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I enjoyed Marla's article on how Akron should embrace the team. But very rich in irony coming from an ABJ writer

I did update the chart last night to the best of my understanding. I will copy it here at the end of the thread.

That explained his whole team culture. No issue or regret with the actual video or behavior, just that it got out. They have what they deserve over there

I vaguely remember this game. It was a very late game when that side of the bracket used to play in the evening. There was a handful of Ball State fans that had a box of pom poms that were red and white. My buddy and I went up to them and asked if we could have some and they were gracious enough to give us some. We cheered our butts off against OU that night!

I am around a ton of Kent people and know a lot of their season ticket holders that have been for a long time. They are tired of garbage that happens off the court. Many of them are obviously eternally grateful for the 2017 title, but my very best friend, who is me if I was a Kent State fan, feel that the 2017 title doomed the future because they will not move on from him unless he gets a bigger job. Are they spoiled and probably off-base? Yeah, probably. But after over a decade at that program, he won a title as a 6-seed and then lost one as the two seed and hasn't really sniffed any other major success. He's like 11-16 against Akron, went 3 years without winning a MAC tournament game at one point, has lost to a 12-seed, and had so much drama off the court. It's not been the most fun for them.

These guys aren't reciting Shakespeare or swapping recipes in the locker room. I get that. Groce who is amazing at PR had the team singing the Blue and Gold if there is a camera around. Groce and his staff aren't saints. He had Basset at Ohio and some sketchy guys at Illinois and a few here I'm sure. KD had to recruit some less than stellar guys to compete with Kent. That can work in the short term but eventually bites you. As someone posted on the buffalo message board...Toledo going to Toledo (choke) and Kents going to Kent.

An article from the ABJ's Michael Beaven. Apparently all the Zips have to do to get an article written by one of the ABJ's actual sports writers is make the NCAA Tournament 🙄

If these two do for @ZipMBB what they did for UWGB WBB - i.e. a perennial top mid-major program and NCAA tournament high seed, basketball fans will call for them to stay forever!

Oh hell yeah

It is always good to hear from you JZ84. Now, you have to get football tix and get back to tailgating in Lot 9. I miss you and Keener at the football games. Go Zips!!!

Wake was 15-16 and 4-14 in the ACC. I'm surprised they haven't already bolted for spring break. Looks like Zips have a decent chance in this one.

A very good team victory, in which everyone who played contributed. Jonas Buechte was again outstanding, this time from Center Back position. He organized the Defense, intercepted passes, and made several key tackles that halted counter attacks. He even scored off a restart. Malik Henry was a monster up and down the right flank. His defending was uncharacteristically solid, breaking up opposing offence down the Zips' right. But his half dozen over-lapping runs into the final third were lethal. And unlike last week, his crossing was money. Ryan Kingsford's score was a direct result of Henry's excellent cross. Dyson Clapier again terrorized the opposition defense with well-timed runs and scoring attempts down the left. He was a bit unlucky to have not scored a few times, having beaten his man to goal. He should have finished on at least one of those. Better shooting from Clapier would have ended the match as a contest in the first half.

I've created a ZipsNation.org bracket pool. Click here to enter. Free & Fun. FYI - scoring is exponential points (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32) + seed. i.e. If you take Akron and they beat UCLA, that's 1 pt for the 1st round correct pick, and 13 pts for Akron's seed for a total of 14 pts for getting that correct. Good luck & Go Zips! z.i.P.S. If you don't take Akron in Round 1, you're a Flushes fan.

Only in NCAA basketball can an East bracket game be played in Portland and a West bracket game be played in Buffalo.

I am now leaning towards Wynn being back next year. He does have a limited role and that's not likely to change, but he seems to be out of the dog house with the staff. He does hustle on defense, rebound and looks to be a glue guy in the locker room. Which has it's value. And maybe he plays a bunch early on knowing he is going to get passed up. If Groce is able to land a great 2-4 year eligible player in the transfer portal then maybe not. But seeing him pour water over Groce after the win makes me wonder why he might be feeling so comfortable. Also, the staff will have their work cut out for themselves next year bringing a full freshman class up to game speed. Having another person around who already knows how things are done and can help instill the culture into the newbies might be a benefit.

