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Excellent observations.... A few random observations.... The first game was on September 23. That means that Saturday's game...will be almost 2.5 months since the first game. As Zips fans, we have seen great improvement from Thomas O' Rourke and Matthew Paiva during the season. I am sure that St. Louisd has also had many players improve during the season. Since that first game, St. Louis has not lost a single game. Since the first game, the Zips have a record of 7-2-2. The Billikens have a record of 8-0-5. St. Louis has only lost 2 games all year...A regular season game at Indiana and the game at Akron. As we all know, St. Louis avenged their regular season loss to IU with a huge round of 32 road win at IU. as @Zip_ME87 pointed out, SLU is finding ways to not lose. They have not lost in their last 13 games. Against IU in the NCAA round of 32, St. Louis was dominated on the statistical front but they found a way to win. In the tournament game against St. Louis, IU led 16-3 in shots, 3-1 in shots on goal and 8-0 in corner kicks. St. Louis did not have a single corner kick and they were outshot by more than 5 to 1. Yet, St. Louis found a way to win. Again, that first game(St. Louis at Akron) was a lifetime ago....2.5 months. How did the Zips and Billikens do against teams in the NCAA tounament? St. Louis has 4-2-2 record against teams that made the tournament. 1-0 win over eventual 5 seed SMU. 1-0 win over Seton Hall. 1-0 regular season loss to eventual 6 seed Indiana. 0-0 tie against eventual 8 seed Portland. Portland is still alive in the tournament. 3-0 loss at Akron. 2-1 tournament win over Kentucky (Kentucky was regular season Sun Belt champ (league includes Marshall and West Virginia) ; 1-0 win over 6 seed Indiana. 2-2 PK win over 11 seed Bryant (#6 in final RPI). In that PK win, the St. Louis players were absolutely clutch. 4 spectacular, professional penalty kicks. the zips were 4-4-3 against tournament teams. 0-0 tie with WVA ; 4-0 win over W. Michigan ; 1-0 loss at Vermont ; 3-1 home loss to U Conn ; 3-0 win over St. L ; 2-1 home loss to St. John's ; 0-0 tie at Cornell ; 1-1 tie against Seton Hall. 2-1 neutral field loss to UConn; 1-0 win over Notre Dame ; 2-0 win over the Dukies. The Zips were brutally efficient in the first St. Louis game. The zips had 4 shots on goal and scored 3 goals (75% conversion rate). The zips have scored 31 goals and they have had 97 shots on goal. (closer to a 32% conversion rate). Another observation about the first St. Louis game. The Zips earned 147 corner kicks during the year (about 6.7 per game). In the game against St. Louis, the Zips had 1 corner kick. That was the season low for the Zips. During the season, teams committed 212 fouls against the zips (about 9.6 per game). St. Louis only committed 6 fouls against the Zips. Again, that was a season low for a zip opponent. Based on the first game, the Zips are not going to get many dead ball/free kick opportunities. The weather on Saturday is going to be much different than the September 23 game. The September 23 game had a very experienced referee (Chico Grajeda). Who knows...whehter Saturday's referee will be as solid as Chico Grajeda. Saturday is going to be a battle. The Zips should be favored due to being at home and the fact that they are in good form. However, I do not expect an easy 3-0 win. The Zips need to come out ready.......and win this game in Regulation. I am sure that Indiana was very, very confident against St. Louis since they had won during the regular season. The Zips are hungry and they can beat the Billikens two times this year....but it is going to be a knock down battle. Go, ZIPS !!! https://gozips.com/sports/mens-soccer/stats/2025/saint-louis/boxscore/10933

Anyone thinking Zips’ victory will come easily on Saturday is very foolish. Long-time Zips faithful have been to this stage of the tournament many times. These contests are frequently decided in either OT or PKs. Remember vs. California in 2010? Remember vs. Creighton in 2012? Remember vs. Creighton in 2015? Defeating a quality tournament opponent requires squad cohesion, maximum effort, and near flawless execution. And a little luck also helps.

