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Thanks to @Basketballfan1 for giving us a run down on their take of what has occurred this past week. As stated above, finally some facts to discuss rather than innuendo. I too am a season ticket holder and go to the games when I'm back in Akron and watch the others thanks to ESPN+. The points all made above are valid, and as @clarkwgriswold said it's a civil discussion and appreciated. I was sky high on this team after the Non-conference schedule, although admitting it was against a lot of weaker teams. The Cleveland State game set off alarm bells in my head, but then we won the early "should win" games in the MAC and I got comfortable. The BG game collapse was the beginning of the end, and the complete blow-out vs. Ball State on the road made the deficiencies even more glaring. From there till today looked more like a team tanking as opposed to the admin tanking. Sometimes when a team learns their leadership is leaving, on its own or due to a firing/non-renewing, those teams respond with a "we'll show 'em" attitude, and go out and play hard and send the coach off with a positive note. This team started shutting down instead. Sadly. Not excusing the AD for his handling of the situation, just stating that the turn of events that got us here started way before last week in Kent.

@LoyalZIP is right. This post has bothered me for far longer than it should, because it makes no sense. How could the admin possibly benefit from this? I've been a critic of AD Guthrie, but he has publicly supported this team, at the games and engaging the athletes and fans. If Charles wants to not renew the staff, he doesn't need to manufacture a reason. And how does an AD or department "tank" the team anyway? What benefit to the school would this bring? If they fail to make the tourney, that's a black eye. These kind of losses hurts recruiting as does not making the tournament. This type of ending to the season almost ensures talent like Bass will enter the portal. Attendance already is abysmal, and this ensures zero interest in the last two home games. As LoyalZIP points out, admin has flaws but one of them is not being stupid. And as I said waaay earlier, if they wanted to "tank" then why did we win Wednesday night? Arrrrggghhhhh! It makes no sense.

Another Player of the Week for Enrique!

If you’re going to make a non-descriptive accusation like that, why even be anonymous about it? Without any evidence it’s just more BS excuses. This administration is far from perfect and has plenty of flaws. I can’t even begin to think about how they could have caused that result yesterday, a beatdown we haven’t seen anything like in 25 years. Until somebody gives actual evidence and facts to support these “claims,” it’s just a pile of crap. And it’s really weak, considering it’s only the administration’s fault now that the team is losing as opposed to when they were on a tear.

Use this code to order your tickets for the MAC Tournament. The 2023 MAC Tournament is making its way back to Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse from March 8th–11th. You can use code RIZZOMAC23 with the link below for discount tickets without taxes and only a 3 dollar fee! https://www.rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com/group/detail/mac-basketball-tournament-special-ticket-offer/

The Zips head to Toledo Tuesday night to seek revenge against the first place Rockets. The Rockets are 21-6/12-2 and on an 11 game win streak. Their last loss was in Brimfield on January 10th. RayJ Dennis is now the Zips leading scorer at 19.1 ppg. JT Shumate is now up to 17.1 ppg will Cetric Milliner is scoring 15.3 ppg. They remain first in the MAC in scoring at 84.7 ppg, a whopping 6 points more than the second place squad (Ohio). They are 9th in defense. Here's hoping the rediscovered Zips defense can overcome the Rockets high scoring offense. The Rockets beat the Zips by 10 at the JAR on February 7th.

If Coach Jackson was one of the most highly touted names in her sport, chose to take a pay cut to come to resurrect Akron, had a promising first season, and then got calls from LSU and South Carolina to come work they’re with less responsibility and more pay, our administration would be stupid to not try to sweeten the pot and extend her. That’s exactly what happened with football. If we’re going to compare what Moorhead is doing with football to the situation here, then I have no more left to say and we will get nowhere. That is insanity at its finest.

an advantage freeman may have here is that he is listed at the top of the page. He may get some quick votes from people who aren't interested in his category. That's how I ended up for Detroit's Davis.

Wow, that's an amazing tool. Thank you!

you can play around with the seedings here: http://bball.notnothing.net/mac.php?sport=mbb wondering if Travis and the Redhawks will sneak in.

