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After watching that interview Zips fans must be proud of the fact we have great student athletes and a great coach on this team.

HEY! I FOUL ON TOLEDO! WOW! SOMEONE TAKE A PICTURE! THAT'S MORE RARE THAN SUB $4 GAS!

🔥🔥🔥 RATED BY RIVAL DOT COM AS THE #9 DUAL THREAT QB IN THE NATION!!!

Scholarship players is one thing, starters is another. Amazing how Dawson and Tribble have stepped up as duty called. They went from doing the things that don’t show up in the score book, to doing the things that do show up in the score book. If we can pull this off I think they are the difference between a lost season, and a championship season.

Ali has plenty to improve on but the lack of respect he gets on this board baffles me (not that I don’t love the energy Dawson and Wynn bring). He was named second team all MAC for a reason. He’s the most naturally gifted player on the team and I think still has a lot of untapped potential. Leads the team in scoring, and led the Zips today. Shoots at a pretty efficient % for somebody who scores at all 3 levels. Ended up with more points and better shooting % than X who I think most would aheee played well. He definitely had too many turnovers today though. As for Tribble, I haven’t put much thought Into that iso. What I do know is that it did win us the game today.

In PAC-12 Tourney play, Hurley's ASU Sun Devils led Stanford by 14 with 3 minutes to play & got beat 😅

Multiple reporters! Multiple reporters!

How is Toledo not called for traveling? Twice now.

An hour and a quarter before it finally got the official broadcast. The Zips were playing better when I watched it on my phone so I might go back to that. 😂

The cbssn site worked fine. Just like the tv channel.

Middle Tennessee hates Akron! They stole the girl from Hoban, and now THIS!!

That Toledo team in 2009 was dreadful, but played one of their best games of the season in the first round against the Zips. A truly unbelievable win for Akron. Buffalo in 2019 is obviously the best team we’ve ever met in the QF and probably ever in the tournament period. With that said, the top of the MAC is very tough so getting the 4-seed and having to go through UB, Toledo, Kent/OU is an absolute gauntlet. This would be the most impressive tournament win in program history if they can pull it off. While the Zips aren’t the most skilled team, deepest team, or experienced team, it feels good to have faith and belief in the guys and the coaching staff. Win, lose, or draw, I’m very pleased with how this season has played out considering the circumstances.

I'm going to take a shot at this. Do with it as you will. The excessive dribbling, turnovers and not passing the ball back out drives me crazy too. But at this point in the season, for Ali to still be doing this tells me he is doing what Groce is asking of him. Or at least good enough at this point to stick with it. And that is to back into the paint to score or draw double-teams and collapse the defense. Remember early on Castaneda and Clarke could not get going north and south. And Trimble couldn't get his shot off. They would all dribble, dribble, dribble the shot clock away up top. Without a crafty guard this year who can get inside at will and cause havoc, Groce decided to use Ali as a point forward. (He did the same thing with Malcolm Hill, SF, at Illinois when we had point guard issues) Now, Ali isn't efficient at this yet and going against a very strong, physical Buffalo team was rough on him yesterday. Ali is playing out of his comfort zone and is taking the abuse for the team. The double teams on him in the post opens things up for everyone else. That's what I tell myself anyway. Now if Ali would to spend the upcoming offseason living in the gym and gain 20 lbs of muscle he will be an absolute nightmare to guard. He would be able to back players down more quickly and easily. The game would slow down for him and his ball handling and reading of the defense would vastly improve. Allowing him to feed his open teammates on the perimeter. But right now he is head-down and battling. And his frustration gets the best of him at times. Bottomline, his post-game is definitely a work in progress, but this point forward has a very high ceiling.

Thank you for sharing this. Outstanding coaching by Groce & Co. to have a final play with TWO possible options with the same base concept. Props to Tribble for not only having confidence in himself, but also executing AND hitting the free throws (he was 4-4 down the stretch, right?). Dawson is this year's Most Improved - by a mile. What a year for the Dawson family. I watched the replay last night, and his shooting confidence is high along with his decision making. He looks to constantly drive and create plays, unlike previous years where he was simply a passing bridge to get the ball in someone else's hands. Freeman not being 1st Team All MAC is really the biggest screw job I can remember.

What a damn game and what a damn win. Did John Groce kill Buffalo?? Let’s hope! I’ve said all year that the Zips lack killer instinct. They had numerous chances to build on the ten-point lead but just couldn’t run a good set to get a good shot. Hey, a win is a win! Ali had one of his better jump-shooting games, but his ball handling was dreadful and Buffalo guarded it well. They attacked the ball instead of allowing him to be comfortable. X really saved us at the end of the first half as well, we need those two to show up. Also props to Tribble (obviously) and Mike Dawson, he attacked the basket with ferocity today in addition to burying a lot of big shots. Zips fans are so lucky, this has continued to be a special run across decades. Akron’s won at least one MAC tournament game every year (sans 2020) since 2005, and they’ve qualified for Cleveland more than anyone in the league in that stretch. Though it’s been a few years since big success in Cleveland, today felt a lot like the old days. Hopefully we can get more Zips faithful behind the boys tomorrow! Survive and advance, keep believing! Go Zips!!!!!

