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Akron now has longest win streak in country at 11 (a bunch at 10). Akron, Southern, and Yale only teams undefeated in conference play.

While he has certainly improved this year, you could tell last year as the season wound down that he had really gained Groce's confidence as he was in regularly at the end of close games. I spoke to him after the MAC Championship and pointed this out to him and how it showed his growth as well as Groce's confidence in him. When he and Young are in together, I see them as guards as opposed to distinguishing who's playing the point as they both bring the ball up and get the offense started. I've really enjoyed those two coming in together this season. There's little or no dropoff.

The program has been horrific since COVID and were only treading water before. They held onto Hawkins too long. When they decided to move on from him they promoted one of his under performing assistants, who they gave the job because he agreed to taking it on a trial basis while still making only an assistants salary. Not sure about Stephens, but his tenure isn't looking so hot. A prime example of the many MAC programs that have stripped funding from all sports so they can spend every last penny on football. It's why MAC hoops as a whole has been in decline.

With Auburn's loss today Akron has the 2nd longest active winning streak in the nation. Only Duke is currently ahead, which they're currently trailing by 2 to Clemson. Edit: Duke falls to Clemson. Akron has the longest active win streak in the nation.

Who cares about the NIT right now lol

It would heavily depend on how many P4 who miss the bubble, but decline an invitation to the NIT. When the NIT revamped the format last year, they pretty much came out and said they're looking for the teams that give the best ratings. They aren't bound like the NCAAT selection committee, who have to at least formulate an explanation on why they took the 9th place Big 10 team over a 28 win mid-major. The NIT can state they acknowledge a ~27 win Akron team is more deserving than a 17-16 Virginia team, but Virginia will drive viewers so they went with them.

My first concern is actually winning 3 in Cleveland first. The rest of the MAC might be garbage, but we live in a world where a 16 seed beat a 1 seed. Anything can happen in a single elimination format.

We were the first team this season to drop 80 on USA.

The last time I think there was real discussion here was Dambrot's final season. Ever since then it's usually just 2-3 delusional posters with the rest of us trying to talk some sense into them.

Yeah it's record from teams that are in the conference next year so we win

The 7-16 Broncos come to the JAR Tuesday night fresh off of an 83-57 thrashing at the hands of Georgia Southern in the MAC/SBC Challenge. Western is 4-6 in the MAC with wins over Ball State, PCCC, NIU and EMU. 6’2” junior guard Chansey Willis leads scoring at 15.2 ppg. Chansey is a transfer from Henry Ford College ( a new one for Captain’s list). They are 11th in offense and 8th in defense in the MAC. They are last in three point percentage. They are second to the Zips in rebounding.

Kent has good losses. Auburn, Bama, and UC Irvine are helping their NET more than losing in the MAC has hurt it. Their win over top 100 Ark St helps too. NET is designed to reward power conferences. The AP is designed to promote power conferences. This should be the week that Saint Mary's gets ranked, and that should tell you all you need to know about the AP Poll.

I think of the SEC as a football conference except for Kentucky and sometimes Florida. Right now they have 9 teams in the AP Top 25. Impressive.

Agreed. By far not an expert on NET, but it has to be in large part due to the fact Kent played and lost to Auburn and Bama? Their best win is Cleveland State, or I guess now probably Arkansas state.

Looking at the box score, what really surprised me is that Scott went 0 for 6 and had 4 turnovers. (He did have 4 assists) I have really been a Scott fan this season as I believe he as really stepped up his game especially shooting the ball and driving to the basket. Because of our dominance and balanced scoring, one guy can have an off night and it really does not get noticed. Because Young was injured in the 2nd half, he did play point guard for the first time this season and that may have hurt his game. Also, Nate had a career high 10 assists. I knew he did not score much that game but was surprised he has a career assist day. I like Groce's attitude in the post game conference, we are not worried about the winning streak, only our next opponent. It is a cliche but, take one game at a time.

