Let'sGoZips94

Shhhh... Don't let facts get in the way of their misery. _______________________________________________________________ The Zips this past season were 8 deep. Even with the departures, I'm looking at a roster that's 9 deep and that doesn't include the incoming freshman or the 2 open spots. It's ridiculous to say there are only 2 DI players on the current roster, when the rag tag group of 8 were consistently competitive against teams like Clemson, Buffalo, and Nevada, and finished in the middle of the pack in the MAC, while blowing out the #2 team in the MAC (BUGS). Scoring is a fixable problem, and probably the best problem to have, especially for a rebuilding team. I'm going to keep pounding this point. We have the right system in place to be successful. We focus on the key fundamentals - defense, effort, rebounding, free throws - and have built that foundation. Dambrot's system was and still is entirely flawed. It ignores nearly every basic principal in the sport of basketball. This very board had people constantly talking about the lack of ball movement, defensive breakdowns, free throw shooting problems, etc. We eeked out a lot of close victories against sub-par MAC squads despite being more talented (usually). Those issues have carried over to Duquesne. Read their board; "will this team ever emphasize defense" and "free throws are an issue". I'd be curious to see the opinions of the Dambrot apologists when looking at the Duquesne roster. Is it full of so-called DI players? If so, what was the cause of the early 1st-round exit in the A10 tourney and not dominating/being more competitive in a weaker A10 Conference as a whole? In the first round game, they scored 86 points, shooting at a 47% clip. How can you lose a game when you make shots?! You don't play defense, give up 92(!) pts, and shoot 68% at the line. What's going to be easier to fix: having gym rats hit the gym and practice shooting (including free throws), or getting a team to buy into 40 minutes of tough-nosed, heady defense? My vote is the shooting, which again, gives me hope for this next season. Lastly, let's stop crucifying this team and Groce for a 40 pt. loss to Buffalo and 24 pt. loss to a motivated O-BooWho squad. Of the 16 losses we had, 11 were single-digit losses, and an additional 2 losses were closer than their final score (@ Buffalo and @ Toledo). That means there were 3 games we simply weren't competitive in. Heck of an accomplishment for a team with only 4 DI players at the time. I wonder if Arizona had the pitchforks out for Sean Miller for losing to Buffalo by 21 last year, or Boeheim for losing by 12 to Buffalo this year. Do BUGS and Miami want to fire their coaches for losing to a team with 4 DI players by 24 & 29 respectively? The Clown lost to a team with only 4 DI players by 19. We had 1 extreme off-night (O-BooWho) and one off-day that was aided by being inferior to one of the better teams in the entire country (Buffalo at The Q); clearly that's not the norm. So much good to focus on. The sky is not falling. In fact, I feel as if the ceiling is higher than ever before, considering our previous ceiling had a MAC Finals record similar to LeBron's Finals record (oh look, another similarity between Dambrot and LeBron, to add to the excuses and now neither of them making the postseason), and arguably 0 marquee wins (unless you include the few NIT wins against Houston, FSU, and Temple).

Does this mean he is potentially transferring, or 100% transferring once he finds a new school?

Awesome. A player who is going to miss the playoffs repping a coach and school who also missed the playoffs. Perfect match.

He became much more physical as the season wore on, especially towards the end. Defensively he really came into his own as well, consistently gaining strong positioning on his opponents, playing straight up, smart, etc. Guys like Riak are going to be hard to judge when looking at a stat sheet. I was simply impressed by the improvement in effort & physicality throughout the season.

As a brief attendee of THEE Otterbein University, I can officially say... There's nothing to be afraid of. Unless of course we're playing tennis against them. Carry on.

