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Sounds like the extent of the vetting we do when we hire a football coach.

Hard to fault him when he was constantly misused and out of position. I don't think Groce will be leaving his 7 footers on an island at the 3 pt line, in harm's way of a moving screen violation with a mile to run back to the hoop for the "roll" part of a pick & roll. _________________________________________________________________________ A few things I'm looking at... 1. Movement - How's the ball movement? - How's the off-the-ball movement? - Last year, we were very stagnant. It never quite came together on offense. 2. The Bigs - Are Aziz & Sekou up to higher-level DI snuff? - Does Enrique take a step back or continue being one of the best stories in Akron basketball history? - Are we disciplined down low and able to avoid unnecessary fouls? - Will we get offense from the post or are our Bigs mostly assets on the defensive side of the ball? 3. New Faces in the Backcourt - Is XC the perfect replacement for LCJ? - Does Clarke look ready to step up and be the floor general after learning from LCJ for a year? 4. Shooting - Who are our shooters this year, aside from Trimble? - Are we going to settle for 3s, or will the offense be more opportunistic with aggressive drives and kick-outs if needed? 5. The True Frosh - Will we get anything out of Kobe Mitchell & Nate Johnson early in the season? 6. Development - Ali Ali took a nice step in the right direction from 2019/20 to 2020/21. Does he take another step? - Do we see similar developmental leaps from the likes of Wynn, Tribble, and Dawson? Ali, Wynn, Tribble, and Dawson are crucial to our matchup advantages, as they are 4 athletic guards/forwards with the ability to create mismatches on offense, and shutdown athletic opponents. Ali was a nice surprise on defense his true freshman year, and took a surprising leap on the offensive side of the ball for his true sophomore year. I'd like to see the same from Wynn, Tribble, and Dawson, who have all been assets on defense, but more on the liability side on offense. _________________________________________________________________________ Time will tell if this statement holds true, but I believe the COVID situation has been a positive for this program aside from killing our potential MAC Title & NCAA run in 2020 (that team was so incredibly special). With last year not counting against a player's eligibility, our class numbers look like this... Senior(s)/Grad Student(s): 1 Junior(s): 3 Sophomore(s): 4 Freshmen: 7 (I believe 2 are walk-ons) Talk about an opportunity to build something special, with 9 key players being underclassmen, with 5 of those underclassmen having at least 1 year of significant DI experience (Aziz had about half a season, but I did not count him in that 5). Let's Go Zips!

I get that he is a cheerleader, read my first sentence. The post was meant to second the overall notion that the show is a waste of time if there isn’t even a smidgen of honest analysis. I’m not advocating that any player be criticized for a poor performance either. But if there is nothing good to say, then don’t say it. I think he has that level of input. Regardless, I agree, Joe Dunn isn’t Mike Wallace ….nor the issue at hand.

I don't have nearly as much to add as @Let'sGoZips94 , but... Xavier Castaneda - starting PG? Suitable replacement for LCJ. Floor general? Garvin Clarke - has his game taken a step forward? Improved outside shot? Solid backup PG? Did he benefit from playing for the Bahamas national team this summer? Greg Tribble - will he be anything more than an athletic defensive specialist who gives us one spectacular play per game? Has his ball handling and outside shot improved at all? Ali Ali - IMO it all comes down to personal confidence with Ali. Is Ali more confident? Is his body language more dominant? Does he morph into an alpa? Enrique Freeman - Does he continue to be one of the better bigs in the nation, or do the addition of Kalle and Bandaogo cause him to take a step back this season? Bandaogo and Kalle - simply curious with these two. Any legit added benefit on the offensive side would be a huge plus. Mikal Dawson - Does he become a little more consistent with his 3-point shot & morph into one of the better players in the MAC? Kobe Mitchell & Nate Johnson - I think Johnson is hurt & hasn't practiced much. Curious to see if Kobe gets much PT & how he adjusts to D-1 ball coming from such a small high school. K.J. Walton - To be honest I don't remember much from him at Ball State so I'm just curious to see what we've got here. He was a 4-star prospect coming out of high school. Michael Wynn - has his offensive game improved at all? Does it flow more naturally? To me last year it looked like he thought too much on the offensive end (Ali too). Can he (and Ali) get out of their own heads and just have fun playing ball? Bryan Trimble - I think we know what we've got here. I'm going: PG - X Clarke W - Walton Dawson W - Trimble Wynn P - Ali Kalle P - Freeman Bandaogo

Regarding local interest - Assuming the season plays on as expected, in the 4 year stretch of November 15th 2017 through November 15th 2021, the Zips will have won exactly 1 home game against a non-FCS team in front of paying InfoCision fans (CMU 17-10 in 2018). Tough to draw a local crowd when you lose to your peer-programs, at home, 90+% of the time. We used to have tailgate parties of 10-16 people with regularity. It's typically me and my wife now-a-days...until about the 3rd quarter...then it's back up Route 8. Every...single...week...the Zips are Marvis Frazier, and the opponent is Larry Holmes.

https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/weekend-preview:-title-deciders_aid50089 Saturday, October 30 No. 20 Akron (9-3-3) at Northern Illinois (11-1-2), 3 p.m. (ESPN+) Five of the seven teams will feel that they are in contention for a MAC regular season title, but if NIU can put Akron away on Saturday, it shrinks the field. Akron’s playing very well of late, scoring nine times in the past two games. Jason Shokalook and Jonny Fitzgerald have been playing well in the final third for Akron. Stopping the Markanich brothers and coping with the away trip are critical for Akron, which is in a good spot for an at-large bid even if they miss out on finishing first in the MAC. Nick Markanich is one of the nation’s top scorers with 13 tallies on the year, and he’ll look to power the home side to the win.

