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We were really spoiled by how long KD was able to stay and certainly benefited from the CMU incident in his past. I hope the balance is struck by Groce's phone ringing off of the hook with offers met by his desire to stay and continue to build. Those phone calls are evidence of success. What you don't want is for him to become "Sendeoffian" and be just good enough to stay but not bad enough to can.

I did a little math on our numbers post-Trimble. I don't have the splits on what they were before he got booted, but I still found some of these to be pretty telling. FG%: Akron--48.6% Opponents--43.2% 3PT%: Akron--40% Opponents--30.7% PPG: Akron--73.9 Opponents--62.5 I'm not entirely sure how different they were before, but in this stretch, the Zips have shot over 38.5% from three in 5 of the 8 games in this run, including two games of 50+%. We were also routinely getting beat by teams and letting teams stay in games by staying hot from the three point line, but the Zips have locked down the perimeter. They have traded for more drives and layups for opponents, or so it feels, but they lost two games to Kent because of bad perimeter defense and it almost cost them a few others. What a team and what a run! Why not keep it going?!

Wouldn't it be something if the Akron Beacon Journal paid this much attention to their hometown NCAA D-1 school whether or not they made the NCAA Tourney? 🧐

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

"Akron" Any other answer is wrong. I said so.

your post of never wanting to see Ali, Trimble (you got your wish) or Castaneda, in a Zips uniform ever again was an instant classic. Those 8 days in February were pretty grim on here. I was ready to start a "John's next endeavor" thread.

How about we pool our questions, comments and concerns on an open thread and designate someone as the Zips Nation correspondent to sit in the post-game interviews with Coach Groce and players. Do we have any Communications Majors on here willing to become a member of the press? Just an idea.

State Route 532 runs north-south right through the middle of Mogadore and is the line between Summit and Portage County. Roughly 2/3rds of Mogadore is in Portage County. The high school actually sits in Summit but most of the village is in Portage.

The bar is set so low right now, it wouldn't take that big of an effort on the ABJ's part to get the coverage improved.

Literally the only reason I don't subscribe.

I like to think of myself as somewhat of a motivational speaker. I'm going to sleep well at night thinking that they heard me, made a diss track about me, and proved me wrong. (The way they were playing back then, Groce's top Google search was Transfer Portal)

this is what i said.. Very Typical of John Groce teams. 5 or 6 MAC loses then run the tourney. never finished higher than 3rd in the east at OU but didnt have issues winning the tourney or getting post season wins. He reminds me a lot of Tom Izzo. Realizes the regular season is practice for the postseason

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.

Money line. Confidence.

With the current team plus next year's incoming class, I'm hoping Groce would be here at least a few more years.

Yes, I agree with it more so being about fit. Akron can play more positionless basketball with Wynn on the court than Aziz, which is useful when you're sending a lot of double teams therefore need quick guys to rotate on weak side help. Aziz I would expect to see play some against UCLA. UCLA has a lot more size than MAC schools and frankly I'm not sure how well Wynn could guard there low post players.

That Mogadore mailing address region is huge!

With Whitford gone, Payton Sparks at Ball St has entered the portal.

This. And I think Guthrie/Dr. Miller are building something that Groce would want to be part of.

I agree, this applies to the vast, vast majority of coaches and it even applied to Groce the first time around. It could apply this time as well. But he's older and more experienced now. If the Akron community shows him some love and willingness to grow the program under his guidance, I think he would be wise to set up camp and try to build an empire there. Just keep building the brand through media, marketing, events and facilities slowly and methodically. Challenge the MAC to grow as well or bolt. Either way. I bet Groce would be willing to delay financial gratification this time around if Akron truly felt like home to him and his family. But he would also need serious, willing partners in the university and to a lesser degree, city hall. That's my hope anyway.

As much as I'd love Groce to stay if he's still here in 5 years, that likely means we didn't have a ton of success in the tournament. Reality is when a program Alabama comes in and offers you $3 million/year like they did Oats there is little that you can do. At the same time you want your coach to be performing at a high enough level that those programs want what you have.

I'm see the same thing on gozips.com. I'm running Safari on a mac.

We have the best board in the MAC (probably one of the best in the country). Happy to do this for ZipsNation.

My first question if someone wants to start a thread; Coach Groce, where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?

Knowing Brian Dennison (SID) and Chad Welker (Zips Digital Network), I'm sure they would welcome this with open arms. Also, assuming the questions aren't basic and cliche, I'm sure coach would love it too.

Marla's columns occasionally get picked up by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, since both papers have common ownership. But normally about the Browns, or generic football or baseball/basketball (NBA). I enjoy her.

Charter flights are a wonderful thing, especially for a trip to the great northwest.

I think their forums were made when Bill Walton was their Center and John Wooden was their coach. The nostalgia helps them relive their glory days from decades ago to hold onto some relevancy in the P5 world.

X and Carry is going to be fun next year. His effort level on the defensive end of the floor added probably 16-20 phantom points to his point total. Man was he fun to watch. @LZIp We go from 2.5 true guards on this team to 5-6 next year. I think the backup point guard position is already taken care of with the influx of talent and Clarke's development.

X played defense at the level DJ Cooper scored at last weekend. He had his share of points too, valuable guy playing like that

No wonder Pinky's moral compass is all jacked.

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!

Some great stuff here.

One play in game for 11 seeds and one for 12 seeds should be why they are 54.

I didn't think it was a slam on Groce. The regular season is largely meaningless and truly is practice for the postseason.

That's the key IMO. It seems the guys who are here now really enjoy playing together, this should be just the first part of one hell of a run.

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

the seats were filled at the end of the 2020 season. COVID was a bigger culprit. Having that proven winning team will bring them back.

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.

I don't think Ali is one right now, but being an athletic 6'8 wing who can guard multiple positions and can knock down 3's does fit what's in demand for the NBA. He's improved a ton since his freshman year and still is only classified as a sophomore so he still has more time to develop his game. I still think it's vastly more likely he will end up in Europe.

oh boy... Script Akron vs Script UCLA... capt's head will explode

Allow me to admit that, 15 years ago, I was not a fan of John Groce. I hated OU and hated how they had our number and I was so jealous (and in awe) of their 2x NCAA success. When KD bolted, I did not think we had a chance at coach Groce (just like I didn't think we can get coach Mo this year). I was THRILLED when we got him. Over the last few years, I admired his ability to put together a good team. I mostly loved his craftiness and his ability to make mid-game adjustments. I also enjoy seeing how relaxed his players seem to be and how much they appear to enjoy playing for him. Yesterday, during the game, coach Groce was masterful at demonstrating all of the above. But it was the postgame press conference that blew my mind: 1 - He made sure to talk extensively about the 2019-2020 team did not play in the MAC tournament. He named the players, one by one...even bench warmers. He made sure to give them credit for changing the culture and helping this team be successful!!!! 2 - Without being asked, he pointed out that he inherited a great program from the "tremendous" (or terrific, I can't remember) coach before him. 3 - For no obvious reason, he found a way to bring up Brian Walsh, called him "one of our guys"!!!!!! and extensively singing his praises. 4 - He took the high road and dismissed the impact of the KSU video on his team I tip my hat to coach Groce. A great basketball coach and most importantly, a classy, classy, individual who makes me proud to be a Zip.