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I also felt the Lord's presence when the rowdies were yell F___K you to Kent.

I think Kent came into the JAR looking to play bully ball and in the opening tip wearing a protective mask Halligan says hold my beer and dives on the ball creating a scrum. Game on!!

Barre is not in sync offensively with his teammates yet, but his large presence was a welcome addition tonight.

I understand Groce takes the kids to Christ Community Chapel that want to come so it's not a show.

I thought Cian Medley was a good player for Kent, very quick, and played really tough defense on Tavari. He had full court pressure on Tavari a few times and really made him work to bring up the ball. I was really suprised that he sat the bench the last 10 minutes of the game. He averages 10 points a game and we held him to 3. He did not shoot the ball well but the same could be said for every Kent player. Tavari leading the team in rebounds does not surprise me. One thing we are doing better is the guards coming back to the hoop looking for long rebounds. With Kent shooting poorly from long range there were a lot of long rebounds. Also, when I played street basketball there was a term, "following your shot" which meant after you shot you went toward the basket to get your own rebound. At least once a game an Akron 3 point shooter would pick up an offensive rebound if he would follow his shot, espcially when shooting from the corners. Finally, Kent missed a lot of open 3 point shots and shot 1 for 23. Maybe we start a new contest at the Jar: "the Kent challenge." Give somebody 23 three point shots and if they make 2 they win.

Zack getting on the floor with a broken nose and fighting for a ball 2 seconds into the game is a perfect snapshot of John Groce basketball. Evan, Amani and Chabi did a good job on Gillespie and on offense the Zips got him in some disadvantageous switches drawing some of his fouls. On to EMU with the knowledge we'll see a different team in Brimfield in 3 weeks.

Tavari was funny in the post-game interview messing around with Hardman and Lyles. Not a side you see too much from Tavari. Worth a watch. At the time we debated what the loss of Tavari to the portal would have meant to this year’s team. The fact that Young has hit a wall with his offensive growth answers that clearly for me. Tavari has been exceptional all around. One of my biggest issues with Tavari in the past besides not holding his own defensively was he was always a shoot first point guard. This year he is actually looking to distribute and because of that he is far more dynamic and effective. Good on him. 👍

Agree with this except the starters. Since the change for the most part we have started off very well in games, with more defensive intensity. Zack on the opening tip last night is a prime example. Our best 5 usually get the most minutes and play at crunch time, but I like our starting lineup.

I don’t know if Lyles was standing on the circle or what, but that poor guy couldn’t get a charging call to save his life.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DRzhM73gOUI/?img_index=7&igsh=cjI5OXZoMTBlYTU4 marvin posted this a while ago about getting baptized and you can see the team came to support him. Whatever you believe it is nice to see this group come together for something bigger than themselves

I respect all religions and those who don't practice any religion. Personally, I'd prefer they stick to team gear on the bench. We are not a Christian school. But it's also not something I'm going to lose any sleep over.

Those t-shirts are the same t-shirts worn by the Ohio State football team. Easy way for young Christian athletes to witness & remind themselves "Jesus won" - that they're just playing a game that's intended to be fun; take the pressure off. Jesus won the greatest victory. Love to see it. *And people actually wonder how Groce continually recruits such high character kids 😆

A few thoughts: - Slow start for Akron, with 13 points in the first 10 minutes. Their defense kept them ahead, though, which you love to see. - I know some say it doesn't matter who starts, but I do think it can impact the game. Lyles-Mahaffey-Mahaffey-Scott-Johnson is our best five, I wish we would just start out with them. I think Scott has earned a starting role, and think Young, at this point in his career, is better off the bench, too. - To add to that, I love Halligan's effort, but hopefully as the season goes on, we'll see him settle into more of a 10-15 minutes a night type of role. Hate to see MMK and Oggy fall completely out of the rotation, too. - Chabi Barre could be an X factor for this team. He's so active in the paint and was changing a lot of shots on defense. I think he'll get more buckets rolling to the hoop on P+Rs too as he and the guards have more time to gel. Really happy to see him back. - Where would we be without Tavari?

