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For the sake of continuity and given that he's been a part of Groce's success, I'd be okay with Dustin Ford taking over the reins if Groce left and he wanted the job.

Unless Groce leaves, this program doesn't "rebuild." We'll be a MAC favorite next year if he's here

You'll have to take that up with Elias Sports Bureau

Why he’d stay: He seems to love Akron and the zips His kids go to Ohio schools with his oldest playing for revere Hes under contract til 2030 at about 600K a year He’s got a great recruiting class coming in Great alumni who support him at Akron and stay connected with the team Seems to have a decent relationship with the AD. Considering the extension Seems like he prefers the mid major level and the smaller scale compared to when he was a coach in the Big 10 Why he’d leave: Bigger money from a P5 or higher mid major Little to no chance of a new arena. A renovated arena at best Will be coming off his best team ever full of seniors with high character and potentially an nba draft pick Proven ability to keep players from leaving through the portal as well as getting people from the portal to come to Akron I’m in the middle with Groce. I’m still leaning to him staying and maybe that’s just the bias but overall my mindset is enjoy one game at a time. Cause this season is amazing and I want to enjoy every second of it

It seems Groce moved all the chips to the middle of the table trying for 1 last magical ride while you have a talent like Freeman on the roster. If Akron makes noise in March, Groce could gain attention. If not, next year will be a rebuilding year regardless. Although, with how bad the MAC is a rebuilding year still might be able to get you a 3rd or 4th place finish in the MAC. Regardless, I'm going to enjoy this run while it lasts. It will probably be a while before we see a talent like Freeman on Akron's roster again.

Not a great night shooting. Very pleased by how Tavari continues to develop. He could have packed it in when he was sitting early in the season and watching Kaleb and Shammas taking his minutes but he's stuck with it and really come along well.

So about this Enrique Freeman kid...

"Squad" Reghi drinking game. Drunk by halftime.

Zero. I'm not saying Groce won't leave for one of the bigger jobs, but my only concern is whether or not we make it into the Big Dance and win a Tourney game. After this year, the program resets anyways. A lot of question marks regardless of Groce's employment.

Speaking of Bowden, I miss the signing day pressers he did where he briefly went over each recruit. Don't believe Arth or Joe Mo have done that.

You're correct. They are already listed on the current roster. I didn't see any social media posted of them signing & hadn't looked at the spring roster. Well, today was pretty uneventful. I'll go ahead and update Post #1 as having them all signed, sealed, and delivered. Go Zips!

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but aside from the two posted today, I believe all the other new commits we're aware of since early signing day are already shown on our roster. Would think they would be announced, but if not I don't think its anything to be nervous about. Wouldn't be on roster if they weren't here IMO. I'm showing us as having 4 open schollies at this point, so we have room for new commits, but I suspect most will be used after another wave of players hit the portal after spring ball.

Dawson’s shot just isn’t coming around. But I wouldn’t fault him for taking the ones he did last night. Good looks, comfortable game, let it fly. Ali’s perimeter shot hasn’t quite come back around consistently, but my goodness is he fun to watch. Tribble and Ali can both “create their own shot” and Tavari can as well when he gets in the zone.

Amen. I didn't think he had it in him as it is not easy to overcome over a decade of bad form and muscle memory.

Dawson is shooting 31% from behind the arc, and went 2-10 last night. Tough to justify taking 10 3's when you're shooting in the low 30's this far into the season. Nate Johnson was shooting 43.4% before he was injured. Miss that guy.

Jimmal Ball, Terry Weigand, JD Brookhart all in the building tonight

They left immediately after half. Happens every year.

John Groce said this will be our strongest SOS based on kenpom at the time of play in UA history

The same way we lost to Miami. The better team doesn't always win. Some nights you bring your C or D game and your opponent brings their A game and that's enough for them to overcome the disparity in talent. We live in a world where a 16 seed has beaten a 1 seed. Nothing should be all that surprising.

Felt like the sloppiest 21 point win I can recall, but I’ll take it. Beat JMU!

8 MAC teams have lost to CMU. 8. Only 2 have beaten them. The MAC BLOWS.

He should be in now.

