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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/15/2019 in all areas

  1. The A-10 is the historically better conference. That being said, you're right the MAC isn't on par with the A-10 THIS season. The MAC is actually much superior to the A-10 THIS year. Look at KenPom, look at NET, look at RPI, or whatever metric you like. They all have the MAC rated as the 8th or 9th best conference while the A-10 is 12th-15th. I'm sure you're going to go on a rant about all the at-large bids the A-10 received in previous years, but none of that's relevant to how they did THIS year. Just an FYI, the NET Rankings, which is the rating system the NCAA committee uses to select teams for the tournament currently has Akron ranked #111. They have Duquesne ranked #170.
    3 points
  2. Are we talking about the same KD that, in his second year at Duquesne, just lost in the first round of the A-10 tourney, to #10 seed Saint Joe's? At least Groce made it to Round #2, and lost to a top 20 team. KD busted against a 13-18 team. Hope all his early season cupcake wins get him that coveted CIT berth. (Iron City's)
    3 points
  3. Not to mention Dambrot inherited a much weaker MAC, too. He came in post-Elite Eight KSUcks, and the MAC was in no-man's-land with no real standout, top teams. Groce came in and has had to face the best team the MAC has ever had (regular season wise) in Buffalo and a solid Toledo program, while the conference as a whole has posted its best conference rankings in a while.
    3 points
  4. Just to jog everyone's memories, some of the members of the Zips' team during Dambrot's 1st season as head coach were: Romeo Travis Dru Joyce Jeremiah Wood Darryl Peterson Cedric Middleton Some of the other contributors were: Matt Futch Rob Preston Quade Milum No, that Zips team wouldn't have hung with this year"s Buffalo team. But let's not kid ourselves. It was pretty stacked. By contrast, Groce inherited: Jimmond Ivey Daniel Utomi An iPhone With which to scramble to piece together a team - not just late in the recruiting cycle, but after the 2nd signing day!
    3 points
  5. For what is worth Dambrot and his Dukes lost their first tourney game to 6-12 conference foe St. Joes.
    3 points
  6. Well, the season has come to an abrupt, yet expected end. I am curious as to what ZipsNation thinks were the positives and negatives looking back on the season. Seems like it was just yesterday that we were headed off to the JAR to face Cedarville, but here we are. I thought I;d throw this thread up on the board rather than have us all unload in a game thread. As I look back- Positives and highlights: * Defense, defense, defense. This team played hard on defense all year. They not only played good team defense but Jimond spent the year shutting down the opponent's leading scorer. * Tyler Cheese developed into a solid MAC player, especially on the offensive end. He was the one person on the team aggressive with the ball in his hands. * The team was in a lot of games. Even in most of the losses, they kept the games close. * Groce got the kids to buy into playing hard. Effort was never an issue. * Strong performances against Nevada and Clemson; thrashing of PCCC; Bowling Green win, Miami tournament win. Negatives and lowlights: * Inability to close tight games. * Woeful offense in all but a few games. * Iffy big man play, particularly on offense. * Bad 3 point shooting. * The Buffalo tournament loss; the loss at Miami; ugly collapse and loss at NIU; the Gueye- Kostelac incident, the OU loss.
    2 points
  7. You're going to do lasting damage if you keep banging your noggin on that brick wall.
    2 points
  8. clark, you're better off just using the ignore feature, it's like talking with a russian bot on twitter
    2 points
  9. I'm not sure Banks is a fit going forward. I forgot about Hester. He was a PG too if I remember correctly. I knew losing Kostelac and Sayles hurt.. but if Groce was heading into the season thinking Hester would be a big contributor like I assumed, and at PG, that really hurts. Hopefully we can find a PG to help lessen the load on LCJ.
    2 points
  10. Positives... Legitimate growth from several players, including Cheese and Riak Defense wins championships, and we were one of the best defensive teams in the country. I fully expect that to be our mantra moving forward, with the ultimate success coming once we improve offensively. Lots of close losses, which challenged us in a year we can afford to be challenged. Hopefully those close games plant the seed to flip those results going forward. Effort. This team never gave up, and I hope that's also a staple going forward. Fundamentals. You can see them for the first time in a long, long while. Help defense, rotating, ball movement, crashing the boards (at times), movement off the ball, foul shots, etc. We stomped teams like OU, Kent, Miami, BG. We learned the term "teamism". Everyone but Ivey returns next year. That's HUGE. We got back to The Q and got a bunch of "rookies" experience in that cavernous arena. We gave Buffalo 2 of the toughest games they had all season. Close performances against Clemson, Illinois State, and Nevada. Winning record in year 2, despite a lot of roster turnover in the off-season. Negatives... Shot-making. Mental lapses at times, especially from our leaders like LCJ, Ivey, and Utomi. Making baskets. Scoring. Putting the ball in the hoop. Putting points on the board. Scoring more than the opponent. Shooting. Finishing buckets. In my opinion, this season became the true foundation for the Akron program under Groce. I'm still wondering who he is expecting to leave based on us still offering scholarships for the 2019 class, but the bulk of this roster will be back, and I'm excited. X. Williams should be a huge addition, along with a few of the freshman and the JUCO guard coming in. Buffalo graduates the most successful class class in MAC regular season history, which includes Massinburg, Caruthers, Harris, Perkins, and McRae. The MAC will be ripe for the taking. Can't State is stuck with their average clown, OU will have a new coach, Miami has a bunch of question marks, BG might return back to earth, Balls graduates a lot, EMU graduates a lot. I don't understand the shockingly quick sky-is-falling mentality on this board. Dambrot left; he's now in the A10, losing in the first round over there. We haven't made the Tourney since 2013, and now have a coach with historic post-season success in the MAC. Have faith, and watch the details of the game. The foundation for success is there. Go Zips!
