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Snap shot of the MAC


wadszip

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Of our remaining games I'm not sure which wouldn't be considered a bad loss, maybe one of the away games at Ohio, EMU or Buffalo? Just looking ahead at seeding a little bit if the Zips would go a very disappointing 4-5 over their last nine games, Ball State would need to go 7-2 including beating the Zips in Akron to overtake them. Anyone else would have to go at least 8-1. Would take a pretty epic collapse even only halfway through the season to lose that #1 seed. Ball State currently holds the second seed by one game and then there are 7 teams that are 5-4 or 4-5!  

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1 hour ago, lilroodude said:

:gun:[Argument for Weaker Schedule to Secure 21+ wins] 

 

Take a page from the Men's Soccer handbook. I think it's page #1 or #2...

 

"THE MAC BLOWS. ELIMINATE THAT HINDRANCE BY STRENGTHENING THE OOC SCHEDULE. IF THEY WILL NOT PLAY YOU AT YOUR PLACE, GO BEAT THEM AT THEIR'S."

Trying to compare scheduling for MSOC vs MBB is worthless. 

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3 hours ago, Hilltopper said:

Trying to compare scheduling for MSOC vs MBB is worthless. 

Men's Soccer had to gain respect somehow. If I remember correctly, it took road wins and tournament runs to garner enough respect to get ACC teams to come into our house. Granted the soccer program had a slightly more established foundation to begin with, but not much. It's still AKRON. 

 

To compare to a fellow "mid-major" men's basketball program... Gonzaga had to go beat teams on the road and win tourney games for teams to finally respect them enough to play the Zags AT Gonzaga. 

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35 minutes ago, lilroodude said:

Men's Soccer had to gain respect somehow. If I remember correctly, it took road wins and tournament runs to garner enough respect to get ACC teams to come into our house. Granted the soccer program had a slightly more established foundation to begin with, but not much. It's still AKRON. 

 

To compare to a fellow "mid-major" men's basketball program... Gonzaga had to go beat teams on the road and win tourney games for teams to finally respect them enough to play the Zags AT Gonzaga. 

 

I know where you're going with this, and I couldn't agree more.  

 

I remember the year we won the Soccer National Title in 2010, we had back to back road games at North Carolina and Wake Forest, and won them both.  I think that was the final leap that we needed to gain the respect of the nation.  It probably seemed insane to schedule those two games at the beginning of that season, as road games, but that was our way past the stigma of being a MAC team that wasn't getting enough respect.  I gave Porter credit for understanding what it took to get to the top, and having the guts to do it.  

 

Yes, we were certainly well on our way to top billing by that time in Soccer, but Basketball needs to find a similar path if National Recognition is ever in our future.  

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56 minutes ago, lilroodude said:

Men's Soccer had to gain respect somehow. If I remember correctly, it took road wins and tournament runs to garner enough respect to get ACC teams to come into our house. Granted the soccer program had a slightly more established foundation to begin with, but not much. It's still AKRON. 

 

To compare to a fellow "mid-major" men's basketball program... Gonzaga had to go beat teams on the road and win tourney games for teams to finally respect them enough to play the Zags AT Gonzaga. 

Gonzaga is a mid-major in name only.  They are a private school with no football. They made a decision to spend the money to compete with the P-5 schools. They have their own private jet and a huge recruiting budget. They made basketball the #1 priority. Unless UA is willing to do the same, we are what we are. Maybe if we had built a $60 mil arena instead of a football stadium it could have happened but that ship has sailed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/2003/12/05/gonzaga-carves-out-a-basketball-dynasty/2354b720-5bc7-4e6f-a2eb-a0fb8362b2e9/?utm_term=.75b9946ece52

 

http://www.foxsports.com/college-basketball/story/gonzaga-bulldogs-mark-few-took-unique-path-to-sustained-success-031015

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1 hour ago, Hilltopper said:

Gonzaga is a mid-major in name only.  They are a private school with no football. They made a decision to spend the money to compete with the P-5 schools. They have their own private jet and a huge recruiting budget. They made basketball the #1 priority.

You mean their ONLY priority!  #2 priority is WOMEN's basketball!

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48 minutes ago, MDZip said:

As expected the Zips lost all of their AP votes :( but did manage to maintain two of their votes in the USA today coaches poll.

 

That's surprising.  But I will take it. 

