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Not sure if Connor can walk on a P4 roster the same way he does for Akron also.

Desperately need quality OOC road games. It’s what we are missing every year. Princeton, Bradley, Milwaukee, UNLV, the list goes on. Tulane doesn’t score at will so I’m hoping to see the defense look a lot better

Probably would’ve been 30 if that bottom 5 didn’t crap the bed. That 2 minute stretch was hard to watch😂

Excellent observations.... A few random observations.... The first game was on September 23. That means that Saturday's game...will be almost 2.5 months since the first game. As Zips fans, we have seen great improvement from Thomas O' Rourke and Matthew Paiva during the season. I am sure that St. Louisd has also had many players improve during the season. Since that first game, St. Louis has not lost a single game. Since the first game, the Zips have a record of 7-2-2. The Billikens have a record of 8-0-5. St. Louis has only lost 2 games all year...A regular season game at Indiana and the game at Akron. As we all know, St. Louis avenged their regular season loss to IU with a huge round of 32 road win at IU. as @Zip_ME87 pointed out, SLU is finding ways to not lose. They have not lost in their last 13 games. Against IU in the NCAA round of 32, St. Louis was dominated on the statistical front but they found a way to win. In the tournament game against St. Louis, IU led 16-3 in shots, 3-1 in shots on goal and 8-0 in corner kicks. St. Louis did not have a single corner kick and they were outshot by more than 5 to 1. Yet, St. Louis found a way to win. Again, that first game(St. Louis at Akron) was a lifetime ago....2.5 months. How did the Zips and Billikens do against teams in the NCAA tounament? St. Louis has 4-2-2 record against teams that made the tournament. 1-0 win over eventual 5 seed SMU. 1-0 win over Seton Hall. 1-0 regular season loss to eventual 6 seed Indiana. 0-0 tie against eventual 8 seed Portland. Portland is still alive in the tournament. 3-0 loss at Akron. 2-1 tournament win over Kentucky (Kentucky was regular season Sun Belt champ (league includes Marshall and West Virginia) ; 1-0 win over 6 seed Indiana. 2-2 PK win over 11 seed Bryant (#6 in final RPI). In that PK win, the St. Louis players were absolutely clutch. 4 spectacular, professional penalty kicks. the zips were 4-4-3 against tournament teams. 0-0 tie with WVA ; 4-0 win over W. Michigan ; 1-0 loss at Vermont ; 3-1 home loss to U Conn ; 3-0 win over St. L ; 2-1 home loss to St. John's ; 0-0 tie at Cornell ; 1-1 tie against Seton Hall. 2-1 neutral field loss to UConn; 1-0 win over Notre Dame ; 2-0 win over the Dukies. The Zips were brutally efficient in the first St. Louis game. The zips had 4 shots on goal and scored 3 goals (75% conversion rate). The zips have scored 31 goals and they have had 97 shots on goal. (closer to a 32% conversion rate). Another observation about the first St. Louis game. The Zips earned 147 corner kicks during the year (about 6.7 per game). In the game against St. Louis, the Zips had 1 corner kick. That was the season low for the Zips. During the season, teams committed 212 fouls against the zips (about 9.6 per game). St. Louis only committed 6 fouls against the Zips. Again, that was a season low for a zip opponent. Based on the first game, the Zips are not going to get many dead ball/free kick opportunities. The weather on Saturday is going to be much different than the September 23 game. The September 23 game had a very experienced referee (Chico Grajeda). Who knows...whehter Saturday's referee will be as solid as Chico Grajeda. Saturday is going to be a battle. The Zips should be favored due to being at home and the fact that they are in good form. However, I do not expect an easy 3-0 win. The Zips need to come out ready.......and win this game in Regulation. I am sure that Indiana was very, very confident against St. Louis since they had won during the regular season. The Zips are hungry and they can beat the Billikens two times this year....but it is going to be a knock down battle. Go, ZIPS !!! https://gozips.com/sports/mens-soccer/stats/2025/saint-louis/boxscore/10933

I think this should have been a thirty point win. Bucknell is a good team, but they are missing so many players. Once healthy, I could see them bouncing back and making some noise. Then a 20 point win will look a little better on paper.

