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I agree, and I think a starting lineup matters more than some believe. A team can absolutely set a tone early that dictates the rest of the game, and we saw our squad do that multiple times last season. I think Sharron performs better off the bench at this point in his career, too. Personally, I'd like to see more Stankovic and less Halligan. Nothing against Halligan, who plays really hard, but Oggy's ceiling is just so much higher. Evan Eric Lyles Scott Johnson Young Hardman MMK Stankovic Once Barre returns, he can take minutes back from Stankovic. But right now, I'd love for him to get more court time.

WR - ODU transfer Titus Myers was on campus today. The staff was big on him coming out of HS.

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

So far UMass football and mens basketball are a combined 0-12 against MAC competition. Welcome back. 🙂

By my count this currently gives us 14 signings. 10 offense: 6 OL 1 QB 3 WR 4 defense: 2 LB 2 DB We still need some DL and an upperclassman QB. Ps. Zips' OL coach Joel Rodriguez is one hell of a recruiter.

This is the biggest issue with the portal right now, in my opinion. We have all these players that we're identifying and developing, then they leave and we get nothing in return. The transfer fees would help build parity in college sports. But I think that's probably also why it's not gonna happen, because the big conferences won't let it.

Limits the options for the Papa John's sub of the game.

We're facing Troy on Feb. 7 in the 2nd round of the MAC-SBC. They're currently 10-5 (3-0) and are 125 in the NET. They beat Kent but lost to Toledo (in a holiday tournament). https://gozips.com/news/2026/1/6/mens-basketball-second-round-of-the-mac-sbc-challenge-announced-zips-set-to-travel-to-troy

I think you're mistaken. Defense is what is controllable. That's why the saying is defense travels. You can't expect to shoot 40% from 3 and 50% from 2 each game in a 30+ game season. That's just not realistic unless you're playing a video game. There will be nights where your shots simply aren't falling, which is what happened against Miami. I didn't feel the looks we got offensively were much worse than we have gotten much of the year. That's why I was overly critical of our defensive play earlier in the year. We were just able to mask it against some very terrible teams given how we were playing offensively. I actually saw improvements on the defensive end against Miami, which is encouraging.

Sure glad he didn’t. Especially since it hasn’t looked like Young took a step forward this year.

At least he’s getting paid.

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

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.

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.

Realistically, the Staff gave Akron a chance to rack up some good wins that would improve NCAA seeding and maybe, just maybe put them on bubble for an at large bid. After the loss to Yale and especially after loss to Murray State the goal is now to win in Cleveland. Groce and staff is figuring out what is going to get them to rope cutting on Saturday. The kid from Serbia didn't get out of his warm ups last night and has limited limits. He's not going to start. And the viable back up big has a bad injury. Re-set and re-calibrate.

I think Groce generally deserves the benefit of the doubt, but I agree with you. Whether it’s a starter or not, I don’t think anyone besides the 5 should be taking up valuable minutes for defense unless it’s Tribble-level OR situational. Since the lineup change has been made, we feel more like the same old Zips rather than a dangerous team that can drop 90-100 on you any given night. And i’ve heard Groce’s comments about not getting worked up about starting lineup changes. I agree, but my eyes tell me the team has not looked as good recently with the rotation changes. We’re in conference play now. Our defense should look better by default with some of the bum teams we’re playing. How much is competition vs lineup change? I know our offense has taken a step back.

Agreed. Being 2-2 would feel so strange after going 17-1 last year but the conference is much improved this year and we'd have two of the most difficult games behind us.

The problem is the NCAA has no power. Whenever they try to enforce something the courts step in and tell them they can't. While many of the suggestions that try to establish order would be good for the sport. None of them would likely be enforceable without the players forming a union and a collective bargaining agreement being reached. The players have no incentive to do that though.