 

8 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

 

I read it.  So lets do the numbers.  I think our ceiling right now is 29 without the MAC tournament title, and 30 with the MAC tournament title.  Is that correct?

 

Kent's last really good team, as I've pointed out, got a #9 Seed with 28 wins.  I hope they'd be as kind to us if we can get to 28.  You never know what they are going to do.  

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And "crappy" CMU just beat OU by 10 in Athens behind 41 points from Keene. CMU is now the top team in the West and has the 2nd best record in the conference. Even though some on here won't like this, I don't see how Keene isn't name POY.

Edited by LZIp
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Actually while CMU is tied for the top spot in the west both NIU and Ball State have beaten them so they are only in first alphabetically. :) But even weirder there is a five way tie for second (the Zips have a four game lead on everyone, I want to see someone figure out who the second seed would be right now) and then four more teams are 5-6. Meanwhile in Portage County the Flushes lost a game in much the same way we won one. They were leading by one and turned the ball over with a few seconds to go and lost on a buzzer beater. And having nothing to do with the MAC, South Carolina and Alabama are in their fourth OT.

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31 minutes ago, LZIp said:

And "crappy" CMU just beat OU by 10 in Athens behind 41 points from Keene. CMU is now the top team in the West and has the 2nd best record in the conference. Even though some on here won't like this, I don't see how Keene isn't name POY.

 

Big Dog is POY. There is only one team with one loss. POY is more than just scoring a lot of points.

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4 minutes ago, akronzips71 said:

 

Big Dog is POY. There is only one team with one loss. POY is more than just scoring a lot of points.

Time will tell. Keene is the leading scorer in the nation by a landslide. The award doesn't go to the best player on the best team. If so, Akron would have more than one winner ever.

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8 minutes ago, akronzips71 said:

 

Big Dog is POY. There is only one team with one loss. POY is more than just scoring a lot of points.

I hate to go against Big Dog, but I agree that unless something drastic happens, Keene will win in a landslide. CMU is really a 1.5 player team. Outside of Keene, with a little help from Rayson, the Chips have no one. He is making them relevant pretty much single-handed.

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16 minutes ago, MDZip said:

Actually while CMU is tied for the top spot in the west both NIU and Ball State have beaten them so they are only in first alphabetically. :) But even weirder there is a five way tie for second (the Zips have a four game lead on everyone, I want to see someone figure out who the second seed would be right now) and then four more teams are 5-6. Meanwhile in Portage County the Flushes lost a game in much the same way we won one. They were leading by one and turned the ball over with a few seconds to go and lost on a buzzer beater. And having nothing to do with the MAC, South Carolina and Alabama are in their fourth OT.

Here you go...

C4HEtS8W8AAzonX.jpg:large

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That's crazy that the 10 seed is only one game worse than the two seed. And I question whether or not the Zips have possibly already clinched a bye, since four teams would have to finish 11-7 (and have the Zips lose ALL of their games) which would mean even the 6-5 teams would have to go 5-2 over the next 7 games (and the Zips have at least one victory against all of them), and they all have to play several of each other. I suppose it's still mathematically possible.

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2 hours ago, UAZippers said:

I hate to go against Big Dog, but I agree that unless something drastic happens, Keene will win in a landslide. CMU is really a 1.5 player team. Outside of Keene, with a little help from Rayson, the Chips have no one. He is making them relevant pretty much single-handed.

 

I don't think you can consider a .500 team in league play "relevant".  

 

Maybe you can make the point that this isn't a "best player on best team" award, and that it should simply go to the best player.  But, we're talking about a guy who chucks up the ball all night on an average team.  We have a great team that would not be great without Big Dog.  

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7 hours ago, zippyfan34 said:

Agreed!  Teams I want to face least in order (that I have seen us play against) are:

1. Buffalo

2. CMU

3. EMU

 

So I would be glad to have them finish 2, 3, and 6 respectively.

This is where I'm at.  The one team that beat us, OU, doesn't worry me at all. We laid an egg in Athens and if we play like we did that afternoon even Miami would beat us.

 

Buffalo is the team that truly worries me.

 

Winning the MACC with Big Dog as the nucleus of the team is going to be a challenge regardless of who we play on Saturday night.  3 games in 3 days is really tough on Dog.

Edited by Blue & Gold
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