LoyalZIP

FOY: Bass from CMU 6thPOY: Sullinger from Kent DPOY: Malique Jacobs POY: RayJ Dennis COY: Tod First Team: RayJ Dennis, JT Shumate, Sincere Carry, Xavier Castaneda, Enrique Freeman

That should go without saying! 3 of Akron's 4 MAC titles have been fairly comfortable games. Isn't that strange?

I said after the QF game last year that Groce killed Buffalo. Well, there was some life left after all. Or was there? The bottom of this league is so bad that Buffalo wound up in the top half. I would not have expected that. With that said, they are still the same run and gun team we've played a couple of times. If they got hot, they get really hot. Just ask Ball State. MAC tournament games are almost never easy, and despite the regular season results, it is still Buffalo. Akron has met them in the tournament in 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2022, and now 2023.

It would be sweet to send Brady & the gang packing tonight. I'm looking forward to seeing a fired up group tonight!

Akron has never beaten an FBS nonconference opponent at Infocision Stadium. Akron has not beaten an FBS team in front of fans at Infocision Stadium since October of 2018. By my math, that is an entire 4-year class of Akron students that, even if they went to every minute of every home game, never saw the Zips beat a MAC or FBS team in person. I feel that the number will change for much better this coming season and looking forward, but that doesn’t change the past. You can only polish a turd so much. At this point, the only thing that can be blamed for the dreadful attendance is the futility. I love this program with all my heart and soul and even I leave most Saturdays (or I should say Wednesdays) wondering why I continue to torture myself year after year. Joe Akron hasn’t thought twice about it since the Gardner-Webb debacle. Every time he decides to come back, they lose to Ohio by 40 in a monsoon, then lose to CMU 14-6, then give up 350 rushing yards to App State, then get blown out by Miami on homecoming, then get smacked 26-3 by Kent on homecoming (that crowd really was a college football crowd for once), then lose 45-10 to a bad Buffalo team, then see Clyde Price gift CMU the game heading into Kent the following week.

They were indeed hot, and nearly made a run to the title game. I was pulling for them. That athletic department has a lot of struggles so it would have been a cool story. As for the 5-12 first round games, I could take them or leave them. While Groce’s 2010 would have been on the outside looking in, I think the current state of the league justifies the current format. Back then, the top 8-9 teams in the league were in the top 150 or so in D1. Now, the entire bottom half is 200 or below. I wouldn’t have a problem if they brought them back, but I kind of like the idea of the regular season having more stakes. Miami going on a run this year past the likes of a flailing BG and fraudulent EMU is better for the league than everyone getting a chance no matter what.

NWA must be blind with misery thinking about Thursday. Marshall got bounced in the Sun Belt quarters by the 11 seed Texas State.

The HL is pretty awful. Most teams are all about the same, except for IUPUI and Green Bay, who are bottom 10 programs. YSU plays a unique style that did not work in the tournament when teams lock down defensively, as NKU zoned them to death last night. It's a fun league, but not a good league by any stretch.

https://www.cleveland.com/sports/college/2023/03/akron-kent-state-and-rest-of-mac-feel-the-heat-of-the-tournament-terry-pluto.html Thoughts on the MAC Tournament from the Duquesne coach, for some reason.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call Hankerson disappointing. I don’t think the staff ever saw him as the 3rd scoring option, nor should they have. That role was to be taken up by Hunter, but a dreadful start to the year and fairly forgettable MAC play left us relying on Freeman and Castaneda a little too much. He’s had 3 dynamite MAC games, a few “okay” MAC games, and way too many “what the hell?” MAC games. Hankerson was brought in specifically to be a role player, 3&D. He’s had his fair share of poor performances too, but he contributes a lot more than you see on the box score. Sammy’s defense has stuck out at times, but Hankerson’s defense has been really good all year. I would have hoped that both would be more consistent contributors, but for the entire sample size of a 31 game regular season, I still feel great when Hank shoots the ball but get nervous when Sammy does. At NIU, Hankerson was the best or second best scoring option on a bad team. When he’s the 3rd or 4th option behind X, Freeman, and a hot-shooting Hunter, you’ve got a championship contender. Couple different bounces Friday and we’d be feeling a lot better right now. How many wide open 3s has X missed from the wing this year? Not many.

