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I have 2 daughters - 4 years old and 2 years old. A couple nights a week, I run solo in putting them to bed. On those nights, I sing them 2 songs - Take Me Out to the Ball Game and the University of Akron Fight Song. This morning, my 2 year old was running around the kitchen singing the University of Akron Fight Song. Akron by a million tonight. LET'S GO ZIPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seems like every time it occurs to me to stop by and post some game observations, the top of the board is littered with nonsense like this from dudes who (I assume) were born way after Huggins left and can't conceive of the heavy lift that KD performed at Akron. I find it unfortunate and disheartening. Well I hope everyone can bring themselves to enjoy this evening and pull for these kids and coaches who are chasing a dream together and appear to really enjoy the collective effort. The Watcher clan will be there in full force and pleased to attend yet another MAC Championship Game in seats I started buying during the years when the Zips never even qualified for the MAC Tournament. Bonus points if you can tell me the name of the starting 2 guard for the Zips the first game they actually made it to the Q. No cheaters. Shout-out to the diehards that keep the hopeful and supportive spirit of ZN.O alive, especially @Hilltopper, @ZZZips, @Dr Z, @Captain Kangaroo and The Great™ @GP1 .. hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy your St. Patrick's Day! #Porkys7Forever #4PetesSake Go Zips!

Zips have still never found that top performance gear but by God, they fought like crazy tonight. Now let’s win the whole thing so Sunday we see them in the bracket. got my tickets through UA tonight so hopefully they arrive per the email tomorrow. Watching Enrique Freeman has been one of the great sports pleasures of my life. What an incredible player and young man.

I need a shot of bourbon after that one.

He played 39 minutes tonight. I know his energy seems endless, but he may need some help tomorrow.

He had some sweet assists to Freeman.

Tavari running the show in crunch time. Think Coach Groce has learned from my vociferous protestations?

Unless Ali said something we don't know, that's a weak T. Emotions are high. These teams are playing for their seasons.

The G.O.A.T. and 4 intramural guys. That’s what we’ve looked like for far too long.

We have a winner and a true Zips Fan! Brian Wood, another in a long line of June signees that we pinned our hopes on for an evolution of Zips hoops. All time leading scorer in Colorado schoolboy history. Remember that? Talking about June pickups and which could move the needle? And then there was always the December surprise to deal with. CK knows his Zips better than the Falcons, because it was actually a *different* BG NBA guy, Keith McLeod that hit the jumper to send BG ahead. It was one of 3 good Hipsher vs. Dakich battles that year, centered mostly around BG working to keep the Bellvue Bomber from getting open. Byron Thompson had given us the lead before McLeod's jumper, and then Hip did get Faulkner a look at a game winner that just didn't go down. Two games in the MAC Tournament in 2002 {edit: the 1st round win was in Kalamazoo}. We thought we had turned the corner. Go Zips!

Enrique Freeman has what I think is his first sports card in the 2023-24 Bowman University set. Card #1 in the set. There's some up for sale on eBay for anyone interested.

We're going to win by 10+ and have a great time

Your revisionist history is claiming that the program was in a state of decline when the last 2 seasons the Zips won 26 and 27 games. Also, by ignoring his 27-10 record in the MAC tournament. There are 12 teams in the MAC and they all have relatively the same amount of resources and facilities. How many MAC tournament championships were you expecting? If I went to the football forum and told them I could guarantee them a coach that would win make 9 MAC championships games and win 3 of those 9 over a 13 year period, every single poster on this board would accept that immediately without hesitation. If anything Dambrot was a victim of his own success. He took a bottom of the barrel MAC team and built them into a team that if they didn't win the MAC the season was viewed as a failure.

"This America East conference looks like they know how to operate a conference tournament - give the top seed home court advantage. The MAC should adopt this model. Screw Cleveland." - Toledo fans (probably)

And another 2011 memory

Keys No early foul trouble for Freeman Defend the 3. In the 2 games with Kent, Santiago, Sullinger and T. Freeman shot 3s at 55% (15 of 27). Last night, S&S shot at a 73% clip (T. Freeman missed his only attempt). I don't think they can hit 70% again, but that is a key part of their game.

They should be, but mainly because the best representative of the MAC is Freeman, and the country deserves to see Freeman.

We absolutely cannot let a team that finished below .500 in conference play represent in the NCAA tournament. Go Zips! The whole conference should be rooting for us.

Just locked in tickets- Angela Rizzo coming up clutch once again!

Groce publicly expressed frustration with home attendance this year more than once. Was that OK? These coaches love their kids and see how hard they work every single day. When it doesn't feel like the fan support matches that energy, they get frustrated, and I don't blame either of them for it. KD did make comments related to the JAR and frustrations with being a one bid league. Is he saying anything that wasn't true? These were his comments after his last game here: “I feel sick for our guys because they had a terrific season and that’s just the reality of this league,” Akron coach Keith Dambrot said. “If you have an average night when it really matters, the regular season kind of goes out the window. I’m a big boy, I can take it, but I really feel bad for all the work our guys put in because we just can’t go to the Big Dance. “They made all the plays in the last eight minutes. We didn’t, and just feel bad for our kids.” Again, no excuses, just loves his players. I do agree it was probably time for a change. I actually think KD leaving forced the Athletics program to stop taking having a really good coach for granted. Hopefully they never stop that feeling, because if we win tomorrow, Groce is going to get some calls. Last two points... The VCU game was hard. We didn't have our PG we had all year, half the team had the flu, and they drew the absolute worst matchup. That was a special team. Final point - tonight should be a reminder that getting to the championship game isn't easy. This is a down year for the MAC overall, and we've still had to grind out two wins to get there. Tomorrow wont be easy, either. Of course we want to win them all, but diminishing them if we don't ("participation trophy accomplishments") doesn't make much sense to me either. Anyhow, time to focus on Kent but I wish the Dukes the best, too. Aside from KD, they also have former Zips player/coach Rick McFadden, former Zip Dru Joyce III, and longtime Zips coach Terry Weigand. It'd be great to see them go Dancing (alongside us of course!)

