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I'm all for Groce picking up a monetary sanction from the MAC for post-game comments about the refs and the chicken$h!+ technical calls. I'll start the GoFundme for us all to contribute to pay it.

Can’t State still sucks… but my Xbox gamertag I’m still rocking 15 years later does not

If the Zips guards could consistently hit a decent percentage of wide open kick out 3s, this team would be so unstoppable.

I just learned Sammy went to Butler.

Imagine publicly stating that you're better than Enrique Freeman. Then playing him and getting clinically schooled.

Block on one end and the layup at the other by Freeman, beating Payton up the floor.

Now they need to come out of the half step on their necks and put this game away.

Announcer is not impressed with Akron's 3-point shooting...2 seconds later Ali hits another 3.

Making a return to Zips Nation after an 8+ year hiatus to say first and foremost Can’t sucks in every possible way. I was at the game last night with my son. Sat mid court low near some of the old stalwarts on here. The Can’t fans by us were classless, clueless, ref blaming jackasses. Felt compelled to come on to share my thoughts and thank the team and coach for cramming a W down their throats last night. Enjoy seeing you at the games year in and out. Your unwavering (though often critical) support for the zips is one of few constants in an increasingly crazy world. Go Zips!

Players no longer listed on 2024 roster: RB CJ Price OL Tony Georges OL Alex Robarge DE Antonio Smith LB Andrew Behm S MyJaden Horton Walk on WR Jax Smith is still listed even though he transferred to Southwestern Oklahoma State. DT Terray Jones is still listed, but I’m pretty sure he’s out of eligibility. Im certain most of the 2023 HS class that did not play and are listed as Sophomores are actually redshirt freshmen. Im going to remove the above players from the position previews and will add back if it turns out they are still on the team. Edit: Forgot to add if the above is true, that leaves only 10 players remaining from the Arth years.

Move over Saddam. Kent's new #1 fan.

That Amani put back is exactly what he needs to do to keep getting minutes

I wish the color guy would just shut the hell up.

Give a big shout out to Tavari. The 2nd year player went from a starter to zero minutes. When it came his turn to step up because of injury and illness, he had a great game against Kent. I agree that they need to find him minutes when everyone gets healthy.

I was really busy at work this week and lost track of many things. Zips basketball was one of them. Nothing better than waking up on a Saturday morning, looking for where the Zips would be playing today and finding out they already won and the win was at Kent.

Canton Repository/Beacon article on the game - https://sports.yahoo.com/still-perfect-akron-mens-basketball-104537328.html

81. We led the entire game and we’re the more talented team by a long shot. Love how Tavari stepped up.

Big game from Tavari Johnson. Looked confident with the ball and did great penitrating inside. I'm hoping to see him get some of Thornton's minutes once Greg is healthy.

Great effort tonight by the Zips. The flu bug has hit them hard. WBB and T&F too. Guys just sucked it up and competed!

Kent got all the breaks with the refs and still could not get it done. Better officiating and Akron destroys Flashes

Payton and crowd going nuts because he cherry picked a block only for Freeman to follow it up with two blocks of his own. Man I hate Payton so much. This is great.

This is Ali Ali's first game vs. PCCC since the ass whooping we gave them in the MAC Championship game 2 years ago, which was the Akron Diss Track game - "F Ali Ali".

Outstanding post, brother. Thank you!

The Ohio University Bobcats come to the JAR Tuesday night to face the Zips. The Bobcats are 8-9 heading into a home game tonight against Eastern Michigan. Ohio enters the matchup with EMU with a 2-3 mark in MAC play after defeating Central Michigan on Tuesday. The Bobcats average 78.6 points per game, while shooting .455 from the field, .341 from three and 70.8 percent from the line.. Bobcat scoring is pretty balanced with 4 players averaging between 11.7 and 13.5 ppg, with Jaylin Hunter leading scoring at 13.5 ppg. Their top player, second team All-MAC preseason second teamer AJ Brown, is out for the season with a shoulder injury. The natives in Athens are getting restless with the lack progress in the program since Jeff Boals arrival. Thus far, he has been 86-56 at OU.

I might be the only one who would care about this matchup, but as of today the NCAA tournament bracketology has (13) Akron vs. (4) Illinois. It’s bound to happen eventually.

