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The MAC commissioner just issued a statement that if Buffalo does not keep this within 20 points or if Evan Wilson enters the game, they will be required to add a direction to their name.

Any discussion on KD needs to look at Akron KD vs KD now. KD built Akron's program with four-year players. His staff would find diamonds in the rough and develop them into really good players. Romeo Travis, Dru Joyce, Jeremiah Wood, Isaiah Johnson, Nikola Cvetinovic, Steve McNees, the McKnight brothers, etc - none of them were highly recruited out of HS. And they were so good at this that they reached the MAC Championship in 9 out of 11 years (and 7 straight) while reaching The Dance three times. "20 wins and that's it" is utter nonsense. He was a great coach here. But the college basketball landscape has changed over the last few years. With the transfer portal filled up every summer, 4-year players at mid-majors are becoming less and less common. NIL money is drawing players away from mid-majors even more now. His intense style probably isn't well-suited for an atmosphere where you have to re-recruit your entire roster every year either. I think, like many great coaches before him, the game has evolved beyond him. That doesn't mean he wasn't a great coach for us - he was - he revived Akron basketball. It's possible to be appreciative of his time here and wish him the best while simultaneously being excited for what Groce is building.

I'm a huge fan of Whitesell and what he's doing at Buffalo. They should give him a lifetime contract.

Toledo, Akron, Kent and OU. Just feels right on Friday on Cleveland

I want to eliminate Carry so bad. One of the cockiest Kent players I can remember.

I don't get the need to s*** on Dambrot. This thread doesn't have to be a Dambrot vs Groce thread. One can appreciate the foundation Dambrot built for the program while also enjoying what Groce is achieving. After all, without Dambrot showing that Akron could be a winning program, Groce probably doesn't risk his reputation as a coach to come here.

This might be one of the prime time periods in the rivalry. 6 matchups in 2 years, including a MAC Final and now Semi-Final. Both teams are really good and neither is vastly superior or inferior. Bad blood between the players with last year's diss track, Carry's antics, them rushing our student section, etc. I don't know how many rivalries in the country have two schools that are largely competitive - at least in a singular sport - year after year, and have the number of rivalry occurrences that we do.

Zips have won a MAC tournament game every year they’ve played one (2020) since 2005. We are so damn lucky.

I greatly enjoyed the home environment KD brought back to Akron. The JAR had not rocked like that since Huggins. KD built a premiere mid major program that unfortunately ended with several years of heartbreak in the MAC tourney. After multiple years of being the #1 seed but failing to get it done for the automatic trip to the big dance, I think he was telling the truth when he went to a team that was in a 3 bid league (at least it was when he arrived). His family is from Pittsburgh and his son transferred to Duquesne to finish his soccer career so I don’t blame him. The money was not that big an increase if my memory serves correct. It was time for both him and program to go in new directions. I think the whole of ZNO (minus one or two cranks) agrees Groce is the best coach for the job. Let’s just enjoy what we have and leave KD in the past. Go Zips!

Awesome to see Hankerson able to do something like that after toiling in obscurity in DeKalb for 4 seasons.

I think there are two keys for the Zips tonight. First, come up with something that gets Carry out of sorts like their defense in the championship game last year. Second, they can't let PCCC's bigs go off. The Zips are already outnumbered at the 4 and 5. They can't let a guy like Payton have a bog game like they did at Brimfield. The situation gets even more dire if Enrique gets in foul trouble.

Carry on my wayward son There'll be peace when you are done. 😉

Should be two good games.

Can't wait to see Sincere Carry's last game in person tomorrow night

Shoutout to reghi having to commentate 4 blowouts 🫡

...and with that, Buffalo gets relegated.

Maybe I’m showing my lack of age but I grew up with reghi so I appreciate his work on the zips and other NE Ohio media

Wife and I renewed ours two seats in section 208 for $198. That’s a great value IMO. We would blow that much going to dinner and a movie. Looking forward to more tailgating next season. Recently purchased a Jeep Gladiator. The bed has an enough room for the Traeger pellet smoker, a cooler, and a couple of chairs 👍🏼. We didn’t get to do any tailgating last year because we were still living out of state and didn’t get to attend many games.

I've only ever gone to the MAC Championship game and have always just bought my tickets online using one of the codes. Never really paid attention to "our section". In my experience it felt like the whole arena was the Zips section as most people just buy tickets wherever and the majority tend to be Zips fans.