I'm optimistic that with a full year under their belts and another full off-season to improve their craft, our offensive base will be much more solid. Throughout the season we saw growth tremendous growth from numerous players - Riak & Cheese were the two most notable - and I trust the individuals on the team will put the work in to improve for the betterment of the team as a whole. It needs to be noted the system Groce has implemented on offense and defense. They are very fundamental. They require personnel that will dedicate themselves to the fundamentals, something AAU has largely killed off. We have lots of movement now when executed properly, and that goes for both sides of the ball. Two factors have led to the exodus - players not buying into the system, and players simply not fitting in. It happens, and it has been magnified by the state of the program when Groce took over. All season I had next year and the year after next circled because those are the seasons that start to feature the core of Groce Ball with the majority being his personnel. Whatever we accomplished these first two seasons would be whatever, and I was simply hoping to see the basics implemented. I've seen that and way, way more. With the departure of Utomi, it accelerates the roster turnover to becoming mostly Groce guys. As I mentioned, a lot of the fundamentals in basketball have been killed off by AAU ball. It was very encouraging to see so many guys this year buy into those fundamentals again, especially on defense. Seeing that gives me a lot of hope this off-season will yield big improvements all the way around. Also, are we forgetting the MAC is about to potentially enter the stage it was at when Dambrot took over? It depends on what Buffalo does; otherwise, it's completely up for grabs. Fret not. Go Zips!

Bingo. He was recruited to Dambrot's system, starting off in that 6th man role, and really fit in as a pure shooter in the inside-out system Dambrot ran. Groce likes to run, drive, move, and I felt at times it was bogged down when the ball got to Utomi.

Well that answers that. This might be a blessing in disguise. I am very thankful Utomi decided to stick around post-Dambrot. However, based on who we have been offering, I don't think Utomi was the right fit for Groce's offense and I think we have the potential now to open the offense even more. A lot of board members' projected depth charts had question marks at the backup PG position - go get one.

Congrats on finally admitting you're a Dambrot fan and not a Zips fan.

Well it's a good thing your Dukes of Duquesne are in the A10. You don't have to deal with the MAC.

@Cykron Are you good for men's basketball? How far should I take the Cyclones?

Huge drop of the ball by the CBS crew for not recognizing the potential Hurley/Buffalo matchup. 6 seed. STRONG.

Is he even allowed in Ohio? I thought there was some lawsuit that prevented him from coaching in Ohio, or something like that. Good hire by O-BooHoo. Not what I wanted to see.

BobkittyAttack is fantastic. First, one poster finds out nearly every detail of Boals' life, almost down to the SSN. Then another poster's detective work tracks the president's plane. Breaking news: homing pigeon sent to Boals' returns empty handed. (I hope)

But their main center is only 6'8".

TOS to Buffalo (we can only hope). Congrats to the Canadians, and to the Children of the Corn (BUGS). Great seasons by both, greatly exceeding expectations. Buffalo was ranked the entire season, while BUGS came out of nowhere to grab the 3 seed and finish 2nd in the tourney, all the while being one of only a couple teams to knock off Buffalo this season.

I couldn't believe it when I saw 1980 was their last NCAA tourney appearance.

At least their athletics website has figured out a way to handle the situation. When going back through their coaching history, their website errors out prior to 2014-15. All their current and future fans will know is Kowalczyk.

AT LEAST WHEN @clarkwgriswold STARTED THE BUFFALO THREADS, THEY WERE RESPECTABLE LOSSES THAT DIDN'T SEND THE REST OF THE THREAD INTO A DOWNHILL SPIRAL TO HELL!

As the roster and expected additions currently stand, I would move Cheese to the backup PG role. That isn't to say he won't start, but he proved serviceable this year in the role, and given an entire off-season to work on his craft could really take another big leap next year. Duvivier was a SG in the PG position. I would also slide Reece down to SF, and Sayles down to PF. That should help even the "depth chart" out a bit. I really like this roster on paper though. I don't have much experience with Toles' game, but how are his handles? Any way he can become the backup PG?

Not to mention Dambrot inherited a much weaker MAC, too. He came in post-Elite Eight KSUcks, and the MAC was in no-man's-land with no real standout, top teams. Groce came in and has had to face the best team the MAC has ever had (regular season wise) in Buffalo and a solid Toledo program, while the conference as a whole has posted its best conference rankings in a while.

