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Great ender here. John Groce is such a blessing to this program. Every season we are never out of it. So endlessly grateful for how fun his teams are to watch.

A "balanced attack" is what we've all been hoping for. It was very top-two heavy for the first half of the season. We'll see how the MAC opponents adjust now that the word is out that Hunter is starting to consistently bury the open 3. Seems like Hankerson might have found his comfort zone as the wing that can drain lot of open looks when opponents double down on Freeman. Tavari still seems to be playing at 78 rpm. Still pressing, and lacking confidence. Hoping it "clicks" for him sometime soon. His development timetable, and getting some serviceable play from someone in the post aside from Freeman, are the two keys to this group reaching their max potential. Great road win last night. Fun to watch the team develop, as it always is with Groce's teams.

Back in 2016 (I believe...maybe it was '17) I was watching the NHL finals. At a game in Pittsburgh the camera was following a Penguins player up the ice and you could plainly see an older guy with a short, white beard wearing an "A" Roo baseball cap. I rewound and paused it, and took a picture of the screen shot, but I can't find that picture for the life of me! 🤬 Who would wear a Zips hat to the NHL finals (aside from most people on this board)? And, it was someone that could pay for 1st row seats? Guthrie needs to find that guy and have him build us a basketball arena.

It's nice to see some depth scoring emerging

I'd hope the Zips wouldn't take anyone for granted, particularly on the road. We were a few bounces away from losing to an equally as bad BGSU. In the MAC anyone can beat anyone on a given night.

Word from some players is Nyeem Wartman-White is the new Defensive line coach. He was at New Hampshire the last two years and he was at Mississippi State as a grad. assistant under Coach Joe Moorhead. The team seems to be excited with the Butkus finalist when he was Penn State.

If we can get offense from Hankerson and Hunter and continue playing good defense this team can compete. Great to have a blowout road win. Really like the fast break points in the first half. This was a team effort. It seemed the last 6 minutes were a whistle frenzy and the game really slowed down.

Big time road kill! A solid performance across the board. Nobody in particular stood out as amazing, and nobody bad. Program win! Definitely could have shot it better, especially X. But the looks are there. Nice games for the young guys. Onto Kalamazoo! Should be a good one. Go Zips!!!

Evan Wilson enters- CMU relegated.

We have at least 2 early enrollee freshman.

Get your popcorn for Friday night on CBSSports. 6:30 tip off Ball State @ Ravenna. 8:30 Toledo @ Buffalo.

Former KD assistant (and probably my favorite KD assistant of all time), Lamont Paris, is HC at South Carolina. He has Meechie Johnson playing for him, and they beat Kentucky at Rupp Arena for the first time since 2009.

Maurice Long has not signed his LOI yet, but the verbal commit was selected to the Ohio North-South All-Star Classic

The reason most Zip fans predict more wins than the Zips will achieve is because fans focus on the improvement made by the Zips and ignore the possibility (likelihood) that other teams have also improved.

Offers out to several kids at this school. One of them being 2023 athlete Teremun (TJ) Lott. He is a former Illinois commit and would be a great addition if we could land him.

That dunk is on Zips Instagram along with the chest bump. Whoever does social media for Akron loves Tribble.

Nate Johnson was a third contributor tonight with a 3 at the buzzer and some nice plays. I think he had a bad turnover when he had a behind the back dribble in traffic that was a turnover. Tavari had a great pass to Tribble for a fantastic dunk that will make the highlight reel.

Excellent breakdown. I’d add a few things: OL - Agree we need to add another veteran or two but I’m mainly concerned about OT. Right now it’s a 3 man rotation of Landers, N.Williams, and Chambers. Outside of those three we dip into the unknown of inexperience and youth. I expect T.Williams and K.Davis to push for time by end of the season on the interior. Those guys are more talented than the veterans ahead of them, but need a strong offseason to get their bodies right and gain some experience somewhere along the way. For now, some type of combination between Banes, Georges, Robarge, Kilbane, and Lyons should be able to get the job done at the guards and center. DL - I’d split this between DT and DE. DT should be an area of strength with a 100% healthy Holt, Thomas, Murphy, Robinson, and Jones. DE is still a concern. We are now counting on Johnson and Rabah to step up. Maybe the plan is to also play Richardson there full time? I agree that scenario may be worse than what we had last year. This position still needs some work. Not having a DL coach certainly isn’t helping. (Edit - forgot to mention Cheatom at DE.) It’ll be interesting to see who else jumps in the portal tomorrow.

So about that

Zips up 27 and still playing hard on D.

Great article on Hunter. We have seen 3 players on the Zips that have shown "flashes" of being offensive contributors, Tavari, Hunter and Hankerson. However, they just have not been consistent. If all 3 become contributors, we are looking at a really good team. However, it takes the air out of the ball when Hunter and Hankerson continually miss from long range. Looking forward to these 3 having big games.

Let's go Zips!!

I'm a big believer of bowl or bust as well going forward, though any improvement in the W/L is welcomed after what we watched the past few seasons. Breaking down position groups from last year to this year so far: QB - same or better - banking on Irons improvement RB - better with the addition of Lingard. Lost no contributor. WR - similar or a little worse, with the loss of Shocky (and Grimes). Though Golden, Dakota Thomas, and Gathings have a lot of potential I think. OL - thus far worse. No transfer portal players brought in yet and a couple depth guys transferred out. If not addressed, we're banking heavily on current starters improving and and/or a few redshirt freshman which is a little risky. TE - same or better with all contributors returning. DL - I would say worse with the loss of Morton, Jones, and Harper. We've brought in Jones and Rabash. Neither have played at this level and Rabash was D2. No real young guys had a chance to show much this year. LB - same or better. Lost Boateng, but McCoy, Fish, and Griffin are exciting players who will continue to develop. CB - same or better. Lost Hooks, added Hunter. S - same or better. Lost nobody (not counting JKP as he was injured most of year). I like the trio of Woods, Thompson, and Martin. I think our weaknesses going into the offseason season are still weaknesses. Need an OL or 2 unless the staff is really high on the young guys, probably 2 more DL to be safe, and 1 or 2 more CBs. Though players always step up and contribute who you don't expect. Examples would probably be Lewis, McCoy, and Landers (only because he was a true freshman) just last year. Luckily it seems the staff seems to be on the same page with who has moved on and who we're offering, so I think most will be addressed. If so, 2023 should be a bowl season. We should be 4 scholarship players under the limit right now, so there is room. I also think there are more players we could afford to lose.

Anquan Boldin's nephew (yes, that Anquan Boldin).

The 2022 MAC Player of the Year skipped the entire length of the court to find a camera after making a 3 to get back within a basket early in the second half of the MAC Championship game. Those were his final points, as he went scoreless for the remaining 17 minutes and his team got boat raced by 20 in the end. 6 pts, 9 turnovers were his final numbers. He probably wakes up every morning, shines his MAC POY trophy, and smiles at his reflection in it. To me, the individual hardware is meaningless if the entire team underachieves.