I like the 7 we signed too. With the way the roster is currently constructed, bringing in a bunch of freshmen probably doesn’t help us much. Although we may still add a few more, as I’m pretty sure this window stays open through Friday. What really surprises me is how many MAC teams are still taking 20+ freshmen. EMU signed 30-plus players today, and I think most - if not all - of them are freshmen.

Don't forget Murray State.

Listen.... For Groce to leave Akron quite a few dominoes have to fall. Will he be on short lists? Absolutely, he's a known coach with a Big Ten resume. He didn't completely bomb at Illinois. He just wasn't great. Schools looking to stabilize their programs will like Groce (but will he like them). Schools looking for the next Nate Oats will probably be a bit more hesitant. That said, he is not a 'sexy' name meaning it would likely take a NCAA Sweet 16 run to boost his profile. THEN ... it will have to be a job where Groce can see some success. Unless he's looking for a retirement contract (and that's possible) the fit will truly have to be to his liking. As a university, Akron is not the most financially stable, so there is a limit to be factored in here. But all in all, it seems it will take a lot from both sides of the fence to see Groce leaving Akron, even after another successful season.

Don't like seeing things like this though.

When they haven't been forcing turnovers the defense hasn't looked all that great in the half-court. We've been a bit slow in our defensive rotations, which has led to many wide open looks from our opponents. Definitely something we will need to clean up as the season progresses.

This game, Yale, SBC road game are our 3 biggest winnable non conference games. 0-1 so far. Must win if we want an 11 seed

This one is big. Tulane is only 228 NET, but that will rise. They have Akron (42 NET) and UC San Diego (63 NET) as the big challenges left in their OOC. Add those and their AAC schedule (Tulsa, USF, Wichita St, Memphis, FAU, etc.) and this could end up being a Q2 opportunity since it's on the road. They are 8 deep and tall/long although a lot of their scoring production comes from the 6'3"-6'6" portion of their roster. Need to win this to help establish our legitimacy. Cannot be looking ahead to Vegas.

Groce also mentioned that Bucknell was down 2 starters, had 4 guys out and played zone much more than usual. Here's hoping facing the zone helped them work out the kinks to face Tulane who exclusively plays zone.

The Zips head to New Orleans Saturday to face the 6-2 Tulane Green Wave. The Green Wave was chosen to finish 3rd in the AAC preseason poll. Redshirt junior guard Rowan Brumbaugh was chosen as the AAC preseason player of the year. Asher Woods, a senior guard was named to the second team. Brumbaugh leads Tulane at 19.1 ppg and averages 4.5 rpg. Curtis Williams, a 6’6” junior guard and Georgetown transfer is second in scoring at 15 ppg while leading the team in rebounding at 5.8 rpg. Woods averages 11 ppg. On defense the Green Wave plays zone 40 minutes a game. They average 76 points per game.

Groce was not happy with the defense in the post-game. He said if they're going to be great, as opposed to just good, they have to get better on defense.

Poach them all!!!

Onto the next one

That's kid's commitment is the kind that that allowed us to kick Putin's butt out of Ukraine. What? We didn't do anything but watch? He's still there? Never mind....

Mission accomplished.

Brisco is in.

Rich Brisco sighting.

I like the zippy inflatable. It's a nice touch.

This lineup in rn is a potential starting lineup in a year or 2 with how young they all are

Reghi makes a good point about Lyles in that he only averaged 2 points a game as a sophmore and is now averaging 14 points per game with back to back 20 point games. However, you can also make the same argument about Tevari and Scott. These 3 guysl have really improved their game in year 3. Give them credit and give Groce credit.

Great steal by Barre, up ahead to Scott, lob off the glass and a slam by Barre. Beautiful.