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Ranked #1 by Sports Illustrated

While largely but not totally innocent of those things, this is why I say ZN.o is the best. Other MAC boards are either dead or that CSN garbage that looks terrible. ZN looks great, is very easy to use, and has very thoughtful and insightful contribution and it isn't flooded with junk. CK and Dr. Z are the real MVPs.

Moorhead being in local media - and by local, I mean 92.3 The Fan, 850 ESPN, etc., not just Akron stations - will go a long way. First order of business - crush KSUcks in marketing. Be THE school in the area. Sean Lewis won't go on 92.3 The Fan, at least not with Ken Carmen. Second order of business - win. Third order of business - grow with the program. Don't be Mickey Mouse with equipment, marketing strategy/techniques, etc. Moorhead gets it, and I hope the University adjusts to his level of professionalism.

The Zips head back to that state up north for a Saturday afternoon matinee with EMU. Stan Heath’s Beagles stand at 9-17/4-11. 6’2” freshman guard Noah “Don’t call me Louis” Farrakhan leads the Beagles at 15.6 ppg. They have lost 6 of their last 7 games. Please pardon my recent brevity on these. I'm getting a little pissy.

Groce has been coaching his ass off this year. The team has largely overachieved all year, especially with the departure of Walton. My biggest knock on Groce is him missing on Maishe Dailey and Walton these last two years. Two experienced senior leader wings/guards from the portal have contributed absolutely nothing (outside of Dailey GW vs. Toledo). That has made a world’s difference and it’s something that cannot happen again. If you add a true slasher wing to this lineup like Walton right now, Akron is a 3-loss MAC team MAX at the moment. If doesn’t count, though, and perhaps a 7th year Mizzou flameout-turned-best player on Ball State was doomed from the start. Players come to Akron knowing the expectations of the staff and knowing what they are going to go through, how Walton slipped through the cracks, I have no idea. But Groce gets these kinds of players because they like playing for a coach that will get after them and coach them. During games, if you sit close you can hear and see that his animation and in-game coaching is very little anger. There are moments, like Tuesday, where he does get visibly upset. But he does that no more than any other coach in the league. This group would benefit greatly from KD’s buddy Dr. Joseph Carr, sports psychologist that we would see hang around the team come this time every year. Trimble is further in his head than he is behind the 3pt line. X is broken, he was a 90% foul shooter and is now lucky to split. Ali briefly pulled his head out of his ass tonight only to shove it in twice as far with ANOTHER technical foul, he may have the most of any Zip in a season I can remember. It’s got to be 4-5 now, at least. Groce has a group of tough, good basketball players. Unfortunately, outside of a couple of games and moments, none of them (Freeman excluded) are great, championship-level leaders. If this slide continues, it will be interesting to see what kind of house-cleaning is done in addition to the assumption that Wynn leaves as well. I’m not looking at the scholarship chart at the moment, but once Nate Johnson and Mitchell play, plus Tavari Johnson comes in as a freshman, there will be an awful lot of cooks in the kitchen. I’m hugely disappointed in what this season has developed into, but I can’t say I’m surprised. And I’m not concerned about the structural integrity of the organization as a whole, either. The program has faced a lot of adversity and BS the last few years and has rarely gotten to a point of breaking-not-bending. But right now, the Zips are flat out broken. There is no disputing that.

Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh. The Murphy’s Law Zips with another clunker. I’ve come to the realization that this is a team full of decent role players, and nothing more. Freeman is a star, but he would be even more incredible if he got his FT% up, and if he had another true threat to help bail him out. Before the MAC figured out X and Ali, that offense worked just fine. Now teams force Ali into ISO, they run X off the line, they cover Trimble like a weighted blanket, and then you’re left with…???? What’s an even bigger shame is that they’ve played decent defense a lot of these games too. They’ve been unlucky with other teams hitting big, tough shots but that happens. Once NIU started to bury those mid range guarded fadeaways, I began to see ghosts of all previous losses. And the final possessions? Goodness gracious what a disaster. This team reminds me of the 2015 Zips. A nice group of players with nobody to rely on to lead and run the show. There are still a few more games to figure things out for a miracle in Cleveland, but this is looking like a lost season. I’m still excited for the future as the talent is there, there’s just no chemistry and a severe lack of play making when it counts. Crowd was bad and had no energy and I can’t blame them, nor am I. The students had no life, it would’ve been nice if they would’ve attempted to create some energy, but again that’s not their job. No chance they win on Saturday. Zero. So please, everyone do yourselves and the womens team a favor and head to the JAR for their game against Portage County! Go Zips Women’s basketball!

