Leaderboard

Enrique Freeman and Anjali Silverheels at the Pacers formal team dinner earlier this evening in Paris.

with not having to go to Oxford. I feel like this is a Must Win that will position us to take control of the conference Race.

If you told me this would happen 2 years ago I would have laughed at you. Let’s go Amani!

I’m happy for Akron fans, I really am, but I’m not so sure Groce takes the job if he knew what was waiting for him. I personally think he was blindsided. Between a depleted roster and a fractured fan base, Groce unknowingly walked into a situation far worse than Buffalo 2025. For all of Dambrot’s accomplishments and accolades, he left a dumpster fire behind. Many coaches would have reneged. It’s Akron’s good fortune that Groce is a man of character. He kept his commitment, didn’t pout, and immediately went to work on the rebuild. It was late in the recruiting cycle and remember transfers had to sit out a year back then. I don’t want to be hard on those guys, but much of the talent available was subpar and many Akron fans with winning expectations didn’t know how to handle a 14-18 season, 6-12 in the MAC. Give credit to KD for all he did, Groce certainly does. But make no mistake, Groce pulled Akron basketball out of the ashes. And I hope he retires there with many more accomplishments to come. Go Zips!!

Getting your butt busted by Enrique every day for the past 2 years has paid dividends for Amani.

Groce also recruited the newcomers and appears to have properly vetted them from a talent/cultural fit standpoint.

Dru and the Dukes continued their ascent to the top of the A-10, besting a 13-3 George Washington team 73-65 on Wednesday night.

If you would have told me last year I would have laughed at you. I must confess I was hoping he would transfer last year because I just did not see any way he would contribute in a meaningful way. The last few games he really did well finishing at the basket and I hope that continues. I love being wrong when a Zip blossoms into a player of the week.

Watching the ball movement, cutting, and screening, it's clear that collectively they are really starting to get it. When an offense starts executing and moving with that sort of precision - that's when basketball really becomes such a beautiful dance. The past 3 halves of this offense almost remind me of Groce's DJ Cooper era teams at Ohio during some of those games at the Convo where they just had the Akron defense completely lost. This was the first time I've been fortunate enough to see a game in person this season and holy moly is Sharron Young FAST! All in all, an enjoyable evening at the James A. Rhodes Health & Physical Education Building!

Another great promo for the new rowdies. Prizes will be giving out everytime the ball goes out of bounds during both games. Hopefully this will help the women retains some students

It's been a while since I have checked in with this thread, but never have I been more disappointed in my fellow UA alums and supporters, and not just this particular post. I say this as an alum and someone who is STEM faculty at a major research university (not Duke). Academic departments do not exist to serve industry nor vice versa. Rather, both coexist and grow in a complementary manner to serve an economy and create a community of support. UA's expertise grew out of the rubber industry, and because it was on the cutting edge of innovation (which all top STEM departments are), a whole new economy of polymers emerged. UA supplied intellectual property and graduates with advanced research training that allowed new companies to form and grow. This is why ACS and companies support the program, and it is the reason NEO is known as polymer valley. Now, did polymer science and engineering need an entire college unto itself with the associated overhead of administration?...almost certainly not. Being a department within the college of engineering enables the same productivity, thus it is almost certainly a better value having been consolidated. However, a drastic reduction in faculty and the commensurate decrease in intellectual property, research funding, and graduates is as bad for surrounding industries as it is for the university itself. These losses are substantial too because polymer science and engineering was one of only two nationally ranked programs at UA, along with I/O Psychology. Do you enjoy seeing UA diminished on an international or national level? I certainly do not. Do you want to see UA become exclusively a regional state university? I do not. The truth is, UA WAS the Berkeley of polymer science and polymer engineering, and Proenza was 100% correct for celebrating this fact. To Hilltoppers comment, the professor to student ratio is likely out of proportion for the polymer science and polymer engineering programs because they are primarily graduate programs in which faculty salaries are paid more through research grants, contracts, and endowment than teaching. It takes a lot more resources to mentor a graduate student to being a top scientist because it requires so much individual attention, whereas thirty undergrads can be taught in parallel via lectures and with the help of graduate students. Nearly all other departments have both undergrad and grad programs, so apples and oranges. To adzip,yes, many of the students in polymer science and polymer engineering are not Americans, but that is the result of having an internationally-recognized program. It has international reach, and the program requires students with international-level credentials, experiences, and distinctions to maintain. How many STEM faculty at any university are international? How many of our best soccer players over the years have been international? Why is this a problem? The only justification for such a reduction in faculty should be that resources previously available to support salaries were no longer available and this financial limitation was impossible to overcome through other means that were extensively explored. In any case, the loss of that many faculty in one of UA's few nationally and internationally recognized programs should cost executives their jobs. Finally, the logical disconnect between so many posters here at ZN desperate for national recognition for sports but to not care about even maintaining international distinction in academics and research is astounding. Without a doubt, the latter is easier, especially in the current landscape, given the less even playing field in athletics, which is now further exaggerated by NIL

