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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/20/2019 in Posts

  1. A few points: 1) KD was successful at US and...people b!+ched...offense is too predictable...they don't play enough zone...they can't stop dribble penetration...they have no out of bounds plays...there are players of questionable character on the team and kids getting into trouble...the OOC schedule is weak...they can't win the big game...he can't win in the tournament...yada...yada...yada... 2) Groce came into nothing, the team improved in year two and...people b!+ch...players are transferring...the big men are offensively challenged...their shooting is awful...there was a fight between players...the OOC schedule is weak...yada...yada...yada... 3) People will b!+ch no matter what. 4) Groce is going nowhere. Love him or hate him the University of Akron does not have the financial resources to dispatch him.
    5 points
  2. Shhhh... Don't let facts get in the way of their misery. _______________________________________________________________ The Zips this past season were 8 deep. Even with the departures, I'm looking at a roster that's 9 deep and that doesn't include the incoming freshman or the 2 open spots. It's ridiculous to say there are only 2 DI players on the current roster, when the rag tag group of 8 were consistently competitive against teams like Clemson, Buffalo, and Nevada, and finished in the middle of the pack in the MAC, while blowing out the #2 team in the MAC (BUGS). Scoring is a fixable problem, and probably the best problem to have, especially for a rebuilding team. I'm going to keep pounding this point. We have the right system in place to be successful. We focus on the key fundamentals - defense, effort, rebounding, free throws - and have built that foundation. Dambrot's system was and still is entirely flawed. It ignores nearly every basic principal in the sport of basketball. This very board had people constantly talking about the lack of ball movement, defensive breakdowns, free throw shooting problems, etc. We eeked out a lot of close victories against sub-par MAC squads despite being more talented (usually). Those issues have carried over to Duquesne. Read their board; "will this team ever emphasize defense" and "free throws are an issue". I'd be curious to see the opinions of the Dambrot apologists when looking at the Duquesne roster. Is it full of so-called DI players? If so, what was the cause of the early 1st-round exit in the A10 tourney and not dominating/being more competitive in a weaker A10 Conference as a whole? In the first round game, they scored 86 points, shooting at a 47% clip. How can you lose a game when you make shots?! You don't play defense, give up 92(!) pts, and shoot 68% at the line. What's going to be easier to fix: having gym rats hit the gym and practice shooting (including free throws), or getting a team to buy into 40 minutes of tough-nosed, heady defense? My vote is the shooting, which again, gives me hope for this next season. Lastly, let's stop crucifying this team and Groce for a 40 pt. loss to Buffalo and 24 pt. loss to a motivated O-BooWho squad. Of the 16 losses we had, 11 were single-digit losses, and an additional 2 losses were closer than their final score (@ Buffalo and @ Toledo). That means there were 3 games we simply weren't competitive in. Heck of an accomplishment for a team with only 4 DI players at the time. I wonder if Arizona had the pitchforks out for Sean Miller for losing to Buffalo by 21 last year, or Boeheim for losing by 12 to Buffalo this year. Do BUGS and Miami want to fire their coaches for losing to a team with 4 DI players by 24 & 29 respectively? The Clown lost to a team with only 4 DI players by 19. We had 1 extreme off-night (O-BooWho) and one off-day that was aided by being inferior to one of the better teams in the entire country (Buffalo at The Q); clearly that's not the norm. So much good to focus on. The sky is not falling. In fact, I feel as if the ceiling is higher than ever before, considering our previous ceiling had a MAC Finals record similar to LeBron's Finals record (oh look, another similarity between Dambrot and LeBron, to add to the excuses and now neither of them making the postseason), and arguably 0 marquee wins (unless you include the few NIT wins against Houston, FSU, and Temple).
    4 points
  3. 6 years ago tomorrow the season ended for KD’s best team with a 44 point loss to VCU. Some of the best players on that team (Aberu, Tree, Harney) left Akron/ we’re kicked off the team, eventually quit on the team (Pat F) or should have been on the team, but were suspended for the year (Diggs). This day started the decline of Zips basketball. Williams & Noah were leaving whether KD stayed or left. The program has had problems the last 6 years not 2. Lets support what we have instead of wishing we had something the we don’t.