It was an awful product for the fan of the team getting the short end of the stick. That's a 15+ pt win with even semi fair officiating. The end goal was to have an exciting finish, which they did, but how many people were still tuned in after Akron was up by 20? It was a 10 pt game at the half only because of a BS technical on Ali Ali and weak fouls on Akron. Akron ran an 8 man lineup last night, and for most of the 2nd half, we had 3 guys with 4 fouls, and an additional ~3 guys with 3 fouls. Someone else mentioned that Kent made adjustments and came out more physical, but the only way to stop physicality is with physicality. If you have 7 of your 8 players in foul trouble, you can't be physical. It drastically changed how we could counteract their physical game plan in the 2nd half. @NWAkron claims I have Kent Derangement Syndrome. I don't, but I do loathe PCCC. Yes, we won. But it's Kent. If we have the opportunity to pulverize them, I want to. I want them to feel embarrassed that they exist as a "university". That opportunity was stripped by screwy officiating in my opinion.

Good points. 👍

He was GREAT last night. Came out of nowhere.

I agree, Tavari’s best game in some time. I would like him to surpass Scott first. Thornton has such a steady presence even though he is not a threat to score. This is the point where I pleaded with LCJ to live in the gym for awhile. And he did make a decent physical change before his Junior year. Tavari needs 10-15 pounds of pure muscle added to his frame. Get busy kid if you want to be one of the greats.

Knowing Tavari, the lack of any reaction from Sullinger, and my lip reading expertise, I believe he said “And one” after the ball went it. Similarly, I’ll wager Ali said “You can’t stop me” while turning to run down the floor. In each instance the refs got rabbit ears after a huge Zips play and were looking to blow a whistle to diffuse any possible flare up. To me, the moment of a packed house rivalry game was too big for them. Their desire to control the game snuffed out two of the biggest momentum plays the Zips produced last night. Glad we were tough enough to overcome.

💯 That would be huge.

Thanks. Now do the Southland Conference.

It’d be great if it turns out we get Terray Jones for another year. Guy is a beast.

I don't have the Kent Derangement Syndrome that @Let'sGoZips94 does 😀. But, wow Brimfield Tech's Freeman is such a typical Mr. Pinky player. It's like Jim Christian went to central casting and found him and brought him home.

Had someone told me Kent would shoot 29 free throws and Akron would shoot 17, would have thought we are real trouble. The first 8 minutes of the second half were not shining moments for the officials. Looked like they got together at the half and said let’s tighten this up. The technicals are very subjective but if I was John Groce this game would go to the league office asking why Kent’s Freeman can make 3s and fly around chirping multiple times and not get T’d up. Congratulations kid, you had the half of your life but if those Ts on us were legit, he should have had a couple as well. Still a great win. Go Zips!

It's a beautiful day in the Rubber City. Mighty Pinky has struck out.

By the way, I doubt Coach Chappel "convinced" the writer of anything. Writers have become extremely lazy and don't seem to fact check much. I see this from our SID, and I also loathe reading UA's AI written game summaries. Ugh!

Go ZIPS

Groce would have gotten one himself late if the officiating crew wasn't aware of how terrible they were. The tall pretty boy who spent probably 2 hours on his hair, Luke Schumer, is a low tier Horizon League ref. Dreadful night for him, but he still gets the $2,500 game check plus expenses. Stupid game.

Two of the worst T's I've ever seen. It's a rivalry game with cockiness on both sides. Let the kids celebrate. Nothing crossed the line.

Akron stands alone at the top

You could play that game 100 times, and I’m not sure how many times Akron wins. No Tribble, foul trouble for the remaining guards, Kent gets hot late. Man, excruciating but awesome to finish the job.

Holding the (self proclaimed) best player in the MAC to 6 points is so impressive! Go Zips!

ez $

I remember this color guy when he played for Michigan and all around the NBA as a big man journeyman. He apparently had numerous concussions.

This might be the best start I’ve ever seen out of Akron. Maybe Thorton needs to start for Dawson? And move Tribble to the 2 when he gets back love what I’m seeing

Zips are missing two starters. I don't need to hear any more about Kent's injuries.

PAYTON WITH THE FOUL ON THE ALI ALI 3! He looks like he might cry!