This is tracking to be Groce's deepest offensive team during his Akron tenure. It took the entire OOC schedule for guys to figure out how they fit, so the stats are a bit skewed. MMK is our lowest PPG regular contributor, and Seth Wilson is just ahead of him. MMK is giving us more and more, and Seth has been on fire prior to last night. We are 10 deep for full game contributors and 8 deep for true offensive producers. If Harris is able to work his way back, add one to both totals. We are the deepest team in the MAC by far. In fact, our depth is going to be an advantage on Saturday. Miami is about 9 deep, and the bulk of their production comes from their top 3 - Kraft, Suder, Elmer. They are less athletic than Akron is, and while they are a high powered offense, I wouldn't call them a high octane offense. They make their living in the efficiency department. Miami has struggled against tough, athletic teams. If we make our shots, we should win this pretty comfortably. Bringing the whole family to the game. This will be both my daughters' first Zips basketball game, and I'm hoping they aren't disappointed. I do not expect them to be. Groce has these boys locked in.

Bud has done at outstanding job with building the team chemistry with a bunch of new players, completely overhauling the offense from last year and rallying the team after a rough OOC schedule.

Absolutely. And I'd argue that if KD had jumped ship after 2009, we'd probably be Buffalo right now. His staying so long and building a consistent winner set this program up for the long haul and made it attractive to a successful coach like Groce when the time came for him to move on. Hopefully Groce is here just as long, if not longer.

Now is the time to schedule a home and home with the Dukes while both teams are winning instead of the weak teams we brought into the JAR this year. We could have a reunion of his old team or put his jersey in the rafters. Anything to bring the Dukes to Akron. We should have a solid veteran team next year so no excuses why we should not play the Dukes.

This was the best crowd of the season. The Jar was about 70%. I will give a shout out the students who did some cheers during the game that was something new. I heard post game that the players gave out leaflets to students trying get them to attend. I think this team is trending in the rights direction for attendance and trying to get butts in the seats.

There doesn't have to be a Groce vs. Dambrot debate. Can't we just say we've been lucky to have two good basketball coaches over the last 20+ years?

You guys think theirs enough stuff for students tonight?

Thank you for such a reasoned response to the issues facing UA. I love athletics but I also recognize the limitations a school of our size is facing in this new age of NIL. My hope is that we continue to not go full in to this arms race that we can never win. Hopefully the new administration can find the right formula to have a balance of academics and still maintain a presence in sports.

By skewed, I meant the numbers should probably be higher across the board. If the system now was operating this way in December, I think we'd see a few pts added to each person's total. I don't think they're far off, I just think top to bottom we're a bit more lethal than the numbers show (mainly lookin at Seth Wilson, as I believe he should be better than a 4.7 ppg). It's also skewed in my head because guys like Seth, Hardman, Lyles, Scott, etc., can go off for double digits at any point. Nate at 13.7 ppg seems low because of his recent ~20 point performances. This is simply a lethal offense that can afford to have a couple guys experience "off nights" because there are so many weapons. Side note: Okonkwo leading the MAC in RPG with under 8 per game is hilarious coming off a year where Freeman was the best rebounder in the country with over 12 RPG. I wonder how many Freeman would have in the offense with the #1 pace of play in the country? So many opportunities.

Toledo must think it's March already

Tough to complain about a 15 point halftime lead but the Zips had an ugly stretch there on both offense and defense.