    4 points
  4. E-Man leaving is an opportunity to upgrade
    4 points
  5. I expected more than what we have received. I expected players who want to play for a coach. I expected players who do not punch out other players. I expected to score more than 4 baskets in a half of basketball at the Q. I expected not to lose a quarterfinal game by 40 points, no matter how good the team. I expected that our team would not lose by 30 to an Ohio U team that had a losing record. I expected to have at least one center of our 4 centers that has an interest in scoring. (not from the 3 line) I expected our team to shoot better than 25% from long distance. I expected Groce's recruits to stay with our team after playing here for a year. With Utomi and E Man leaving, this looks more like a revolving door than a team. I hope that Groce will be successful but with these 2 Zips leaving I feel like we are starting all over again. Another year of new players and empty seats.
    3 points
  6. I like E-Man, but it's probably for the best. We didn't need to have 3 offensively deficient centers on our roster.
    3 points
  7. Jimond graduated? OMG. Someone should have stopped that from happening.
    3 points
  8. Cutting programs/enrollment can't be a positive thing for the Athletic Dept.
    2 points
  9. No matter who Akron hired to replace Dambrot they'd be b****ing. Dambrot was already the highest paid employee at the University of Akron and the highest paid basketball coach in the MAC. Akron was never going to be able to match the salary nor the millions of dollars worth of upgrades that Duquesne was prepared to offer. Akron was only going to be able to retain Dambrot by Dambrot accepting less to stay. He elected to instead take the money and run.
    2 points
  10. KD also recruited 8 freshmen for this year, almost all of whom went to one high school for their career from what I can tell. That is how you build a program instead of dominating it with multiple high school, prep/basketball academy, other school commits, junior college etc. guys. You plug in the holes with those transfer guys. I'm not sure how stable a roster will ever be when the kids you bring in are already used to moving around so much. The only traditional freshman Groce has brought in the last two years is Ali. Heck, we just lost two guys who were loyal to the program and stuck around after the coaching change. Plus we lost 3 others during the year. I'm not sure how this compares to all the other schools, but things need to settle down real soon.
    2 points
  11. Yes and no. I don't know the story here, but not every player that moves on does it on their own accord.
    2 points
  12. We're lucky to have CK and Dr. Z! Appreciate all the info.
    2 points
  13. They did, but the the channel name "Comedy Central" was already taken.
    1 point
  14. Me too, or I have wasted a lot of time finding and typing out reasons to be optimistic.
    1 point
  15. It seems a bit too soon to compare a team whose made it to 12 Sweet 16s and has 2 national championships to a team that has a combined 1 tournament win in program history. If they're still doing what they are now in 5 years, I'll start talking about it. As of now there are tons of schools that thought they were going to be the next (insert power house basketball program here). Look at Cleveland State as a prime example. Now they're stuck with a monstrosity of an arena that is bleeding the university much like Infocision is doing to us.
    1 point
  16. And in two years the only thing he has accomplished is to lose those players. This roster is a JOKE. A total JOKE. Cheese and LCJ are the only D1 players on the roster. And no shock if one or both leaves. Now consider this: Groce has a great recruiting opportunity here: He can offer a HS senior to play D1 hoops as a starter in his freshman year.' There have to be a few studs out there willing to jump on that.
    1 point
  17. I guess I'd like to hear from the detractors as to just where they thought we would be after the KD leaving dismantling. We're two years in and Groce's hands were tied in the first year due to getting a late start. I sure as hell would want them to win my games but we have to be realists at this point. As to kids leaving, I don't think it's the end of the world. It's just starting to become a point of concern for me.