4pm tip. Freeze your butt off at soccer at 1, drive home to watch some hoops under 3 blankets at 4. Sounds like a great saturday

Groce was not happy with the defense in the post-game. He said if they're going to be great, as opposed to just good, they have to get better on defense.

Barre had the heart condition flare up at Duquesne which seemingly really limited his availability. The hoopla surrounding him came from his highlight film when he committed. He's quite athletic and long; fits this system really well once he gets going.

I just wish something would happen one way or the other. Wish he’d take a job or announce he’s here for another year.

It will be interesting to see how the Zips handle the Tulane match up zone. The Zips often seem to have trouble in initially adjusting to a zone. The Tulane zone is different than what they've faced. I hope they can adjust quickly to it rather than get off to a slow start.

It's surprising Ball State isn't better. I know they are a middle to above average MAC team most years, but one would expect they should be one of the better ones. They play in a region of the country where high school and college basketball is a big deal and the last I looked I thought they drew decent crowds in Muncie so the fan support is there.

When they haven't been forcing turnovers the defense hasn't looked all that great in the half-court. We've been a bit slow in our defensive rotations, which has led to many wide open looks from our opponents. Definitely something we will need to clean up as the season progresses.

Got me ranting in a potential 30+ pt win. What am I a buckeyes football fan😂

It’s crazy to me how we have 7 players capable of going off and beating you every single night (both Mahaffey’, Tavari, Shammah, Sharron, Lyles and even Hardman). Liking seeing Barre get more time. A true big that can play is going to be important in March.

Congratulations to Zips Men's Soccer alum Diogo Pacheco on signing with San Antonio FC for the 2026 season. https://www.sanantoniofc.com/news/2025/12/03/san-antonio-fc-announces-initial-roster-decisions-for-2026-campaign/

The rowdies have a booth at the basketball game trying to promote the soccer game Saturday. Should be doing this all year!

Great article from the Beacon Journal previewing Saturday's match and drawing some similarities to the 2018 Zips team. https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/sports/college/soccer/2025/12/04/akron-zips-soccer-saint-louis-ncaa-tournament-college-cup-jared-embick/87558472007/

Rowdies should be expanded to include alumni.

Then root for Indiana football at 8.

But could he be a serviceable backup big? 😉

Try this

Big time, which is a little surprising considering a few of the OGs are still involved with the University.

He has had 2 winning seasons in his first 6 years at the helm. Now, Tulane was an absolute train wreck under their previous HC, Mike Dunleavy, and they did not have much success prior to him, either. Tough spot to win it looks like and I'm sure the fan base is tired of seeing the program struggle to get over any sort of consistently successful hump. Also a tough conference to win in with Memphis, Wichita St., etc., but it's much easier than it used to be with Cincy, Houston, and others departing in recent years.

This is the plan but it's only a great Saturday if they both win!

If you'd like to watch future Zips QB Semaj Beals in the PA 5-A (2nd largest division) state title game, here is a link to the NFHS Network for online streaming. Unfortunately it does require a monthly subscription for $11.99. So if you watch Semaj don't forget to cancel afterwards!

Semaj and Jaborree both stacked scholarship offers but many "weren't committable." But JoeMo's extremely happy with both, obviously. I mentioned JoeMo targeting a TP or JUCO QB for next season to bring us to 4 QB (Raggow the only QB on the current roster w/ any PT experience). Article also talks about Donovan Moorhead & that JoeMo did in fact offer him, but they were clear early on there'd be a lot less controversy/drama if he went & played somewhere else other than for his dad. The linebacker we signed out of Pickerington North, Dante Curtis, was D-1 Ohio Central Region defensive POY. the DB we signed out of VASJ, Savion Lewis, was the D-3 Ohio Lakes Region defensive POY.

