Leaderboard

Jason Carter is leaving? Fire Jeff Boals. Program is a joke. Total disarray.

I had the opportunity to interview Josh Ward after last Saturday’s practice. Yet another great representative of Zips football! Thanks as always to Dr. Z for the nice layout and great supporting photos! Article

6 years ago tomorrow the season ended for KD’s best team with a 44 point loss to VCU. Some of the best players on that team (Aberu, Tree, Harney) left Akron/ we’re kicked off the team, eventually quit on the team (Pat F) or should have been on the team, but were suspended for the year (Diggs). This day started the decline of Zips basketball. Williams & Noah were leaving whether KD stayed or left. The program has had problems the last 6 years not 2. Lets support what we have instead of wishing we had something the we don’t.

Can someone explain something to me? Texas Tech started a 6'8 center and ran a 8 man rotation. The tallest player they had coming off the bench was 6'5. Based on some comments I've seen on this board, I was under the impression that you can't win meaningful games unless you have multiple 6'11 bigs. How was Texas Tech not only able to beat Buffalo by 20, but also able to make it this far in the tournament with such a small lineup? Is it possible that there is more than 1 way to win a basketball game?

Mikal Dawson’s Huntington Prep team beat Spire 74-71. He was the game MVP with 25-7-4 playing against high level future D1 talent. Hopefully he can give us some good minutes next year.

A few points: 1) KD was successful at US and...people b!+ched...offense is too predictable...they don't play enough zone...they can't stop dribble penetration...they have no out of bounds plays...there are players of questionable character on the team and kids getting into trouble...the OOC schedule is weak...they can't win the big game...he can't win in the tournament...yada...yada...yada... 2) Groce came into nothing, the team improved in year two and...people b!+ch...players are transferring...the big men are offensively challenged...their shooting is awful...there was a fight between players...the OOC schedule is weak...yada...yada...yada... 3) People will b!+ch no matter what. 4) Groce is going nowhere. Love him or hate him the University of Akron does not have the financial resources to dispatch him.

Shhhh... Don't let facts get in the way of their misery. _______________________________________________________________ The Zips this past season were 8 deep. Even with the departures, I'm looking at a roster that's 9 deep and that doesn't include the incoming freshman or the 2 open spots. It's ridiculous to say there are only 2 DI players on the current roster, when the rag tag group of 8 were consistently competitive against teams like Clemson, Buffalo, and Nevada, and finished in the middle of the pack in the MAC, while blowing out the #2 team in the MAC (BUGS). Scoring is a fixable problem, and probably the best problem to have, especially for a rebuilding team. I'm going to keep pounding this point. We have the right system in place to be successful. We focus on the key fundamentals - defense, effort, rebounding, free throws - and have built that foundation. Dambrot's system was and still is entirely flawed. It ignores nearly every basic principal in the sport of basketball. This very board had people constantly talking about the lack of ball movement, defensive breakdowns, free throw shooting problems, etc. We eeked out a lot of close victories against sub-par MAC squads despite being more talented (usually). Those issues have carried over to Duquesne. Read their board; "will this team ever emphasize defense" and "free throws are an issue". I'd be curious to see the opinions of the Dambrot apologists when looking at the Duquesne roster. Is it full of so-called DI players? If so, what was the cause of the early 1st-round exit in the A10 tourney and not dominating/being more competitive in a weaker A10 Conference as a whole? In the first round game, they scored 86 points, shooting at a 47% clip. How can you lose a game when you make shots?! You don't play defense, give up 92(!) pts, and shoot 68% at the line. What's going to be easier to fix: having gym rats hit the gym and practice shooting (including free throws), or getting a team to buy into 40 minutes of tough-nosed, heady defense? My vote is the shooting, which again, gives me hope for this next season. Lastly, let's stop crucifying this team and Groce for a 40 pt. loss to Buffalo and 24 pt. loss to a motivated O-BooWho squad. Of the 16 losses we had, 11 were single-digit losses, and an additional 2 losses were closer than their final score (@ Buffalo and @ Toledo). That means there were 3 games we simply weren't competitive in. Heck of an accomplishment for a team with only 4 DI players at the time. I wonder if Arizona had the pitchforks out for Sean Miller for losing to Buffalo by 21 last year, or Boeheim for losing by 12 to Buffalo this year. Do BUGS and Miami want to fire their coaches for losing to a team with 4 DI players by 24 & 29 respectively? The Clown lost to a team with only 4 DI players by 19. We had 1 extreme off-night (O-BooWho) and one off-day that was aided by being inferior to one of the better teams in the entire country (Buffalo at The Q); clearly that's not the norm. So much good to focus on. The sky is not falling. In fact, I feel as if the ceiling is higher than ever before, considering our previous ceiling had a MAC Finals record similar to LeBron's Finals record (oh look, another similarity between Dambrot and LeBron, to add to the excuses and now neither of them making the postseason), and arguably 0 marquee wins (unless you include the few NIT wins against Houston, FSU, and Temple).

