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Thank you for such a reasoned response to the issues facing UA. I love athletics but I also recognize the limitations a school of our size is facing in this new age of NIL. My hope is that we continue to not go full in to this arms race that we can never win. Hopefully the new administration can find the right formula to have a balance of academics and still maintain a presence in sports.

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

@Reslife4Life, Mikal is hitting 3's at a 36.3% clip this year for the Herd? Good for him. Glad to see it. His achilles must not only be fully healed but he must be mentally past his injury as well. Always loved that guy.

Well they're one of the only 4 teams over 500 lol

I'm still not convinced Miami is a top team yet. They have not played anyone in conference who is above .500.

What’s even crazier about Okonkwo leading the MAC in rebounds is that he’s not logging significant minutes. He only played 14 vs Toledo and 6 vs Ohio because Lyles was tearing it up. Last night against Buffalo felt more “normal”, but only played 16 per the stat sheet.

Thanks much for posting.... Butler's first game is Feb. 22.......exactly one month away I would assume that the Zips will start their spring college league schedule on Feb. 22 I think that the zips normally try to play 2 games in one day....before the spring schedule starts. Hopefully, we will see a spring roster and spring schedule very soon (🤞🤞)

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.

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.

I always thought he was super underappreciated. The guy was the best offensive rebounder on missed free throws I have ever seen. Totally obscure thing, but the best to ever do it

When I see the word "we" in your post, I hope you mean a bigger we as in the MAC and MAClike conferences.

2021-22: 40.7% 3P 2022-23: 25.5% 3P (only 18 games played at Butler) 2023-24: 29.2% 3P

What is helping Tevari this year is this teams spacing and 3 point shooting. The paint is always open and allows him to drive to the basket without being double teamed by another big. If a big clogs the paint then he passes to an open 3 point shooter. Also, he is using the backboard and not the floater which gives him more accuracy. Further, his defense has improved and Groce is not pulling him when he makes a defensive mistake. I liked Tevari last year (and caught grief from many on this board) because he was not afraid to attack the basket and did not just rely on the 3 ball. I also thought he was the best passer and getting the ball to Freeman. He has really upped his game this year and fun to watch the development of a third year player.

2023/24 Shammah Scott: 30.0 3pt% 2024/25 Scott: 37.1 3pt% 2023/24 Mikal Dawson: 28.8 3pt% (lowest of his career) 2024/25 Dawson: 36.3 3pt% 2022/23 Kaleb Thornton: 36.6% 2023/24 Thornton: 32.3% "Sometimes you get good looks and they just don't fall, gotta keep shooting" - John Groce

I will never understand why last year’s team couldn’t hit wide open threes at a decent clip. They are not that bad of shooters. I don’t believe it. Can you imagine trying to defend Freeman with this year’s guard play?

Without insider facts, it is impossible to say what the right course of action is, but I appreciate your thoughtfulness and perspective.

I agree. And Groce's first year team was not half bad as he recruited some great talent that first year including LCJ. We actually pulled a big upset in an away game to get to Cleveland in the MAC championships: "Kalamazoo, Mich. – The No. 11 seed Akron Zips men's basketball team outlasted the No. 6 seed Western Michigan Broncos, 79-78, in a rollercoaster of an opening round Mid-American Conference Tournament game on Monday night at University Arena. The Zips overcame an 18-0 start and 23-point first half deficit to advance to the quarterfinal round of the MAC Tournament in Cleveland, Ohio at Quicken Loans Arena. We played the No 3 seed in Cleveland close and were down in the last minute by three when Groce subbed a good player Jaden Sayles for Mark Kastalec a not so good player who promptly fumbled a pass and we lost the game. Groce recruited Kastalec (6 foot 11) because he needed height and I believe he led the country in setting illegal screens.

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.

Actually, there are around 10 on at any one time and it's hard to find more than one. It's going to get worse and I'm not sure how it gets better after that.

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

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, Dambrot kinda fell right on the Zips lap too. Former MAC HC, turned insurance salesman, turned HS coach, turned Hipsher assistant at the tail end of Thunder Dan's tenure. Just as everyone with half a brain knew Groce was the exact coach we needed after Dambrot left (I too, limit any hosannahs for Larry Williams)...those same half-brained people could see the Hipsher assistant we lucked into was going to ultimately be the Zips BB HC. Better lucky than good, they say...

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.

