A Look At Akron

(Folks, bear with me…I’m not quite sure what’s going on with this gigantic empty space in the middle of the post…I’m getting HTML pwned by the Innerwebs. For now, think of this space as the trophy case for N.C. State Basketball, Football and Baseball under Lee Fowler’s tenure.)

KenPom.com’s Scouting Report on Akron
Category	Offense	Defense	D-I Avg
Adj. Efficiency:	121.8 [43]	107.0 [224]	99.2
Adj. Tempo:		69.9 [165]	69.8
Four Factors
Effective FG%:	47.0 [197]	54.6 [271]	48.5
Turnover %:	13.1 [11]	17.5 [279]	21.4
Off. Reb. %:	43.3 [25]	35.9 [225]	33.4
FTA/FGA:	37.9 [166]	59.3 [307]	38.2

These stats don’t mean a whole lot, just like the NCAA rankings in football, until teams start getting further into their schedule and compete against a good number of teams.

For all the dirt on the Zips, I turned to friend and Akron alum Chad B. for a breakdown on what to expect. Here’s what he wrote:

It’s a team that made it to the NCAA Tournament last year (23-13) with four starters and 13 letterwinners returning. They lost to Gonzaga in the 1st round, but pretty much led the entire way.

They are the preseason favorite to win the MAC again and have been selected as the #8 “Mid Major” in the nation.

They also added a top 50 recruit.

They are extremely solid and very, very well coached. They’re usually an extremely disciplined team. I would say that State needs to play well. If not, I could totally seeing Akron winning. They certainly won’t be intimidated by facing an ACC school.

So it looks like State will have their hands full this afternoon. Vegas seems to think so, too. They’ve got State with only a slight edge as a 1.5-point favorite. Basically it’s a pick ’em. This may be a better test than expected to see if the new look, re-energized, We’re-all-for-one-and-one-for-all-f**k-those-losers-from-last-year-that-are-gone-now Wolfpack can win the hustle stats: snagging rebounds and loose balls while dictating increased tempo.

Should be a good one.