I enjoyed it because I enjoy watching football, but it was about as competitive as the CFP has been since it started in 2014. And the BCS before it And most of college football, really

Specific to Groce, I listen to the post game interviews of players on the way home from the game and he recruits articulate young men who are humble and always talk about the team first.

Speaking of Gray's physical strength, I do like how he has taken on the role of defending other teams' bigs in our shortage of big men. He uses his larger frame well in bodying up on those guys where our other guards are not physically equipped to do so.

Leave it up to GP1 to comment on attendance. Well, it continues to boggle my mind that the Zips continue to draw such pathetic crowds for basketball games. In the last 5 years, we have had three of the greatest players to ever wear a Zips uniform, yet attendance continues to be abysmal every year. In addition, we have a top 10 coach, and I do not mean in the MAC. He is a top 10 coach in the entire country. Also key to this equation is our NIL director. College programs cannot survive without NIL in place. So, while even I am not happy with NIL dominating college sports, the minimum every Zips fan can do is purchase a GA season ticket for $65 for the entire season. That is less than $7 a game. Unfortunately, the Akron community and Zips grads within 45 minutes of campus refuse. In my book you all get a ranking of Zero (out of ten). Beat the Bulls! Zips Win!

You would think he went to an Ivy League school or something.

Excellent recap of the week from Zipped Up https://open.substack.com/pub/akronzippedup/p/zips-mens-basketball-weekly-update-db1?r=4gotw8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

These recaps videos are insanely good.

The students should get another section along the sideline

The empty seats weren't very noticable. It's hard to miss the bad look of the empty areas on the floor directly behind the basket. The AD should get on this......oh, wait.

I have admittedly been hard on Tavari, and rightfully so. There was never any doubt he has skills, but he wasn’t mature enough to take on the demanding and much needed role when he arrived. He was an asset one minute and a liability the next. To be fair, LCJ took time to develop. And I wasn’t certain Castaneda would ever be more than a shooting guard. But they eventually hit their stride and were great leaders as well as all around competitors. All the more credit to Young for being impactful so early on. I don’t want to jinx Tavari, but it appears the light has gone on for him. If so, and he stays true to the process the next year and a half could be very special for him and the Zips.

Give them all to me. I love them all.

Interesting article here on potential MAC additions- https://www.hustlebelt.com/2025/1/17/24338685/mid-american-conference-expansion-candidates-maction-realignment-2026

If this team were to go back and play their OOC schedule with this level of cohesion and consistent scheduling (not 10 days in between games), they'd only have 2 losses right now at most. Surprisingly quite tame down there in northern West Virginia. By the tone of their board, they seemed to expect this type of outcome. Miami OH next Saturday followed by Kent the week after will be one heck of a 2-3 week stretch. This is the second or third game in a row the backdoor cut has been a staple. It's exactly how Groce is planning on countering teams that play us out on the perimeter, and exactly why we struggled so much in the OOC schedule because those types of IQ plays require a certain level of chemistry.

3 of the weakest technicals I can remember in the last 2 games.

Note from a hoophead and neutral observer:

Kent Ohio Toledo & Buffalo Miami everyone else

They have had one hell of a turnaround. Happy for Dru. One of the most genuine people I've met in my lifetime.

Just saw Ali Ali on the concourse

Keith's departure seemed to be a turning point with a substantial portion of the fan base for some reason and it is a damn shame because as much as I like and appreciate Keith, Groce is every bit as good or better.

JD working his home state.

@BG

I see it as Portage being by far the primary rival and Athens clearly the next in line… after that it’s pretty much all those former MAC East foes and Toledo in basketball due to recency only…. I still have never gotten over that title game loss in Cleveland to Miami on the miracle shot just as Akron was becoming a MAC power nor the way Buffalo treated Akron in the Hurley days.

I don't know, that UA and Northern Illinois rivalry is pretty intense

Respectfully, no team equals the dislike and disgust I have for Kent. No one is close. That being said OU and Toledo are in the next tier, for me, and they are easy to get fired up over. The rest in the MAC are Meh!

Hoping for a packed house tonight, good crowd on Tuesday despite being sapped by the bingo in the union. Seems like the marketing division is genuinely trying to attract students to go.