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Just popped over to say that was a fun game to watch. Exciting final 10 minutes. Definitely felt like a MAC tourney game. Freeman is an easy kid to root for as an opponent. Had some really very friendly Akron fans sitting around me and my wife. Should be a fun one in Athens. Hopefully with full rosters next time. Good luck and stay healthy!

What a damn ball game. I would have been a lot more upset losing a game like this a few years ago, but I try to keep cool now. Groce hit the nail on the head. They outplayed Akron tonight. Plain and simple. That would have been an all-timer of a stolen win had Akron come out on top, that’s for sure. With that said, it was great to see the fight from UA because it felt really hopeless at about 53-39. The Zips played tougher than them down the stretch to tie it up with 2 minutes to go and the Zips didn’t score again. I wasn’t a fan of any of those possessions down the stretch either. They played their scouting report on the Akron bugs to a T for the first 30 minutes then Freeman started to loosen up and figure it out a bit. Also fitting that as soon as Clarke plays his best game as a Zip on Saturday he turns his ankle in that one and wasn’t very good today, especially on defense. Dawson was a tremendous glue guy again and played very well outside of the dumb blocked three, he just got beat on the layup by Sears at the end. Total BS that Trimble couldn’t play tonight, but that’s above our pay grade. Fun game between the teams and coaches. It was nice to have the arena come to life the last 6 minutes or so. On to (maybe) Miami Saturday, which will be no easy feat. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Trust the process. Go Zips!

FAR too many years of #ZippersDown !!!

Also keep in mind all these colleges have a ton of offers out there. They may have 5 WR offers out but only 2 WR spots & depending on who they get to commit they pull offers and players don’t announce that info as the more offers the better you look but it’s possible at this point the options where no longer available

In no way have I ever downplayed Dambrot's accomplishments and trips to the final and championships in any way. I simply found the end of it to be embarrassing to have by far the best team for the last two years yet be completely out-toughed and out-classed by far inferior coaches, teams, and programs in back to back seasons, with the second coming to Senderoff of all coaches. And my view of that whole situation would be far different had KD not walked off the court without having the fortitude to shake Pinky's hand after the game. That was about as pathetic an act I have ever seen from a coach in this athletic department, and I still get to hear about it from my friends who are Kent people. In no way is that discounting his success he had at Akron, it was simply very disappointing to see from a coach that is the most AKRON person to ever coach at the school. With that said, Akron was not the same program it was in 2017 as it was in 2013. Josh Williams and Noah Robotham were transferring whether KD was going to leave or not. That is a problem that has now followed him to Duquesne. As for Groce? He took over a completely gutted program and has made it about values that I consider to be more favorable, but it's just flat out different and that has appeal in my eyes. There is no ego allowed. You must practice hard. You must take care of yourself. You must play defense. We may not have a Tree, but we also don't have a Harney. KD could develop a player better than most MAC coaches I have ever seen, but coaching isn't so much about that any more as it was ten years ago. Groce recruits a lot better than he develops, again the opposite of Dambrot, but the best MAC teams now are the ones that recruit, not necessarily the ones that develop the best players for 4 years. It is a discussion of nuance. I can love Dambrot and be thankful for what he did her while also pointing out his deficiencies. I love Groce and love what he's got going, but unfortunately it did take 3 seasons to meet expectations and I do think they could be better than they are. Like @Captain Kangaroo has said before, this situation has worked out pretty well for all sides thus far. Duquesne is a better, still not great A10 program, Akron is still a great MAC program, and both coaches seem to be happy.

Dambrot made it to 7 straight MAC championships. It seems a bit of an exaggeration to say he wasn't equipped for the MAC. Now to say he isn't equipped for the A10 is a very fair statement. I feel Dambrot is quickly realizing that at-large bids are given to teams, not conferences. You still have to put a talented enough roster on the court to get resume building wins. Without those it's actually more challenging to make the tournament in the A10 compared to the MAC as its easier to beat an Ohio, Buffalo, Toledo in the conference tournament to secure the auto-bid than it is to beat St Louis, VCU, Dayton. I have no ill will against Dambrot and am overall pleased we managed to get Groce. Without Groce this program could have turned south quick. This is now year 5 of Groce. If you're going to criticize Dambrot for making it to 9 MAC finals (winning 3) in his 13 years as head coach, you need to start considering criticizing Groce for having yet to make it to a Saturday in Cleveland. Edit: To clarify this post isn't meant to be anti-Groce. I just think the downplaying of Dambrot era is unwell. The only reason Akron had expectations was he built the basketball program have them.

