Let'sGoZips94

Those OU seniors got spanked without Groce, and beneath them was a transition year. And then Akron went on to get spanked by 40+ in the NCAA Tournament. Do 21+ win seasons assist in recruiting? Absolutely, especially when some of those wins come against legitimate competition. However, those seasons are pretty empty in the eyes of many when they end without any noise in the NCAA Tournament.

I covered this in a previous post by mentioning the majority of schools that have made tournament runs had coaching changes. The same applies to OU. Ask Caris Levert why he committed to OU before decommitting and going to Michigan when Groce left for Illinois.

Groce's second year at OU. 22-15 was their final record, including 7-9 in the MAC regular season. They had 4 MAC Tourney wins and won their first round NCAA Tournament game. That's 5 postseason wins. So in the regular season, they had 17 wins, got to Cleveland, and then got to the NCAA Tournament AND won a game. By the way, they beat a 24-11 Akron squad in the MAC title game. They may not have won 20+ in the regular season, but they won when it mattered. Two years later, they nearly went to the Elite 8.

I was young when Hipsher was here, and do not recall as vividly our level of play when he was here. I remember he had awesome players (Weinkein, Ball, Bosley, Phillips, etc.). I've been coming to games since his era, but really started to notice the level of play when Dambrot took over. I am very appreciative of what he did to grow the program, and I dislike when the accusation is made that "Dambrot bashers" are not appreciative. I didn't like Dambrot's excuses, I didn't like that the program had plateaued, but I am very happy he took this program to new heights. The best recruiting tool is making an NCAA Tournament run, and I don't think that can be questioned. That's also what I'm arguing for, not just an occasional tournamnt appearance. The amount of exposure an NCAA Tournament run provides is 10x what ten 21 win seasons and an occasional tournament appearance would do for recruiting. All these programs that make the NCAA Tournament runs, their fall out comes when the coach leaves for the next job, not because they were just a flash in the pan. George Mason had Coach L leave for the U. VCU had Shaka Smart leave for Texas. FGCU had their coach leave for USC. Butler had Stevens leave for the Boston Celtics, but look at what he left behind - a strong foundation. Really the only couple of programs to keep their coaches are Gonzaga, Creighton, and Wichita State. I think he meant to quote my post. No, but typically those valued wins come en route to NCAA Tournament success, or are otherwise viewed as less valued if the end result is less than desirable.

What does this mean for Duquesne and Dambrot? He's right at the $1M threshold, correct? I think that's a great provision, by the way. Everyone complains about the money-hungry corruption in the NCAA, and this targets that. It also helps keep colleges more balanced with athletics/academics.

I mentioned that those private schools don't have football, but some of the other mid-majors do have football. The Info's financial situation certainly hurts UA's athletics budget, specifically men's basketball, but we still turn revenue that ranks in the upper half of the MAC, a conference that has had several schools make serious NCAA Tournament runs (OU , Can't , etc.). I apologize for my fixation with the NCAA Tournament. I didn't realize millions upon millions of people filled out brackets for the regular season, and took time off work to watch a day's worth of regular season college basketball. The NCAA Tournament is one of the greatest events in sports, and I'm sorry for my wish that Akron has success in the tourney. Myself and a few others are being realistic. We had a coach that, in 13 or so seasons, had zero NCAA Tournament wins despite consecutive 21+ win seasons against low-level competition. In 4 years of that same time period, our current coach took our rival, OU, to the 2nd round and the Sweet Sixteen. My takeaway from those stats is realistic optimism that we made the right hire to take this program to the next level, which is winning in the NCAA Tournament. I don't see a banner in the JAR for our 21+ win seasons; I do see a banner (I believe) at the Convo that shows their 2nd Round and Sweet Sixteen accomplishments.

This discussion is still happening? I had no idea. I've been having such a hard time accessing this site and many other since they overturned Net Neutrality. I'm also going broke due to the amount I have to shell out each time I even want to view a news website or simply use my internet. Oh wait...

