Z-Pouch

In general, I agree. Groce may be thinking on different terms now that any chance of a Mon home game is gone and having a depleted team. What would define some "success?" at this point for this season and "progress?" (or as some may argue...fewer steps back for the program)? A win at Buffalo? Beat Kent at home? or at least getting to Cleveland on Thursday? Maybe for Groce and the team, it is the latter and the best chance at a Monday win is to have some reasonable minutes (35?) for the key players and maybe as important some role players feeling more comfortable in possibly contributing on Monday....Thursday....well Mon and Thurs. With the way the Zips have been playing lately, Groce may not care who he plays away in the 5-8 seeds and knows that playing kids 40 again is going to end ugly on Monday. This is not NBA type tanking but maybe he realized that his competitiveness and overplaying guys hurt the development of the walk-ons (trying to keep a straight face, they just played a combined full game). I don't think he really has had much of choice. There are only so many bodies for all these minutes. IMO, I'd still like to go to Cleveland. If we limped out of the season and yet somehow won on Monday, would people have a little better feeling about the season? Buffalo should be ugly tonight no matter who plays (they are flat out more athletic, talented and a bad matchup for any shorthanded team), Kent toss-up game depends on which Walker plays and then maybe we have some magic left on Mon versus an average MAC team on the road. This all sounds like the regular versus tournament season importance threads.

Last time the Zips won at home, you found a way to complained about the attendance in the thread rather than giving the team any credit and discussing the game. This time, you claim a Zips player was purposely "trying" to commit a hard foul with less than 5 seconds and the MAC officials shouldn't have swallowed their whistles. I think Ivey was just going for the block, I definitely didn't see an aggressive intentional foul approach ...... No matter which side you're on, you shouldn't expect that call at that point in the game especially on a putback - the block up top was pretty clean but there was definitely body contact after the block. I'm pretty sure there was a lot of rebound contact/ positioning while that shot was in the air by both teams. That was not bad officiating, they did (unlike the 1st UA/ Ball State game) what they're supposed to do at the end of a game - not decide the game on anything questionable. Everyone knows that. On a side note - Come on man, that was a good solid road win for such a depleted team - 2 non-scholarship players almost played a combined full game with 37 minutes. Please get over your coach issues and move on. It's so early in the Groce tenure and started with such a short deck even before the injuries. As a long time member of this board and going way back to the old blue board, I don't remember any supposed "zip" posters having this much of a passive-aggressive agenda from day 1 with a team over a coaching change. It really kills the board. I'm not big on calling people out but you're just non stop biased nonsense with this team and some of its players.

Great game in 2007/2008. Nice extended highlights. Funny, the announcer at the end was certain it was a shooting foul initially. Ref made the right call.

Amen brother.

Thanks for posting video MES. Refreshing on so many levels.

Per the kitten network, Add OSU's Oden and Conley to list of past recruits by Groce. If this guy falls into our lap, we should be pretty happy.

Another MAC school dropping baseball. Wonder if this will be a trend as schools continue to look closely at budgets. http://www.ubbullrun.com/2017/4/3/15159704/buffalo-bulls-to-drop-four-sports

I would like to think that Groce is under consideration but think the money issue is show stopper on any conversations. Even rumors of him coming here are surprising to me.

Absolutely, move on guys. Boals is out and that's the most important part pertaining to the thread. I could care less who is right/ wrong about OSU recruiting and why players didn't develop. We are best just agreeing to disagree on Boals abilities. I think he will end up a big time coach at some point when his time comes. It will not be Akron for many good reasons already stated on this board.

Jeff Boals is the main reason that we got Zeke Marshall. Zeke's mom was crushed when he left the staff. With a little web research, you would see that Boals was regarded as one of the nation's top recruiters at OSU and reason he landed the his first HC gig. IMO Boals is the man to get but I doubt that Williams can land him.

Very disappointing if you are indicating that Boals and Paris are not being considered.

Nothing more frustrating then looking for updates on our coaching search and seeing nothing but football attendance nonsense. Does it really matter if only 100s actually go? and why not start another topic if it matters that much. Geeez....oh look squirrel...

Travelzoo deal seems to have expired and is not available for the Championship game. It was a nice deal if you wanted better seats then the lottery promotion.