The team's ceiling is capped by a lack of talent, and even lower when there's a lack of effort/focus/killer instinct. "Attitude reflects leadership, captain." Groce can only lead so much as a HC on the sideline. This is my frustration with guys like X, Ali, Trimble. They are experienced players with poor leadership on the court. Poor leadership leads to poor attitude, and poor attitude leads to 3 losses in a row, 2 of which are to teams you should be beat by double digits. Trimble doesn't make shots consistently, and is really worthless on the court otherwise; nobody trusts him. His bricks not only deflate the ball, but deflate the morale on the team. X isn't there mentally every play. He consistently drops passes, mishandles the ball, makes bone-headed mistakes, etc. That's not what you want from the "floor general." Ali tries to put the team on his back, but goes about it the wrong way. He can shot create with his dribble-drive ability, but 99.9% of the time only looks to finish the play himself; his head is never up, looking to see who got open during his dribble-drive. I'm not bailing on the season. We can win the MAC. But my enthusiasm is tempered based on the lack of effort from the team these last two games. I'm VERY excited about next season.

That is my concern as well. Has this team already hit it's ceiling? Part of me thinks that the frustration that our players show on the court is that they believe it to be so. I hope I'm wrong. I hope they find another gear to push through. That has been a strength of Groce's teams as long as I have been watching. They max-out in March. And players will run through walls for him. I have seen it. Unfortunately, this group just might be burning up their gears and this crazy tight schedule is not helping matters. We have seen all season that they care about winning and have the mental toughness to win close games. But when every game is a struggle it wears on you. The league has continued to improve around them at a faster pace. We are all aware of the reason. And I have seen this story unfold before at Illinois where we were without an effective point guard due to injuries. So if I know the importance of the point guard position to this offense, Coach Groce sure as hell knows it. So what went wrong? Should Garvin Clarke be further along than he is? Maybe he doesn't cut it as a point guard and plays off the ball. Was X supposed to be the stop-gap solution until Tavari Johnson gets here? He too plays better off the ball and isn't suited for making game winning decisions. Although, I would like to see him back next year. I just watched the videos again of Nate Johnson. And he might have very well been the answer if he didn't get hurt in the off-season. I could easily see a Johnson & Johnson point guard duo next year at some point. Guys like Walton, X, Trimble and Wynn were supposed to bring leadership and experience to the locker room. That hasn't exactly worked out either. I admit this team is damn frustrating to watch at times. But I will be tuning in just the same. I want to watch these players continue to develop, especially Aziz, regardless of what happens in Cleveland. For those bailing on the season, take care, see you next year. Go Zips!! Edit: spelling

The biggest problem with this team is the inability to get stops on defense. Our guards are slow footed and can't stay in front of their man. The result of that is just what we're seeing this week. Lot's of drives to the basket that end up in layups or wide open threes for our opponent. This is the worst defensive team Groce has put on the court.

This offense keeps finding ways not to score.

I wonder if they haven't intentionally slown things down due to the lack of depth, but yikes, there are stretches where watching the offense is like watching paint dry. These teams had a combined 1 point on fast breaks in the first half. Must have been a fast break free throw.

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Groce had DJ Cooper. We don't have anyone like that on this team. At best we are the 5 seed and could be lower. If we were to make it to Saturday, it would likely mean that we would be playing 3 of the top 4 teams. We are 1-4 against them. I don't see us winning three games in a row against the top teams. I like everyone's optimism, but I don't see it happening.

Semantics. I see SI.com, UA sees SI.com - it's Sports Illustrated, damnit!

Oh how quickly this went to $h!+.

Is there any other way to replay the interview? I do not have a SirusXM app. Please advise if possible. Thank you.

Calling the players losers and ad hominem attacks on the university don't help the posters on here to understand what is going on. Following up on Clark's point, it's hard to keep the perspective that moods and emotions can flip 180 if a ball bounces differently. And the fate of careers can also hinge on a bad call or a missed FT. We hear often that had Brian Walsh made his shot...would Groce have gone to Illinois. Had the Zips ended the game against Kent better would we be in this conversation today. If you are Bates at WMU or Melissa Jackson (who i hopefully underestimated) you can get away with some excuses because you aren't being paid a lot and expectations are low. No excuses apply for Groce. He's paid incredibly well to make things work. From recruiting to calling the final play of a half, it all falls on him. At this point I don't walk into the JAR feeling good or expecting much. It's not quite as bad as walking into Infocision on a Tuesday night but it's getting there. And that feeling comes from knowing exactly how things are going to play out: a dull start, maybe some panic and excitement, and then either a lucky break or a fail. Someone posted Groce's results from each year. He should have four goals each season: 1. Beat Kent at the JAR 2. Beat Kent twice 3. win regular season championship 4. win the MAC tournament. In his 6th year (or is it his 5th), Groce is going to whiff on all of those

Important to not lose sight of this fact, and this was certainly more what I was insinuating from my previous post. Some of the body language I saw last night combined with the fact that we haven't actually beat a single team of significance, makes me worry about the remaining 5 games and finishing (much) worse than 5th. And thanks for your reply @LoyalZIP. We're not far off in our assessments, but if this team is "better" than what we've seen so far, I'm not sure when they're going to prove it. A handful of close losses and a 12-point win at home over Buffalo without one of their best players (Mballa) isn't much to hang our proverbial hats on.

