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We need an Enrique wig night

https://gozips.com/news/2024/1/24/general-message-from-the-ad-contributing-series-seth-mcfall

who is NIU's PG this year? that should fill in your first opening

i think if you had an Infocision level arena with a non-high school gameday experience, attendance would be respectable, but we'll never know. a nice place with nice seats, concessions open, places to buy UA gear, a winning team.. I think you need all of the above, and the FB and BB facilities each have a couple of those

Revenues are placed in a general athletics fund that the Ad can decide how to parcel out. The buyout from UK and the big payday from OSU are earmarked to help several program. Football will not keep all of it, but hey will get the majority. A new scoreboard will be one of the benefits football will receive.

I don't recall and crucifixion's? Those usually stand out. Akron basketball "wins", and the arena is typically half full for reasonable opponents ("Reasonable" = OU, not Miami-Hamilton). It is completely full for Kent, and there are usually one or two other home games where there's 4k in the house. For our Rocket Mortgage Championship games, there are roughly 7k+ Zips basketball fans in attendance. Drawing a parallel to football - If, like the basketball team, the Zips football team won 70% of their games and was in a MAC championship game once ever 2-3 years, most people expect InfoCison would be 1/2 full, just like the JAR. Attendance would be 20k+ for Kent. And if a winning Zips team met a winning Toledo team on a November Saturday for a berth in the MAC Championship at InfoCision, there would be roughly 20K fans expected. The winning basketball team draws fine for mid-winter, weeknight NE Ohio games. Half-full arena. If the Zips football team won at an equivalent clip, the ratio would apply for InfoCision too. An average of 12-13k fans in attendance (butts in seats, not fabricated tickets sold). I hope Moorhead can prove me right one day.

Last night's attendance gave us the answer to fill the JAR in 3 simple words- HALFTIME SALSA DANCERS.

The inverse of this is James Madison. Their applications and/or enrollment are up ~78% or something like that in the last few years (read this on their board). Their meteoric rise in athletics is driving the overall school enrollment. Their football team has won, and now their basketball team is having success. They've made the full move to DI, but built their brand at the FCS level (Game day went there when they were a FCS squad). I don't know how they were successful in breaking out of the shadows of Virginia, Virginia Tech, etc. - but they were. They are a case study that Akron needs to examine closely.

Get ready Akron, first it was the "B" team, then the NCAA holding up eligibility, now it's the flu, the next plague will be a swarm of locusts dropping onto Stile Fieldhouse before the next meet! Then raining frogs!! Beware.....

The Zips head off to Oxford this weekend to face 9-10 Miami in a Saturday 1:00 game. The Redhawks are 3-4 in the MAC with wins over Ball State, EMU and Buffalo and losses to CMU, BG, Toledo and WMU. This will be the second year in a row that Groce and Steel’s mom will be spared her sons having to face off twice in the regular season. 6’8” 305 pound senior forward and former UA recruiting target Anderson Mirambeaux (affectionately referred to on Ohio U’s Bobcat Attack as the “fat guy”) leads the Redhawks in scoring at 13.8 ppg. 6’5” win Darweshi Hunter is second in scoring at 12.6 ppg. Miami is 9th in offense and 5th in defense in the MAC.

Best in the MAC Chris Payton put up a staggering 10 pts and 2 rebounds in this one. Demolishing the stat sheet.

I’ll be there! It was just $18 each for second row seats and my fiancée is a Miami alum. Don’t worry, she’ll be rooting for the Zips.

Joe Akron is being Joe Akron as they always have (always will). I got crucified when I brought this up around football attendance....the response was "we need to win". Well, the Bball team has been a consistent winner and we still have the same problem. Big issue to me is enrollment. 10 years ago we had 25K enrollment, today it is 11K (with 20% living on campus). That doesn't even fill the upper bleachers. We need to attract more kids to the school, fill the beautiful dorms that were built and then get those kids to the games. They are a captive audience.

...and the AD thanks you for the excuses and saving some $$$ on the AI budget.

Fixed it for you.

Good win for the Zips and the crowd looked decent on TV. I'm not sure if Boals and Bobcats believe they committed a foul all game with the way they were complaining.

I thought Scott showed some fight tonight. We needed that energy.

9 pt win. Ugliest win of the year? Maybe. But a win is a win.

The guards are growing on me. Tribble/Scott/Thornton - we're seeing where each fits in, and they're beginning to make a positive difference.

Refs are just not good all around.

Ohio U is as solid of a defensive team as we've seen since At. Bonaventure. Very good at doubling the post then getting back to the perimeter.

Scott is coming along nice.