I'm optimistic that with a full year under their belts and another full off-season to improve their craft, our offensive base will be much more solid. Throughout the season we saw growth tremendous growth from numerous players - Riak & Cheese were the two most notable - and I trust the individuals on the team will put the work in to improve for the betterment of the team as a whole. It needs to be noted the system Groce has implemented on offense and defense. They are very fundamental. They require personnel that will dedicate themselves to the fundamentals, something AAU has largely killed off. We have lots of movement now when executed properly, and that goes for both sides of the ball. Two factors have led to the exodus - players not buying into the system, and players simply not fitting in. It happens, and it has been magnified by the state of the program when Groce took over. All season I had next year and the year after next circled because those are the seasons that start to feature the core of Groce Ball with the majority being his personnel. Whatever we accomplished these first two seasons would be whatever, and I was simply hoping to see the basics implemented. I've seen that and way, way more. With the departure of Utomi, it accelerates the roster turnover to becoming mostly Groce guys. As I mentioned, a lot of the fundamentals in basketball have been killed off by AAU ball. It was very encouraging to see so many guys this year buy into those fundamentals again, especially on defense. Seeing that gives me a lot of hope this off-season will yield big improvements all the way around. Also, are we forgetting the MAC is about to potentially enter the stage it was at when Dambrot took over? It depends on what Buffalo does; otherwise, it's completely up for grabs. Fret not. Go Zips!

We're lucky to have CK and Dr. Z! Appreciate all the info.

E-Man leaving is an opportunity to upgrade

Pay to play tourneys for both genders. One step closer to gender equality.

Where's Lori Loughlin when you need her? Just offer her enrollment for her grandkid(s) and she'd buy that contract out in a heartbeat! Only $200k more than her last purchase!

That was their only DI player. Roster is a total joke.

Anyone leave the program today? Asking for a friend

I expected more than what we have received. I expected players who want to play for a coach. I expected players who do not punch out other players. I expected to score more than 4 baskets in a half of basketball at the Q. I expected not to lose a quarterfinal game by 40 points, no matter how good the team. I expected that our team would not lose by 30 to an Ohio U team that had a losing record. I expected to have at least one center of our 4 centers that has an interest in scoring. (not from the 3 line) I expected our team to shoot better than 25% from long distance. I expected Groce's recruits to stay with our team after playing here for a year. With Utomi and E Man leaving, this looks more like a revolving door than a team. I hope that Groce will be successful but with these 2 Zips leaving I feel like we are starting all over again. Another year of new players and empty seats.

I like E-Man, but it's probably for the best. We didn't need to have 3 offensively deficient centers on our roster.

Jimond graduated? OMG. Someone should have stopped that from happening.

No reason anyone shouldn't be able to state their position, I just get fed up with griping without solutions. It has been a while, but I recall that UA was among the larger basketball budgets in the MAC. Unfortunately, the citizens bailed on a new arena. It was going to be in an issue to go to the voters and every poll showed it was going down. With each year, I wonder more if the Georgetown model isn't one to consider. Pick your sport and devote your money to it while you let the others exist but on a lesser level. It has recently blown up on Georgetown as the basketball program has slipped and I am not sure a public university is the right place for it, but it is an interesting approach.

I am serious. And don't call me Shirley. Bedump tissssssss.

I can second every positive things said about Josh on this thread. I do one day visits in the College of Business Administration to discuss some cases studies I had published that deal with sales management. Josh was in my class in the fall semester and I bumped into him this week when I returned for this semester. What a great guy. He is the kind of person who makes your day better because you saw him. In the classroom he was very talented He was a leader and and an insightful student who was very involved in our discussions. His critical thinking was what you want in a successful sales representative. Akron has an outstanding sales program that at one time was ranked #3 in the country. It has slipped as other big money schools poured resources into their programs to catch up, but with men and women like Josh we have reason to be very proud of how they represent UA.

All the other state universities are being affected by this other than OSU, UC and Miami, and Miami is only holding on because they relentlessly recruit out of state students. It's hitting Akron the hardest because of years of Proenza's reckless spending binge followed by mediocre or worse leadership that only cared about getting to the next job. This is undoubtedly going to feed the element in state government that's long advocated consolidating programs and even campuses and instituting a much more rigid, structured system, and can you blame them? Proenza's building spree will be exhibit A in the argument to reign in "empire building" within the system. This is a system that funds more public law schools and the same number of public medical schools as California. It's been heading for this cliff for a long time.

The below link will update you on all of the MAC's moves as they happen. Of note, Jason Carter is leaving Ohio. Not really surprising given the coaching change. http://verbalcommits.com/conferences/mid-american

They did, but the the channel name "Comedy Central" was already taken.

