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I would imagine they figured neither BG or Akron football would be playing in the Semifinal, and it would appear they were correct. 😉

21 points, 16 rebounds for Enrique last night 💪

Fast start ✅. Too bad the 2nd quarter was maybe the worst in the Gensler era. My good feeling was short lived. Talked to Portage Lakes Paul and Wadsworth Wally and they aren’t happy either.

First ten minutes and the last 5 were great. The rest, not so much. The bench was very good last night. I like seeing Bowen and Eric start to heat up. Watching Eric grow up over his career is going to be fun. I sure hope we get to watch 4 years of it.

I always thought two things were going to ruin college sports for me. Gambling and paying the players directly. Not that I don't think that they have a right to get a gain out of what they're producing, but just flat buying teams doesn't get me excited for college sports any more. I will even admit I'm a little less excited for Akron season knowing that they have kind of bought their team as well. It's why soccer is my favorite sport at Akron and not just because they're good, but because I believe that it's about talent, evaluation and skill and not just money. Yes, I know that you still have to have some talent evaluation even with the money but the playing field is not even.

He's right that those schools do fit the profile well. Given the state of politics, I think Senators should focus on things other than the athletic alignment of their alma maters. I'm sure if there was mutual interest, these schools would have already joined the Big East.

Seemingly, a nobrainer.

I'm not questioning they are favorites in any particular game, but odds are they still lose at least 1 game. No MAC team has gone undefeated in conference play since 1958, which was ironically Miami who went 12-0. In that time between then and now we've seen some terrific teams Wally Miami, Kent State Elite 8, Buffalo a few years back to name a few. They all had at least 1 loss and frankly they would all be heavy favorites over this years Miami team. If the MAC was as bad as it was last year I would think the possibility would be greater, but this year there are plenty of MAC teams capable of sneaking up on you. EMU beat Cincy, BG knocked off Kansas State, UMass beat 2 P4, and even Ohio knocked off a fairly good St. Bonaventure. Edit: I want to be clear my comment wasn't meant to be a knock to Miami. I feel their start is better than many are giving them credit for. I understand their SOS is very weak, but it's more challenging to consistently win games you're expected to than what people give it credit for. Look at Akron as a prime example. 3 out of our 4 losses we entered into the game as the Vegas favorite, but lost.

Durham DID NOT enter the portal. He announced that he was entering, but he never officially signed or withdrew. You can come up with your own reasoning, but he is still on the team and NOT in the portal.

Against respectable teams, it would be a 32 minute game and a 40 minute loss.

Groce: “was it a 32 minute game or 40 minute game? I think our players thought it was a 32 minute game”

It's a little early but I thought I'd put this here. Forewarned is foretold. You have to have your head examined to sit on the west side. The sun will be brutal for the first half at least.

The whiteboard is back! Sorry fellas I’ve been sick so I haven’t been in the office. The biggest risers have definitely been murray state and Miami. Biggest fallers are bowling green, Kent and Yale (Brutal loss to Princeton)

FWIW, I have heard that Cibastian Broughton is the player that the staff is most excited about. He has been under the radar but has all the talent to get the job done with both his feet and his arm. If true that gives Joe a new dynamic at QB that we haven't had for years and one that he has longed for.

https://open.substack.com/pub/akronzippedup/p/akron-zips-mens-basketball-weekly-d31?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email Excellent post from Zipped Up.

They’ll make a late surge with the easier schedule and will be a really tough 6 seed in Cleveland

CMU beat PCCC

I talk to myself a lot and am an optimist in life, but even I’m not talking myself into a win today. Sounds like Fairlawn Franks been spending a little too much time at….Franks.

Getting on the floor while up 10 with 12 seconds left. You have to love the effort from Groce teams.

Zips have hit a Wol.

I wonder who the rating drivers are for CBSSN. The only time I watch is when the MAC is on lol.

Ball State comes to the JAR Tuesday night to face the Zips. The Cardinals stand at 4-11 headed into Saturday’s game at UMASS. The Cardinals have the lowest scoring offense in the MAC, scoring 67.2 ppg. However, they give up the lowest point on average at 69.2 ppg. Safe to say, they slow things down. 6’2” sophomore guard Davion Hill leads scoring at 10.9 ppg. 6’4” junior guard Armoni Ziegler scored 10.2 ppg while contributing 4.8 rpg.

