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Miami after last nights action currently sits at #58 in NET. Akron slightly improved to #48. On paper this has to be one of the best mid-major matchups of the season across all of college basketball. It's a shame that it wasn't picked up for TV. Edit: It was also a failure on the MAC's part as they should have made sure these schools played twice. There aren't many opportunities to pick up Q1 & Q2 wins in conference play. The MAC should strategically schedule to maximize the opportunities.

WR - ODU transfer Titus Myers was on campus today. The staff was big on him coming out of HS.

My guess would be - Joe needs to win next year, and you don’t win with Freshmen.

Knowing how the game ends still didn’t prevent me from stressing for the whole 13 minutes of highlights. But the payoff is so worth it again, thank you!! Our guys had a ton of grit that night. Also, I’m not going to miss Ipsaro this year. Just saying.

This is the biggest issue with the portal right now, in my opinion. We have all these players that we're identifying and developing, then they leave and we get nothing in return. The transfer fees would help build parity in college sports. But I think that's probably also why it's not gonna happen, because the big conferences won't let it.

Limits the options for the Papa John's sub of the game.

We're facing Troy on Feb. 7 in the 2nd round of the MAC-SBC. They're currently 10-5 (3-0) and are 125 in the NET. They beat Kent but lost to Toledo (in a holiday tournament). https://gozips.com/news/2026/1/6/mens-basketball-second-round-of-the-mac-sbc-challenge-announced-zips-set-to-travel-to-troy

I think you're mistaken. Defense is what is controllable. That's why the saying is defense travels. You can't expect to shoot 40% from 3 and 50% from 2 each game in a 30+ game season. That's just not realistic unless you're playing a video game. There will be nights where your shots simply aren't falling, which is what happened against Miami. I didn't feel the looks we got offensively were much worse than we have gotten much of the year. That's why I was overly critical of our defensive play earlier in the year. We were just able to mask it against some very terrible teams given how we were playing offensively. I actually saw improvements on the defensive end against Miami, which is encouraging.

Sure glad he didn’t. Especially since it hasn’t looked like Young took a step forward this year.

At least he’s getting paid.

I asked him at the Concord game and he had an appointment the next day. He had a walking boot the game before.

Getting bodies for the sake of bodies is the Arth Approach. It’s proven that you go 1-11 or 0-12 that way, and when those players hit the portal, no one picks them up and it kills your graduation compliance numbers.

At Akron, Groce has won @ Kent, Athens, and Oxford. He's won MAC tournaments over unranked MAC teams. He didn't upset Buffalo during their golden age. His signature win is probably the 2022 MAC tournament win over Toledo in the semis. Beating an undefeated Miami who has some poll #s at Oxford will be a tall order for Groce.

We need DL help and I think he’s a borderline all conference player. I’d take him back.

Lane Kiffin is a loser. This is the best playoff ever. The favorite to win the national championship is Indiana, a school that has the most losses in college football history. How about this December/January madness!

Freeman has been with the Minn. but has not been on the roster for a game. I found this analysis of his game while a 2 way player from SB nation: Enrique Freeman Regular season: 13 GP | 31.4 MP | 14.5 PTS | 7.8 REB | 2.0 AST | 0.6 STL | 0.8 BLK | 2.0 TOV | 2.4 PF 52.4 FG% | 31.0 3P% | 75.0 FT% It’s been a slow start for Freeman this season. His minutes and overall numbers are down from his first season in the G League with Indiana, but he’s still been productive. In his most recent game with Iowa prior to being called up with Minnesota, he had his best performance for the season. Freeman scored a season-best 26 points on 10 of 13 shooting from the field against Westchester, a great encapsulation of his no frills type of effort. One of the more promising developments for Freeman has been his stroke from deep. Part of the intrigue of the 25-year-old was his potential to shoot from distance, but after shooting 20% on 2.5 attempts in November, it didn’t look promising. However, in his seven December games, he’s improved that to 37% on 3.9 attempts per game. If he can continue on this trend, then Freeman might have a shot at developing into an NBA player one day.

