The Battle for the Belt: Mac vs Sun Belt

[LZIp]

33 minutes ago, RoyalBlu said:

Should be MAC 8-4 ... but we all know why.

because Kent State sucks!

[Blue & Gold]

7 hours ago, LZIp said:

because Kent State sucks!

🎯

[Let'sGoZips94]

11 hours ago, LoyalZIP said:

The Flag is for wins over power conferences. Will not be happy for Tod K either, nor would I expect any long time Zip fan to be. 

 

I was laughing when Toledo was down. When I saw they won, my only thought was, "It's the regular season which means it's Tod K's Super Bowl. Wonder how much he cheated in the offseason to eek out this important regular season win."

[csims0917]

Time to get ready for round 2!

[Reslife4Life]

Right now that would be a quad 1 game. Lets go!

[csims0917]

The MAC leads the sun belt 7-5. A 6-6 finish would win the belt for the MAC we need every win we can get to boost the MACs rating

[clarkwgriswold]

5 hour and 45 minute road trip!

[csims0917]

34 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

5 hour and 45 minute road trip!

Probably one of the shortest trips. Especially since Marshall opted out 

[bUAkronG]

This has to potential to be huge for the Zips… excited for this one. JMU is no joke though.

[kreed5120]

It's a nice test, but the season will still come down to 3 days in March. The MAC is a complete joke this year. Even with a win we'd be 1-4 in Q1 & Q2 games. That won't get us a NIT bid, let a lone a NCAA at-large.

[GJGood]

10 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

It's a nice test, but the season will still come down to 3 days in March. The MAC is a complete joke this year. Even with a win we'd be 1-4 in Q1 & Q2 games. That won't get us a NIT bid, let a lone a NCAA at-large.

The NIT has now rigged it so virtually no school from a conference ranked lower than 9th or 10th will get in Unless they have 30 wins

[NWAkron]

JMU is no joke, but the MAC is.

[bUAkronG]

7 minutes ago, GJGood said:

The NIT has now rigged it so virtually no school from a conference ranked lower than 9th or 10th will get in Unless they have 30 wins

Well I think we are into the NIT regardless unless we collapse and don’t win the league

[kreed5120]

10 minutes ago, bUAkronG said:

Well I think we are into the NIT regardless unless we collapse and don’t win the league

What makes you think that? The conference regular season champion no longer gets an auto-bid. 

[kreed5120]

19 minutes ago, GJGood said:

The NIT has now rigged it so virtually no school from a conference ranked lower than 9th or 10th will get in Unless they have 30 wins

I'm slightly more optimistic than that, but mid-major slots will certainly be at much more of a premium than they were before.

[GJGood]

I don’t see it.. maybe if we have no more than six to possibly seven losses overall and even then they would never give us a decent shot in order to cater to a specific six conferences.

 

The NIT changes this year have rendered the MAC regular season nearly meaningless. Given where they placed MAC schools the last two years my guess is now that they don’t have to take a regular season champ that they won’t. Maybe if Akron is a one or two loss in the MAC team including Cleveland on selection Sunday but that’s about the only way I see a MAC school in the NIT.

 

It is time for a truly worthy second tournament after the NCAA to be developed. The NIT has been biased for a long, long time, just ask Keith Dambrot, Romeo Travis, and Dru Joyce about being left out at 24-7 after a championship loss on a 32 foot bank shot.... but now they are really pushed it too far and even the NABC is upset and some power conference coaches are saying this isn’t right.

Edited January 22, 2024 by GJGood

[NWAkron]

this is the game many on here wanted.   

isn't this where Humpty Hitchens ended up

Edited January 22, 2024 by NWAkron

[Let'sGoZips94]

45 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

It's a nice test, but the season will still come down to 3 days in March. The MAC is a complete joke this year. Even with a win we'd be 1-4 in Q1 & Q2 games. That won't get us a NIT bid, let a lone a NCAA at-large.

 

If Bradley keeps up their run, and we beat JMU, we'd be 2-4 in Q1 & Q2 games. 

 

The focus for this team is on the NCAA tourney. The NIT is as worthless as ever. What we're fighting for is the best seed possible in March, and that could be up near a 10-11 seed, or as low as a 13/14 seed depending on how we take care of the MAC. 3 & 2 pt losses to Utah State and UNLV - especially without Ali Ali - will carry weight with the committee.

 

Regardless, this is the best OOC schedule I've ever seen for Akron basketball. Beat the Dukes!

Edited January 22, 2024 by Let'sGoZips94

[Reslife4Life]

Also, If SDSU keeps their winning ways going we will have another Q2 win

[Let'sGoZips94]

21 minutes ago, Reslife4Life said:

Also, If SDSU keeps their winning ways going we will have another Q2 win

 

Did not realize SDSU had climbed back up into Q2 range for us. Also, JMU would be a Q1 matchup as it currently stands. Incredible OOC schedule. 

[bUAkronG]

1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

What makes you think that? The conference regular season champion no longer gets an auto-bid. 

I actually didn’t know that

[MDZip]

3 hours ago, clarkwgriswold said:

5 hour and 45 minute road trip!

2.5 hour trip. 👍

[kreed5120]

2 hours ago, GJGood said:

I don’t see it.. maybe if we have no more than six to possibly seven losses overall and even then they would never give us a decent shot in order to cater to a specific six conferences.

 

The NIT changes this year have rendered the MAC regular season nearly meaningless. Given where they placed MAC schools the last two years my guess is now that they don’t have to take a regular season champ that they won’t. Maybe if Akron is a one or two loss in the MAC team including Cleveland on selection Sunday but that’s about the only way I see a MAC school in the NIT.

 

It is time for a truly worthy second tournament after the NCAA to be developed. The NIT has been biased for a long, long time, just ask Keith Dambrot, Romeo Travis, and Dru Joyce about being left out at 24-7 after a championship loss on a 32 foot bank shot.... but now they are really pushed it too far and even the NABC is upset and some power conference coaches are saying this isn’t right.

There is no need for an additional tournament. The NIT just needs to be expanded to 48, like the women's tournament is set to be this year. 

[clarkwgriswold]

I guess a postseason tournament is a chance for the team to get more time on the floor together against solid competition and being selected to the NIT would be nice, but at the same time I have a hard time getting very enthused with a tournament for 69th place.

[kreed5120]

18 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

If Bradley keeps up their run, and we beat JMU, we'd be 2-4 in Q1 & Q2 games. 

 

The focus for this team is on the NCAA tourney. The NIT is as worthless as ever. What we're fighting for is the best seed possible in March, and that could be up near a 10-11 seed, or as low as a 13/14 seed depending on how we take care of the MAC. 3 & 2 pt losses to Utah State and UNLV - especially without Ali Ali - will carry weight with the committee.

 

Regardless, this is the best OOC schedule I've ever seen for Akron basketball. Beat the Dukes!

 

10-11 seed would place us ahead of multiple at-large teams. That's not going to happen. Realistically the best that we can expect is a 13 seed.

 

The OOC schedule was solid, but we've lost to every quality opponent we faced. The bigger issue is the MAC is historically bad. The worst I've ever seen it. Using today's NET rankings, not a single MAC game that we have on our schedule would be classified as a Q1 or Q2 game. All 18 games would be Q3 & Q4. Historically speaking we're going to have a bad night and lose to one of these cupcakes. You have to go back 70+ years to find the last time a MAC team went undefeated during conference play.

Edited January 23, 2024 by kreed5120