1981 grad

When looking back at the Zips season, they had 5 losses and three of those losses were away losses to teams that made the NCAA tourney including Purdue, Miami, and Troy. The Yale loss was on a neutral court and one of the best games all season and that game went back and forth till the very end. Yale is in the NIT and lost out on an NCAA bid in overtime. The away loss to Murray State was our only bad loss of the season.

For a guy whose team just lost on a last second shot I thought he did not act like a jerk. He brought out the fact that we had 5 seniors. I thought Toledo played really well. I thought his players also brought out the fact how the Zips wanted this game. As a Zips fan who has seen Scott make that shot numerous times, I know it was not luck but I can certainly understand his feelings and disappointment.

Groce made a great half time adjustment in that we attacked the basket and stopped relying on the 3 ball that simply was not dropping. People on this board wondered if the lack of close games would come back to haunt us in Cleveland and we answered that question tonight. That shot Scott hit tonight was from the same location that he made the shot at the end of the half against Mass. I sit behind the Mass bench and the Mass coach even told Scott "nice shot" That shot will go down as one of the great shots in Zips history.

Really excited about tonights game. We beat Toledo by 10 at home and Lyles was 7 of 8 from the field scoring 19 points with no 3 point attempts. We shot over 50% from the field. We also outrebounded them 37 to 25. It is weird how a long season comes down to one game for the MAC championship. Win or lose, I think Groce recruited a bunch of great scholar athletes on this team that can make all Zip fans proud. Go Zips!!!!

Does Groce start Halligan tonight? I do not think he has scored in the last 5 games and last night he passed up an open three and turned the ball over. He only played a total of 4 minutes. Also, Groce seems to shorten the bench in these championship games. Do you start Young instead since he has been playing stellar defense or do you keep what has gotten you here and not mess with a winning rotation. My prediction and open optimism is that Lyles comes out of his shooting slumg and lead the Zips to a double digit victory. Go Zips!!!

Winning ugly is still winning!!! Amani Lyles is having a difficult time shooting the 3 ball and is now 0 for 10 in 2 games. I know of at least one former Akron player that shot the ball well during the season but when it came to the MAC tourney in Cleveland his shooting percentage went way down. Not sure if Amani is feeling the pressure of the tourney but hopefully tomorrow will be the day he finds his shot. Zach Halligan has also had a rough time of it lately on offense. He only played 2 minutes and Groce pulled him after a horrible turnover and he only played 4 minutes tonight. Yesterday he got pulled in the first few minutes after missing an open 3 and another bad turnover. I am sure Groce will start him tomorrow but he needs to play better. I think everyone else had solid games. I am going to give a special shoutout to Bowen Hardman who played 26 minutes and 3 of 6 shooting for 9 points and 4 rebounds. I do not think he is a great defender but I thought he played really good defense tonight and hit some big three point shots, Can the Zips have one game where they shoot better than 40% from three and show Toledo the door. I think when they play poorly they are a competitive MAC team but when they are hitting the 3 point shots they should take care of business tomorrow. Go Zips!!!!

Keep the format as it now stands. I remember 2015 when the Zips had to play their 4th game in 5 days. The played Bobby Hurley's Buffalo squad that were playing their 1st game with the double bye. And Bobby Hurley did something smart, he pressed our guard Antino Jackson full court the entire game and it tired him out and he shot 1 of 13 from 3 point land. I remember there was a minute left in the game and they were up by 10 and the Buffalo guard looked at Hurley and he finally took off the full court pressure. I always felt like KD should have had Big Dog bring up the ball to give Jackson a rest. Big Dog was actually a very good ball handler for his size. But it was patently unfair to have a well rested team playing the Zips. If the Zips or any other MAC team cannot win three in Cleveland, then they do not deserve the tourney.

The Zips did not play their best basketball but still came out with a win. We only shot 33% from the three line and when we do not shoot the 3 ball well we are beatable. It was tough watching Buffalo come back 2 games in a row. We cannot close them out. We had a 16 point lead shrink to one but we came through in the clutch. Lyles was 0 for 5 from the 3 point line. We need better than that against Kent. Eric Mahaffey only took one shot that he made. Would like to get him more involved in the offense. Considering this is his first MAC tourney game, he may have been a little hesitant to shoot. Glad to see we were even on the boards. Both teams sucked at the foul line. Buffalo shot 50% and we shot 60%. However, we did get some offensive rebounds off of our misses. Lets hope we can raise our game against Kent. I still think our 3 point shooting is key.

Wasn't that the same scenario when Big Dog made a three pointer to win the game several years ago? The Mass Coach is yelling at his player. If I am the coach I tell him to throw the ball into the nearest player and screw the shot. Bad coaching.

In the first half the refs are letting them play. Physical play with few whistles and that benefits Mass. HOwever, would not be surprised if the whistles come fast and furious in the second half to benfit Miami.

Am I the only one that wishes the Miami game and the Akron game were back to back?

