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This guy's had an issue with strength and conditioning for some time now lol https://zipsnation.org/forums/search/?&q=Conditioning&author=monrowe&search_and_or=or

I am a long time Zip fan and and about halfway through the season when we were undefeated in MAC play and I heard Freeman and Tribble indicate that this team had another gear that they had not played their best basketball. I believed them and thought we were going to have a special season going undefeated in the MAC or at most 1 or 2 losses because the MAC was having a down year. I thought we would would win the MAC tourney and finally have a good shot at winning our first NCAA game. Then we played a tier one team, James Madison, and our bench scored a total of 4 points. I thought that this team lacks the bench talent to beat a tier one team in the NCAA tournament. And then we started losing to some really bad MAC teams. And there was one consistent weakness the entire season, we did not have a player who could knock down 3 points shooter and as a team we were really bad at hitting outside shots. We ranked 262 in the country in 3 point percentage and had the 2nd worst 3 point shooting Akron team in the past 10 year. And Groce knew going into the season he had a stud inside player, Freeman, who could dominate the middle. He had 3 players, Ali, Tribble, and Hunter who could score in different ways. He had 3 guys that had showed potential, Tavari, Nate, and Dawson. All he had to do was to bring in 2 guards that could knock down the 3 so that teams could not double and triple team Freeman. In football terms, if you have a stud quarterback, you search the portal for offensive lineman to protect your stud. In basketball terms, you bring in a shooter that if they double and triple team Freeman he can play inside out and have a shooter make the 3 ball. Instead, he brought in Thornton and Scott who could not shoot the 3 ball and could not create their own shot. Groce, who brought us X and LCJ, picked the worst year to strike out when using the transfer pool to bring in 2 guards. In the latter part of the season teams just double and triple teamed Freeman and we struggled to shoot the 3 ball. I think Groce is a great coach and brings in quality student athletes. I know we won in Cleveland and got to the tourney and should be happy with that achievement. However, I would ask everyone on this board one question, did this team meet or exceed your expectations when we started this season.

I have heard that when it comes to recruiting bigs you need to have a point guard they are excited to play with. Often the success of a post player is determined by how well the point guard can distribute the ball to them. And they know it. Hopefully a more mature Tavari and the addition of Sharron Young proves to be a magnet going forward. Also, we have learned that it was Freeman’s Mom who really deserves credit for recruiting him by convincing him to try out. I still give Groce credit for recognizing his athleticism and bringing him in as a walk on. Then I give Groce credit for not being prideful because Freeman was grading out better than his recruits. He went with the best performer in practice, period. And finally, thanks to Freeman the coaching staff can show what is possible at Akron from a developmental standpoint. Freeman with all of his physical gifts was raw. Their guidance combined with Freeman’s desire and hard work took someone without a single D1 offer and turned him into one of the best forwards in college basketball. That’s impressive. Thank you Enrique!! Well done!!

Has nothing to do with strength/conditioning. Has everything to do with an inability to put the ball in the hoop consistently. Vs Ohio in the Semi Finals - 14 or 16 pts in the first half & 50 pts in the second half. Prime example, especially being the 2nd game in 2 days. I mean, hell, we won the MAC Tournament which is 3 games in 3 days. We need shooters/scorers. Period.

I was sure I was going to read “This is a paid advertisement by Tod Kowalczyk of the Toledo Rockets” on the bottom of the tweet.

Creighton was a really tough matchup. I watched them several times this year, including when they blew out #1 UCONN. They have a pretty high ceiling, and Shereef Mitchell at Ohio came from Creighton (where he didn't play much). Creighton is a talented bunch. Congrats on the MAC tourney win, it was much deserved. We'll see you all in Athens in 10 months or so. 👍

Hanging a new banner

And even they are losing Hunter to graduation. The MAC is beginning to look like a 14 or 15 seed next year.

North Texas(NIT over UAB in the final) and Charlotte (CBI) I believe. I remember FAU in the NCAA Final Four as well. All four of those teams were mid-majors from CUSA. There was no CIT last year.

I think the team hit their second gear in the second half of the OU game in Cleveland. Going from scoring 16 in a half, to scoring 49 and winning (and covering!) That took something special, we saw it out of this team. It was going to either take a down night by Creighton or a third gear to win yesterday by the way they were playing. In no way do I think this team underachieved. Yes we lost a couple games we shouldn’t have, but no team is undefeated this year. We didn’t underachieve because of: an amazing putback dunk (EMU), crazy fadeaway jumper near the buzzer (St. Bonn, Miami), stupid TO after a steal (Utah St), that stuff just happens over the course of 35 games.