Tremendous overcoming of adversity by the Zips. I had an absolute blast tonight. Can’t wait until tomorrow night. The key to the game is - Enrique getting any help. If we get multiple offensive contributors we’re dancing next week. Foul call #3 on Ali merits an investigation. If never seen a more egregious whistle in my life. F Kent!

No one should bother looking to see if I posted anything negative about the Zips in this thread today. I was positive the entire time. You can take my word for it… Anyway, I am going to get tickets on the opposite side of the court tomorrow to be by the Zips fans. Tons of Blobcat fans near us tonight. Though, I did enjoy their salty tears at the end.

You'll have to head to the Kent or OU boards to find out this weekend

In two games Freeman has 54 points, 33 rebounds and 8 blocks. They should just make him tournament MVP right now. 🤣

3 tickets bought for tomorrow. Thank you Angela Rizzo!

Big Game Hunter. Love it! 😂

Bench Dawson. Give me Prather. Or Evan Wilson.

The fact that Ohio/Kent and Duquesne will be in the tournament while the Zips sit at home is the ultimate nightmare scenario.

Give us Prather

Bang up job by the refs so far. Jesus.

Thornton is like a 1% better Garvin Clarke. Change my mind

I agree. The City of Akron is much better now than when I lived there 16 years ago. It's good to live in a city at some point in your life even if it's only for 4 years.

Here's hoping for officials who call what they actually see as opposed to what they think they saw or anticipate seeing.

Took my oldest son to the game last night. At halftime someone asked about the buckeye score, and my son turns to me and says “OSU… are they in league below Akron?” bro I choked up like I was watching Rudy.

I remember we were really bad under Coleman Crawford. I wondered what happened to him and he never had another head coaching position. Out of basketball in 2006.

Im more concerned about the officiating tonight than anything else. If Freeman gets in foul trouble, we're extremely vulnerable. Kent knows they can't stop him, so they'll be trying to get him off the floor. We need to play smart and have composure. I like Ali playing with fire, but you can't give these refs any reason to T you up because they will. Tribble has to stay away from bad fouls too. We need to make life hell for Santiago and Sullinger. I expect us to play with a pace similar to the 2nd half yesterday. Kent is basically playing 7 guys for heavy minutes...run then off the floor. We're the better team. I know our seniors don't want Kent to end their collegiate careers. It's their time tonight - let's go get it!

Oh how sweet it would be to beat PCCC three times in 2 months. In the game at the JAR, the Zips put Ali on Sullinger early and his length seemed to bother him. When they shut down Insincere they came up with something to frustrate him, pressuring him early and making him go to his left. I wonder of we'll see a wrinkle tonight. The guy I am worrying about most is VonCameron Davis. He's become a better player than I imagined. He's a tough matchup for the Zips. He's developed an Ali type backdown yet can still shoot it fairly well from the outside. Hornbeak is playing fairly well but his backup is weak. I'd love to see him get in foul trouble early. Here's hoping Sammy picks up where he left off last night. No tired legs tonight boys. This could be the last college game of your life. No excuses.

Parked in the stadium garage on Thursday and Friday for $10. Easy out both days. Wonder if they jack up the price tonight.

Slow starts have been a problem all year. For once, once, once! let’s jump on these bozos tonight. We are the better team with the best player and they are short-handed. Come on Zips!!

Talking to Steve McNeese last night at the game and thinking about the 2011 M A C Championship game brought back some great Zip memories. I reviewed some of those memories this morning. Let's write a new chapter in ZIP's basketball history this evening.

I just heard the Groce's comments and glad to see him indicate how well Tavari is playing. Note to coach: he cannot play well if you don't have him in the game. In the 2 games he is a plus 27 while on the court. When the team has overcome 10 point deficits in each game, he has been on the court. He has outplayed every sub on the team and Nate Johnson. I hope that he gets the court time he deserves and Groce does not pull him if he makes a mistake on D like he did at the last Kent game.

…Can’t State still sucks!!

I forgot this matchup was also for the all time series lead! This really is going to be a war.

Tribble has to be thrilled that he gets to play again. It must have been hard for him on the sideline after fouling out in crunch time.

The line - Zips by 4.5

Great players play great in big games. Freeman has been dominant in our 2 wins. Would love for us to beat Kent so the rest of the country can watch him play.

Looked like a flop to me... In my opinion.

I'll never understand why he chose to leave Akron the way he did - ripping fans, the JAR, emptying the cupboards of the program, etc. He had a roller coaster career at Akron, but ultimately peaked 9 years in and declined during his remaining years at the helm of the Zips. Never really sniffed a tourney win, only won 3 MAC tournaments despite 8 or 9 trips, and had a slew of program issues with Diggs, Harney, Treadwell, Abreu, etc. He failed to recruit Larry Nance Jr to boot. It doesn't help that during the peak and decline of the program in his final years as our coach, we witnessed Ohio & Buffalo go on runs in the NCAA Tourney that he never accomplished, and chose to make excuses (see the opening sentence). The shine of the Dambrot era wore off real quick for me. I appreciate where he took Akron from where the program was when he started, but that's about it. I've actively rooted against Dambrot since he arrived at Duquesne. With all that being said, this year is a little different given everything he has gone through. With the passing of his dad and his wife being diagnosed with cancer, the human in me isn't upset to see him have some success right now.