    2 points
  11. Wonder how we'd be feeling if we came into tournament play 19-12/10-8 and lost to a team that was 13-18/6-12?
    2 points
  12. Not likely. X is more of a small forward.
    1 point
  13. PG: LCJ ??? W: Cheese Toles Roscoe W: Utomi Banks Mikal Dawson P: Reece Sayles P: Williams Riak Redshirt: Ali Ali Hopefully in the next couple months we'll find a good solution for backup PG. Losing Cotton last year after already signing the '19 class hurt. Badly. I think Reece & Williams will make immediate impacts. I list them as starters, but it may take till after Christmas. Toles will have to get his D-1 legs, but if/when he does, he's an all-around, versatile player. A bit less athletic (& confident) than Ivey, but a better shooter. Crossing my fingers that over the summer Banks finds his outside shot. He was a good shooter in JUCO (All-American). I'm hoping Mikal Dawson comes in & is that special freshman everyone always wishes for. As everyone here already knows, he scored 1,000 points at Huntington Prep Post-Grad this year. Idk what the level of competition he faced was, but 1000 points in one year is impressive at any level. We're still going after 6'3 lead G Javohn Garcia of Pickerington Central. He was 1st Team All Central Ohio District Division 1 & averaged over 20 PPG. He could be the solution to backup PG (though true freshmen running the point always make me nervous. Lol). Anyway, My twitter bio makes it pretty clear I'm a Zips fan. I subtweeted (I think that's what it's called) him when he tweeted he'd received an offer to Akron. I said something like, "You'd look great in blue & gold! Go Zips!" like I tweet to a lot of the young guys who pick up basketball & football offers. He started following me on twitter. It's a small sample size, but in my limited experience, that's a pretty good sign that he's strongly considering UA. Go Zips!
    1 point
  14. I couldn't believe it when I saw 1980 was their last NCAA tourney appearance.
    1 point
  15. I frequent a MAC sports forum in addition to posting here. Toledo fans enjoy bragging about Kowalcyk 4 MAC West titles as if they mean anything. I find it hilarious. I guess when you haven't made it to the tournament in 39 years there isn't much to brag about.
    1 point
  16. I take full responsibility for the 13 and 6 point losses (at least I kept them in the game!).
    1 point
  17. I'm rooting for John Groce to succeed because I love UA and I love Zips basketball. I didn't think he was the right choice when they hired him. I don't think he's a bad coach, I just don't think he's a good coach. My fear is that we'll see a whole bunch of years of +/- 3 games of .500 ball. A bunch of 5th through 9th seeds in the MAC tournament. Maybe a good year where we get hot and win the MAC and maybe win a game in the Dance. Maybe. I don't know... I don't know if we'll have time. Next year is a very important year for John Groce to prove me and some others wrong. He will have a full and healthy roster of mostly his guys. He also has some serious leg work in recruiting because following 2019-20, we lose 7 guys (barring offseason transfers out).
    1 point
  18. Honestly leaving the MAC would be a dream to me but based on how much $$$$$ we have dumped into our Football program that is not possible and to be fair the football side of it is fine. Its the basketball side I believe the MAC Commissioner and even our AD have done a pee poor job in defending not only our resume but also other teams in the conference when warranted. For other conferences to consider us we have to get our football and basketball programs back up. In Recent years prior it would of been a great time to put our name out there. Speaking to higher ups we are a financial disaster right now. Football season tickets are going for $60 right now. we are desperate.
    1 point
  19. It's still to be determined whether or not this will be a 1 bid or 2 year bid for the MAC. It just comes down to whether or not Buffalo loses or not. Are you wanting Akron to move to another conference? If so, what one do you think would accept us while being a clear upgrade over the MAC?