Sounds to me like you don't have to bet or root against "your" Zips, considering you've already written them off. A fellow MAC school recently advanced to the Sweet 16, two years after advancing to the second round, with our current head coach. Look at the financial numbers; there isn't much of a difference, except they teach budgeting down in Athens. Gonzaga, Butler, Xavier, Creighton are all private schools I believe, without football; I wouldn't use them as comps. Other schools to win an NCAA tournament game since 2013 (our last appearance): Stephen F. Austin (twice), Arkansas Little Rock, Georgia State, Northern Iowa, UAB, Harvard (twice), Mercer, La Salle (Sweet 16), Florida Gulf Coast (Sweet 16). How many of those teams would you expect Akron to beat in a normal, non-rebuilding year? I'm sure their financials are equal to, if not worse than Akron's basketball financials. The Xaviers, Butlers, Creightons, and Gonzagas of the world all came from the same place: nowhere. They came out of nowhere, built solid programs, enjoyed success on the national stage on numerous occasions, and now their private school budgets are bigger. Big whoop. Akron can be them, we just need the right leader to get us there and build the proper program culture.

Whoa. Hold on. Should we be thanking him? Clark, what's your record as a thread starter?

You can't say the first statement in bold, and follow it up with the second statement in bold. "KD bashers", if that's what you want to call those who were/are critical of a stagnant program, were tired of the 21-win-seasons & consistent trips to the MAC finals; those accomplishments were meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Talk to "KD bashers" in 3-4 years. If there are NCAA tournament wins, big regular season victories, etc., we'll be very happy; if not, then we probably hired the wrong guy to replace KD, but that doesn't disregard the fact that the program had become stagnant. This response might be , and for that I am sorry. My expectations of the end result for the Zips have come down a bit this year, simply because we are very young and are missing the extra 1-3 players to give us the boost. That is what is leading to our woes on the road, I believe. We'll see how we fare at home, but I'm still excited. As previously mentioned, I'm having fun. I'm enjoying this brand of basketball, as frustrating as it may be at times, more than the previous 3-4 years. Also, is there any difference from this season and the previous 13? The only thing that matters is Cleveland, right? Go Zips!

No more 30-50 pt blowout losses (excluding top 10 teams). 8+ regular season wins. Knock off a P5 school. Last but not least, a competent offense.

Kent ruins everything.

Go University of Spoiled Children. #OSUcks

WMU 1/2. Not sure if that's a confidence pick, or a I-hope-we-get-the-monkey-off-our-back pick, but I'm going with it.

To roughly quote Mater from Cars, I'd give my left lug-nut for a new OC, let alone it being a stocking gift. We as Zips fans owe a lot to Larry Fitz, actually. If I remember correctly, he convinced Charlie Frye to stay for his senior year by telling him that he'll like playing for JD Brookhart. JD was at Pitt during Larry's time there.

A vote for no extension right now is a vote to let him coach the final year of his contract and go from there.

Thread about an extension for Bowden... A post that didn't include the word or a variation of the word "fire"... Not seeing where you got that from. I thought Toledo was supposed to be head and shoulders above any team that FAU played? So if they are, and we got blown out by both, then Toledo got blown out by App State, where does that put Akron and the rest of the MAC?

You're not allowed to use this when one of your arguments against Groce was that he got lucky at OU with his NCAA Tourney wins. App State was well prepared against Toledo and shut them down. What does that say about the abilities and preparation of this coaching staff? In regards to the effect on recruiting, what about the message of "we don't want mediocrity at Akron" and the positive effect that could possibly have? These recruits just saw Akron get BLOWN out in back to back nationally televised games. Let's not pretend that's anything but negative publicity.

No but this, in my opinion, adds to the case against Bowden.

Our campus could look like Miami (OH)'s if we bring these bricks home with us.

Looks like we are a couple players (maybe the 3 transfer sit-outs?) From finishing these games against bigger names.

The zone is most certainly the game changer. What is it with Akron and playing dirty teams recently? We need to drive at Metu and get some more fouls on him.

I'm aware. Did our water boy get under your team's skin, too, so they decided to show us up by beating us without practicing? Over 40 posts and I think they are some of the emptiest 40 posts this board has seen.

I don't believe the matchup had much to do with the blow out. I don't think FAU is 50-3 better than us. I think our preparation was pitiful with the play-calling equally abysmal. Additionally, how many people do you think are actually watching that game?

If you can count Mississippily before a result occurs from a reaction, it is no longer a natural reaction but an intended one.