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Enrique Freeman and Anjali Silverheels at the Pacers formal team dinner earlier this evening in Paris.

with not having to go to Oxford. I feel like this is a Must Win that will position us to take control of the conference Race.

By skewed, I meant the numbers should probably be higher across the board. If the system now was operating this way in December, I think we'd see a few pts added to each person's total. I don't think they're far off, I just think top to bottom we're a bit more lethal than the numbers show (mainly lookin at Seth Wilson, as I believe he should be better than a 4.7 ppg). It's also skewed in my head because guys like Seth, Hardman, Lyles, Scott, etc., can go off for double digits at any point. Nate at 13.7 ppg seems low because of his recent ~20 point performances. This is simply a lethal offense that can afford to have a couple guys experience "off nights" because there are so many weapons. Side note: Okonkwo leading the MAC in RPG with under 8 per game is hilarious coming off a year where Freeman was the best rebounder in the country with over 12 RPG. I wonder how many Freeman would have in the offense with the #1 pace of play in the country? So many opportunities.

Tough to complain about a 15 point halftime lead but the Zips had an ugly stretch there on both offense and defense.

This is tracking to be Groce's deepest offensive team during his Akron tenure. It took the entire OOC schedule for guys to figure out how they fit, so the stats are a bit skewed. MMK is our lowest PPG regular contributor, and Seth Wilson is just ahead of him. MMK is giving us more and more, and Seth has been on fire prior to last night. We are 10 deep for full game contributors and 8 deep for true offensive producers. If Harris is able to work his way back, add one to both totals. We are the deepest team in the MAC by far. In fact, our depth is going to be an advantage on Saturday. Miami is about 9 deep, and the bulk of their production comes from their top 3 - Kraft, Suder, Elmer. They are less athletic than Akron is, and while they are a high powered offense, I wouldn't call them a high octane offense. They make their living in the efficiency department. Miami has struggled against tough, athletic teams. If we make our shots, we should win this pretty comfortably. Bringing the whole family to the game. This will be both my daughters' first Zips basketball game, and I'm hoping they aren't disappointed. I do not expect them to be. Groce has these boys locked in.

Toledo must think it's March already

I'm not sure why he would be blindsided. He knew Big Dog and Cheatham were graduating. It was the worst kept secret that Robotham was headed home. The only players who followed KD were Dunn-Martin and Hughes. What happened is not at all uncommon when a coach leaves, and wasn't nearly as bad as what sometimes happens. "Pulling Akron basketball out of the ashes" is a bit hyperbolic IMO.

Bobkitten attack in full meltdown mode after losing to EMU (made it closer at the end but basically blown out). Posters claiming Clayton should be benched. Love to see it.

Pro tip: fade my bets

Interesting article here on potential MAC additions- https://www.hustlebelt.com/2025/1/17/24338685/mid-american-conference-expansion-candidates-maction-realignment-2026

Travis Steele brings his 14-4/5-0 Miami Redhawks into the JAR Saturday at 2:00 for a battle of the MAC’s last undefeated teams. 6’6” sophomore wing, Xavier transfer, Kam Craft leads the Redhawks in scoring at 15.2 ppg. 6’5” junior guard, Peter Suder, a Bellarmine transfer, is second on the team in scoring at 14.1 ppg. Rutgers transfer Antone Woolfolk, a 6’9” forward, leads rebounding at 5.9 rpg while contributing 8.4 ppg. The game is part of a doubleheader with the women who play Buffalo at 4:30.

The City of Akron has Goodyear and their research center. Akron also has the Bridgestone research center. I could see how a world class research school could look regional. Akron doesn't have to leave the region in order to service research needs for companies if that is the priority in addition to education, which I feel is more important. If the cuts take into consideration maintaining the base of research demand until things improve, maybe they are making the right choices.

