kreed5120 Posted March 28, 2016 Report Share Posted March 28, 2016 Yeah, I'm not trying to pretend I know how things play out as I only know what I've seen in a couple articles. I don't see any program licking their chops to play in this tournament, but could see a program receiving a large guarantee to play in it as they would be the headlining name and be the one that sells tickets. You have to remember Georgia Tech plays in the ACC. They don't need to play a brutal OOC schedule as they will have plenty of opportunities to rack up quality wins in conference play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kangaroo Posted March 28, 2016 Report Share Posted March 28, 2016 24 minutes ago, kreed5120 said: Yeah, I'm not trying to pretend I know how things play out as I only know what I've seen in a couple articles. I don't see any program licking their chops to play in this tournament, but could see a program receiving a large guarantee to play in it as they would be the headlining name and be the one that sells tickets. You have to remember Georgia Tech plays in the ACC. They don't need to play a brutal OOC schedule as they will have plenty of opportunities to rack up quality wins in conference play. Why wouldn't they just play cupcakes at home and keep all the money? Why pay hotel & food expenses, play weak competition, with zero TV coverage... all for zero profit? What AD thinks that's a good idea? Unless upper-tier P5 teams get home games (i.e. preseason NIT), or get to travel to sexy, recruit-luring places (i.e. Hawai'i or Puerto Rico) early-season tourneys aren't smart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kreed5120 Posted March 28, 2016 Report Share Posted March 28, 2016 (edited) 17 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said: Why wouldn't they just play cupcakes at home and keep all the money? Why pay hotel & food expenses, play weak competition, with zero TV coverage... all for zero profit? What AD thinks that's a good idea? Unless upper-tier P5 teams get home games (i.e. preseason NIT), or get to travel to sexy, recruit-luring places (i.e. Hawai'i or Puerto Rico) early-season tourneys aren't smart. Fair point. Edit: I suppose at this point I'm holding out hope that Akron only agreed to this tournament because they were promised someone else of note would be included. A big Georgia school would make the most sense as the travel cost would be low and playing in a tournament in Savannah could attract alumni who live a distance away from campus. The same way Cleveland is an appealing place for OSU to play and they are at times willing to sacrifice money to play there. Looking now Savannah metro is about the size of the Canton/Massillon area so that doesn't even sound that appealing for those Georgia schools. If it's just another 2 RPI ~200 teams, I'd love to hear Dambrot's reasoning for participating. Edited March 28, 2016 by kreed5120 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kangaroo Posted March 28, 2016 Report Share Posted March 28, 2016 1 hour ago, kreed5120 said: If it's just another 2 RPI ~200 teams, I'd love to hear Dambrot's reasoning for participating. Because it is a decent-size tournament we could actually expect to win? And Savannah is a great warm weather destination that's a cheap flight from CAK? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kreed5120 Posted March 28, 2016 Report Share Posted March 28, 2016 (edited) If easy wins is all Akron is after, I don't expect Dambrot to make any quotes like this if another 25+ win Akron misses the tournament. "We've got a 28 RPI," he said. "The numbers don't lie, do they? It's all skewed for the big boys. So if Cincinnati or Tulsa or UConn had a 28 RPI, I think they would be in the tournament, but we're not going to get in the tournament." Edit: I by no means feel we should replace Dambrot unlike a vocal minority on this forum believe. That doesn't mean I have to agree 100% with everything he does. Edited March 28, 2016 by kreed5120 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted March 28, 2016 Report Share Posted March 28, 2016 2 hours ago, Captain Kangaroo said: Because it is a decent-size tournament we could actually expect to win? If this was what persuaded us, you have to really question this. This is a big step backwards from the Vegas tournament in 2015, which we won, and that didn't really accomplish anything either. These would also all be "neutral court" games when we could probably get every one of those teams to play us at Rhodes. I really don't get it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kangaroo Posted March 28, 2016 Report Share Posted March 28, 2016 Everyone knows RPI means nothing. To get into the at-large conversation you need to beat upper-echelon Power 5 teams. And then, avoid any embarrassing losses. That's it. Done. A secondary option is to win 30 games. Something like 30-3, with a loss in your conference Championship, gets you in the at-large conversation. So, schedule a bunch of cupcakes, don't screw up in your conference season, and maybe some USA Today blogger will take up your cause and write a nice column about how you were snubbed. A third option, completely out of the Zips control, is that the MAC as a whole ascends to a higher basketball level. With a couple juggernaut teams like the MVC has in Northern Iowa and Wichita State. Then you're in the conversation. But even then, you