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St Bona alum from Akron here — not to gloat but to say we know this was a tough loss for Zips Nation. Like most of our fans, I too have tremendous respect for the Zips. The banter on our fan board is that this is a big win for us. I’ve been a Zips admirer dating back to the Huggins years, and hope to get to a couple games soon. Both teams battled hard, especially on D. As Groce said “it sucks to lose” a game like this because he knows it would have been a quality W. The refs were horrible for both teams which hurt the flow of the offenses. They called the wimpy contact but missed some major body bangs. Bonnies had a 10-4 foul disadvantage at one point of the first half. Our little PG Tyrell Luc had a breakaway dunk and got undercut, fell hard to the ground. No call. You had a guy get blasted on a drive and no call. The Zips are the best team in the MAC. We fans are always blasting the head coach when we feel a close one got away. If you shoot better from the line today we all know that your coach is getting accolades and not ridicule. Zips battled from 10 down in the first half and 8 down in the second half against an SBU defense that held potent #6 FAU to 64 points on 40% shooting and 25% from deep. Our offense is as deep and as potent as you will face this season … and we struggled and scratched for every point. Our 5th year PG made a stupidly ridiculous shot over Freeman’s 7-2 wing span, and then our best defender Evans got a big deflection on the inbounds play to disrupt your final play. It’s the smallest of margins. Would love to have the Zips and Bonnies play again in the near future. Olean NY is a lovely place this time of year to see a college game. Good luck in conference play. Hope to see both teams in March at the big dance!

I think everyone has successfully assessed where we are heading into league play. And we have seen Groce reinvent the Zips multiple times between now and March so I’m not concerned yet. For me, I liked seeing Hunter get into the fray and grab 5 rebounds yesterday. He needs to keep on improving his rebounding and midrange offense. Neither Nate or Dawson are playing to their own standards. We need them to be consistent contributors. We can’t afford for them to disappear for whole games like they have. Finally, we need one of the point guards to rise to the challenge. These guys need to be in the gym shooting 3’s every chance they get and earn that right to shoot more during a game. Having a point guard that can’t be left alone because he’ll kill you with haymakers is a staple to this offense. This can still happen between now and March. Go Zips!!!

Seen way too many close Zips losses against upper tier competition. I thought in a year where we are so senior- and talent-heavy we could beat a team like St Bonny on a neutral court. Instead…another one in the loss column.

We scored 61 pts yesterday, with Scott & Thornton going a combined 2-6 from the field and 0-4 from 3. I know Ali Ali went 7-17 from the field and 4-9 from 3, but there's still plenty of room for scoring from the guards. Scott misses way too many 3s with his line drive shot. They're both solid defensively, so it's a bit easier to live with the lack of offensive contributions, but I can't give them anything better than a C+/B- grade. HUGE swing and a miss by Groce to not have a scorer in here to replace X2.0. We have 1 Q1 loss and 3 Q2 losses. All but 1 of those losses are single possession defeats, all 4 are road/neutral site losses, and all 4 came without Ali Ali. Eye test says we're the best team in the MAC. We now enter MAC play with a chance to prove the eye test is accurate.

I think the following is a very important quote from Groce in the St. B article- “Obviously, getting Ali after eight games has been helpful at both ends of the floor. Trying to figure out our combinations and all that is maybe a little bit more delayed than normal just because he didn't play the first eight. But I think we're headed in the right direction.” Translation- they are a work in progress. I have every confidence they'll get there. Quote two that I liked from Groce- "“I've got to do a better job putting Ali in a little bit better position there. I put him in a tough spot. We didn't execute the down screen great. They pushed the catch out. The ball got deflected. Now it's in the back court. The timing of the action's off a little bit, but that's not on Ali. I've got to help Ali a little bit more there.” I can't imagine there's a better way to teach accountability to a group of young men than by taking accountability yourself. This guy has a future in motivational speaking and team building if he ever gives up coaching.

I have to give Freeman credit for not skipping a beat after dislocating his pinky finger. They put it back in place, taped two fingers together on his shooting hand and he was itching to get back in. I would have passed out. I’m a bit squeamish with that stuff.

Gotta say this was a really cool event. Every game was close and felt like a conference tournament or March madness game. Really wish Akron would’ve won but overall a pretty fun day of CBB

We have 2 P5 guys coming in this week. We need at least 1 to commit.

The Zips enter conference play this week and have two months to come together before the MAC Tournament. There are some pretty glaring issues that will need to be resolved if they want any chance at a March to remember. 1) Point Guard Every Zips team that has won the MAC has had at least decent point guard play. This team doesn't right now. Tribble gives you excellent defense and has become the defacto point guard our of necessity, but he's probably better suited to be the first guard off the bench and playing off ball on a really good team. Scott/Thornton haven't done much against good competition and Tavari isn't trusted to be out there at all. We struggle against on-ball pressure and, at times, to even initiate the offense. Akron may be able to win the MAC in a down year for the conference, but they won't beat anyone good unless at least one of Thornton/Scott/T. Johnson step up and play much better. 2) Bench Production Aside from Dawson (who got hurt tonight and hasn't played well in December, there hasn't been much. The guard play mentioned above along with Prather and Lyles not being trusted to play at all has really made the depth of this team pretty thin. Moments like tonight (losing Dawson for most of the game) shine light on that weakness. 3) Controlling the Paint Aside from Freeman (obviously), this team lacks frontcourt talent. Hunter is allergic to the paint, Lyles isn't playing, Baker is redshirting. There just isn't much if opposing teams successfully pull Freeman away from the hoop. SBU outscored us 32-18 in the paint tonight and doubled us up in offensive rebounding. The team in its current state is probably good enough to grind out a MAC Tournament win because the league is so bad, but they're nowhere close to good enough to upset a higher seed in the NCAA Tournament. I look forward to watching them progress and hope we can become a much better team by the time we go back to Cleveland.

