Let'sGoZips94

HE WAS PULLING IT BACK TO TUCK IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dijon Jennings time, please.

1. Awful spot on Undercuffler run, but Jeff was a (insert Jeff Undercuffler getting ejected clip here) for going down so soon. 2. BUBBA! 3. Can someone fix the audio issues? The dog whistle sound needs to go.

TOUCHDOWN AKRON! Irons to Adams!

Ross Tucker needs to ease up on the DJ Irons hype train. Haha.

I still don't believe this to be true. If Guthrie is the one saying he won't restrict Embick to the MAC, then I'd imagine we have an autonomous out.

Combination. My guess is they had a post-season meeting, and Groce told him the system worked better with a smaller, quicker lineup. Probably told him he'd be a great asset off the bench, but couldn't guarantee significant minutes. Aziz probably took that information and did what he needed to do. Wouldn't surprise me if Groce helped him to Utah Valley via some sort of connection. Groce's OU squads never had true "bigs". They always had a shorter (6'7"-6'9"), athletic front court with athletic guards that could shoot. Fast forward to Groce at Akron: he recruited true bigs the first couple of years because it's easier to protect the rim with a 7 footer than it is to establish your system. LCJ/Cheese/Banks/X1.0 established the system, with X1.0 often being the tallest player on the court for us. Once LCJ left, there was a lot of uncertainty with the direction of the program. Would it take a few years for the system to be re-established? Groce again brought in multiple 7 footers, potentially to help buy time. The system was re-established late last year with the emergence of X2.0, and the 7 footers left the program. Groce then filled the open front court spots with Amani Lyles (6'7"), Sammy Hunter (6'9"), and Prince Mosengo (6'8"). Hankerson and Nate Johnson are the supporting cast scoring threats to X2.0, and Groce has now re-built the formula that saw so much success at OU. Hopefully we reap the same benefits (we almost did last year, and probably would have in 2020...). RE: Groce's OU squads. They ate Dambrot's lunch. We didn't find success against Groce's squad until he left and Jim Christian took over the same group of guys. Dambrot had Harney and Treadwell, which evened out the athletic deficit in the front court, and took the pressure off of Zeke. Jim Christian also didn't know how to get the most out of Groce's squad, but that didn't matter to Boston College when they made him the captain of the ship that brought up the rear in the ACC fleet for nearly a decade.

Pushing people to the tourist cheesesteaks instead of Dalessandro's - typical. 😉

Barstool with some Freeman merch!

I'm out of reactions, which is probably a good thing since I won't be able to spam the "sad reaction" to any football posts tonight, but this is well researched. The Big East makes 1000% sense for us. Xavier, Creighton, and Georgetown are traditional soccer powerhouses. Butler has come on strong in recent years, and the rest of the conference is no slouch with Seton Hall, St. John's, etc. You make an excellent point with the geographic fit, as the Big East has shifted more and more to the midwest with their basketball acquisitions. I didn't realize that UIW and Hartford (for a laugh, research their men's basketball program right now) were the only 2 independents left. That's even more reason to get the hell out of the MAC after this season. Side note: I wonder if a Big East soccer membership would help get some Big East schools on our basketball schedule. That would be a phenomenal perk. The MAC has been a boat anchor for its top schools. Steinbrecher is a joke.

Anybody know if Noah Willig (Norton HS) is getting any legitimate D1 interest, or if this is a walk-on type visit? I played little league baseball with his late older brother, who was a year behind me in grade school.

I'm working on getting more answers about the stream via Twitter. I'll share my findings as they come.

This is probably the biggest reason he didn't have the same type of success at the P5 level. Mid Major college basketball embodies the beauty of college basketball - "teamism". P5 ball is a mixture of AAU & NBA for the most part; it's simply not as entertaining. Thank you for sharing this.

Buffalo dropped soccer, WVU/GA State/GA Southern/FIU all came and went, etc. If Guthrie is telling Embick that he won't restrict us to the MAC, I'm quite confident - as long as we have a place to go - we can tell the MAC to kiss our butt. Plus, if we leave, the MAC won't have enough members yet again. I can't imagine there being a huge push for outside schools to come to the Akron-less MAC for soccer. They'd probably drop the sport completely - like men's hockey - and WMU/NIU/BUGS would just find a new conference.

Regarding the game, I expect us to be in the game until the end. I have so much faith in Groce Ball - maybe to a fault - that I believe we can shoot below average and compete with anyone in the country outside of Duke, Kansas, etc. Our defense, effort, and free throw shooting will keep us in just about any game. I'd imagine their height advantage will be negated a bit by Freeman's abilities down low and our overall effort on the boards. If we can get a double-double from Freeman, ~17 points from X, 12-15 pts from Hankerson, and double digits from someone like Hankerson or Johnson, I really like our chances. Also, we need to keep the turnovers to ~12 or fewer.

There is some debate on how kid-friendly their broadcast will be. Worst case scenario, you mute the stream and listen to the radio. However, this is a pretty big event for Barstool, so I'd imagine they'll want it to go over well with the public. They were supposed to have a bowl game a few years ago, but COVID cancelled it. This is now their first time hosting/broadcasting an event, and we're going to be the primo game for them. Pretty cool.

The conference does not have final say. Otherwise, Texas & Oklahoma wouldn't be allowed to leave the Big 12.

That kid got wrecked on the celebration. Sheesh.

Lots of new faces in the lineup - Johnson, Hunter, Lyles, Hankerson, etc. What didn't change was the effort on both ends of the floor, on the boards, and at the free throw line. I don't know if SDSU made more than 1 3 pointer in the 2nd half/overtime. They finished 4-15 for the game according to ESPN, and I thought they were over 50% with 5 attempts in the first half. We only missed 2 free throw the entire game - 83.3% for us, 82.4% for them on 5 more attempts (17 to 12). We were out-rebounded by 2. Their entire starting lineup finished with double digit points. I mean this is one of the better wins I've ever seen for Akron, especially from a game script standpoint. We gutted this one out because the team is already buying into Groce ball.

If this is wrong, I don't want to be right. I was following the gamecast, saw OU go up by 2 with 1 second left, almost exited the page, and it refreshed to show the made 3 by Belmont as time expired. Immediately typed in bobcatattack.com and got some popcorn. Also, Belmont apparently lost 7 of their 8 top scorers from last year.

Holy smokes. You rock for this info.

And he made the free throw that mattered. I look to Tribble for defense, rebounds as a guard, and attacking the basket. He stole the ball when it mattered, and at the same time attacked/rebounded when it mattered. Love Tribble and he's been fun to watch in an Akron uniform. He was HUGE tonight.

OU loses on a buzzer beater 3 to Belmont after making a 3 with 1 second left to go up by 2. WOW! O U - O NO!

I watched a lot of garbage calls occur earlier in the game when our guys were playing straight up. 39 minutes to go vs 2 seconds to go. A foul is a foul, and affects the game the same.

To any South Dakota State fans lurking - Thank you Jackrabbits for coming to Akron. Seriously. That was the best non-conference game at the JAR since your neighbors to the north paid a visit. Good luck the rest of the season. Your non-conference schedule is awesome, and I would not be surprised to see y'all make some noise and run the table in your conference. 5 straight weeks with top 25 votes to finish last season, and it showed tonight. Could not ask for a better season-opener. Wow. What a win! Go Zips!