Spot on. Context matters. MAC women’s basketball is fiercely competitive, and outside of last year, in which the Zips lost in the semifinals in non-competitive fashion, this program has been in the bottom half of the league. 1 tournament win, 1 last place finish, a pair of home losses in the first round, and now a season with 4 seniors in the starting lineup that has not beaten a team with a winning record in MAC play despite having home games against all of those teams. How many times would an AD who did not hire that coach give them an extension? That’s not something you see much of in college athletics. That’s just how the game works. That’s why people who are in the know aren’t surprised by the move at all. Does she deserve an answer? Probably. But as someone who is a fan of the program regardless of the coach, I feel that a new voice is worth whatever “risk” is associated with not renewing this coaching staff. We’re not competing for championships now. We are not good now. Just because we aren’t getting blown out in Arth fashion every night doesn’t mean we should be satisfied with the status quo.

I guess it really is a KD situation all over again. Bigger fans of the coach than the program. Oh well.

The Zips have consistently had the biggest crowds in Cleveland for quite a few years now. While regular season game attendance didn't seem to benefit from the title run last year at all, I'm hoping some newer Zips fans last year got to experience a run in Cleveland for the first time and are making this an appointment not to miss. That's how it should be, after all. How many other fan bases in the country are fortunate enough to enjoy the level of conference tournament success such as Akron's, just a short 40 minute drive north from campus in one of the nicest basketball facilities in the world? I can't imagine that number is too high. I say it a lot, maybe even too much, but I won't stop. Enjoy it while we can! The Zips beat Buffalo by an average of 18.5 points per game in two meetings this year. What does that mean for Cleveland? I would hope this program and group of players is above looking past an opponent, but you really never know. I watched far too many great teams this past weekend sleepwalk into the tournament and get bounced by obviously inferior teams. Last year, I thought Akron should beat Buffalo, but they had enough pieces to make them extremely dangerous. They were even favored over the Zips! In the new matchup, you have to go far down the list to find a piece for Buffalo that is better than Akron's at any given position. The same thing could be said for Kent went they went over to Dekalb. If you lose focus, you lose the game. Our resident Dread Expert @NWAkron's readings may be off the charts if the Zips find themselves down by a few possessions early. Teams that like to run but have limited skill and have had a year like Buffalo has had will come out running and gunning. The 2016 Zips almost got caught by an EMU team like that in the 1/8 game. They are (almost) never easy.

While possible, I don't see that as likely. And while this move has been bad PR in a post's Facebook comments, I think there is a fairly decent understanding from the people that matter, whether they agree with the move or not. One thing has stuck out through this whole thing--a former player and her family vocally being anti-Jackson, which is not something we have seen anywhere. Full disclosure on my end--while I am disappointed coach Jackson hasn't been able to build Akron like I believe she was capable, and I do in fact support the decision to move in a different direction, to suggest anything other than running a good and clean program and environment would go against anything I have ever heard. That's not to see it's impossible that something not so great happened, I just find it extremely unlikely. The player whose family I have seen openly criticize Jackson transferred out after last year and wound up leaving the team she ended up going to. I hesitate to name names, but it's pretty obvious who it is. No player is named in this "investigation," but I would be shocked if it wasn't from this player. Stupid stuff. And shame on the ABJ for finally covering the Jackson tenure and giving it a bad look.

It’s a shame the camera cut away from Jacobs at the end. He thought that instead of celebrating a big win with his teammates on senior night, he should be a big time team player and chase after the referees as they leave the floor. The jokes write themselves with that program. FullSizeRender.MOV

Huger has been let go by BG. Not a big surprise, but it’s sad to see him to. He truly is a great guy, and I was fortunate to speak with him a few times. Always cordial. Perhaps to a fault, as he never got a lot out of those teams. He’ll make a great associate HC somewhere when he wants to return to the game.

