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Antino !!!!!!!!

I think Josh might have spent the last 3 days shooting.

I'll be keeping an eye on that. It's just not good strategy if it happens very often. I think I've seen it way more than I expected, and it's probably due to a 3rd guy being in a convenient position to try to trap him for a turnover. I really don't think any coach ever has a strategy to put 3 defenders on 1 guy with any kind of frequency whatsoever. A strong guy who's a good passer like Big Dog will have open shooters all over the court all night long if he knows 3 guys are headed his way when he catches the ball. If they do it enough times for him to recognize that it's coming, they're being stupid.

Maybe tonight is too soon to consider this a major factor....but..... We played on Friday night. So an extra day of rest is in play here that wasn't the case if we had played on Saturday, like CMU. Long trip to DeKalb and back for them, and then literally only one day of rest. Maybe this is why we went up there early. And our guys have been at home in Akron since Christmas. We'll see.

It's a matter of opportunity. It's no different than a bright, young CEO seizing an opportunity to go to a major company for a ton of money. Or, a young actor or actress dying for an opportunity to finally land a major part in a big movie. Maybe all of these guys would have faded into oblivion if they never seized those opportunities when they had them. That's why most of them rarely reject the chance. But in the case of most of the guys listed above, I'd have to guess that we'd be be a darn powerful league right now if they had stayed.

I have to add this: It remains extremely puzzling to me if he's suddenly lost his ability to successfully coach a football team. Couldn't have happened, in my opinion. He's been far too successful, far too many times, at far too many places. But, he wouldn't be the first guy who "slipped" as they aged in their profession. Again, I will trust the leadership who hires and pays him to decide all of this. I know we probably all expected his coaching connections, recruiting connections, and his credibility as a Bowden to produce more than what it's produced, and sooner. I think next year is key, as many people have suggested. We need an answer as to whether progress was only temporarily halted with the injuries and late season collapse in 2016. If not, we will hopefully at least be searching for a solution.

Right. That would make no sense. They aren't going to take starters off the floor just to try to stop the Big Dog. The triple-teams are rather interesting. Keith talked about that a bit in his post-game on Friday, and I've seen it a few times myself. More than anything else, it wears out a post player. He's a big strong guy, but fighting through arms and bodies all night can be taxing. I'm sure they can create turnovers that way too. But ultimately, any coach is going to feel pretty confident in his offense's ability to get the ball to someone who can score when the rest of the floor is playing 4 on 2. If their short guards are having to try to run out from the paint to try to influence the 3 point shots, it could be a long night for CMU.

This will be a YUGE difference compared to going at it with WMU's size on the perimeter. We'll see how CMU performs on the court. But on paper, this kind of information usually equates to a good matchup for us right now. I'll hope for 20+ from the Big Dog, unless he's getting hammered on every shot, like he did on Friday.

This is actually a great question to Poll among the fans here, and elsewhere. If we had notched that 6th win, which certainly would have gotten us to a Bowl Game (some 5-win teams got in), would we have looked at this as a successful season? Would we have mostly celebrated the 2-straight bowl appearances? Or, would we have been disappointed that the 7 or 8 win season which looked very attainable at one point had nosedived. I can't answer for all fans, but most of the people I know had lost interest even before the OU game. They really didn't care if we became a .500 bowl team. Maybe the expectations after 2015 created that.

We all know the reality of our situation right now. But still, I can't believe anyone is debating about Les Miles successes. If he were to even remotely have an interest in Akron (if there was a vacancy) I'd pay to fly the Akron entourage to his home myself.

Even though I am all about integrity, etc., I have to say that I would love to enjoy a year here at Akron like they had at WMU this year.

I think that's what I am seeing too, and I hope I am wrong. But he certainly seems to be almost exclusively settling for the outside shot. Could be a lack of confidence putting the ball on the floor and beating people, and it could be coach's directions too. Could be a lot of things. But here's the deal: Having long range spot-up shooters isn't necessarily a bad thing, if they score like he is able to score. We've had them before. In fact, we just graduated two guys who spent the majority of their careers waiting out at the 3-point line waiting to shoot, and they both were able to do great things for us at times. More than anything else, I just hope he quickly shakes off the shooting difficulties he had last night. I really think he's just as capable of pouring in 20 points from his role under the same circumstances.

Bullseye. Not even worth the keystrokes for a discussion, guys.

Good Find. I also noticed that it mentioned that WMU never came close to filling its stadium this year. Amazing. There's definitely a ceiling on what a MAC program can attain in fan support. Some national relevance going into next year might have changed that for them. But, I expect a drop-off with the coaching change.

Hitler? No. Fleck? Yes. I'm sure it would be a Dream Come True for all of us to experience what WMU experienced this year.

Yes, that's tough to swallow. But many times, that team that matches up well with you may not be a "good team". They probably aren't. OU blasted them by 30+ a few night ago. I'm just hoping that we can just shoot a little better the next time we play them.

Well, this was the example that everyone was waiting for. What happens on a night when we shoot 24% from 3-point range? First of all, I think the size of WMU's perimeter players caused some problems for our Guards shooting the basketball. But we had to "play ugly" and grind this game out in the paint, and got it done......Thanks to the 11-0 run in the 2nd half that flipped the score from Down 6 to Up 5. Without that, we probably lose this game. Down the road, I think this team is just a tough matchup for us. They have the personnel to guard us at most every position. Thankfully, we found that Dog could use his girth in the paint to muscle in some baskets against their more "lanky" big guys.

Maybe he'll do that on a very cold, snowy day and fall on his a$$. That would surely make Sports Center highlights.

And avoids getting 2 early fouls the rest of the year.

How funny. Smart move.

That's the one offensive element that I was waiting to see develop. We have a guy like Ivey out there (along with Antino) who can get to the basket quickly. Utilizing that out of the Big Dog double-team adds another element to our offense. So, as many of us have mentioned, the key to this conference season may be if anyone has a big man who can handle Big Dog on their own.

The funniest thing about all of this would be if he does indeed take the Row The Boat theme to a place like Minneapolis...LOL Although....Minnesota is the land of 1,000 lakes.

I'm old, and remain a little bit "old school" on this debate. When I think about all of the crappy ass jobs I had to work to pay for school, all the financial sacrifices I had to make. the jalopy car I drove, and the 10 years of payments to a bank, I only wish that I was playing a sport and had my bills paid. I'm sure they do more than most people thing. But, Student/Athletes get one heck of a deal in exchange for participating in a sport (and tuition was much, much cheaper in my day). It may not be "free", but I don't feel sorry for them either.

My pleasure. Yes, the "Toothed Bird" laying an egg is very creative.

You're right.