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Thought Barre had an excellent game for the minutes he was in.

I'm missing your point. Every one of those calls involved video review. The only call I question was the straight red against Matt Dreas. Was it reckless for him to go high with his foot?...yes. However, it could have been a yellow card caution and not red. It was borderline in my opinion, and I thought refs tended to not want to tip the balance with "big" calls. Unfortunately, in the exuberance of the game, Matt made a decision to go high with his foot and put himself in a position for the ref to make a judgement call. NCAA Tournament games go the way of the team that weathers the storm. SLU had a bad first half and benefitted from a series of unfortunate events by our Zips. I'm devastated by the loss, more so for our players, especially the seniors who have no next season for the Zips. In solace, it was a great season thanks to a group of outstanding student-athletes and coaches. I can't thank them enough for this season. There's so much of which to be proud. I try to focus on positives and will remember this season for qualifying for an exclusive 4-team BE Tournament by winning a tough final regular season road game and getting to the NCAAT Elite 8, playing all of our NCAAT games at home. The win at Xavier in the regular season was a personal highlight as a special friend attended that game with me and then he left for his drive/move to Salt Lake City that evening. These Zips made that "goodbye" special for both of us. We have a great memory and picture with the team and other Zips fans as we celebrated the program's 800th win. Toujours de premiere classe! (Always First Class) Thanks 2025 Zips Men's Soccer!!!

I haven't chimed in but wanted to share the following post from the boogeyman himself Connor Stalions when talking about the MSU hire - It's insightful. "People need to understand coaching is just one piece of the pie. More times than not, it’s a huge factor because talent & resources are usually close. But at Northwestern, it’s not even in the same ballpark as the rest of the conference. The academic standards make recruiting damn near impossible. The administration doesn’t care about winning. It’s basically an Ivy League school in the Big Ten. Pointing to a couple bad seasons (from a record standpoint) is lazy. Speaking from personal experience (yes, at a much different scale): I coached at Mumford HS in Detroit as the DC for a few months. We had 3 coaches & 18 total players in the program with a team-wide average GPA of a 0.9 when we arrived in the summer, and had to play JV & Varsity games with those 18 players (do the math on that). We somehow won a game. But of course we lost to Cass Tech 70-0. Went to Belleville right after the regular season as the OC and won 70-0 first game in the playoffs. Do you think I didn’t know how to coach then all the sudden learned in one week for a 140-point turnaround? No… We won at Belleville because we had Bryce Underwood, Elijah Dotson, etc. We lost at Mumford because we didn’t (and played against CJ Sadler, Don Tabron, etc.). While talent gaps are much greater in high school, I’m explaining the point that coaching only matters when the talent gap is manageable." Akron like Northwestern's issues are largely structural (and financial here), and Moorhead is not to blame there. Without addressing those underlying issues, a coaching change seems cosmetic. Unless they could line up someone like Jason Taylor. They are working to address the underlying issues though.

That's because you're hearing what you want to hear. You keep just saying move on from JoeMo and it will make us magically better. Others are saying we need additional resources regardless of coach. Just because someone points out that the program is underfunded doesn't mean they're saying the program can never succeed in the MAC. They're saying that if we want to have success in the future we need to find ways of increasing resources. Whether that falls on getting more donations, playing more buy games, or whatever else. Replacing a coach is just a bandaid. I'm not even opposed moving on from JoeMo. I just want there to be a plan in place for how we're going to be financially competitive with the other MAC schools. Without it you will be here in 2-3 years demanding we fire another coach.

Probably the most talented, definitely the deepest. One area they continue to get beat on defense is on the perimeter. They are dedicated to playing help defense which has the defenders on the off side of the ball sagging into or close in the lane when the ball is on the other side of the floor. When the opponent swings the ball quickly they're caught responding late leaving open threes. They're also getting occasionally beat by cutters to the basket.

💯 It’s as good as the Cheese, Banks, Casteneda, Williams, LCJ line up, but deeper. And Barre could be the wild card that allows us to make some noise against the big boys. After the Purdue game Groce said “Purdue’s one of the best teams in the nation, but we’re one of the best teams in the nation too.” He knows this is a special group. It isn’t a taped-together group of 1-year mercenaries. It’s a seasoned group of talented guys who’ve been together for a while. Sprinkled with a nice mix of new ballers who’ve more than filled the 2024-25 departure gaps. Worst case this Zips edition should go 16-2 in the MAC. BG, EMU, Kent, Miami, Buffalo…they have nice teams. But they aren’t at our level.