Jimmal Ball is in the JAR tonight@

https://247sports.com/player/tristen-graham-46138935/

The Zips head off to Harrisonburg, Virginia Saturday to face the James Madison Dukes in part two of the MAC-Sun Belt Challenge. The Dukes are 20-3 heading into a game tonight against Arkansas State. Their three losses have all been in conference play, two to App. State and one to Southern Miss. As to common opponents, they lost to Southern Miss as mentioned and to Brimfield Tech in double OT in round one of the Challenge and beat Buffalo handily in late November. They are currently tied for third in the Sun Belt. This year's version of the Dukes reached 20 wins at the earliest date (Feb.2) in program history. 6'6" redshirt junior guard/forward Terrence Edwards, Jr. leads Dukes scoring at 16.8 ppg. 6'9" graduate forward TJ Bickerstaff is their second leading scorer at 13.9 ppg while leading rebounding at 8.9 rpg.

It's a Bobcat Attack inside joke.

Good points. I would definitely love to see the program have anywhere near the success of Gonzaga! I hope we start getting more fans in the JAR. OK crowd for a Tuesday last night but if I can make it down from Cleveland, I would hope more local people can start showing up so we can help get some momentum and more investment behind the program so we can start competing at an even higher level.

The WCC has largely been a garbage conference with just Gonzaga to tout. St. Mary's has grown to become a strong challenger, but overall the conference has not been great historically. We are a version of Gonzaga for the MAC. 2 decades of always being at or near the top of the conference. The conference has a comparably great media deal with ESPN & CBSSports, a terrific relationship with the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse to host, etc. The Akron job will be an attractive one until it isn't (see Buffalo).

I take into account that Central won their last 2 games in Double OT, including over BG on Saturday. Zips had an extra day off and were on home court. Central's Pritchard had a pretty good shoulder injury. Central doesn't have the Zips talent or experience, so you combine that with the other factors outcome not surprising.

TOS to Akron?

We had 9,018 in the building last weekend when Miami came to Athens. It's been a while since I have seen the place that crowded.

I think if TJ keeps improving at this rate he will be back in the starting rotation in no time. Both teams had spells where they struggled shooting and Scott had a brutal 3 minute stretch. On top of that we had a bunch of ill-advised passes that easily could have been turnovers. That said, I didn't see anything from Central Michigan that explains how they went 8-2 to start the conference. I have to admit, this was my only time watching them. But I could see them dropping down the standings drastically by the time we reach the MAC Tourney.

Terry Bowden said the traditional NSD would become a non-event. He was right. Unless you're a new coach who was hired too late to put together a December class, the first Wednesday in February is now much ado about nothing.

This morning on the radio Jason Candle said Toledo wasn't even signing anybody today. They signed all their high school guys on the "early" signing day.

Tiresome.

That's not accurate. Perhaps he's referring to non-conference SOS. That currently sits at #67 in the nation. I'm not going to look through 20 years of data, but that could be accurate. Right now our overall SOS is #232 because MAC play has torpedoed it. I won't go through 20+ years of data, but last year our overall SOS was #206. In 2019 (the last year the MAC was decent), we finished at #110 in SOS. You play more conference games than you do non-conference so conference play more heavily weighs into SOS. Especially since several of those OOC games don't even factor in since they aren't against D1 teams.

Bad night shooting but beating the “2nd best team in the MAC” by 20+ with two starters out is still a good outcome

Not a very lucky night for the Chips

Greg absolutely robbed of that block

Tavari having a nice game so far

I entered one intermural basketball tourney during my days at UA. Our team went even longer before we even scored a point. We finished the game with 12 total points and I had 9 of them. It's not fun being on the other side of that.

Lyles attracts fouls like Kent attracts flies.

Tavari freaking Johnson!

Tristen Graham interview just before he de-committed

OSU football definitely dominates. When it comes to college basketball I mostly see apathy in Northeast Ohio until March rolls around. The people around here that are really into college basketball and actually watch the regular season seem to be UNC, Kentucky, or a program like that. Buckeyes basketball don't hold that same grip. Perhaps because they have never been as successful as their football counterpart or because basketball as a whole just gets overshadowed by football In these parts. When the Cavs aren't winning, the Q is maybe 50-60% full.

His commitment puts us tied for the 2nd best recruiting class in the MAC. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.