Let'sGoZips94

He has 6 pts which is about 6 pts more than I thought he'd have all game. I will take this production from him regardless of his FT shooting. Baby steps. Haha

Just about everything went Balls' way that half, and we're still up by 2. I like our chances of pulling away in the second half.

Amazing new intro video tonight.

Very interesting group of games tonight for the MAC. PCCC @ EMU - Kent looking to get back to .500 in MAC play and get ahead of the 8-seed race. WMU @ OU - WMU is part of the 4-5 mess and OU isn't much better at 5-4. Miami @ CMU - CMU is also part of the 4-5 mess. Miami is an underdog going into Mt. Pleasant.

He and Caserio (Texans GM) are very well connected. Good for Nick!

"Surly and fuchsia faced" could apply to Sendy and/or Mike Lewis.

I believe a wise man recently (loosely) said, "The Zips are like the Dodgers and Yankees. They're preventing everyone in the MAC from having success with all their resources and power."

Thank you. I will say their pace of play is not something I foresaw and is truly what our advantage is. There are very few teams in the country, let alone the MAC, with our depth and pace of play. While most teams have to shoot well (35%+ from 3 and 48%+ from the field), Akron can have sub par nights and still come out on top comfortably thanks to our volume. 30% from 3 and sub 48% from the field is equal to, if not greater than, the total point production of your average teaming shooting well. Kent is a great example because they were unconscious vs BG and still only scored in the 70s. Adding our scoring depth into the equation, we don't even rely on the same guys for that offensive production. As Groce said, we had 6 guys in double figures and it can be a different group of guys on any given night. This offense is so much fun to watch, and here's to hoping we can keep the training rolling into March. Big time potential should they be cutting the nights in Cleveland.

The standings as we go into February... Akron 9-0 Miami OH 8-1 Toledo 7-2 Ohio 5-4 WMU 4-5 Balls 4-5 CMU 4-5 KSUcks 4-5 EMU 4-5 BUGS 2-7 Canada 2-7 NIU 1-8 Kent is flirting with danger. OU is on a cusp of a season collapse. Imagine a world where Cleveland is absent of Kent and Ohio. A guy can dream, can't he?

According to Pinky, they're too poor to operate their own fan forum (shoutout @Captain Kangarooand those who fund ZN), so they're at the mercy of CSNbbs. It's back up but unfortunately the day's-long outage has prevented more funeral posts. The most recent post does mention that they have a couple guys who were supposed to be key factors not playing this season. Someone want to let them know about Josiah Harris?

For what it's worth, I thought a foul could've been called at the start of the layup motion. However, as a sane BobcatAttack poster said, the hoop was WIDE open after the contact. Should've made it.

It was rude of Ohio not to accept the gift. Miami is fortunate. The maimed Bobcats shot 36.8% from the field and 29.4% from 3, yet came within a missed potential game winning layup of knocking off the vaunted Redhawks. Athleticism continues to be an Achilles heal for Miami.

These are embarrassing comments for Pinky and Kent. From everything I've heard from Bud Wentz and those with knowledge of our NIL collective, it is not a buy-the-best type of system. Our NIL collective rewards players who want to be a Zip and commit to the Akron/Groce way - play hard, show humility, and be involved in the community. Those who do that will receive a solid long-term return on their investment (I believe Wentz has said part of the collective is designed to help alumni as long as they stay involved). Okonkwo was a P4 journeyman big man that played very sparingly at both WVU and UNC. Wilson was a deeper bench role player at WVU. Hardman was a benchwarming 3P specialist at Ohio State. Harris had a decent track record of success at WVU, but he's out for the season. Gray was a solid player for Cornell. I'm sure there was competition for these players, but I doubt many if any had legitimately lucrative offers from bigger programs. They chose to come to Akron because of what Groce can do for them, which is elevate them as young men and players. Groce designed this team like a master architect and provided them the patience and room to grow into the team they are today. Groce has owned Pinky/Kent ever since he filled the cupboards after his first year. NIL wasn't even a thing in the beginning. Freeman, Ali Ali, and Tribble were all homegrown. This is the first year we've made legitimate moves in the transfer portal (2019-20 was big, too, but that didn't involve NIL), and the only difference is we're scoring 85 when we beat Kent instead of 62. If Pinky wants NIL, maybe he shouldn't be coaching at a fashion-first school that has continually neglected its athletics outside of catching lightning in a bottle every once in a while. Or maybe he should go back to his roots of recruiting violations/cheating (didn't realize Steele was on that staff as well). Groce is 100x the coach Pinky is - I'm low-balling with that - and that's the sole difference between where Akron is with basketball and where Kent is. Cry more, clown.

I really wish TV announcers would quit sugarcoating or lying about the offseason Sullinger/VCD/Kent had. It really does a disservice to the general public by preventing them from seeing just how much of a clown show Kent's program is, especially under Pinky. Applauding their return in the "Portal era" without mentioning that both went looking for better and either didn't get what they wanted or couldn't get into what they wanted is annoying.

Rumor has it that braid distracted him on the test that would've gotten him into Furman.

They beat Cleveland State (currently on a weak 13 game winning streak) by 16 at the Wolstein Center. Also, don't forget, Doug Gottlieb coaches in the Horizon League. Kent is an atrocious offensive team, but there are few teams in the country with the offensive fire power we have to completely nullify the few things Kent is good at.

Yale beat Princeton by 7 yesterday at Princeton. It ended up being a good game (Yale had a sizeable lead that Princeton clawed back from). Saint Mary's, Yale, Princeton, and Arkansas State are all pretty solid mainstays on most mid major top 25 lists. It ended up being a strong mid major OOC schedule that clearly helped prepare this team for where they are right now.

Those losers are just now realizing their basketball program is mismanaged with Pinky at the helm. He's the Mike Tomlin of the MAC. Congrats on all those .500+ seasons with nothing to show for it!

My lottery numbers just missed, too...

86-69 Akron is my final prediction.

Wait until we send Evan Wilson in. 😉