Use this thread to talk about anything game-related.

Date: March 8th, 2014  12:00 PM

Opponent: Miami   (12-16, 8-9 MAC)

Site: Millett Hall

TV: Time Warner Cable SportsChannel, ESPN FullCourt Miami fan site:  MiamiHawkTalk.com 

What time is the KSU-UA game?  I assume it's on TWC since they just love NE Ohio so much.  I really hope we can squeeze in that bye and have a little longer to heal our walking wounded.  If we can get healthy, I really do see a possible analogy here to the 2012 football team's post season turnaround. 

I have a weird feeling that we will win, Kent will win, and everything will look all sunny and then Toledo blows it and Eastern wins. hello 5 seed

ESPN2 at 7:00.

If Akron wins tonight there's really no need to put N'dour, Taylor or TJ on the floor tomorrow.  If Akron wins, win or lose tomorrow we would play Monday night at home against either CMU or BSU, so it would be better to rest the injured -- especially with the possibility of five games next week. 

Miami sucks.

I know many of you feel this game does not matter if Akron wins, but what about post season invitations and seeding? Right now, some projections have Ohio in the NIT (http://www.bracketmatrix.com/nit.html) as an 8th seed. A loss could move us out of the NIT and into the CBI or CIT! If we can win it all in Cleavland and make the "Big Dance," the NIT is the next big option. I want post season play in any form I can get it!! It's not NCAA on nothing at all in my book.  Winning matters regardless!!!!

Only the #1 seed in the Conference Tournament gets the auto NIT bid (if they don't win the tournament).  We tied Akron last year for the league title and did not recieve an auto bit to the NIT.

Even so, our NIT odds are pretty long unless we get to the tourney championship game.  Toledo's RPI is 37, so they may get in the NCAA even without winning the MAC tourney.  We have the 2nd best RPI in the MAC (84), WMU's is 86, EMU's is 91 and Buffalo's is 95 so we're all pretty tightly bunched together.  If Toledo wins the MAC tourney, it'll probably take being in the tourney championship game to make an impression on the NIT people (they don't have to choose by RPI, although it's one factor).  There isn't that much difference between a 5 and a 6 seed, so if tomorrow's game isn't going to get us a bye, I think it's more important to rest our injured to give us a better shot at going deep in the tourney.

I must begin by apologizing for my absence this week. I was sequestered in a spiritual retreat. It was a good time for me to take some time away and reflect on how fortunate I am. It appears that while I was spending some time in reflective contemplation, our Bobcats also reflected on what they wanted to become and found great strength on the barren plain.

Now, it is on to Oxford and the end of our scheduled journey. The trip to Oxford is one I make with great trepidation. My dislike for Miami University was not borne of my years as a Bobcat.

Once upon a time, a rural community's grade school students were offered the opportunity to attend a program at Miami University. We had to leave town before sunrise in order to make the drive across the southern half of the state. Most of my classmates slept in the van, but I could not. Not only was I excited for the opportunity to see a real college and meet real college professors, I was also prone to bouts of motion sickness. I rode a fine line between joy and vomit.

The van stopped at the corner of Talawanda and Church Streets. I was mostly nauseous after rolling up and down the hills of Southwest Ohio. My classmates were groggy and stiff having just woken up. We were supposed to walk to Brandon Hall, where we would be met by a resident director that would chaperone our visit. Having never been to a college campus, none of us were certain where we were going. We stumbled down the street, confused and essentially lost in plain sight.

Katie thought it would be a good idea to ask some college students on a front porch which way we needed to go. They were less than helpful, instead jeering our Sunday finest as cornpone. One cretin said if we were too hungover to find our dorm we should come into their house for hair of the dog. I started to explain that we were not hung over, we were 7th graders. I didn't get very far. The fear of the boys and a discontented stomach did not permit me to finish my explanation, and a well-balanced breakfast of sausage gravy and scrambled eggs was regurgitated on the steps of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

I remember little else except shame and a solemn vow that I would never return to such an awful, awful place.

It was by grace I became a student at Ohio. And as such, I amended my oath that I would go to Oxford as an enemy combatant. I have done so ever since.

Muck Fiami.

Not sure where this crazy NIT talk started. I don't see a CBI or CIT or CTI bid unless we make the MAC Final and lose.
Bottom line...Christian should sit anyone that has an injury today and let them loose next week. 
#MarchMadness
#Need5WinsIn6Days

Will the game be blacked out on ESPN Full Court as well as ESPN3? If so are there any bars in Athens that has TWC?