Hurley AND Marreon Jackson.

Massillon DT Marcus Moore.

I think you are overpaying.

Yep. Getting annoying

It's so frustrating. I hate when refs do that crap!!

Man the refs are calling a foul every time Toledo takes it to the hoop out of control. Come on.

at a bar & don't know my tv provider's login.

No lead is safe.

Hopefully the winner of this UAB game gets crushed tomorrow in the championship

I feel like the 3rd OT should only be two minutes

Please don't let this game do what Norton and Sheridon did last night!!!

I don’t believe so. I saw ones with different logos that say “get some MACtion” for $24

If you take out Dawson, Akron is shooting 9/39 (.231) from the field and 0-12 from 3. That's just not going to get it done. Dawson carried this team as far as she could.

I like our chances against the sprockets. Hell, they shot 60% against us in their building and we hung in there. Freeman should enjoy an inside advantage and I think we gut this one out.

7:46 left in 4th quarter Buffalo - 63 Akron - 39 Buffalo shooting 50% from the three-point line. Akron shooting 7% from the three-point line.

I think with 64 teams in the WNIT, it's strong possibility.

Dear Basketball Gods- I have only two wishes: 1) Give me another 10 days before I have to post a "21-22 Review/22-23 Looking Ahead Thread"; 2) With the game on the line, please let the Zips player at the line be better than a 67% free throw shooter. Best Regards, Clark W. Griswold

Kacie Cassell was my favorite player from that class with how she had complete control of that offense. That group and how they played was fun to watch and hope more and more teams attempt to play like that.

Ball State should be so much better than they are. There is so much high school basketball talent that comes out of Indiana and Ball State still has a pretty decent basketball fan base despite being pretty mediocre under Whitford. The right guy could easily make them competitive.

Clarke deserves credit on Buffalo's prior possession, too. They chucked up a crap shot and Garvin was the only Zips player with a chance at the rebound - he made sure he got it. Otherwise, it would've been an offensive rebound and we're probably talking about a different outcome.

2 for 1 special! BOGO!

Playing basketball in his home country

Chris Singletary, Carlton Guyton, Danny Pippen beat the crap outta Justyn Hamilton last year, Jaylen Walker bar fight, current rotation player arrested for OVI. But yeah, it doesn’t really happen much over in Portage County.

You indicate that Tribble does not finish at the rim but he has a 461 shooting percentage and he scores almost exclusively from the paint. So he does finish at the rim. He also gets to foul line better than anyone on the team except Freeman. I admit that he does not finish as well as LCJ but not many guards can. Groce had enough confidence in him to take the last shot and it worked and won the game. I admit that sometimes he goes up and has nowhere to go but LCJ also had that problem on occasion especially his first and second year in Akron. His last year he developed a floater and became almost unstoppable. I also agree that Ali dribbles too much and he had a terrible game with turnovers. However, he got hot from the 3 point line and was the leading scorer. Obviously, Groce like to have Ali isolate and post his man. Not going to argue with the coach but he needs to finish better as he often gets stuck in the lane with nowhere to go. He also has the best 3 point shooting percentage among the Zips. My main gripe with Ali is that after he makes a 3 I have seen him talk to the opposing team's bench and has also picked up a couple of techs. I wish he would just play ball and leave the trash talking to Carey and the Flashes.

Dawson played 34 minutes

Whitford is really good at getting Indiana high school stars that are well equipped for D2 basketball.

Is this the equivalent to Tuesday night MACtion in the fall?

Cannot tell you how happy I was to peak at my phone today at work and see 32-32 at the half, and 70-68 Zips at the end. Buffalo is probably the worst matchup for us on paper in the MAC. They have a big that negates Freeman/Aziz, a killer guard, and a nasty stretch 4 that can shoot the lights out. Excited to watch the replay tonight. LET'S GO ZIPS!

2nd half team.

Does Ali know he’s allowed to pass?

Ice cold Bell’s Two Hearted as I wait for the Zips tip-off. Kalamazoo’s worst (WMU bb team) might not have made it to Cleveland, but it’s best export did!

Maybe not full-on promoting the Z for a few weeks, sure, I get that. But it should not change the outlook from the University on a new primary logo and such. It would be laughable to think otherwise. Stupid Russa.

I hate the script Akron logo so much I'd probably join the Ukrainian resistance just to fire RPGs at it.