Am I the only person who was underwhelmed with the minor league football playoff? I turned the game off at halftime. It was completely uncompetitive.

They would have 0 interest.

And on more positive news, here is an article on the 25 worst college programs of all time and we're not even mentioned. Happy New Year. 🎉

If the new AD wants to get a buy game on the schedule, swap out Duquesne for a P4. That is a move I'd be ok with. Do not touch Wyoming or UAB. Nebraska, Wyoming, UAB, and another P4 would be a fun OOC schedule. The fascination programs have with FCS/DII/DIII programs in football & basketball for "wins" is baffling to me.

In other news, the softest football program in the country resides 1.5 hours southwest of Akron.

It’s impossible to f#ck things up more. Build a big beautiful stadium and then spend money on changing logos for Roos, Zs and settling on an A. Then you cut training table because you can’t afford it. We are in no mans land - can’t recruit against D1, hell now can’t even recruit against D3 because they are different types of student/athletes. At one point we had Jim Dennison, Gerry Faust, Jim Tressel and Terry Bowden on campus at the same time (not to mention one of the worlds richest athletes LJ) and they f#%ked it up. Unreal!!!

My concern is - do the budget-cutting bean counters realize this? Or do they just see the disparity in wins/losses as Joe has worked to pull the Zips out of the deepest abyss any D1 program has ever seen? Joe returned to Akron for a lot of reasons that had nothing to do with football glamour and money, and more to do with running a D1 program, while being there for his family. That remains valid. If we’d just treat the guy right I think we could hold on to him for a while longer. Giving him his training table back so his offensive linemen can be an athletic 325 pounds instead of a skinny 285 pounds would be a great start. There are few Joe Moorhead’s looking to coach Akron, and a ton of Arths and Ianellos. For once, could we not blow it?

And its only gonna get worse. Its the hamster on the wheel. It keeps moving but ends up in the same place. The 'mid-levels' like Akron and the rest of the MAC now have to overhaul their rosters pretty much every year. They get a decent player from the portal. Whether its a DI castoff or a prospect from 1-AA or DII. Those kids either don't work out or contribute little taking up a scholly or they come in, play well, hit the portal and get picked up by a better program. Maybe a few who play well stay a second year but probably not enough to keep the roster very competitive. The 'mid-majors'( with the 1-AA's second) may be in the worst position of all. Their best players are gonna move up, or try to constantly leaving holes in their rosters. Look what Cignetti did to James Madison. Took a bunch of kids to Indiana. You are right its 'grotesque'. What do you do. Can't compete with the Big Boys. Its even difficult to be consistently competitive at this level. Stuck in the middle is know place to be. Either gotta be a top dog or get out of the rut. I know what I would do but nobody wants to hear it again. And, I'm not suggesting dumping football.

At some point, maybe in the not too distant future, will the MAC, C-USA, Sunbelt et al have to seek a divorce from the NCAA as it is structured and governed right now? I keep thinking that eventually all of the "mid-majors" will come to the realization that they cannot survive or succeed by being the de facto developmental league for the Power Conferences. Obviously I'm thinking of my alma mater, UA, but even more successful programs like OU and Miami will eventually face serious problems faced with a rebuild from the keel up every damn year. Is there even one G5 athletic department that breaks even? No NIL to speak of and even winning programs lose 10, 15, 20 athletes a year to the portal.... It's crazy. I suppose younger people have adjusted to this new reality, but I'm in my 50s; for me the whole system, which was never angelic, is now a grotesque and terribly uneven professional league in which a team with a 20 million dollar roster plays teams without a nickel of NIL? WTF, are we really talking about Michigan spending 12 million on a high school QB over four years? What planet am I on?

This is why Stanford hired Andrew Luck as their GM. Most G5s can't afford a GM, which will only add to the cavernous division forming between the upper echelon of P4 and the rest.

Here's a little Zips-related nugget. As if losing 4 straight to Michigan (especially this year's squad) isn't bad enough, Ryan Day has also trailed in all of his games vs Akron.

Seeing OSU gear everywhere is usually annoying. But on Saturday, the fact that all of those people were miserable makes me happy. Especially since 99% of them didn't attend that school and are just frontrunners.

Don’t make me gnash my teeth over what might have been. It reminds me of when KD could have had CJ McCollum in the same recruiting class as Zeke Marshall but didn’t have an available scholarship to offer.