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Top Drawer Soccer(TDS) seems pretty confident about their "source" I had been very much looking forward to seeing Jason Shokalook on the pitch in the fall of 2021. TDS is now saying that Jason will join the zips in the fall of 2020. Tremendous news. Welcome, Jason. https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/recruiting-views:-transfers-on-the-move_aid47695 Shokalook reclassifies to 2020 While Akron recently unveiled four additions to the 2020 roster, a source confirmed to TopDrawerSoccer that Jason Shokalook has reclassified and will also join this year. A prolific goal-scorer for Internationals SC during the past two seasons – Shokalook scored 31 goals in 24 games for the Ohio side in 2018-19, and has eight from just four games played during the current campaign. There’s no guarantee of first-year success, and Shokalook won’t have to be the guy right away. With both David Egbo and Will Jackson back up front for Akron, it means that he can ease his way into the picture. But finishing enough was an issue for the Zips, so the more he can add as a freshman, the better.

Akron with one vote in this week's AP poll.

If these writers wood just take a minute or too two have there stuff prufed buy Zipnation posters befour they publish it than there stuff would be less worser. eh.

Eh. Cupboard was left bare. We couldn’t just cancel the program for 2 years.

What I wouldn't give for a Jeremiah Wood on this team.

Made me smile. I haven't rooted a bit for Shaka since the NCAA tourney game in Detroit.

https://www.beaconjournal.com/sports/20200221/with-five-games-left-zips-control-their-destiny-in-mac All this talk about seedings and hoping certain teams beat other teams, then this article pops up tonight. One game at a time. The blue-blooded eastern division of the MAC will be feeding on each other the next five games. Can't overlook any of them.

If it wasn't clear before, it should be now that winning the MAC Tournament is the only way into the Big Dance for all MAC teams. Any misstep can lose a tiebreaker. Fortunately, this year there doesn't appear to be one dominant team and it can be wide open in Cleveland. Groce won with Ohio in 2010 after going on the road in first round and beating Ball State in OT. They then took out Kent before shocking the Zips in the finals. The following year Ball State got revenge on Groce and the Kittens (who hosted a first round game) in the QFs and took them out in OT sending the Kitten fans into utter meltdown. 2011 Akron came from a 5th seed to beat Kent in OT in that wild final. The next year, a double-bye year, Groce and the #3 Kittens came back and took out Akron by one point and went to the Sweet 16. In 2013, the Zips crushed Ohio in the second half of the final and sent Jim Christian and DJ Cooper off to greener pastures. Since then it's been all Buffalo except for Western MIchigan and Kent. This is the best I can do with the seedings considering Central is short two games. The Huskies have some nice tiebreakers wins over Kent and Buffalo: (feel free to correct my miscalculations) 1. BGSU would face Toledo/Miami winner 2. Akron would face Ball State/Ohio winner 3. Central Michigan would face Buffalo/Western Michigan winner 4. Northern Illinois would face PCCC/Eastern Michigan winner 5. PCCC 6. Ball State 7. Buffalo 8.* Toledo 9. Miami 10. Western Michigan 11. Ohio 12. Eastern Michigan *Akron's loss to Ohio at home sent them to the dreaded 8th seed and a QF match up with Buffalo last year.

"come and take it"

Saw this article on ESPN this morning. It mentions Akron as a possible "Giant Killer" come tourney time. Not a long article, but thought some here might find it interesting. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/28689515/giant-killers-liberty-akron-others-surprise-first-round

ESPN has LCJ listed as the frontrunner as MAC player of the year.

Have Tribble & Ali put up 500 3-pointers a day before next Saturday. Get them some confidence in their respective strokes & tell them to (as I've heard Groce say before) "Shoot with smiles on their faces."

SVSM grad Javon Graves comes home Tuesday night to lead his 13-7 Buffalo Bulls into the JAR. Graves (#3), a 6’3” junior guard, leads Canada with 16.6 ppg while pulling down 5 rebounds a game. 6”7” sophomore Josh Mballa (#34) leads rebounding at 8.8. rpg while scoring 10 ppg. Canada is fresh off of a loss to PCCC They started the MAC season 0-2, losing at home to NIU by a point and losing at Muncie. They then won 4 in a row against Miami, OU, CMU and WMU before falling to Ravenna. Canada has dominated the Greater Buffalo area this year with wins over Canisius, St. Bonaventure and Niagara.

