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I was not expecting Coach groce to be out there signing autographs but I was surprised to see he was! Not enough good words can be said about him, he was telling all the people in line “thank you for coming out” and was just very appreciative of all the support the fans have for the team

All things considered he played well & showed huge potential. He probably only finished with 10 points but I actually found that encouraging because even though St. Ignatius is one of the more complete teams in the state, it was obvious from the opening tip that Coach Dru was solely focussed on not letting RJ beat them. STVM has a player named DeCarlo Prince who is 6-4 and supremely athletic & already has a grown man's body. This year & last I'd say DeCarlo has been one of the two best players in the city - along w/ Garfield's Rayshawn Hamilton, IMHO. Anyway, Coach Dru had DeCarlo sticking to RJ like glue all night long. All. Night. Long. Hounding him. Denying him the ball. Fouling him. Any & everything. Played RJ extremely physically all night... literally every second RJ was on the floor. Coach Dru was going to let anyone but RJ beat them. That's the first I'd seen St. Ignatius play and so even though it kept RJ's numbers down I left the game excited that Coach Dru centered his entire defensive game plan on denying RJ the ball. RJ's going to have to add muscle to contribute at the next level as he's still pretty skinny. So he'll almost certainly redshirt next season. But I think most of us expected that anyway. He's a legit 6-6 and can jump out of the gym. He almost had two head-at-the-rim highlight dunks but was fouled pretty hard on both attempts. He can handle the ball & has a left hand & often ran the point & brought the ball up the court to initiate the offense. He didn't shoot a 3 all night, which I wanted to see, but in warmups he's got a smooth stroke. His free throws are kind of knuckle-balls, but they went in. He's a good and willing passer. He's got super quick feet, can move side to side on defense & gets his hips low without effort. (He was also usually assigned to guarding DeCarlo on defense, so those two kind of negated each other). You can tell he's an Akron Zips-type of personality. During warmups & even during the game he was smiling a lot & encouraging his teammates; appears to be super friendly. So John Groce got another high-caliber young man.

Miami after last nights action currently sits at #58 in NET. Akron slightly improved to #48. On paper this has to be one of the best mid-major matchups of the season across all of college basketball. It's a shame that it wasn't picked up for TV. Edit: It was also a failure on the MAC's part as they should have made sure these schools played twice. There aren't many opportunities to pick up Q1 & Q2 wins in conference play. The MAC should strategically schedule to maximize the opportunities.

It's been said many times on this site but replacing all the bleachers with chair backs would be the biggest possible improvement for the JAR. It's not like the slightly reduced capacity is gonna be an issue.

My guess would be - Joe needs to win next year, and you don’t win with Freshmen.

Knowing how the game ends still didn’t prevent me from stressing for the whole 13 minutes of highlights. But the payoff is so worth it again, thank you!! Our guys had a ton of grit that night. Also, I’m not going to miss Ipsaro this year. Just saying.

My son and his friend stuck around for post-game autographs and the players were great. Really makes it easy to be proud of the program.

I’m loving seeing the youth showing up to the games. Been seeing a lot of youth basketball and football teams coming to games and filling in for the students. Great for growing the game and the fandom

I asked him at the Concord game and he had an appointment the next day. He had a walking boot the game before.

At Akron, Groce has won @ Kent, Athens, and Oxford. He's won MAC tournaments over unranked MAC teams. He didn't upset Buffalo during their golden age. His signature win is probably the 2022 MAC tournament win over Toledo in the semis. Beating an undefeated Miami who has some poll #s at Oxford will be a tall order for Groce.

We need DL help and I think he’s a borderline all conference player. I’d take him back.

Lane Kiffin is a loser. This is the best playoff ever. The favorite to win the national championship is Indiana, a school that has the most losses in college football history. How about this December/January madness!