I agree. The strength of this team is not the height but athleticism and quickness. Currently, I like Marvin more than Chabi becaus Chabi just seems slow to me. He just has not done well after his injury. We need to clone Evan Mahaffey. I have really been impressed with him this season. The last dozen games he has been amazing. I have questions about Oggie, Briscoe and Chabi but I never thought Amani would be as good as he has been this year. You just never know who is going to develop their game in the off season.

I just read Groce's contract and if he makes that shot, Groce gets a $37,000 bonus for being champions of the MAC.

We shot 60% from three. Ever since the Kent game Young has been lighting it up from the outside. If the Zips stay hot from the three point line we will be tough to beat. With the seniors starting, I wonder if Groce might be tempted to keep Scott in the starting lineup and sit Halligan who has sturggled on offense. With Young coming off the bench with instant offense, it might be a consideration.

Chilly? Groce was pissed. I sit behind the opposing bench and there coach was yelling to his players we are going to keep playing hard and pressing in the last minute of the game when down by a dozen. And then their star went down with a concussion.

I have been a member of this board for years and in the past we would always have discussions about whether Akron could get an at large bid. We would then lose on the road to a terrible MAC team and end of discussion. But this week Akron had been mentioned numerous times in relationship to March madness in the national media. Why, because the discussion revolves around whether Miami, the only undefeated team in the nation, should get an at large bid if they do not win the conference championship. And the argument set forth by national commentators is that they are not even the best team in the MAC because the Zips had a better schedule and have been blowing out teams in the MAC. Lets enjoy the national attention!!!

I heard the announcers in Miami's win Tuesday declare them conference champions. I have also had people on this board indicate they are rooting for Miami because the Zips have nothing to gain from a loss since they own the tiebreaker against us. However, if Miami loses on Friday and we win Friday we would both be conference champions. Under the MAC rules the tiebreaker is only for seeding purposes only. And tradition dictates that the Zips would cut down the nets as conference champions as we did last year. It is a well deserved reward for our players after a great season. Normally, if Akron wins friday they would cut down the nets in front of a home crowd if Miami loses. However, because of the TV schedule, Akron plays at 6 and Miami plays at 9. Therefore, we will not know till 11:30 whether the Zips won the conference championship. It is senior night and it is terrible that the Zips could lose this opportunity to cut down the nets in front of their fans because of the TV schedule. But that would be the reality. On Friday night: Go Zips!! Go OU!!

Really enjoyed watching this game and how the Zips responded after Central Michigan took the lead. There is no quit in this team. We were the much more physical team and quicker to the ball. We controlled the glass. And Tavari scored 8 straight points after having a miserable night shooting the ball. Groce has really built a great team. Lets finish the regular season on a high note Friday.

Halligan missed 2 wide open threes at Kent and missed one tonight. I hope he can find his shooting touch. We will need him in cleveland to hit those open threes.

I met RJ's dad at the Zip-Kent game as we were walking to the arena. Great guy. I told him that Groce recruits not only great basketball players but also athletes that are good citizens and willing to learn and that says a lot about his son.

I sit behind the opposing teams bench and Frank Martin was verbally abusive to his players. Now these are division 1 athletes and not high school kids who can take the abuse but it made me wonder if this is the best coaching style and at some point in time do the players just tune him out. Ironically, the only time I saw Frank smile was when he bursted out laughing while talking to one of the Akron fans after complaining about the refs . The next game I asked the fan what he had said to Frank. He told Frank that he agreed the refs suck but look at the bright side, he is being paid a million bucks to watch them work tonight and the Akron fans have to pay good money to watch this sh_t show of a reffing crew.

The injury occurred when they were pressing with less than a minute left and they were down by 12. Can anybody spell stupid.

We shot 50% from 3 and the Kent fans went home early tonight. We were up by 25 and Groce slowed it down the last five minutes and we scored only five in the last 5 minutes. I heard him in post game where he was upset that we did not play well in the last 5 minutes. But this team is just not built to take the air out of the ball and have Tavari dribble the ball till the shot clock is down to 8. Slowing the ball down is the right thing to do but it also means we score 5 points at the end of the game.

When we shoot the ball well from 3 we are unbeatable in the MAC. We just have too much talent and athleticism and wear teams down. We saw that in the 2nd half against Buffalo. However, when we do not shoot the ball well from 3 we have enough talent to stay with the competition but it will be a close game. Really hoping we get hot from 3 and send the Kent fans home early tonight.

I just bought my ticket for the Kent game on stubhub. I just printed the ticket and I will be sitting with the Kent fans since it is a season holder ticket. I did the same thing about 5 years ago wearing my Akron hat and a Kent season ticket holder told me I was sitting in the wrong section. I told him I was in the right seat. He yelled for the usher to check my ticket. A young college student usher came over and meekly stated he did not want to do this but asked to see my ticket. I showed him my ticket and the usher thanked me. I then suggested that he check the ticket of the guy who complained and we both laughed. Looking forward to tonights game.