Another tough matchup, not having a center that matches up with the team's overall potential. Friday will be another tough matchup, especially considering the depth. You're starting to see how it hurts to not have any scoring threat off the bench. Ali, Tribble, and Dawson all badly missed wide open threes. Seems like teams are starting to figure Akron out. On to Kent. Not technically a must win, but it would be nice to go into the bye + EMU at home with a big road win.

I'd be more interested in a doubleheader if the women's team was actually good. Even worse this team plays a heavy number of seniors and is still bad so it's not like I'd be watching a young team develop into being good.

That last bucket by WMU was a euro step = 3 steps = travel.

How about just "Zips want to ease in down the road" and take out the rest

That's a wrap. Oakland College Grizzlies 4 University of Akron Zips 3

I want both the #1 seed and tournament win. https://images.app.goo.gl/ZZMazWQiCvRvAtqs5

https://gaffer.online/features/football/deandre-yedlin-crystal-ann-rod-on-sharing-clothes-the-culture-and-becoming-a-creative-power-couple/ ... Crystal: There’s a long list! One of the most amazing things is that we read a lot now. I didn’t really start reading books until I met him. We now go through three books a month. It’s making me smarter, a better person. What books are on your shelf right now? DeAndre: It’s a mix. There’s a lot of self-help, mental health books to help us keep our minds right. A lot about goal setting. It goes under the radar, especially when you talk about athletes. So much of the game is mental but we only train 100% physical. Which doesn’t really make any sense. It’s very important to have refreshers on self-happiness, there’s so many things we go through as humans that it’s important to be able to clear up your mind. It’s a really good skill to have. I say skill because we’ve learned to beat ourselves up, talk ourselves down, when we don’t need to. If you can re-learn the skills of positive thought then it can do wonders in life. Crystal: Goal-setting is another big thing which DeAndre has taught me. I knew it was a thing before but he sat down with me and walked me through it. It’s another amazing way which I’ve changed; mapping everything out has helped me grow as a person and achieve things. ...

The first place Bowling Green Falcons come into the JAR to face the Zips Tuesday night. The Falcons are 8-2 in the MAC. They are coming off of a last second 85-83 win over their biggest rival, Toledo. The Falcons are led by All-MAC 6'4" junior guard Justin Turner at 19 ppg. Turner had a hamstring injury early in the season that slowed him down but not seems to have his legs back under him. 6'6" junior guard/forward Daeqwon Plowden leads rebounding at 8+ rpg while also kicking in 12 ppg. The Falcons were dealt a blow today when their second leading scorer Dylan Frye left the team for "personal reasons." Here's hoping Matiss Kulackovskis still has those awful braids in his hair. This is a HUGE game for the Zips.

I wish Akron was this clever on social media. Students might actually find them humorous enough to follow, which might actually lead to them knowing when games get played.

I'd qualify this with his 3-pt shot has been off. His mid-range jumper is about as deadly as I've ever seen, though. Love that he has that in his arsenal. @Z.I.P. I don't know where to find a stat sheet that has a lay-up count, but @kreed5120 is spot on with our versatility and ability to take advantage of what the defense was giving us. We had a lot of dribble-drives that either ended in a mid-short-range jumper or a lay-up. It was fun to watch. This is partly why I think this team will be so dangerous come March, and why I am not worried about any of our losses. We have a strong ability - it seems - to overcome adversity, keep fighting, and adapt to the flow of a game. Sometimes it's not always enough (i.e. Toledo, PCCC), but more often than not we've seen it has been enough, way more than enough.

Thank you for all the updates!

I don't know if anyone else noticed, but Dawson is FAST. I mean, really fast. Easily runs the court faster than anyone else on the team.

I'm sure you all appreciated that I didn't have a "we are doomed" meltdown tonight. Nice crowd. No gimmicks. Just folks wanting to see good basketball. BG probably didn't feel the loss of Frye v Toledo, but it hit them hard tonight. Turner has an early turnover doing the work Frye would be doing.

