LoyalZIP

Great point. Early in MAC play, I thought to myself that Camp saved coach's job. That went downhill quickly.

They gave it their all and tried to shoot 100% and almost pulled it off, great to see! Still far too many silly mental errors.

He was having a very tough week last week but was improving a bit at the end of the weekend. The story is still so surreal.

Burn the tape

Sammy and Hank bricked every one of their few open looks. Ain’t our night. Sucks, really sucks. 10 years without a win there.

I just don’t get it. What is it about these guys?

That’s something I’ve never seen before. I would have been fine with the call either way, it was a 50/50 call. Obviously I wanted it to be a block, but I could see a charge. The thing that was shocking is the crew chief (referee) didn’t overrule one of the umpires. Generally in those situations, you always go with the head referee’s call and he takes the s*** from the team and conference office. But that night, Tim Stewart decided not to overrule Josh White. White then essentially killed Akron’s hopes with the reach called on X.

The Zips are 4-point dogs. I believe that is the biggest underdog they've been in MAC play so far.

At the JAR, Toledo had the upper hand schematically and executed beautifully. Hit some big shots too. Dennis did struggle down the stretch a bit, and Hank nearly shot us to a win. If not for a joke of a reach called on X, the Zips may be in first place right now. With that said, off the top of my head, I don’t believe the Zips have won in Savage since a Wednesday night back in 2013. Zeke had about 8 blocks in the first half. That was a long time ago, and it has become a house of horrors for Akron. Going there and stealing this one wouldn’t shock me, but it would surprise me quite a bit. This team matches up well with Akron, and they’re real tough to beat there. I really like the strength of schedule at this time of year. Go Zips!

If Coach Jackson was one of the most highly touted names in her sport, chose to take a pay cut to come to resurrect Akron, had a promising first season, and then got calls from LSU and South Carolina to come work they’re with less responsibility and more pay, our administration would be stupid to not try to sweeten the pot and extend her. That’s exactly what happened with football. If we’re going to compare what Moorhead is doing with football to the situation here, then I have no more left to say and we will get nowhere. That is insanity at its finest.

Probably was. Carry has a cloud of a specific stench that follows him around when he disguises himself with a hoodie and sunglasses at their women’a games. True story.

Kest took over one of the worst programs in the country at a time where it was essentially impossible to rebuild a program overnight. There is no comparison to what she accomplished vs. what coach Jackson has accomplished. I guess the thing I’m hung up on is it being the end of the world by cleaning house and starting from scratch. In these 5 years, we’ve seen this program play in 2 MAC tournament games in Cleveland with 2 losses as the 8 seed at home. Then a last place (or close) finish in the COVID year that was also the COVID year for everyone else. Last year a clear outlier, and even then they didn’t even sniff a title. Should we just accept being an average at best MAC program? That’s not why I buy tickets and donate.

That’s a little unfair to coach Kest, the only head coach that has ever won a MAC title. Her top 3 teams would all run any of coach Jackson’s teams off the floor. Excuses of pay mean nothing. She’s a basketball coach. She’s not a paycheck. The track record speaks for itself. If you go back and watch the 18-19 team’s games, there are a ton of similarities, with many of them being negatives. Struggle closing games, inconsistent shooting from “shooters,” lack of on-court leadership, out of shape (getting worse), nothing from the bench. As someone who thought she should have been extended following last year, I can now see why that wasn’t so. They turned the damn ball over 23 times in a game last week. And got blown out by NIU. And blown out at Ball State. And blew a lead against a bad WMU team. If you want to chalk up the embarrassment at Kent to the admin allegedly telling her she wasn’t going to be extended—fine. But there have been plenty of displays of ineptitude all year in areas where there shouldn’t be. Does administration perhaps need to take a long look in the mirror at how they want to improve the program? Absolutely! Does that mean this is a bad and terrible and destructive move? No! I want to compete for titles. I want to be Felicia’s Buffalo teams. Sue’s CMU teams. We are a long ways from there right now. Would a new coach guarantee anything better? No! But it may be worth a shot, as the program seems to be plateauing.

Facts! Yay! If true, that is a shame. I was hoping she could turn it around, but I don’t see it coming. The way they’ve played since the end of the 3rd quarter against BG tells the story. The lack of an extension last year was likely due to the fact that the admin wanted to see if the program could sustain success without the best player in the league. And it hasn’t. I personally have always been on the side of thinking coach deserves at least another year, but I’m also aware we aren’t running a charity around here. WBB exists to be a winner. That doesn’t mean handing out pity extensions and congratulations for being “better than the worst” in program history. It be that way sometimes.

Williams was teammates with Coach Jackson’s father-in-law for a season with the Browns. I think that connection made the late hire back in 2018 that much easier. I know Terry Weigand was pretty interested in the job. BG had already grabbed Fralick from Ashland who would have been the top candidate for just about any MAC school. Coach Jackson was probably the best fit at the time and got a lot out of her first two teams with limited talent. Had a terrible COVID year, and then struck gold last year. This year is a pretty good summation of the tenure so far, I hate to say.

I was told yesterday the Marshall series has been terminated, disappointing if true

If you’re going to make a non-descriptive accusation like that, why even be anonymous about it? Without any evidence it’s just more BS excuses. This administration is far from perfect and has plenty of flaws. I can’t even begin to think about how they could have caused that result yesterday, a beatdown we haven’t seen anything like in 25 years. Until somebody gives actual evidence and facts to support these “claims,” it’s just a pile of crap. And it’s really weak, considering it’s only the administration’s fault now that the team is losing as opposed to when they were on a tear.

Shoutout to the refs for not calling the travel, let the kids play!

*Rockets *Setric *Millner Clark is drunk on 20-point beatdowns of Buffalo! Just messing with you, thanks for always getting these threads together. This could be the game that decides MAC POY. I think it’s between Dennis and X. Carry’s efficiency isn’t there so unless he really goes off, I don’t see him being in the running. Freeman with an outside shot too.

This team is awesome. Whitesell blows. Onto Toledo, big one for the Zippers! Great effort all around. Weathered the storm beautifully and answered with one of their own. I guess the only question I have left is how many MAC tournament MVPs will Nate Johnson win in his career? I kid…

Point Park type crowd so far. Hopefully folks are just running late.

I’m really hoping the fans show out tonight. These guys deserve it in a prime time Saturday night. This is what college basketball is all about! This is not the same UB team we destroyed in New York. They’ll have their guard Foster this time around. They’re still not a hugely skilled team, but that doesn’t mean it’s time for the defense to take a crap again. The secret will be controlling the pace and making them play half-court ball. They lack the skill to do that, but have the athleticism to run teams off the floor. Go Zips!

No skill, no IQ, no athleticism. Incompetence.

Slippery Rock