Stealing the basketball gameplan from a couple years back...get a bunch of Mountaineers on the team.

Ball State board doesn't seem all that interested in this game either. Game thread was just created an hour ago and nobody besides OP has left a comment. Edit: There was a separate thread created yesterday titled "Can this game just be cancelled?" It was about the round 2 game against the Sun Belt. I clicked on it thinking it was about the Akron game thread. One of Ball State posters commented that he thought it was about the Akron game. It gave me a good chuckle reading.

I think it's more their lack of offense will travel

Zips picked up a commitment from former WVU DB Dawayne Galloway Jr. Was a 4 star recruit out of HS (played at Marion Franklin) Absolutely massive get for the secondary, should have 4 years of eligibility.

Zips Men’s Soccer alum Cameron Knowles 👏👏👏

I think Finley was a more-than-serviceable 5th year senior who had a year in the system. He was going to start the entire year if he could stay healthy. Mike Johnson Jr. was brought in to be a senior body. That's about it. Don't sell Broughton short. He isn't a big kid (5' 11"), but he made some head-turning plays in the scrimmages I watched. With a year of practice under his belt I think he has a good shot at being the starter in 2026. We can win some games with Ruggow. But he doesn't have the wow-factor that Broughton brings. Maybe Beals comes in and sets the world on fire...but I've never seen a true Freshman do that at Akron.

Obviously we need to get wins in these next two games (Ball State and WMU) as these games are followed by probably the toughest four-game stretch in our conference schedule (away at Buffalo and Ohio, then home against Toledo and Can't).

I’m honestly more excited about Beals. We heard the talk of Broughton last year…but IMO it’s sort of telling that he didn’t see the field at all. I don’t have a dog in the fight though, just win baby!

Dewalt posted about going into the draft. At the Bowling Green game he said it was his last college game ever also.

According to PFF, he played in all 12 games and started two. He was targeted 31 times, giving up roughly 61% completion and over 420 yards. That’s not good. For comparison, Reed was targeted 40 times, allowed about 57%, but gave up only 205 yards. Newsome clearly has the physical ability. I’m hoping the rest of his game can get cleaned up and he produces at a higher level for us.

The MAC schedule maker did BG no favors. Their first 5 MAC games of the season: OU; Miami; UMASS; PCCC; Akron.

Tavari 7 assists. Likely mostly to Amani? finds another way to contribute.

Winning MAC game on the road can be difficult. The Zips have their back against the Wol. Lets see how they respond.

This team's propensity to let teams back into games frustrates me.

Let's get our guy to Los Angeles for All-Star weekend - vote for Enrique for the NBA G League Next Up game! NBAGLeague.com/Vote

Professional cornhole and hobby horse competitions.

I also think the loss to Miami demoralized some of them and we experienced a hangover effect. Groce won’t put up with that for long. But the Seniors especially know they have squandered a great opportunity.

That’s too bad about Newell. Although, by the end of the season Cravaack was clearly the better player. Whether that was due to Newell not being 100% or something else, I’m not sure. This staff hasn’t had issues landing productive tight ends, so I’m not overly concerned. I’m not surprised to see Witherspoon looking elsewhere. He was a tweener with upside, but hadn’t put on enough weight to consistently play tight end and was a bit slow to be a true receiver. He also dropped a few easy balls in the spring game. I like the players we’ve landed so far — the two WRs, two OL, and the LB. The linebacker really brings it when coming downhill. Linebacker is another position where we’ve been solid year over year since Tibesar’s arrival.

I don't think its really time to panic, the main problem against CMU was the turnovers. I really hate to say it but when we play these conference games against teams that we are significantly better than, we can play down to the competition. We have said it for years with the neck stepping, in games like this we often see problems like turnovers or lazy shots. I think the team is fine, if we do the same against BG then yes we have a problem, but we have seen this kind of thing year after year

I think the last 40 years is a pretty relevant statistical sampling, and over that time period Akron’s basketball success dwarfs Toledo’s.

That was a rough one to watch…Western 55 Zips 48 Had a nice run to start the 4th and had our chances but very poor execution down the stretch. Interesting note: Western down 4 key players due to injury so had to go to the volleyball team for a body similar to us last year.