Agree. This regular season doesn't count schtick is a risky maneuver. That 4/5 game was inches or a bank shot away from ending all this on Thursday. I think this year Groce and Ford needed to adapt on the fly. Next year probably wont need to do that. Between 2010 and 2012, was 2011 and DJ Cooper and friends were a 5 seed and lost in the quarters to Ball State a 4 seed in OT. I would love to see a replay of that game.

Tje compete bracket seeding chart for those interested. You can see how we managed our way up to a 13 seed from what may have been a 14 earlier.

Completely agree. While it makes a nice run if you win, it's not a path you want every year.

From this old ESPN piece on Sendy's hiring as HC, it appears that a "show cause" finding is a very low hurdle to remaining in the profession during the penalty period. His AD simply told the committee he'd vouch for his credibility and hold his hand till the phase ended. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/columns/story?columnist=oneil_dana&id=6401701

I definitely want to be in the top 3 next year. The 4-5 MAC Tourney quarterfinal round is a tough road. Though it did make it fun running the Buffalo-Toledo-KSUcks gauntlet.

With players being able to transfer more easily these days coaches have lost their leverage. Senderhoff could come out and condemn the actions, but then he risks pissing off his locker room and losing his roster. You don't have to look any further than Duquesne. I don't know what went down there, but they had numerous players leave who made major contributions at other schools. Duquesne probably would have been pretty good this year had they kept the band together. Instead Dambrot can now claim he has a roster of players who buy in and want to be there, but those players aren't good and the teams sucks. It very well may cost him his job.

247 is probably going to have the best list outside of the official one, which I don't believe us peasants have access to. https://247sports.com/Season/2022-Basketball/TransferPortal/ Edit: Actually VerballCommits is probably better for basketball. https://www.verbalcommits.com/transfers/2022

So just to clarify, 18 to 22 year old males occasionally do some stupid stuff? That's outlandish!

He's been just good enough to give them hope and hold on yet not bad enough to fire. He's the Crash Davis of MAC coaches. His Kelvin Sampson scandal probably holds him back a little too.

I agree with @NWAkron sentiment. I'm not going to make any excuses for Kent State's overall culture. You all know better than me and I have heard some of the stories and even watched some past video. So I get it. But it is important to stay just a bit humble on this matter. As much as Groce runs a tight ship with high standards these things flare up on occasion. These are young men who live most of their lives away from the coaching staff. Groce tries to find guys that are warriors inside the lines and gentlemen outside the lines. Players who love to compete and at the same time he would feel comfortable having around his family. That is a hard balance to strike at times. We had comments on this forum earlier in the year that Akron doesn't have any "dogs" on this team. No killer instinct. Groce will often have one or two guys on his roster that are the enforcer types. But understand, that those are the very guys that often create bad headlines and black eyes for the program. What Groce does stress over all else is mental toughness and boy does this Zips team have mental toughness!! Go Zips!!

You would hope that the team's late season success will make the transfer portal work in the Zips favor. It should keep the current kids here while drawing other kids to the program. I hope it doesn't draw attention to Groce.

There's a video on ESPN that's 30-seconds in length of Joe Lunardi's thoughts on Akron. He says the MAC is far past the days of Shaq of the MAC, Ron Harper, and Dan Majerle. He then says the league hasn't had an at-large in over 20 years. He then says the Zips aren't going to end that streak (WTF is he talking about?) and they will struggle with the Bruins. Okay, I don't give a crap what he thinks but this is just poorly made. Does he not know that it's been 5 years since the MAC lost a first-round game? I don't think we're going to win, but come on.

Yep. What would John Groce do? Sure as hell not that.

Senderoff places some blame for the Snapchat video on the Akron students from the February 11 game at the JAR. He also places blame on whoever shared the Snapchat (his player posted it) and said that it happened in the locker room and never should have got out. The press conference is worth a watch.

Just came to post that. It was a good read, I learned some things. Enrique was 19-23 from the floor in the tournament! 😳

Nice read from everybody's favorite - Terry Pluto. A couple stats I wasn't aware of - Akron has the best MAC winning % in the conference when you look at the last 3 seasons, yes better than Toledo. Enrique is the most efficient shooter in the nation and 6th in rebounds in the nation. https://www.cleveland.com/sports/college/2022/03/how-did-akron-reach-the-ncaa-tournament-here-are-some-stories-terry-pluto.html

Agreed. How lucky are we to have both Zippy - the most lovable and famous mascot on the planet - and the Z - the coolest, most bad ass logo in sports?! Our marketing should be through the roof. The kids love both! (And so do I.)