If anyone is interested, Semaj Beals, the QB that commited is playing Friday night at 7 pm in the PA 5A state championshiop: Friday, 7 p.m. at Cumberland Valley HS (TV: PCN Audio Stream: PIAA Radio Network) PA classifies differently than Ohio I think. It goes 1A smallest to 6A the biggest. The article I read talks about Beals' High School and it brings back a lot of starters: "Chief among them is Beals, who is back under center for the Cahillites. The 6-1, 190-pound senior has thrown for 2,581 yards and 36 touchdowns this season, completing just under 65% of his pass attempts. " His top targets are seniors Ash Roberts (49-752, 10 TDs) and Eyan Stead (45-579, 10 TDs) and junior Eisa Nealy (32-479, 6 TDs). Stead and Nealy both saw action in last year's title game. Roman does most of its damage with Beals throwing the ball; the rush attack averages just over 100 yards per game, with sophomore Tre Montgomery (106-548, 2 TDs) leading the way.

Great article by Michael Beaven on our recruiting class. Insight into how we signed Semaj & mentions JoeMo aiming to bring in a TP or JUCO QB to compete for the starting job next season.

I was really concerned for @NWAkron when they rolled out the new t-shirt cannon. He was safe because they clearly didn't practice with their new toy. But after a few more games....

Probably would’ve been 30 if that bottom 5 didn’t crap the bed. That 2 minute stretch was hard to watch😂

Listen.... For Groce to leave Akron quite a few dominoes have to fall. Will he be on short lists? Absolutely, he's a known coach with a Big Ten resume. He didn't completely bomb at Illinois. He just wasn't great. Schools looking to stabilize their programs will like Groce (but will he like them). Schools looking for the next Nate Oats will probably be a bit more hesitant. That said, he is not a 'sexy' name meaning it would likely take a NCAA Sweet 16 run to boost his profile. THEN ... it will have to be a job where Groce can see some success. Unless he's looking for a retirement contract (and that's possible) the fit will truly have to be to his liking. As a university, Akron is not the most financially stable, so there is a limit to be factored in here. But all in all, it seems it will take a lot from both sides of the fence to see Groce leaving Akron, even after another successful season.

This game, Yale, SBC road game are our 3 biggest winnable non conference games. 0-1 so far. Must win if we want an 11 seed

Poach them all!!!

That's kid's commitment is the kind that that allowed us to kick Putin's butt out of Ukraine. What? We didn't do anything but watch? He's still there? Never mind....

Reghi makes a good point about Lyles in that he only averaged 2 points a game as a sophmore and is now averaging 14 points per game with back to back 20 point games. However, you can also make the same argument about Tevari and Scott. These 3 guysl have really improved their game in year 3. Give them credit and give Groce credit.

Great steal by Barre, up ahead to Scott, lob off the glass and a slam by Barre. Beautiful.

Who? I want Coe College!

Week 15 of the semester. I expect a lot of students are bunkering down for final projects and exams

Gotta find a way to get more students out to the game. Run a contest for an automatic A on a final or something. 😅

Bucknell started to miss some open threes and that made all the difference so that we could pull ahead by 13. Also, a nice steal by the Zips. It looks like we have 9 man rotation with Stankovic being the odd man out right now. I think he has to be more aggressive on defense. Between Barre and Stankovic, I think it would be Barre since we need a rim protector. I thought based on all the hoopla on this board that he was a starter for Duquesne. Instead, he only average 4 points. He seems to fit in well with this team.

Doesn't feel like a good half and yet still on pace for around 100.

Nice finish to the half. Not a great half and still put up 49 pts with a 13 pt lead. Scary.

Vibes are off all the way around tonight

Barre and MMK in the game but the same time. Interesting.

AD Goodrich is another variable we have going in our favor rn - he's smart, savy and hungry.

I'm Happy all these analytic charts use the Z. AD Goodrich, you need to put your stamp on the programs without spending a bunch of money. I think I know a waaaay.