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Hawkins is in the mid-major coaching sweet spot. Good enough to hang on as the university doesn't want to be paying two coaches but not good enough to move on to a bigger job. See, e.g. Mr. Pinky.

See, you take all of my comments as shots at KD. Some of them are, some of them are strictly comparisons. This is the thread for thoughts on the season that just ended. Some of the board members have a positive, optimistic outlook after the season. Others believe it was quite a disappointing season. Our most recent history has been used to come to both conclusions. Zip44 insinuated that nobody can duplicate what Dambrot accomplished during his time here. I simply used Buffalo's current run as a rebuttal. I find it funny that arguably the best marketing slogan during Dambrot's time at Akron was "Think Bigger" yet I and others are constantly ridiculed for thinking bigger.

I never said this team was better than the past two years I said they were playing their best basketball at the end of the year unlike the last two. Last year 2-3 to end the regular season (after being 22-4), 2016 3-2 (after being 21-5) and both years losing as higher seeds in the tournament. Is that playing their best? Anyone watching this year knows they were playing their best at the end. Don’t let basketball knowledge get in the way.

If I am not mistaken, Manziel is playing in this league, so I'm sure the people that matter will be paying a lot closer attention than normal. Hopefully Jamal has recovered fully from his injury and can make the most of it. He is an NFL talent.

RPI isn't used anymore and 25 wins is a menaingless number without context on who made up the 25 wins. The MAC hasn't deserved an at-large since 1998.

He was a grad transfer like Malcolm was for us. His transferring out really hurt our team. We could have had an electric, experienced veteran running the PG spot & it would have enabled Malcolm to play off the ball at a more natural 2G spot. That would have made a world of difference, IMHO.

I feel for him.

It was nice to see the team playing it’s best basketball the last few weeks of the season. The last couple years our teams have been much better overall but didn’t finish strong, so that is a positive for this team. In the MAC that is the most important thing since we are a one-bid league and that’s what we should expect from a Grose team.

Back to my often made point. You can appreciate all KD did AND appreciate what Groce is doing and support the effort. They needn't be mutually exclusive positions.

I had this thought when I saw Antino not getting to the NCAA his senior year. Antino had a great game and led his team in scoring and always played his best basketball in the MAC tournament.. The Zips need players who are going to play their best basketball at the end of the season. I thought Utomi, Cotton, Parish, and Patten were playing their best basketball at the end of the season. That bodes well for the future.

How Hawkins still has a job is beyond me.

I actually found that data doing a quick search to confirm that this indeed will be Buffalo's third trip to the NCAAs in the last four seasons. It was sitting on the Wikipedia page. I'm not sure what other factors you want to look at. Just thought it was interesting that they seem to be more competitive on that stage than we were during our great run. A jab a Dambrot? Maybe. But hey, facts are facts, right? What's wrong about comparing this particular team against themselves, to previous years against themselves? If this team, with its decimated roster and all, was playing its best basketball at the end of the season, and previous teams weren't playing their best basketball at the end of the season, wouldn't that suggest that this team had a stronger finish? I'm not saying this team would beat those teams, but this team was playing its best basketball in the final month or so of the season. That's a fact.

To get back on track, since this is a 17-18 thread, and the comment starting this was we were playing our best basketball to end the year.. I think anyone that actually watched the games would agree that was the case. You could make an argument that our best ball was perhaps leading up to halftime of the USC game, but we also had E and Sayles. I'm encouraged by the progress and fight we saw from such a shorthanded team.

This is obviously getting into semantics but citing your last ten as how you finished is going back pretty far in my opinion.. that's over half of your league games.

You can do a lot with numbers. You cite a 2-3 finish in 16-17 - odd that you cut off the 3 straight wins before that, but I guess 5-3 doesn't sound as bad. Citing 3-2 in 15-16, but I guess them winning 7 out of their last 10 doesn't sound as bad. Don't let your obvious bias get in the way.

You're living in fantasy land if you think any MAC AD or the MAC commissioner has power to persuade the tournament selection committee into makingthe MAC a 2 bid league.

"Traitor"?

+1

I want in the American Conference

Buffalo is making their 3rd NCAA tournament appearance in 4 years. It's being duplicated and possibly bested right before our eyes. Side note: both of their previous appearances were single digit losses. Still losses, but much more competitive on that stage.

Dambrot takes Akron to the MAC Championship game 7 years in a row, 9 of 11 years. wins championship 3 times. 2007 loses to Miami on 2 missed foul shots & a prayer 45’ of the board buzzer beater 2016 loses to Buffalo on 25 footer Remember Abreu would have been reinststed ,but got busted again, Treadwell was kicked off team & Forsight tapped out at end of year. Big Dog got over worked. Still in position to win. that team w/ all the firepower in tact was a sweet sixteen team or better 2017 best record in Akron history - lose to Kent because Walker was unstoppable. This year he is a bust. 9 championship games out of 11 3 tourney champs. Without some bad look could have been 6. you really believe anyone can duplicate that? He brought in some great players, made us proud to be a Zip, gave us great excitement & he loved Akron. He was & still is one of us. Give him his due credit, quit bad mouthing him & move on.

