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Anyone thinking Zips’ victory will come easily on Saturday is very foolish. Long-time Zips faithful have been to this stage of the tournament many times. These contests are frequently decided in either OT or PKs. Remember vs. California in 2010? Remember vs. Creighton in 2012? Remember vs. Creighton in 2015? Defeating a quality tournament opponent requires squad cohesion, maximum effort, and near flawless execution. And a little luck also helps.

Pay wall! 😩

The good news is most zones are mid game adjustments by the opponent, not necessarily their identity. The Zips have several days to fully prepare which should help. Just read Tulane's board. They want their coach fired yesterday. Here's to hoping we can help get that wish to the finish line! Apparently their coach is Ron Hunter. He's an Ohio native who played 4 years at Miami OH in the 80s.

Someone tell Mr. UCLA that. 1 guy in their entire 9 man rotation is from Indiana, and he's their 8th best scorer. Also, relying on Ohio Bobcat rejects like Elmore James IV to be key contributors probably isn't the best roster building strategy. They're not particularly tall and they don't shoot the ball very well. Not a great recipe for success.

Tons of tickets left currently!

Great article by Michael Beaven on our recruiting class. Insight into how we signed Semaj & mentions JoeMo aiming to bring in a TP or JUCO QB to compete for the starting job next season.

It will be interesting to see how the Zips handle the Tulane match up zone. The Zips often seem to have trouble in initially adjusting to a zone. The Tulane zone is different than what they've faced. I hope they can adjust quickly to it rather than get off to a slow start.

Ball State is so weird. Their first year with Lewis they were a solid team pushing to be a top seed, then they lose the last 3 games of the year, get a 4 seed and bow out on Thursday in Cleveland. The next year they lost almost everyone and didn't make it to Cleveland. Year 3 they get Payton Sparks back and they have the same record as the year prior. Just so weird. Just being in Indiana you think they'd be better as basketball

Also, important to note is that for the September 23 match, Saint Louis was on the 2nd game of a road trip during which they played at Duquesne a few days before so they had been on the road for several days leading up to the match.

4pm tip. Freeze your butt off at soccer at 1, drive home to watch some hoops under 3 blankets at 4. Sounds like a great saturday

Well, then, by all means educate us! I call BS.

It's surprising Ball State isn't better. I know they are a middle to above average MAC team most years, but one would expect they should be one of the better ones. They play in a region of the country where high school and college basketball is a big deal and the last I looked I thought they drew decent crowds in Muncie so the fan support is there.

One of my favorite zips, good luck to him.

Bowling Green has surpassed Ohio State for the #2 team in Ohio NET wise. UMass has cracked the top 200, giving the MAC 8 top 200 teams. The next closed to UMass (196) is Ohio at 262. WMU, CMU, NIU, and Balls bring up the rear (Balls lost to Evansville and dropped to 346 out of 365).

I went into this season assuming it's his last one here. If he's going to leave, it'll be this offseason imo since this should be our best year. Hoping he just wants to stay for the long haul and turn us into a real mid major power though. It's possible, he was on the verge at OU with a sweet sixteen run and Caris Levert committed..

i would guess building for the future... hoping that it pays off in a year or two.. 20+ freshman is crazy though. I saw that Akron actually signed more freshman than Penn State probably will never say those words again. I hope it pans out for the Zips. Now all they can do is every year just hope to patch holes with the transfer portal same as every other team but with way less to offer. Todays freshman that go into the major college programs and start are true studs... Maryland started two edge rushers and their qb that were all true freshman and I think I saw they played a total of seven as regulars watch out for them in two years. This year, Zips played McManus and I think that is it. He definitely held his own. I bet he is a stud next season. I know Boswell started but he was a prep player before, Davis got a few snaps at safety and Sivon got a few snaps at wr but thats it. Hopefully the freshman learned and are ready to contribute next year for us.

I was really concerned for @NWAkron when they rolled out the new t-shirt cannon. He was safe because they clearly didn't practice with their new toy. But after a few more games....

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.