Akron 11-7

[rabbitfarmer]

Men play Akron today. 3.5 point dogs. Haven’t looked much into them.

*When the football team is good there is a lot less activity under the basketball threads…

[DieselJacks]

Akron made the tourney as a 13 seed last year, lost 1st round. Lost 2 of their starters (6’8” F Ali Ali and 6’2” G Bryan Trimble). Team had a pretty balanced scoring attack, led by 6’1” G Xavier Casteneda and 6’7” F Enrique Freeman. They are led by former Illinois coach John Groce. Should be a really good game!

[OldHare]

The Zips play in James A Rhodes Arena(The JAR) which seats 5500. They seem to have similar sized crowds as the Jackrabbits. The Zips are preseason choice to finish 3rd in the MAC. There are 9 returners from last year who are joined by 2 transfers and 4 freshmen. Coach Croce had 2 stints in the Big 10. He was an assistant with Ohio St/Thad Matta prior to HC at Ohio and HC at Illinois and now to his 2nd stint in the MAC. Croce has 2 all conference preseason players in Freeman and Castenda. Hankerson(northern Ill) and Hunter(Ole Miss) are the transfers who could fill some graduation holes. This game will be on ESPN3 at 6pm CT. This will be a competitive game for these teams. It would be great should Appel bounce back from his foot injury. We will see if the freshmen continue to play at a high level against more accomplished teams. Go Jacks!!

[LetsGoRabbits]

Men play Akron today. 3.5 point dogs. Haven’t looked much into them.

*When the football team is good there is a lot less activity under the basketball threads…

HMM?? interesting, do you think so?
the football team has been good for over a decade, going on 2 decades

i think there is just less activity here in general. too bad. love to talk about the rabbits

it will be very interesting to see how all the new guys play against a quality team. it might take them a bit to get their feet on the ground?? NOT too long hopefully!!!

I felt like Alex actually came out being aggressive on offense in the exhibition. then once he saw that the WK3 and the new guys were going to be comfortable and able to score, he is happy to let everyone else shoot

will that be the case today? will Zeke and Dent and AA carry the offense, at least to begin? is Appel back today? or will WK3, mohrs, and the freshman guards get it rolling in their first game

I believe that there will be at least 2 stars out of this new group, and it could be 3 or 4!! i did not expect Kyle to be this good on offense to begin. it has been awesome so far! i totally expect Te slaa to be a stud. I think he is gonna have the same all around game as AA, maybe not quite as good a rebounder but a better passer and a more natural and better scorer. i am not saying it WILL happen but i will not be surprised if he is starting at the point before the year is over
i think mohrs will be solid with potential for more and garry is still a mystery to me but i feel like the ceiling could be high. on top of those 4 we have not even seen Lien yet and Hastrieter showed potential as well

beyond all that, do charley and mims have more game that might show up now that doug and baylor and noah are gone? it certainly appeared that they were stepping into more team leader roles in the off season, without doug and baylor

[peavy]

... we have not even seen Lien yet ...

Not sure we'll see Lien tonight either based on Jeff Goodman's Complete List of Injured or Suspended Players in College Basketball in 2022-23, noting him suspended for 1 game. Article was published yesterday, and it's possible that exhibition game was considered to be that 1 game. Denver has two players out for the year with acl injuries; UMKC is redshirting 3 and 2 other players are out indefinitely.

Akron will be without junior Mikal Dawson who played in all 34 games last year (starting the last 10) and averaged 24 mpg.

[peavy]

Appel out (but out of boot) and Lien out per Tyler. WK3 starting

stream link if you can't access espn3 - use an adblock like ublock origin to be safe -> site appears to have one ad on upper right w/o any blocker

[bigticket1]

OK ESPN 3 - let's go !

[peavy]

OK ESPN 3 - let's go !

so it's going to be one of those games, huh?

[LetsGoRabbits]

got the game on radio
and as far as i can tell i have espn3 up and running, but it continues to say, your event is about to begin

[LetsGoRabbits]

so it's going to be one of those games, huh?

AHA apparently i am not alone
this is BY FAR my most common experience with espn3
not necessarily THIS message but ALMOST ALWAYS a problem of one type or another

[Route 12 Jack]

That’s what I’m getting too…….Your event is about to start.

[LetsGoRabbits]

tyler just said that the video feed is not working

[filbert]

Tyler just mentioned video feed not working.

[LetsGoRabbits]

jacks up 10-9 with about 13 minutes to go

seems like their two studs, castaneda and freeman are definitely carrying them

jacks i believe have 4 from both Kyle and Dent

[LetsGoRabbits]

from whatever portion of the multiverse that is espn3, the game has not started yet

it remains, "about to start"