Captain Kangaroo

It’s as plain as the nose on your face…Power Conferences take the best and brightest mid-major players…and give us their unwanted table scraps in return. We get the best and brightest of the D2 crop, but that doesn’t nearly offset the NIL/Portal talent loss. If this system were in place 25 years ago, the MAC would never have seen the likes of Bonzi Wells, Brandon Hunter, Gary Trent, Chris Kaman, Earl Boykins, Wally Szerbiak, Antonio Brown and on and on. The Zips have some good fortune in having a great coach and someone to pay a few player’s NIL funds. But that can end tomorrow, and we’ll be fielding teams that have zero chance of ever being more than Round 1 NCAA tournament fodder. I hate it.

I remember Dambrot saying "I'm not going anywhere. I'm an old man" for years when questions arose about him moving on. And then, he was gone. Words don't mean much. If Groce moves on I'll be severely bummed. The next guy won't be as good. He could be the Zips next Coleman Crawford? So I'll enjoy JG while we've got him.

Well said.

Cheese, Banks, Williams, Christian-Jackson…that was the crew that had the best chance to do some post season damage. Elite shooting, size, height, athleticism. Oh well…

It’s never a positive when your team is quoted as receiving “an absolute beat down”. Get that YSU center asap.

A Mount Saint Mary’s-esque tournament beat down.

You can’t blame the announcers for continuously saying “Nate Johnson is the MAC POTY and he he’s been invisible” when Nate Johnson is the MAC POTY and he’s been invisible.

Tavari stepping up. Shammah and Lyles holding their own. Everyone else is not playing well enough for us to win this game.

Zips Get Big MAC Sandwich

The Beacon en fuego! ✍️🔥

Here's the viable back up big that @NWAkron has been clamoring for...go get 'em John and Bud.

An Akron expert offers their game thoughts

Two things that stood out to me - Alex Adam’s is giving it another go. Spring game on Friday night?

I think Kent-Miami basketball just became a rivalry?

Seeing all these portal transfers make me sad for the MAC, and sad for the state of college basketball. Year ago Don Ohlmeyer famously said "The answer to all your questions is money." Sucks what greed and money do to just about everything good. For whatever inexplicable reason the planets aligned and the Zips got John Groce and Bud Wentz at the precise time we needed them, or we'd be in the same boat and everyone else. So grateful for those guys. But it all can come crashing down at any second, and we'll be like Buffalo and Toledo...losing our best players because they're chasing a couple quick bucks rather than getting a meaningful degree and making lifelong friendships with college teammates. The bulk of the portal transfers are pure basketball mercenaries majoring in eligibility. Kowalczyk spoke the truth...it'll be interesting to see where these guys end up in 20 years...with the $38,000 in NIL long gone, and no college degree to fall back on. For every decent MAC player that ascends to a P4 school with success, there are 15 who sit the P4 pines eagerly awaiting the season's end and the chance to transfer yet again.