's connection to Akron.

Great Point. If this was a pre-season series, it really could have helped.I deal with the press all of the time in my line of work. It's always, of course, their call on when they want to do a story, and what they want it to be about. But the school can always do some lobbying too I also know several Zips fans who actually send e-mails to the newspapers as well, encouraging them to give Akron more coverage.

Nav. I think I see where you're going with this. If the tiebreaker is what everyone thinks it is, and Toledo wins out to secure the #1 spot, then it appears that Can't has the upper hand for the #2 seed since they were the only team to beat Toledo. Does that sound right?And if that happens, I would then want Akron to be the #4 instead of the #3. That way, we'll play Toledo in the Semis.

I see some good points here. Of course, there's always room for improvement.Sure, this area is full of fair-weather fans.But I will say this. I commend the efforts of some of you folks to establish and build a student cheering organization. And Steve French was talking about you guys all night, so you must be making an impact. If can get that kind of support on the road, you're getting somewhere.

Behind the opposing bench would be the best place for you guys.

No. The numbers are good to see. Thanks Big Zip.If we can find a way to match the 80's excitement (as Zip81 states), I hope that we can indeed still grow the attendance to surpass what it was back then. I'm just still quite frustrated after what I thought would to be a very very special year for us, attendance wise. I sure hope that the only difference is that we are still a year or two away. And I still believe that we need to start filling some of the lower reserved seats, with students or whoever, to eliminate the embarrassment of the all the no-shows (which by the way, are included in our attendance numbers). If those seats had people in them that were into the game like the people on the ends (or anything close to that), the game experience would be more electric for everyone, and it would make people more excited about coming back.On several occassions this year, I took clients that were not Zips fans (and hoped to convert them), and they seemed bored. They expected more noise, and people on their feet more often. Although, I am sure I am preaching to the choir on this point.