    1 point
  20. Strange how KD was able to find guys like that but now that Groce is here the NBA is stealing them all.
    1 point
  21. Happy Birthday to "The Championship Goal scorer"
    1 point
  22. zippy5, you need to have the talk with our friend kreed.
    1 point
  23. When KD was coach I would get upset that we would get to the MAC final and then lay a big egg. I also got upset when we played in the NIT tourney and lost to a terrible Ohio State team and would have hosted a major program if we won that game. Yesterday, I got upset that we lost to a team by 37 points that we had played close during the season. The old saying is that you don't realize what you had until it is gone. I think any Zip fan would have buyers remorse in that we dominated the MAC while KD was coach and now that is gone. I agree that KD inherited a much better program than Groce. Remember, he was the asst. coach for Akron before he was head coach. He did not have players leaving the team and he was familiar with players that were on the team. It was a seamless transition. Groce had none of that. In hindsight, Akron made a mistake in not doing the right thing to keep KD at Akron. Basically, it blew up the program and we are still paying the price. I think that Groce has done a good job with what we have and we need to be patient to see if he can bring this program back to its former glory and get us that first NCAA victory or at least that first win over a ranked team.
    1 point
  24. Not that facts should get in the way, but Groce took on a 17 win team then won 23, 20, 19, 15 and 20 games. Since he was dispatched, they've won 14 and 12 games. Did he lead them to the promised land, no, but he was not the unmitigated failure at Illinois you continue to suggest. While we are on the topic, the others repeatedly mentioned for the UA job at the time Groce was hired have not set the world on fire. Anthony Stewart is 44-53 at UT Martin. Lamont Paris is 22-43 at Chattanooga. Jeff Boals struggled somewhat early at Stony Brook and is now 55-41 there, in large part due to an upsurge in his THIRD year there. Also, Groce's problem has not been keeping timeouts in his pocket, it has been not having them at the end of games. What the majority of "we all" are going to say if the team makes no progress next year is that it is time to move on. It's inaccurate to characterize the ZipsNation posters as die-hard Groce apologists when the considerable portion of us have essentially stated that a lack of progress next year could justifiably seal Groce's fate.
    1 point
  25. It seems like many are trying to treat this as we fired Dambrot to hire Groce, which isn't the case. Dambrot left on his own free will abandoning a program he spend a decade plus building. Would have I preferred us keeping Dambrot? Sure, but that wasn't an option. At the time I felt Groce was the best option available. He inherited a team with significantly less talent than the one Dambrot inherited from Hipsher. I'm not sure how anyone else could argue otherwise while keeping a straight face. Groce looks to have finally stabilized the roster and the team should have the potential to contend for a MAC title next year. If we go 8-10 again, I'll be right there with everyone holding the pitch fork.
    1 point
  26. This coaching staff has no idea what to do with big men - why would a big man ever come to us again. Pathetic.
    1 point
  27. Dambrot will probably go to the CIT to get it.
    1 point
  28. Reading the above comments indicate to me that people on this board have done a great analysis of this program. I agree with all of the comments thus far and will add a few of my own. Highlights. The athleticism on this team. Watching Tyler Cheese take someone on one on one on a fast break and Euro stepping to the basket. Watching any and all dunks by Ivey. Watching this team shoot over 50% from beyond 3 against Miami and thinking what if they can do that against Buffalo. Upset!! Watching Ivey make his last 3 ball attempt at the JAR. Watching Cheese miss a layup when the nearest defender was at half court. (He got rebound and made 2nd layup) Watching the opposing player get stuffed on a dunk by the rim and then seeing it on sports center over and over again. Beating Kent big time at home. Watching LCJ drive to the hoop and finish among the bigs. Lowlights Watching Riak rebound the ball 2 feet away from the basket and then look to throw the ball out to a shooter instead of going toward the basket. After Riak passes on the 2 foot shot Riak then launches a 3 point shot. Watching a pick and roll with our center on almost every possession and never seeing it being executed for a basket. Missing the front end of a one and one time after time. Watching Groce bring in Walters today and have him play with Jackson. Going small is one thing but that was crazy. The small crowd against Miami on Monday. Noticing how there is less and less interest in this team after KD left. Watching this team shoot the 3 ball. Groce bragged how this team consisted of great 3 ball shooters. WE were almost the worst in the nation at shooting the 3 ball. Watching a close game on the road and know in the back of my mind we will find some way to blow it. And being right!! (Only time I hate being right)
    1 point
  29. Negatives - All season the team seemed to fold under pressure. It was pretty apparent the majority of this roster has never experienced playing at the Q. They looked tight from the tip and never settled into the game. Hopefully they learn to play more loose next year - Utomi, Ivey, LCJ all seemed to regress as shooters compared to their prior seasons. LCJ is some what understandable as he was previously playing weaker competition. Hopefully LCJ becomes better next year as he seemed to improve down the stretch. I'm hoping Utomi sliding back into the 3 spot will return him back to being the sharp shooter he was previously. - The C position has been a complete disaster offensively. I'm actually not anti-Riak like some as I think he still provides a net positive when he's on the floor due to his defense. That being said, he needs to be able to catch a pass cleanly and be able to slam it home. Hopefully he sorts that out this offseason. I'd also like to see us add a big that can provide an offensive punch to help provide some versatility to our lineups. Positives - Next year should be a down year for the MAC - Xeyrius Williams I think should be that stretch big that we were desparately missing this year - The defense was phenominal this year. - I think Utomi & Cheese can become 1st or 2nd team All-MAC players next season.
