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This was a solid team that blew out most of its competition all year. Another team that has already won an NCAAT game can't even say that. We just struggled to bring our A game down the stretch. We can win and not play our best in the MACT, but not in the NCAAT. Except for a few players, we've looked burned out the past four games.

Please let today be our day. We are so due.

Shammah Scott's game-winner vs Toledo (2026) Watched it at least 10 times this week. Gets better each time.

I don’t think Akron is going to sneak up on anyone in the NCAAT. We are a respected mid-major and the pundits amplify it. We are going to have to show up, play great and take it.

We're too small. We're athletic enough to overwhelm MAC teams but we can't do that vs P5 competition. It is what it is. Just have to keep building and increase the level of player we are bringing in

This team won the most games in program history. People always bring up that 2013 dambrot team as one of the best. 2020 was also up there. But this team won 29 games. If the only thing that matters is winning in the round of 64 has the program ever been good at the d1 level? The football team could go 6-6 and lose in a bowl game and people would say it’s a great season. This zips basketball team represented this school well and was something to be proud of

We were only down 6 and then we scored 8 points in the final 9 minutes. Was TT that much better than us or did we just have another bad game? Really difficult to be competitive when your best player only scores 4 points and has 4 turnovers. I thought TT had a good game plan of collapsing the defense in the middle and forcing us to shoot from three. We could not make a 3 the second half. Game over. Very proud of our seniors. The Zips had a great season. But we will have to wait for next year to get that elusive tourney win.

The only teams we blew out were inferior MAC teams. Lost by 10 to Troy, lost by 15 to Murray State, lost by 18 to Purdue. Again, we were a really good MAC team. I'm proud of what they accomplished this year. But this team just wasn't talented enough to beat top-level competition.

I don't think Akron was embarrassed today. Does the score look bad? Yes, but with the exception of 6-7 minutes late, they held their own.

Just can’t let a team shoot 64% from the field. Not athletic or physical enough. That said, I’ll never forget last Saturday night. Great season and team.

Tavari played like crap. I also don’t think Groce did enough to get somebody as dangerous as Hardman involved. Lyles and Scott great. Both Mahaffeys and Sharron ok. Need more to pull off an upset though

Biggest issue so far is he hasn't been able to kick it out once yet. Even being able to drive and find the open man will be huge. They're just swallowing him up and he's not seeing the floor underneath

GREAT finish to the half. About as poor a shooting performance as possible and we're going to go into the half with a 5 pt deficit.

Is it just me or is the officiating exceptionally one-sided?

I feel more nervous today than I have any of the previous tourney games. Maybe it's seeing a single-digit point spread. Maybe it's knowing how much we are losing next year. Maybe it's the outside noise about Groce getting offers to go elsewhere. But this feels like a pretty gigantic game for our program and its future.

Akron shot 75% overall from the free throw line this season. However, they have struggled at the line in March: CMU - 6/11 (54%) NIU - 8/12 (66%) Buffalo - 11/18 (61%) Kent - 17/27 (63%) Toledo - 3/9 (33%) Overall - 45/77 (58%) Definitely something to watch tomorrow.

Tough day. Great season. Thanks for the memories boys.

Somebody had the chance to title this thread Staying Close to the Vest, and fumbled 😉 Even with the NIL money, JG has to be feeling somewhat ceilinged at Akron. He is still young enough to want another crack at a P4 IMO.

This is based. At least that's what I believe the youth call it.

Not a bad take at all, a realistic one. The MAC had two very good teams - us and Miami - and we both beat up on inferior competition. Those other teams you mentioned had excellent shooting performances because we play poor perimeter defense, not because of bad luck. I'm not trying to rip on our guys - I love them all and am proud of this year. But this team didn't beat a single top team the entire season. It is what it is.

Or maybe we're overrating the MAC. Kent got smoked by a 21-12 MVC team, so it seems maybe our 5-loss team is at the same level of a 12-loss MVC team.

If you remove your Zippy colored glasses this is an accurate take. 0 wins over top 125 teams. We were a very good, but not a great team. Our style of play allowed us to run up the score up on inferior competition, but we had too many holes defensively to take the next step. Namely we needed better perimeter defense. Edit: As @Captain Kangaroo pointed out this was probably a game Nate Johnson could have made a difference.

Really bad take. They dominated the best the MAC has been in a long time, minus Miami OH which they only got 1 crack at on the road and lost by 3. Did they do enough to beat top-level competition? Nope, but it wasn't due to a lack of talent. Troy, Murray State, and Yale each had historic shooting performances. They blew out Princeton, dominated James Madison, and blew out Kent twice. They were within 2 possessions late in the game vs. a team that was in the Elite 8 last year. Again, didn't do enough, but it wasn't a talent issue. Regroup, rebuild, reach that next level. Let's Go Zips!

💯

Crumbled under pressure to a power school once again.

Thanks. Yes, I thought Watts fouling out was the break that we needed, but we didn't take advantage of it. Good luck in moving on.

Well I'm glad they played a hard 32 minute game. It's not high school and college games are 40, but that's what we got.

The offensive gameplan was fine. This was a 4 point game with 8 minutes left. Our offensive players just aren't good enough.

Zips could have done a better job of taking advantage of it. Would have been nice to have the scoring and length of Nate Johnson in this one.

With a good performance this game was so winnable too. AND TT shooting 10/18 from three. Even with suboptimal defense, that's still hot. Just not our day in the NCAAT....AGAIN.

See: Miami

Game plan was too conservative. Needed to get the 3 ball going early.

Damn. Maybe next year.

The officiating has been fine. Shooting two halves like it's the first half in Cleveland is what's killing Akron.

Tavari should sit for a bit and let Shammah run the offense.

If TT were smart and made it a point to shut Scott down, we'd be cooked! Lyles on three fouls early does not bode well either.

Would have preferred Tavari pushing it after the steal. Even if he didn't make it he probably would have drawn a foul.

They're on him like a glove. Unlike Enfield/SMU, McCasland/TTU actually studied film and are actively taking away the 3P shot. They're doing a great job of switching on screens to prevent anybody slipping through the cracks, too.

Lyles, Scott and Evan are doing their part. Our other rotation guys are sightseeing. Let’s go boys! A run is gonna take 5-6 guys

They are killing us with the high trap. They've adjusted. Stop using it!

Our NCAA is Rocket Arena each year. This is gravy, but the ceiling is real.

Too many guys playing scared or timid.

Can't let the 5th best 3-point shooting team in the nation continually take wide-open threes.

Way to come out with some fire after halftime Zips.

Exactly, if the shot isn't there, he needs to be a facilitator, which hasn't happened yet. We need John Stockton from him in the second half, not Allen Iverson.

Amani has 2 fouls. Tech went on a big run when he was out. He has to stay out of foul trouble.

We weathered the storm. Not our A game by any stretch and it's a two possession game. Gotta start the second half on the right foot though

Game day

https://open.substack.com/pub/akronzippedup/p/game-preview-akron-faces-off-with?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email Excellent preview of tomorrow's game with all the relevant stats...from ZippedUp.