Eventually he didn’t have a choice, Hank and Tribble fouled out. *** After a night to think it over, I’m not encouraged by the loss by any means. But I do not feel the slightest bit hopeless. Akron should beat them as they have the better coach, better culture, and a plenty good roster. It took Carry actually showing up for a big game, Payton making every single shot when fouled (extremely uncharacteristic of Akron to let him keep getting down there), multiple botched inbounds plays out of TOs, an inbound violation on a graduate student, and X’s worst shooting game since November. And UA still clawed their way back each time down 7-8, clawed into OT and took a couple of brief leads. If that doesn’t speak to the culture of this Akron program, I’m not quite sure what will. That’s not to say this is a moral victory. Those ended when the new coach came around. But I’ve felt a lot worse walking out of that gym plenty of times before after a season finale. A valiant effort for sure. And as always, man wouldn’t it be nice to have #22 out on the floor. Zips win that one if he’s in that zone D.

One more. When Akron beat Kent, our students ran to the middle of the floor to celebrate. Tonight, they had a bunch of students going after UA players in the handshake line. Who’s shocked?

Zips did not play well enough to win, but damn near pulled it out. Too wet to think. More thoughts later. Bring on Cleveland, bitch.

This is exceptional. Props to whoever put it together!

I got 2 GA tickets last year, may up it to 4. I go to every game but rarely have my party filled. It's better for the department's metrics to buy the season tickets as opposed to just donating, which I do some of as well. GA tickets for Akron football and men's basketball may be the best deals in college athletics. You get to see a great team play in a barn for $4 a night and get to hang out for an evening or afternoon at one of the nicest football venues in the country for a few hours every fall. Sign me up! If you ever get the chance, Club Level is also incredible. The suites, even more beautiful. That stadium is coming up on 15 years old and I still don't think I will ever be able to fully appreciate how nice it is. Especially considering how little the MAC cares for its own fans. I was imagining a much improved Zip squad building momentum up to playing Kent at home in early-mid October on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at 3:30 in front of a real college football crowd and experience. What a silly thing for me to do.

It's gonna be a mad house in there tonight. Their student section may even stand for the game, can you believe it?! While I know this game does have stakes in regards to seedings and matchups, it goes a lot deeper than that now. Even more than it has in the past. Sending out their seniors with a home loss to Akron would be so, so sweet. And then getting the chance for a three-sweep next week--even better. These guys responded well to playing in the environment in the JAR, and while more of those folks in the stands will be against them tonight, it's good to know that they are capable of rising above the moment. There's a nice 1 hour 20 minute cut of the first game available on YouTube. I gave it a watch yesterday throughout the day. A big factor for Akron was shot making early, of course. But they also got Kent's bigs in some foul trouble and kept them from having an impact on either side. That's a well-executed game plan. Their guards are good enough to beat anyone on their own, so eliminating any other threat was crucial. Forcing Jacobs and Carry into jump shooting spurts like the first game would be good too, but more of theirs will fall at home. They always do. I'll be making the short drive over. Remember, their ticketing software has taken a crap so it may be a bit of a wait to get into the arena. Plan accordingly. And for God's sakes, BE NICE!!!! Go ZIPS!!!!!

Remember to be nice and not hurt any Kent fans’ feelings!

The Midweek MACtion games had a luster and quirkiness to them 10-15 years ago. That is long gone for people who really follow and love this league. Barstool makes fun of the empty stadiums and ugly football and Jeremy Guy (Assoc. commish for Comms for the MAC) just eats it up and wears it with a badge of honor. Ask any die-hards of MAC teams and they'll usually say the same thing. At this point, weeknight games are just the usual status quo. Nothing fun or whacky. Just inconvenient and give the league, that has declined, an even worse public image.