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  1. After the Zips game at PPG Arena, I passed Koby Altman the General Manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the concourse. You would have to think that Enrique Freeman impressed Koby after his 21 and 14 showing against the 7' 1" 270 lbs - Ryan Kalkbrenner, the Big East three time Defensive Player of the Year. I will never forget the 24 points, 21 rebounds and 7 blocks stat line against Ohio U. Really appreciate Enrique and going to miss him.
    9 points
  2. KD has already had a talk with our administration about helping UA in the future, both the institution and athletics. He wants to be a presence in Akron.
    8 points
  3. I don't know that it would cover the gas to Brookings, South Dakota.
    7 points
  4. This guy's had an issue with strength and conditioning for some time now lol https://zipsnation.org/forums/search/?&q=Conditioning&author=monrowe&search_and_or=or
    7 points
  5. The two teams that pulled off the biggest upsets today had scoring guards lead the way - Oakland (Gohlke, 32) and Duquesne (Grant, 19). When we came close against UCLA. Castaneda led the way with 18. When OU won in 2021, they had Preston and Sears. When Groce's OU teams made their runs, they had DJ Cooper. You get the point. It's hard to pull off an upset without a guard who can score in bunches and break down a defense.
    7 points
  6. And hopefully a new jersey. Guthrie favorited my tweet suggesting that Freeman's jersey also be retired.
    6 points
  7. I have heard that when it comes to recruiting bigs you need to have a point guard they are excited to play with. Often the success of a post player is determined by how well the point guard can distribute the ball to them. And they know it. Hopefully a more mature Tavari and the addition of Sharron Young proves to be a magnet going forward. Also, we have learned that it was Freeman’s Mom who really deserves credit for recruiting him by convincing him to try out. I still give Groce credit for recognizing his athleticism and bringing him in as a walk on. Then I give Groce credit for not being prideful because Freeman was grading out better than his recruits. He went with the best performer in practice, period. And finally, thanks to Freeman the coaching staff can show what is possible at Akron from a developmental standpoint. Freeman with all of his physical gifts was raw. Their guidance combined with Freeman’s desire and hard work took someone without a single D1 offer and turned him into one of the best forwards in college basketball. That’s impressive. Thank you Enrique!! Well done!!
    6 points
  8. Creighton was a really tough matchup. I watched them several times this year, including when they blew out #1 UCONN. They have a pretty high ceiling, and Shereef Mitchell at Ohio came from Creighton (where he didn't play much). Creighton is a talented bunch. Congrats on the MAC tourney win, it was much deserved. We'll see you all in Athens in 10 months or so. 👍
    6 points
  9. Made the drive yesterday. Great atmosphere. Lots of Zips fans in the building. Pretty much a full house for our game. Downtown Pittsburgh is such a wonky place. Lots of narrow streets and damn those bridges But anyway, Akron played as well as it could for 18 minutes. The next six game minutes did not go well. Then they got impatient and started shooting 3s and we know they ain't too good shooting from long range. Creighton shot 59% from 3. Ouch. But honestly, the Zips never stopped giving great effort. I know the correct narrative is this team never found the gear we thought they had. We would get a little tease here and there. But as the sadness of the end wears off, that Kent championship game will be the enduring memory. We all want this program to pull off an "Oakland" at some point, but for now, season is over. Future is in the portal somewhere. But this was a great group of seniors and at least we have a regular season title and two tourney titles since 2020 (no tourney in 2020) to be proud of. I'm confident that Coach will find some help in the offseason. Well done Zips! Looking forward to another banner going up.
    6 points
  10. Has nothing to do with strength/conditioning. Has everything to do with an inability to put the ball in the hoop consistently. Vs Ohio in the Semi Finals - 14 or 16 pts in the first half & 50 pts in the second half. Prime example, especially being the 2nd game in 2 days. I mean, hell, we won the MAC Tournament which is 3 games in 3 days. We need shooters/scorers. Period.