Agreed on the red being a debatable decision, but Matt can't put himself and the team in that position as a captain. Everything the Zips did in the second half was dumb, his high boot being no exception. Also, never again to I want to see a stutter step PK. Very unfortunate loss that hurts even more considering we would've been the highest seed remaining with a legit shot at a second star. Gutwrenching to say the least. Saint Louis may just be a team of destiny. I hope they prove me right by winning it all for their 11th star and first in 50 years.

After the Tulane game, I think that Akron's 2 losses to Purdue and Yale were probably 2 of our better played games. I thought we played OK against Tulane but we played much better against Purdue and Yale. In other words, this team can play ok basketball and win on the road against a decent team. It is very early in the season but this might be one of Groce's most talented teams. Time will tell.

It's big to Akron IMO. This is the type of game we typically drop inexplicably. Being on the road, this might end up being a Q2 win come season's end, too. Very solid performance. Akron shot above 40% again from 3; Akron has one of the best offenses in the country.

Your significant other must love your selective hearing...

Most talented offensively for sure. I feel there is still a lot to be worked on defensively. We don't seem to be great defensively in the half-court when we face teams that don't turn the ball over. Tulane started something like 1-11 from 3, but at least 5-6 of those misses there wasn't a Zips defender within 8 feet. Those are shots a better team will knock down. We need to work better on being quicker on our defensive rotations and not being out of position. I'm not saying this to be nitpicky. The 3-point line is the great equalizer and if we don't correct it someone will capitalize.

Coaching matters. Cignetti is incredible.

Was just watching the halftime of the ACC Championship game. They had a commercial with ACC bobbleheads talking about how great the ACC is. After watching that ad I think they should be left out of the playoff just for that. Ugh.

It wasn’t a pretty game at times, but I would say our guys passed the test. Groce is sure challenging them with different styles of play this year.

The Zips head to Vegas next Saturday to face to the Murray State Racers in the Jack Jones Classic. The Racers are 7-3 with wins over Bellarmine, Morehead State, George Washington, Little Rock, Nicholls, Mississippi Valley, Omaha, Northern State and Xavier, and losses to SMU, Middle Tennessee and McNeese State. Of their three losses, two came in the Caymans against Middle Tennessee, 90-87, and McNeese State, 73-70. Their other loss was 102-91 at SMU. From the Bellarmine website going into their game with Murray: MSU shoots 29.3 threes per game, 36th-most in the country, and ranks 99th connecting at a .360 clip. Defensively, the Racers are in the bottom third of the country allowing 77.3 points per game, a trait that could spell good fortune for the hot-shooting Knights on Saturday. Javon Jackson, playing at his fourth school in as many years, averages a team-best 16.3 points for MSU, 4th in The Valley. The senior guard has taken 116 shots, 52 more than anyone else on the team, but is shooting just .388. Fred King, a former Louisville commitment who played three seasons at Creighton, shoots a team-best .733 and is second behind Jackson with 12.2 points per game. On the perimeter, Bellarmine will need to keep an eye on Mason Miller, who is shooting .512 from deep.

Huge game. Murray State was 87 NET coming into today's game. Another top 100 opportunity and potential Q2 matchup.

That makes this loss tougher with the higher seeds losing but still an unexpected season. Great job guys!

Was worried that we were going to struggle but we won by enough in my opinion. I know Tulane isn’t great but we’ve been so bad in true road games OOC I’ll take it.

So the Big East had two chances to get to the College Cup and got neither. The College Cup will be a 15 seed, a 16 seed, and two unseeded teams. St Louis last won in 1973, and none of the other three have ever won a national championship.

I think the outlook for 2026 Zips Men's Soccer is bright. This was a very successful season. Qualifying for the exclusive 4-team Big East Tournament by winning the last regular season game on the road at Creighton and getting to the NCAA Elite 8 are huge accomplishments. I feel awful for our seniors - Mitch Budler, Daragh Reilly, Ashton Kamdem, and Stefan Dobrijevic - who have done so much for us and deserved a trip to the College Cup. Thank you all for your time at Akron. It has been a pleasure watching and supporting you all. BEST WISHES!!! Once a Zip Always a Zip!!! See you around!

Better Zips teams than this one did not make it this far. We have been lucky this postseason. The pain comes from the knowledge that this is the year when somebody is going sneak off with the CCup.. it could have been us.

The portal hasn’t been too bad for us in recent years. If we can keep most of the talent that isn’t graduating I still think we can build upon this. Maybe a new stretch like the mid 2010s

They just showed Tulane's next opponent - Tougaloo?

Tevari currently playing as well as any Akron guard that I have seen in the past.

Flushes are playing Roberts Wesleyan today. New one on me.

@ZippyRulz 8/'61 Right before my sr year in HS, couple of friends and I sat on the side line with our toes literally touching the chalk at Hiram watching the Browns scrimmage.

Well that result might devalue our game against them. Iowa State just hammered them by 23 at home.