And even without that one it's kind of splitting hairs. 2024 lost by 17, 60-77 to Creighton 2022 lost to UCLA by 4, closest loss ever 53-57 2013 lost by 46! 🤮 to VCU 42-88 2011 lost to Notre Dame by 13, 56-69 2009 lost by 13 to Gonzaga 64-77 1986 lost by 6 to Michigan 64-70 So 17 isn't great but isn't that out of line. BTW our seeds in those games starting with the most recent were 14, 13, 12, 15, 13 and 15.

Got mine.

All Mac Teams, 15/25 players either graduating or transferring (not sure if they will stay in the league) Ali Ali, Senior, Guard, Akron Enrique Freeman, Senior, Forward, Akron Marcus Hill, Junior, Guard, Bowling Green Anthony Pritchard, Junior, Guard, Central Michigan Ra’Heim Moss, Junior, Guard, Toledo All-MAC Second Team Basheer Jihad, Junior, Forward, Ball State Rashaun Agee, Senior, Forward, Bowling Green Jaylin Hunter, Senior, Guard, Ohio Dante Maddox Jr., Junior, Guard, Toledo Tyler Cochran, Junior, Guard, Toledo All-MAC Third Team Brian Taylor, Graduate Student, Guard, Central Michigan Tyson Acuff, Junior, Guard, Eastern Michigan Jalen Sullinger, Junior, Guard, Kent State David Coit, Junior, Guard, Northern Illinois AJ Clayton, Junior, Forward, Ohio All-MAC Honorable Mention Greg Tribble, Senior, Guard, Akron VonCameron Davis, R-Junior, Forward, Kent State Anderson Mirambeaux, Senior, Center, Miami Darweshi Hunter, Graduate Student, Guard, Miami B. Artis White, R-Junior, Guard, Western Michigan MAC All-Freshman Team Arne Osojnik, Guard, Eastern Michigan Eian Elmer, Wing, Miami Will Lovings-Watts, Guard, Northern Illinois Javan Simmons, Forward, Toledo Sonny Wilson, Guard, Toledo

With the unfortunate yet inevitable end for the 2023-24 Zips men's basketball season, we've arrived at the off-season portion of the calendar. The Transfer Portal and TOS Coaching Carousel will be the hot button topics, and I figured it would be good to keep a tracker as the first post on a thread. If anything is missing from this post, please comment and tag me so I see it and can update this post. Go Zips! MAC Transfer Portal Akron - OUT - Mikal Dawson Akron - IN - Seth Wilson (6'2"/G/West Virginia), James Okonkwo (6'9"/F/North Carolina), Josiah Harris (6'7"/F/West Virginia) Ball State - OUT - Micah Bell, Trent Middleton Jr, Quincy Adams (Western New Mexico), Jalin Anderson (Incarnate Word), Joey Brown, Basheer Jihad(! - Arizona State), Davison Bailey, Jack Futa Ball State - IN - Payton Sparks (6'10"/C/Indiana/Balls), Joey Hart (6'5"/G/Kentucky) Bowling Green - OUT - Rashaun Agee(!), EJay Greer, PJ Edwards, Marcus Hill(!), Anthony McComb III Bowling Green - IN - Braelon Green (6'3"/G/Arizona St), Youssef Khayat (6'9"/F/Michigan) Buffalo - OUT - Kanye Jones, Jonnivius Smith, James Graham, Zaakir Williamson Buffalo - IN - Noah Batchelor (6'6"/SO/G/Maryland) CMU - OUT - Derrick Butler(!), Max Majerie, Aidan Rubio, Jemal Davis, Markus Harding, Paul McMillan IV, Noah Adamczyk, Anthony Pritchard, KJ Odour, Josiah Sanders CMU - IN - Jakobi Heady (6'6"/F/Bethune-Cookman), Kyle Vanderjagt (6'4"/G/Belmont) EMU - OUT - Julius Ellerbe, John McGriff, Derik Pranger (Colorado Colorado Springs), Tyson Acuff(! - Rutgers), Connor Serven, Andrew Wells, Javantae Randle PCCC - OUT - Reggie Bass, LA Hayes, Jalen Sullinger(!), VonCameron Davis(!), Julius Rollins, Tyem Freeman PCCC - IN - Morgan Safford (6'5"/PG/Miami OH), Anthony Morales (6'8"/F/Boston U), VonCameron Davis (Returning), Cian Medley (5'11"/G/St. Louis) Miami - OUT - Ryan Mabrey, Jaquel Morris, Morgan Stafford, Julian Lewis Miami - IN - Kam Craft (6'6"/G/Xavier - 4* recruit 2 years ago) NIU - OUT - Xavier Amos, Zarique Nutter, Zion Russell, Will Lovings-Watts, David Coit(!) NIU - IN - Joe Munden Jr (6'3"/G/Fairleigh Dickinson) Ohio - OUT - Quinn Corna, IJ Ezuma, Ike Cornish Ohio - IN - Victor Searles (6'10"/PF/Ashland), Jackson Paveletzke (6'2"/G/Iowa State/Wofford) Toledo - OUT - Ben Wight, Tyler Cochran(!), Ra'Heim Moss(!), Dante Maddox Jr(!), Marko Maletic Toledo - IN - Colin O'Rourke (6'8"/F/Wisc-Parkside - DII), Seth Hubbard (6'4"/G/WMU), Isaiah Adams (6'6"/F/Buffalo) WMU - OUT - Jefferson De La Cruz Monegro, Seth Hubbard, B. Artis-White WMU - IN - Notable Transfer Portal UMASS - OUT - Joshua Cohen, Robert Davis Jr, Sawyer Mayhugh, Gianni Thompson, Keon Thompson South Carolina - OUT - Meechie Johnson (Ohio State) Tucker DeVries has transferred from Drake to WVU to follow his dad Bronny James has entered the Portal. MAC Coaching Carousel Notable Coaching Carousel - Michigan fired Juwan Howard; hired Dusty May (FAU) - Stanford hired Kyle Smith (Washington State) - Washington hired Danny Sprinkle (Utah State) - Vanderbilt hired Mark Byington (James Madison) - West Virginia hires Darian DeVries (Drake) - Louisville hired Pat Kelsey (College of Charleston) - Arkansas hires John Calipari (Kentucky) MAC News Notable News - NCAA is looking at banning prop bets for college athletics

