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Now is the time to schedule a home and home with the Dukes while both teams are winning instead of the weak teams we brought into the JAR this year. We could have a reunion of his old team or put his jersey in the rafters. Anything to bring the Dukes to Akron. We should have a solid veteran team next year so no excuses why we should not play the Dukes.

Excellent recap of the week from Zipped Up https://open.substack.com/pub/akronzippedup/p/zips-mens-basketball-weekly-update-db1?r=4gotw8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

The students should get another section along the sideline

I don't think this is an Akron issue. I imagine Akron would schedule a home and home in a heart beat if Duquesne had interest. The reality is A10 schools view the MAC as inferior and aren't interested in "scheduling down". Even if it's not true. Outside of Buffalo-St. Bonaventure you rarely see A10 schools play at MAC arenas.

I bet there is a better ROI for this compared to scheduling Milwaukee, Northern Kentucky, etc...

Pounded a 15-3 St Bonaventure squad by 18 today. Dru and the Dukes are rolling.

Maybe they should stand too!

The empty seats weren't very noticable. It's hard to miss the bad look of the empty areas on the floor directly behind the basket. The AD should get on this......oh, wait.

I have admittedly been hard on Tavari, and rightfully so. There was never any doubt he has skills, but he wasn’t mature enough to take on the demanding and much needed role when he arrived. He was an asset one minute and a liability the next. To be fair, LCJ took time to develop. And I wasn’t certain Castaneda would ever be more than a shooting guard. But they eventually hit their stride and were great leaders as well as all around competitors. All the more credit to Young for being impactful so early on. I don’t want to jinx Tavari, but it appears the light has gone on for him. If so, and he stays true to the process the next year and a half could be very special for him and the Zips.

This is true. We played them in the MAC Championship Game 3 out of 4 years from 2010-2013, so that built a pretty organic rivalry.

I think the team needs more community support; there's no excuse for the attendance to be as low as it is when Akron has been good for a long time. Seems like they are actually making an effort to market the team now and attract students. The JAR though I will say is pretty crap. I never noticed till I stopped sitting in the student section after graduation but the sightlines in the upper section, especially the baseline sides, are dreadful. The track and wood benches needs removed.

I like "Akron". I like "Zips". I don't like "Akron Zips". I don't like logos that tell the consumer what the logo is. The rest are very good. The "Z" logo was sharp and they should have stuck with it because it had wide brand acceptance.

How many times are we going to have this conversation? -JAR Sucks. -The OU/Akron rivalry isn't what it was 12 years ago. -UA Student body has literally more than halved over the past decade. Why would we expect more?

And the 3 techs that all have us scratching our heads!!!

I didn’t even notice this but Gray only had 2 points against Toledo, then 22 last night. I love the balanced scoring attack from this team

I do expect the game at Ohio to play out differently. Tighter and more competitive. But the thing that pleasantly surprised me was how much we closed the gap on what was Ohio’s advantage heading into the season. And that being their cohesion. They are the team returning the most players and from the outside you wouldn’t have known that the Zips have added 9 new pieces to the roster. The OOC portion of the season was rough, but we are turning the corner for sure.

I did like how every time they made a run last night (up until the last one) that the Zips countered with a run of their own and pulled away again. However, I did not like the last 4 or 5 minutes. Groce made a good point about how this squad needs to learn to "step on the neck" of their opponents and not let up. I think we've seen some real growth from Lyles lately. Frankly, I never thought he'd be more than a 10 minute a game reserve and that the Zips may well lose him to the portal. I was pleased with his physical growth when I saw him at the tip-off reception and now we're seeing the growth in his game. His kind of development only comes through hard work. Nate seems to also have turned the corner. It looks like he's finally realized he's "the man" and now has the confidence to go get a hoop.

What a great team win! I know that Groce typically gets more out of his teams as the season progresses but I did not see this coming defensively. Very impressed with Lyles's ability to finish as a rim runner. It adds another dimension to their sets. I've been waiting for Nate to become the next Jimmy Conyers and we might be seeing that now. I've been critical of Tavari in the past so I have to give him his flowers. He's way more productive when he's looking to facilitate. Opens things up for the team and his game too. This team is fun to watch

Watching the ball movement, cutting, and screening, it's clear that collectively they are really starting to get it. When an offense starts executing and moving with that sort of precision - that's when basketball really becomes such a beautiful dance. The past 3 halves of this offense almost remind me of Groce's DJ Cooper era teams at Ohio during some of those games at the Convo where they just had the Akron defense completely lost. This was the first time I've been fortunate enough to see a game in person this season and holy moly is Sharron Young FAST! All in all, an enjoyable evening at the James A. Rhodes Health & Physical Education Building!

They have had one hell of a turnaround. Happy for Dru. One of the most genuine people I've met in my lifetime.