FYI, updated map from seat geek. Team sections were different before noon.

Don't worry, Wagon Wheel. We'll bring you home soon from that terrible, ugly place you've been kept...

Probably at Akron. Dambrot would've lost the 1st round matchup, then 2013 would've seen Groce's OU squad win the MAC and go to the Elite 8 since he would've added Caris LeVert to the 2012 squad that returned. Groce would've left, gone to a big school, not live up to expectations because he would've been asking AAU players to play actual basketball, Dambrot would've had the same postseason success at Akron, left for Duquesne, and Groce would come here. Haha Side note, never forget how bad of a coach Jim Christian is for failing with Groce's OU squad.

Brian Walsh makes one shot in 2012 where would Groce be today? That's every game.

Defense - "oh, you meant in dollars. I meant in rubles."

With apologies; I mixed up a couple of posts and sent my post to the wrong thread.

Carry literally had his best game of the season against us. For most of the season he's been a volume shooter, not an efficient one. For the season he's shooting .304 for 3 and .409 from the field. To put that into comparison Sammy Hunter is shooting .322 from 3 and .406 from the field. Shooting wise I feel we caught Carry on the wrong night. That's not to say Carry isn't incapable of getting hot. Hunter had a massive game then too. Sometime players just get into the zone. Carry seemed to really disrupt Castaneda flow. Even in the first game I felt Carry played some good defense on him, but Castaneda was able to make some difficult shots. I feel to win this game we need Castaneda to get hot, Freeman to stay out of foul trouble, and either Hankerson or Hunter to step up and deliver a ~15 point game. First one to 70 wins this game IMO.

M110 with 13 of my best friends and family. LFG Zips!

They are listed by the date they were offered (oldest at the top and most recent at the bottom). Unfortunately, Rivals doesn’t list that in their data. 247 does, but it’s often wrong. When I see an offer has been issued, or a prospect reaches out to me on Twitter, I’ll update the profile and post here. Every now and then I’ll go back through and update the prospects’ offer list.

It's tomorrow!!! Go Zips!!!

Words you will never here the Brimfield Tech coach utter: "Obviously I thought we did a lot of good things tonight," Zips coach John Groce told reporters in Cleveland. "I thought it was a reflection of our preparation. These guys are just such a special group. We took two days off after Friday's game [against Kent State] and they came back and you could just look in their eyes and tell their care factor was high."

I thought offensively the Zips looked great. We had 4 of our 5 starters in double figures and shot close to 50% from the 3 line. The keys are getting offense from Hankerson and Hunter. Both of them had solid games with Hankerson having 4 steals and Hunter playing very physical and hitting some big shots. Also, Johnson and Johnson contributed off the bench. Tavari had some amazing passes and we had 18 assist tonight. Our weakness has been our shooting and not getting consistent play from Hankerson and Hunter. If those two continue to hit baskets I think we will beat Kent tomorrow. Finally, Freeman should be well rested because he sat out amost 10 minutes of the first half with foul trouble. Go Zips.

I’m more interested in when do we start our, “We want Wilson!” chant?

Whetsel should be the second northern New York State basketball coach to end his career this week.

We are really firing on all cylinders. Typical Groce team when it matters most! Hope we can get some rest. Big game followed by another big game!

South Canada sounds good!

We are really passing the ball well today.

Boys are buzzin

His lack of aggressiveness is frustrating.

Great D from Sammy!

1st of the year? Assumed he couldn’t dunk. Why hasn’t he been doing that all year instead of going up soft?

All portal movement is fully updated (out and in). If anyone sees any activity for MAC teams let’s me know. Looks like Akron and Kent State had the most players transfer out at 17 a piece. Difference is Kent State had far more of their transfers sign elsewhere. Another recruiting note is Buffalo signed the most JUCOs with 9.

Certainly would rather see Ohio than Toledo in the finals. Gotta get there though.

Taking page out of Zips play book from 2022.

Zips fans need to get here and give NIU a fan base.

They very well could on a good night. They won't mind the pace and their young players have developed nicely.

From the confines of the esteemed Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in beautiful downtown Cleveland, Ohio, Reghi expresses his considerable gratitude for the veritable plethora of complimentary statements.