RowdyZip

I give up.

Adding to my wordy post above, I think the biggest disappointment for me is that we're really going to see a drastic diminishing count of 4-year guys that you grow to love and be proud of as a fan/alumnus. I'm hoping once the post-COVID era passes, that we'll see a lot less use of the portal, but with NIL (and rumors of it affecting mid-major players' decisions to stay with their program). However, I'm less optimistic by the day.

Saw this news as I was headed out the door to get the kids from school yesterday. Initial reaction: Anger/disgust/disappointment. Later reaction: Same. Look, as fans of this program it is perfectly fine to be angry and disappointed. It would be odd to not feel this way on some level. We watched these guys win a MAC Championship. We watched them come within a hair of knocking of UCLA in the tournament. We went into the offseason with a championship team with no seniors that should've been returning EVERYONE. Optimism was through the roof. This is a gut punch. We're losing a guy that provided 20% of our scoring and assists in 21-22, and who many of us were really looking forward to watching develop over the next couple years. To say it's "no big deal" or fabricate that it's a mutual decision is silly. Now, we can have faith that the coaching staff will find an adequate or even better replacement. The transfer portal is absolutely brimming with talent right now. I'm sure the staff is working hard to fill those two spots. The bottom line is that we went from certain that we had a MAC-championship-level team to...a little uncertainty, considering the lack of depth. Let's hope that Tavari Johnson and Prather Jr and whomever fills those two open schollies fully buys into the #1Akron culture. Find me a 6'7" LCJ!

The difference in engagement online is amazing. From everything to tweets about offers, to updates on the team, birthday wishes, active coaches, communication with recruiting services...these are all things we've never had. I cannot wait for the spring game, and I'm hoping all this work translates into great community engagement. Make the spring game an event. Late April is a great time for it. Give casual fans more reasons to visit Infocision and campus. We're a real D1 team...FINALLY.

I think sometimes we fail to see how lucky we are as fans of this program (myself included). @LoyalZIP's post made me update my MAC records spreadsheet to include both last year and this year and the numbers are remarkable. I've updated this sheet periodically since the beginning of the Dambrot era (2004-2005), which I consider the start of the "Golden Age" of Zips basketball, so these totals are over the last 18 seasons. Really illustrates the differences between the old East/West divisions. If/when Coach Groce moves on, the pressure will be immense to get the right hire to continue the growth of the program. 20 win seasons (ties broken by winning pctg): Akron 14 Kent 13 Buffalo 9 Ohio 9 Toledo 7 WMU 6 BGSU 3 EMU 3 CMU 3 Ball State 2 NIU 1 Miami 0 (!!!) Winning Percentage: Akron .668 Kent .637 Buffalo .608 Ohio .599 Toledo .533 BGSU .490 WMU .484 Miami .457 Ball State .454 EMU .451 CMU .427 NIU .380

I'm leaning heavily on coming back into the fold. Waiting and hoping that UA does something for those of us with small children. Would love something similar to the family plans they used to market for basketball. Two adult tickets and two child tickets for the season, for a slight discount over what 4 GA season tickets would cost, especially with a Thursday and Tuesday games representing 40% of the schedule.

I hope you're right. But I remember being broke in college, and if someone said they could get me $100k for using my image, I would have had some strong feelings. These guys appear to be tight and hopefully forming life-long bonds. With some added pieces, these guys have the opportunity to do something that's never been done at UA in more than 150 years. Here's hoping next year is even more fun.

What an absolutely incredible game and game plan by the team and coaching staff. I was on the edge of my seat the entire game. I certainly had my doubts, but this staff is built to coach in March. I now firmly believe that the 2020 team, had they made the dance, would've had a fantastic run. And this team as well...lacking depth from the departure of two starters during the season and an completely red-shirted freshman class, managed to take a Final Four team, one that returned everyone, to the brink. Would've loved to see how we matched up against St. Mary's. We'll flow into next season, hopefully with all the key pieces back. I am apprehensive on what we have coming in from newcomers. Would love to see some depth in the post (can you imagine if we could afford to play Bandaogo and Freeman at the same time for a handful of minutes?). Speaking of Bandaogo, I thought he did an admirable job. There were a couple instances where he got stuck on a guard after a switch and he was stuck playing perimeter defense. I thought he did a fantastic job. Enrique made himself known to the nation, and I hope he loves UA as much as we all do...because I feel like there's going to be some temptations out there in the portal this offseason for him. The effusive praise from the CBS crew was both affirming and somewhat nerve-wracking.

I thought the same thing last season! I could've sworn they said they expected to get 25 years out of it when the stadium was being built.

Richmond upset Davidson in the A-10 final. Both teams will likely be seeded above us. Not ideal. I think we get a 14 unless the committee wants to hit that Groce/Illinois angle.

Bracket Matrix has us as the top #14, before the Yale upset. That should bump us to 13. Bracket Matrix also has Illinois as the 2nd 4-seed. You do the math. If Davidson wins the A-10 (and maybe even if they don't), I think it's Akron/Illinois for the storyline.

