On April 26, 2017, John Groce was hired as coach of the Zips. On the Zips Nation boards, both during the search and after, he had many detractors. People questioned his record and were especially brutal when the team struggled through the first year with just 5 returning players and only one who had played significant minutes the year before. Groce took that crew of leftovers, last minute recruits and walk-ons to a 15-17 record/6-12 in the MAC. Given time to recruit, he started to build "his" team and brought in guys like LCJ, Cheese and Banks, going 17-16/8-10 in the MAC last season. This season, he brought in yet more talent and took a team predicted to be 5th in the East to the best record in MAC. Today he was deservedly named MAC Coach of the Year. After being stripped to the studs, Akron basketball has returned to the top of the MAC last season.