Groce very animated, motioning for the crowd to get into it.

Just announced at the game that the first 3,000 fans at the Toledo game get a navy t-shirt. It's something!

Thanks for your enthusiasm. I hate to bring up Wake Forest again, but here it goes. In particular, I agree with your notion of partnering with the City to promote athletics. Winston-Salem and Akron remind me so much if each other. It can be done. Anywhere you go in Winston, you will see Deactown banners on public light poles. It's used promotionally at every sporting event. It ties the City to the University. People in Kernersville aren't upset with the theme. Fans can even buy Deactown tshirts. https://www.bkstr.com/wakeforeststore/product/sst-1c-wf-deactown-black-sm---875357-1

They also offered some of us unwashed an opportunity to move down into the lower bowl tonight with the privileged folks. I turned it down when they said I couldn't sit behind NWAkron with my vuvuzela.

Oh! Mr. Wonderful! Thanks for enlightening us that our teams are so strong, so deep, that we have the luxury of a B TEAM! And not only that, we have a B team that is INVISIBLE! All those B team athletes that never bothered to be seen in the events we ran them in because the event was "irrelevant". I bet the other sports on campus wished they had a B team. Strong in a 4-team conference! Wow, that's reassuring. Of course, we won't know until there's an event relevant enough for us to find out. Until then the Invisible B Zips will do their part to convince other track and field athletes to attend Akron. Once again, great goal, beat three other teams. Sheesh. You know, our Championship swim team doesn't always swim their best, or they limit their best to swimming at an 80% rate. But they all compete. That's right, as I said, you don't send them out to go "all out", but they compete, so when it comes time to compete in the Big Bad 4 team MAC Championships they'll be ready. Get your head out of the long jump pit sand and go to Youngstown State, Ashland, Even Walsh for cripes sake, and especially take a drive up to Geneva and SPIRE and watch their meets, and see what real track and field coaches do with their athletes. Or just go on line and see the times being posted all across the country in "irrelevent" events. Stop making excuses for what is fast becoming an irrelevant program.

Here I am for my usual rant about the level that Zip T & F has fallen to, despite the MAC outdoor Championship for the men. As I said b in May, that win was fueled by the throwers and a few jumpers, mostly left over from Coach Mitchell's squad. I wasn't sure where the teams were headed after the opener, something called the Akron Haynes Lancaster Open, of which I am not sure it is named. Never heard the name, never saw an explanation on the website as to who it supposedly honored. But we got a full view of the state of the program at the Judd Logan Invitational over at Kent State this weekend. First off, we found out that the throws coach from last year called it quits after 1 season, despite his success with the throwers. What's up with that? Then it got depressing. A nice showing by Jamari and Josephine Davis making the finals of the 60. Both women were top 8 in the 200. Zips had NO women entered in the 400. Laura Genetin was the only Zip entered in the 800 and had a nice 5th finish. A couple milers. Zero Zip Women in the 3,000 and the 5,000. 1 hurdler, Jade Celestine who made the finals. 1 High Jumper who didn't make opening height. Bryne Rychick, a Mitchell - PVer finished 5th. We had ZERO long jumpers or triple jumpers. Best shot was 14th, best weight throw was 11th, and only 2 entries in both events. Where are all of Akron Women's Track athletes?????? We got smoked by Slippery Rock! Ashland! Tiffin! Malone! If this meet were scored as a team we would have placed like 6th at best. Surely the Champion men would do better? Tysean Baronette was the only entry in the 60 and he finished 8th, then 3rd in the 200. A best of 13th for the guys in the 400, we entered NO 800 meter runners. No milers - not one. I guess our CC Championship wasn't so powerful after all. Maybe our African runners didn't return to campus? ZERO 3,000 and 5,000 meter runners entered. ZERO 60 hurdlers entered! Our 4 x 400 relay teamed finished 4th to Ashland, Slippery Rock, and Ashland's "B" team! 1 high jumper, finished 15th. Garretson won the PV but we know he was a MItchell kid, and I can't believe he stayed. We did not enter a long jumper. We did not enter a triple jumper. Thank goodness for Josiah Cox and Jabari Neal-Jackson for returning, they both were placers in throws. Once again, we got smoked by DIII schools, DII schools. So why was I told by our "experts" in our forums that "The team was re-building as we speak!" last year when I was spewing? Where are all the Zip track men athletes at? Inquiring minds want to know!

Honestly, if they replaced the bleachers with actual seats, that alone would be a huge upgrade.

No. It's a terrible area. Not sure what to do about it. The experience is something different. It's never going to be perfect, but it can be better. My advice to everyone is, go to the games and have fun. Don't worry if there isn't a single other person there. Have your fun.