Please note the gross error in the second and third paragraphs. It was there when he posted the story last night and remains today. I know George doesn't proof his own copy -- his errors are legendary -- but shouldn't someone else on their sports desk do a cleanup after the fact? As John Knight was known to exclaim, "Who the hell edits this newspaper?!"

Did KD clean house or did the team abandon ship?

I think that's also a factor in why you don't see a lot of schools like Akron having big early signing days in December. The top and schools are all doing the math of reducing 5 to 2 and the remaining talent then flows down.

This thread is dedicated to recruiting service "stars." It was created because this topic historically diverts interesting discussions within other threads. In this case I think all members would like to see the 2022 Zips Recruit Commitment Thread exclusive to player announcements and links + member comments regarding their bios.

I thank you guys for your posts regarding the importance of recruiting Stars. I have been beaten up on Zips Nation for years for saying that Stars matter. There will be a post showing 5 players over a 15 year period in which Stars do not correlate to success. Stars are not 100% perfect, but the teams with the most Star players typically win. It is mostly about talent. When talent is close to equal, then coaching matters. I went back and did a quick comparison (not 100% accurate) of the last 5 years of recruits of all of the teams that the Zips played this year. The Zips had fewer Stars of most of the teams, except Bryant, and BGSU was close. Who did we beat? The bottom line is that talent (Stars) wins. It looks like JoeMo is going after talent. That pursuit will quickly result in Wins. In Joe We Trust!!!

He's shooting 36.1% from 3. That's still above average. If he was a MAC team, Trimble would be 3rd in the MAC in 3P%. He had a pretty abysmal performance down in Florida, like several other Zips. You take those games out and he's shooting a pretty elite 40% from 3 with his 1/6 performance game against OSU being his only other clunker.

The best player in his Duquesne era is now the best player for his buddy Pinky over in Streetsboro, whose hand he refused to shake after Pinky embarrassed him in the 2017 title game, effectively putting the stake through the heart of Akron basketball as we all knew it. Look, I love KD and I hope he's successful at Doo-Cane, but I just don't see it ever working. And I'm not upset that he's not at Akron anymore and I don't necessarily miss him. It just became too much about excuses and failed expectations at the end. Groce is kind of like the Bizarro KD and I'm loving it. He seems far better equipped to coach in this environment of college basketball. To loop this back into more of a UA-related convo, Groce's transfers have largely either transferred down and succeeded or transferred laterally and done little. Utomi is the exception, though he was a KD recruit and ultimately did for USC what he came here to do. Like I've said, Jermaine Marshall is the only Zip I've been bummed to see move on, and I can live with that.

Getting Trimble back will be huge. He's the component which really opens up our offense.

I don’t at all like the idea of scheduling this rivalry game while the students are on break.

As someone posted that Tavian Dunn Martin is out Florida Gulf Coast I wanted to do a quick check to see where former Zips scholarship players are at and how they are faring: TDM - at Florida Gulf Coast had 34 points in his first game followed by 9 vs USC Camron Reece - Originally announced as a transfer to Pacific but then ended up at NAIA Talladega College which doesn't have a good site for box scores or stats but they are 6-0 Tre Edwards is at UMBC and did not get into the first 2 games Jermaine Marshall is at Samford averaging 12 points and 7 rebounds on 50% shooting in 3 games Taylor Currie is at D2 Harding College averaging 20 points and 7.5 boards on 53% shooting through 2 games Jaden Sayles is at Stony Brook and they have only played 1 game where he played 10 minutes off the bench without scoring or a rebound

6'1" CB. Offers from UNLV, Buffalo, Colorado State, and UMASS. 6'0" DB. Offers from Eastern Illinois (makes sense given the recent coaching hire from here), Grambling State (Hue Jackson), Nevada, Texas State, and NMSU. 6'4" 270-300 lbs OT out of Ben Davis HS in Indy. Big time offer list. Balls, Boston College, Cincy, Indiana, Kentucky, Purdue, Toledo, and WVU.

