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T Shirt cannon!!! Make it stop.

When you look at the stats, the one stat that jumped out at me is that we got 17 bench points and that includes Dawson shot 0 for 4 from the 3 line. If we can play 9 with quality minutes from the bench, this team could hit a new ceiling. The bench players had 15 rebounds with Dawson getting 5. The offensive rebound off the missed foul shot was important. This team shot 30% from 3 ball and 50% from the field and had 38 points in the paint. I like the fact we got the ball inside to score instead of relying on the 3 ball. We often start a game with consecutive 3 ball shots that miss and we end up behind and play catch up the rest of the game. Finally, I thought we did a much better job of starting our offense earlier in the shot clock. I can't tell you how many times we pass the ball around the perimeter or dribble on the perimeter and start the offense with less than 15 seconds on the shot clock. We got the ball into Freeman early or Ali went one on one early and they had time to operate. We rarely were at the end of the shot clock last night and we did not see any bad shots or desperation 3 point shots. I hope we continue to put an emphasis on getting the ball into Freeman's hands the rest of the season. If this team can shoot 50% from the field we should be able to compete with Toledo Ohio and beat Kent.

Here is some more useless trivia if anyone cares. The Miami point guard, Isaiah Coleman-Lands is another brother to a former Illinois player under Groce, Jalen Coleman-Lands. Groce recruited Jalen out of La Lumiere prep school in LaPorte, Indiana. Isaiah is a couple of years younger than Jalen, but they did play together. Jalen was the starting shooting guard and I believe Isaiah was the back-up point guard. Their head coach at La Lumiere, Shane Heirman is now the Associate Head Coach at Central Michigan. Small world right?! https://cmuchippewas.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/shane-heirman/694 So the last I knew of Jalen Coleman-Lands he had left Illinois after his sophomore year when Coach Groce got fired. He wanted to make sure he controlled his own destiny. He chose DePaul University because the aforementioned Shane Heirman had just been hired there (2017) as an assistant coach. Jalen is a sharp shooter from deep (40%) when healthy. He had injuries both at Illinois and at DePaul which extended his career. Anyway, I figured his college career was over by now and I was curious if he is playing pro-ball somewhere. Nope, not in the Era of Covid. He is now a Super-Duper Senior playing his 6th and final season of eligibility over 7 years. He's on the K.J. Walton plan. Ha!! There was a mass exodus of players at DePaul for some reason and he was one of them. He then landed at Iowa State. After a year there he lost another head coach to the chopping block so he entered the transfer portal one last time. He is now coming off the bench at 10th ranked Kansas. I’m sure this is not what he envisioned, but he seems to have made the most of his extended opportunity. Another quality young man and family. Godspeed. https://kuathletics.com/sports/mbball/roster/season/2021-22/player/jalen-coleman-lands/

An update with a little over a month left in the regular season TDM - at Florida Gulf Coast has started 22 games averaging 20 PPG on 40% shooting with almost 6 assists a game and they are 14-9 Camron Reece - at NAIA Talladega College Started 8 of 20 games, listed as a Junior, 6 ppg, 5.5 RB for a 20-3 team Tre Edwards is at UMBC but tore his Achilles and won't play this year Jermaine Marshall is at Samford averaging 12 points and 8 rebounds on 47% starting all but 1 game for the 14-8 team Taylor Currie is at D2 Harding College averaging 17 points and 8 boards on 55% shooting for a team that is 4-14 starting all but 1 game Jaden Sayles is at Stony Brook averaging 5 points and 3.5 boards shooting 53%, starting 9 games averaging 14 minutes per for a team with a 13-8 record Torey Patton who I missed in my original post is averaging 14 points on 45% shooting to go with 7 boards and 4 assists starting 19 games and leading the 15-5 Vikings in minutes Virshon Cotton another one I missed is at New Mexico State playing in 8 of 21 games averaging 4 points in 10 minutes a game for the 18-3 aggies

I’m happy for Wynn and Clarke. They have to feel good about tonight.

Supply chain issues. They're in a cargo container off of the Pacific coast.

Now keep it rolling. Don't let them back in.

