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I've watched parts of a few of the Sun Belt games over the past several days. Game attendance has varied between ~600-2,500 thus far. We give the MAC a lot of crap, but let's take a moment to at least acknowledge the one thing they have done right is the MAC tournament. They put on quite the show. We're easily hitting above our weight class when you see the attendance figures we put up compared to other relative conferences and even some, like the AAC, that you would expect much more out of.

This is the most interesting season the MAC has had in years and Miami and Akron are the reasons why.

I think this is great. I hope they go undefeated and we take them out for 2 bids. I hope they keep Steele and we keep progressing, and UMass joins that tier with Kent, Toledo and OU right behind. The wheels are in place for a very good mid major conference with multiple bids, if the schools invest and keep these coaches..

Some talk about donating in other threads and it probably deserves its own spot - it's very easy to setup a recurring donation. I encourage everyone to support however they are able. It all adds up and our program deserves the support. FTR Collective https://www.feartheroocollective.com/contribute-zipsmensbasketball UA Men's Basketball Fund https://fundraise.givesmart.com/vf/CompExFundNIL/team/MBB

Our second Sunbelt opponent, Troy, wins their league tournament.

I wouldn't get caught up in trying to keep up with the Jones's. Infocision has financially hamstrung the football department. If you add in what we're spending on the stadium to what we're spending on everything else football related (coach, staff, recruiting, etc) we're near the top of the MAC. The problem is we can't both make debt service payments on the stadium while still having an upper tier G5 budget. That's why we just lost an assistant to Marshall. IMO NIL is a great equalizer for a program like Akron. Facility upgrades are immensely costly and don't correlate directly to success. Two of our G5 peers in the Sun Belt built new arenas in the last 5 years. This season they went a combined 15-21 in conference play. What matters for success and notoriety is players. We already have the training facility and fantastic locker rooms that are in the upper echelon of the MAC. IMO every dollar you spend in NIL equates to $10, $20, maybe more in facilities. You get a greater ROI in NIL.

Bracketology trends as regular season winds down We've reached the final weekend of the regular season in men's college basketball, and conference tournaments are nearly finished on the women's side. It's only March 6, but the madness is already here. Few things this time of year are as important as momentum, and while some teams are improving their NCAA Tournament stock each time they step onto the court, others are slipping down seed lines and putting themselves in danger of missing the dance altogether. We took the temperature of 19 teams in our bracketology stock watch. Trending up: Florida, Michigan State, Saint Mary's, Ohio State, Georgia, Cincinnati, TCU, South Florida, Akron Trending down: SMU, BYU, NC State, Clemson, Iowa State, Kansas, Louisville, Iowa, Purdue, San Diego State You'll be hearing a lot of bubble talk over the next week. Anxiety levels are high for at-large teams teetering on the edge of the bracket. In addition to taking care of business, they also need to root against potential bid stealers. Our model projects the MAC as the likeliest conference to produce one of those thieves. David Cobb explains. Cobb: "It's Akron -- not Miami (Ohio) -- that our model views as the favorite to win the MAC Tournament. The Zips have won 15 straight league games since taking a loss to the RedHawks early in league play. Akron also rates better in predictive metrics than Miami, but Miami will have a strong at-large case if it fails to win the league tournament."

Not sure if this has been posted anywhere, but Fear the Roo Collective has a new hoodie. Just ordered mine. The vest I bought last year is top notch so I'm excited for the hoodie which is a New Era base. Pretty solid price, too, at $40. Go Zips!

I have been a member of this board for years and in the past we would always have discussions about whether Akron could get an at large bid. We would then lose on the road to a terrible MAC team and end of discussion. But this week Akron had been mentioned numerous times in relationship to March madness in the national media. Why, because the discussion revolves around whether Miami, the only undefeated team in the nation, should get an at large bid if they do not win the conference championship. And the argument set forth by national commentators is that they are not even the best team in the MAC because the Zips had a better schedule and have been blowing out teams in the MAC. Lets enjoy the national attention!!!

I just love seeing Groce interact with the players. You can see just how much he loves those kids and his job.

