1981 grad

Great point. He is a streak shooter. Meanwhile, Scott has really shot the ball well the last 2 games and has filled this gap. I am amazed at how much better he is playing this year. Not only is he shooting better but ten times better attacking the basket.

The game has a 6:00 P.M Sat. starting time and is being nationally broadcast on ESPN 2. I hope there is a big crowd at the arena when the Zips used to fill the Ozone over a decade ago. The Zips can hopefully bring their A game and show to the nation that we are a talented team. Maybe a good showing on national TV and the nations longest winning streak can get us that elusive one vote in the national polls.

When you look at Bowen and Seth's shots, they were not off a pass but often quick shots from distance that seemed hurried. Nobody cares when they go in but they looked rushed.

Do you think the Zips are feeling the pressure of the winning streak or is it just a bunch of guys who are not used to playing a whole season wearing down at the end of the season? This was the worst game we have played all season.

Shammah Scott hit the shot of the game. We shot 23% from 3. Our outside shooting has gone south. A lot of the long distance shots were not even close.

Young with a couple of nice plays to get the team going. Need to build this lead back to double digits.

That last play where the ball was bouncing on the ground and 3 Akron players just watched and a Norther Illinois player picked up the ball and took it up for a layup is just indicative of how this team is approaching the game tonight. They know that Northern Illinois sucks and just going through the motions. And that is why it is a close game. She need to play hard to win.

Every game when we needed a basket we would go to Nate. Lets hope he starts off hot in the 2nd half. We need to play some decent basketball in the 2nd half. Northern Illinois played terrible in the first 10 minutes and we simply did not keep the pedal on the metal.

Speak about playing down to the competition. Everything is looking bad for Akron. Terrible shooting and some bad defense and turnovers. Need to right the ship in the second half.

Who knew that when this board was created many moons ago that instead of talking about zones, presses, defenses, rebounding, and my favorite, terrible refs, we would be discussing over-under, parlays, and the money line. Actually, I am fine with it since anything that draws interest in Akron basketball is a positive. There is no question that gambling on college sports has drawn more interest in college sports. There is a reason that ESPN is broadcasting almost every college basketball game this year no matter how bad the teams. However, it does very little to put butts in the JAR and may even reduce attendance since it is so easy to watch tonight's game on ESPN instead of braving the cold to honor Freeman. If anyone has any ideas how an interest on betting on the Zips could increase attendance, would love to hear them.

I find it amazing that this thread is 28 pages long and it started 3 years ago when Capt. Kangaroo thought Freeman might be a top 10 player in Akron history even though he was only in his 2nd year: "I think when all is said and done, Freeman’s numbers will merit a Top 10 all time ranking. He’s only going to get bigger and better. And he’s not going to do something stupid to curtail a great career." The discussion then compared Freeman's game to other great Akron players and I commented at that time that as a 2nd year player it was still to early to tell if he was as good as if not better than the other great Akron players. With his jersey going to the rafters, I certainly think he was the most dominant Akron player that I have seen since watching the Zips. The only negative is that he did not bring us that elusive win in the NCAA tournaments. I still go back to that game against UCLA when the refs called a very questionable illegal screen on him and fouled him out of the game to protect the blue blood UCLA and made sure they got the win. Worst call in Akron history.

That play also stood out for me. I noticed last year when Nate came back from injury he started throwing some bad passes and I thought it was just him getting back to the speed of the game. This year he has been simply amazing. His jumper is almost unstoppable and every time we need a clutch basket he seems to come up big and stop a run by the opposing team. However, he still has those one or two dumb passes. He was the only one who could score at the beginning of the game and kept us close. Every player has their one minor flaw and I guess with Nate it will be the ill timed pass.

This is one of those games that we all worried about when the Zips go cold from distance. In this game we only shot 28% from 3 but we shot 50% from the field. In other words, we won this game by finding another way to score which is what good teams do when their shots are not falling from distance. I think we have the 2 best point guards in the league but they had off nights going 2 of 11 from the field with 4 turnovers. Young had 2 in 12 minutes. These stats surprised me: We complained about the refs but both teams shot the same number of foul shots. We are usually on the losing end of that battle. I thought we got outrebounded but we were basically dead even on rebounds. I thought this game was over late but Central Michigan made 2 late three pointers and we had 2 turnovers in the last 90 seconds. We also had a dumb foul in the last 16 seconds in the back court which allowed them to score with the clock stopped. So basically 3 bad plays in the last 90 seconds. Looking forward to Freeman night and a home win on Tuesday.

That last basket is a reason I will never bet on sports. (LOL)

Lyles has been so good around the hoop and then cannot catch the ball. Tevari cannot make a 3 tonight. We need to come up big in the last 2 minutes.

The announcers keep saying they only have 7 players. Makes me wonder is that 7 scholarship players or just 7 players. They are starting to accumulate a lot of fouls. I never thought I would say this but Hardman had back to back outstanding defensive plays. Scott with the slam!!!!

We played a bad half of basketball and we are only down 3 points. Hopefully, Groce can explain that victories are earned and not given. There were several times that the zips were on the wrong end of the hustle plays. Need to do better.

mediocre officiating? We have been at the bad end of several calls but that is no excuse. The Zips need to step it up!!!

Marvin and Okonkwo on at the same time. Must be our big team!!

The Zips start out cold and the refs are not doing them any favors. That was an obvious charge and TJ looked like he got fouled taking the ball to the hoop and no call.

The home teams won 4 out of 5 this weekend with Buffalo being the only home team to lose. Winning on the road in the MAC is always difficult. Love that the Zips will be challenged to buck the trend and get a win tonight. Looking forward to the game.

Thanks!!! I do remember the court storming because it obviously made an impression on me. Is it harder to imagine Norther Illinois beating a ranked team or that there were more than 5 people in the stands or that there was real excitement in the stands at an N. Illinois game. (See video, all 3 are true) It just reminds me that MAC basketball has lost a lot of its fan base. We are undefeated in MAC play, and we struggle to fill half the Jar. Back in 2018-2019 having an undefeated MAC team or ranked team would draw butts in the seats. I will be curious to see the attendance at Central Michigan.

I remember Akron have a very long winning streak and my memory was that we lost at Buffalo. It was the 2012-2013 season and the streak went to 19 games and then we lost 2 of out last 2 of 3 to Buffalo and Kent in the regular season. We made the NCAA and only had to play 2 games because of the byes and then we got killed by VCU in Detroit when illness hit the team. I also remember another MAC team having a long winning streak, Kent or Buffalo? and that the streak ended I believe at Norther Illinois and the students stormed the court. It bugs me so if anyone can help I would like to know the team with the streak and where it stopped.

I do not know that but I was hoping that the people on this board had more sense than to hire Rob Ianello or Tom Arth. I did know a faculty member and was surprised to learn that was he was on a search committee for a coach. During the process he told me that Akron had found an amazing coach and used every superlative in the book about how this person was going to lead Akron to success. The coach was Caleb Porter. Not only was Caleb a great coach, but my kids played soccer and he was amazing with the kids and took time to speak to the parents at his summer soccer camp. Not surprising that the great coaches are people who relate well to others no matter the context of the relationship.

I remember that thread where people on this board indicated that he had a bad record at Tennessee Chattanooga and that people at that school were happy to be rid of him and that it was a bad hire especially since we had to pay them to get him. It is a shame that somebody from this board cannot be on the search committee next time we need to hire a football coach.