And hopefully a new jersey. Guthrie favorited my tweet suggesting that Freeman's jersey also be retired.

Though nothing we really haven't discussed already, I like this guy's thinking. Reward every D-1 conference regular season champion and tournament champion a bid to the Big Dance. Make the regular season meaningful again.

Schools in the MAC either need to adapt to the new college sports landscape or fall further and further behind. Somebody posted that UMASS said the MAC maybe has one or two NIL funds. Nothing is going to change and we’ll never have the success we hope for unless we play the game.

C'mon now. The reason he launched 20 3-pointers is because Oakland had no other choice. If he only makes 7 Oakland loses. Credit to him for making them, and Kampe for leaving him in against a superior opponent, but that's all Oakland had. We'll see if his hot hand continues in the tournament.

A few years ago (maybe more than a few; COVID really killed all sense of time this past decade), Nevada was branded as Transfer U as they enjoyed outstanding success in March. I would love to see our athletic department and basketball team brand themselves as Commitment U or Loyalty U. We just had 2 excellent players spend their entire 5 year collegiate careers at Akron; another player came back for his 4th year at Akron after a year at a "better" school. That's unheard of in this day and age, and really what people want to see in college athletics. The majority of social media posts aren't a fan of all the movement, and any program that is able to buck that trend would instantly become a fan favorite. Knock on wood, but we have zero players in the portal so far. Imagine being able to pitch that to future recruits/transfer.

Yep, I never saw kids with their hands on their knees or otherwise struggling, so I don't think it was conditioning. I think it had to do with an inconsistent offense and a lack of killer instinct. The large number of quality players and portal entries from the MAC has me more encouraged for next year.

Amen Captain. You not only have to recruit a kid to get him there but then you essentially have to re-recruit him every year to keep him. It's a mess.

If I were a college coach I'd quit the business and sell insurance.

Official

Congratulations to Joel Sangwa on his first MLSNextPro goal. 👏👏👏

Nice save by transfer keeper in PKs! All of the Zips scored in PKs too! Well done!

As well as Creighton shot in scoring 77 on us, there are a lot of other teams scoring in the 90s and even 100s.

Awesome! I have two on the way!

