Let'sGoZips94

Respectable opening post, though. Pretty solid background information & analysis leading up to the game; that poster must have attended the @clarkwgriswold School for Fan Forums. This is a massive game for 3 reasons. 1) NIU might be the class of the MAC West. They are tied for 1st in the West, and have been quite competitive all season. 10 pt loss to UNI, 12 pt loss at SMC, 9 pt loss at Pitt, and 1 pt loss at CMU. 2) NIU is our Kryptonite, and have been for a while. Dambrot had a 50+ home game winning streak if I remember correctly, which was of course ended by an abysmal NIU squad. 3) Keep. Winning. None of these polls matter if we lose. Plus, our momentum on the road is key this season with our road struggles in the past. Our defensive style and athleticism bodes well in this matchup. German will hopefully be tamed by our ability to be our opponents to the spot. We move our feet so well on defense; it's impressive.

Something of note - our 3 losses are all in the AP Poll. Louisville & WVU are 11 & 12 respectively, while Liberty is getting 11 votes currently. @Captain Kangaroo Are you sure you're ok buddy? Between the USC Trojans/Gamecocks debacle and posting LAST WEEK'S poll, just wanted to check in. ?

St. Louis has victories over Kansas St. and Boston College, with 2 of their now 3 losses being #12 Auburn and #12 Seton Hall (at the time, respectively). So I would definitely say that was a decent win. St. Joe's (0-4, 3-13), George Washington (0-3, 6-10), and UMASS (1-2, 7-9) are the other 3 wins, which are actually quality wins compared to the rest of Duquesne's cupcake schedule. We'll know pretty quickly if they're contenders or pretenders, with 4 out of their next 7 being URI, Dayton, St. Louis, and St. Bonnie.

They also talked about hairstyle for a solid minute, Manny's bar floor being slippery with beer, and how lungs were important in basketball. They were about as focused as Bill Walton.

Outstanding coaching, effort, and win. 15 pt. victory against what should be a top 4 MAC squad. Balls beat Georgia Tech by 18 and Buffalo by 20.

I BELIEVE THAT!

Didn't realize that was a crime.

What the hell was that T for? Reece just put that guy on a poster and didn't get in anyone's face. What T was worse: that one or Zeke's against NDSU for hanging on the rim on his fast-break dunk?

This team is completely bought into what Groce is selling.

CBS is having some awful technical difficulties, presenting viewers with the worst NBA 2K view known to man. 12 pt. lead for Akron. Keep the foot on the gas!

GREAT start to this second half!

Who called Sayles being a positive factor? Props to ya!

Balls is having their way inside. Gotta have better help defense and find a way to force the ball to stay out on the perimeter. On offense - get some better ball movement (on and off) and make your damn shots.

All this sloppiness and we're only down 4. Love how we never slow down on the defensive side of the ball no matter how bad our offense is struggling at times.

Getting sloppy with multiple turnovers recently.

High-energy start. Lots of effort from Akron. Agreed with @clarkwgriswold - could get chippy.

That's like shutting down any movies with Santa Claus for copyright infringement. They bring joy to kids like sports moments with the Titanic theme bring joy to society as a whole. I'm upset.

I appreciate him for the early-morning laugh.

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