Huge! But I'm not going to be able to watch 😕 Everyone knew we were primed for a let down game (or two?) after the emotionally draining KSUcks win. So 2 weeks ago UT really caught us with our tanks quite empty at the JAR. Two weeks later, If we had UT at home tomorrow night I'd absolutely be expecting a win. But on the road is going to be tough. But it looks like our D is back from it's two-game hiatus, and defense travels, so let's bring the Z-Fence, Zips & frustrate the hell out of the Rockettes.

Big Game tomorrow night.😀

@Basketballfan1, good stuff. Thank you for your insights & contributions. However this plays out we're all still 1Akron, so please don't be a stranger. Go Zips!

After what transpired with them stealing our coach, makes sense to me.

That’s a little unfair to coach Kest, the only head coach that has ever won a MAC title. Her top 3 teams would all run any of coach Jackson’s teams off the floor. Excuses of pay mean nothing. She’s a basketball coach. She’s not a paycheck. The track record speaks for itself. If you go back and watch the 18-19 team’s games, there are a ton of similarities, with many of them being negatives. Struggle closing games, inconsistent shooting from “shooters,” lack of on-court leadership, out of shape (getting worse), nothing from the bench. As someone who thought she should have been extended following last year, I can now see why that wasn’t so. They turned the damn ball over 23 times in a game last week. And got blown out by NIU. And blown out at Ball State. And blew a lead against a bad WMU team. If you want to chalk up the embarrassment at Kent to the admin allegedly telling her she wasn’t going to be extended—fine. But there have been plenty of displays of ineptitude all year in areas where there shouldn’t be. Does administration perhaps need to take a long look in the mirror at how they want to improve the program? Absolutely! Does that mean this is a bad and terrible and destructive move? No! I want to compete for titles. I want to be Felicia’s Buffalo teams. Sue’s CMU teams. We are a long ways from there right now. Would a new coach guarantee anything better? No! But it may be worth a shot, as the program seems to be plateauing.

Facts! Yay! If true, that is a shame. I was hoping she could turn it around, but I don’t see it coming. The way they’ve played since the end of the 3rd quarter against BG tells the story. The lack of an extension last year was likely due to the fact that the admin wanted to see if the program could sustain success without the best player in the league. And it hasn’t. I personally have always been on the side of thinking coach deserves at least another year, but I’m also aware we aren’t running a charity around here. WBB exists to be a winner. That doesn’t mean handing out pity extensions and congratulations for being “better than the worst” in program history. It be that way sometimes.

No way to run a railroad. I prefer how they handled it with the men's program: hire the man who crushed your dreams...twice!

A lot of people posting with opinions and partial truths. I don’t have a daughter on this team or any other teams at Akron. I’m a season ticket holder for women’s basketball for the last 7 seasons. Some actual facts about this program and their head coach. She’s is the lowest paid coach in the MAC. So all this talk about the incredible support from the administration is based on what? So they are the third highest budget for Akron sports? What’s that say about Akron if she’s the lowest paid coach in the MAC? Do we think that’s going to help us recruit a higher caliber coach?(I did my own fact checking and the posting about chartered flights was also a stretch. They chartered for the NIU game because it was a week day and they are still students! A far cry from what they were trying to get you to believe) Speaking of the coach, this program has only had 12 500 or above season. Even if they lose the rest of the season, Coach Jackson will own 4 of them in her in her 5 years as head coach. That includes the COVID year. Charles, who likes to say this is a business and is probably one of the people on here, seems to think that 4 500 or better seasons from the lowest paid coach isn’t good business? This program has improved every year. Recruiting has been solid and some good talent was heading this way next season. Based on what we’ve seen we could have had the winningest coach this program has ever had. In addition several players were sticking around. This team was building and making a run. I’m sure the coach knew that Charles was looking for more than what this season was looking like before making a decision on her future. She did her best to earn an extension and last week he let her know she wasn’t being renewed. She told her players on Thursday. She owed that to them. They are athletes that came to play for her. Decisions they were making were based on her being their coach. If you think that a group of 19-21 year old ladies weren’t affected emotionally about their own future by this news you’re just oblivious. So yes, Charles tanked this team and the game against our rivals. He may be a lot of things but I don’t think he’s stupid. Three won’t be back for sure. I’d bet that Reagan hits the portal button. She’s too good to be on a rebuilding team that will take several seasons to rebound from this. So it was fun watching a really good coach build a program that went from fifty people a game watching into a competitive team in a very competitive MAC league with some really good attendance. But there’s a reason Akron has only had 12 500 or better seasons in its history and this decision shows they don’t care if they have 12 more. Charles will be gone in a few years, like every AD and President before him. Us fans, the ones that support these programs year after year just got kicked in the gut, again, because some outsider came in and thinks he’s a business man.