Freeman has been with the Minn. but has not been on the roster for a game. I found this analysis of his game while a 2 way player from SB nation: Enrique Freeman Regular season: 13 GP | 31.4 MP | 14.5 PTS | 7.8 REB | 2.0 AST | 0.6 STL | 0.8 BLK | 2.0 TOV | 2.4 PF 52.4 FG% | 31.0 3P% | 75.0 FT% It’s been a slow start for Freeman this season. His minutes and overall numbers are down from his first season in the G League with Indiana, but he’s still been productive. In his most recent game with Iowa prior to being called up with Minnesota, he had his best performance for the season. Freeman scored a season-best 26 points on 10 of 13 shooting from the field against Westchester, a great encapsulation of his no frills type of effort. One of the more promising developments for Freeman has been his stroke from deep. Part of the intrigue of the 25-year-old was his potential to shoot from distance, but after shooting 20% on 2.5 attempts in November, it didn’t look promising. However, in his seven December games, he’s improved that to 37% on 3.9 attempts per game. If he can continue on this trend, then Freeman might have a shot at developing into an NBA player one day.

I did some quick googling of each player, mainly looking at their Transfer Market pages to get a sense of the competition levels they were playing at. Giannis Gazis: https://www.transfermarkt.us/giannis-gazis/profil/spieler/1226505 Most recently played for Panathinaikos U-19s, appearing in 4 matches. His page also notes that he played for Greece U-17s Noa Testa: https://www.transfermarkt.com/noa-testa/profil/spieler/937514 Most recently played for the 2nd team at FC Lausanne-Sport. Their 2nd team is in the 3rd tier of Swiss soccer. Played in 6 matches and recorded an assist. Johan N’Ganzadi: https://www.transfermarkt.us/johan-nganzadi/profil/spieler/743397 He is already listed as an Akron player on his profile. Most recently played for a 5th tier team in Belgium. Played for several youth teams of larger clubs including Genk (2018-2020) and Standard de Liège. His page notes that he played for Belgium U-17s.

It appears that the zips ......have also added another domestic recruit Idahir Deanda - Midfielder...... his instagram profile is private....but he does show @zipsmsoccer https://www.instagram.com/idahir.deanda/ top drawer soccer shows that he is from Ohio...but has played for Indy Eleven academy https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer/college-soccer-details/men/akron/clgid-438/tab-commitments#sectionblock start your research, zips fans.....sounds like a great recruiting class

Porter was a senior at Wichita State when Shammah was a freshman. They bonded over their work ethic, see each other as big brother/little brother and have maintained contact. PS- I survived every Literature class through Cliffs Notes.

For a Monday night, Christmas break game against a D2 opponent, I thought the attendance was pretty good. It was a fun night.

I also like the in-conference aspect. It means they've been able to see your program up close and like what they see.

I can’t wait to watch him work through his mistakes this season, blossom into a 2nd team all MAC OL in 2027, and transfer to Pitt or Purdue! #fourtypercentzip #barelylearnedthefightsong

Getting bodies for the sake of bodies is the Arth Approach. It’s proven that you go 1-11 or 0-12 that way, and when those players hit the portal, no one picks them up and it kills your graduation compliance numbers.

This is how I'm feeling as well. We've been able to run up the score on the cupcakes we've faced, but pissed down our legs against the 2 quality mid-majors we've faced. Mainly due to being out of position defensively. I'm hopeful we can turn it around, but on the road against a quality opponent this will likely be our toughest test in MAC play. History shows no MAC team has gone undefeated in conference play since 1958. If I had to pick a game on the conference schedule that we're most likely to lose it would be this one.

I've been worrying about Miami's 3-point shooting (and our lack of 3-point defense) for several days now. Someone please tell me why we're gonna be okay in this game. 😆

The plan with this staff has always been to sign 12–15 freshmen each class. This year it’s been slightly smaller so far, though we may still sign a few more. Like Captain alluded to, most immediate impact players are going to come from either the portal or JUCO. Although to this point, our JUCO signees have mostly been depth pieces, outside of a few guys.

Bump before the portal officially opens tomorrow. For portal departures, I’ve only included players who I believe are on scholarship and walk-ons who played significant snaps.

Johnson - 12 PPG/5 RPG/4 APG/2 SPG Okonkwo - 3 PPG/6 RPG Prather Jr. - 13 PPG/4 RPG/3 APG/1 SPG

Because it's on the road, it will likely remain a Q1 game unless Miami really falters. It has a high Q2 floor.