Glad to see Clarke hit the 3. And he was calling for the ball on the way down the court.

Sweet Sixteen here we come!!! 😂

Man guys. Six minutes into the game and this is where we're at? Why tune in at all?

The Rockets had a couple big, mean country girls. Geez. That one was a tank.

Zips up 41-36. Another weird women's rule: Zips hit a 3 pointer midway thru 2nd quarter. It was clearly after the clock expired. The refs didn't review until half and then took points off the board.

Lady Zips had a cluster of ending to first quarter but up 19-15. Should have been 21-12.

From Brad Bournival's article: Freeman is one of only 13 players in the NCAA to average a double-double (12.9 points, 10.9 rebounds). He ranks in the top 20 in five categories and is second overall in offensive rebounds per game (3.6).

Every coach in the nation must be also. That offer from Akron was the only one he received.

I watched most of it. Essentially, in the first half Ball State was like Brian Trimble on steroids, hitting every conceivable 3 by every player all over the court. Toledo, as expected, got back in it (much like Zips did against OU) but Ball State continued to make the big plays while Toledo missed their last few. Reminder...if a team gets hot from 3 anything can happen.

Now Akron wahine team has gotta deliver the Double KO to UT on Saturday!

Caught a few minutes. They made very fluky shots, hit big threes. Typical upset. Toledo almost brought it back in the dying moments but they just didn’t hit the shots they usually do. It’s tough to win Friday prime time games on the road, that is for sure.

And the Rockets flame out. They lose 93-83.

I liked how we were able to get the ball inside to Ali and Freeman. Trimble is a great player but because the bench played so well I did not feel like we missed him. Nice to see Clarke get extended minutes. He had some nice steals but he needs to move his feet quicker as he still gets beat off the dribble on defense. Nice to see him drive to the basket and dish the ball to a big. He was doing that last year and has not been driving to the basket this year. This team really needs good minutes from the bench if we are going to do anything in Cleveland. I was very surprised that X did not take control of the game in the first 5 minutes when we scored only 5 points. I have seen this all year that if Trimble starts cold we will be down 7 points in the first 5 minutes. We are notorious for our slow starts.

I sit behind the visitors bench and I agree that this was an awful T. This was the most positive coach in the MAC. He did not yell at his team or the refs. Whenever a player came out he patted him on the back. He just reacted to what he thought was a bad call. I think he may have crossed over half court by an inch and that may have been the T. It clearly was not anything he said.

Perfect analogy LoyalZip.

I’m giving Freeman Player of this Game, and the next one too.

Getting chippy and gritty. Miami can come back....need couple dagger 3s

Btw. We don’t have any spare nets in the closet?

Mike. Wynn!!!

I know the announcer said that, but I think of him as more of an Andy Varajeo..and its not just because of the hair flying around.

Alix2 2 pts on 2 shots first 20. Hate how he disappears! Make sure he reads this!!

Need more Ali and Dawson in the second half.

The Zips big men (Freeman and Aziz) have 60% of the team's points.

Glad to see it's working.

Hopefully next year we’ll be able to do that.

Love this team. MAC Champs!

How did Dawson’s 3 not fall?!

I like X off the ball.

Clarke is a plus defender

Elite 8 (in the MAC).

Patience ES, patience. They have to frustrate for at least 15 minutes.

Maybe he’s an academic non-qualifier? If so that would help explain his surprising lack of offers.

@Zip LOL on the FC Dallas comment, but isn't similar true of living in Florida, Governor DeSantis? 🤣l

Guthrie has a vision for this University, at least athletically, beyond the MAC. It's a beautiful thing.

You and I have a different definition of "wrong". What you call "wrong" I call "common sense". Incase you haven't heard we're in the middle of a surge that is cancelling games. It's literally a program insulating itself from further disruption. It's a slam dunk no brainer; just from a program standpoint, let alone public health standpoint. Sorry your personal enjoyment is more important than public health. Good lord man, you're an Akron Alumni, please be better and more reasonable than this.

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.

A corrupt High School hosts two college teams that nobody gives two 💩 about, on Sunday…the epitome of 🥱