I think you and maybe some others here don't appreciate how hard it was to do what Akron did over the past 13 years. Saying they had success because the MAC wasn't strong, that a loss to Ohio State was "inexcusable", seemingly suggesting players didn't play hard. I think you are giving breaks to Groce that you did not afford to KD. Some of that is absolutely warranted, but trying to say this team finished strong and the past few year's teams haven't is a real stretch. This season ended with our 2nd-to-last in the conference team blowing a 20 point lead to Eastern Michigan, which was followed by a press conference in which Groce chose to openly question his 's attitude. I don't know how in the world that is finishing strong. I like Groce. I think he'll do well here. I've said before that I think he'll get s a tourney win. But it doesn't mean we have to play down past achievements or play up current ones, which I respectfully believe you are doing here.

You are so right. Let’s talk a bigger issue: A few years ago UA had a real chance at bigger conference. The UA board had a chance to hire Jim Tressel. They balked because he wanted 5 yr contract & they only offered 3. He wanted the job. He believed Akron belonged in bigger conf for our athletic survival & he would have taken us there. He would have brought instant credibility & reached out to the Community & raised the required funding & support. As evidence look at what he raised for Youngstown State a D2 school. Look at the meeting & school visits he has made to raise funding & enrollment. With Tressel as president, Dambrot stays & we get the funding & the JAR would have been renovated, eventually even a new arena, bigger conference, better talent & multiple NCAA at large bids. Sadly our past & current board & 2 Presidents did not & do not really believe strongly enough in the importance of athletics. The President & AD want to leave this ship. The big donors have seen all this & have pulled their funding. Why do you think the JAR’s major renovation has not yet started. We got a facelift paint job & a badly needed scoreboard. Don’t expect any major renovations this off season. No funding. Can’t build a consistent winner when the successful coaches leave & we have to strike gold each time to continue that success. Look at UA past: Webb, Huggins, Dambrot. After their departure- immediate drop off & insignificance. The leadership- board & President - have to change their ways & realize the importance that athletics bring to the success of the entire school. Sad to say, until then, we are stuck in mediocrity.

Graduate transfer.

As I recall, there are 32 D1 basketball conferences. That means 32 of 347 teams, less than one in ten, end their regular season or conference tournament on a high note with a conference championship. Those numbers suggest that Zips fans have been spoiled and that the Zips haven't really underperformed.

Charlie Batch was the EMU QB at the first Zips' game I really remember going to (my dad took me to a few when I was a little kid). It was Lee Owen's first year as Zips' head football coach. Lew Lawton (IIRC) ran back the opening kickoff for the Zips. I remember thinking what a gorgeous pass Charlie Batch threw. He was so smooth.

Since you want to ignore the obvious, and want to continue this narrative, let me add a couple more things to what UAZip0510 said earlier. 2015 - An unbelievable 3-wins-in-4-nights streak to get us to the MAC Semifinal, with a roster so decimated that we were unable to accept a postseason bid. 2016 - Advance all the way to the MAC Final 2017 - Advance all the way to the MAC Final 2018 - Eliminated in the MAC Quarterfinal. Our earliest exit from the MAC tournament since 2005. It's inexplicable to me how a few of you continue to insist that we all should all be applauding this last-place season, while simultaneously manufacturing numerous false and disparaging comments to characterize the highly-successful previous seasons. The facts are sitting right in your face, and you choose to ignore them. Why? Did Keith pee in your cereal or something?

We haven't made the NCAA tournament since 2013. The comment regarding finishing strong is very true, as the team this year was playing its best basketball at the end, despite the W/L record not exactly reflecting that. Clearly we haven't finished strong the previous 4 seasons because those rosters - more complete - should have won the MAC at least once. Quite frankly, the end-of-season basketball that was played the previous 4 seasons was uninspiring. The difference in the W/L record is strictly roster-based, and that will change next year I presume.

Please don't point out the facts, and mess up someone's ridiculous misconception.

To NWAkron: everyone has a right to their opinion. Show some respect & quit displaying your bullying tendencies.

You do realize that Dambrot was FORCED by the admin. to do something about Treadwell? He argued vehemently against it. He also argued against throwing the Puerto Rican drug trafficker off the team, so there's no place for throwing rocks here. Groce was hardly clean in Athens - he brought in a couple of very questionable people who played key roles in his post-season success. And part of his problem at Illinois was a repeated string of off-court issues among players in the first 2-3 years.

Wanted to bump this - Spring ball is 10 days away and all practices are open for our wonderful fans who'd like to go and report back their observations

The '18-19 signing period is April 11 - May 16 so we should know a lot within a month's time.

I sure hope KD reported that to the NCAA. If you're cheating and can't win the MAC, you're not very good at cheating.

Really glad he's staying-- UA does not need any more churn. It was definitely disappointing that he was looking to jump so soon, but his explanation of wanting to be back in Orlando made sense. However, I do hope he refrains from tossing his hat in the ring for any other positions for the next 2-3 years. UA needs that time for the 'scar' to heal...