Zips soccer fans, please start your research zips are adding 3 international players for 2026 https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/2026-mens-division-i-international-signees_aid55377

I think next year is the first full season that UMass will see that financial commitment for football they have talked about. Even then with the state of the program it will probably take them time to compete. Basketball is a different story. IMO Frank Martin is a washed has been who the game has passed by. His tough coaching style doesn't work in today's player empowerment era. Not to mention despite having an NIL budget that is 2-3x+ most MAC schools he seems to struggle at evaluating talent as his roster is on par with several MAC schools who are shopping TJ Maxx and Walmart clearance bins for players.

I thought the same thing for the first 5 minutes and last 5 seconds of last year's MAC Championship game.

I hope Miami wins against BG. The better they are the better the win is for us. Would love for it to get flexed but I’m sure Saturday will be crowded with football and other things

still very loosey goosey on 3 point line. they have 10 3s. make that 14.

Kent blows

Nickelodeon, The Comedy Channel and The Home Shopping Network were all booked.

I could be wrong, but based on the film and the other linemen who’ve been offered scholarships, my guess would be that he’s a walk-on.

With this post, I am relying on top drawer soccer(TDS) for their accuracy in reporting. On December 17th, top drawer soccer updated their division 1 mens soccer transfer tracker. At that point, TDS was showing 3 high quality players as transferring to Akron. I did not post that update on December 17 as none of the 3 players had posted anything on instagram...showing an announcement that they will be transferring to Akron. 2 of the 3 players are now showing @zipsmsoccer on their instagram page. As a result of 2 players changing their school in the bio, I will share the TDS transfer tracker(below) with zips fans. Aiden Benitez was a freshman this fall at Butler. Aiden Benitez is now showing @zipsmsoccer on his instagram page. Benitez is a 5'8 160 pound forward. In his freshman year, Benitez had 4 goals and 4 assists. Benitez was selected 3rd team all Big East. That is a very impressive honor as Akron's own outstanding forward (Remi Agunbiade) was not selected to any of the 3 all Big East league teams. Benitez was part of the Sporting KC academy as a teenager. Aiden Benitez has also played on the El Salvador U20 national team. At the end of the year, Top Drawer soccer selects a top 100 freshman list. TDS selected Aiden Benitez as the 26th best freshman in the country. Nolan McGuire is the 2nd transfer now showing @zipsmsoccer in his bio. McGuire has played 2 years as a defender for Depaul. In his freshman year, McGuire played almost 1,200 minutes for DePaul. In his sophomore year, Nolan McGuire started 13 of 17 games for Depaul and he saw 1,124 minutes of action. The 3rd transfer that TDS is showing is Angel Lopez from Coastal Carolina. Angel Lopez is a forward with very good size (6'3 185). In his freshman year for the Chanticleers(fall 2025), Angel Lopez started 9 games. Angel Lopez had 13 points as a result of 5 goals and 3 assists. Angel Lopez was selected to the Sunbelt Conference all freshman team. That is quite an honor as the Sunbelt is a very strong league (should have had 5 teams in NCAA field - W. Virginia, Marshall, Central Florida, Kentucky and number 34 RPI Georgia Southern.) From what I can tell, Angel Lopez's instagram page does not yet show a zipsmsoccer connection. Below the 3 transfers to Akron, you will see that Nathan Ferguson is transferring from Akron to Belmont. Belmont has already confirmed that with an instagram announcement. With only 4 players graduating, we know of 7 high school seniors that will probably join the zips in fall 2026 (all have made instagram or twitter announcements). Top Drawer Soccer says that we will have 3 transfers joining the zips in January 2026. with 10 known players coming in and only 5 leaving, I would anticipate that the zips will have some other players transferring to other schools. PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL in your comments about Nathan Ferguson and other possible transfers. Nathan is a very nice young man and he gave his maximum effort during his time with the Zips. I wish Nathan Ferguson much success at Belmont. Nathan and other future transfers do not deserve any negative comments on this board as they make their best decision for their soccer careers. From my very limited research, The zips are adding 3 young high quality transfers. I choose to congratulate our coaching staff on successfully adding 3 solid young soccer players. And I wish the best to any fall 2025 zips that will be joing another school in January 2026. Welcome to Aiden, Nolan....and I sure hope that TDS is correct about Angel Lopez https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/2026-mens-division-i-transfer-tracker_aid55358 https://www.instagram.com/_nolanmcguire/ https://www.instagram.com/benitezaiden/?hl=en