It's been a while since I have checked in with this thread, but never have I been more disappointed in my fellow UA alums and supporters, and not just this particular post. I say this as an alum and someone who is STEM faculty at a major research university (not Duke). Academic departments do not exist to serve industry nor vice versa. Rather, both coexist and grow in a complementary manner to serve an economy and create a community of support. UA's expertise grew out of the rubber industry, and because it was on the cutting edge of innovation (which all top STEM departments are), a whole new economy of polymers emerged. UA supplied intellectual property and graduates with advanced research training that allowed new companies to form and grow. This is why ACS and companies support the program, and it is the reason NEO is known as polymer valley. Now, did polymer science and engineering need an entire college unto itself with the associated overhead of administration?...almost certainly not. Being a department within the college of engineering enables the same productivity, thus it is almost certainly a better value having been consolidated. However, a drastic reduction in faculty and the commensurate decrease in intellectual property, research funding, and graduates is as bad for surrounding industries as it is for the university itself. These losses are substantial too because polymer science and engineering was one of only two nationally ranked programs at UA, along with I/O Psychology. Do you enjoy seeing UA diminished on an international or national level? I certainly do not. Do you want to see UA become exclusively a regional state university? I do not. The truth is, UA WAS the Berkeley of polymer science and polymer engineering, and Proenza was 100% correct for celebrating this fact. To Hilltopper's comment, the professor to student ratio is likely out of proportion for the polymer science and polymer engineering programs because they are primarily graduate programs in which faculty salaries are paid more through research grants, contracts, and endowment than teaching. It takes a lot more resources to mentor a graduate student to being a top scientist because it requires so much individual attention, whereas thirty undergrads can be taught in parallel via lectures and with the help of graduate students. Nearly all other departments have both undergrad and grad programs, so apples and oranges. To adzip,yes, many of the students in polymer science and polymer engineering are not Americans, but that is the result of having an internationally-recognized program. It has international reach, and the program requires students with international-level credentials, experiences, and distinctions to maintain. How many STEM faculty at any university are international? How many of our best soccer players over the years have been international? Why is this a problem? The only justification for such a reduction in faculty should be that resources previously available to support salaries were no longer available and this financial limitation was impossible to overcome through other means that were extensively explored. In any case, the loss of that many faculty in one of UA's few nationally and internationally recognized programs should cost executives their jobs. Finally, the logical disconnect between so many posters here at ZN desperate for national recognition for sports but to not care about even maintaining international distinction in academics and research is astounding. Without a doubt, the latter is easier, especially in the current landscape, given the less even playing field in athletics, which is now further exaggerated by NIL

I will be watching while waiting in lines at Disney World

The finals will be Saturday, April 12, 2025 in Columbus... https://butlersports.com/news/2025/1/17/mens-soccer-mens-soccer-announces-spring-schedule.aspx

That year was fascinating. Truly invested fans had the season written off as a rebuild year, but it was much much worse than initially expected from a talent perspective. Despite the talent deficiencies, it was pretty obvious Groce's system was completely different from Dambrot's system (except for 2023-24 when we played through Freeman, as all good coaches do). That season got me excited for the Groce era because his system is very, very fun. It can be frustrating if the talent and execution isn't there, but it's up-tempo and very enjoyable.

Some interesting stats: * The Zips top scorer, Nate, is 18th in the MAC in scoring. He's the only Zip in the top 25. * 8 different Zips have led the team in scoring for a game. * Despite not having a top scorer, the Zips lead the MAC in points per game. * The Zips are fourth in points allowed on defense. * The Zips are second in point differential (Miami is first). * Okonkwo is first in the MAC in rpg. * Tavari is 4th in assists and assists to turnover ration. * Amani is 3rd in blocks and 21st in rpg. * Young is 5th in 3 point FG%. * Nate is 5th in steals. All in all, this adds up to a deep team with a large number of guys who can score and that despite the faster pace is playing reasonable defense.

Not that I am aware. It's just word on the street.

