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If they've chosen to stop feeding the boys before games to make them hungry, I hope it continues the remainder of the season! True, but good defense can mitigate a poor offensive stretch. The Zips have seemed to play with more tenacity on the defensive side of the ball these last few games.

I have heard the Freeman tryout story so many times from the visiting announcers where he tried out and made an immediate impact on this Akron team. I have to laugh because I still remember Freeman's first year as a walk on and I would have given him zero chance of being a contributor on this team. I have never seen a player improve as much as he has in two years. He has put in the hard work to get where he is today and I hope the improvement continues the next 2 years.

It will be on ESPN+. GoZips simply hasn’t been updated. The CBSSN and ESPNU games are Kent vs. Buffalo and Toledo vs. BG.

Freaking Freeman - 18 points and 16! rebounds, more than half the Zips total. Next closest was Dawson with 4. Oh yeah and he led the team in assists as well. Thoroughly outplayed Sparks.

I'm excited for Cleveland

I’m about ready to add Dawson to our Super Sophmores list of Freeman & Ali.

Why did he not shoot the open layup?

Did the Zips just try to get the ball to Freeman on a pick and roll? Be still my heart! I want a DNA test on Bumbalough. I suspect he may be Whitford's love child. I can find no other explanation for him playing,

SEVEN. MILE. BEACH. Scuba dive in shorts and a T-shirt. Drive on the wrong side of the road. Pay for trip out of Cayman Islands 'slush fund.' Great place for a vacation and our New Mexico State University Zips in a basketball tournament!

While it is where flushes go, the accoutrements are too nice to be the MACC.

The Zips conclude their 2021-2022 regular season this Friday by hosting the Central Michigan Chippewas. The Chippewas are 7-21, 6-11 MAC and in a precarious eighth place in the MAC standings. The Chips need a win against the Zips or a loss by ninth-place Bowling Green at Toledo to hold onto 8th. 6’0” freshman guard Kevin Miller leads CMU at 13.2 ppg. From the Zips online schedule, it does not clear if this game will be televised. The site references “TV: 21-DAY WILDCARD SELECTION”, so we'll see.

Not to digress from the current topic of a bobkitty tantrum, but I had a slow afternoon at work so I did a brief (and very basic) statistical analysis for the MAC POTY candidates. I looked at the top 20 in these statistics: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. I used a progressive scale to award a point value based on the player's ranking in the MAC, i.e. 1st in a stat = 20 down to 20th in a category = 1. NR in a stat = 0. Below is the top 10. I find these rankings hard to argue, other than the fact that guys like Rollins and Sears have trailed off slightly in the late season. Also interesting that the only player not from a contending team is Plowden, whom I think is 34 year old at this point. Other Zips of note: Bandaogo 22nd with 20 points (tied for first in blocks with Enrique) Ali (16th in assists, 13th in points) 32nd with 13 points Castaneda (19th in assists) and Tribble (19th in steals) tied for 47th with 2 points

Apparently, wisdom does not come with age!

Gotta finish strong here. CMU has wound up putting together an OK season considering their circumstances. I love this new Akron team we've seen the last couple weeks, they should beat this team relatively decisively. While the Zips' offense played just okay in Mt. Pleasant, they blew a lot of coverages on defense and let the Chips hang around. And as good as the offense has been over these last four, the defense has been even better. Defense, defense, defense.

Zips are one of the hottest teams in the MAC, looking to roll into the tournament on a 5-game winning streak. Central is 2-8 in their last 10, with close losses @ Toledo (66-68) and vs Kent (71-73) illustrating that they can't be overlooked. They'll also be desperate for a win to sneak into the tournament and potentially be the team that kicks in the annual Toledo chokefest in the 1 v 8 game. Hoping the fellas continue their strong play and get rested to win 3 games in 3 days the following weekend. Zips will likely be a high-single digits favorite here, and a very tempting bet considering the recent performances.

Groce & Co. have had to do a lot of tinkering this season & have been coaching their butts off. I enjoy peaking toward the tourney b/c I remember Dambrot teams would typically run through the regular season but then start sputtering toward tourney time. Idk, maybe it was due to other teams peaking toward the end of the season & catching up w/ Dambrot's consistency? Idk. Anyway, I'm feeling good!

Yes and no. The value in a strong regular season is in seeding for the Big Dance, should you make it. So while winning the MAC tournament is the most important in a one-bid league, a strong regular season can be the difference between being a 10 seed and being a 15 seed facing a top 10 team in the Dance.

KSUcks wins by single digits against NIU. They shot 41.7% from the floor, and 16.7% from 3. Should they ever slip up and not shoot lights out against the best in the MAC (I highlighted, I think earlier in this thread, their shooting differences against the top of the MAC vs the bottom), they'll get run out of the gym. Ohio lost to BG by 3. BobcatAttack is a real pick-me-up if you're having a down day. Many are looking towards next season already, and one post even says that last night's loss may have cost them the CBI. Yes, you read that correctly. The Athens Kitty Cats are worried about the CBI.

Enrique Freeman Bruce Weinkein LCJ Jake Kretzer Steve McNees That is both my favorite starting 5, and in order.

Another great program/culture win! The Zips could have easily hit the 90 point mark had more open shots fell, but I certainly can’t complain. While letting Cochran keep them in the game was upsetting, the Zips came up with answer after answer on offense, getting contributions all over the place in many different ways. Only 6 turnovers in the entire game for the Zips! Gotta love that. Also, going after steaks and loose balls just the way Groce likes, it was so great to see. Groce mentioned the teamism and chemistry being so good on the post game. He said that once the guys realized Sparks had 3 fouls, they knew to get Enrique the ball 5-6 possessions in a row. Even though that meant they weren’t going to get a shot, they knew it was best for the team. Keep it rolling, boys! Onto the next one, Go Zips!

Edited.

I made 3 points in that post

Nope, and it looks like the final 8 teams are set unless BG can beat Toledo @ Toledo when Toledo is playing for the #1 seed and the regular season championship. Toledo reminds me of the Zips 2020 team.

Uhh. well, maybe Zips would still have Trimble? Can't look backwards. I believe OU won last year because they were fresh, having only played a handful of games from end of February into March.

Beautiful! 🤣🤣

BG holds on to win 80-77.

MAC refs still suck. That was as clean a block as they get from Enrique.

Clean block by Freeman.

I was just gonna post about our general lack of a “sense of urgency.” 😂 I love level heads but we play too laid back. (Mainly Ali & Castenada.)

Surprised Luke Brown hasn't dropped 30 yet tonight

Too bad we lost to NIU and WMU and effectively the 3 seed, because the 6-8 seed teams STINK.

I enjoy seeing the perspective from the other team's board. I really like the Ball State people in general. One of their posters said that it was great strategery to bring them down to our level. 😂

If Trimble can figure out the dribble through when he doesn’t have a shot, he can really run this offense