Great Pics, Dr. Z!

Matt Campbell

We suck.

You might want to do some research on their current schedules before making such claims.......try the current top four teams - Illinois State, Northern Iowa, Wichita State, and Missouri State. "Maybe" a game different from the Zips but far from what you continually cry about.It's just ignorant to still believe that the Zips don't want to schedule more 1 and 1's with the Rhode Islands of the Mids world to improve scheduling. It's good for the fans and competition for the team. I think we would schedule 1 and 1s with any good team but try getting it done with a pathetic fan base and attendance. Schedule all of the games you want and I'm not sure what's the benefit of constantly playing on the road against stacked decks. It comes down to balance of ATM games, 1 and 1s and a couple of cupcakes. Starting a lot of "2 for maybe 1s" leads to alot of road trips, scheduling nighmares and broken contracts down the road. Our current schedule is 1 maybe 2 games off....hardly deserving of the constant rants....check the schedules above.It's also kinda funny that this continually comes up on the heels of a NCAA appearance and maybe a path that got us prepared to be there last year. Not a bad result. As for an at large berth coming out of the MAC in the league current state- schedule your ass off, it's not happening.

I think this was mentioned in another ZN thread but ACC teams are playing at UNCG Greensboro early in the season to get some experience in the Greensboro Coliseum. The ACC Tournament is held there at the end and some coaches think it is a good idea to be familiar with the surroundings. It was also mentioned during an ACC game telecast this year. UNCG gets the scheduling benefit of some good home games and nice gate with the ACC.

Tied at half. If K.E.NT didnt have Al Fisher (20pts), they would be in big trouble.

Good one but one quick correctionKyrem "Classy" Massey

Those stats are a little misleading because Valpo has a much higher strength of schedule than the Zips. This is likely to be a close game unless one team catches fire or the refs really stink.Since the game is at Valpo, dont we get our MAC refs....... (I thought that's the way the Bracketbuster handled assigning referees for these games. It's supposed to be an equalizer to home court advantage!!! )

Also, it hasn't been mentioned that our defensive intensity had to change throughout the game to adjust to the officiating. Suddenly, our #1 strength and overall aggressiveness was reduced to manage against touch fouls. There's nothing you can do about officiating but it changed Sunday's game past just their 31 additional foul shots. No excuses though…75-75….and still should have pulled it out (the charging call at that point would have helped though). It's ironic that just a week ago we were singing the praises of scheduling Sunday games to improve the officiating crews - Talk about being smacked back into MAC conference reality.

I thought that this was the toughest MAC game on the schedule in January – Imposing larger venue and potentially rough student section for a young team. Is it the game that we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel? Win here would be huge and completely unexpected to me (Spread is surprisingly only 4pts)Can Linhart guard Tillman? Or does Conyers get a shot at redemption? Or does KD go big on him with a lot of switching?

I'd simplify it even further....does playing against BG (2), OU (2), Can't (2), Miami(1), the MAC West (1)......prepare you for the ultimate goal - A MAC Tourney championship THIS YEAR. The coaching staff seems to be saying yes.I was wondering if anyone else caught on to the constant precursor "I've got credibility" laden posts. Personally, I find what people post here gives them credibility.Good post by JZ84 on the preseason reports- Gives some real good insight to the potential upside and that this kid might be ready. Thanks.

I disagree. He has 3.5 years to play for the Zips. How many minutes would he have played up until the BG game? MAYBE 10mpg? Probably less.Dambrot apparently sees the MAC is a total toss up right now. If the Zips can garner another 5 ppg they have a great shot at winning it all. The defense is already among the MAC's best.If McClanahan is producing in practice against one of the MAC's better defenses, it is fair to assume he's gonna be a viable contributor sometime soon."Burning" a shooter's redshirt year 1/2 way through a season, when your offense has come up consistently short to this point, is pretty smart. Especially when you have a very realistic shot at winning it all.While missed games vs. Urbana, Walsh, NC A&T, St Francis, etc. can be absolutely crippling....I think somehow, some way, McClanahan will overcome.Beat me to it. What he said.Why not win this year? Our chances with a little adjustment here and there are as good as any other recent year with the way the league is playing out.