The lastest from Zipped U. Awesome recap of the intense week of Zips basketball plus an interesting tidbit about the Broncos as they scrounge their way towards Cleveland. https://akronzippedup.substack.com/p/zips-mens-basketball-weekly-update-df6

Both CSU and YSU were horrible when the 4 NEO teams had that coaches vs cancer annual challenge. I kind of just viewed it as another cupcake opponent.

To answer the actual question, there is no tie-breaker and it would be recorded as a draw. That's how it's done for the other conference challenges.

I watched the replay tonight. There have been 2 truly special teams during the span of my Zips fandom: 2012-13 because of their Coaches' Poll ranking and 2019-20 because it was Groce's first talented team at Akron with a plethora of likeable guys that had a legitimate shot at wins in March if it weren't for COVID. This year's squad has a chance of entering the ranks of "special" for me. This is the most offensively talented team I've ever seen at Akron, and it's to the point where it doesn't matter what the other team does. Want to play a zone? Ok. We'll either shoot our way out of it or break it down with exceptional movement both on-ball and off-ball. 2-3 guys not shooting the ball well? No worries; guys 4-7 will step up and make the shots. The versatility and depth we possess is outstanding. South Alabama was a top 100 defense that we dismantled. Kent was a top 100 defense that we dismantled. Miami was a top offense that couldn't keep up. Ohio was a top offense that couldn't keep up. We control our destiny more than any Zips team I've ever seen because if we play our game and execute, we're borderline unbeatable by any better in the MAC or around our level. Let's Go Zips!

If Akron wins out the MAC, I will start a thread, Should Akron get an at large bid?

A Yale or Princeton victory and we might be there right now.

Replacing dead weight NIU with UMass will greatly improve the MAC's chances of competing in this in future years.

I bet we get votes next week or the week after if we don't lose in between

Yale and Omaha are read hot. NET stocks are up

27 made FGs, 23 assists!!!

I also cannot believe how much tavari has improved. There were points last year I seriously thought he was gonna get benched for the season and transfer

Very impressed with how Seth has come along. Early in the season I didn't think he'd develop into a guy who'd get on the floor for loose balls and make the hustle plays, but he's really bought in.

I took zips giving the points and over. Reminds me of the Kent matchup, they play our pace, they get ran out of the gym. Here's hoping

You won't see a Noah v Antino feud under Groce.

People say that when someone says or writes something and uses the word "but", they don't mean what they said before the word, but I do because my question is practical and not personal. GVH is a great guy, but what is his experience in working in or running a successful athletic department? One analysis HR directors make at companies when cuts are made is how much money someone made at a company throughout their tenure. This is why highly paid employees come and go so quickly compared to lifers. GVH did not become a millionaire working for the University, but he made a lot of money over a long career which will also lead to a healthy government pension when he retires. His time was well served and appreciated by many. It is best for him and the University of he does something else at the end of his career. Bringing him back shouldn't be an option.

I just want to play Cleveland State. At Cleveland 1 year and at home the next.

Sometimes, if your boss is busy promoting himself, he doesn't have time to pay attention to the "little things" immediately at-hand...like promoting the Zips.

The scoreboard is the biggest eyesore and detractor from the Info. Replacing that will go a long way with GameDay experience for the 10 people that show up.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, should give a flying fadoodle what the tiebreaker is in the MAC/Sun Belt Challenge. 😂 It should simply be an 0-1-1 record for the MAC in the first two seasons and we can focus our attention back on Cleveland.

GVH would be a good choice. He already knows all the donors and the community. He would hit the ground running.

There are no surprises in the list of profitable programs, but these data always lead me to wonder why and how the other Big 10 members like Wisconsin or Indiana, for example, cannot at least break even considering the large conference payout each gets. The entire MAC losing money is also no surprise, but it's disheartening because I cannot see this going on forever (enrollment at many MAC universities is dropping or stagnant). It's going to lead to more and more program cuts and this will weaken the conference overall from its already precarious position. Soccer is already gone as a MAC sport, etc. Surely more cuts are coming.