Desired OOC Opponents?

[kreed5120]

28 minutes ago, dre22era said:

If we could have this schedule again today 

 

 

http://espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=233480153

 

That schedule looks good to me as long as we get those Radford and Hampton games at home. I feel at this point Akron is above playing those teams on the road.

[skip-zip]

At the very least, did we ever get a home game out of Radford and Hampton?  I sure hope so, but I don't recall.  Yes, if we agreed to play them on the road for just one game, I hope that would be completely unacceptable today. 

[The Hip Zip]

Just in Ohio and bordering States

 

OH-  Cincy, Dayton, OSU  Even Wright freaking St

Pa. - Pitt, Temple, St Joes Penn St 

Mich- Michigan, Oakland, Sparty

Ind- Purdue, ND, Valpo, Indiana,, Butler

Ky- 'Ville , Kentucky

 

I'd kill for just 3 games a season with any of them anywhere but acknowledge the fact that they have to want to play us too. That is the caveat,

[dre22era]

1 hour ago, skip-zip said:

At the very least, did we ever get a home game out of Radford and Hampton?  I sure hope so, but I don't recall.  Yes, if we agreed to play them on the road for just one game, I hope that would be completely unacceptable today. 

We played Hampton 3 straight seasons. 2 of the 3 at the JAR

Oh and guess who we also played 

[zippy_ua_00]

10 hours ago, skip-zip said:

 

I'm drawing a blank on any P5 teams ever coming to the JAR.  But when I think of RANKED teams, a couple come to mind.

Cleveland State in 1986

Xavier in 1996

Nevada in 2005 (Return bracket buster game)

VCU in 2011 (although I can't remember if they were actually in the Top 25 at that time)

 

I have to be forgetting someone.  Can anyone add to this?

 

 

 

Purdue came here and played during thr hipsher years

[skip-zip]

So we can add #25 Western Kentucky to the list, from 2001.

 

Interesting that Monmouth was on our schedule that year also, since they just got some talk as a possible NCAA participant this year. 

[Captain Kangaroo]

James Madison, ODU, George Washington...

 

The list of appealing teams to replace Coppin State and Arkansas Cream-Puff is long.

[Hilltopper]

4 hours ago, zippy_ua_00 said:

Purdue came here and played during thr hipsher years

Purdue came here because they had a local kid on their team who was promised a game in his home area as part of his recruitment. It wasn't much of a risk for Keady because we sucked and had no chance of beating them.

[GJGood]

3 hours ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

James Madison, ODU, George Washington...

 

The list of appealing teams to replace Coppin State and Arkansas Cream-Puff is long.

It is. I wouldn't mind seeing a good Ivy League school like Columbia or a good mid-major like Northeastern come in from that part of the country. I also would love to see IPFW come in here for payback from the CiT a couple years ago. It also couldn't hurt to get a MVC team to agree to a home-and-home.

[Steve1982]

Any A10 or MVC games would be an improvement. The MAC in general needs to schedule higher levels or it will always be a one invite league. How about Akron and Cant team up and schedule (ie.) Northern Iowa and Drake on a Thursday/Saturday in Iowa, then the next year in Ohio? That would give all 4 teams potentially 2 wins over quality opponents and could be done for small travel dollars.

[kreed5120]

6 minutes ago, Steve1982 said:

Any A10 or MVC games would be an improvement. The MAC in general needs to schedule higher levels or it will always be a one invite league. How about Akron and Cant team up and schedule (ie.) Northern Iowa and Drake on a Thursday/Saturday in Iowa, then the next year in Ohio? That would give all 4 teams potentially 2 wins over quality opponents and could be done for small travel dollars.

I feel it should be a program by program basis. No need for a program like Miami, whose fallen on hard times, to schedule a bunch of opponents they have little to no chance of beating. Akron's schedule is great for a program that is trying to establish itself and a culture of winning, but it has outgrown it.

[bUAkronG]

Looking back at the 06-07 season I saw that that was the year we faced #25 Nevada at the JAR. Dru Joyce had a chance to tie at the buzzer but missed.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recap?gameId=263562006

Also, apparently former Cavalier Ramon Sessions was on that Nevada team. I didn't know that.

[BirdZip]

Review the season-ending RPI rankings for the last 10 years.  Generate a list of which teams finished in the Top 50 the most times and rank them from most to least.  You can weight more recent years more heavily if desired.  Start a the top of the list, eliminating teams like Duke or Kansas that don't make sense for us to play too often, and schedule as many of those teams as you can.  I didn't go through the exercise, but I'm sure those who do this for a living could and come up with a schedule that gives us a good number of opportunities to get Top 50 wins without being too ridiculous.

 

Alternatively, just don't bring back Coppin State.