If we didn't fill InfoCision for that first-ever game against Morgan State, what picture would we use for marketing the football program?

I was just excited to see the signing and commented that he was highly rated. I am simply pleased with the initial returns, didn't intend to get in to a "stars" debate.

Lol, i didn’t start this does stars matter discussion & I didn’t mean start a backlash either. Stars at that upper level is critical as those high level players have been to the shoe companies camps and have good film and being promoted Not every kid goes to shoe camps and get the 40’s, height weight in the system. When they start getting recruited or make all state they will slap a 2 star or 3 star on the kid based on Hudl film. A lot of really good college football players are kids who have been busting their butts trying to play college basketball. A lot of lineman are 6-6 guys that dominate basketball & find out if you can’t dribble, shoot 3’s & jump out of the building your career is over with colleges giving 3 scholarships a year for basketball & 25 for football. I know of a few local kids that this happened to and went on to Michigan, Michigan State & Pitt that had bball dreams until late in high school. My point until we raise are game to higher levels we need to find some diamonds. It looks like based on JoeMo’s experience and connections he has been able to raise it but you always have some risk with portal players as for whatever reason it didn’t work out where they where if there coming to Akron, hopefully it’s just they overreached and they just want to play I apologize as I was certainly not trying to question your comment on rankings but more that I was excited he was a #2 TE at a big time program at WVU, that he had the measurable’s your looking for in a TE and had some good college film. To me that translates to me more than stars

We suffered through 2.5 years of the Turnover Pencil. #ZipEmUp is an improvement.

Script Akron or the Z... .... Lets not use the "#ZipEmUP"

He looks really tough to catch in the pocket. Look at the moves/scrambles starting around the :43 mark Dijon Jenning Sr. Highlights

Looks like we beat out Ball State, Buffalo, EMU, and Kentucky for his services 💪💪

Dijon Jennings lists a 3.6 GPA on his Twitter account. I like that. http://www.hudl.com/v/2GNkVR

I just watched his highlight tape. WOW! He is looks good and very shifty in the pocket and running.

On Jennings and recruiting in general: When evaluating MAC recruiting, I think the best thing to look at is what kind of interest the player has from different coaching staffs. I can't recall many Arth recruits with many MAC offers, let alone FBS, sometimes even Division 1 offers. I've never seen Akron beat out UMass and UT-Chat. for so many players in my life. I get building a program with your kind of players, but it gets to a point where you have to realize you're not competing with other schools in the conference for recruits for a reason. Following football, let alone recruiting, in this league requires much different expectations than following a P5. There is so much recruiting coverage of those schools that its honestly nauseating. There aren't dozens of article analyzing what high school Jrs. and Srs. are doing so you have to dig a bit to see who wants a player, and it's great to see P5 transfers AND sought-after high schoolers being targeted and picked up by the Zips. Signing day can't get here soon enough!

When looking for low-stars diamonds in the rough one is more likely to discover cubic zirconium.

Yes, and the salaries we were paying our assistants under Arth seemed to be pretty inline with what other MAC assistants were making. It just seemed he went out and brought in his cronies instead of bringing in experienced assistants, which he needed as he was new to FBS. I suppose Moorhead is doing the same in bringing in people he knows. He just has way better connections lol

Let's end this convo on stars vs. no stars. I think we can all agree the more highly ranked players you get the more likely that will equal success. Also, as a MAC school you are going to have to find hidden gems (no star players) here and there to continue that success. The best teams year in and year out in our conference do both. There are obvious times when higher star players bust but the probability will be less that they're not a serviceable player. You cannot hope to have a full recruiting class full of low rated recruits and hope that they're all hidden gems. You'll find a few but the rest of the roster will more than likely be outmatched most games. We've all seen that first hand these past few years. We have some really good talented hidden gems surrounded by a lot of average to below average players. Now let's all continue to support this new staff and football team because there is a lot to be excited about. We'll be getting a lot of news next couple weeks on incoming players and I know I am extremely pumped to see us fill out this roster.

