Desired OOC Opponents?

[Captain Kangaroo]

3 hours ago, UAZip0510 said:

 

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

 

Needs to be better.

3 hours ago, UAZip0510 said:

- 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?

Ohio State, Xavier, Dayton and Cincinnati compete with Akron for recruits like I compete with George Clooney for arm candy.

Quote

- Why would another top mid-major schedule us?

Because losing to the Zips is not be considered a "bad loss." Because the Zips are a good gauge of where you stand on the mid-major scale. Because, for numerous top mid-majors mentioned (let's consider the Zips a "Top mid-major"), its a cheap bus-ride travel game. Because they'd get a home-home with an attractive opponent. Because they aren't getting an NCAA at-large unless they win 30 games against  quality OOC opponents anyhow.

 

3 hours ago, UAZip0510 said:

You can't force someone to play you

But you can pick up the phone and call them, instead of Bethune Cookman.

[Sportsjunkie330]

4 hours ago, UAZip0510 said:

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.  

 

YYAAAAWWWWWNNNNNN

[UAZip0510]

17 minutes ago, Sportsjunkie330 said:

 

YYAAAAWWWWWNNNNNN

 

Well thought out!

 

52 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

Needs to be better.

 

Several posters were talking about Buffalo's schedule and how they wished ours was as difficult. I was pointing out that it was actually more difficult. I think everyone (including the coaches) agrees they should strive to make it better.  

 

52 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

Ohio State, Xavier, Dayton and Cincinnati compete with Akron for recruits like I compete with George Clooney for arm candy.

 

And why is that?  Because we've yet to show on we can beat them and/or compete at the same level as them.  Which leads back to my point - why would they schedule us and give us an opportunity to change that?

 

54 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

Because losing to the Zips is not be considered a "bad loss." Because the Zips are a good gauge of where you stand on the mid-major scale. Because, for numerous top mid-majors mentioned (let's consider the Zips a "Top mid-major"), its a cheap bus-ride travel game. Because they'd get a home-home with an attractive opponent. Because they aren't getting an NCAA at-large unless they win 30 games against  quality OOC opponents anyhow.

 

1) Losing to the Zips at home would be considered a bad loss to the 4 mentioned above.  

2) Teams aren't always (or usually) looking for that.  Again, that's why the coaches killed off Bracketbusters.

3) No mid-major worth playing that is also within a bus ride wants to schedule us.  

4) Programs schedule for many others reasons aside from at-large berths.   

 

59 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

But you can pick up the phone and call them, instead of Bethune Cookman.

 

I can assure you with 100% certainty that the Zips have called them.  In fact, I haven't made a list of all teams mentioned but I know that many of them have been contacted.  

[Sportsjunkie330]

11 minutes ago, UAZip0510 said:

Several posters were talking about Buffalo's schedule and how they wished ours was as difficult. I was pointing out that it was actually more difficult. I think everyone (including the coaches) agrees they should strive to make it better.  

 

What is UA's SOS without Villanova on there? I'd be interested to see that. 

[skip-zip]

13 minutes ago, UAZip0510 said:

I can assure you with 100% certainty that the Zips have called them.  In fact, I haven't made a list of all teams mentioned but I know that many of them have been contacted.  

 

And you would be correct. 

 

In fact, I recently listened to an interview with KD from the ESPN reporter who covers the Cleveland market.  During the interview, he tried to ask him something like...."do you even bother to try to call Ohio State anymore?".  

 

Everyone knows the situation.  Ask the folks in Dayton why they celebrated so much, and put "THE University of Dayton" as the headline in their newspaper after knocking them out of the NCAA tournament 2 years ago.  And why they put a rebuilding-year OU team on their schedule a few years ago.   They are not going to choose to put themselves in a position to jeopardize their perceived superiority over "lower level" basketball programs in Ohio.  Central Connecticut State, Florida A&M and Bryant College do not pose that threat.   

[Captain Kangaroo]

7 hours ago, UAZip0510 said:

 

 

2 hours ago, UAZip0510 said:

1) Losing to the Zips at home would be considered a bad loss to the 4 mentioned above.  

Reply - You as intermingling "majors" and "mid-majors." The four mentioned are "majors," where "majors" is defined by having realistic expectations for an at-large bid if they finish 3rd or worse in their conference. These 4 majors will happily play Akron at their facility. Pick up the phone and call them. It's easy. To think that they will come to the JAR is unrealistic. And to the guy that points to the anomaly of Xavier or Dayton playing at the JAR years ago - just stop. Your embarrassing yourself.

 

2) Teams aren't always (or usually) looking for that.  Again, that's why the coaches killed off Bracketbusters.

Reply - The Bracketbusters was killed because marquee teams that participated at it's inception ascended to "major" status and saw no use in traveling to Akron once they got better, and Akron stayed the same. Once the marquee teams stopped participating, the event lost it's luster and it was killed. There's no conspiracy theory.

