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Tavari has played a total of 888 career minutes. I think if he matures as a player and hits the weights to bulk up he can still be a valuable upperclassman and starter at some point. I think Sharron Young will also be in the mix at PG next year.

From my side of the aisle, I will agree, the officiating was horrible both ways. It drives me nuts when officiating is wildly inconsistent. Allowing hacks and slaps one possession and calling a touch foul on the next. Late in the game, there were two possessions close together where an OU player and Freeman were tangled up and fell out of bounds with no call, then a Jaylin Hunter 3 attempt where he clearly got hit on the shooting arm...no calls either way. Shortly after, touch fouls were called both ways. Aside from all of that, it was a great game and atmosphere. Official attendance was around 5700, but the place went from pretty silent with Akron up 10 to really loud after the 10-0 run to tie the game. It stayed loud the rest of the way. I thought we did a pretty solid job on Freeman most of the game, but when the double didn't come or was late, he was nearly unstoppable. Both teams traded blows most of the game. I thought Ali was going to single handedly take it over late when he put Akron up late in the game. We seemed to struggle a lot when we had to sit Clayton/Hadaway and had some funky lineups with some foul trouble. Great game to see in person, and maybe not the last time we see each other this year.

It cannot be disputed that this team has the talent and a gear that is beyond what any other team in the MAC has. But my observation is it's a finesse team that doesn't have that killer mentality on the road. However, the goals are win the MAC (#1 seed), win the tourney and make the Dance. All are still right there in front of this team. I suspect last night's failures at the end will light a fire. Let's go win the next six!

This is my ideal bracket at the moment for us. Just win the rest now

As much as we've made fun of the sideline reporter, the broadcast team is incredibly knowledgeable on Akron & the MAC. Fun listen (as long as we're winning).

(Those are also directional schools) 😊

Northern Illinois comes to the JAR Saturday off of an impressive and unexpected win over Toledo. The Huskies stand at 10-18/4-11. Pre-season All-MAC guard David Coit, a 5’11” junior, continues to lead the Huskies at 19.9 ppg while also leading the team in assists. 6’7” junior forward Zarique Nutter contributes 15.4 ppg while adding 5.4 rpg. The Zips beat the Huskies 73-51 in DeKalb to open the MAC season with Enrique leading the way with 21 and 10 and Coit leading the Huskies with 21 points.

Couldn't you really say Groce will be looking to hit the portal at any position? Is there any player on this roster who will be returning next year that you would be thrilled to see as a starter?

Crazy to me that we are in first place yet I am still disappointed with the guys this season. Plenty of talent but they just don't have that dawg in them that’s required to win close games.

the prize is the top seed. one game lead with three winnable games left.

Refs just gave one back. LOL. Lord they're bad.

UN-FREEMAN-BELIEVABLE!!

Another missed lay up for Scott.. but redeems himself with the 3!

Umass is currently #90 in Kenpom, higher than everyone else in the MAC including us

Would Rhode Island be interested in moving up from FCS? Natural rival to UMass and a usually solid basketball program.

I just read that U of Mass is leaving the A 10 and moving all their sports program including basketball to the MAC beginning in the 2025-2026 season. I think this is great for MAC basketball as this year Mass has a win over West Virginia and is in the middle of the A 10. I think they will be a perennial favorite in basketball.

Nate Johnson.

Unfathomable! Play that team 20 times, we should win all 20. Play that team 50 times with a 10 point second half lead, we should win 50. I think we have more bad stretches of play than good this year. Cinderella is a world away! My Zips basketball life is slip, slip, slipping away!

What makes you think that? They've been to The Dance once this century. They've only had 5 20+ win seasons the last 25 years, and 0 in the last 10 years. I know the A-10 is considered a stronger conference, but they haven't finished above .500 in their conference in 10 years. It will be interesting to see if their recruiting takes a hit after the move. Frank Martin has shown signs of improving their team, and they are headed in the right direction. It will be interesting to see if he sticks around if he does find success. He will instantly be the highest paid coach at $1.66M in the MAC, well above Groce's $650k. It will be interesting to see if UMASS continues to spend that much in the MAC.

Enrique Freeman and Greg Tribble are two of my all-time favorite Zips. Looking forward to honoring them and the other seniors Saturday.

That was so damn frustrating, in large part to the fact that it exposed problems we know exist but would rather not admit. The good news is that last night's misery was not the result of a lack of effort, but was one of execution. We always seem to have one of these stretches in the season. The run to MAC championships starts today.

WKU seems like an obvious target. Wonder if current A-10 members Richmond & Rhody would be interested in moving up? Richmond is tough in both FCS football and basketball, while Rhody is another nice basketball program. They'd make the MAC a seriously formidable basketball conference Akron Kent Ohio Toledo Buffalo UMass WKU Richmond Rhode Island

Not a good second half, but we had opportunities and didn't take advantage of them. That being said, beating the top MAC teams is tough. Winning on the road against top MAC teams is even tougher. I know there are those who were calling for an undefeated MAC season, but that's not realistic. Going into the season, you could probably see road games at Toledo, Kent, and Ohio could be losses. We won one of those three games. Against the top three teams in the standings (2nd-4th place), we are 3-2. If you do that and beat up on the bottom of the league, you'll be in good shape. All is not lost. We still control our destiny to the 1 seed. We have three winnable games left.

