We are a .500 team with lots of injuries, playing on the road, against the overwhelming best team in the conference. And you're shocked we lost? Amazing.
As of last night, there is one injury on this team.
It's not that we lost to Akron. It's that we are a .500 team and we will look like one going against Akron. That's due in part that this roster is constructed/managed in a way that lends itself to this kind of result. As I've said before, season-ending injuries happen, minor injuries like with Miles and Elmore happen. But we also failed to fill a scholarship, we are using a scholarship to redshirt a freshman, and we are carrying IJ Ezuma for two years. That combination of factors is why our available bigs combined for three rebounds against a team that isn't overly huge. It's why we are often playing three guards under 6'2'' at the same time.
With our investment and pedigree in MAC basketball, we should never be a .500 team in conference. We're not Northern Illinois.
That said, I thought we fought well for 85% of the game and I expected us to be completely thrashed, as has been the case at the JAR for better Ohio teams in the past. It's late January and we have a losing record yet have not lost by double digits. Kind of goes to show that we'd probably have a far better W/L record if we entered this season with a full deck.