RowdyZip

Reghi is having one hell of a time remembering which team is which.

BG just beat Toledo. This is probably the last legitimate shot at a W.

I might be ok if I saw some interesting/creative play calling. Maybe some interesting blitz packages on defense. Or really, anything to be optimistic about. I see the same white bread, boring, predictable play and lack of talent we saw under Ianello.

See that the thread comparing Ianello and Arth was shut down. Just for the heck of it, I compared the first 5 games of the Ianello regime with the first 5 this year. The similarities are striking:

I'd have to say if things don't improve drastically in the next few months, Larry Williams has to go. Football 0-5, Soccer 0-7, 2 years of mediocre basketball. And before you tell me about Track/Swimming/Rifle, these are the sports people pay attention to. Major sports is where an AD gangs his hat, and we are declining precipitously in all.

Hot take: We absolutely 100% are the worst team in D1. We are lucky we didn't schedule a 1AA. "Trusting the process" leaves little to be optimistic about.

Ianello AF in here.

Whew. This is bad. I want to give the staff the benefit of the doubt, but being uncompetitive against Central is unacceptable. Central should be, by far, the worst team in the MAC this year. Oh, and EMU went into Champaign and hung 34 on Illinois, with a walk-off FG win.

This O-Line and defensive backfield may be approaching Ianello-level ineptitude.

This is a zero win team right now. The most concerning thing is the discipline penalties. And getting shut down by a defense that has 9 new starters in their second game.

I see losses at WVU, Louisville, and Marshall. Should go into MAC season no worse than 9-3, but that's not impressing anyone. Now win in Morgantown and Louisville and we'll talk....

I guess some people will find any reason to praise. This schedule is garbage, and worse garbage than we've had in the last 15 years. No polishing this turd. Here's the non-conference numbers: Average D1 Opponent Records last year: 14-20 (would be way worse without Liberty's 29-7) Average BPI/Kenpom: 210/216 Home opponents? Avg Record: 12-20 BPI/KenPom: 283/294 Understanding the U is in a budget crunch and paying opponents probably isn't much of an option, this is still garbage. No one I'm interested in seeing, and probably won't make the JAR until the conference season unless they retire Romeo's jersey number.

Fire Tom Arth.

Dawson signed a NLOI, so it is either academics or UA released him for some other reason. No news out there that I can find.

I believe I read it somewhere that the WV state legislature requires the two D1 schools to play each other. Not sure the frequency or sports involved, but I don’t think WVU is doing so by choice.

Muncie had some Testicle Tech players for their pick. Would’ve been cool if they mentioned the college team for Akron’s pick.

I'm rooting for John Groce to succeed because I love UA and I love Zips basketball. I didn't think he was the right choice when they hired him. I don't think he's a bad coach, I just don't think he's a good coach. My fear is that we'll see a whole bunch of years of +/- 3 games of .500 ball. A bunch of 5th through 9th seeds in the MAC tournament. Maybe a good year where we get hot and win the MAC and maybe win a game in the Dance. Maybe. I don't know... I don't know if we'll have time. Next year is a very important year for John Groce to prove me and some others wrong. He will have a full and healthy roster of mostly his guys. He also has some serious leg work in recruiting because following 2019-20, we lose 7 guys (barring offseason transfers out).

Remember that time we lost by 40 in the MAC quarterfinals? Pepperidge Farms remembers. I have serious doubts that this staff can create a team that is consistently above average in the MAC. I hope I'm wrong, but looking at the scholarship chart, next year is must win.

My usual path to cheap/free tickets is out this year. I'm going to try and sneak away to catch this one, and I'll probably be using a lotto ticket to get bogo $20 end section seats.

Zips tied the sweaters just on points off 3pt FG. 17/31 for 51 points.

This was the worst performance I've seen since the VCU debacle in the Dance. I was not a fan of the hire when we brought in Groce. I fell for some of the hype, but he's proving otherwise. John Groce is not a good basketball coach. The records prove it. He was supposed to be a good recruiter. Two of his prime recruits never played a game for UA. I'm still rooting for him to change my mind because I love this school and it's teams, but next year better be big strides forward.

I think Reece looks fantastic and will be a good contributor right away. But for reference sake, 247 scored Mike Bardo 0.7667.

UB has barely hung on to their rankings: 25 in AP, 24 in Coaches Poll (Toledo receives one vote here also). As an illustration of the steep hill to climb for the MAC to get 2 bids in the current NCAA climate, Maryland (18-6) hopped into the poll and over UB (20-3) by beating mighty Nebraska (3-10 Big 10). Bulls may have a shot if they win out and lose a close game in the final, but I'm betting another loss and the committee finds a way to leave them out.

Zzzzz

Had this exact conversation with a friend this week. We need a sniper that's out there getting floor burns.