Yeah, everything we want is still in front of us, but perhaps the best Akron team ever on paper hasn’t shown it yet this season.

MAC officiating classic. Onto the next one.

Awful showing down the stretch by the Zips. OU earned that one.

Some PCCC level math here. Each team has 5 players. If two defenders are on one offensive player, SOMEONE IS OPEN.

he has 4 fouls

Sorry Prather but you might have just lost your minutes to the guy that doesn't look like he ever had a broken hand.

Really glad to see Dawson, Scott and Hunter hit the 3 ball on the road. Our 3 point shooting away from the jar has really been a problem with the Zips.

Nate's athleticism has been sorely missed.

If I asked AI to generate the prototypical male student at Ohio, Ethan Sargeant is what it would create. He's the guy on Saturday night making sure the Beeramid isn't going to fall. Never forget Kent's sideline reporter fail. Completely forget the fella's name, but when the camera was put on him for the sideline report, nothing on his body functioned properly. He was a combination of Ricky Bobby ("I don't know what to do with my hands") and the class nerd talking to a girl for the first time. "Put the ball in the hoop for a 3 point shot (holds up 2 fingers."

The whole staff might open up as Neal Brown could easily get canned after this season lol.

Story of the season

Nate with a nice play.

Yeah, Nance Jr. had Crohn's. I played on his 3 on 3 team at the Akron basketball camp one summer when he was in high school (Pete was there, too, but in the elementary-ish levels), and his family were members at Springside in Montrose when I took tennis lessons there. Ran into Sr. & Pete quite a bit (Jr. was at Wyoming). Easily one of the nicest families you'll ever come across. I don't know how you're a coach at Akron, have Larry Nance Jr. playing in your backyard, and don't plan your scholarship gameplan around making sure one is available for him - especially when his dad asks for a scholarship for him. Of all the "backyard talent" that escaped Akron, that has to be the most embarrassing. Not to mention Harney was one of the reasons we didn't have one available - what a joke.

Soooo the MAC the next Mega-Conference? 😆😜

Here is the tiebreaker from that link. Between TWO teams: A. Head-to-head competition B. Winning percentage* vs. ranked conference teams (top to bottom vs. common opponents regardless of the number of times played) C. Coin flip * - Winning percentage is used instead of record because of situations where teams do not play each other the same number of times. Therefore, a team that is 1-0 (1.000) would win the tiebreaker over a team that is 1-1 (.500). The simple answer is it depends on the final standings of the other teams. Akron and Toledo split, so A is a wash. Then it goes to B. Right now (prior to today's games), Akron holds the tiebreaker because they are 1-0 against CMU, who is in 3rd place. Toledo went 0-1. As the standings change, so will this tiebreaker.

Akron, Toledo, Kent, Ohio, and UMass seem likely to be contenders in the MAC most years. The first four have been more good than bad over the last 20 years and I think UMass will join that group. For awhile I thought Buffalo would be there too, but they've really reverted back to a lower-caliber program.

+1. I hope the MAC can schedule some introductory games with them next season.

UMass is instantly a top 4-5 bball team - Rutgers isn't top 4-5 in anything in the Big Ten besides gabagool

UMass basketball is decent with a chance to elevate the conference imo UMass football is bad, but so are a lot of MAC teams. It's a fine move

Wanted to look around yesterday to see how UMass fans were feeling about this move. Most seem to think the A10 is dying and the MAC is a good move. I was surprised how many said it was a good stepping stone until they move to a bigger conference. WHAT? Not that we have much room to talk but the UMass football program has average like 2 wins a season for the past 10 years and the basketball program is very average. Still view this a positive for the MAC. The conference needs some new blood and expanding it's footprint can't be a bad thing. Hopefully we see more schools added soon.

They will instantly compete with Akron and Toledo at the top of the MAC. Their win totals are going to improve when they replace games against Dayton and VCU with Northern Illinois and Western Michigan. Using this season as an example, they're ranked 5th in the A10, but they're still currently ranked ahead of the MAC top ranked team (Akron).

It's a building process.

The results at the MAC championships were abysmal for our once proud top 25 track and field program. I would do everything I could to lure Mitchell back, even if he is making more money at Illinois as their PV coach than he made as head coach at Akron. He knew how to recruit and develop talent. This staff is doing neither. The results speak for themselves. Spend some of the UK & OSU FB guarantee money to get a quality coach in an olympic sport.

I’d guess UMASS’ intention, at least at this stage, is to be here for a while. Being independent in football did them no favors. Seeing speculation on social media Western Kentucky may be next to join, but I don’t know if there’s any validity to it.

3rd of 4 men's teams at MAC Championships. 8th out of 12 in women's. Interested to see how these results are excused by "those in the know". Kent State replaced their long-time coach Bill Lawson with an in-house selection of Nate Fanger, their throws coach, and brought back an ex-assistant coach in Mike Schoeber, and utilized recently graduated KSU athletes as assistant coaches for PV, jumps and multis. A Championship for the guys and a second for their Women. At the same time, Mitchell leaves and we bring in a coach who was supposedly a Combined expert, yet we still can't produce a heptathlete or a pentathlete indoors. If Garretson didn't have private coaching we wouldn't have won the PV. Track and field are now just "placeholder" sports for the Zips, unfortunately. I think there's enough ex-high school track athletes on campus that aren't on the team, that you could put a squad together and with a competent high school coach probably compete against our team. So Sad.