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My stream in fine but I am starting to wish it would just cut out.

Prayers for the Dambrots.

So, you don't like the sense of mystery created when you can only see 75% of the floor from general admission seats? 😄

Yes, usually when people start getting overly ambitious and talk about seeding or at-large (although not applicable this time), we have one of these humbling losses. I posted before that it had been 70+ years since the MAC last had an unbeaten team in conference play. Back then there were much fewer conference games than there are today. I like this team, but I don't think they're remotely as good as that Wally Miami team, that Elite 8 PCCC team, or that Buffalo team of a few years back. If those teams couldn't run the table in MAC, why would anyone think this Zips team could? What's important is that we don't let this snowball. Accept we had a bad night or our opponent played one of there better ones. I didn't watch the game so I can't speak to it. Identify areas of improvement and work to become better.

Source?

This really is a strong selling point.

KD left for $1,000,000/yr guaranteed for 7 years at his Fathers Alma Mater.

The genius in the gameplan by Miami is they're sending weak-side help to double Freeman, instead of the defender on the wing. This takes away the easy outlet for Freeman, and forces the open man to be on the opposite side of the court - over the double team. Really well done by Steele and props to the players for executing. Akron is in the bonus the rest of the game. 11 minutes to go. 8 pt game.

Reading the article in the ABJ today, there will be lots of family there, including, if i read correctly, Coach Groce's dad who is battling cancer. Would be an excellent moment for the Zips to give their coach a less-stress game.

I would like to see a breakout performance where we dominate a team home or away. The only dominate game I can remember this season was at Norther Illinois, the worst team in the conference. During the post game, Tribble and Freeman indicated this team has another gear. Would love to see it today. Build the lead to 20 and keep it there.

These are the top 2 teams in 3pt. defense in MAC play. I'd love to see a breakout performance like the 2020 team would have where we dominate the bad MAC teams on the road.

Was this posted earlier? https://www.news5cleveland.com/sports/college-sports/university-of-akron/how-enrique-freemans-return-to-akron-zips-is-preparing-him-for-basketball-dreams

On the bright side, maybe this will be good for them in the long run. They weren't going to go undefeated - learn that they can't coast to wins and turn it on when they want and still come out with a W every time.

Zips women squeak by with a 61-59 much needed road win at NIU. Huskies had three shots to tie it on last possession with final close in attempt rolling around the rim and falling off. 🫣

Ali took 17 shots and was 4 of 13 from 3 point land. We need to get more players involved with the offense. I think that Ali forced a couple of those shots. He scored most of his points from the line. Need to have our guards penetrate more into the paint and force them to defend like we did in the 2nd half. I give credit to Miami's defense as we struggled to get open shots.

Completely bowls over Freeman going for the rebound and no call. It's unbelievable.

Run the damn offense.

Now get some damn stops and make shots!

This big man gets a lot of calls I'll say that

We really need that extra post player.

Need to hit our free throws.

This is all Brad Bournival's fault.

Groce needs to work on fast breaks. We had a 2 on 1 and Tribble did not run the floor and we miss the layup. We have screwed up 3 fast break points with misses or offensive fouls. That should not happen.

Dawson with 4 fouls. Him on the bench for a while might be addition by subtraction this game.

He completely ran over Ali and Ali got called for the foul

Halftime can't get here fast enough.

Haven’t made a 2 yet lol.

Ive never seen someone get fouled on 3 point shots more than Ali Ali. Maybe it’s just how long he is he can draw hands and still get a shot up

Great 12-4 start on our 6 layups wdym 🤣

We are hitting our 3s so far.

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I don’t see a run away win. There were times in both the NIU and Kent road games when the Zips were poised to run the score up to a 30 point advantage only to get their momentum stymied by the refs. Now there are 2 ways to make the refs less relevant, hit a very high percentage of your perimeter shots or be so strong and dominant in the paint that you can still score with guys draped all over. Just don’t expect an And One. Past Zips teams had moments where they were completely on fire from deep. I hoping to see that from this team at some point, but I will take the win anyway we get it.

I went to the game last evening. There was a good, but not overly enthusiastic crowd. The concessions had more options and were less expensive than Akron. I think the JAR has a better set up for game day.

Good article. Camryn Justice is an Akron grad I believe and has been getting some big run as a Cleveland sports journalist recently. The more eyes on Freeman and the Akron program, the better. Getting to be a bit embarrassing though the lack of self marketing by the University itself.

154 or something like that. 2 A10 games got postponed or something, so it really thinned the lineup. College basketball rocks.

OU goes to Kent and knocks of Flashes

When is Bigzipguy going to show up at the JAR for a game? It’s been 5 years? Good to see you are still following the MAC.

Who knew?!😀

I almost never cheer for OU... but I sure was tonight 😂

PCCC goes down at home to Ohio. Beautiful.

Its happening. JD is back as WR coach

they would be playing for a P5 somewhere...

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.

Oh yeah, Dawson's bear hug was timely no doubt. But wasn't it just a few minutes later when Groce went into his "marionette" mocking of the refs - that was hilarious!

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.

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 was watching on tv last night & it looked like they had a great very good crowd? But yes, I'd consider the MAC Center to be even worse than the JAR. Though the MAC Center has got a more... structurally sound... feel about it. The GA bleachers in the JAR feel like they're on the verge of collapsing. When walking up & down the stairs it feels like your foot is going to go right through the flooring.

Another in a sea of tales as to how bad the JAR sucks, I had my iPhone and reading glasses sitting on the bleacher beside me during the OU game. A guy trying to get out during the game walked behind me, and apparently to avoid the legs of ppl sitting behind me, stepped on the bleacher right beside me & stepped right on my iPhone and reading glasses. 😑 Meanwhile, WMU is building a privately funded (no tax dollars) $300 million, 6,500-seat basketball/hockey arena in downtown K-Zoo. Apparently it will seat 6,500 for basketball and hockey, while seating 8,000 for concerts.