I wish someone would have stuffed one of the white out towels in the mouth of the woman MC on the floor. Jesus Christ was she over-the-top deafeningly loud.

I've done these game for 27 years, and this is one of the most bizarre Akron/Kent games I've attended. Kent gave up with 4 or 5 minutes left.

1-23 leads to lots of offensive rebounds.

It is nice though how CBS treats it as the big time game that it is.

By far the worst product in all of sports entertainment. I've not seen much of it in over ten years. When I come across a game while flipping channels, I wish I had spent the few minutes spacing out to commercials or watching a tidbit of a movie I've already seen 500x.

I know I felt Christ's presence multiple times last night, especially when the student section sang over the a acapella choir during the national anthem. Whaley's injury was no accident.😇

I didn't lose any sleep over it, but as someone who works at UA, I share your preference. I also wonder how Chabi feels about it.

ESPN predicts the percentage chance to win each game. And currently the zips are projected to win out the regular season. (56% chance to beat Troy is the closest game) I think it is there is still a chance for a 2 bid MAC!

Yes, he'll look good in a Big 12 or Big East uniform next year. He's already played himself out of EMU being able to afford retaining him.

And their next best player fouled out and their tallest player fouled out. I give them credit for winning that one, although both teams desperately tried to give it away at the end.

Enrique II, is that you?!

Zips win! Interesting last minute where both teams tried to give it away.

What a sloppy ending.

my uneducated theory was that all those missed 3s led to a bunch of those offensive rebounds. the buffalo teams back in the day would punish on 2nd chance points.

Definitely odd, especially the timing. I'll be curious to see if it was a one-time deal. Young just can't seem to get his shots to drop this year. He's playing good defense and is taking care of the ball better. I'm hoping he starts hitting more shots but I trust our player development. He's ahead of where Tavari was as a sophomore IMO, and we see what he has become.

only knew because I watched the game. just like anyone who watched Pollock knew Marcia Gay Harden would win the Oscar.

The defense was good, but the rebounding was awful. If Can't could have knocked down open shots, it would have been much closer.

I think we were ~45 when NET was first released this year. The Murray State loss dropped us ~20 or so spots and we have slowly climbed back up.

I thought when Barre could get set on defense against Gillespie he was quite effective slowing him down. Dropping the shoulder and bulldozing might work against Lyles, but not Barre. Barre will definitely help keep Lyles out of foul trouble. Not only is it an additional body to throw at teams, but Barre helps where Lyles struggles and that’s much bigger players. At the same time their game is different enough that we should see them on the court together at times.

This is kind of where I'm at. I think it's important to set the tone early defensively. Halligan diving on the floor for the opening tip off are the kind of plays that energize a team early. I do agree with @Zippy87 that Halligan playing 25 minutes isn't ideal. Lyles and Eric both battling foul trouble likely played a role in that.

That was a thorough beat down. It's been a while since the talent disparity between the two teams, in either direction, was as wide as what I saw.

I have a different take on the game. While I have to give out defense some credit, we're pretty fortunate Kent couldn't hit the ocean from a boat tonight. They missed a lot of open looks

Congratulations to the University for having zero traffic control on hand for the biggest event of the year. I'll be in the deck until midnight.

13 teams in the MAC now, and only 4 are above .500. I wouldn't have thought that was mathematically possible. 🤣

Alot of looooong rebounds also.

Imagine if we could rebound the ball

Mass exodus by Kent fans. I can breathe again.

Also nice when you take out a Mahaffey, there is another one to put right back in. 😊

I like seeing Chabi out there again.

They just had to hold Dustin back from going after the refs for not calling an and one on Bowen's 3.

Somebody is extra pink tonight.

Been a while since hes picked up the stat sheet plays.

Is Pinky on Ozwmpic? Looks like he dropped 50 pounds.

Big time Bowen

Need fewer turnovers and more rebounds.

The challenge is there are only a few mid-majors each year that provide Q1 win opportunities. Add in that the A10 and MVC already have a head-to-head competition then that doesn't leave many options. The idea isn't bad. I just don't know if it would lead to any better results. Edit: I believe the WCC and MWC also have a deal, which would further reduce the options.