I did some quick googling of each player, mainly looking at their Transfer Market pages to get a sense of the competition levels they were playing at. Giannis Gazis: https://www.transfermarkt.us/giannis-gazis/profil/spieler/1226505 Most recently played for Panathinaikos U-19s, appearing in 4 matches. His page also notes that he played for Greece U-17s Noa Testa: https://www.transfermarkt.com/noa-testa/profil/spieler/937514 Most recently played for the 2nd team at FC Lausanne-Sport. Their 2nd team is in the 3rd tier of Swiss soccer. Played in 6 matches and recorded an assist. Johan N’Ganzadi: https://www.transfermarkt.us/johan-nganzadi/profil/spieler/743397 He is already listed as an Akron player on his profile. Most recently played for a 5th tier team in Belgium. Played for several youth teams of larger clubs including Genk (2018-2020) and Standard de Liège. His page notes that he played for Belgium U-17s.

It appears that the zips ......have also added another domestic recruit Idahir Deanda - Midfielder...... his instagram profile is private....but he does show @zipsmsoccer https://www.instagram.com/idahir.deanda/ top drawer soccer shows that he is from Ohio...but has played for Indy Eleven academy https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer/college-soccer-details/men/akron/clgid-438/tab-commitments#sectionblock start your research, zips fans.....sounds like a great recruiting class

It's been said many times on this site but replacing all the bleachers with chair backs would be the biggest possible improvement for the JAR. It's not like the slightly reduced capacity is gonna be an issue.

But can we get one of them? 😆

Ham you see what is happening at the "bigger" D1 schools? Iowa State was left with 16 players on their roster ! That is insane... JMU went to the playoffs, lost their head coach, and then lost their entire starting offense to the portal and graduation. Cincinnati qb just got 5 million to go be Texas Tech qb for one year. That is more than Shadeur Sanders rookie contract, I am no Shadeur Sanders fan mind you, but that is crazy... College football until controlled is going to be like MLB free agency without a salary cap. The players will get while they can get and get what they can get. If a kid doesn't think they are going to make it to the NFL better get paid now... When Finn left for Toledo, Weiner (Toledo QB Coach) told me personally that he was receiving 400k to go Baylor and that he had to do what was best for his family. He played 3 games threw 23 passes and rushed the ball 21 times. He made $133,33.33 a game! I'd say that was a pretty good investment if he doesn't make it to the NFL. The money being thrown at these players is mindboggling. It won't last forever... Something will have to give either some type of cap, some type of super conference, or something else but even the smaller P-4 schools can't compete. Backup offensive linemen at Pitt get 100k and they are the backups... A lot of these athletes are making the decision of do I want the money or do I want to play football knowing they may never get on the field and be just a back up?

laventure committed to texas tech!!! that's pretty big news for a D2 player to go to Zips to the number 4 team the country great for him ...

You’re absolutely correct the Zips can’t dwell on this so I am more than willing to dwell on their behalf. Go Zips!!

Miami's arena has all the energy of a mausoleum. It's a tough place to win when they are good. This is the kind of outcome that makes potential MAC Tournament rematches interesting.and fun for fans.

There was a lot of good MACtion today. Ohio came back from a 20 point 2nd half deficit. Kent State barely survived at home against a not so good NIU. Bowling Green beat UMass 101-100 in OT.

Keep it close and let your senior leaders take it at the end.

They just stated that the Zips have not had a free throw in the second half because they haven't taken it strong to the basket. Geniuses /s

Zips need to guard Byers like Miami is hounding Hardman.

I think @Let'sGoZips94 and @kreed5120 are both right to some extent. The Zips defense this season, including the Yale and Murray State games, has been inadequate, especially om the perimeter. Groce has referenced it repeatedly in the post-games and I'll take his work for it. At the same time, those two teams were unconscious in their shooting. Poor perimeter defense + hot shooting = 97 and 115 points. This team's pace is always going to result in more points by the opponents. More opportunities for the offense results in more opportunities for opponent. Also, the team plays help defense. Watch how they sag on the off ball side of the court. If they're a little slow to recover, there's an open shot. They'll tighten it up but they'll never be the 19-20 team that gave up 66 points a game.

I would actually like to see us pressure the ball less this game. Trapping and then being late to rotate has been what has led to those easy baskets where someone cuts to the basket or is in the weak corner for an open 3. We are the more athletic team. I feel if we force them to beat us 1 on 1 they will struggle. Their recipe to beat is by shooting 40%+ from 3 while limiting turnovers. Let's instead focus on running them off the 3-pt line and have to settle for contested 2s.