It's hard for me not to get into the weeds here with abstract basketball philosophy with this sort of stuff. Outside shooting, I believe, is VERY much a mental game once you've achieved a certain level of shooting competence (for which I would describe pretty much all D1 guards and most frontcourt players as it pertains to outside shooting). You have to have confidence in your stroke. And, I believe, the most difficult time to manifest that confidence is when the other team is on a big run and has all the momentum. So difficult, in fact, I don't think you should be doin' it! So many times this year I've begged the Zips on my TV to stop shooting 3's and jumpers, get it inside by either feeding Enrique or penetrating. I know these guys think they can hit that knockdown three that will stop the bleeding, shut up the other team, and get back on track, just by doing the same thing they do thousands of times in practice and dozens of times in games, but it's not that simple. You have to have some sort of understanding of how momentum swings work, and how to break momentum when it's in the other team's favor. I don't pretend to know how to do that, exactly. I think it has something to do with staying in the moment - there is no yesterday, there is no tomorrow, there is no 2 minutes ago, there is no 2 minutes from now - there is only this shot - but not only is that easier said than done, but how the hell do you immunize yourself as much as possible from the other team's runs while taking advantage of the confidence boosts to your shot that having momentum in your team's favor gets you? Again, I don't know how to solve that puzzle, but a) if the Zips don't have one already, I would implore Groce, and indeed every Zips coach from now to the end of time to hire a sports psychologist, full time, to work on just this type of thing. b), Groce needs to stop giving the green light to everyone at all times, which I kind of suspect he gives players. A lot of posters have made great points about how Groce brings in unselfish, good people as players, and the transfer portal so far has hit us far, far less than most programs. This means Groce is earning players' trust, and this is probably one way he is doing it: I believe in you (and therefore, your shot) in all circumstances. That's obviously well-intentioned, but if I'm coaching a basketball team I am absolutely putting the kibbosh on all jumpers, from anybody, at certain points of the game (namely, as described above, when the other team is on a run). I would try to instill in my players that such prohibitions have absolutely nothing to do with my faith or belief in them or their game and everything to do with knowing the best way to get ourselves out of hairy game situations. It's an easy and frequent lesson that there's no player bigger than the team. But there's also no player bigger than the GAME. The game works a certain way, and if it's going a way you don't like, you might have to check your ego in order to correct it. Great post. I think something happened - who knows what, maybe nothing concrete - around the James Madison game that took the venom out of their stingers pretty much permanently. They got their groove back in spurts in the MAC tourney and the first half against Creighton, but this team just stopped playing as well as they can, and definitely not out of a lack of effort. So again, I think a sports psychologist is in order. To answer your question, the team met my preseason expectations, and fell short of my midway-through-the-season expectations.

Emoni Bates got drafted. Enrique is light years ahead of him as a player.

If I'm an NBA team I'm absolutely looking at Freeman in the 2nd Round or as an undrafted free agent. - Elite rebounding and defense - Respectable outside shot - Off the charts when it comes to motor and character It's important to remember Freeman would be asked to do a lot less on an NBA team. The offense isn't going to run through him. He's not going to log 38 minutes a game. He'd be a big coming off the bench to provide some rebounding, defense, and energy. The biggest knock on Freeman will be his size. He's listed as 6'7", 206 lbs on ESPN. There are several current and former NBA players with similar size to Freeman but if I'm his agent I'm painting a picture of a young-but-not-crazy Dennis Rodman (6'7", 210).

I don’t like what is happening to college sports!

If this is true, Kent will pretty much only be returning Julius Rollins & Hornbeak. Kent's summer school classes are going to include "Which Number is Higher: 61 or 60", "How to Look at the Scoreboard at the End of Games", and "When Not to Foul." These are, of course, HUGE leaps above their typical summer school classes such as "Counting to 3", "ABC's: Sing With Me", and "Our Truth: Drawing Birds with Teeth." Rumor has it Pinky is frantically hitting the portal for any ladies with basketball player boyfriends and coaches who have stud sons/nephews/etc.

After the Zips game at PPG Arena, I passed Koby Altman the General Manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the concourse. You would have to think that Enrique Freeman impressed Koby after his 21 and 14 showing against the 7' 1" 270 lbs - Ryan Kalkbrenner, the Big East three time Defensive Player of the Year. I will never forget the 24 points, 21 rebounds and 7 blocks stat line against Ohio U. Really appreciate Enrique and going to miss him.

If you want to become the next Butler/Creighton and elevate yourself out of the MAC, sure. In the meantime, this is simply a coaching staff mission: find some shooters.

The two teams that pulled off the biggest upsets today had scoring guards lead the way - Oakland (Gohlke, 32) and Duquesne (Grant, 19). When we came close against UCLA. Castaneda led the way with 18. When OU won in 2021, they had Preston and Sears. When Groce's OU teams made their runs, they had DJ Cooper. You get the point. It's hard to pull off an upset without a guard who can score in bunches and break down a defense.

I'm exhausted, but some quick points: I'd be surprised if Lyles is back. I think Tavari is 50/50. Groce will bring in some help. They're already probing the portal. Also, that help will be in the form of unselfish kids who can be good teammates and play Groce ball, not merely kids with nice stats. At Akron, it's about fit, not strictly numbers. Shammah was very good in the last 3 weeks. I don't at all consider him a waste and Groce clearly doesn't either with the way he used him in the last month.

Not even close. In 2013, we lost to VCU 88-42.

Uh, what? I'm happy for Keith.

We had opportunities to earn a higher seed but we lost to St. Bonny, UNLV, Drake, and James Madison. If we want respect, we have to prove that we can beat teams other than EMU and BG.

I hope he sucks even more in Pittsburgh than he did here.

It's possible that he could make Kenny Pickett even worse than he is now.

Offense as impotent as in the fall 😕

1 goal total in the run of play this spring.

Cleveland st has an undergraduate student population of 14k. Youngstown st has 11k Akron 12k. yeah…..I would say there is a trend with city/urban universities.