The University of Akron's - Polymer Science and Plastics Engineering is ranked: #1 in the World #1 in North America #1 in the United States World's best Polymer science and Plastics engineering universities [Rankings] (edurank.org)

I don't expect a Primary Logo change until after the conclusion of the 2021-22 athletics schedule.

In a perfect world I hope this starts to get attention in the community. I really just want more of Akron (and surrounding areas) to get jacked up about Akron football and not care to stay home to watch a dumb OSU game. Obviously, winning will help this A LOT, and I understand the amount of losing has only hindered support. But I hope people understand that we hired a guy that many bigger programs would have easily hired as well and thrown even more money at. I don't know, I'm ranting, but I hope this hiring is the start of a lot of new (positive) things, including local support. GO ZIPS!!!

At this juncture, they are what their record says they are- a middle of the pack MAC team. The MAC preseason poll ranked them as the 5th team in the MAC and so far that's right where they are.

Exposure

When I criticize = I get banned So no comment from me

Forgot about this. Honestly, when I sat down to look at the number, I was surprised that next year is year 6 with this staff. Time has flown by in the COVID vortex. Year one and 2019-2020 have been the best jobs so far by this staff. Next year is a very important year.

Using a "decade straight of MAC finals" as an evaluating tool is wildly unfair, especially with college basketball being completely unrecognizable to what it was when KD was doing that. Is the program where it once was? Absolutely not. But what other programs in the MAC have been able to hover around the top half of the league for so long like this, even with a seismic coaching change? Yes, the transition year was bad. But goodness gracious, if COVID doesn't blow up arguably the best Akron team ever, what does the conversation look like? Once Dambrot left, the slate was completely blank. If they would've hired a Rick McFadden or Chuck Thomas, they would've been a lot better that first year, but it would've trailed off quite a bit once the core that would've stuck around made their exit. What will Buffalo be when Williams, Segu, and Mballa are gone? Yikes. Akron is nearly as talented as every team in the league this year, they just do not have a Ryan Rollins/RayJ Dennis, Carry, Sears, Norman, Keshawn Williams to hand the ball to and make things happen. X was shaping up to be that, but has shown that he isn't. That is the most important roster spot for a MAC basketball team. And it's a miss by this staff to not have that right now. Indeed, this season has been incredibly disappointing. The roster is also attractive to any transfers that may want to join it, and as others have said, there are players waiting in the wings that fill empty holes the roster currently has. The last four seasons have been: 8 seed that's rated as #108 in the country but lost a lot of close games, 1 seed that dominated the league, 3 seed that had some similar issues to this team but the best guard in the MAC, and currently a team that struggled its way to a 9-3 MAC record and is in a deep hole right now, fortunately a few weeks before the MAC tournament. What MAC programs have been collectively at or above the same level as Akron for 4 years now? Buffalo, Ohio (not even 4 years), Kent, and maybe Toledo. 9 MAC championship games with only 3 trips to the dance has damaged this fanbase in a big way. The same way the Kent's run in the early 2000s has nuked theirs. They now have one of the smaller crowds every year in Cleveland and people don't go to their games any more. And if you ask them why? "The program isn't what it used to be" blah blah blah blah. These two fan bases are massively spoiled into thinking that it should be MAC title or bust, while very few mid-majors can boast nearly two decades of sustained winning and success. Again, a very disappointing season for Akron basketball, which now stands at 16-9, 9-6 MAC. We know this team is better than that, we've seen it be much better than that. The players know. The coaches know. The fans know. You could just feel it in the JAR last night. But I'd much rather see these issues come out with a team that has no clear floor general and not a single senior than one riddled with experience and some of the best guards in the MAC crumbling. It's adversity, it's hard times. They happen at every program, even lousy mid-major ones that have been spoiled for a couple of decades. End rant. Has anyone mentioned?? GO TO THE WOMEN'S GAME SATURDAY!!!

His first year they best WMU in K-Zoo to reach Cleveland. I'm very concerned. Groce is highly paid. Middle of MAC isn't good enough. Other teams managed thru COVID: OU, Toledo, Kent. The Golden years of Zips basketball are in the rear view mirror. Major recruiting fails led to this.

After reflecting, my comment may be an exaggeration caught up in the moment. I think he just makes some real "what the heck" plays sometimes where its clear he misjudges the ball or loses control of his body, but I suppose you shouldn't expect much more out of big men. Love Enrique, his story, and looking forward to see his growth the next two seasons.

