Let'sGoZips94

As sarcastic as my reply was, that is also the how. They are one of the best 3P shooting teams in the country.

During halftime of the Toledo game, they had a full segment talking about Akron and Groce.

Because they've scored more points than their MAC opponents 10 times.

I will tweet at ZipsMBB to confirm their graphic. Not sure which one is correct. ESPNU at 6pm on a Saturday makes way more sense, but it would be awesome if this were on ESPN2.

Just so people are aware, this will be on ESPNU.

Zips named among teams listed by CBS as potential Cinderellas.

The one highlight missing, unless I missed it, was his game winning dunk at Northern Kentucky. Identical silhouette.

Through some conversations with those in the know, I'm starting to gather a sense of the group behind the renewed energy. It is certainly a collective effort, but it's a small collective. I won't name names, but hats off to those who are involved. Akron needs warriors who are willing to do whatever it takes to move UA forward and ascend to new heights. They also need our help as fans to continue to show our support, and last night Zips Nation did just that. Fantastic night.

For those who don't know, Nolan works under the name AO1 Creative. He is the entire package behind our sudden explosion of social media content in the last year or so. Truly a special talent and I'm glad we're partnered with him.

I was admittedly wrong about both Tavari, Lyles, and Shammah. In previous seasons, we had too much turnover to truly see the impact of Groce & his staff. We saw Freeman, we saw Tribble, and I feel like the collective thought was "these are simply special guys that put the work in to get better," somewhat dismissing the extent to which Groce & his staff are able to develop players. We didn't get a chance to see the development in bulk. Tavari, Shammah, and Lyles have really opened my eyes to what this staff is capable of development wise, and I cannot wait to see where Akron ascends to with them in charge.

High Point (ranked 2 spots higher than us in NET after last night) received a vote last week for the AP Poll from some random Cedar Rapids Gazette voter. Couldn't find a single connection between him and High Point that would explain this. At Kent will still be the biggest road opponent challenge, but in terms of how we're playing and showing we can flip the switch on the road at OU, I agree. We have given Nate his flowers a lot during MAC play, and deservedly so. However, echoing and adding onto the above sentiments, I think Shammah Scott is our MVP. As Hilltopper said, he's the leader of the second unit which contains a true freshman guard, a defensive liability shooting guard, a streaky shooting guard, and 2 less physical post players. Our depth has needed Scott to be that glue that holds all those odd pieces together. His shooting is much improved along with his decision making. He has become the complete package and should be the front runner for 6th Man of the Year.

No, the only GOAT in attendance was Freeman. 😂

Finally someone who mentions we've been missing what was supposed to be a top 2-3 player on this team.

NIU did a great job anticipating our passing lanes to prevent the quick ball movement we normally exhibit. Conversely, Akron did a very poor job going through anything more than just the motions. I would imagine the PSI in the game ball was much lower at the end of last night's game than it normally is. We dribbled the crap out of that thing and, to no surprise with very little success. Gotta get back to the unpredictable off-the-ball movement into the open space behind the defense.

I think they've played the boat anchors in the MAC for multiple games in a row. This team is good enough to sleepwalk through those games and win. The test will be Saturday - can they flip the switch against better competition?

Balls just hit a buzzer beater to win at Toledo. Scratch that. They waived it off.

Our offense has gotten stagnant recently when Nate runs it. Need to play through Scott & Tavari.

This is awesome. Going from Akron to literally play in an NBA game.

Massive crowd with a buzz too. People actually want to be here.

Last year's senior night was against NIU, and this year's Freeman night is against NIU. That's 2 of the last 4 Zips games I've attended being against the Huskies. They cannot go to the Horizon Summit Valley Conference League soon enough.

While we'll be celebrating Freeman tonight (and hopefully extending the nation's longest winning streak), there are some interesting matchups in the MAC. Kent at BUGS - BG has the weapons to knock off Kent, they just need to stop sucking. Miami at EMU - Does Miami take out all their anger from the WMU loss on Stan Heath's crew, or does Heath's squad hold serve at home in front of a raucous crowd of 10 people? CMU at Ohio - Has anybody found AJ Clayton or will CMU turn the dial up even more on Boals' already scalding hot seat? Balls at Toledo - Go Balls. WMU at Canada - Literally nobody cares. NWAkron cares.

Happy GOAT Day!

Based on an article that was shared with me, it looks like PSU switched his position to WR after an injury. Hopefully his switch back to Safety for us will yield success.

Freeman's attendance is worth at least 10 more points. Here's to hoping Akron honors him properly and wins by 25.

This was a survival of the fittest race and I was shocked to see Ty Dillon snag a top 15 finish. He and Almendinger had great starting positions, but weren't as fortunate to avoid disaster during the race (Almendinger more so than Dillon). Pretty cool that Ty signed with Kaulig Racing. His grandpa is Richard Childress.