Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Rhode Island Edges Akron and It Was Hard To Watch

Ok, before Rhode Island and Akron fans get on me for the headline, I am not talking about the actual game itself. It was a very close game throughout as Rhode Island wins 68-63. And there seemed to be a good crowd on the Zips' home court.

The reason I am saying it was hard to watch is because I signed up for the monthly Akron Zips Insider fee, which enabled me to see the live game online. Glad I did the monthly, not the annual because I could not stand to watch another broadcast.

The video was fine. The audio was crazy. It was piped into the PA system. So when the PA announcer cut in, it was fine. The problem was that it was total silence otherwise. So no play by play, no live crowd noise. Just silence. Until the PA announcer came in when either team scored a basket, or there was a foul or there was a timeout.

I can tell you from watching as much of the game as I could stand, both teams are pretty good. Brett McKnight is a very nice player for the Zips and Lamonte Ulmer, Delroy James and Keith Cothran are a nice trio for the Rams (though Cothran had an off night).

What I liked most was that Rhode Island drove to the basket or worked it inside repeatedly and got fouls. That was the difference in the game. The Rams were 20 of 25 from the line (Ulmer was 10 of 12), Akron just 11 of 18. That's why the Rams are 12-1 now. The Rams look very legit to me and they played a pace more conducive for the Zips, but they won. That's the mark of a good team.

Memo to the Akron Zips - If you can take your radio feed and pipe that into the live camera feed, it would be much better (and yes, they did have a separate live audio feed, but I don't know if both together would have jived well).

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