Freeman schooling Payton early. Love to see it

My thoughts on this stuff: 1) If you live in Summit County, there's a fair chance that public transportation is an option to you to get to games and not have to pay parking. Don't be afraid of the bus. 2) Someone made this point earlier, but there's a tendency for people to think that attendance would improve if they addressed whatever their personal bugaboos are with respect to going to games, but people don't necessarily think like you (the royal you), so stuff that bothers you may not bother a lot of other people, and stuff you're not bothered by might be a problem for others. In the macro, that means catering to/trying to pull in casual fans probably makes more sense financially than appeasing the diehards when those two groups are at odds. In the micro, I'm looking at start times. People are complaining about the 9PM starts, (that's only 3 of 14 home games, although I realize more could be added), and obviously that's being done for TV purposes. Are you sure it's better to tell CBS Sports Network/ESPNU/ESPN2(!) "no" to a 9PM start time, and forsake that TV money, and maybe get some more butts in the seats at the JAR, then it is to foresake those butts and get on TV? This is still a capitalist society and however we improve attendance is gonna take money. As lowly as you may think of UA marketing or athletics financial offices, I doubt they haven't bothered to look at the $ difference between 7PM ESPN+ start times vs 9PM CBSSN/ESPNU/ESPN2 start times. P.S. I doubt a meaningful number of viewers are looking at empty seats on 9PM Friday or for Tuesday night football games and saying OH MY WORD HOW DISGRACEFUL I SHAN'T EVER ENTERTAIN THE NOTION OF WATCHING A GAME WITH THESE AKRON FELLOWS AGAIN AND MY SPORTING OFFSPRING FORSWEAR TO ATTEND THEIR INSTITUTION. P.P.S. I include ESPN2 in this because if you haven't heard, our home game against Toledo is indeed on the Duece on Friday, February 2nd. I am happy about this! 3) As far as societal changes with respect to going to games, I think Covid really messed that up - I must admit I am way less active and going out-y than I was pre-Covid - and I am not alone. That's the only aspect of our attendance issues that really don't have much of an guess on how to resolve. That said... 4) I think both camps are correct in this "promotional gimmicks!" vs. "promote the hell out of the great product on the floor!" debate. These are only anecdotes, and anecdotes are not data. But while I don't live in Ohio anymore, growing up in Akron, I went to a Zips football game that featured the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders performing at halftime (since they were able to be there during football season makes me think this must have been a season opener and probably and Acme-Zip game, speaking of promotions.) I was probably 8 or 9. In front of us in the stands was an older couple, and the woman was wearing a Dallas Cowboys....bandanna? I'm not sure what to call it. Older women wore them all the time on their heads in the 80s or earlier. Anyway, shortly after the third quarter started, they left. 8-year-old me was SO confused about this for about 5 minutes, before it dawned on me....they were only here to watch the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. So, it's like how someone mentioned upthread about people buying tickets just to giveaways and not staying for the game. Do I wish they would stay and become Zip fans and regulars? Of course. But this is better than not coming at all, right? We get their money, we get to count them as paid attendance, and these are beneficial things, no? Fast-forward about 15 years. I drag my sister (pretty much hates sports) and brother-in-law (only cares about the Browns) to a Zips basketball game. Jimmal Ball era. They had a GREAT time and LOVED it. That's the thing about basketball, IMO, that hasn't been mentioned in this thread. If you have good seats, which are plentiful in the JAR, it is thrilling. No other sport can compare (again, my 2 cents here). We weren't even particularly good around this time! We didn't even win the game I took them to (it was a close loss against Miami IIRC)! Now, full disclosure, this did not in fact make them lifelong Zip fans and the only other games they went to were because I went with them and paid for their tickets. But if I can show these non-Zips, non-sports fans a great time simply by taking them to a game with good seats, imagine what is possible with people (students or otherwise) who already care a little bit? I've also been told in this forum we used to indeed fill the JAR for pitched games vs. Cleveland State in the late 80s. Mouse McFadden vs. Eric McLaughlin. If true, how do we recapture that lightning in a bottle? Should we start trying to schedule CSU/YSU yearly (perhaps even for home-and-homes) and promote the hell out of these now-dormant rivalries? Probably not the worst idea. I also think we should partner as strongly as possible with the city of Akron to try to get the whole city aware of, and hopefully then excited about, the Zips. Living in Texas now, the mucky-mucks at Baylor often point out that there's no real connection to the city it's in (Waco). It's like Baylor is its own city, Waco is its own, and the two don't care about the other. If that's at all the case in Akron, it needs worked on ASAP. I personally don't see much value in trying to get people from the surrounding counties, especially those with their own D1 schools or pro teams, to come support the Zips. But this Akron's team, dammit. Summit County's, too. I grew up in Akron. North Hill. I hate the way people make fun of Akron. I am up to my eyeballs in Akron pride. Zips basketball could and should be a gift to the city. The city and the university need to figure out a way to make that happen.