clarkwgriswold Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 The Zips second game of the MAC-SBC Challenge tips off at 2:00 PM Saturday as the (currently) 15-8 South Alabama Jaguars come into the JAR. The Jags will be coming off of a game tonight at Coastal Carolina. 6' guard Corey Miles leads the Jags at 14.5 ppg. Miles is a transfer from a Captain Kangaroo Unknown College list institution William Jessup. 6'6"junior forward Barry Dunning, Jr. is second in scoring at 12.1 ppg while leading rebounding at 6.7 rpg. A look at the Jags schedule shows some decent wins and some headscratcher losses, so it is tough to get a gauge on the Jags. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kreed5120 Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 At the time this game was scheduled South Alabama was ranked #2 in their conference. Since then they have lost 3 out of their 4, 2 of which was to an abysmal ULM. Their lone win was an OT win against an equally bad Rajun Cajun squad. I'm not sure if they've dealt with injuries or what, but their play has regressed significantly in the past couple of weeks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kangaroo Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 Jags Message Board Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Let'sGoZips94 Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 (edited) The MAC/Sun Belt Challenge needs to allow for rematches. It's rare, but I have seen instances with other teams' schedules where OOC teams play each other twice. Typically it stems from a regularly scheduled matchup coinciding with an early season tournament matchup. The first matchup in the challenge is always a guess of who the top teams will be. When the season is a week into February, it's no longer a guess. Quit spoiling guaranteed solid late-season matchups with the early season guess. The old school Bracketbuster matchups were the best because they were solely based around where the teams ranked at that point in the season. Arkansas State @ Akron for the rematch would be must-watch mid-major basketball. Instead, we get USA, and not in the greatest-country-in-the-world way. For any South Alabama fans that find our board, I mean no disrespect. It's just frustrating that this matchup went from being a potential top 100 game with a guaranteed Q3 resume building potential, to borderline Q4 which we have enough of on our schedule thanks to a garbage MAC. Side note: The MAC/Sun Belt Challenge should be for keeps. Winning conference gets the other conference's top school to join their conference the following year. I'm only half kidding as I would propose pretty much anything to get us away from Steinbrecher's awful leadership and Directional Michigans. Edited February 5 by Let'sGoZips94 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy5 Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 3 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said: Q3 resume building potential lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Let'sGoZips94 Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 25 minutes ago, zippy5 said: lol Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240. Having a ~100 or better win on the resume is much better than 150+, which is what this is matchup is shaping up to be. Should we be fortunate enough to win on Saturday and continue our run through the MAC, we will be flirting with 12/13 seed territory in March and this OOC matchup matters in that scenario. For the MAC/Sun Belt Challenge to work, there has to be incentive for the top teams in both conferences. Akron risks quite a bit more with little to gain vs. South Alabama which has everything to gain and very little to lose. The same goes for Arkansas St. and Troy on the Sun Belt side. They play Kent and Miami respectively, both are in the ~140 range, while the Arkansas St. is top 90 and Troy is top 110. I understand you're not always going to achieve perfect matchups (JMU/App St were top 70 teams last year while the MAC's best were maybe in the ~90-110 range at the time), but automatically eliminating strong matchups in the later part of the schedule isn't helping either conference's top teams. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy5 Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 I'd rather play Arkansas St, but no one is gonna give a sht if we beat Arkansas State or South Alabama in 6 weeks when they are looking at seeding. Plus, we had our shot at them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kreed5120 Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 (edited) 9 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said: Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240. Having a ~100 or better win on the resume is much better than 150+, which is what this is matchup is shaping up to be. Should we be fortunate enough to win on Saturday and continue our run through the MAC, we will be flirting with 12/13 seed territory in March and this OOC matchup matters in that scenario. For the MAC/Sun Belt Challenge to work, there has to be incentive for the top teams in both conferences. Akron risks quite a bit more with little to gain vs. South Alabama which has everything to gain and very little to lose. The same goes for Arkansas St. and Troy on the Sun Belt side. They play Kent and Miami respectively, both are in the ~140 range, while the Arkansas St. is top 90 and Troy is top 110. I understand you're not always going to achieve perfect matchups (JMU/App St were top 70 teams last year while the MAC's best were maybe in the ~90-110 range at the time), but automatically eliminating strong matchups in the later part of the schedule isn't helping either conference's top teams. The issue is they scheduled the 2nd leg too early. At the time South Alabama was the 2nd best team in the SunBelt (per NET). In the last 2-3 weeks they have fallen off the cliff. Dropping 50-60 spots in NET. Had they delayed scheduling the second leg another week or so, we would have been paired with Troy, which on paper is a quality matchup. Edited February 5 by kreed5120 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Let'sGoZips94 Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 9 minutes ago, kreed5120 said: The issue is they scheduled the 2nd leg too early. At the time South Alabama was the 2nd best team in the SunBelt (per NET). In the last 2-3 weeks they have fallen off the cliff. Dropping 50-60 spots in NET. Had they delayed scheduling the second leg another week or so, we would have been paired with Troy, which on paper is a quality matchup. My assumption is the schedule timing is due to travel logistics, but I do not know for sure. Do you think this is something that could be changed in the future? It would still suck for Arkansas State, though, as they'd be playing Kent still (88 vs. 138 as of today). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopper Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 25 minutes ago, zippy5 said: I'd rather play Arkansas St, but no one is gonna give a sht if we beat Arkansas State or South Alabama in 6 weeks when they are looking at seeding. Plus, we had our shot at them And this is why the coaches think this whole thing is just a waste of time. $50,000 expense for no return. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LZIp Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 1 hour ago, Hilltopper said: And this is why the coaches think this whole thing is just a waste of time. $50,000 expense for no return. Same can be said for just about any other away OOC game, no? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopper Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 15 minutes ago, LZIp said: Same can be said for just about any other away OOC game, no? No. OOC games in the middle of conference season have no value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NWAkron Posted February 5 Report Share Posted February 5 1 hour ago, Hilltopper said: No. OOC games in the middle of conference season have no value. No more bracket busters? what about a mid season Home and Home with Villanova?🫢 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GJGood Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 I like the MAC-SBC challenge but would like to see a third and maybe fourth conference get involved. If we could get the CAA and SoCon in with the MAC and SBC this could become a premier mid-major event. It could still be a one game home one game away for each team just with more variety in whom the opponents could be. For example , Akron and Arkansas State are the top in each of their conferences but already played in Jonesboro. With an additional two conferences involved you could have top of their conference teams like Samford and College of Charleston being the return team to the JAR in the challenge. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy5 Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 I like it. We can call it ... Bracketbusters! 1 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkwgriswold Posted February 6 Author Report Share Posted February 6 South Alabama thumped Coastal Carolina last night, 84-59. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkwgriswold Posted February 6 Author Report Share Posted February 6 I found this article from after the ULM losses that helps explain their recent slide. I went looking to see if they had suffered injuries, but it looks like they just lost their footing. https://www.al.com/sports/2025/01/south-alabama-basketball-drops-3rd-straight-game-2nd-straight-to-ulm-62-58.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NWAkron Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 1 hour ago, clarkwgriswold said: I found this article from after the ULM losses that helps explain their recent slide. I went looking to see if they had suffered injuries, but it looks like they just lost their footing. https://www.al.com/sports/2025/01/south-alabama-basketball-drops-3rd-straight-game-2nd-straight-to-ulm-62-58.html Watched some of the Coastal Carolina game and couldn't determine if S.A. was really good or C.A. was really bad. Why not both? That 1 3 1 zone was crazy to watch. The Jaguars moved like a windshield wiper on high speed as the ball moved from side to side. If Zips are quicker, they can get the open looks. Win streaks comes to an end and if history repeats that will likely be on Saturday. But with this group of guys I just don't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueandgold Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 21 minutes ago, NWAkron said: Watched some of the Coastal Carolina game and couldn't determine if S.A. was really good or C.A. was really bad. Why not both? That 1 3 1 zone was crazy to watch. The Jaguars moved like a windshield wiper on high speed as the ball moved from side to side. If Zips are quicker, they can get the open looks. Win streaks comes to an end and if history repeats that will likely be on Saturday. But with this group of guys I just don't know. I hope we win obviously, but if we're going to lose a game it might as will be this one since it's somewhat meaningless and won't affect us at all in the MAC. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkwgriswold Posted February 6 Author Report Share Posted February 6 42 minutes ago, NWAkron said: Watched some of the Coastal Carolina game and couldn't determine if S.A. was really good or C.A. was really bad. Why not both? That 1 3 1 zone was crazy to watch. The Jaguars moved like a windshield wiper on high speed as the ball moved from side to side. If Zips are quicker, they can get the open looks. Win streaks comes to an end and if history repeats that will likely be on Saturday. But with this group of guys I just don't know. Hopefully, the fact that the Zips use the 1-3-1 occasionally will help them when they face it. Keeping the ball moving and getting it to the baseline is the typical way to attack it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kangaroo Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 The coaches allegedly hate these games. And there's also a certain segment of fans who wish-away the season in anticipation of 3 days in Cleveland. And that's fine. I really enjoy "measuring stick" games against like-competition. This Groce team has a lot to prove. They completely whiffed in the early OOC schedule. Yeah they were on the road...yeah it was a new group of players that needed to gel....yeah the teams are near the top of their respective conferences...etc. etc. etc. We lost every. Single. One. If we are going to have a shot at winning a 1st round NCAA game, we need to not only challenge ourselves with a tough OOC schedule, we need to start beating some of these teams. It's been proven that whipping downtrodden Buffalo, pathetic EMU and soon-to-be-Horizon fodder NIU doesn't prepare the Zips for squat. The bracketbuster was great. How else could I drive 20 minutes south of Hudson to see Top 25 team in the JAR? Nevada, VCU...great mid-majors like Oral Roberts and Creighton? I've seen crappy BGSU teams for 30 years. It is refreshing to see someone like Arkansas State, South Alabama, James Madison, etc. on our schedule. Beat South Alabama handily at home, like we should, and grow a bit. Prove something. We've lost 80% of our measuring stick games in the past. We always have a great MAC record. We'll have another one in 2025. Outside of our SWAC and OAC cupcakes we have yet to really ascend in OOC games. We're Kings of the MAC...which is great...but that's been our ceiling for 20 years. I'm greedy. I want more. Beat South Alabama by 15, run roughshod over the MAC, and beat somebody in the Big Dance. 13 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoopsFan03 Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 I just want to play Cleveland State. At Cleveland 1 year and at home the next. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NWAkron Posted February 6 Report Share Posted February 6 Wishing the season away...now I know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zips1991 Posted February 7 Report Share Posted February 7 South Alabama is ranked higher in the NET than every MAC team other than Akron, so it should be a good matchup. Although I imagine we'll be favored by at least 5-7 points. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkwgriswold Posted February 8 Author Report Share Posted February 8 Line is Zips -7 with an under/over of 144.5. Seems low on the under/over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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