Let'sGoZips94

So much positivity and happiness surrounding the program, then you have to go and dig up this thread...

Nate Linhart was closer to X than Kwan. Kwan didn't possess the ability to drive and get to the basket, or didn't show it being hindered by the type of offense Dambrot ran. I don't recall Linhart driving AS MUCH as X, but 1) he had the ability and 2) Dambrot rarely ran a system with much movement on offense. I'll never forget Linhart crashing the boards for the circus-put-back to beat O-Who at the buzzer. Kwan developed greatly during his 4 years under Dambrot, and was key in keeping the Zips in games during his senior year.

It was just the Coaches Poll I believe (#24?). That team was a roller coaster, albeit mostly a fun one. Started off the season with a loss to Coastal Carolina, then an OT loss to Oklahoma State. We beat Penn State by 25 and had a hard-fought home victory against MTSU (during their perennial run of being a top 10ish mid-major) before back to back losses to Creighton (16 pt. loss) and Detroit (7 pt. loss - puke). Then 19 straight, capped by an epic OT victory at OU. We dropped 2 out of the last 3 games in the regular season, one of which was due to Abreu getting suspended before the Can't game. Then went up to Cleveland to beat both Can't and OU (back when the #1 seed had a double bye to the semis) in the semis and championship game respectively. Keep in mind that OU team was the exact same OU team from the previous season's Sweet Sixteen run, minus the coach; MAC-traveler-now-Boston-College-staple Jim Christian took over after Groce's impressive run, but couldn't get out of that group what Groce could. The NCAA Selection Show had a camera in the JAR for Akron's seeding reaction, which of course was 12 (should have been 10 or 11 as previously mentioned, thanks to Abreu). And of course, the season finished with an embarrassing 46 pt. loss to Shaka's VCU Rams in the "Second Round" of the Big Dance. The season brought the most national attention any Akron program has probably had, both positively and negatively. During the 19 game streak, our marketing department decided to capitalize on the Twitter hype at the time, putting their Twitter handles on the back of the warm ups or something like that (maybe a hashtag?). It garnered national attention, and quite frankly some awesome street cred for the program. Then the Abreu issue was the negative publicity. Pure talent wise, I think this Akron team is better. We're more athletic, deeper, and bigger. 2012-13 was propelled by a rare 7 footer in Zeke, Tree, and Abreu. LCJ, Cheese, Banks, Reece, Williams, etc., is a deeper, more athletic group by quite a bit. This team most certainly has a chance to accomplish more than 2012-13, but until they do, '12-13 is King. Great year.

SWEET SIXTEEN/ELITE EIGHT OR BUST

Excellent effort tonight. Weathered all the storms that came our way, and never let them within, what, 7? 12-3 heading into what is turning out to be a pivotal matchup with Balls.

Very, very well put. It's interesting to watch the assembly of this team and reassembly of the program, while comparing it to Groce's time at both OU and Illinois. I can see why he struggled at Illinois. His success at OU was predicated around athletic players buying into a system of tempo, EFFORT, and DEFENSE. The caliber of player recruited to Illinois is most likely going to rely on their AAU success and raw talent for success, and not necessarily buy into effort and defense. How many times do we see teams of Blue Chip recruits not achieve the ultimate success in college because a lesser-talented opponent has a better fundamental system? With that being said, I also believe we'll win tonight even without a red-hot shooting night, simply because this team is completely bought into the plan - tempo, effort, defense. 12-3 after tonight would be sweet...

Week 2 MAC Schedule TUESDAY Inebriated Horses @ Akron 84-69 Toledo @ PCCC 84-77 EMU @ Bobkittens 74-68 Canada @ Balls 88-68 NIU @ CMU 68-67 Sweaters (OH) @ BUGS 78-76 FRIDAY Balls @ Akron 75-60 Canada @ Sweaters (OH) 83-78 SATURDAY BUGS @ Bobkittens 83-74 CMU @ PCCC 79-73 EMU @ NIU 71-68 Inebriated Horses @ Toledo 67-59

Yes, but he wasn't very noticeable with his play. I can't wait for him to get back up to speed.