I must give credit where credit is due and (in my opinion) Deng did a hell of a job protecting the bucket tonight!

Turner leads the MAC in uncalled travels.

Quite a half for LCJ.

Yes, the PD downsized last season right after college basketball season.

Ball Screen - A ball screen is when an offensive player sets a screen for another offensive player who currently has the ball in possession. Translation- when those guys run into each other out top.

In defense of Reece, I thought at least two of his fouls were ticky tack at best. One involved the player behind him (Toure) reaching over for a rebound but the ref calling white 5. offensively his hands are so much better than Deng's. I think they need to give Sayles a few minutes earlier in game too -not just when Cam and Deng are fouled out. As of today in the NET ratings Akron has dropped to 88. Still tops in MAC. Amazingly BG is 154

Damn. U r good. 12.5 favorites SMH

Here's hoping he's okay. Kid always plays hard. You have to root for the local kid even if he did use poor judgment in selecting a college.

I like the vibe of the Loft and the 12oz old school iced beer mugs

Win with class. Lose with class.

Offered by William and Mary. PWO offer from Pitt.

Apparently didn't start till his senior year. Maybe should have started as a junior, but the senior in front of him was entrenched, plus ended up setting a bunch of area passing records. Janikowski is the coaches kid & apparently grew quite a bit between his junior & senior years. Just piecing together info from various articles online. Ryan Janikowski article Vero Beach coach Lenny Jankowski: “Ryan’s made steady progress. I think what’s unique in his situation is that he doesn’t have a ton of game film. He’s a different creature. His body went through a transformation and he’s different looking than he was in the fall. The ball is jumping out of his hand better and he did well for himself this spring.”

Yeah I'm a little disappointed that Boles took that job because I really like him. Well he was at Akron and Groce was there so we did a pseudo swap. 😁

The last three games have been a Blackford loss to mississinewa ( a team ranked in the top 20 i class above Blackford in size ) by 20 some points brown had 32 of the teams 64 and a couple assists. 2nd game Blackford has an epic collapse with a 24 point lead in the third quarter which they lost in overtime to Winchester where brown had 54 and a handful of assists ....tonight they beat frankton by nearly 30 brown had 31 and 7 by my count

My view was that he had to prove himself and that it would take a few years. I never bought into that "Groce's teams peak in March" meme. I didn't have any interest in seeing average basketball all year "knowing" that he will turn it around in March. Akron is now paying his full salary and now he must produce. I thought it was well-planned by the AD to have Illinois essentially subsidize the Zips rebuild. He and Owens at Miami came in at same time with vastly different results. However, not sure Miami ever recruited a JUCO. Also, under Hipsher the JUCOs were usually bad news. Groce and team appear to be learning from mistakes and are vetting them well. I think the reason they succeed on the road is that the team is cohesive unit and play within themselves and the team.

yeah, thats why I raised the question because I thought our side was tougher

Top4 teams in conference get byes to Cleveland. Bottom 8 teams play at campus sites. Top 4 of those host the games. Not necessarily bad thing to play on Monday in first round...keeps the team fresh.

"Akron (15-4, 5-1) – which was picked in a preseason MAC coaches’ poll to finish fifth in the division, one rung behind Miami – went into the game leading the MAC in overall made 3-point shots, 3-point shooting percentage and free throw shooting percentage. The Zips also were holding opposing teams to MAC’s lowest overall 3-point shooting percentage." Still can't understand how anyone picked Miami to finish better than Akron, considering Akron beat them by 29 points in the tournament last year. But maybe the guys who thought X should be left open from the 3 point line had a vote.

I think that was a typo/mistake. But thanks for pointing that out.

Toledo has a bench

An "and one" and we get a technical called against us? We cannot continue to make these kind of mistakes.

I like Sayles and Deng a lot. Both guys hustle and play up to their abilities. They are certainly not the only bigs around with less than a stellar touch. Both are competent players and an asset to the Zips. Now this dude had some bad hands yet he adapted quite nicely.