[Blue & Gold]

1 hour ago, BirdZip said:

Review the season-ending RPI rankings for the last 10 years.  Generate a list of which teams finished in the Top 50 the most times and rank them from most to least.  You can weight more recent years more heavily if desired.  Start a the top of the list, eliminating teams like Duke or Kansas that don't make sense for us to play too often, and schedule as many of those teams as you can.  I didn't go through the exercise, but I'm sure those who do this for a living could and come up with a schedule that gives us a good number of opportunities to get Top 50 wins without being too ridiculous.

 

Alternatively, just don't bring back Coppin State.

 

Sounds like a good idea to me.  

 

I think last night's game clearly demonstrated that KD needs to toughen this team up a bit in the OOC.  

 

We lost to an extremely youthful (only 1 Senior and 1 Junior on their roster  )...

...and depleted (their top 2 leading scorers were both in street clothes  )... 

...7th place B1G team 

 

We're not as good as we think we are. 

Edited March 16, 2016 by Blue & Gold

[Let'sGoZips94]

2 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

We're not as good as we think we are. 

Not sure if this is in reference to the team thinking that or us as fans, but I want to add I wonder if Dambrot isn't as good as he thinks he is, at least not yet. And that's not a slam on Dambrot, as I completely respect his loyalty to the program and what he has accomplished. But I do think he has a lot of areas where even he can still improve. His offense showed flashes of improvement this year with movement on and off the ball. But as we talk about the team needing to play tougher opponents OOC to toughen the players up, I think the same applies to Dambrot. The difference is instead of toughening up, Dambrot would have his eyes opened to new strategies, styles of play, players, etc. I think he takes bits and pieces here and there from other teams already, but he lacks the experience against them. When Shaka Smart had VCU on top, it was because of their guard play/HAVOC. Dambrot tried to adopt a bit of HAVOC, but it largely failed because of our lack of guard play/guards in general. I think that's why we now have 3 great, young guards and I'm sure more are on the way. But I don't know if he realized how far away he was from the real HAVOC until we got our butts handed to us in Auburn Hills by VCU.

 

Just some food for thought as we discuss playing tougher, different competition.

[Dr Z]

Elton Alexander writes the Zips need to play a better schedule. Sound familiar? 

 

"...To even be considered ... the MAC needs to be playing multiple games against teams in the top seven leagues in the country. The good thing is, around the league, the returning talent is on hand to do just that. So, looking ahead to 2017, which MAC teams should be looking to schedule at least as aggressively as Buffalo did this past season? The answer is most of the league. Every team with a quality point guard and proven post player should be in that mix. That includes Akron, Ball State, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan, which accounts for two-thirds of the conference..."

[MDZip]

18 minutes ago, Dr Z said:

Elton Alexander writes the Zips need to play a better schedule. Sound familiar? 

 

"...To even be considered ... the MAC needs to be playing multiple games against teams in the top seven leagues in the country. The good thing is, around the league, the returning talent is on hand to do just that. So, looking ahead to 2017, which MAC teams should be looking to schedule at least as aggressively as Buffalo did this past season? The answer is most of the league. Every team with a quality point guard and proven post player should be in that mix. That includes Akron, Ball State, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan, which accounts for two-thirds of the conference..."

 

In a different article Elton also mentions how tough Buffalo's OOC schedule was this year especially as opposed to the rest of the MAC. Possible lesson there?

 

Old Dominion (Conference-USA), St. Joseph (Atlantic 10), St. Bonaventure (Atlantic 10), Duke (ACC), Iowa State (Big 12) and VCU (Atlantic 10) were all on the schedule. All but St. Bonaventure were played on the road.

[zippy5]

That's an awesome schedule. 3 tough but winnable A-10 games, 2 tough tests against P5 teams and one of the best CUSA teams

[GJGood]

Who did Buffalo play at home other than the Bonnies? I see St. Bonnie playing Buffalo being similar to Akron playing Cleveland State (similar level within a geographic proximity) which will now happen every other year. It just so happened that St, Bonaventure was really pretty good this year while Cleveland State was not. That hasn't always been the case and probably won't be the case every year.

 

I like the toughness of the Bulls schedule overall. I would think, however, that you want to give the fans and season ticket holders some home games too. I don't think Akron's road/ neutral schedule this year was all that bad. I would have liked to see one more middle to top of a top 7 or 8 conference team in there though.

The biggest problem was the home schedule. The Zips need to get better teams into the JAR, whether that is home-and-home series or just one and done. 

[kreed5120]

That schedule is more than what I'd ask for. I don't like all the cupcakes Akron has, but I also don't want to be whoring ourselves out either as 5 of those were true road games. Getting into tournaments like Kent did this year where they played SMU and Penn State(would have been Colorado had they beat SMU) on a neutral court should be a priority. From there you schedule 1-2 true road games at one of those bigger conference schools (Akron actually met this requirement via the preseason NIT). Sprinkle in some home and home games with decent mid majors. Fill out the remaining schedule the best that you can.

