mes102

Correct. It was their first season last year, Z.I.P. This would be their second season

Tennis wins their 20th consecutive match to move to 21-2 overall, 5-0 MAC on the season. Scary part is this tennis team will probably be even better next season.

Well said. Some of the things you said is what I tried to say, but didn't do it as well as you. As for meeting Coach Groce, I hope that maybe the university could attempt to have a couple more of these meet-and-greets with Coach Groce? Maybe in the student union before a football or soccer game? Maybe a student only event as well? What made Caleb Porter so likeable and student attendance was amazing, was the approachability of Porter to the students and how he tried relating to them. I think Groce can and will do that. But seriously, if anyone that works at the university reads this, maybe have a meet-and-greet with Coach Groce in the Fall or even later in this Spring and advertise it for a month or so in advance. That way some of us that couldn't make it last night, may have a chance to work our schedules around to personally support Coach Groce, his family, and the program.

Correct. Donnal being from Toledo area, Jeter went to same high school as Noah, and Bragg being from Cleveland and Groce recruited Bragg, I can "maybes" from this list...

Groce interview with Illinois radio station starting at 19:50 into the podcast

Apparently this started at 6:15. I will post the podcast of it when it gets posted within the next couple hours. As for the article about grading college basketball's biggest hires, I posted it because we were on it and Duquesne wasn't even though other A-10 schools like UMass, Dayton, and VCU were on it. I thought that was interesting.

Grading college basketball's biggest coaching hires

Groce will be on at 5:30 Interview on this radio station http://espncu.com/ EDIT: I forgot time zone difference. Check at 6:30 ET/5:30 CT

That's why I asked the question. We may have different opinions on our ultimate goal, but that's okay. I was just curious what everyone's thoughts were when it came to that. As a coach, I always look at the highest level possible. As a fan, I do think Sweet Sixteen is very realistic for us. My follow up would be this though: Would that still be your goal even after we make it to the Sweet Sixteen? How many of those MAC tournaments did we have the better talent? And how many of those times did we have better talent and lost? Like you said, it's easy to cherry pick a stat to fit your narrative.

As a coach, I can't stand that mentality. Where I coach high school basketball, our ultimate goal is to win a state championship. Will we ever win a state championship? Maybe not, but if you don't put the work and commitment into what it takes to win a state championship, you never will win a state championship. Now, we're nowhere near a state title right now. But we're working towards giving ourselves a chance. Won our first tournament game since 2010, and we're now set up to make a nice tournament run the next few years, with a chance at a state championship. It doesn't happen overnight at the high school level, and you have to go through lifting, conditioning, practicing, and game preparing like a state championship-caliber team would. And over time, you give yourself a chance. What's your ultimate goal here as a Zip fan? Mine is a national championship. It's not realistic, but should be the ultimate goal of every college basketball program. Maybe the coach is hindering my mind as a fan, but I just can't stand the mentality of it's okay to lose in the MAC Championship game just because we've been there 9 times in the past 11 years and the history of the last 30+ years of the program.

Thanks for the recap, CK. I was wondering how it went last night, I felt bad not being able to make it. I had AAU practice last night from 6-7:30, and with no assistants, I couldn't pass it off to anyone last night. We have a tournament this weekend, so I couldn't just cancel the practice. We had a few things we needed to clean up before the tournament(for example, needed work on our press-breakers). Plus, it's almost an hour drive for me one way, but I wouldn't have cared about that if it wasn't for my AAU practice last night.

Going 3-6 in MAC Championship games isn't a black mark? And don't give me the "At least we made it to the 9 MAC Championship games." That's not the mentality we need to have with this program. Our goal should be to be in the NCAA tournament every year. Not be happy that we were one step short of that...

No one is downplaying how he did here in the regular season. It's strictly about MAC tournament and NCAA tournament performance. I'm getting really tired of people still bringing him up when he's not our coach anymore. Support Coach Groce and his staff or get out.

Dan Dakich Show interview with John Groce Starts at 53:45 and ends around 59:35 on the 4/6 show http://www.1070thefan.com/personalities/dan-dakich-show

I was watching it at work hoping someone would ask him that question. Of course it was a student at WZIP and not a professional that is getting paid to do this. Good job kid But as for the local media(GT, TP, EA)....

Missouri's Hughes...not Akron Hughes... And it looks like I'm stuck watching the press conference at work. I couldn't convince my boss that I had a very special business meeting this morning in Akron. And I can't make the meet-and-greet, unless the gym for our AAU practice somehow loses power....

It was nice while it lasted.

I'm not, but sometimes these fans give us more information than any of our local media does, so that's why I am throwing it out there. The Indiana people were certainly right when they said about the "If Groce doesn't get the Akron job, he'll be an assistant at Indiana" tweets. So until our local media starts stepping it up, this is where I'm going for my "rumor mill"

My last two tweets concerning Tilmon(until I see something more concrete about his next move)

It's funny we're talking about this because earlier today, I sent this to a few people: "If someone would have told me after the 2012 MAC Championship game, that in 5 years Dambrot would leave for Duquesne and Groce would be the next Akron coach, I would have told you 'Who's your dealer?" A couple of them answered back: "Those people would say that their dealer is Alex Abreu"

I thought about it before I even saw that tweet. Just mentioned that I wasn't the only one thinking the same thing...

I think Utomi has a chance to really improve under Groce.