A Little Love From Rivals

[K-Roo]

http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/conten...&CID=73551868. Akron Zips won 26 games last season. With three double-digit scorers back, they'll be strong again.

[BirdZip]

In this poll, we're ranked higher than any opponent on our schedule. The closest is Dayton, at 71.Then again, their comment for K-ent State (118) is "Golden flushes will be relying on young backcourt." Aren't they returning all 5 starters?Regardless...

[skip-zip]

BirdZip..that is why I keep saying that we don't have opportunities to pull "upsets" on our schedule. At least not the kinds of upset that will be noticed at tournament time. Being ranked at #78, and going into every game during the season being the favorite, is not going to give people a reason to hoist Akron into an at-large tournament spot in March. So, is this schedule really accomplishing anything? We'll see. Yes, Can't does return all 5 starters. But, if I recall, Can't had some very young guys in their starting backcourt last year, which may be why they are still referring to them as having a young backcourt. To the contrary, we have seniors in our backcourt, and many people think that really makes a difference in this conference. Once again....We'll see.Ok..I'll say it again. I still wish we had some opportunities to pull some legitimate upsets that would turn heads.

[ZachTheZip]

Here's where we learn our position in the sports world. OSU got to #1 by playing a bunch of inferior opponents and winning all the games they should have, until saturday.Akron has the oppurtunity to go undefeated with this schedule. Will they be #1? Most certainly not, unless every other team in the nation has at least 4 losses. But I think that if we win the games we are supposed to and don't screw up, we'll see.

[Valpo Zip]

This ranking is not set in stone. That's why we need our opponents, mainly MAC teams to do good in their OOC schedule. Only then, beating them would be valuable for the committee.If those team end up being bad teams, than the other possibility is for us to go undefeated. What are the chances of that happening? we'll find out.I know that some people will start questionning KD and his scheduling strategy. The thing is that this guy is dreaming big, bigger than what we're used to. He is not going to go anywhere without a return game. And good teams will not come to the JAR to play us until they respect us. KD is building the respect for the team, not for himself. If the guy had a short term plan to build his resume, he would go play in NC, DUKE, OSU etc... hoping for an upset that puts him under the big lights to get a better job. He chose the other way, he is building the respect for Akron, not for KD. This is not a 2 year plan. This may be a 6-8 year plan that started 4 years ago. The guy is doing his job by consistently improving the talent level and reloading competitive teams year in year out. The community has to do its share. We have to outgrow the JAR so that Proenza give us a better place.

[skip-zip]

skhorbotly. I don't think it really matters if he is trying to make a name for himself, or for the program.You have to play and beat big schools before anyone gives you any kind of status. Plus, just playing those teams helps recruiting. If we're passing up those opportunities because we can't get a return trip, and think that we're better off substituting that with a game against Binghamton, we're not advancing the program.

[ZachTheZip]

skhorbotly. I don't think it really matters if he is trying to make a name for himself, or for the program.You have to play and beat big schools before anyone gives you any kind of status. Plus, just playing those teams helps recruiting. If we're passing up those opportunities because we can't get a return trip, and think that we're better off substituting that with a game against Binghamton, we're not advancing the program.

I have to side with skhorbotly on this one. If you want to be treated like a big program, you have to start treating yourself like one first. "Big" programs don't go ANYWHERE without a return trip. I lose a lot of respect for a team when it plays a home and away against a team that will almost certainly beat them in a blowout both games, and looks at that 0.01%chance of beating a ranked team as an "oppurtunity". All it does is give the other team a win, and you a loss. Nobody cares whether you "almost" won, or could hang with them for 3 quarters before being put away. The conference as a whole drops when you lose in OOC games, regardless of who you lose to. Major schools never play any team that isn't somewhat their equal or lower. Why should we? They pad their win column against weak teams who hapen to play other tough teams. The RPI is 25% your opponent's opponent's record. We can get a high rating by beating teams that are average mid-majors who play killer schedules, like the rest of the MAC. They do the dirty work for us.Geting your ass handed to you by Duke is not a good reason for a recruit to sign with us. "You get to play Duke" is a terrible excuse and gives you no status, except as a team with a losing record because you played a team you knew you couldn't beat and settled for a loss. "Any time, anywhere" only works when you know you can win.

[skip-zip]

We're forgetting the lessons of the past 25 years.On several occassions during the Huggins era, and now today, we've been snubbed by the tournaments, even though we had outstanding records. The only thing that changes that process is scheduling bigger programs, getting better recruits, increasing SOS, and eventually being able to knock off a few of them.uakronkid....better schedules do indeed serve as recruiting tools. I'm just not understanding why anyone feels optimistic that winning 25 games with a weak SOS is going to get us into a tournament. History keeps repeating itself. It's been doing that ever since I have been a Zips basketball fan going back to the early 80's. And last year was an indication that the tournament selection committees are not looking at our resume any differently now than they did 25 years ago.

[Valpo Zip]

What you are saying is true... we keep getting snubbed because we do not have the respect yet.Last year we had the chance to beat Nevada at home but we didn't. We also had bad losses at UIC and against UALR.In order to gain the respect, we need to win those games. Not schedule away games with bigger schools.We keep talking about our weak schedule while the truth is that we had 6 losses...let's beat every team on our schedule and make it to the tournament. This, in my opinion is a shorter way to getting respect.

[skip-zip]

I've asked myself that question many times...Would 1 or 2 more wins had made a difference last year?If we had beaten UALR and/or UIC, our SOS would still have been the same, You'd like to think that they certainly could not have passed us up with 27 or 28 wins, but I'm thinking that they stopped taking a serious look at us as soon as they evaluated our schedule. In my lifetime (and I'm old) I have not seen a change in philosophy when it comes to the selection committees. They still appear to put a lot more weight on who you play, and not how many games you win. I wish that wasn't the case, because it's hurt us in the past, but that might be the reality we have to deal with for quite some time to come.

[Zip Watcher]

If we had beaten UALR and/or UIC, our SOS would still have been the same, You'd like to think that they certainly could not have passed us up with 27 or 28 wins, but I'm thinking that they stopped taking a serious look at us as soon as they evaluated our schedule.

Last year, this is not the case. A win vs. UALR would have put Texas Tech on the schedule instead of Gardner-Webb. That game alone would have boosted SOS a bunch. A win vs. Texas Tech would have lead to another game (I think vs. Marquette or Duke) ...

[skip-zip]

Zip Watcher....you're right. We would have progressed in that tournament, and added teams that would have bolstered our SOS. Wow. Thanks for reminding me. What a missed opportunity.

[zipdiehard]

It's all about name recognition, even those that come from other sports. The NIT was proof of that last year. If the selection committe is looking at 25 win Akron and 18 win Notre Dame, whose name is familiar to them? SOS is used to remove "mid-majors" and bottom feeder "big conference" schools from the mix. Look at Ohio State's schedule this year, while they do play NC and Florida (at home) they also have Wisc GB, Columbia, VMI, Coppin St, MD Balt Co, and the Blue Hose of Presbyterian. Add to that what looks like a weak Big Ten (only 2 teams in top 25), and they should cruise to a 20 win season and a high seed.While I understand Dambrot's feelings, he does need to schedule at least one big game a year. If for nothing more than to increase the local awareness of our program.