Is it gameday yet? This week off plus the final exam week is always the longest boredom stretch of the season 😭

Zips are favored by 2.5 points according to DraftKings. O/U is 177.5

The staff has a ton of offers out there, some more impressive at face value than others. Go Zips!!

I would actually like to see us pressure the ball less this game. Trapping and then being late to rotate has been what has led to those easy baskets where someone cuts to the basket or is in the weak corner for an open 3. We are the more athletic team. I feel if we force them to beat us 1 on 1 they will struggle. Their recipe to beat is by shooting 40%+ from 3 while limiting turnovers. Let's instead focus on running them off the 3-pt line and have to settle for contested 2s.

Akron is the #2 scoring offense in the country, behind only Georgia. Miami is #7.

We didn't watch the same games then. Not sure how putting up 94 and 100 respectively in those losses is "pissing down our legs." And don't give me the "Well we gave up 97 and 115 pts in those games," counterargument because both opponents simply had insane shooting performances. Akron is not defensively worse than the majority of teams Yale & Murray State have played, yet neither team has duplicated the shooting performance they each had vs. Akron. Could the defense have been better? Of course. Did we pee down our leg in those games? No. Pissing down our leg would've been shooting 15% from 3, putting up 65 pts, and losing by 30. Easy. Akron is deeper, more athletic, will create full court havoc defensively, and can score at will in a multitude of ways. Here are the stats and results from each of Akron & Miami's latest DI game... Akron vs. EMU 55% FG 17% 3P 7 Steals 22 Assists 8 Turnovers 93 points in a 21 point win Miami vs. BG 55% FG 48% 3P (was over 60% in the first half) 6 Steals 16 Assists 16 Turnovers 93 points in a 10 pt win (BG shot 23% from 3P making 5 total 3P in the game; I think they were at 10% 3P% in the 1st half) Without Ipsaro, BG exposed Miami's inability to handle pressure, especially full court pressure. Akron may not be great at 3P defense, but they are fantastic at full court pressure and trapping around the halfcourt line. In addition, I'd be shocked if Miami shot 60% from 3P again in any half vs. us. If they do, hats off. For as good as Miami's offense has been, they've scored under 80 points 3x, under 90 points an additional 4x, and a 5th game would've been under 90 if it wasn't for OT. Akron's quantities with the same thresholds: 1 game under 80 (79 @ Purdue), an additional 2 games under 90 (85 vs. JMU and 88 @ Tulane). Let's also keep in mind Miami's performances have come against one of the weakest OOC schedules in the country. The only way we aren't in this game is if there's a lid on Akron's basket and Miami shoots 50%+ from 3P.

Personally, I would not. I'm petty like that. I met the kid very nice kid i wish him nothing but blessings and success but he chose the road he wanted to take and that was to chase the dollar signs. First to Bowlong Green, remember. He couldn't get out fast enough, no fault to him... i just would not take him make nor do i think there is any way he would want to come back after being at purdue. sometimes you have to live by your decisions. Had he stayed he may have gotten more money and more experience and went somewhere to play consequences to your decisions. not all about chasing the fast cash

Now that there is the CFP, the FBS and FCS designations don't make so much sense anymore. We need something else like say Div 1-A and 1-AA.

Not a Zip in the pros, but related... John Hackworth, father of Zips Mens Soccer alum Morgan Hackworth, named MLS Next Pro Coach of the Year,

Brian Walsh https://www.nbc4i.com/sports/buckeyes/brian-walsh-joins-ohio-state-mens-basketball-as-assistant-coach/amp/

Steve and his dad are incredible people. This is awesome news for Steve.

Steve Swiech is an air traffic controller per his Facebook