    5 points
  11. I am a long time Zip fan and and about halfway through the season when we were undefeated in MAC play and I heard Freeman and Tribble indicate that this team had another gear that they had not played their best basketball. I believed them and thought we were going to have a special season going undefeated in the MAC or at most 1 or 2 losses because the MAC was having a down year. I thought we would would win the MAC tourney and finally have a good shot at winning our first NCAA game. Then we played a tier one team, James Madison, and our bench scored a total of 4 points. I thought that this team lacks the bench talent to beat a tier one team in the NCAA tournament. And then we started losing to some really bad MAC teams. And there was one consistent weakness the entire season, we did not have a player who could knock down 3 points shooter and as a team we were really bad at hitting outside shots. We ranked 262 in the country in 3 point percentage and had the 2nd worst 3 point shooting Akron team in the past 10 year. And Groce knew going into the season he had a stud inside player, Freeman, who could dominate the middle. He had 3 players, Ali, Tribble, and Hunter who could score in different ways. He had 3 guys that had showed potential, Tavari, Nate, and Dawson. All he had to do was to bring in 2 guards that could knock down the 3 so that teams could not double and triple team Freeman. In football terms, if you have a stud quarterback, you search the portal for offensive lineman to protect your stud. In basketball terms, you bring in a shooter that if they double and triple team Freeman he can play inside out and have a shooter make the 3 ball. Instead, he brought in Thornton and Scott who could not shoot the 3 ball and could not create their own shot. Groce, who brought us X and LCJ, picked the worst year to strike out when using the transfer pool to bring in 2 guards. In the latter part of the season teams just double and triple teamed Freeman and we struggled to shoot the 3 ball. I think Groce is a great coach and brings in quality student athletes. I know we won in Cleveland and got to the tourney and should be happy with that achievement. However, I would ask everyone on this board one question, did this team meet or exceed your expectations when we started this season.
    5 points
  12. I don’t like what is happening to college sports!
    5 points
  13. Zeke Mayo, G from South Dakota State, is in the Portal. 18.8 PPG. I don't know how much the @clarkwgriswold fund has in it, but we need to empty it and bring two Jackrabbits into Akron - Mayo & Williams III.
    4 points
  14. I updated the original post with who is in and out for each school so far along with names we've seen tied to the Zips. Let me know if I'm missing anyone!
    4 points
  15. I look at it this way - if Freeman would've entered the portal last summer would any MAC teams turn him down if they had the chance? These coaches are constantly battling each other for players. If they have a chance to make their teams better they're all going to do it.
    4 points
  16. If this is true, Kent will pretty much only be returning Julius Rollins & Hornbeak. Kent's summer school classes are going to include "Which Number is Higher: 61 or 60", "How to Look at the Scoreboard at the End of Games", and "When Not to Foul." These are, of course, HUGE leaps above their typical summer school classes such as "Counting to 3", "ABC's: Sing With Me", and "Our Truth: Drawing Birds with Teeth." Rumor has it Pinky is frantically hitting the portal for any ladies with basketball player boyfriends and coaches who have stud sons/nephews/etc.
    4 points
  17. Just anecdotal but (as far as I remember) I've only ever seen two Zips TRUE FRESHMAN point guards really make legitimate impacts: Jimmal Ball & Noah Robotham. So I'm tempering my enthusiasm for a true frosh PG. But I'm excited to see him play & stoked he's a Zip.
    3 points
  18. With the unfortunate yet inevitable end for the 2023-24 Zips men's basketball season, we've arrived at the off-season portion of the calendar. The Transfer Portal and TOS Coaching Carousel will be the hot button topics, and I figured it would be good to keep a tracker as the first post on a thread. If anything is missing from this post, please comment and tag me so I see it and can update this post. Go Zips! MAC Transfer Portal Akron - OUT - None Ball State - OUT - Micah Bell, Trent Middleton Jr, Quincy Adams, Jalin Anderson, Joey Brown Ball State - IN - Payton Sparks (6'10"/C/Indiana/Balls) Bowling Green - OUT - Rashaun Agee(!), EJay Greer, PJ Edwards, Marcus Hill(!) Buffalo - OUT - Kanye Jones, Jonnivius Smith, James Graham Buffalo - IN - Noah Batchelor (6'6"/SO/G/Maryland) CMU - OUT - Derrick Butler(!), Max Majerie, Aidan Rubio, Jemal Davis, Markus Harding, Paul McMillan IV, Noah Adamczyk EMU - OUT - Julius Ellerbe, John McGriff, Derik Pranger, Tyson Acuff(!), Connor Serven, Andrew Wells, Javantae Randle PCCC - OUT - Reggie Bass, LA Hayes, Jalen Sullinger(!), VonCameron Davis(!) PCCC - IN - Morgan Safford (6'5"/PG/Miami OH) Miami - OUT - Ryan Mabrey, Jaquel Morris, Morgan Stafford Miami - IN - Kam Craft (6'6"/G/Xavier - 4* recruit 2 years ago) NIU - OUT - Xavier Amos, Zarique Nutter, Zion Russell, Will Lovings-Watts Ohio - OUT - Quinn Corna, IJ Ezuma Ohio - IN - Victor Searles (6'10"/PF/Ashland) Toledo - OUT - Ben Wight, Tyler Cochran(!), Ra'Heim Moss(!), Dante Maddox Jr(!) WMU - OUT - Jefferson De La Cruz Monegro, Seth Hubbard, B. Artis-White WMU - IN - Notable Transfer Portal UMASS - OUT - Joshua Cohen, Robert Davis Jr, Sawyer Mayhugh, Gianni Thompson, Keon Thompson South Carolina - OUT - Meechie Johnson Tucker DeVries has transferred from Drake to WVU to follow his dad MAC Coaching Carousel Notable Coaching Carousel - Michigan fired Juwan Howard; hired Dusty May (FAU) - Stanford hired Kyle Smith (Washington State) - Washington State hired Danny Sprinkle (Utah State) - Vanderbilt hired Mark Byington (James Madison) - West Virginia hires Darian DeVries (Drake) - Louisville hired Pat Kelsey (College of Charleston) MAC News Notable News - NCAA is looking at banning prop bets for college athletics