He definitely hasn't gotten to the tournament and advanced to the Final Four with the Zips? 🤞🤘

Credit due: these tournament games the fellas have looked FANTASTICALLY well coached. The Zips rotations were so crisp on D that Toledo was forced to try and score on primarily on the break. This staff has done a spectacular to put these men in the best spot to be successful. LET'S GET ONE MORE!

So Toledo nearly had their annual choke vs Central. Here's hoping the Zips can make it happen tomorrow.

Following on gamecast during a meeting for a game like this is something that I never want to do again. Note to self: start taking Friday AND Thursday off for tournament weekend.

Maybe one day. I'm happy Coach Groce is here, because the alternatives of falling into a Miami/BG/Ball State type doldrum is not a fun thought. But we can agree to disagree because the fact of the matter is that Coach hasn't been able to reach even a conference championship in the 10 years after those couple good runs. I'm hoping this afternoon that he begins to prove me wrong. We're 2.5 point underdogs, by the way.

This is so far beyond pathetic. This shows you how half-assed the local coverage is, even if every once-in-a-while he churns out something of interest. This is pure, lazy garbage.

Why not? It's already pathetic that this thread is 12 pages long. John Groce has not yet proven he's a better coach that Dambrot in any way, shape or form. Unless your only metric is getting hot and winning a couple NCAA tournament games with middling MAC records. Maybe we can keep this thread going a few more pages and discuss it again when his Akron team wins a MAC Tournament Championship....or at least advances in the tournament until Saturday.

Brief post-regular season NET rankings. Took a look at conference rankings by AVERAGE and MEDIAN NET rankings. The MAC comes in at 20th (of 32) in Average NET, and 25th of 32 in MEDIAN Net, reflecting how considerably bottom-heavy the conference is. All of the P5 teams have average AND median NET rankings that are sub-100. I do believe the NCAA finally has a satisfactory metric now to justify exclusions of 99% of Mid-Major teams that may deserve an at-large bid.

Was scanning through the NET records this morning and I noticed Akron and Kent are still 4th and 5th in MAC NET Rankings, despite the flushes going on a 12 game win streak. The two programs have had remarkably similar paths, with Kent getting their garbage games out of the way early and Akron, unfortunately, waiting until 5 games were left in the season to get cold.

Everything was set up perfect for me before the WMU/NIU losses. We were set to be the 2 or 3 seed, playing either in the 4:30ish or 7ish game. I had a meeting in Cleveland that ends at 3:30. Then the losses happened, so the game will now be in the middle of my meeting. But the meeting was moved to remote so...somebody's gonna be on mute with the game on the office TV.

Not to digress from the current topic of a bobkitty tantrum, but I had a slow afternoon at work so I did a brief (and very basic) statistical analysis for the MAC POTY candidates. I looked at the top 20 in these statistics: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. I used a progressive scale to award a point value based on the player's ranking in the MAC, i.e. 1st in a stat = 20 down to 20th in a category = 1. NR in a stat = 0. Below is the top 10. I find these rankings hard to argue, other than the fact that guys like Rollins and Sears have trailed off slightly in the late season. Also interesting that the only player not from a contending team is Plowden, whom I think is 34 year old at this point. Other Zips of note: Bandaogo 22nd with 20 points (tied for first in blocks with Enrique) Ali (16th in assists, 13th in points) 32nd with 13 points Castaneda (19th in assists) and Tribble (19th in steals) tied for 47th with 2 points

Yep.

2021 - Ohio, 13 seed vs #4 Virginia 2019 - Buffalo, 6 seed vs #11 Arizona State 2018 - Buffalo, 13 seed vs #4 Arizona 2017 - Kent, 14 seed vs #3 UCLA 2016 - Buffalo, 14 seed vs #3 Miami (FL) 2015 - Buffalo, 12 seed vs #5 West Virginia 2014 - WMU, 14 seed vs #3 Syracuse 2013 - Akron, 12 seed vs #5 VCU 2012 - Ohio, 13 seed vs #4 Michigan 2011 - Akron, 15 seed vs #2 Notre Dame 2010 - Ohio, 14 seed vs #3 Georgetown 2009 - Akron, 13 seed vs #4 Gonzaga 2008 - Kent, 9 seed vs #8 UNLV Pretty consistently 12-14 for the MAC, with outliers in 2019, 2011, and 2008. That being said, with the Zips NET ranking in the neighborhood of 150, they'd most likely be a 15 seed if we can win in Cleveland.

Zips are one of the hottest teams in the MAC, looking to roll into the tournament on a 5-game winning streak. Central is 2-8 in their last 10, with close losses @ Toledo (66-68) and vs Kent (71-73) illustrating that they can't be overlooked. They'll also be desperate for a win to sneak into the tournament and potentially be the team that kicks in the annual Toledo chokefest in the 1 v 8 game. Hoping the fellas continue their strong play and get rested to win 3 games in 3 days the following weekend. Zips will likely be a high-single digits favorite here, and a very tempting bet considering the recent performances.