Why do you keep saying what do you know? Not much, go where the ball goes is pee wee, defensively everyone in the box has gap responsibility first, it’s why we have RPO’s in the first place. Easy to destroy a non disciplined defense. That’s Run, Pass, option, handoff or keep by how the DE reacts, handoff or pass does the LB bite & hit the slant. Everyone does it now. Sorry, not trying to be a jerk, but I am extremely frustrated with where we are. I’m a local that has been involved in sports in Akron area for years. I knew many players during the Bowden era from the area. There isn’t much local talent on the team anymore. Not that anyone cares about me but even though I’m a 94 grad I never went to a game until local kids that I coached or coached against started playing there. I started tailgating and bringing a lot of people cause locals had some interest because they knew some players and we were at least getting better & competing. It was fun, currently it’s not much fun because we don’t have the locals & we don’t compete. What happened to the local track ref guy that also use to give opinion on recruits from what he has scene on the track? Is it cause we are not recruiting local? I really thought that was why we hired him because of his NEO roots and coaches will respect him & he will be able to recruit the area. Only thing he has done is recruit big o lineman from Ed’s & Iggy that no one else will offer. Got one from Hoban that hopefully can contribute but he fell to us because of a junior year injury and no one else offered. I’m not defending Bowden as I have said he seem to be fine with just competing & not taking the next step but he seem to get portal talent to stay competitive, plus his college connections, we brought in some questionable characters but he seemed to manage & sprinkled some good local talent but did nothing to market. Was terrible social media guy. Now we have a social media guy who can’t recruit or coach. Can we please get a complete package coach and watch some good football with a few of the better local talent. I’ve only been on board for about the last 10 years but I’m on the verge of moving on. Sorry for rant, just frustrating watching us play at this level

Loren Christian Johnson... Mike Groce... Jim Groce... These announcers are in preseason form.

Clark just remember most of those stars are hyped up. Seen plenty of 2.3 and 4 stars that should be no stars. In my lifetime I have seen it all.

Great post, @Let'sGoZips94 !!! All very well said. My eyes will be glued to everything, but the two factors I will be paying the most attention to are Castaneda and Aziz. Ever since Aziz made it onto campus last year, Groce's eyes would light up whenever he was asked about him. I wish he would have been able to contribute more last year as a rim protector, that would have helped that group a lot. Now with a proper offseason program, I am pumped to see what he can do for this program. As far as XC goes, he will need to contribute as a scorer filling in for all of the offense that LCJ took with him. That's not to say he needs to average 20+ points, as he can be better about getting his teammates involved in the offense to a point of increased production. However, the Akron offense of the last two seasons has been guard dominated, and hopefully he can maintain the perimeter threat in addition to getting Trimble and Ali good looks. Hopefully one other shooter can step up as well. I'm just excited. Aziz, XC, KJ Walton, maybe one of the freshmen. There's a lot of new faces and old faces I'm very excited about. Even though this one doesn't technically count, it still feels like Christmas day to me! Time to finish what we started 2 years ago! GO ZIPS!!!

Your wife must be an angel.

Current article on Huggs. He remembers his Akron coaching days. https://wvusports.com/news/2021/10/28/blog-wvus-huggins-recalls-akron-coaching-days.aspx

I know what you meant but punishing the current starters won't accomplish anything. Do you honestly think these guys like losing? They want nothing more than to win but not for you or me or anyone else. They want to win for themselves. I for one will continue to support whomever the coaches feel gives this team the best shot to succeed. That's all we can do at this point.

Absolutely..... After watching the show, this is 24 minutes of my life that I will never get back.

It is at 3 pm ET as stated on GoZips.com. ET = Eastern Time https://gozips.com/sports/mens-soccer/schedule NIU website shows 2 pm as in 2 pm local ... CT. https://niuhuskies.com/sports/mens-soccer/schedule

Perhaps the Akron schedule makers are afraid of the Geoducks. Although they did not play last season due to COVID, in 2019/20 they recorded a 3 and 23 record. Plus. their current roster includes two big men, both measuring in at 6'5". If we do decide to schedule them in the future PLEASE make sure it is a home game because anyone who enjoys fantastic scenery will never come back to Akron after they have been to the Olympia area.

Bigger question. Why haven't we scheduled Evergreen State?

Looking forward to it.

This I actually understand. Irons, with his mobility, was sacked 12 times. I don’t know if Gibson would have survived, and I think that’s why he was pulled.

I know you know that you really post these game threads to you know eek more predictions out of the Meister. So here you know you go. Zips by 14. Akron sets new team record for longest field goal you know made. Football Grandma you know rushes the field and cold cocks a ref for a bad call against the Zips (Arth you know immediately offers her a scholarship).

Akron has gone 3-22 since Bowden was fired. Bowden has a team that was 0-10 in 2020 sitting at 4-3, with two impressive back to back wins. Things went south for Bowden when the AD and the university president changed. We know that he was told he had to stop recruiting from the south, or at least decrease it. What else happened that led to that massive shift in trajectory? It won't do Akron any good to fire Arth if they don't get serious about football in general. Maybe with Williams gone things are better, but there has to be commitment.

Again, every picture tells a story. Whoever is in charge of the Twitter account needs to figure out a better way to announce the next game than with pictures like that, although I realize they have little to work with.