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I just told my wife already this morning that if I could pick a time to go, I'd want it to be right after a victory over Kent. How fitting for such a big fan.

You mean, like last year? OU and Buffalo on the other side, a #4 CMU team on our side that was barely .500, and we got a gift being able to play #12 BG in the Semis because they upset CMU. I used to like ending up in the #3 spot years ago, back when the bad champ from the West Div. was given an automatic #2. But right now, the lack of depth in our league is making #1 clearly the best spot again.

Please Zips, no Deja Vu from 2016 if EMU is our Quarterfinal opponent again.

I like it. But as French pointed out, we will have to play a WMU team that's won 8 in a row in the Semis.

Beat Buffalo on the Road. Beat Kent on the Road. Finish the season 2-3 ??? WTF!!! I hope this means we play our best in the toughest situations. On to Cleveland !!!

Hopefully they handle it as poorly as we did.

That might be the post of the year thus far.

We've seen more outlandish excuses on this board.

That's the way I was leaning. And that's the sad part.

Well, I guess "close the season on a good note" now comes down to only one game. The last time I clearly remember winning there was in 2007 when Little Dru fouled out and Dials had to play the point through overtime, and had a nice dish at the end to Jeremiah for the winning basket. A very exciting game to watch. That was the game where LeBron was in attendance cheering for the Zips, and our radio guys commented that it was the first time they had ever seen him get booed in NE Ohio. I guess the Kent fans didn't like it. Here's the Box Score: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/game?gameId=270632309 Actually, that was a really exciting year for the Kent/Akron rivalry because we beat them again a few days later in Cleveland in the Semifinal after being down something like 14 at the half?

Did someone have such little knowledge of Jerome JR. that they thought he was referring to his DAD when they responded??

Really bad. This confirms what I've seen for so many years. The University as a whole isn't paying much attention to what's going on in Athletics.

I think you could be right that this is what's causing his very visible frustration right now. I hope he turns a new page and gets focused on nothing but helping the Zips win games over the next couple of weeks. We'll need him.

You actually have a point there. The student attendance should be better, vs. a game the Friday after Thanksgiving when everyone has left campus. But the chance for this to be any kind of money-maker is shot, compared to the Oct. 1 afternoon game that Kent got last year.

Here's the catch: We NEED the money. And I won't get into the whole diatribe concerning the absolute necessity to get outside money if you are a "lower level" D-1A program in this day and age. But, other than that, I agree with everything you're saying........including the fact that these weekday games, in the long term, could have some negative drawbacks as well. Here's The Key: Tight camera shots of the fans

Unfortunately, there isn't going to be any boat-rocking because there's a contract in place that allows this to happen, and there's a pretty nice amount of money that our members' athletic departments all need that's being delivered in exchange for that contractual agreement.

1) Just because a new player in limited action has been delivered the ball in the post in that fashion shouldn't be any reason to believe that this is all he can do. 2) Forget about his jumping ability for a moment. If you watch more closely, he's repeatedly setting screens and then quickly rolling off of those screens and beating his defender to a new spot near the basket. That's how he's creating the spacing for us to be able to execute that play in a tight 5-on-5 situation. We should be overjoyed that we have someone who can do that. That's rare in a Zips uniform.

I think this will be the greatest impact. For sure. Anyone who looks at the schedule will hesitate to buy all the home games. And that's a great guaranteed source of income. But the Kent game specifically still pisses me off. Kent got an ideal spot last year and drew over 20,000 to help their averages, and make some money. We'll get almost NO additional walk-up purchases on a Tuesday night of Thanksgiving week, in addition to dissuading many season ticket renewals/new purchases because of that game alone. It's really unbelievable.

I think this is a testament to how high expectations have risen for Akron Basketball during the Dambrot era.....the fact that a 301-137 record is being called "respectable". I wonder how we'd be talking about football if we had won 2/3 of our games over the last 13 years? I think some would say we'd be ecstatic. But that's only because we aren't at that point. If we were at that point, I'm sure the daily comments would look very similar.

No, not just October. October 1st......on a Saturday Afternoon.

That's already all been pointed out. No Bench and no PG. And really no Guards at all except Betancourt with a sick Walsh, and no Alex or Deji. How do you suppose we were to operate against an all-night pressing team with no depth and no guards? Think what you want about how that game would have turned out. I don't care. But, our two previous games against VCU were a 4 point loss on the road, and a 1 point overtime loss at home just a year earlier.

Amen to that. They got a Saturday Afternoon on Oct 1st. This is ridiculous.

Walsh and Forsythe both got food poisoning the night before, and at least one of them was getting an IV before the game. And Deji was out with back spasms. It went way beyond a starting PG.

This has been the key to the last 12 years. Other MAC teams have a few good players. We have a few good players plus the 2-3 more that we can make into something special. That keeps the continuity going, because those guys can eventually become starters. Our competitors have those few good players graduate, and then have to find a few more. He came here while already possessing a deep knowledge of the conference. And now he's been here a long time. He instantly has an advantage on every new coach who comes into this league.

In terms of the Conference Tournament success alone, I believe it's only Gonzaga with that consistency over that period of time.