Home Team: BGSU Falcons
Visiting Team: Akron Zips
Venue: Stroh Center (Bowling Green, Ohio)
Game Time: 7:00 p.m.
Fellow Attendees: None
Game Story | Box Score
Sometimes I hate a player so much that it makes me hate their entire team. The best example I can think of is Brett Favre. I hated that guy so much, and I hated the Packers the whole time he played there. Now that he's gone, I actually kind of like the Packers. Somewhat more recently, there's the St. Louis Cardinals, who I kind of liked up until the Yadier Molina/Brandon Phillips incident; we'll see how I feel about the Cardinals after Molina moves on.
My prediction? The Cardinals suffer the same fate in my eyes as the Akron Zips, the basketball team I loathe more than any other in the MAC. That's right: more, even, than the hated Toledo Rockets. Akron simply had too many jackass players in a row, starting with Jami Bosley and continuing with Andy Hipsher and then Nick Dials. The funny thing is, I hate Akron so much that I had somehow convinced myself that I had seen BG play them on several of my all-too-rare trips to the Stroh Center; looking back, I see that this was, in fact, only the second time I've seen the Zips play there. Ah, memory.
So it goes without saying that I don't like Akron's coach, Keith Dambrot, even though I'm not sure he was there for any of the aforementioned players. I don't like him, but you can't question the fact that he knows how to coach a basketball team. (It kind of makes you wonder why he's languished at Akron for so long instead of moving up to a more high-profile job...unless, of course, you already know that he's been painted with allegations of being a racist. Then it makes sense.) The Zips have taken over from Kent State as the preeminent MAC basketball program under his tenure, and when you watch them play, it's easy to see why.
I mean, forget about talent. Akron is obviously light years ahead of Bowling Green in that area. I actually thought the Falcons played relatively well; they kept themselves in the game, but just couldn't quite make it over the hump and take the lead. The difference, to my eye, was in the poise level of the two teams. Akron never (rarely, at least) gets sloppy. And when BG would get on a run and the crowd would start to get loud, Akron never got rattled. They played through it, kept their heads, and eventually got the basket they needed to keep their lead and then extend it.
(Would they have been able to do that if the Falcons were still playing at Anderson Arena, with a loud and sweaty student section right on the floor? We'll never know...but the memory of how the old Sideline Squad utterly destroyed the confidence of Andy Hipsher after a pregame dust-up will never fail to bring a smile to my face.)
As someone who hates the Zips so thoroughly, it's frustrating. You know their dominance will eventually dry up, because that's just how these things go, but watching the games in the meantime is not the most fun I've ever had. Of course, it just so happened that this was the first game this season that coincided with my own schedule so that I could attend. On the bright side, it looks like Brandi and I will be back for a game this weekend, so hopefully we'll get some better results. Or if not, at least it won't be at the hands of Akron. Seriously, F those guys.
Game Story | Box Score
Sometimes I hate a player so much that it makes me hate their entire team. The best example I can think of is Brett Favre. I hated that guy so much, and I hated the Packers the whole time he played there. Now that he's gone, I actually kind of like the Packers. Somewhat more recently, there's the St. Louis Cardinals, who I kind of liked up until the Yadier Molina/Brandon Phillips incident; we'll see how I feel about the Cardinals after Molina moves on.
My prediction? The Cardinals suffer the same fate in my eyes as the Akron Zips, the basketball team I loathe more than any other in the MAC. That's right: more, even, than the hated Toledo Rockets. Akron simply had too many jackass players in a row, starting with Jami Bosley and continuing with Andy Hipsher and then Nick Dials. The funny thing is, I hate Akron so much that I had somehow convinced myself that I had seen BG play them on several of my all-too-rare trips to the Stroh Center; looking back, I see that this was, in fact, only the second time I've seen the Zips play there. Ah, memory.
So it goes without saying that I don't like Akron's coach, Keith Dambrot, even though I'm not sure he was there for any of the aforementioned players. I don't like him, but you can't question the fact that he knows how to coach a basketball team. (It kind of makes you wonder why he's languished at Akron for so long instead of moving up to a more high-profile job...unless, of course, you already know that he's been painted with allegations of being a racist. Then it makes sense.) The Zips have taken over from Kent State as the preeminent MAC basketball program under his tenure, and when you watch them play, it's easy to see why.
I mean, forget about talent. Akron is obviously light years ahead of Bowling Green in that area. I actually thought the Falcons played relatively well; they kept themselves in the game, but just couldn't quite make it over the hump and take the lead. The difference, to my eye, was in the poise level of the two teams. Akron never (rarely, at least) gets sloppy. And when BG would get on a run and the crowd would start to get loud, Akron never got rattled. They played through it, kept their heads, and eventually got the basket they needed to keep their lead and then extend it.
(Would they have been able to do that if the Falcons were still playing at Anderson Arena, with a loud and sweaty student section right on the floor? We'll never know...but the memory of how the old Sideline Squad utterly destroyed the confidence of Andy Hipsher after a pregame dust-up will never fail to bring a smile to my face.)
As someone who hates the Zips so thoroughly, it's frustrating. You know their dominance will eventually dry up, because that's just how these things go, but watching the games in the meantime is not the most fun I've ever had. Of course, it just so happened that this was the first game this season that coincided with my own schedule so that I could attend. On the bright side, it looks like Brandi and I will be back for a game this weekend, so hopefully we'll get some better results. Or if not, at least it won't be at the hands of Akron. Seriously, F those guys.
No comments:
Post a Comment