Leaderboard

Did anyone else catch Dawson going over to calm down Groce after the second awful technical foul call? It's not often you see a player stepping up like. Most of the times it's coach that needs to calm down a player and help them control their emotions. But to see a young college kid do that is some next level maturity.

One last note on this one: Pinky seems miserable. He never really got into it, and his body language didn’t exactly give off the most confident vibe. He sold his soul to the devil the last couple years and it’s showing. As great as Carry was, he never let Sendy coach him and Pinky was just along for the ride. Now, he’s miserable with the injuries on top of a flawed roster. In 2019, he had Jaylin Walker get in a bar fight and miss senior night, then still play him in the tournament the following week in which they were bounced by CMU in their first game. In 2020, they finished 6th. In 2021, Danny Pippen beat the s*** out of Justyn Hamilton at the end of the season, and they were blown out in their lone tournament game. In 2022, Carry, who called Pinky and asked to play at his girlfriend’s school, led an improbable run only to end in embarrassment with a 20-point loss to rival Akron in the championship game. In 2023, they finally break through and win the tournament, again with a best player that refused to be coached. This season, he re-tooled his roster the best he could. Then injuries mounted up and he needed to bank on Reggie Bass to come up big, only for him to sit the final 8-10 minutes of the game he was so horrible. Winningest coach in their history. Now 13-18 vs. Akron, including a 7-8 record vs. Groce since he arrived at Akron with 4 scholarship players.

Great thoughts, people that I work with and aren’t from here say “There is nothing to do in Akron”. Well we’ve got a pretty great thing right in the middle of the city, we need to take pride in it and embrace it

At your request - Southland: At this point in the season only 2 of the 10 teams in the Southland are above 500 overall. Neither one of these 2 has an in-conference losing record. As a special bonus just because I like you - Horizon League: At this point in the season 6 of 11 Horizon League teams are above 500 overall. One of them has a losing record in conference. Big Ten: At this point in the season 12 of the 14 Big Ten teams have an overall W/L record above 500. Only 4 of them have an in-conference record above 500.

Net Rankings through the 1/20/2024 games... Akron - 85 OOC Opponents Q1 L (No Ali) - Utah State - 27 L (No Ali) - Drake - 44 Q2 W - Bradley - 63 L - St. Bonnie - 79 L (No Ali) - UNLV - 84 Projected Matchup TBD - James Madison - 62 MAC Overview Toledo - 141 BUGS - 181 PCCC - 184 ACWH (Athens County Watering Hole) - 194 Miami OH - 230 WMU - 267 NIU - 270 Balls - 278 CMU - 283 EMU - 329 Canada - 341 (21 spots from dead last in the country) Pathetic conference.

We have 13 regular season games left, likely around 10 of those without Nate Johnson. Nate was averaging 25 minutes a game. That's a lot of basketball yet ahead of us and growth opportunity for the bench, especially for Tavari. Up until the Buffalo game, Groce had limited the roster to 8 players for the most part. That way he builds continuity within his rotations and frankly Tavari and Lyles were not grading out high enough. But if our entire bench keeps improving and playing winning minutes night in and night out, Groce would not only have better depth to lean on, he would have an opportunity to play differently. He could either play his starters slightly less and save their legs at times. Or play a style (which I love) that is more aggressive and uptempo. Constant ball-hawking on defense, leading to more fast-breaks. Right now Tavari (and Lyles) are fighting for minutes within the standard 8 man rotation, but a 9-10 man rotation is not entirely insane if warranted. We'll see how things progress and how quickly Nate can get back to form. I'm excited to see what Zips 3.0, Zips 4.0 and Zips 5.0 have in store for us.

I struggle with looking at any depth chart predictions for next year not because it isn't fun to play keyboard coach, but because there is a decent chance we have more scholarships open than we do at this moment and like @clarkwgriswold, we'll most likely see some impactful talent come in from the Portal. I think Baker, Johnson, and Dawson are locks for the starting lineup. However, the spots for Lyles and Tavari are up for grabs as far as I'm concerned. I don't know if either player will be here next year, although their playing time recently is encouraging. I'm interested to see what happens with Prather - does he stay or does he leave? We need shooters and a bonafide big in my opinion. It'll be fun to see what Groce can come up with.

I'm confident we'll see one or two impactful portal players. I think some of the team's success will depend in Nate's development. Hopefully, with the loss of the veterans he'll have the confidence to step up and be more impactful. I think he has it in him but I don't know that he knows it yet, if that makes any sense.

Hate to have Tribble miss this one (and hope he's back 100% ASAP), but this gave Tavari the opportunity to get quality minutes in a fantastic, tense setting. Like many here, I envision him with the highest ceiling of all of our PGs, so hopefully this is step 1 on a path towards fulfilling the promise he displayed early in his time at UA - something we've all been waiting for. Besides Rique and Ali playing up to the standards we've come to expect, how about Dawson never giving up after an 0 for 8 (or whatever) start, continuing to fire away until they finally started to drop. Shooters have to shoot! Keep it up Zippers. I don't want the ride to end!

I feel like groce might care as well

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.

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.

And she did all that in stilettos!!

I have been waiting for someone to react to that comment. Ha!! It’s a bit of wishful thinking on my part, I admit. But Groce will have these guys ready come March and believing that anything is possible. We can’t be afraid of success. There are some on this forum who just want to get that first NCAA Tourney win. And I too would be disappointed if he ever left Akron. I would prefer Groce with Akron leave the MAC, but you already know that. Go Zips!!

I also think Groce has a bond with his players - especially the group of Freeman, Tribble, Dawson, and Ali - that not many coaches are able to build.

Zips OOC opponents went 5-1 today with the only loss coming via the Bonnies

It would give the media a nice storyline.

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

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.

I once read a book about a corrupt ref who went to jail and he indicated that the NBA had their own agenda to make the league more marketable. Since this was a nationalized TV game, maybe the refs kept the game close to make the game interesting for the the national audience.

He was GREAT last night. Came out of nowhere.

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.

I just watched the tech on Tavari again multiple times and I see nothing. He must have said something to Sullinger but whatever it was had to have been pretty low key and I am surprised a ref could hear it with the crowd noise. The technicals on Ali and Tavari were clearly very weak. The one against Tribble against Ball State was also very weak. That being said, it's seems that the MAC officials are out to set a tone on even soft taunting/celebratory behavior. It's also apparent the Zips have a target on their back as the presumed league favorite. As such, I guess the lesson, if any, is to be extra careful not to give some hypersensitive ref an opportunity to make a potentially game changing call.

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

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.