The most feminine pick I could grab.

There we go. When a program needs cleaned up, send em to Mormon country.

I saw a bus down here today with the name "Flashes" on the front of the bus. Of course, it was a short bus. It made me smile.

The bracket I'm looking at has them playing at Wake Forest on the 17th at 7:00.

Here's an excerpt from another pundit who is high on Akron, and Ali (a subscription site I belong to, Staring At The Floorboards): "The Zips really came together down the stretch run in the MAC, and were probably undervalued going into the MAC tournament with SQ judging three of their losses as analytical wins...UCLA wasn’t handed any favors by the committee. This Akron team can play, and we saw that in the early OOC schedule when they nearly knocked off Ohio State. Ali is a high major talent who will test Jaquez, but Freeman’s going to have a hard time getting established vs Johnson. Akron’s comfort level at a low 60s possession game combined with the ease in which their guards operate out of ball screens has big Purdue/North Texas energy." The Pick: Play Akron +14 (sprinkle on the ML), under 128.5"

They were much bigger underdogs in the 2011 tournament. But I think this year they played 3 better teams than they have in most of the previous tournaments.

In 2011, we were the 6 seed. We beat #3 Miami, #2 Western Michigan, and #1 Kent.

Goals: Kingsford 1 Buechte 1 Shokalook 1

I wonder if this team's run will result in the return of some of the fair weather blue seaters who departed when KD left.

Bobcat fan here. Just wanted to say good luck out west. Bring that win share back to the MAC!

Bring on Overrated Mick Cronin

Didn't Zippy beat Joe Bruin in the Capital One Mascot Challenge back in the day? I think she's going on another bear hunt...

All during the tournament, this team kept its cool and never got rattled. Last night when Kent pulled within a point, Clark hit a tough 3 followed by an X three. The lead was back up to 7 and the next thing you knew it was up to double digits. Ironic, last time we won the tourney, we beat Kent and our center Zeke had a great game and was named tourney MVP and this year we beat Kent and it was our center, Freeman who was named MVP. I know this will not be popular but give credit to Kent, after the game they got in line to shake hands and they displayed good sportsmanship after the loss. The coaching staff shook hand with the Kent players while our guys were celebrating. Hopefully, the phone incident will be a learning experience. Speaking of learning experience, I watched Carrie closely during the Ohio game and he is a good player. However, he does that dance frequently when he makes a 3. Also, his pregame routine of rubbing his back against the support of the basket and his other antics bring attention to him. When your team is winning, that is great but when your team is losing and you have 6 points and 9 turnovers it just makes you look foolish. Also, your league MVP loses a lot of its value when you have a terrible game in the tournament championship. Humility is not a bad thing even if you are a talented player.

Surprised I never heard anyone mention this but... "Do you know how hard it is to beat the same team three times in a row?" 😉 I don't know for sure, but I can't remember either of these teams beating the other three consecutive times in the past 10+ years!

USA Today Freeman insisted the Zips weren't motivated by the video, but it would be hard to imagine it not inspiring them. “We didn’t focus on any of that,” Freeman said. "I think we were off social media for the last 24 hours.” Akron coach John Groce laughed at the comment and then chimed in. “Their coach is a stickler," he said. The Kent State and Akron campuses are separated by just 10 miles, and the animosity between the school's respective fan bases has no limits. They each booed the other's dance team during timeouts while alternating chants of “Let's Go Kent,” with “Let's Go Zips.” Trailing by nine at halftime, Kent State got Jacobs back to begin the second half and immediately went on an 8-0 run. But the Zips recovered with three 3-pointers, two by Garvin Clarke, to get back up by 10. Akron later went on an 11-0 spurt, triggered by Ali's 3-pointer to take a 56-39 lead with 7:53 remaining. The closing minutes were an Akron party inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse as the Zips extended their lead. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2022/03/12/akron-rocks-rival-kent-state-75-55-for-mac-title-ncaa-berth/49928965/

The swastika wasn't always a hateful thing. I see his point

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