I wouldn't categorize myself as a "stars don't matter" fan, more like "as an Akron fan, I don't care about stars." I remember attending a Lee Owens presser, where he was telling us how highly rated Thomas Plummer was. I can't remember how many stars he had, more than Chase Blackburn that same year. After this happened over, and over, and over again in Akron classes, I stopped paying attention to stars. I'll trust that coach Moorhead knows the best type of player that can win at Akron, regardless of stars.

Bowser was a beast and so fun to watch. It's a shame that he and his family both ruined things for him.

Where is that old poll about how many NCAA tournament games KD would win after he left Akron? Where are they now? Jawanza continued to ascend after that senior season.

You guys better watch out; you are going to bring the "stars don't matter" folks out of the wood work with all kinds of exceptions to the rule. An interesting survey, just to gauge the feeling of the zips nation room, would call for a simple yes/no answer to the question "in college football are stars and talent positively related?" My guess would be "yes" will win.

Very good college basketball game. I love a good comeback. Too bad the Zips fell short. My only complaint is I don't feel like the Zips gave themselves many options on their last 2-3 trips on offense. I like options. Maybe I just don't like the way college basketball is turning into the NBA. The NBA is awesome if you have NBA level talent.

Great game to watch with friends, who are becoming Zips fans. Let me thank my bartender for the Honolulu Cider Co. Guava Lava. 😃 Boals had the game plan to beat Akron early -- why are we so slow to get unhinged? OU is built for the tournament and can make a run with those shooters. Sometimes it seems like Ali x2 looks better when he's just a little out-of-control. If he's not the Most Improved Player in the MAC, I don't know who is -- it just seems like his athleticism has taken a jump from last year. After Vander Plas injured his left shoulder (about the time Akron's comeback began) he was less eager to shoot, and once on defense he made contact with a Zip ballhandler and ran to lean against the basket support in pain. That injury didn't hurt Akron's comeback. Finally, if we hadn't missed all our free-throws the first half we'd have had a better chance! Especially gotta make the front end of one-and-ones. Overall not that disappointed and think we have a good chance in the return trip to Upper Appalachia.

Can’t be stated enough how blown away I am by the experience gap between this staff and the previous. Truly unbelievable and maybe even unprecedented.

That list of “all-time commits” is absolutely laughable. I follow this program religiously and can only recall a handful of players at the top ever doing anything significant, with Deryn Bowser probably being just about the only one to live up to expectation.

I'm in agreement with the two prior posts. Really happy that they didn't fold and made Ohio blow that 15 point lead. That turnaround happened really fast with help from Boals getting T'd up. Groce was sanguine after the game. Very, very fortunate Akron had these two tough games at home. Would this had been different with Trimble and games against Radford, BG, and NIU in their pocket. Likely. Stay healthy. Get to Cleveland.

I agree, but his play the final 10 minutes is what brought us back into the game. I really feel without Freeman being productive on the offensive end and no Trimble, Ali felt he had to put the team on his back tonight. That's why his slot selection was so poor those last 2 minutes

Ali trying to do way too much.

Well I'll be damned!

Idk if they were really deeper. They just had the two best players on the court. Sears may end up winning MAC POY. Akron desperately needs more players that can create their own shot.

That's a heck of a program. Tony Romeo's alma mater.

F Josh Hallenberger transferring from Clemson to Akron. https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/2022-mens-di-transfer-tracker_aid50186 Welcome Josh! https://www.instagram.com/tv/CXhukkGvPiX/?utm_medium=copy_link

Vanity Plate: Mr. Akron

Down by 5, Freeman gets 3rd foul and Aziz comes in and all goes to crap