Akron 11-7

[jakejc795]

Looked like some contact on that last steal and bucket by Arians as well.

I missed that trying to "simulcast" the WBB game.

The Zips shall be known as "muklucky" buckeyes

[da_coach]

Tough loss, on a bad call. (or...let's say...shaky call)

However, Good game against a good team, on the road. That is exactly the type of game we need to play as often as possible. Good to get our feet wet that way.
This will only strengthen the team.

[Jackbacker123]

I understand that it was the first game of the year but that was a bad loss. To not get a shot off at the end of regulation was not good.

[Route 12 Jack]

I think it will take a while for this team for this team to find/develop its identity. Right now, we do not have our top 2-3 scorers (or go-to players) from last year on the court (Wilson, Schierman, Apel). This teams needs to figure out who's gonna step up and be that go-to guy(s). That will eventually work itself out, but I don't think we're there yet.

[jackrabbit1979]

I understand that it was the first game of the year but that was a bad loss. To not get a shot off at the end of regulation was not good.

We lost to an NCAA tourney team last year, who went 24-10, on the road and in OT by one point. Never mind the fact that we lost two conference of the year type players and this was our first game without them, and we were missing a pre-season all conference player. I can accept criticizing the fact we didn't get a shot off/turned it over in the final offensive possession in regulation, but to say this was a bad loss is just not true.

[LetsGoRabbits]

It was a very frustrating loss, because it felt like we had a LOT of reasons to think we should have won or LOTS of chances to win, but i would DEFINITELY stop well short of calling it a bad loss

we have leaned very heavily on Doug for most of the last 3 years and baylor for the last 2. and this was a great chance to recognize what an amazing player Doug was. we got killed by their post star late. if you just remember the NCAA game last year, you will remember the way that Doug neutralized a much bigger post than we saw last night, who was also expected to score against us. remember the way he guarded both Max Abmas and Rocky Krueser successfully in end of game situations

so it is a BIG adjustment to learn to play defense without doug. and to play offense without doug or baylor. i believe that AA can play the point and play it well !!! but he did appear rusty last night. for a lot of the second half i felt like we struggled to get into any type of flow or rhythm on offense. BIG difference for us, compared to the way we have played recently. last night we had only 11 assists on 31 made shots. for the last 2 years at least we generally have assists on well over half of our made shots. to me that shows a lack of rhythm and lack of normal ball and player movement.

WK looks so good!!! but he has a way to go to be the passer that Doug was. SO MANY of our 3s the last 3 years have been from kick out passes from the post. i am not sure we had any of those last night

so i was very disappointed in AA decision to pass cross court on our final regulation possession and he has not been the guy with the ball at the end of the game for the last couple years. if we want him to be that guy, i think we need to encourage him to be more aggressive and more of a playmaker in other parts of the game. (although he did lead us easily in assists with 6) i think he can do it but it might take a minute. i am a bit surprised that Zeke is not handling the ball more. he was a PG in high school

anyway i very much believe they will get these things figured out!! and really we shot OVER 50% from the field. we out boarded the other team and we only had 13 TO which is not terrible!! in MANY ways we could say the only real tangible reason we lost is because they had ONE guy go off and shoot 8 of 12 from 3

anyway so while we did not play a game that was very pleasing to look at, we outshot them and outboarded them. USUALLY that combination wins!!!! i think we will get the PG thing and the ball movement thing and the assists thing figured out)))!!!! and i hope/ believe that we will not too often let the other team expected top scorer GO OFF to quite this degree

[peavy]

perhaps it's a bit early to be keeping on an eye on the teams we have lost to. With that being said, Akron is playing Mississippi State on barstool.tv at the Barstool Sports Invitational. Akron is down 4 with 3 minutes left in the 1st half. They were interviewing the Akron coach with the teams actively playing. Go Zips
edit: 71-51 MSU with 2 minutes left