 

Overall i was happy with the preseason NIT tournament as it exposed us to quality competition (we did draw the short end of the straw by having Charleston Southern being our home game). I had no problem facing Iona and UCSB, but would have preferred being in the tournament Kent got into. Iona and UCSB are teams that we could schedule home and home with. I'd rather use those neutral court opportunities to face quality teams that would never agree to come to the JAR. After getting a couple home and homes with decent to good mid-majors, fill out the schedule the best way see fit. I'll even allow 1-2 token MEAC games.

[burrdie]

Do you really think KD wants to play top teams in the other conferences?

does he limit those games so that the strength of the program does not show?

i am just asking

 

[GJGood]

15 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

That schedule is more than what I'd ask for. I don't like all the cupcakes Akron has, but I also don't want to be whoring ourselves out either as 5 of those were true road games. Getting into tournaments like Kent did this year where they played SMU and Penn State(would have been Colorado had they beat SMU) on a neutral court should be a priority. From there you schedule 1-2 true road games at one of those bigger conference schools (Akron actually met this requirement via the preseason NIT). Sprinkle in some home and home games with decent mid majors. Fill out the remaining schedule the best that you can.

 

Overall i was happy with the preseason NIT tournament as it exposed us to quality competition (we did draw the short end of the straw by having Charleston Southern being our home game). I had no problem facing Iona and UCSB, but would have preferred being in the tournament Kent got into. Iona and UCSB are teams that we could schedule home and home with. I'd rather use those neutral court opportunities to face quality teams that would never agree to come to the JAR. After getting a couple home and homes with decent to good mid-majors, fill out the schedule the best way see fit. I'll even allow 1-2 token MEAC games.

 

I agree with this except if we must play MEAC-like teams, at least make them MEAC title contending teams and not the around 320 RPI MEAC teams. Plus I'd still want one more high major/ MVC/ A-10 type game but against a middle of the pack team from one of those leagues. Teams like Georgetown and Georgia come to mind for me (winnable but also attention grabbing).

[kreed5120]

5 minutes ago, GJGood said:

 

I agree with this except if we must play MEAC-like teams, at least make them MEAC title contending teams and not the around 320 RPI MEAC teams. Plus I'd still want one more high major/ MVC/ A-10 type game but against a middle of the pack team from one of those leagues. Teams like Georgetown and Georgia come to mind for me (winnable but also attention grabbing).

 

I only mentioned the MEAC games as at some point the athletic department is going to want x-number of home games. If they need 1-2 to meet quota, I can live with it. The current 4-6 of them each season is unacceptable.

 

I feel those teams you describe can be found in tournaments. I'd say that Arkansas game is a fine example. If we played @Nova, @Arkansas, SMU(neutral), Colorado(neutral), @Green Bay, and 2-3 (mix b/w home and away) more decent to high caliber mid-majors, I would have been happy. I'd love to see a MAC vs. CAA challenge or something of that nature. 

 

[clarkwgriswold]

2 hours ago, GJGood said:

 

I agree with this except if we must play MEAC-like teams, at least make them MEAC title contending teams and not the around 320 RPI MEAC teams. Plus I'd still want one more high major/ MVC/ A-10 type game but against a middle of the pack team from one of those leagues. Teams like Georgetown and Georgia come to mind for me (winnable but also attention grabbing).

As long as JT3 is coaching Georgetown, the Hoyas will be beatable!  

[UAZip0510]

A few things...

 

- According to TeamRankings.com, Buffalo was #100 in non-conference SOS.  Akron was #88, best in the MAC.  

 

- Why would any larger in-state program that is any good (Ohio State, Xavier, Dayton, Cincinnati) want to play Akron?  If they win, they are supposed to, if they lose, they give an edge to Akron when it comes to in-state recruiting.  And with that in mind, what do you think they tell Akron when they call those schools?

 

- Why would another top mid-major schedule us?  If they win, they aren't going to get that much credit for it, and if they lose it makes it easy for the committee to eliminate them from the Tournament discussion.  It is exactly why the Bracketbusters were done away with.  And with that in mind, what do you think they tell Akron when they call those schools?

 

Did you see how fired up our coaches and players were Tuesday night?  Do you really think they wouldn't love to play more games like that in the regular season?  Of course they do, but it takes two to tango.  That's why they've tried entering early-season tournaments over the past few years - teams from the Power 5 have no choice but to play you.  

 

We're all frustrated and I get that but before you blast them for not scheduling certain teams, just remember that you don't know who they've tried for and haven't tried for, and that maybe, just maybe, they're just as frustrated as you.  You can't force someone to play you.