Blowing out bad conference opponents on the road is what really good teams do. I hate to see UB has fallen off so much. There used to be some really good matchups with them.

I think it also helped that we went out and got a proven winner with name recognition. Had we just promoted one of Dambrot's assistants we might have found ourselves in the same boat. Buffalo decided to promote an assistant whose only stint at coaching D1 basketball previously was a 50-70 record in the Horizon League. That doesnt inspire much confidence. They followed up that hire getting another assistant that had no D1 head coaching experience whatsoever. Edit: I kind of understand why they promoted the first assistant. They still had M'balla and a few other players they hoped to build around to contend. An external candidate likely means everyone leaves and you lose the program momentum. Everyone ended up transferring out or graduating after 1 season anyway so they ended up with a depleted program anyway with a coach that had no prior success of building a winning mid-major program.

It is my opinion that Groce wasn’t expecting a complete rebuild. That’s it. And no it’s not common practice for a coach to take players with him. It’s actually frowned upon. And after losing by 32 points at home I imagine what is left of Buffalo’s fan base is being quite hyperbolic. They have had to roll around in ashes for a lot longer than one offseason.

Scary that we're able to drop 90 on the road with one of our better shooters lately going 0-fer. That's how deep this team is.

The old saying in college basketball is get old, stay old. That saying is more true than ever this day and age with the portal being more player friendly. You saw Akron lose a lot of seniors this past season and then reloaded with more juniors and seniors. I feel Buffalo or any team that tries to build strictly through high school recruiting is going to struggle.

Probably that they'll be the 3 or 4 seed

I know that Buffalo is not very good but we shot over 50% from the 3 ball on the road. I have seen very talented Akron teams struggle on the road against some very weak teams. If we can keep shooting the 3 over 40% we are going to be tough to beat because we have some guys that can finish at the basket and we have 2 of the best guards in the conference. I know this was a blowout and we had some rough patches but still fun to watch this team.

Groce really does need to stop scheduling all of these D3 teams.

If I took a shot for everytime they said “this team is completely different without freeman” I’d be gone by now lol

This is a murder

10 turnovers for Akron and Buffalo has 8 steals already. Yikes!! I think the game came to us too easy early on. We need to clean up our act.

Sloppy unproductive stretch here for the Zips.

The first 750 in attendance get a blue Bulls shirt tonight. I'm thinking they'll be able to carry out this promotion for 2 or 3 games to get rid of 750 shirts.

The Kittens must still be licking their wounds from last Friday. They are down 50-35 at the half at Eastern Michigan.

I almost feel bad for UB fans. I'd be pretty depressed if we fell off that bad

I enjoyed it because I enjoy watching football, but it was about as competitive as the CFP has been since it started in 2014. And the BCS before it And most of college football, really

To be fair, Groce kind of fell right in his lap. A guy with prior MAC success and a guy that came cheap because Illinois was still paying him for his 1st two or three years as a Zips coach. It was more blind luck than anything. There are probably only 4 MAC (Ohio, Akron, Kent, and Toledo) programs Groce would have considered. Dambrot positioned ourselves to be one of the few MAC schools Groce would have considered.

Specific to Groce, I listen to the post game interviews of players on the way home from the game and he recruits articulate young men who are humble and always talk about the team first.

Two way contracts in the NBA are kinda odd, not that it doesn't make sense. But 2 way in the NHL for instance, you can go up and down but it's an actual transaction each time. So you know who the guy is actually with. I keep checking to see where Enrique is but there's no real way to tell (outside of a social media post in Paris!)

I'm right there with you! He's been great lately. The game seems to be slowing down for him finally

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.

CEO brainrot.

I think it's all an indicator of the nature of Groce. He adapts to what he has rather than trying to pound square pegs into round holes. He has shooters and depth now, so it's off to the races with lots of three pointers. Last year, he had a dominant post player and not much depth and he slowed it down and played inside out. In Groce I trust.