The last line is mostly it for me. Also, I believe all my money going to the collective is going to players and the athletic department would have other uses even if it's all to basketball. I'm not saying there's a bad choice either. I'll get the official athletic link in here too when I have a chance. Bottom line we should all support however we are able imo

Right. I don't see how he's to blame for kids' math test results. Also, no one is taking into account how ridiculous standardized tests are. These kids are from disadvantaged backgrounds, so they likely are behind already before starting at the iPromise school. Just because they don't pass the standardized test doesn't mean the school isn't helping to improve their education. Not all "failure" on tests is the same.

20 mil is the cap, it doesn't mean we just have 20 more million dollars now

We've received 1 vote in the AP top 25 poll

Had the Freeman jersey on at the card shop again today. Several more comments from people saying they like the jersey and are rooting for Akron to win the tourney. Fans: Wear your Akron gear. Akron: Offer more affordable gear for fans to wear.

What a butt kicking. Seniors got to walk off the court to a standing ovation with 5:00 minutes left.

Akron's 34-2 record in MAC play is the best record in MAC history over a 2 year span.

I'd prefer to think that it is more like five to go!

You rang?! And I'll have you know that CK is at least a year or 2 older than me. Whitlock should be calling the Toledo Blade .. with Elton retired, that's where I'd start with a historian. Go Zips!

I sure hope there's a large appreciative crowd tonight. These kids deserve it after the seasons of joy they have brought to Zips fans.

Lots and lots of attention being focused on the MAC right now. I love it, especially because everybody is talking about Akron really being the team people should be paying attention to. CBS Sports discussion on Miami's at large chances since they think Akron will win the tournament. And an article on bid stealers since they make the argument if Akron beats Miami, Miami might still be an at-large team so that would be a bid stealer. Although that's not a huge upset because Akron's pretty damn close to being tournament worthy on their own. Zips are the face of the article.

The seniors are going to be overshadowed by the celebration of this being our last ever conference game vs. NIU!

Let's get the excitement building for this very (not at all) meaningful game! In all seriousness though, looking forward to the senior day ceremony as we have a great class playing their last game at the JAR.

Mr. Joe Dunn.

Bruce Pearl name drops Akron. I had a Miami OH honk on X get his sweater in a tizzy because he set up a GoFundMe to cover Steele's fine and I said it was an absurd thing to do. Very early in the exchange, he said that Akron wishes they were getting half the publicity that Miami OH's getting. I told him that almost every single conversation regarding Miami OH typically involves someone mentioning that Akron is probably the best team in the MAC, so thanks for the free publicity lol.

We've received a waiver to be eligible for postseason next year. https://www.espn.com/contributor/pete-thamel/b9ef17c2cb182

25-5 is akron's best start to a season ever.

I guess I was not chosen for the zips fan council. I just received this email. I honestly didn’t think there would be a formal process to join, I thought it was just going to be a bunch of fans getting together to voice their opinion. Maybe this group will actually have some swing to decisions then. Thank you for your support of the Zips and interest in joining the Zips Fan Council! While it’s been a hectic time of year with basketball season in full-swing, I wanted to send out a quick update regarding where our department is currently at with creating the Zips Fan Council. We had overwhelming interest in being a part of this council, with just under 100 applicants from across the state of Ohio and beyond. Our goal for this council is to build a group that spans across as many different demographics as possible, and as such we’ve selected limited numbers of individuals across a wide variety of graduation years and backgrounds to accomplish this goal. We are in the final stages of scheduling interviews with applicants and hope to have our council members finalized in the coming weeks, with our first meeting late in the spring. If you were not chosen to move forward in the process, please know that it was based on limited availability and Akron Athletics appreciates and values your support. As this will be a group that ebbs and flows based on availability, we would love to consider you for the group in the future even if you are not ultimately selected in this first iteration.

https://akronzippedup.substack.com/p/previewing-the-2026-mac-mens-basketball ZippedUP tournament preview. good read!

You could have at least lied and said you were attending a heavy metal concert.

