1981 grad

Having followed the Zips since Dambrot first became an assistant coach and always going to Cleveland for the games I was trying to figure out what was different about this title run and it finally struck me. This is the first time I can remember is that we overachieved in Cleveland. For those people who are historians of this team, have we ever won the championship from a 4 seed? I cannot remember playing 3 difficult teams in a row and winning each time. It seems to me that although we have been to the NCAA tournament 3 times with Dambrot, we were always a high seed. I can also remember losing the championship as a high seed after the team performed poorly in the final game. The Zips came to Cleveland and played to the best of their ability in 3 straight games. The coach and the team deserve a lot of credit ignoring the pressures and just playing great basketball in Cleveland.

I cancelled right after the tournament and they charged me 2 extra months indicating I did not cancel. I am disputing it with my credit card company.

I thought they may take one other MAC team in the NIT. Kent did not help itself by losing to us by 20. I wonder if other MAC teams will be in a post season tournament?

Thanks!!! Good luck in the NIT

No worries, I am sure Hilltopper will have 2 tickets to Portland that he cannot use. Dibs (LOL)

Last night I checked the flight to Milwaukee and it was $500. We got screwed!!!

Groce made 2 big moves. First, he parted ways with Trimble. This made the team quicker on defense and less dependent on the 3 ball. Also, since Trimble did not rebound and Wynn and Dawson hit the boards, we became a better rebounding team. Also, Trimble rarely got to the foul line and by driving the ball to the basket more we got to the foul line more. Also, he limited Aziz minutes. Because of his length, Azziz is very slow and once he jumps off his feet he cannot recover and cannot rebound. He was also a liability of offense. Groce had Ali and Freeman as post up players. We played better small without Azziz. Also, I had given up on Clark halfway through the season and Groce had faith in him and he had a very good tournament. Especially hitting 3 three pointers in the finals. After Trimble left this team really played well and I agree it was a very pleasant surprise based on great coaching.

Thanks for the correction.

All during the tournament, this team kept its cool and never got rattled. Last night when Kent pulled within a point, Clark hit a tough 3 followed by an X three. The lead was back up to 7 and the next thing you knew it was up to double digits. Ironic, last time we won the tourney, we beat Kent and our center Zeke had a great game and was named tourney MVP and this year we beat Kent and it was our center, Freeman who was named MVP. I know this will not be popular but give credit to Kent, after the game they got in line to shake hands and they displayed good sportsmanship after the loss. The coaching staff shook hand with the Kent players while our guys were celebrating. Hopefully, the phone incident will be a learning experience. Speaking of learning experience, I watched Carrie closely during the Ohio game and he is a good player. However, he does that dance frequently when he makes a 3. Also, his pregame routine of rubbing his back against the support of the basket and his other antics bring attention to him. When your team is winning, that is great but when your team is losing and you have 6 points and 9 turnovers it just makes you look foolish. Also, your league MVP loses a lot of its value when you have a terrible game in the tournament championship. Humility is not a bad thing even if you are a talented player.

Aren't you the same guy who compared the Zips to a sinking ship? When did you become an optimist? (LOL)

I thought Ohio did a good job on Kerry yesterday by pressuring him and making somebody else beat you. The Zips did it again by doubling him and he had trouble against the pressure and had 9 turnovers. Clark has struggled with the 3 ball and made 2 or 3 three ball and they were difficult shots. Groce indicated earlier in the season that he was coming off an injury and would get better. He played a great game. X did a tremendous job on Kerry. Freeman was a beast and the team did a great job getting the ball to him. The team played very quick on defense with a lot of ball hawking causing 19 turnovers. Never thought the Zips would win by 20. Great game. Nice going back to the Big Dance. Now lets get our first NCAA tournament victory. Go Zips!!!

One of the things that college coaches need to teach their student athletes is to have respect for your opponent. I still remember before the tip off I would see student athletes acknowledge each other with a few words before the game and I have not seen that lately. Further, as I have indicated earlier, I have seen Ali talk to the opposing bench after he hits a three. I have not seen it during the tournament and hopefully Groce has spoken to Ali on this issue. Student athletes are supposed to represent their respective school and that video is embarrassment to Kent. Good for Kent.

Yes, I believe that it was the appropriate response by Kent. Another response would have been an apology by the players on social media.

Good for Kent.

One of the advantages we have in this game is that of our 7 players, 4 of them have not logged huge minutes this season. Although Ali leads the team logging 1100 minutes, Tribble is at 796, Dawson, 766, Clark, 452, and Wynn at 212. When you look at the Ohio State game, these 4 players logged a combined 39 minutes. Last night they combined for a total of 100 minutes.

I really had a good time tonight based on a combination of things. First, great turnout from the Zips fans and we were loud. Second, the Zips lead wire to wire and played pretty close to a perfect game. Other than Clark missing 3 foul shots at the end and a couple of turnovers, we did not take a bad shot, hit the boards hard and played great defense. Whenever Toledo made a run we always had an answer. We also made our foul shots tonight while Toledo was missing their foul shots. Finally, I stayed for Kent game and really enjoyed the college atmosphere. Ohio played poorly and still were within 4 points in the last 2 minutes. Kent is beatable. Also, it was so nice to yell and scream for your team without a mask. It just seemed that we were back to normal. This team is really playing well and really looking forward to tomorrow's game. Go Zips.

ou making it a game

a lot of akron fans tonight. x had the game of the year. everyone played well. tribble had some great floaters. lead the entire game. we were the better team

I wonder if we will play any zone today. Toledo struggled against the 2-3 zone yesterday, especially in the first half. We played zone yesterday for one possession and Buffalo struggled but then after they shot the ball they got an offensive rebound and a put back layup and that was it for the zone. Our zone has struggled this year with leaving guys wide open in the corner for a three ball and rebounding off a miss. I think Groce might try some zone and see if it works.

I think if we win tonight and Kent beats OU we will at least have a strong possibility of getting an NIT bid.

This has been a weird season for 2 reasons. I have never seen a team get better after ejecting a player. We actually lost 2 scholarship players for attitude issues and playing our best basketball of the season. Second, I do not remember a MAC season where the Zips did not get blown out in at least one game. Our worse losses were to Toledo and Kent and we were in both of those games in the last 5 minutes. Other than the Florida tournament, this team has competed in every game.

Yea, if it would have hit the backboard it would have gone in. (LOL)

You indicate that Tribble does not finish at the rim but he has a 461 shooting percentage and he scores almost exclusively from the paint. So he does finish at the rim. He also gets to foul line better than anyone on the team except Freeman. I admit that he does not finish as well as LCJ but not many guards can. Groce had enough confidence in him to take the last shot and it worked and won the game. I admit that sometimes he goes up and has nowhere to go but LCJ also had that problem on occasion especially his first and second year in Akron. His last year he developed a floater and became almost unstoppable. I also agree that Ali dribbles too much and he had a terrible game with turnovers. However, he got hot from the 3 point line and was the leading scorer. Obviously, Groce like to have Ali isolate and post his man. Not going to argue with the coach but he needs to finish better as he often gets stuck in the lane with nowhere to go. He also has the best 3 point shooting percentage among the Zips. My main gripe with Ali is that after he makes a 3 I have seen him talk to the opposing team's bench and has also picked up a couple of techs. I wish he would just play ball and leave the trash talking to Carey and the Flashes.

Who would have guessed of the 4 games that OU would have the largest margin of victory.