I have to be honest and say it's crossed my mind that next year may be a retooling year. Of the 8 who play now, only Dawson, Scott, and Nate Johnson are due back. Tavari Johnson, Ryan Prather, and Amani Lyles could be transfer candidates. A lot of turnover could take place. We'll need a few guys to really step up, Baker to be pretty good right away, and for the staff to hit a few home runs (or at least triples) in the portal.

Just wanted to say I'm just trying to enjoy these players for one final go-round. Last year was actually our year to make noise in the dance - we were primed to return a starting 5 who punked KSUcks in Cleveland and then took Sweet 16 UCLA to the limit. But then Ali Ali transferred out and Mike Dawson was injured and our potentially epic season was derailed before it even started. This year it's obvious we haven't been able to fill X's shoes... hell, we're not close to anyone filling even one of X's shoes. So it is what it is. Let's win the MAC, beat KSUcks, and then hope maybe Dawson (if not Dawson, who?) gets hot from behind the 3-point arc in an NCAA game or two.

I was thinking about this. And it's not to be too negative - I'll take this over the football team 101 times out of 100, but Zips basketball is kinda like groundhog day a little.

Last play took way too long to develop (especially with no timeouts left) and didn't get anyone open. I think it's fair to criticize it and the decision to call a TO in the first place.

Are you kidding?!?

The deflection on that inbounds pass completely threw off that final play and turned it into 1 on 5 basketball. They need to work to transitioning into an effective on the fly play sometimes rather than go to the timeout, especially against a good defensive team.

12-19 on free throws. Gotta be better

Mike Dawson has not been able to get into the flow following his first few games. He is shooting 32% from the field and from 3pt. If you take away those first few games it's even worse. Thornton and T Johnson have not show any kind of consistency. Neither has shown the ability to take the ball to the basket and shoot or dish to the open man. They are too prone to turnovers and defensive lapses. We lack a ball handler who can break the press or get open on inbounds plays without drama. Teams with big athletic front courts have given us trouble. We have size but not strength. I like our odds of winning the MAC but it won't be pretty. Lots of close games grinding out wins.

When do spring classes begin? It would be nice to see some of these portal & JUCO guys early enroll. It would be really nice to include a QB or 2; so they would have the spring practices to get acclimated.

I think he could be a decent big man. Groce must have thought he wouldn't see the floor much so he gave him the choice to take the red shirt. I guess the lack of spare bigs won't be quite as much of an issue in MAC play.

I was very surprised we didn't add a big this off-season. I thought it was an issue last year. Nothing special, either, just a guy with size who can defend and rebound. I wonder if they expected Baker to play?

I doubt the St. Bonny game is included in these stats but here are our scoring leaders thus far: 1. Ali Ali: 18 ppg 2. Freeman: 17.7 ppg 3. Hunter: 11.1 ppg 4. Nate: 9 ppg 5. Tribble: 8.7 ppg 6. Dawson: 7.3 ppg 7. Shammah: 5.9 ppg 8. Tavari: 4.0 ppg 9. Thornton: 4.0 ppg I vote for Nate Johnson.

Wouldn't Aziz Bandaogo and Jermaine Marshall be looking awfully good in blue & gold right now? 😩 I like Shammah more than Garvin Clarke... but barely. I've been rather disappointed in him honestly. Love his defense (I liked Clarke's defense). I do think Shammah finishes better at the rim than Garvin, is more athletic and a better ball handler. You stole my words in regards to Nate. He's playing with veterans & it just doesn't doesn't look like he feels like a team leader. Hopefully next season he'll take a big jump when he's the locker room veteran. But I don't know if we're a deep team, or not. It's been quite the disappointment that none of Tavari, Lyles, or Prather appear to be at all serviceable at this level. I had relatively high hopes for Tavari coming into the year but he's yet to duplicate last year's early season game vs. Nevada. That was a long time ago now. And that Nevada team was as good & athletic as any team we've faced since. Weird.

Sure he wasn’t at the Duquesne/ Cleary game?

Losing less games might help our seeding a bit.

Lebron has a game tonight bruhhh 💀💀

Very tough non conference as planned by Groce. I think it definitely challenged the team as well as Groce himself. Nobody in the MAC had that many battles like we did. We will see how the guards perform and check back in February.

It was actually Greg Oden, not Lebron.

They said he was poked in the eye during a play. He might have gone back in for a short spell, but that was it.

What's going on here? Did I wander into the land of the trolls?

💯 (out of likes)

It's Groce. G-R-O-C-E. If you're going to be an ass, use proper spelling. Groce doesn't "over-coach". The succession rate of the plays he calls during timeouts can be questioned, but that's an execution issue - not an over-coaching issue. We are lacking guard play, you are correct, which means Groce should absolutely be calling timeouts to draw up plays and make sure the team is on the same page. If you have a solid floor general, those timeouts aren't as necessary. The name of the game is putting the ball in the hoop more often than your opponent. We simply didn't do that. One of the guards needs to figure out how to step up as a scorer next to Freeman, Ali Ali, and Tribble. We were right there at the end with one of the most experienced teams in the country. Pretty good showing that will sharpen our March iron. You should worry about scoring more than 3 points against Missouri; leave the Akron criticism to us Akron fans.

The Zips with a 53-48 win over Canisius.

I agree with everything. OSU did have bad QB play, but they also have one HS All American QB after another on the team. They had 30 days to get one ready and another ready as a back up. It's a football factory and the production line is broken. 12 team playoff and a cake schedule guarantees they will get a post season beating next year as well.

Groce's worst team in 5 years