kreed5120

Baseball it has hurt the most IMO. Everything is either a strike out or homerun. You just don't see people put the ball in play like they used to.

@LoyalZIP is right in everything he's saying, but I think the big thing is that a 3 is worth 1.5x what a mid-ranger is. That's what really makes the 3 ball overpowered. Your odds of making a mid-ranger might be marginally higher, but your odds of making a 15 footer aren't 50% better than making a 21 footer to compensate for the point differential between the two shots.

The Zips have shot the 3 ball at a bad 32.7% clip this season. In order to score from mid-range with the same efficiency, the Zips would have to shoot at >49% from mid-range. To put that into perspective Freeman, one of the best shooters in college basketball within 5 feet of the rim, makes 57.5% of his shots. I'm guaranteeing no team in college basketball shoots anywhere close to 49% from mid-range. That isn't the answer.

Especially since Illinois pretty much paid half of Groce salary the first 2 years. And by that I mean Groce agreed to a greatly reduced salary his first two seasons at Akron because Illinois had offsetting language in his contract so the more Akron paid him, the less Illinois had to pay him for his buyout.

I wonder how much, if any, his decision was influenced by NIL.

No team has ever went 18-0 in MAC play. In fact, you have to go back to the 1950s to find the the last team to go undefeated in MAC play. It was Cincinnati and it was when the conference season was only 8 games.

If you remove Kent, the MAC has been about on par with the Horizon this year when you look at NET or Kenpom ratings. There is no mistaken this is the worst the MAC has been in a number of years.

If he leaves my guess would be to play overseas. I'm fairly certain due to covid LCJ had another year of eligibility that he could have petitioned for, but decided he was in college long enough already.

It can't bring it crashing down as NIL isn't a requirement for the sport. It's a luxury to try to further the haves from the have nots.

Yes, and he was a 4* recruit and 7th rated QB. It makes you wonder what the QBs ahead of him are making

I'd hope the Zips wouldn't take anyone for granted, particularly on the road. We were a few bounces away from losing to an equally as bad BGSU. In the MAC anyone can beat anyone on a given night.

You can look back at my post history. I had the Zips winning 2-3 games this past season. I feel many underestimated how decimated the roster was when Joe took over. No coach was going to come in and win 5-6 games year one. That said, I do think 6 wins this year is achievable. It would likely require us going 5-3 during MAC play. I won't make any formal predictions until the official MAC schedule is released.

I'd agree on paper Kent has an easier schedule. That said, I'm glad we only have 1 game at NIU and it was at home. It feels like going to Dekalb is always one of those head scratching losses

Carry's scoring and efficiency numbers are down compared to last year. That said, if gun was to the head and I had to predict who would win MAC POY, I'd still guess Carry. The reason being POY is as much a team award as it is a player one and Kent (despite some posters here being in denial) are going to be heavy favorites to win the MAC regular season.

I'm referring to the final product. Last year's March team is miles ahead of this year's January team and I don't think that's disputable. This year's team has 1 1/2 months to catch or surpass last year's team. Whether they do is still to be determined.

You think this Akron team is better than last years team? The team that would have beaten a very good UCLA team had Freeman not fouled out on a questionable moving screen. I feel this years team has a long way to go before it's performing at that level. If Hunter keeps playing the way he has the past two games, I do think reaching last years level of success is achievable.

I feel EMU is just a bad experiment where you take one of the top 5 players in the conference and surround him with the absolute worst supporting cast. It turns out it takes more than just 1 player, even at the collegiate level, to win basketball games

That's probably still more than the number who attend EMU or NIU games

2 of the 6 MAC games are on national TV and there aren't really any good matchups this weekend.

An ugly win is better than an ugly loss

Also, no real wings with size to contest shots against taller perimeter players

What was Groce thinking having X, Freeman, and Hunter all on the bench at the same time?

I don't feel people are being as much negative as they are being realist. Groce would be the first to tell you that this team as of right now isn't ready to win in Cleveland and that they need to focus on continuing improving that way they can be playing their best basketball come March. If anything, I feel this board is a little overly optimistic that Groce will have the ship righted by March because that's what we're so accustomed seeing out of him. I don't know how any objective person could have watched the Zips the first 15 games of the season and be thinking to themselves right now that the Zips are the team to beat in the MAC right now.

I feel as though you're in the minority of not being a fan of March Madness. Those first two days of the tournament, outside of the Superbowl, are my favorite days on the sports calendar. Nothing beats watching a 13 or 14 seed knock off a blue blood like Duke.

Well I think the big thing is the per volume of games means that there will always be a good game on those first few days. If the game you're currently watching is a blow out, you can just switch it to a different game.