    3 points
  19. This was probably the toughest poll. We've been blessed with good PF.
    3 points
  20. I voted 1. Freeman 2. Wood 3. Romeo Honorable Mention: Tree
    3 points
  21. DJ Burns is in the Portal. And by DJ Burns, I mean the Youngstown State DJ Burns, not the NC State DJ Burns. Basically, this is the TEMU/Wish.com version.
    3 points
  22. The Pittsburgh press is as lazy as the rest of them and is better than most at cheerleading for bad decisions. This article claims he has good experience. Five years at CSU and Duquesne combined isn't that great of experience. Being friends with James isn't experience. This is ABJ level logic. Don't take the job Dru. It's a historically bad program that went on a great 5 game stretch. It's almost always a coach killer. Find an assistant job at a good P5 program for a couple of years. The connection with James will be enticing for one of them just like it is for Duquesne. If you want after that, take a mid major job. It's a better path to a P5 HC job.
    3 points
  23. Duquesne comes to mind. This issue isn't the scandal itself, it's the fact that you don't need to leave your couch to get into some serious gambling debt now-a-days. Today, gambling on sports goes hand-in-hand with watching it. You used to need to go to Vegas or Atlantic City...now you pull your phone out of your pocket. I'm not an anti-gambling guy. It only bothers me to see it now promoted like cigarettes used to be through the 70's. To people with a certain addictive make up, it's just as dangerous.
    3 points
  24. It's a fairly common theme for the more talented team to pull away in the 2nd half. As @Captain Kangaroo put it, Creighton was the better team at all 5 positions. It would have taken them playing one of their worst games all season and us playing our best to spring an upset. Neither of those two happened.
    3 points
  25. HS/JUCO TEs: 1) AKRON - Khalil Witherspoon HUDL FILM 2) BALL STATE - Jaxxon Warren HUDL FILM (JUCO) 3) NORTHERN ILLINOIS - Joseph Stein HUDL FILM 4) BOWLING GEEEN - Eli Jacon-Duffy HUDL FILM 5) OHIO - AJ Miller HUDL FILM Transfer TEs: 1) EASTERN MICHIGAN - Jonathan Odom 2) WESTERN MICHIGAN - Chris Toudle 3) AKRON - Max Whisner 4) NORTHERN ILLINOIS - Jake Appleget 5) CENTRAL MICHIGAN - Gavin Harris 2023 TEs and how they fared: 1) WESTERN MICHIGAN - Brennan Wooten = N/A but played in 6 games. 2) AKRON - Conner Cravack = N/A Redshirted. 3) CENTRAL MICHIGAN - Jesiah Stevens-Silva = N/A Redshirted and entered Portal. 4) WESTERN MICHIGAN - Jack Parker = N/A Redshirted 5) BOWLING GREEN - Jacob Harris = N/A Redshirted Who I may have missed on: NORTHERN ILLINOIS - Grayson Barnes = 23 Receptions, 422 Yards, 5 TDs. Barnes was a JUCO that signed after this list was put together last year. He plays the flex WR/TE spot for NIU and is currently listed as WR on their roster.
    3 points
  26. That's now referred to as "pulling an Ali."
    3 points
  27. Dambrot Court at Kaulig Arena. I like the sound of it. It'll happen right after they join the Big 10.
    3 points
  28. Nice work @Zippy87 Please keep it going!!
    3 points
  29. I was sure I was going to read “This is a paid advertisement by Tod Kowalczyk of the Toledo Rockets” on the bottom of the tweet.
