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1. WBB has the 3rd highest budget overall only behind football and MBB. It's even higher than MSOC. 2. WBB has a FT strenght coach. Name one team in the MAC with a dedicated Strength Coach Full time for WBB only. Not shared with other sports. 3. WBB has shelled out 10k for money games for teams to play us. 4. WBB charters on flights in league when most teams are riding the bus. These are just a few of the things that show the level of support for WBB from Athletics administration at Akron.

I love Enrique. He's a great player at this level. However, there's a name for 6'7" guys in the NBA- small forward. He doesn't have the skill set to play the 3 in the NBA. He may well have a nice career in Europe, but it won't be in the NBA. He's also in for a great future outside of basketball. Very smart, great personality. I'd buy stock in that kid.

Track and Field is reloading as we speak.

Here's one. It's not the one I was thinking of but it's still pretty good.

Probably deserves its own thread

Top 5 HS/JUCO Safeties (in my opinion): MIAMI - Mychal Yharbrough HUDL FILM AKRON - David Jester HUDL FILM CENTRAL MICHIGAN - Mark-Allen Gay HUDL FILM BOWLING GREEN - Tracy Revels HUDL FILM BUFFALO - Devon Rainey HUDL FILM

I'm not implying the MJ is not a good coach. My post was to counter a few things that were said in other members posts about a lack of support from UA.

I think Hilltopper is implying that we expect to be better than 5-7 in the MAC

happy valentine's day. gee, bodily function and odor seems to be the theme of the day. nice. I'm with LoyalZip as usual. Winning for the sake of winning doesn't mean much when the only true goal is to win the MAC tournament. It may put a few more people in the seats but...well, we know the rest. I'm not even that worried about the seeding. This is wide open. As for tonight, I was 100% indifferent going into EMU last year and had given my tickets away to that home NIU game. Don't expect much this evening and will check on the score every 30 minutes. I have my "John's Next Endeavor" and "Has Groce Lost the Team?" threads ready to go at a moment's notice.

Indeed. After the KSUcks game I was on cloud nine and posting like a madman... then ZN.o took a dump at the most inopportune time! 😭😭 But these last two losses have taken the p!ss out of me. Hopefully our players have much more mental toughness than I do 😂

Gameday!!! Gameday??? Nothing quiets this board more than 2 losses in a row. We went from a high of beating Kent State to a low of losing to Ohio and Toledo. However, both Toledo and Ohio played really well in beating the Zips. A lot of the Zips wins came against teams that did not have great records and did not shoot the ball well against the Zips. The problems with this team is obvious, in the win against Kent we got production from the entire team. In the loss against Ohio, we got 8 points from the bench and Hunter was MIA. And although Hankerson had a good night scoring, most of his points came in the 2nd half when we were already down by 18 points. Although Groce complained about the defense, it is difficult to contain a team when they get hot from beyond the 3 line and that occurred in the past 2 games. We need a team effort tonight to right this ship. Go Zips!!

Top 5 HS/JUCO Defensive Tackles (in my opinion): 1) WESTERN MICHIGAN - Sid Kaba HUDL FILM 2) TOLEDO - Wayne Peart HUDL FILM 3) OHIO - Kobi Gorman HUDL FILM 4) BOWLING GREEN - James Thomas HUDL FILM 5) AKRON - Marcus Moore HUDL FILM

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/akron-coach-joe-moorhead-agrees-to-contract-extension-amid-interest-from-power-five-nfl-teams-per-report/

Top 5 HS/JUCO Defensive Ends/Edge (in my opinion): 1) EASTERN MICHIGAN - Messiah Blair HUDL FILM 2) BUFFALO - Dion Crawford HUDL FILM 3) BOWLING GREEN - Alijah Williams HUDL FILM 4) AKRON - Kameron Cheatom HUDL FILM 5) BUFFALO - Devonyal Lofton HUDL FILM