I guess I'm much more concerned about the program than anyone else is. Let's look at the numbers. 2017-2018 14-18 (6-12) Transition year. Best performance by this coaching staff, outside of 2019-20, considering the pieces available. 1-1 vs Kent Tied for last in MAC 1st round loss to EMU in MAC Tournament 2018-2019 17-16 (8-10) 1-1 vs Kent Tied for 7th in MAC Quarterfinal loss to UB in MAC Tournament 2019-2020 24-7 (14-4). Groce's best team. 1-1 vs Kent MAC Regular Season Champion MAC Tournament and NCAA tournament cancelled 2020-2021 15-8 (12-6) 2-0 vs Kent Tied for 3rd in MAC Semifinal loss to UB 2021-2022 16-9 (9-6). Inflated record with no Q1 or Q2 NET wins, losses to last place WMU (nearly twice) and at home to 9th place NIU 0-2 vs Kent Currently 5th place with 5 games to go. 5 games left (3 on the road) and a 3 game lead over 9th place. Will we make Cleveland? We have to be honest, this team is not good. The high water mark was the near win at O$U, and we've regressed since that point. We'll be entering Groce's 6th year without a go-to scorer. Enrique may get there as he continues to improve with finding the open man when he's doubled. After being able to plan on being in Cleveland on Saturday every March for over a decade, we've yet to sniff a MAC final. Not good.

I think the biggest problem is that, with the exception of Freeman, there's no one on this squad that's any better than an above average MAC starter. They don't have a single player in the MAC's top 15 in scoring (Toledo has 3; OU has 3; Buffalo has 3). Their failures are in the talent levels of the "Jimmies and the Joes" and with each loss their body language and energy levels are getting worse. I fear now that Groce has lost them.

I'm adding Wynn to my transfer predictions, and removing Ali & X. Ali is pissing me off, but he's an Indiana golden child of Groce's, and I think he ultimately turns it around with proper leadership at the guard position. X isn't going to sit out a year, and maybe some actual competition at guard kicks his butt into gear to be in the game mentally 100%. Final transfer predictions: Wynn & Trimble.

Really looking forward to this next one

Well...THAT's a first! 🤷‍♂️🤣

I am going to state the obvious. This team is in free fall. We need some decent guard play to lead this team. What happened to x. He had another bad game. It seems like it takes forever to get our offense moving. Groce talked postgame how we shot over 50% in the first half. However, we had 9 turnovers that included several time clock violations. Freeman sets a screen, cuts to the hoop but never sees the ball. It just seems the ball stays on the perimeter. Very few easy shots on offense. We just do not have anyone that can break down a defense. Several times Tribble drives to the basket and has nowhere to go. I like Tribble but he afraid to shoot the ball. Very one dimensional I think we shot 25% from 3. Finally, when I look at the players they do not look like they want to be on the court. Very little enthusiasm. If this continues we may not even make the tournament.

It appears that they are all getting well against us.

Maybe I'll catch the end of the game. I'll be at the JAR rooting on the women against the Golden Flushes!

But...but...but...anything can happen when we get to Cleveland. 🤮

that wasn't goaltending

Another T for Ali....come on man.

With the hops that Tribble has there is no excuse for him to ever miss when he has an open lane to the hoop. Dunk it!!

The games are slow and painful to watch this year. Not very entertaining. Aziz is getting better every game. Clark mentioned it looks like Freeman & Aziz are learning to play together. I agree. Our guard play is the issue. We have very mediocre guard play. I wish we’d try to fast break more & get buckets before the D gets set up. We don’t get into our offense till there are only 10-15 seconds on the shot clock. Kind of exasperated with this team.

Clarke hits the open three. They don't need to overthink it and try make the difficult shots. Just make the open ones.

Groce shaking things up. Still no Trimble. 1st 2 subs were Ali & Clarke

I love Aziz's energy. Only a freshman..

The interview is excellent. The comments after the interview are very positive. You can tell the two interviewing have interviewed a lot of P5 coaches and Moorhead handled the questions like a P5 coach. At the end, the interviewers ask the ever stupid question about "fixing the playoff system". Good dodge by Moorhead. My response would be...."The current playoff is pure trash and trash is horrible for college football. Heaping more trash on top of trash probably isn't the best direction. My solution to 'fixing' the system is to play the bowls and a committee picks what are almost always obviously the two best teams. The fate of college football does not depend on a playoff." You should listen. The interview starts around 25 minutes into the show. Edit: Listen to the segment directly after the Moorhead interview. Discussion of transfer portal and why it is so good for players. A lot of what I told you guys the discuss and that is it allows players to find their level. Akron did a great job with the portal this winter and they discuss it.

I actually grew up working in that park. People did ice fish back then. Never saw any evidence of anything untoward going on. 😂🤣