I would say I don’t hate the jar. It has a good location on campus, close to the highway if you are just coming for a game. I have criticized the lack of concessions in the past, but they have done a good job recently with opening up multiple stands at the top of the stairs. The worst parts (to me) are the bleachers and the stupid bar that blocks the view from the upper level. The capacity is great for our program, when it does get full it is rocking, on games where it isn’t full, it isn’t “dress like a seat night” like infocision. Love the stat boards and the crystal clear video board. It could be much worse, but could also be improved with some renovations

I am not keen on 3 point specialist. That was Hunter last year and then his parents came to visit and suddenly he learned to rebound and score in the paint. Maybe we should give Dawson's parents a call?

I don't know how many college athletic events I attend where I would describe the atmosphere as "awesome". Most are generally good. If someone is looking for an awesome event every time they attend a college athletics event, they need to lower their standards. I get the problem you have with local bars. They are fun but trashy. I wouldn't want those to be my options for every game.

Zips winning is #1 variable to grab my attention. I already purchased my Kent tickets upper reserved which will be my second game this season but I have been watching most games on ESPN+ / CBSSN. And because I love Riq and this team is GOOD I am hoping to go to Cleveland for the tournament. The two variables that keep me from going to the JAR more is: 1. Like everyone said it's just not that great of a building and the Kent games are the only atmospheres that are awesome. I went to Marshall and their basketball atmosphere is not any better but the seating set up is. 2. No restaurants or bars close to the JAR. Yes I have done the Euro Gyro or Mannys thing pregame which is fun with my buddies but the wife isn't going to sign up for that. We have done Lockview pregame but parking twice is a pain.

I'm starting to worry a little about Dawson and his shooting. I love his grit and effort, but if you take out his 3/5 and 4/7 shooting on threes against Ball State and BG, he's 4 of 23 on threes in MAC play. Remarkably, 35 of his 37 shots in MAC play have been threes. 104 of his 123 shots on the season have been threes. I'd really like to see him pass one up here or there or shorten up his shot/penetrate. I'm having Trimble flashbacks.

He was amazing as a Freshman. Too bad things didn't work out.

they would be playing for a P5 somewhere...

I don't know this is entirely true. I wouldn't sit in the bleachers. There a plenty of good seats, with backs, available. If someone buys one of those tickets, they will have a pretty good view of the game.

It's like the chicken and the egg. UA will never feel the need to build a new arena because attendance is mostly embarrassing. Fans aren't going to the games because the arena sucks. This team is so good right now, they deserve both a respectable place to play and a decent turnout from fans. If we want people around NE Ohio, fans, students and even recruits to take the Zips seriously something needs to be done. It's long overdue. There's no reason that schools like Northern Kentucky and JMU can build fantastic new arenas and we can't. Even Duquesne put $45m into renovating their place for KD. While I think that solution is nearsighted and just polishing a turd, it's better than nothing. By the time something actually happens Groce will be long gone and who knows what the state of Zips basketball will be when that happens.

If we make a Sweet 16 run, Groce may not be here 😂 Looking at next year and building off @Blue & Gold excellent post, I think we'll actually have 3 scholarships open. I don't see Prather returning (Lyles is iffy too IMO, so maybe 4). Getting an experienced big is a must. Baker has ton of potential but asking him to step into an Enrique-type role is unfair to him and the team. We probably need two. I'm also not yet sold on Tavari as a starter - the potential is there and I want to see him develop over this year, but he doesn't look like a starting PG - yet. PG - Transfer / Tavari W - Dawson / Scott W - Johnson / Transfer P - Transfer / MMK P - Baker / Lyles RS: Young, Mahaffey, Brisco

Winner winner chicken dinner!!

To many extra passes. Someone has to take the open shot

... And starting.

Here's an idea, if you're going to turn the lights out for player introductions maybe you should have a spotlight on them. Now they run out in the dark. 🙄

FWIW, I went to the Zips official site today and tickets were listed as $15 for GA. On the Zips app, they're only $10 after fees.

David Harvey..... on the Zips folklore of what could of been. Hixon graduated to the NFL and Harvey came in and blew everyone away. I believe he averaged over 20 yrds a catch.

With the announcement today he's now won 7 of 11 weeks. If only someone could figure out some sort of NIL tie-in here.

I'll never forget him hitting that 3 and skipping his way down the court like an idiot as they went to a commercial break. Kent was still losing at the time, he didn't score another point the rest of the game and only finished with 6.

they should be promoting him for the basketball equivalent of the Heisman award