    1 point
  18. For all of you KD deadenders, what do you want? Do you want him back? Do you want to win the MAC regular season or East division each year and then lose in the finals? Do you want to lose your post season games by double digits? Do you think the cast of players KD left Akron were going to take out Buffalo these last two seasons if only he were coach? Or maybe you want to lose in first round if your conference tourney to a coach who then gets fired after 24 years. One program in the MAC right now is truly succeeding. Another, BG, after 4 years with a new coach (not counting the year with Janz), is finally making a move. The rest of the programs are status quo. Like we all said, Groce can be a Saul Phillips or a Michael Huger. Same with the Miami coach.
    1 point
  19. I definitely feel there needs to be some sort of balance. You don't want to keep a bunch of players on the roster that aren't good enough to play on a top tier MAC squad, but if a coach isn't showing loyalty to his players it may lead to guys like Utomi asking why should they show loyalty to the coach or university by returning when they have better options available to them. Not to say that was the case in this situation or not as frankly I don't know.
    1 point
  20. One can see why those two get along so well.
    1 point
  21. Does this mean he is potentially transferring, or 100% transferring once he finds a new school?
    1 point
  22. Awesome. A player who is going to miss the playoffs repping a coach and school who also missed the playoffs. Perfect match.
    1 point
  23. The official NCAA transfer list is already at 275. College basketball is different than it was 5 years ago. Most teams are going to have to adjust, especially the mid-major teams. This could be where we find the PG we need.
    1 point
  24. Really good article by GT today: ABJ: Veteran receivers could be strength for Zips GT mentions Boogie Knight, Jonah Morris, Nate Stewart & Timothy Scipio, but again, no mention of Andre Williams. GT mentions walk-on Brandon Lee is lightning fast & has even gotten reps with the 1st-Team. Edit: Looks like Brandon Lee is a transfer walk-on from Mount Union.
    1 point
  25. Pay to play tourneys for both genders. One step closer to gender equality.
    1 point
  26. Some very good points Let'sGo, but I did not see notable improvement in Riak. I have no complaints about Riak. He is what he is- a defensively focused, offensively challenged big man who plays hard and leads the defense. However, he was the same guy against Cedarville that he was against Buffalo and the stats show that straight line consistency throughout the season rather than substantial growth.
    1 point
  27. And that was my exact comment years ago when "THAT" stadium was built. The Georgetown, Gonzaga, UConn model was the solution. Basketball and soccer was where the money should have been invested. KD and Lebron were our only shot at making a leap. Those two were what made us unique. The best basketball player in the world and his coach were right here!! Our chance to break out was to have people that are loyal to UA and the city. Tressel, Dambrot and Lebron were those people. They are all gone and sadly I think we will have a revolving door with presidents and coaches. BTW - I never griped without giving suggestions.
    1 point
  28. If for no other reason than to keep fan interest. This isn't Kentucky where there's turnover every year. Fans need to connect with players over time and that connection is built over seasons. I went up to JImond's dad on senior night congratulated him and told him how much the Zips fans had enjoyed watching his son grow up at UA. You don't get that connection with one and two year players.
    1 point
  29. Keep LCJ and Cheese and get rid of the rest. Recruit a great freshman class. Expect to take our lumps but build a team. The first two years of Groce have built NOTHING and aside from the two players mentioned above the roster is a joke. NOTHING built for the future.
    1 point
  30. ABJ (GT): Local high school teams, players get reacquainted with Zips program
    1 point
  31. Akron is looking to buyout 47% of its faculty. https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/03/19/big-buyouts-u-akron
    0 points
  32. Kudos to the coaches for trying to piece something together for this season's home meets, but it sure sounds kinda pathetic. So the first meet of the season, a "quad" meet with three other teams, will be "hosted" by Akron, but it will be held at Youngstown State University, (and YSU will be competing!) with all the running events on Friday afternoon, as well as most of the field events. Throws will be back at Akron then on Saturday. . And the second meet, the Wright-Campbell, to honor two past T & F standouts at U of A, is still in limbo. So, let's say I'm a senior miler from Indiana who is top 10 quality, and I'm considering Akron as my only non-P5 offer to attend and compete....do I want to go where I can't even practice on the track for fear of injuries....this could go downhill quickly, sadly.
    0 points
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