1981 grad

My take on Groce is that the only time I feel his disappointment with the Akron program is that no matter how good the team, we play to an arena that is only half full except for the Kent game. He always encourages fans to show up to the games and considering our home winning streak, we should draw better. The people on the board know that Akron does little to nothing to promote Akron basketball and the half time show of 3 or 3 frat basketball was dismal considering that was our biggest crowd of the season. I hope the pressure that he felt at Illinois is fresh on his mind because with a new program comes the pressure to win. Hoping Groce stays in Akron. Go Zips.

I would like to see Bowen return to see if he could develop other parts of this game besides 3 pointers, driving to the hoop, rebounding, jumper. I thought his defense got better as the season progressed.

I thought we needed a game like we had at Kent where the 3 ball was being shot at a high percentage. This team when it is shooting the 3 ball at 40% or above can hang with the big boys but that just did not happen today. It was not the defense because we had the open looks and we made some tough 3 balls. It is just playing at your best in the NCAA tourney. The Zips did not play their best in Cleveland and we were able to win. Not going to happen today.

We were only down 6 and then we scored 8 points in the final 9 minutes. Was TT that much better than us or did we just have another bad game? Really difficult to be competitive when your best player only scores 4 points and has 4 turnovers. I thought TT had a good game plan of collapsing the defense in the middle and forcing us to shoot from three. We could not make a 3 the second half. Game over. Very proud of our seniors. The Zips had a great season. But we will have to wait for next year to get that elusive tourney win.

Our three point shooting killed us in the second half. We missed wide open threes and cannot do that against a good team. Also, Tevari having the worst game of the season.

Tevari will pick it up in the second half. He has had some balls just fall off the rim.

Amani picking up that 2nd foul was big. When he went out they started their run. Groce put him back in.

Just keep it close in the first half. Lately we have been a better second half team.

Good game thus far. Zips are able to penetrate. We finally got a call going to the hoop.

After watching Miami struggle against MAC teams that we beat by double digits and then lose to Mass I was very surprised that they pulled the upset. However, maybe losing the Mass was not a bad thing in that the pressure of an undefeated season was gone, they did not have to play 3 games in 3 days which is a grind and were well rested, and they got to play an NCAA tourney game an hour from campus.

Shammah Scott's game-winner vs Toledo (2026) Watched it at least 10 times this week. Gets better each time.

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.