    1 point
  30. I'll just toss out that this was only year two of an almost total rebuild. Groce inherited two players. Two. TWO! (E-man doesn't count. In fact, E-man counts as a -1.) If Coach Sabo has our baseball team in the MAC quarterfinals in year two I'd call it unexpected and quite a success. Frenchy has said he thinks this year's Buffalo squad is the best team he's ever seen in the MAC. The other team he throws out there is the Elite Eight Kent State team. So they kicked our butts today. Good for them. We're in Year Two of Operation: Build From Scratch. They played to their potential & really locked down on D. Hats off to them.
    1 point
  31. Riak came here to miss layups and chew gum and he's all out of gum
    1 point
  32. He needs to come up with a 6'11" 250 pounder plus who knows how to post up rebound and get put backs. Until then we are just more of the same. The "guard based offense" does NOT work when the only guy who goes to the basket is not even 5'8"
    1 point
  33. First off - I was surprised by how one sided this one was. After the regular season, Akron was the team I really didn't want to play early in the tourny. For you guys, if the 3s start falling and the slow down defense puts UB on their heels, its a worrisome match up. And - I fully expect Akron (especially with Groce's history and recruiting abilities) to reload over the next couple of years and rise back towards the top of the MAC. I detested Dambrot, probably because of how much he beat us but will admit that a close game with Akron makes for a fun afternoon. That said - the UB coach is Nate Oats. No E . And - to suggest that he inherited a great situation at Buffalo is revisionist history. After Hurley was hired away - Shannon Evans immediately announces he's going with him to Arizona State, JUCO recruits Maurice O'Field and Torian Graham de-commit to do the same. Nate Navigato de-commits to head off and join the rockets. To top it all off, reigning MAC POTY Justin Moss gets busted during the summer stealing from some football players and is booted out of school. So - Oats started with a blown up roster, recruits Nick Perkins and CJ Massinburg, hits on a couple of JUCOs, and rolls on from there. I'm sure for an Akron fan - this was a bummer of a season. But I fully expect Groce will follow a similar path back to the upper portion of the conference.
    1 point
  34. I just got back from the Q. All I wanted was a competitive game. The closest we came in the second half was 14 points. I walked out when we were down by 30. This was an embarrassment. The first half is what we have seen all season, a team that cannot put the ball in the basket. Riak and E man are fading away from 3 feet. Take the ball strong to the hoop and stop acting like little boys. Nobody could make a 3 point shot. Buffalo was not that good in the first half. They were missing their 3 point shots and their foul shots. This game should have been close in the first half but we played like crap! Didn't someone indicate that Groce had his team play their best ball come tournament time. So much for that. This team looked terrible. On the way up to the Q all I heard on pregame was how Akron has dominated at the tournament. That was all KD. That era is gone. I agree that the refs sucked the first half. They called 2 illegal screens that were phantom calls. The second half they let the teams play and it was much easier game to watch.
    1 point
  35. Exactly. There are certainly shortcomings but it's too early to play Chicken Little. If we're having this conversation the second week of March in 2020, then I'll have a far different attitude.
    1 point
  36. Found this thread to be a real head-scratcher and quite frankly disappointing. Not what we're used to in CLE for sure but only our second dud this year from a team that is really still an assembly of a little of this and a little of that. We're also not a fan base used to 1st-round wins in The Dance and disappointed when we don't advance beyond that. We are 0-fer and never really looked very good doing that. Withholding judgement on Groce until he has a chance to truly fill his pipeline. LOVE the emphasis on 'D' he has established and who knows what would have happened this year if we had shot the ball better at times. I'm good with Year 2 - to each his/her own.
    1 point
  37. Yeah. I don’t know the guy and I know a lot of the young people like him. But I just hope the door doesn’t hit him in the ass.
    1 point
  38. Maryland and Stanford have 2 former players on the team.... only one college has 3... @ZipsMSoc !!!!!!
    1 point
  39. AT LEAST WHEN @clarkwgriswold STARTED THE BUFFALO THREADS, THEY WERE RESPECTABLE LOSSES THAT DIDN'T SEND THE REST OF THE THREAD INTO A DOWNHILL SPIRAL TO HELL!
    0 points
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