1981 grad

We had 12 men on the field last week several times. At that juncture should have used a timeout and not given them a free play. Has anyone else noticed how quickly this game is being played as compared to last week when CBS did the sports coverage. I think they add an hour to the game based on the number of commercials. It is nice to watch a game in 3 hours. Also, great feed!

The strategy was clear: Our defense is so bad he did not want to give the ball back to Ball State if we did not convert on 3rd down since we were on our own end of the field. He did not want to be down 24-7 at half time. Our bad defense now dictates our offense. This is also the reason he did not go for it on fourth down. Against Appalachian State, Western Michigan and Ball State, this game is the first time we have seen the opposing kicker in the first half. That is the definition of bad defense.

I went to the game today. I did not expect us to win but I expected us to compete. We did not compete. Dropped passes, missed tackles, costly penalties and poor throws. We did not have a first down the first quarter. Our defense was bad. They spread out the receivers and kept throwing quick screen and they have 3 receivers to our 2 defenders and one of the defenders is 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Their running back had a career high as he ran over our defense. It reminded me of Appalachian State where they spread the field and we cannot stop their offense. I believe our defense will be weak all season against decent teams like Appalachian State and Western Michigan.

I was sitting on the VMI side on the fifty yard line and their coach was pissed at Bowden when the game was over and we kept throwing the ball downfield trying to score. He was staring at Bowden across the field the last series and his body language was what the heck are you doing. He ran over from the sideline in record time to get in Bowdens face as soon as the game was over. Akron had a great fireworks display at the end of the game. I am glad I stayed for it. The sound system sucks. Every time they play a song with any bass with it all you hear is distorted static. You would think that somebody would check that out before the season began. As with most posters, was not impressed with Akron football. Way to many penalties and their defense was suspect. The VMI back caught several passes out of the backfield and you would think that somebody would eventually cover him.

I think KD is a great coach and we have first class student athletes at Akron. But the last 2 games were frustrating since I think we should have won both games if we played anywhere near our midseason form or how we played at home. When you look at the last 2 losses, you see that the team went away from what was working. In the last 2 games there was very little if any penetration from anyone. Everything was from the perimeter or from Big Dog. In the Buffalo game we shot only 2 foul shots the entire game and that was in the first minute. In the Ohio State game, Big Dog has 16 foul shots, Antino 3 and Big Dog 1. Basically we had almost no penetration from any of our guards except maybe Antino. Ivey played 5 minutes total the last 2 games. We have 3 small guards that are not very athletic, (Antino has some quickness) not good rebounders, do not box out well and have a difficult time penetrating to the basket. They are good passers, good shooters, and do not turn the ball over. However, when they do not shoot well, we are not going to win many games. I would liked to see Jimond play the 2 guard instead of the wing to take advantage of this ability to penetrate to the basket. Jimond played 5 minutes in our last 2 games and scored 4 points. Noah played 80 minutes in the last 2 games and scored 5 points. KD indicated he was going to play Jimond more and it just did not happen. For this team to reach the tournament we are going to have to win 3 games in 3 days. I remember after the Green Bay game how KD indicated that the team was tired and that is why they played so poorly. Kwan had a terrible game at Green Bay. Well the same thing happened at the Q. We need to learn to play tired, We need to have some back to back games. We had some great wins away in the middle of the season at Ball State and at Ohio. However, at the end of the season we lost at Kent and at Miami. We did not peak at the end of the season. KD is a great coach for Akron but this season was a season of 2 lost opportunities. Lets learn from our losses and get our first tournament win next year. Go Zips!

This was the night to take down Ohio State and we just cannot get over the hump. We scored 5 points in the last 5 minutes of overtime and 1 point in overtime. Very similar to the Buffalo game when we could not execute down the stretch. Noah had another 30 minute 5 point game just like Buffalo. Our guards were horrible tonight shooting a combined 7 for 27 and 2 for 18 from 3 land. Our guards are great shooters but that is about it. When their shots are not falling they cannot consistently drive to the basket. KD loves Noah and he is a great kid but I expect the lead point guard in big games to play big. These losses would not hurt so much if we had played well.

We cannot close out games. We had our chances but came up short once again. Jake had another turnover in clutch time. Antino took a quick 3 instead of playing through Big Dog. Antino missed a foul shot on a one on one. Good teams find a way to win in big games. We just could not do it.

Need to play the ball through Big Dog. Bad shot by Antino

We need guys to penetrate. Our guards dribbles left and right and right and left but cannot penetrate. Same thing against Buffalo. Good to see a couple of layups and kickouts after penetration. I still question why KD does not play Jimond since he is one guy that can dribble drive. Makes no sense to me. Great to see Kwan score.

Start Kwan and Big Dog together. Take Aron out of the starting lineup. We could use the extra rebounding.

I am hoping that KD will start Big Dog and forget about the starting lineup of Kwan, Aron Jackson, Noah, Antino and Reggie. In the Buffalo game that lineup gave us a combined 7 points in the first five minutes of the game and the first five minutes of the second half. For whatever reason KD has a history of bringing his best players off the bench and not starting them whether it is Q or last year Deji. Kwan had a bad tournament going 4 of 24 and I would take some pressure off of him by not starting him at center. I know we risk getting Big Dog in early foul trouble but I think it is worth the risk.

I agree 100%. Let win in Columbus and win the NIT.

This was "the team" we had the last part of the season and "the team" that blew out Bowling Green, Ohio and Kent for the last 3 games. Watch the first 5 minutes of the second half and still tell me this was a great college game. The last 5 minutes were almost as bad when we kept turning the ball over. We did not play well and I will even quote our assistant coach, the better team did not win. Our guards could not penetrate and we had only one layup by Noah the entire game. We shot only 2 foul shots the entire game and that was in the first minute. I think KD would admit he should have started Big Dog in the second half. My only point is we should not complain about missing the big dance or even our seeding in the NIT since we made our own destiny.