This is how I'm feeling as well. We've been able to run up the score on the cupcakes we've faced, but pissed down our legs against the 2 quality mid-majors we've faced. Mainly due to being out of position defensively. I'm hopeful we can turn it around, but on the road against a quality opponent this will likely be our toughest test in MAC play. History shows no MAC team has gone undefeated in conference play since 1958. If I had to pick a game on the conference schedule that we're most likely to lose it would be this one.

I've been worrying about Miami's 3-point shooting (and our lack of 3-point defense) for several days now. Someone please tell me why we're gonna be okay in this game. 😆

The plan with this staff has always been to sign 12–15 freshmen each class. This year it’s been slightly smaller so far, though we may still sign a few more. Like Captain alluded to, most immediate impact players are going to come from either the portal or JUCO. Although to this point, our JUCO signees have mostly been depth pieces, outside of a few guys.

Bump before the portal officially opens tomorrow. For portal departures, I’ve only included players who I believe are on scholarship and walk-ons who played significant snaps.

Maybe their D-Line coach showed 'em? 😉

Johnson - 12 PPG/5 RPG/4 APG/2 SPG Okonkwo - 3 PPG/6 RPG Prather Jr. - 13 PPG/4 RPG/3 APG/1 SPG

Because it's on the road, it will likely remain a Q1 game unless Miami really falters. It has a high Q2 floor.

Zips soccer fans, please start your research zips are adding 3 international players for 2026 https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/2026-mens-division-i-international-signees_aid55377

I think next year is the first full season that UMass will see that financial commitment for football they have talked about. Even then with the state of the program it will probably take them time to compete. Basketball is a different story. IMO Frank Martin is a washed has been who the game has passed by. His tough coaching style doesn't work in today's player empowerment era. Not to mention despite having an NIL budget that is 2-3x+ most MAC schools he seems to struggle at evaluating talent as his roster is on par with several MAC schools who are shopping TJ Maxx and Walmart clearance bins for players.

All things considered he played well & showed huge potential. He probably only finished with 10 points but I actually found that encouraging because even though St. Ignatius is one of the more complete teams in the state, it was obvious from the opening tip that Coach Dru was solely focussed on not letting RJ beat them. STVM has a player named DeCarlo Prince who is 6-4 and supremely athletic & already has a grown man's body. This year & last I'd say DeCarlo has been one of the two best players in the city - along w/ Garfield's Rayshawn Hamilton, IMHO. Anyway, Coach Dru had DeCarlo sticking to RJ like glue all night long. All. Night. Long. Hounding him. Denying him the ball. Fouling him. Any & everything. Played RJ extremely physically all night... literally every second RJ was on the floor. Coach Dru was going to let anyone but RJ beat them. That's the first I'd seen St. Ignatius play and so even though it kept RJ's numbers down I left the game excited that Coach Dru centered his entire defensive game plan on denying RJ the ball. RJ's going to have to add muscle to contribute at the next level as he's still pretty skinny. So he'll almost certainly redshirt next season. But I think most of us expected that anyway. He's a legit 6-6 and can jump out of the gym. He almost had two head-at-the-rim highlight dunks but was fouled pretty hard on both attempts. He can handle the ball & has a left hand & often ran the point & brought the ball up the court to initiate the offense. He didn't shoot a 3 all night, which I wanted to see, but in warmups he's got a smooth stroke. His free throws are kind of knuckle-balls, but they went in. He's a good and willing passer. He's got super quick feet, can move side to side on defense & gets his hips low without effort. (He was also usually assigned to guarding DeCarlo on defense, so those two kind of negated each other). You can tell he's an Akron Zips-type of personality. During warmups & even during the game he was smiling a lot & encouraging his teammates; appears to be super friendly. So John Groce got another high-caliber young man.

I also like the in-conference aspect. It means they've been able to see your program up close and like what they see.

Merry Christmas to all on this board, even those who I have blocked! I am very grateful for this forum. Thanks to the creators, moderators and thoughtful posters. I look forward to accessing this site each day. I believe the best is yet to come. And yes, Virginia, there is a winning football team coming to Akron.