1981 grad

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.

When Akron was down 10 late in the second half KD call timeout and I saw Big Dog shouting at his teammates who all seemed to have their heads down. The next play he got the ball and he put the ball in the basket. This team showed a lot of heart. I thought the key play was when Antino made a runner with about 4 minutes left. That was the only time during the game that a guard penetrated the zone. He then made a three and we were on our way. I think he went 4 of 11 shooting and all his made baskets came in the last 5 minutes. We were missing a lot of open three shots. Hopefully, they will start falling tomorrow. I saw a replay of the Reggie's last foul and it was a charge and not a foul on Reggie. It would have been bad if we would have lost this game on a bad call by the ref. Go Zips.

Even though we loss that is still one of my favorite games. The Jar was rocking. The other game I distinctly remember was our loss against VCU at home. Zeke made to clutch free throws to take the lead and then we loss on a buzzer beater

John Groce, another former Ohio coach is having a difficult time with the Illinois program. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/14907619/illinois-fighting-illini-ad-gives-vote-confidence-basketball-coach-john-groce

KD indicated on the post game show that the No. 1 seed was given the early game to give them the most rest and an advantage over the rest of the field. He stated that a couple of years ago Kent was the one seed and played the late game every night that worked to their disadvantage.

Our guards did a better job of attacking the rim tonight. We had some nice drives to the basket. Defensively, Kent did not expect the double team under the basket and it seemed to confuse them. In the first 10 minutes they killed us on the offensive boards but in the second half Kent had very few offensive rebounds. We certainly controlled the second half and force them into several turnover. Noah had a great second half and I thought made the difference in the game. It was also great to see Jimmond score 9 points. We will need him and Arron Jackson to play well if we are going to win 3 games in 3 days. I heard Noah on the post game show and he is a very intelligent guy. I give him a lot of credit coming back from knee surgery. It seemed that his defense was much better tonight against the dribble drive. Looking forward to the game on Thursday.

Congratulations to our seniors. They are the epitome of a student athlete and represent the best of the University of Akron. I think Kent will see a different team than they did at Kent. Aaron Jackson and Jimond Ivey were not part a part of the regular lineup when we played in Kent and I think they are more athletic and out team will play better defense than what we saw in Kent. Also, Reggie had a bad shooting night at Kent and he has been on fire. I think we will see more dribble drives from our players. On defense KD will do everything he can to force Kent to shoot from the outside so we do not give up the dribble drive. I think we will also see more intensity from the players than we saw at Kent where they seemed very flat. Go Zips!

Winning the MAC is the goal and I hope we do it this year. However, losing in the finals of the MAC and playing in the NIT would not be a bad thing. We should get 1 or 2 home games bringing in good non conference competition into the Jar. (a first for the season) This team could make a run and get to New York whereas the NCAA would be more likely a one and done since we have yet to win a game in this tournament.

I have been waiting 3 years for Kwan to have a breakout game like tonight. He played smart the entire game. No moving screens, no turnovers, great defense and a rebounding machine. It always amazes me with this team when somebody gets hurt, it seems to motivate another player to step up. With Pat out, Kwan put on the big boy pants and had a career game. He just seems to be playing with more confidence. We certainly seemed to have more energy tonight with 18 offensive boards and we had 12 more shots than Ohio. We shot 46% from 3 land and had 18 assist. It was a great game to be a Zips fan. I agree that the refs let a lot of stuff go but it was nice playing without the constant whistles. Reggie had a great first half. He seems to thrive at the Jar. Jimond played well and I would still like him to get more time on the court. I think we did catch a break having a Friday game whereas Ohio had an overtime game on Sat and then had to travel to Akron. They just didn't seem to have any energy in the second half. I hope we can crush Kent on Friday and keep our record perfect at home. Go Zips.!!

I think it will be a sellout with many people coming early because Lebron in an Akron uniform will be popular and people may see it as a collector item. If they distribute it at half time the crowd will probably thin at the half. I hope I am wrong on this but it would not surprise me.