To get control of the game one has to think out of the box

It was a hell of a first post. LOL.

I hope that the staff has figured out a way to defend what's essentially a 4 guard lineup for Toledo. Nate is certainly more capable of guarding one of those guys that Sammy, so that should help. There were just too many instances of Enrique having to defend a guard on the perimeter in the fist game and Toledo took advantage of it.

Zips split the series against Western Carolina this weekend. Strong showing, much better than I expected with the turmoil over the winter. Apparently this is proof Spuds WAS the problem. Next up another weekend roadie to Dixieland to play 3 against Elon. The weekday games start up on mid-March against Dayton, Michigan, the Worthless Nuts, and old rivals Marshall and Youngstown State. come on spring!!!

If we play as well as we did against Kent and Buffalo than this game will be a toss up. We need contributions from everyone on the team. If Nate, Hankerson, and Hunter contribute on offense we should score into the 70s and have a chance to win. We know what we can get from X and Freeman, we need the supporting cast to step up. If they double and triple Freeman down low, we need to hit the 3 point shots. We control our destiny. If we win out, we win the MAC and get a one seed. That makes the tournament a lot easier since we would avoid Kent and Toledo until the finals if we advance that far.

Good question! A: Two. The next 4 MAC Tourney MVP's: 2023: X 2024: Enrique 2025: Nate Johnson 2026: Nate Johnson

He cocked that back & threw it down with bad intentions!🤯🤯🔥🔥🔥

Groce's interview after game...again spoke about "coachability." Carry is not coachable. From what I hear on the board and elsewhere is that Mr. Pinky doesn't say boo to Carry during the game. Would love to see Bobby Knight (even though I was never a fan) slide Insincere across the floor after one of his dances.

Evan Wilson circles the EMU games on his calendar for a reason.

Like you, i don't like rehashing the past or comparing coaches. God knows, this board still lives with the ghost of MBB, although, I think that ABJ article this week should finally close that door. Are you speaking of the volleyball program when you discuss the contract extension? I would hope that 95% of folks on her are more Pro-Akron U than Pro-Specific Coach. Although, we learned when Dambrot left that a good chunk of the fan base didn't give a flying eff about Zips basketball. They were here for him and left with him along with their seats in the lower bowl. Shameful conduct. Sooo I hope that even though many were fond of M Jackson and her accomplishments they will quickly get on board with the next coach. Guthrie is selling products. Volleyball could be an attractive and exciting product more so than WBB.

We want them to win. We all want championships. But this isn’t a professional sports team where the players are on contracts and they’re waiting on a new head coach. No one disagrees that this team fell apart after that loss to BG. If this were the pros under your philosophy they would just bring in a new coach. But this is literally throwing the baby out with the bath water. The entire staff will be gone. Most players will leave. All the talent is gone. A new coach will have to start from the bottom and build a completely new program. It’s a total dismantling of the program. It’s a bit extreme. Loyal, to your point on Kest: 12 years. 5 above 500 seasons. Happy for a title. Jackson: 5 years. 4 above 500 and the COVID year. If you think that what the admin was putting them though behind the scenes didn’t affect some of this outcome then what’s the point. NW, I don’t think that higher pay would’ve made her a better coach. Real support and job security may have. Again, college is about recruiting. These young ladies made their biggest life decisions to come play for HER. When there’s behind the scenes drama we don’t see it affects what we see on the court. Charles came in and wanted to get rid of a winning coach. That’s it. He actually said to me that he could get more ticket sales at women’s volleyball if he gave them some of wbb budget to them. He’s a business man. loyal, you won’t have to worry about beating any of those teams. Under Charles you’ll never see another competitive team.

I was told yesterday the Marshall series has been terminated, disappointing if true