Yes, the team has out-performed expectations coming into the season. I have followed this program very closely for a long time, and even felt doom and gloom coming into this year. Thanks to a pretty light nonconference schedule, the new (ish)-look group built up some confidence and was looking fantastic through the early stages of MAC play. Then, the 4th quarter against BG happened. Since the 3rd quarter of that game, aside from the awesome 2nd half against UB, the play on the floor has regressed to a point that's as bad if not worse than at any point in the HC Jackson era. They've lost to a couple of really bad teams, one in blowout fashion, and have blown a couple of great opportunities to a couple of the better teams. This past Saturday, they hosted the annual Akron for Nakon game. One of my favorite games of the entire season year after year. The program takes so much pride in putting on such a great event, I've been fortunate to win quite a few auctions over the years. The team was looking like they were going to pull out an outstanding win over one of the best mid-majors in the country. Then they turned the ball over 23 times. This team is far too old to be doing that. Ferrell is a Sr., has been in the program a long time. Ditto Neitzel. Ditto Martindale. Camp was at the best program in the MAC with the best coach last year, and she turned the ball over 9 times Saturday. Ball State turned it over 10 times, a lot of them from great defense from Akron. Far too many of Akron's turnovers were from throwing the ball out of bounds. That is not acceptable for a team of this much experience. Period. With the loss of Dawson, the coaches in this league expected Akron to drop 5 spots in the standings by the time this season ended. As of now, they've dropped 3 spots to the sixth place. Fred Castro at EMU is a coach that I have always seen on about the same playing field as Coach Jackson. The Zips controlled the game in Ypsi and it was never really in question once they got going. If Akron loses to them at home on Wednesday, they could be in great danger of not making it to Cleveland, which would be a massive disappointment. Beat them, and you have the tie-breaker over them with a trip over to Kent on Saturday against a team you're more than capable of beating. My biggest gripe with this staff remains the same as it did a couple of years ago. Player development is severely lacking. That extends far beyond the current group, as the last few graduating classes had a bunch of players that either regressed throughout 4 years or did not get significantly better. As for this group, Martindale came to UA as a deadeye shooter and was an awesome piece to have on the floor as a Fr. Unfortunately, that ACL injury prematurely ended a great first season, and she could have really helped that team as they lost a 1st rd. home game to EMU. Since then, her development has stalled, as her 3pt% has declined every season since. Ferrell has come a long way, but is not the kind of player to be the best player on a championship contender. Neitzel has come the furthest, as she was incorrectly utilized until the end of her Sophomore season. Corcoran, before her Walton-esque exodus this season, hit a plateau midway through last year and wound up falling down the usage totem pole and finishing the season injured. Bass is the best player on the team this year and has shown some progress, but her efficiency is down without a player like Dawson to carry the brunt of the load. As compared to her season with Buffalo, Camp's AST numbers are down, TOs up, and 3pt% way down. She is way out of control at times, and the BG meltdown happened in part due to Akron running out of timeouts due to her calling one on a loose ball that was unnecessary. Faith Stinson has shown some potential to be a great MAC player down the line. This year, though, as the best option on the bench, she has become fairly invisible in MAC play. It's just frustrating. Last year really showed what this program could become. I was mortified as to what this season could be after losing the best player in the league, but the entirely new style of play won me back over, only to see if fall by the wayside to past issues popping back up again. I am still not ready to move on from this staff, but preseason expectations be damned. The recent stretch has been unacceptable and it is not up to the standard of this roster and coaching staff. There is no arguing that. In year 5, we should not be fighting to stay in the top 8 like this. I'll be there Wednesday cheering them on as they take a huge swing at getting the season back on track. If you're able, you should join too.

Top 5 HS/JUCO Tight Ends (in my opinion): 1) WESTERN MICHIGAN - Brennan Wooten HUDL FILM 2) AKRON - Conner Cravaack HUDL FILM 3) CENTRAL MICHIGAN - Jesiah Stevens-Silva HUDL FILM 4) WESTERN MICHIGAN - Jack Parker HUDL FILM 5) BOWLING GREEN - Jacob Harris HUDL FILM

Top 5 HS/JUCO Wide Receivers (in my opinion): 1) OHIO - Chase Hendricks HUDL FILM 2) EASTERN MICHIGAN - Joe Walker HUDL FILM 3) BUFFALO - Jevell Fugerson HUDL FILM 4) AKRON - Paul Davis HUDL FILM 5) WESTERN MICHIGAN - Logan Lester HUDL FILM

I doubt Freeman would have developed into the player he is today on the courts by the dining hall.

I mentioned in another thread that succeeding at this level of coaching requires a decent amount of luck.

Agreed that Coach Groce doesn't get credit for Freeman. Has anyone ever been so lucky? Serious question without an ounce of hyperbole. Groce gets the guards. We've gotten spoiled with LCJ, Cheese, Banks, and now X. Simply top-shelf guard play. (Though, of course, I wish X had more help at the guard position this year. Losing Dawson was huge & I LOVE Greg Tribble but his complete lack of the outside shot is a serious handicap.) Looking to the future, I'm extremely excited about Tavari Johnson's potential. He can get into the lane at will & I think he's going to be an absolute KILLER when he's running the pick & roll... 🤞don't want to jinx him 😂

Top 5 HS/JUCO Quarterbacks (in my opinion): 1) AKRON - Steele Wasel HUDL FILM 2) CENTRAL MICHIGAN - Tyler Jefferson HUDL FILM 3) OHIO - Jacob Winters HUDL FILM 4) EASTERN MICHIGAN - Ike Udengwu HUDL FILM 5) TOLEDO - RJ Johnson HUDL FILM

Whatever happens this week, it's so "nice" or whatever adjective to have Groce and his staff on the bench and even better that they don't need the likes of Carry, Payton and a washed-up Jim Christian to succeed. Side note. This is crazy...Tribble was here with Jeremy Roscoe...and is only a junior.

May want to hold back "excepting those like track and field/CC" from what I've witnessed so far this season. Some creative writing in GoZips.com makes it seem a lot better than it is. Especially on the women's side. We'll have to see how the staff can recruit, but with all the defections after Coach Mitchell left, I think this program is headed to be a Zombie program, one the University funds barely to keep their status numbers up for Title IX and that's it.