Cutting programs/enrollment can't be a positive thing for the Athletic Dept.

No matter who Akron hired to replace Dambrot they'd be b****ing. Dambrot was already the highest paid employee at the University of Akron and the highest paid basketball coach in the MAC. Akron was never going to be able to match the salary nor the millions of dollars worth of upgrades that Duquesne was prepared to offer. Akron was only going to be able to retain Dambrot by Dambrot accepting less to stay. He elected to instead take the money and run.

KD also recruited 8 freshmen for this year, almost all of whom went to one high school for their career from what I can tell. That is how you build a program instead of dominating it with multiple high school, prep/basketball academy, other school commits, junior college etc. guys. You plug in the holes with those transfer guys. I'm not sure how stable a roster will ever be when the kids you bring in are already used to moving around so much. The only traditional freshman Groce has brought in the last two years is Ali. Heck, we just lost two guys who were loyal to the program and stuck around after the coaching change. Plus we lost 3 others during the year. I'm not sure how this compares to all the other schools, but things need to settle down real soon.

If we only had Pat Forsythe

Yes and no. I don't know the story here, but not every player that moves on does it on their own accord.

He only fouled out twice the entire season. That's not bad for a starting C. He picked up some dumb fouls over the course of the season, who doesn't, but I never viewed that as a weakness in his game like I viewed it in Kostelac and E-Man. His weakness has been that his hands have been bricks this year. Even when he does catch it in the low post the ball has been either stripped or he misses a bunny or dunk. I actually like Riak for his defensive presence, but there is no mistaking he needs to work on catching a pass in traffic and finish at the rim.

no need to block out when you can jump over everyone

Looking forward to getting a warrior in the paint.

Some very good points Let'sGo, but I did not see notable improvement in Riak. I have no complaints about Riak. He is what he is- a defensively focused, offensively challenged big man who plays hard and leads the defense. However, he was the same guy against Cedarville that he was against Buffalo and the stats show that straight line consistency throughout the season rather than substantial growth.

If for no other reason than to keep fan interest. This isn't Kentucky where there's turnover every year. Fans need to connect with players over time and that connection is built over seasons. I went up to JImond's dad on senior night congratulated him and told him how much the Zips fans had enjoyed watching his son grow up at UA. You don't get that connection with one and two year players.

You might want to look at how many players have transferred out of Duquesne since KD got there. Nature of the beast in a transition period. KD left on his own, was the highest paid coach in the MAC, and might as well have had a lifetime contract. Enough with acting like it was Williams' fault.

Keep LCJ and Cheese and get rid of the rest. Recruit a great freshman class. Expect to take our lumps but build a team. The first two years of Groce have built NOTHING and aside from the two players mentioned above the roster is a joke. NOTHING built for the future.

Nate Oats has turned down one big payday. I think there is a really good chance he stays.

This is one of the reasons I've become a big fan of MAC women's basketball the past few years. Who would have thought the Buffalo women would have given UConn a better game than the men gave Texas Tech? https://buffalonews.com/2019/03/24/cierra-dillard-ub-women-valiant-in-loss-to-uconn-in-ncaa-tournament/

YSU pulled out a 6-5 win today in the first game of a double header with Oakland. With the victory YSU moved to 2-18 on the season. Upon further consideration, I was wrong to criticize zippy5 for claiming their semi-new coach was turning their program around. I just didn't realize the direction of the turn. With the loss Oakland moved to 0-18. In game 2 YSU turns the other cheek as Oakland wins and moves to 1-18 Gosh this is exciting.

I remember in the past only having a handful of teams' scouts show up at pro days.

I would think ASU's associates are responsible for taking away Bobby's neckties and shoelaces for the foreseeable future.

It seems a bit too soon to compare a team whose made it to 12 Sweet 16s and has 2 national championships to a team that has a combined 1 tournament win in program history. If they're still doing what they are now in 5 years, I'll start talking about it. As of now there are tons of schools that thought they were going to be the next (insert power house basketball program here). Look at Cleveland State as a prime example. Now they're stuck with a monstrosity of an arena that is bleeding the university much like Infocision is doing to us.

He did do a nice job of not fouling. Until his senior year, even Zeke was in foul trouble more often than not.

You're just afraid of Otterbein and Muskingum.

Finally someone with "Common Sense" I been preaching this all along. The fact that we settled with Ohio U's leftovers that couldn't do squat at a Big Ten School infuriates me to the core and now we are back to defending and capping for mediocrity. Groce needs his own guys this Groce needs his own guys that. Yall gonna say the same BS after we get the same results in year 3? smh The fact that Groce ended the season with more timeouts in his pocket than Wins should tell you right there what he is and will continue to be.