I was too young for Faust, so I can only grade the 3 Akron coaches I have legitimate experience with - Brookhart & Bowden. 1) Bowden. Restored a program on the verge of becoming a middle-of-the-road FCS team. 2 bowl appearances including the program's only bowl victory. 1 MAC title game appearance. 2) Brookhart. Had the program's only MAC Championship, and delivered it in style. The '05 title game is one of the greatest sports memories I have, especially when my dad wanted to leave and I told him I wanted to watch until the end. However, he won that game with Owens' guys, and proved to be average at best during the rest of his tenure. 3) Owens. Heck of a recruiter - Frye, Blackburn, Hixon, etc. Lackluster results in the end on the field. Frye for Heisman, though!

Positives... Legitimate growth from several players, including Cheese and Riak Defense wins championships, and we were one of the best defensive teams in the country. I fully expect that to be our mantra moving forward, with the ultimate success coming once we improve offensively. Lots of close losses, which challenged us in a year we can afford to be challenged. Hopefully those close games plant the seed to flip those results going forward. Effort. This team never gave up, and I hope that's also a staple going forward. Fundamentals. You can see them for the first time in a long, long while. Help defense, rotating, ball movement, crashing the boards (at times), movement off the ball, foul shots, etc. We stomped teams like OU, Kent, Miami, BG. We learned the term "teamism". Everyone but Ivey returns next year. That's HUGE. We got back to The Q and got a bunch of "rookies" experience in that cavernous arena. We gave Buffalo 2 of the toughest games they had all season. Close performances against Clemson, Illinois State, and Nevada. Winning record in year 2, despite a lot of roster turnover in the off-season. Negatives... Shot-making. Mental lapses at times, especially from our leaders like LCJ, Ivey, and Utomi. Making baskets. Scoring. Putting the ball in the hoop. Putting points on the board. Scoring more than the opponent. Shooting. Finishing buckets. In my opinion, this season became the true foundation for the Akron program under Groce. I'm still wondering who he is expecting to leave based on us still offering scholarships for the 2019 class, but the bulk of this roster will be back, and I'm excited. X. Williams should be a huge addition, along with a few of the freshman and the JUCO guard coming in. Buffalo graduates the most successful class class in MAC regular season history, which includes Massinburg, Caruthers, Harris, Perkins, and McRae. The MAC will be ripe for the taking. Can't State is stuck with their average clown, OU will have a new coach, Miami has a bunch of question marks, BG might return back to earth, Balls graduates a lot, EMU graduates a lot. I don't understand the shockingly quick sky-is-falling mentality on this board. Dambrot left; he's now in the A10, losing in the first round over there. We haven't made the Tourney since 2013, and now have a coach with historic post-season success in the MAC. Have faith, and watch the details of the game. The foundation for success is there. Go Zips!

I really enjoyed 4 years of 0 NCAA Tourney appearances with Big Dog. Also not a fair description of the offense. Cheese is aggressive to the hoop, Ivey can take it to the hole - essentially every guard/forward we have drives. The issues stem from their ability to finish, but another off-season of working on their games should help fix that issue. It's impossible to grade Groce completely until he gets his guys in here. If your issue is the height of our main PG, look at the recruits he has targeted - the majority are aggressive 6'2" guards. Our issues today were 100% offense, and based on the highlight tapes of the recruits we have coming in/he's targeting, that shouldn't be an issue going forward. You're also dealing with a team that had 2 players - 2 - with Quicken Loans Arena experience. I think the moment was a bit big for the "rookies", and that happens. Groce's runs at OU consisted of guard-based play with athletic forwards/centers. I don't believe he had a single player above 6'8"/6'9", and they gave our bigger lineups all we could handle. Buffalo is literally a carbon copy of Groce's OU squads (albeit slightly better all-around talent). There is a recipe for success there, and we'll get to that level I believe.

Oats is STILL working the refs, even up 21. "Stripes, c'mere. Now, I was promised a larger foul margin, and I'm not getting it. You've got the NCAA Tourney committee watching, and we're only up 21, when being up 30+ would get us a potential 6 seed."