 

3) No mid-major worth playing that is also within a bus ride wants to schedule us.  

Reply: There are 30 of them in the Horizon, Colonial, A-10 etc that are easily accessible via a comfy charter bus. And whom would also give us a home-home.

 

4) Programs schedule for many others reasons aside from at-large berths.   

Reply - It would be nice if our Program scheduled a couple nice home games as a token of appreciation for the fans that have supported the November/December tripe we've seen for a decade. It's proven it sucks, it has no benefit, and fans are tired of it.

 

5.) I can assure you with 100% certainty that the Zips have called them.  In fact, I haven't made a list of all teams mentioned but I know that many of them have been contacted.  

Reply - Maybe we need a "closer" on the phone. If what you say is true, whomever is making the phone calls is not a salesman. He has an awesome product, and can't sell it. 

 

[GJGood]

My only thought is that there has to be at least a handful of teams nationwide that are in the same boat that the Zips are. Those are the schools we need to schedule for home games or home-and-homes. I don't know how many are a bus ride away (there may be a few though). We may need to be limited by geography somewhat but how limited do we need to be?

 

This may be just my opinion but I think with multiple players from the Houston and Cincy areas on the team next year and beyond we should look into playing road games in those areas so those players on our teams get a homecoming came of sorts. Whether it be a Houston, Cincy, or Xavier type or a Rice or Northern Kentucky it would still be a nice thing for those players and certainly no worse than playing a Coppin State, UAPB, or Bethune-Cookman. plus playing in Cincinnati and/or Houston couldn't hurt recruiting-wise wither.

[zippyman23]

22 hours ago, UAZip0510 said:

A few things...

 

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

 

 

It really doesn't matter what the TeamRankings.com formula thinks. According to the NCAA/RPI, Akron had the #203 Non-Conf SOS, while Buffalo had the #84. It needs to improve, big time.

[LZIp]

one of our more recent OOC opponents in MTSU just had one of the biggest upsets in tournament history. I think its reasonable to consider them a similar caliber program to us. What do we need to do better?

[scottditzen]

I'd like to see Akron get more name recognition in the very populated Northeast.

 

We could be an attractive option for East Coasters since college and overall standard of living there tends to be much more expensive. 

[K92]

1 hour ago, scottditzen said:

I'd like to see Akron get more name recognition in the very populated Northeast.

They already self identified as "The Beast of the Northeast".  Ain't that good enough?

[skip-zip]

5 hours ago, LZIp said:

one of our more recent OOC opponents in MTSU just had one of the biggest upsets in tournament history. I think its reasonable to consider them a similar caliber program to us. What do we need to do better?

 

I liked the recent games we played with MTSU.  They were good games, and they were recently even an At-Large selection out of C-USA, which gives them another quality that we want to match. 

 

But I don't want to stop emphasizing that we need Top-50 win opportunities, and preferably more than 1 or 2 if we want to put "big wins" on our resume. At least this year, a team with a #76 RPI who gets a 15 Seed in The Dance wasn't going to fill that void.  We get plenty of chances to notch those kinds of wins in our own conference schedule. 

[GJGood]

17 hours ago, scottditzen said:

I'd like to see Akron get more name recognition in the very populated Northeast.

 

We could be an attractive option for East Coasters since college and overall standard of living there tends to be much more expensive. 

 

I agree. It is an area I think we can make some recruiting strides in as well. I'd like to see us play some schools like Northestern, Hofstra, or even Columbia in addition to more well known east/ northeastern schools like Georgetown and Boston College.

[K92]

22 hours ago, LZIp said:

What do we need to do better?

Shoot, rebound, free throws, pass.

[zipinnc]

Make a regular west coast trip and play as many non-Gonzaga softies as possible.

[Class of 82]

I'd like to see us re-establish some relationships with one or more of our old OVC rivals like Murray State, Morehead State or Austin Peay. They still play great basketball in that conference, and those schools would probably swap home games. Better than most of our OOC home stuff anyway.

[Blue & Gold]

Anyone with name recognition.

 

We still suffer from a lack of respect.  Our scheduling of name schools has to be considered part of our marketing efforts.  It's shocking... unbelievable really... that a lot of area people still don't understand that we play at the same level as Ohio State.

 

 

[skip-zip]

1 hour ago, Blue & Gold said:

It's shocking... unbelievable really... that a lot of area people still don't understand that we play at the same level as Ohio State.

 

I've been scratching my head on this one for decades.  That's why I've often said that maybe the first mission in educating the local "college basketball fans" is to tell them that OSWho is not the only D-1 basketball program in Ohio.  They'd probably be the ones who'd be shocked to find that there are actually about 12 of us. 

 

7 hours ago, Class of 82 said:

I'd like to see us re-establish some relationships with one or more of our old OVC rivals like Murray State, Morehead State or Austin Peay. They still play great basketball in that conference, and those schools would probably swap home games. Better than most of our OOC home stuff anyway.