I hate to be the realist, but if $8 million NIL (on top of whatever we're spending on everything else) is the cost to compete at the G5 level what's the point of continuing? People (myself included) gripe about MLB with no salary cap, but at least there are rules in place so a Francisco Lindor or Skenes can stay in Cleveland or Pittsburgh for the first half dozen years of their careers. If MLB operated like college athletics they would be on a Yankees or Dodgers roster day 1. Any late bloomers would join those rosters immediately following a breakout season. There is no way for us to compete.

The MAC is really lucky their top teams are consistently within a few hours of Cleveland and typically have a decent alumni presence in the NEO area. The geographic footprint of other conferences is a disadvantage when it comes to conference tourneys.

Another season ending with 6 injured players on the bench. Some good news is that our top recruit from last year whonwas injured in the state finals in Indiana and never saw the floor for us is back practicing and should be ready to play in 26-27. We also have one of the finalists for this year's Ms Ohio Basketball signed for next. Ryan and Bud are already working on who to target in the transfer portal. Eventually our luck has to change.

I haven't followed closely tbh. That could be the case. The MVC is also very deep. Not many games you can feel safe penciling in wins. Key example Belmont during Arch Madness. IMO the MVC is one of the few mid-major conferences that puts on a better conference tournament than the MAC. Mainly because there are usually so many quality teams and fans show up in large numbers.

#CUNIU - stop by to say hi when you come and play Cleveland State. 👋

It should be noted that Belmont was the only MVC team that would in all likelihood be seeded ahead of Akron had they made the tournament. This increases our odds of backdooring from a 12 seed into an 11.

I think Sharron should also make the all- defense team.

Who do we think gets hardware next week for individual awards? I think Tavari gets Player of the Year. I don't think there's been a more complete player or anyone more valuable to his team than TJ. He'll obviously be 1st Team All-MAC. Amani probably gets All-MAC 2nd or 3rd Team. Shammah may get 3rd or Honorable Mention. Shammah may win 6th Man of the Year again. Evan should be in consideration for Defensive Player of the Year and 1st Team All-Defense. I would think Eric would get 1st Team All-Freshman. Alrhough Groce is the best coach in the MAC, Steele will get Coach of the Year.

Had Akron beat Yale and Miami we would probably be in a similar spot to where Belmont is at currently. Solidly on the bubble line.

Regardless of how earnest Miami's efforts were in creating a challenging schedule, they've clearly benefited from the eventual result. To their credit, it's tough to go undefeated even against a weak schedule as there are always down nights. The Zips have certainly told us how difficult it is to find quality opponents over the years. Another aspect of their schedule that many seem to overlook is how it prepared them for the month of March. Facing tough competition steels you for high pressure tournament games. They have not had that experience and it may well come back to bite them.

This is literally the MAC SZN thread meaning this would be where we would talk about Miami and other MAC schools. If you don't want to discuss other MAC teams that's fine, but you probably should just stay out of this thread.

I heard the announcers in Miami's win Tuesday declare them conference champions. I have also had people on this board indicate they are rooting for Miami because the Zips have nothing to gain from a loss since they own the tiebreaker against us. However, if Miami loses on Friday and we win Friday we would both be conference champions. Under the MAC rules the tiebreaker is only for seeding purposes only. And tradition dictates that the Zips would cut down the nets as conference champions as we did last year. It is a well deserved reward for our players after a great season. Normally, if Akron wins friday they would cut down the nets in front of a home crowd if Miami loses. However, because of the TV schedule, Akron plays at 6 and Miami plays at 9. Therefore, we will not know till 11:30 whether the Zips won the conference championship. It is senior night and it is terrible that the Zips could lose this opportunity to cut down the nets in front of their fans because of the TV schedule. But that would be the reality. On Friday night: Go Zips!! Go OU!!

That's not as many as you would expect for Miami. I have it on good authority that Toledo fouls every time down the court.

Really enjoyed watching this game and how the Zips responded after Central Michigan took the lead. There is no quit in this team. We were the much more physical team and quicker to the ball. We controlled the glass. And Tavari scored 8 straight points after having a miserable night shooting the ball. Groce has really built a great team. Lets finish the regular season on a high note Friday.

Sharron Young coming along this late in the season is big.