    3 points
  30. And even they are losing Hunter to graduation. The MAC is beginning to look like a 14 or 15 seed next year.
    3 points
  31. All Mac Teams, 15/25 players either graduating or transferring (not sure if they will stay in the league) Ali Ali, Senior, Guard, Akron Enrique Freeman, Senior, Forward, Akron Marcus Hill, Junior, Guard, Bowling Green Anthony Pritchard, Junior, Guard, Central Michigan Ra’Heim Moss, Junior, Guard, Toledo All-MAC Second Team Basheer Jihad, Junior, Forward, Ball State Rashaun Agee, Senior, Forward, Bowling Green Jaylin Hunter, Senior, Guard, Ohio Dante Maddox Jr., Junior, Guard, Toledo Tyler Cochran, Junior, Guard, Toledo All-MAC Third Team Brian Taylor, Graduate Student, Guard, Central Michigan Tyson Acuff, Junior, Guard, Eastern Michigan Jalen Sullinger, Junior, Guard, Kent State David Coit, Junior, Guard, Northern Illinois AJ Clayton, Junior, Forward, Ohio All-MAC Honorable Mention Greg Tribble, Senior, Guard, Akron VonCameron Davis, R-Junior, Forward, Kent State Anderson Mirambeaux, Senior, Center, Miami Darweshi Hunter, Graduate Student, Guard, Miami B. Artis White, R-Junior, Guard, Western Michigan MAC All-Freshman Team Arne Osojnik, Guard, Eastern Michigan Eian Elmer, Wing, Miami Will Lovings-Watts, Guard, Northern Illinois Javan Simmons, Forward, Toledo Sonny Wilson, Guard, Toledo
    3 points
  32. Jones - not impressed with what little we saw form her in 2023-24 Lwandowski - didn't fit the game structure Coach put in place Stewart - was not even with the team, on game days, for the first half of the season Thorpe - Waay too small even for point guard Watson - place holder on bench since her arrival Sorry, brutal thoughts, but these will not negatively effect this team going forward. Makes room for new talent, if Coach can get some to come to Akron.
    3 points
  33. 3 points
  34. Thats what made COVID hurt so bad. That was our best chance yet with LCJ (and all the other quality contributors in that team). But agree, killer guards are the way to make noise in the tourney.
    3 points
  35. This. Please be "him", Sharron Young.
    3 points
  36. This is spot on. And depending on who stays, Akron has a good chance to have the best core returning.
    3 points
  37. I second the motion to empty the @clarkwgriswold fund.
    2 points
  38. I think it was the Cavs coach the other day that complained about the fans in the stands yelling at him to keep his starters on the court in a blow-out in order to cover the spread. The next government bail out will be for the soon-to-be millions of destitute gamblers.
    2 points
  39. If the Zips had beaten Wisconsin, they could have lost to Duke by 70 and I'd still be able to die a happy man. Until then, my dream of the Zips making it to the round of 32 continues to be just that...
    2 points
  40. I think the team hit their second gear in the second half of the OU game in Cleveland. Going from scoring 16 in a half, to scoring 49 and winning (and covering!) That took something special, we saw it out of this team. It was going to either take a down night by Creighton or a third gear to win yesterday by the way they were playing. In no way do I think this team underachieved. Yes we lost a couple games we shouldn’t have, but no team is undefeated this year. We didn’t underachieve because of: an amazing putback dunk (EMU), crazy fadeaway jumper near the buzzer (St. Bonn, Miami), stupid TO after a steal (Utah St), that stuff just happens over the course of 35 games.
    2 points
  41. Freeman is going to have a lot to think about in the coming months. I'm not an NBA expert, but I do know it's extremely hard to make and the talent level is the best in my lifetime. In my opinion, Freeman is not an NBA player. He was advised to stay another year to improve his talent level, but I'm not sure he improved enough for the NBA. With that said, I think he could have a great future in professional basketball and should talk to a lot of people to understand how. I'm hoping he spends some time with former Zip Jammal Ball to discuss his professional options. Ball had a long career in mostly France for 14 years, Germany for two, and Kosovo for one. I'd rather spend 14 years in France than some NBA D League Hell hole of a city for a couple with little opportunity for the NBA. He could make more money in Europe. https://gozips.com/honors/hall-of-fame/jimmal-ball/15 From the looks of Ball's background, he is invested in helping young people at the University find their way through school and open up opportunities for the future. Talk to him Enrique...be prepared and come with good questions. Be open minded. It's a big world with a lot of opportunities for people like you. You are a massive success already and your just getting started.
    2 points
  42. I didn't view this team as deep in the front court. You had Freeman as the only real banger, granted a MAC POY big but he was it. Hunter was the tallest, but he preferred to roam outside, and Lyles barely saw the floor. Nobody besides Freeman regularly boxed out (See EMU game). Aziz would have been a key piece to still have. Hell, even Deng Riak would have helped us. Your second line holds the true demise of the Zips. Thorn and Scott were ice cold all year and both eventually got benched. By the end of the season Thorn's defense was weak and he was terrible with the ball. The poor kid looked shell shocked and was nothing near the 9 pts a game, best MAC assist/TO PG he was before coming to us. I thought Hankerson was the most unimpressive one and done for us, but he would have been a godsend for this team. The Nate injury hurt but he was averaging about 8 pts before he was sidelined. I have NO IDEA what happened to Dawson or TJ's shots nor do they. It was amazing Groce got the Zips to the dance when the bench bunch seemed to shoot a combined 10-20% down the stretch. Next Halloween, skip the haunted houses, just read the box scores. They were terrifying.
    2 points
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