If I had tuned into this game I would think Akron is good, but nothing special. 19 TO's is enough to explode over. Groce said in his radio comments that a lot of them were due to CMU's pressure. That is not true. They were due to laziness, lack of discipline and lack of patience. Players were trying to make things happen that were not there. Many times trying to penetrate when a fellow player was open in the backcourt. This is on Groce. He is tolerating it and it is time to use playing time to get his message across. The 15 TO's were had against Miami cost us the game. Cut those in half and we win going away. I love John, but it is on him to fix this because it can be worse against the better teams. Everything we do from here on out is preparation for the MAC tourney and the NCAA's. We have to get better.

GP1 gonna be pissed

But can we get one of them? 😆

Ham you see what is happening at the "bigger" D1 schools? Iowa State was left with 16 players on their roster ! That is insane... JMU went to the playoffs, lost their head coach, and then lost their entire starting offense to the portal and graduation. Cincinnati qb just got 5 million to go be Texas Tech qb for one year. That is more than Shadeur Sanders rookie contract, I am no Shadeur Sanders fan mind you, but that is crazy... College football until controlled is going to be like MLB free agency without a salary cap. The players will get while they can get and get what they can get. If a kid doesn't think they are going to make it to the NFL better get paid now... When Finn left for Toledo, Weiner (Toledo QB Coach) told me personally that he was receiving 400k to go Baylor and that he had to do what was best for his family. He played 3 games threw 23 passes and rushed the ball 21 times. He made $133,33.33 a game! I'd say that was a pretty good investment if he doesn't make it to the NFL. The money being thrown at these players is mindboggling. It won't last forever... Something will have to give either some type of cap, some type of super conference, or something else but even the smaller P-4 schools can't compete. Backup offensive linemen at Pitt get 100k and they are the backups... A lot of these athletes are making the decision of do I want the money or do I want to play football knowing they may never get on the field and be just a back up?

laventure committed to texas tech!!! that's pretty big news for a D2 player to go to Zips to the number 4 team the country great for him ...

You’re absolutely correct the Zips can’t dwell on this so I am more than willing to dwell on their behalf. Go Zips!!

Miami's arena has all the energy of a mausoleum. It's a tough place to win when they are good. This is the kind of outcome that makes potential MAC Tournament rematches interesting.and fun for fans.

There was a lot of good MACtion today. Ohio came back from a 20 point 2nd half deficit. Kent State barely survived at home against a not so good NIU. Bowling Green beat UMass 101-100 in OT.

Keep it close and let your senior leaders take it at the end.

They just stated that the Zips have not had a free throw in the second half because they haven't taken it strong to the basket. Geniuses /s

Zips need to guard Byers like Miami is hounding Hardman.

I think @Let'sGoZips94 and @kreed5120 are both right to some extent. The Zips defense this season, including the Yale and Murray State games, has been inadequate, especially om the perimeter. Groce has referenced it repeatedly in the post-games and I'll take his work for it. At the same time, those two teams were unconscious in their shooting. Poor perimeter defense + hot shooting = 97 and 115 points. This team's pace is always going to result in more points by the opponents. More opportunities for the offense results in more opportunities for opponent. Also, the team plays help defense. Watch how they sag on the off ball side of the court. If they're a little slow to recover, there's an open shot. They'll tighten it up but they'll never be the 19-20 team that gave up 66 points a game.

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.

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.

Maybe their D-Line coach showed 'em? 😉

Merry Christmas to all on this board, even those who I have blocked! I am very grateful for this forum. Thanks to the creators, moderators and thoughtful posters. I look forward to accessing this site each day. I believe the best is yet to come. And yes, Virginia, there is a winning football team coming to Akron.

I watched a 6 minute highlight video of CB/LB Giannis Gazis (from Greece) To say that I was impressed...would be an understatement..... This young man will definitely be in the mix to replace Ashton Kamdem at LB. Idahir Deanda from Indy 11........is listed as a defensive midfielder on one site that I looked at.