can get "Saint Mary'd" and miss the tourney. We haven't won an NCAA tournament game of any kind since 2007, and we've have numerous opportunities against "meh" competition (UMass, Northwestern, ND, Ohio State-lite, IUPUI, UWGB, etc), so the "we got snubbed" cries ring pretty hollow to me. We just aren't good enough to merit consideration. We need to win our Tournament. Simple as that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kreed5120 Posted March 28, 2016 Report Share Posted March 28, 2016 (edited) 1 hour ago, Captain Kangaroo said: Everyone knows RPI means nothing. To get into the at-large conversation you need to beat upper-echelon Power 5 teams. And then, avoid any embarrassing losses. That's it. Done. A secondary option is to win 30 games. Something like 30-3, with a loss in your conference Championship, gets you in the at-large conversation. So, schedule a bunch of cupcakes, don't screw up in your conference season, and maybe some USA Today blogger will take up your cause and write a nice column about how you were snubbed. A third option, completely out of the Zips control, is that the MAC as a whole ascends to a higher basketball level. With a couple juggernaut teams like the MVC has in Northern Iowa and Wichita State. Then you're in the conversation. But even then, you can get "Saint Mary'd" and miss the tourney. We haven't won an NCAA tournament game of any kind since 2007, and we've have numerous opportunities against "meh" competition (UMass, Northwestern, ND, Ohio State-lite, IUPUI, UWGB, etc), so the "we got snubbed" cries ring pretty hollow to me. We just aren't good enough to merit consideration. We need to win our Tournament. Simple as that. Don't you feel the fact we play poor OOC opponents hinders our ability to be prepared for quality postseason competition? edit: the zips were 1-4 in 1 possession games. Don't you feel the fact they weren't consistently accustomed to needing to play a full 40 minuted hindered their ability to finish off close games? Not to mention playing a MAC schedule and cupcakes OOC doesn't expose them to the speed, size, and pure athletic players that OSU or VCU will throw at them. Edited March 28, 2016 by kreed5120 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted March 28, 2016 Report Share Posted March 28, 2016 56 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said: To get into the at-large conversation you need to beat upper-echelon Power 5 teams. And then, avoid any embarrassing losses. A secondary option is to win 30 games. Something like 30-3, with a loss in your conference Championship, gets you in the at-large conversation. I agree with you that these two paths seem to be the only solution at this point. But, I'll be cynical and say that if we were sitting on the bubble sometime in the future in March, and a Syracuse or a Michigan are sitting there along with us, just like this year, even with inferior "metrics", I assure you that the selection committee will pick them again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kangaroo Posted March 29, 2016 Report Share Posted March 29, 2016 16 hours ago, skip-zip said: I agree with you that these two paths seem to be the only solution at this point. But, I'll be cynical and say that if we were sitting on the bubble sometime in the future in March, and a Syracuse or a Michigan are sitting there along with us, just like this year, even with inferior "metrics", I assure you that the selection committee will pick them again. And they should pick Syracuse or Michigan over the Zips. They are WAY better programs. Look at Syracuse in the Final Four...the Zips can't beat IUPUI or UWGB...so who honestly merits an at-large? Michigan would beat the 2015-16 Zips 19 out of 20 times. Win games that matter. Get to the level of Wichita State or Northern Iowa. That has worth. If you can't get to that level (due to facilities, conference strength, whatever...), win your conference tourney. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted March 29, 2016 Report Share Posted March 29, 2016 (edited) 32 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said: And they should pick Syracuse or Michigan over the Zips. They are WAY better programs. Look at Syracuse in the Final Four...the Zips can't beat IUPUI or UWGB...so who honestly merits an at-large? Michigan would beat the 2015-16 Zips 19 out of 20 times. Win games that matter. Get to the level of Wichita State or Northern Iowa. That has worth. If you can't get to that level (due to facilities, conference strength, whatever...), win your conference tourney. I completely agree with you. In fact, I think you are one of the few people on here who has been "spot on" on many occasions when it comes to understanding who Akron needs to play, and who they need to beat, to reach a higher echelon. "Games That Matter" is a phrase I've used many times in my own posts over the years. But I wasn't referring to the 2016 Zips vs. Michigan or Syracuse. I was referring to the future Zips, even with a better resume, that will likely find themselves snubbed again for a "name" team unless we start to make some big moves to get ourselves respected at that level. And back to the subject at hand.....This tournament that's being discussed is not going to accomplish that. Edited March 29, 2016 by skip-zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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