24 pt win on the road to open up MAC play. Couldn't ask for a better result and confidence builder considering our struggles on the road in recent years.

Very impressive first half. Survived the slow start, shot well, high-intensity effort. 18 pt lead - come out in the second half and keep building on that.

Did Cheese practice 3's from the other side of Lake Erie or something? These are DEEP. Edit: Did the TEAM practice 3's from the other side of Lake Erie?!

He gets UP. Great vision by LCJ, too. This is my first time seeing Dawson. Man does he have a build/frame.

Minus the built-in respect for the boring, slow style of play created by the late, great Charlie Coles.

LCJ came to play. I like that we're driving and trying to get the ball inside, not just settling for deep balls. Eastern blows.

I'll take It's All Relative for 500, Alex. You can simply tell watching this team this season that they will be competing in the upper echelon of the MAC this year. They have the talent and depth to overcome their road-game shortcomings of years past, which has single handily torpedoed their seasons. The MAC is wide open for the first time in I don't know how many years, and we'll be right in the thick of things come March. _____________________________________________________________________ Since this is a catch-all thread, here are the opening weekend matchups for the MAC. FRIDAY Toledo @ Balls 61-57 PCCC @ BUGS 79-61 SATURDAY Akron @ EMU 69-45 NIU @ Canada 73-72 Sweaters (OH) @ CMU 93-82 Bobkittens @ Inebriated Horses 77-65

Is John Thompson IV back for his 10,000th year of college ball?

Groce said post-game something to the effect of, "Keep shooting. It's when you quit shooting that I'll bench ya." I believe that was in regards to the 3 pt. lull we went through. Agreed on Tribble. That dude just has it. He has no fear and the game isn't too big for him. Tons of other MAC/mid-major squads get these ready-to-go freshman, and we finally have our own. Agreed on Banks deserving the T, but the UMASS coach apparently also deserved the T. Jackie mentioned in game that he had been warned prior, and apparently was in the extended coach's box, which is strictly meant for coaching, no ref discussions. The timing may have been more coincidental. How about that interview? Super annoying, and quite frankly, I didn't give a crap. I have no idea who Phil Bova even is. Promote your book elsewhere. I want to watch the game. Well, when you play a team from a conference that's as competitive as the A10 is, at home, and are on the rise as a program, I expect nothing less than a "tourney-like atmosphere." I hope the schedule continues to feature teams like UMASS in future seasons, especially at home. The JAR needs filled with more than just North Carolina Alphabet Soup (we need more JAR puns on the board, by the way).

Outstanding close to the game by the Zips. High energy, 100% effort, head-down-eyes-up finish. Took care of business against an A10 squad. Way to have the guys ready to play, Groce, after 10 days off. Onto MAC play!

Frenchy mentioned late in the game it looked like Banks was limping or battling some sort of injury/pain. I don't know if he ever specified the potential area of injury, but if it's back, that MIGHT just mean back spasms which could be from dehydration or something. If that's the case, hopefully he got his fluids in over night and is good to go for today. He almost single-handily lost us the game offensively, then made a clutch defensive play on Tulane's last possession. No matter how bad of a day he had, he fought til the end. That's admirable. I am also expecting a bounce back game from Cheese today. The 2 teams worth playing in this tourney are the 2 teams we get to face. How rare is that?

AKRON WINS! AKRON WINS! RIAK WITH THE BLOCK AT THE END!

X! HUGE 3! 1 PT LEAD WITH 18 seconds to go! 62-61 Zips!

Scoring droughts... Missed free throws... You would think that... Nevermind. I won't go there.

53-52 Akron with 4:30 to go. Akron has been in a pretty deep scoring drought.

French just announced Mikal Dawson is officially on the Akron roster. Not sure if he's going to play due to needing to learn so much of the system (not sure if he's referring to today or this season).

53-48 Zips with 7:57 to go.