Let'sGoZips94

Suck it Sherwin Williams! Finished construction before y'all.

Y'all hear about the new skyscraper going up in Cleveland? It's going to be all brick - Akron is building it.

Tribble HAS to be smarter there. Either commit to the ball or back off to avoid the foul. Dumb.

Game time. LET'S GO ZIPS!!!

Loving this new MAC format schedule. Everything has been starting pretty close to on time.

Not who PCCC wanted IMO. As big of a threat as PCCC's backcourt can be, BUGS as a similarly formidable backcourt AND arguably a better frontcourt. Here's to hoping the anatomically-correct birds without teeth knock the teeth out of the preschool creation birds with teeth.

As much as I hate to see PCCC have success, the social media hate for Toledo is quite enjoyable. They might want to trade in those creepy theater masks for brown bags when they head to Cleveland every year.

Toledo is getting HAMMERED in the replies to this Rothstein tweet. It's hilarious.

What does Toledo do with Kowalchoke? Oh, nothing, because they signed him to an extension through the 26-27 season.

They're up 59-53 with 41 seconds to go, because both these squads suck. If we don't win this damn thing, that'll be the biggest disappointment since the end of the Dambrot era.

Playing with 4 fouls I believe, too.

We are witnessing the genius of Groce. Lose the last few games to avoid Kent at 11am in the quarterfinals.

Robotham is the forgotten one because of the ACL derailing his Akron career. His freshman year was 2014-15, which happened to be the best out of conference schedule I had forgotten about for Akron. We opened the season with UMBC, then played 4 straight P5 teams. Here were Robotham's stats in this games... USC - W - 14 pts Miami FL - L - 10 pts South Carolina - W - 16 pts Penn State - L - 18 pts Imagine if we had him on this team.

GameDay. I think we'll know by the first TV timeout if this team is refocused and has bought back into Groce defense.

Man, you had a real opportunity here to have someone say something either really cool or really funny to you, and this is what you go with. "Kent sucks" "Hilltopper is the best ZipsNation member by far." "Shamalamadingdong." Something like that.

Come on, Cavs. Don't F this up. Freeman in the Wine & Gold next season.

No Payton?! Blasphemy!!!

I do wonder if this is what led to some of the other departures we've seen. Groce's style is as much a deterrent to some players as it is an attractive style for us fans.

The cherry on top is another trip to the Big Dance (and a W in the tourney but I'm not going to get greedy at this point). Well deserved award for one of the greatest the MAC has ever seen.

I'm referring more to Exchange and Route 8. The "happening" parts of campus (Info, soccerl, baseball, food, bars, etc.) butt up against a really ugly and higher crime part of Akron. Having a good relationship with the city is important, and I'm not against that. But the city of Akron has being headed in the wrong direction for a while now, and the University failed to section off its campus from the negative parts of Akron. When they built the Info, it would've been perfect to build up the multiple block perimeter that surrounds the Info to promote more of a college atmosphere. Updated real estate, bars, food, landscaping, etc. Instead, the perimeter view/experience is Exchange with its rundown buildings, lack of restaurants/bars, etc. Downtown has had some positive developments, but that's not exactly a great walk to get to the Info, JAR, FirstEnergy Stadium, etc. It does nothing to build the atmosphere for game days, which is a huge part of the college experience.

Cincy has the appeal and financial benefit of the Big 12 (and even the AAC prior). It offers a more enjoyable college experience than many inner city colleges. Why is Kent doing well? It has an actual college campus with an enjoyable college atmosphere. When college kids are looking to party on the weekends, they don't say, "Let's go to Akron." They say, "Let's go to Kent." Kent has multiple bars right there on campus, and it's a relatively safer area. What is Ohio? A party school. How does Ohio State thrive in Columbus (horrible crime rates now)? They have the environment. The University of Akron has failed to sequester itself from the downtrodden City of Akron, especially when the Info was built. Instead of creating a campus that promotes a college atmosphere, they have a campus that is a city atmosphere - and a poor one at that. Outside of the select few majors that require higher education, most college degrees are a dime a dozen and absolutely worthless, especially from a university name standpoint. There is very little difference between the basic majors at most schools. The selling-point difference is largely found in the atmosphere. Imagine going into a high school, especially in NEO, and pitching Akron vs Ohio. Akron recruiter: "Do you want to attend Akron, live close to your parents, and risk higher crime rates on a city campus?" Ohio recruiter: "I'm sure you've heard about how much fun it is down in Athens. We have a good time, you can get away from your parents while also being a day's drive away from home, and our degree carries the same weight as any local school you'll talk to." Many kids are largely scared into massive amounts of debt out of high school for higher education. People are starting to wake up to the scam that is higher education (especially the cost associated with it), so between that realization and other schools being able to offer more of the traditional college experience, Akron is really behind the 8 Ball.

Ali was that guy in many games. Tribble in others. The EMU game was all Ali Ali until Tribble and others missed all the free throws in the final minute. Fact of the matter is, @Zippy87 nailed it with the roster construction issues. There simply isn't enough production from the top end of the back court and depth in the front court. However, I don't buy that it's a league-wide problem. PCCC lost InSincere but still has 2-3 guards that can put up 20+ on any given night. NIU has a guard that just dropped 30+ on us. BUGS got the top JUCO scoring guard and he's a stud - if they had any type of depth outside of him, they'd be a real problem. Sears and Dennis are the 2 big guards that left for P5 programs in recent years, but the league has had quite a few top scoring guards transfer in and be here for several years - LCJ, X2.0, Cheese, InSincere, Preston, etc. Fact is, Groce & Co. simply whiffed on backfilling X2.0's production. They have a mountain of an off season ahead of them to not only find big time production at the guard position, but also fill the front court shoes of Freeman. In the meantime, they have an even bigger mountain directly in front of them called the MAC Tournament that starts tomorrow. If they don't have these guys refocused and bought back into Akron Defense by tip off against Miami, they'll be climbing the off season mountain sooner than expected.

Especially given his past.

Wtf. Is this the weirdest coaching off season ever?

As "pedestrian" as OU has been under Boals post-Jason Preston (comparatively), this is one helluva coaching job by him this year with all the injuries they've had.