I agree. I know Kd is just backing his team but if we could not beat Buffalo in a virtual home game there is no room to complain about being left out of the NCAA tournament.

I agree that we played hard and gave it everything we had but I do not believe we had a good game. We were bad at boxing out and let Buffalo have to many offensive rebounds. We were unable to penetrate and forced to shoot jump shots off the dribble instead of off the pass. Noah had 2 points in 37 minutes and went 0 for 4 from 3 point land. Kwan went 2 for 10. We had the lead with 2 minutes to go and then gave the ball up on a crucial turnover, gave up an offensive rebound and committed a dumb foul that meant we would not have a chance to tie the game. In the tournament game we need to play our best game and it simply did not happen. We need to play better if we are going to win in Columbus. Go Zips!

I hate to be an optimist but I hope the NCAA will give us a home game against Ohio State. Our RPI is 34 and we just lost the tournament final on a last second shot. Ohio State has a RPI of 74 and lost by 27 in the quarterfinals of their tournament. Most importantly, I think the sell out at Kent State, the small arena atmosphere, and the enthusiasm we had at the Kent State game may persuade ESPN that a game in Akron may make for better TV than a half empty arena at Ohio State. I believe Ohio State coming to Akron would be great for the program and would be a sellout. A win against the Buckeyes would be even better.

It hurts more, just like it hurt on the Plano shot, or the loss to Ohio U on a disputed tip shot. However, I also experienced the championship against Kent when Zeke blocked 10 shots and was named MVP, and the other 2 championships. I also experienced a great come back this year against Eastern Michigan this year when half of this board gave up on the Zips. KD has brought good basketball to Akron. With that comes highs and lows. It is better to enjoy the highs and suffer from the last point losses than not care at all.

Has the quality of basketball been better or worse the past decade?

Anybody who wants to replace KD has not sat through the Hipsher and Coleman Crawford years of Akron Basketball. We would not even have this board because the basketball was so bad that nobody even cared. KD has given us good basketball teams for the past decade. Not only that, he graduates most of his players. The ones that don't graduate have nobody to blame but themselves. Remember, he does not get the pick of the litter when recruiting. This team did a good job of representing the U and lost on a buzzer beater. We are lucky to have Kd.

I agree. Kwan had a bad last game. But this was there 3rd game in 3 days. Last year we may some dumb plays in our game with Buffalo and KD indicated that playing multiple games can make you tired not only physically, but also mentally. One of Kwan's worst games this year was at Green Bay at the end of a long road swing. He wanted to have a good game tonight and just lost it mentally on offense. Hopefully, he will grow from the experience. We will need him if we are going to made a run in the NIt.

Tough loss. We had a 3 point lead and just did not execute in the last 2 minutes. I just watched the last play and Kwan did a good job defending. We had 3 guys in the lane defending the dribble drive and they had a kick out. Kwan closed and put a hand in the shooters face. Shots happen. I agree that it would have been great strategy to foul with a couple seconds left because we were not in the penalty. KD could have taken his last time out to tell his players to do this but saved the timeout. The foul by Antino at the end was not a good foul but the only reason we came back was Antino hitting some great shots. The long 3 that was a miss and led to an offensive rebound and then they tied us. All of our guys were going to the rim. The long rebound killed us. Big Dogs last layup just hung on the rim and would not fall in. Sometimes the bounces just do not go your way. We certainly did not play our best ball and it took a last second shot to beat us. I feel bad for our seniors.

I know that this view is not popular but if we cannot beat Buffalo in our back yard we really do not belong in the NCAA tournament. We got beat by some bad teams in conference play that did not make it to the final four or to Cleveland. I think if we had a 30 win season we may have had an argument. We need to beat Buffalo to earn our way into the tournament. Go Zips!

Buffalo looked really good last night and if we are going to get to the big dance we are going to have to earn it. KD had really relied on a 7 man rotation and I wonder if we will be fresh tonight to stay with Buffalo. We have not played our best game and we will need that tonight to win. Last night I saw Reggie drive on his man forcing somebody to come over to the lane and Reggie hit the open man. We need to drive on this team to create some open looks. Big Dog has carried the Zips and we will need him to have a big game. Kwan has been a little off on his offensive game and would love to see him hit double figures. Josh was a non factor last night. If he is hurt would like to see Jimond get some more time. He is our most athletic player and not sure why KD keeps him on the bench. Everyone on the team needs to rebound if we are going to win this one. Looking forward to the game tonight. Go Zips!!

We got killed on the boards tonight. We have to do a better job boxing out and be more aggressive getting rebounds. They had 14 offensive rebounds to our 4. Last year Kwan had 2 bank shot 3 balls in the tournament. Tonight he thought the banks were open. They were not. Big Dog was amazing out there. If we win tomorrow he should get the MVP of the tournament. KD kept indicating that he was going play 9. He only played Jimond 3 minutes. I was surprised because we need to keep guys fresh. It was good that Big Dog only played 25 minutes. Jimond is an athletic player who can rebound. We need him off the bench. Buffalo looked really good in the second game and they are playing their best ball now. We need to play much better if we are going to beat them tomorrow. We need to shoot 40-50% from the 3 line tomorrow and play physical defense and rebound! Go Zips!

No way, I am sure it was instinctive with time running out that players call timeout. It turned out to be the best thing to do for Eastern Michigan and gave them one last chance to win the game. Who knew they changed the rule where it one only one T and we did not get possession of the ball.