I hope that this is not true because it would be a terrible way to end his senior season. It seem that every time it looks like Pat is going to have a break through season and injury always seems to impede his career. Last year at the end of his best season he had an injury that limited his time. This year he started strong and again had to play through injuries. I still hope that he gets on the court even if it is only for a few minutes. With Pat out I am a big Jimond Ivey fan. With his athleticism and jumping ability I still think he is a better rebounder and rim protector than our other guards and even some of our forwards. He had a great dunk at the end of the game. KD needs to let his dribble drive from the top of the key after spreading the floor. Right now KD has him on the wing as a substitute for Reggie. I hope to see him more on the floor tonight and would like to see him score double digits.

Why an 8 start? The game is only being streamed and is not being televised?

The only thing I remember is that the refs added time to the clock and gave us .2 or .4 seconds to score inbounding the ball from under our own basket. It made no sense. I also remember watching the NIT selection show and they showed that shot and talked about how some teams were upset in the conference finals. They then did not select Akron for the NIT. I think we got some national press over that snub and that may have led to the rule change about conference champions getting an automatic bid.

Thanks for the memories. I just watched the video of the game winning shot and still wonder if the clock operator had started on time whether it would have counted. It is weird in that we had a second controversial loss in a championship game when we tried to miss a foul shot and it looked like Zeke tipped the ball in and we tied the game. Instead, they looked at the replay and ruled the shot went in without a tip and we lost the game. I always wondered whether that play was reviewable.

The Zips came out with a great deal of intensity and had 11 steals tonight. Reggie could not miss and had 21 points in the first half. We also outrebounded Bowling Green by 10 and they had only 3 offensive boards. We had 21 assist to 10 turnovers. Kwan really played well from the inside. It seemed like the team made a concerted effort to take the ball to the hoop. KD indicated that Jimond and Aron Jackson are back in the rotation and they both played 14 minutes. I think that is a smart move since I think at times this team looked tired at the end of the last 2 games. I liked it at the end of the game where they spread the floor and let Jimond drive on his man from the top of the key for an explosive dunk. I see him on the wing but I think he is much better from the top of the key when the middle is kept open. If we can bring the same intensity to the next 2 games we will win the MAC regular season. Go Zips!

Considering that we have lost 3 out of 4 and just lost by 10 to the last place team that we crushed at home, I think this will be a hard fought game. The last 2 games have exposed an offensive problem if teams do not double Big Dog and stay with the outside shooters. Our inside out game is Kaput. We need players to dribble drive to the basket to create space for the outside shooters. We need more than 8 assists and we need to find open looks for Reggie and Jake. I still think that Jimond can help this team if we spread the floor and allow him to drive to the basket. Obviously, KD has no faith in him but desperate times call for desperate measures. This is probably the biggest game of the season in that we need to show that we can handle a defense that does not double down on Big Dog. Go Zips!!

This is a weakness of this team. I cannot remember the last time a guard stripped the ball from an opposing player and went in for a layup or anticipated a pass and went in for a layup. I always thought that Quincy Diggs was a good player at anticipating a pass, stealing the ball and finishing a fast break.

I did not hear KD on the post game. But we do have a player who can penetrate and create his own shot and his name is Jimond Ivey. He has a skill set of being quick, athletic, and being able to dribble drive. He played terrible at the Buffalo game and KD yanked him after 4 minutes after his man drove past him twice and he committed a turnover. KD did not play him in the Kent game. The first thing he did when he got into the game last night at the 10 minute mark was take a jumper from the top of the key early in the shot clock. My internet went down for a couple of minutes and when I turned it on he was out of the game. He never played again until the game was out of reach. Jimond has to understand he is in the game to attack the rim, not take jumpers. This team desperately needs his skill set of attacking the rim. ( I know some of you have already given up on Jimond but I also remember people giving on Deji early in his career with Akron) What is most frustrating about last night is that it was a carbon copy of the Kent game. We had only 8 assists. Big Dog had a big night with 21 points. Reggie and Jake did not get any good looks and only took 8 shots. Noah could not penetrate and scored only 5 points. Kwan played well but picked up stupid offensive fouls for moving screens. Our players cannot penetrate even when Big Dog sets a screen. (Reggie had a costly turnover in Kent coming off a Big Dog screen) We were tied near the end of the game and then Miami pulled away when the game was tied. KD loves Noah's game of being a field general playing under control and directing our attack. But right now this team does not needs a general to guide our offense but a grunt who will attack the basket. We still can win out and get the number one seed but we need to do something different than the last 2 games. Go Zips!