 

For replacing a couple of the cupcakes as a home game only?  Sure.   But I don't see how we benefit from this in any other way. 

[UAZip0510]

On 3/18/2016 at 0:28 AM, Captain Kangaroo said:

 

 

 

We're going to just agree to disagree that these teams you (and others) speak of are willing to schedule us, which is at the center of this discussion.  My stance is based on what I've heard from several people close to the program.  I'm not saying your stance isn't as well - I'm not going to question who you know or where you base your information from - but I'll go with what I've been told.  Enjoy the discussion everyone.  

[K92]

Probably the single best way to get people to understand that Akron plays D1 basketball is for Akron to actually beat another team that people recognize as a D1 basketball team.  Whaddaya think?

[skip-zip]

9 minutes ago, K92 said:

Probably the single best way to get people to understand that Akron plays D1 basketball is for Akron to actually beat another team that people recognize as a D1 basketball team.  Whaddaya think?

 

Seems like a good idea, and I'd enjoy the win, but you know that everyone who doesn't know any better would see it as "little ole Akron" knocking off a "higher division" team. 

 

Other than the people who are really locked in to college athletics, people are pretty stupid when it comes to understanding divisions. 

[K92]

4 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

 

. . .everyone who doesn't know any better would see it as "little ole Akron" knocking off a "higher division" team.

I'll take it.  Much better than an educated public that realizes that the Zips play in the big boy division but never beat any big boys.

[BirdZip]

On ‎3‎/‎19‎/‎2016 at 11:26 AM, GJGood said:

 

I agree. It is an area I think we can make some recruiting strides in as well. I'd like to see us play some schools like Northestern, Hofstra, or even Columbia in addition to more well known east/ northeastern schools like Georgetown and Boston College.

 

With all the talk about beating Top 50 RPI schools, I wanted to see what the recent RPI history has been for the schools being suggested here as desirable opponents...

 

Team  (2014 RPI - 2015 RPI - 2016 RPI)  (Average RPI last 3 years)

Northwestern  (123-124-111) (119)

Hofstra  (279-173-56) (169)

Columbia  (130-198-130) (153)

Georgetown  (66-25-105) (65)

Boston College  (201-161-302) (204)

 

On ‎3‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 0:57 AM, Class of 82 said:

I'd like to see us re-establish some relationships with one or more of our old OVC rivals like Murray State, Morehead State or Austin Peay. They still play great basketball in that conference, and those schools would probably swap home games. Better than most of our OOC home stuff anyway.

 

Team  (2014 RPI - 2015 RPI - 2016 RPI)  (Average RPI last 3 years)

Murray State  (144-64-170) (126)

Morehead St.  (139-204-128) (157)

Austin Peay  (305-319-188) (271)

 

On ‎3‎/‎18‎/‎2016 at 7:32 AM, GJGood said:

My only thought is that there has to be at least a handful of teams nationwide that are in the same boat that the Zips are. Those are the schools we need to schedule for home games or home-and-homes. I don't know how many are a bus ride away (there may be a few though). We may need to be limited by geography somewhat but how limited do we need to be?

 

This may be just my opinion but I think with multiple players from the Houston and Cincy areas on the team next year and beyond we should look into playing road games in those areas so those players on our teams get a homecoming came of sorts. Whether it be a Houston, Cincy, or Xavier type or a Rice or Northern Kentucky it would still be a nice thing for those players and certainly no worse than playing a Coppin State, UAPB, or Bethune-Cookman. plus playing in Cincinnati and/or Houston couldn't hurt recruiting-wise wither.

 

Team  (2014 RPI - 2015 RPI - 2016 RPI)  (Average RPI last 3 years)

Houston  (143-239-85) (156)

Cincinnati  (20-41-45) (35)

Xavier  (47-30-7) (28)

Rice  (303-247-279) (276)

Northern Kentucky  (310-265-296) (290)

Edited March 21, 2016 by BirdZip

[kreed5120]

I also went ahead and tracked down RPI teams from my previous suggestions just to see how they compare.

 

Team

SFA (47-35-62)

Belmont (48-100-96)

Valpo (195-56-43)

JMU (236-157-104)

 

Of the teams I suggested, only SFA consistently finishes in the ~50 area. They also are the ones that seem most content taking their 28+ wins each season and making the tourney as a 12-14 seed. Predicting which mid majors provide top 50 wins is near impossible, however, finding ones the consistently finish in the top ~100-~125 is achievable. Below is Akron's numbers for anyone interested.

 

Akron (96-123-41)

 

Edit: Our numbers look comparable to Belmont. Let's get on the phone and see about scheduling a home and home.

Edited March 21, 2016 by kreed5120

[BirdZip]

A couple of teams getting looks this year that aren't necessarily consistently in the top but are moving in the right direction:

 

South Dakota State  (141-93-31)  And I believe I heard the announcer say their leading scorer was a freshman

Yale  (148-63-44)

 

And for what it's worth...

 

Dayton  (42-32-21)

George Washington  (29-83-65)