LoyalZIP

Tremendous win. Great game. Some of the best perimeter defense I have ever seen an Akron team play. Toledo, an offensive juggernaut, had maybe 3 good looks from the perimeter? Great execution of the game plan. Knew we started a bit too hot, but Zips could have buried them in the first 10 minutes of the second half if Sammy and Mike hit a few of those open ones. Shammah too—wide wide wide open. Gotta hit that one. Rushed 3 after a press break by Dawson wasn’t the best decision, Tribble with a brain fart to cause the 10 second violation. Akron has gone 17-1 in the last 18 games against MAC teams with Ali on the roster. Happy weekend!

2800 actual, 4100 announced. Not enough freebies and not enough roster depth unfortunately. Groce's only regular season win over Toledo came in a wild, back and forth shootout during the COVID year in 2021. Game winner was hit by none other than Maishe Dailey. The game was so intense you couldn't even tell there were no fans in the JAR. The benches brought all the energy needed. Speaking of, the Toledo coaching staff is loaded with spaz-wads as always. Unfortunately, former Zip GA Brett Rau has been lured onto staff by Tod.

Portal recruiting is far more calculated and dialed-in than opening a search tab and typing in "viable backup big" or something like that. You use past recruiting relationships and your coaching network to find the best pieces to fill your needs. When coaching staffs watch the portal fill, specifically Akron/MAC coaches, they weed out tons of names instantly for this reason. Scott, Ali, and Thornton were all slam-dunk easy to predict transfers for a reason.

A production student working the graphics was probably told to make a graphic of the “starting 5” for Akron. To them, that meant jersey numbers 1-5. The lack of sports knowledge of some people who produce these games would stun you.

Kent has lost 4 consecutive home games in MAC play, and they're now 5-6 at home overall.

John Groce failed to win a close game tonight. Very disappointing.

Braun was their coach in the late 80s into the 90s when they were really good. Not sure what went into building that place, but to my knowledge they do use it for quite a bit more than sports. It’s the nicest arena in the MAC when it comes to versatility, and is obviously up there as a basketball venue too. But the atmosphere…I think the Zips had more fans than they did for the game there in KDs last season. Not a joke.

TOS to Akron

Like I said, jumped the shark. Let’s hope the coaches can get this train-wreck of a season back on the rails.

You’re the one accusing the staff of failing at something you have no idea they were even trying to accomplish. This summer you should get ahold of someone in development, maybe Nate Newhouse, and you can go get lunch with a couple of the coaches on staff. It would help you understand so much more about just the portal, you’d be blown away!

This board has jumped the shark. I admire your willingness to continue the fight in favor of reality. It amazes me how some people can be fans of a mid major like Akron for this long and still be clueless as to what goes into running a program.

It took a while this time around, but we finally got the post loss Monrowe incoherent word salad after all!

Ali’s streak of 15 consecutive MAC wins ends. Onto Ypsi!

That man is a game-winner machine. I’m disappointed, but not really mad. We were on borrowed time not playing great 40 minute games.

Horrid defense. If we don’t get a stop we commit a foul. If we force a turnover we don’t get a good shot. Recipe for disaster. Borrowed time.

We’re so bad in transition. Wasting the few good defensive possessions we’ve had today. Very disappointing all around.

These are the top 2 teams in 3pt. defense in MAC play. I'd love to see a breakout performance like the 2020 team would have where we dominate the bad MAC teams on the road.

Yes the JAR is bad. But that horse is still twitching, so we should continue to work on finishing that job a few times a year just to be sure. I made my second trip in as many Fridays to the MAC Center to see Kent lose again tonight. That place is far worse than the JAR, and totally lacks atmosphere. If you think a game at the JAR is boring, make the drive over there. In a rivalry game with a half decent crowd, the Flashes got a dunk to take the lead early in the 2nd half after previously trailing by 8 and not a single fan stood up to express excitement. It made me kind of sad, in a way. They’ve lost 5 home games this season including 3 straight MAC losses. The most home losses Groce has ever had at Akron was 4, during his first season with Lucas Smith in the starting lineup.

Trappiest of the trap games. Millett Hall. Darweshi Hunter.

Great, gritty team win. Never really let them get too close for comfort. Jaylin Hunter for OU has Brett McClanahan syndrome.

Generally, Ohio has either won by double figures, or lost close. While hurt and underperforming, guys like Jaylin Hunter and AJ Clayton can get hot and make things interesting. Freeman presents quite the mismatch for them so if he’s got to pass out of doubles tonight, the supporting cast needs to knock down some shots. If they can do that, this could be easy. I’d like to not see another slow start at the JAR tonight.

If not for Jordan Lynch and NIU, Pete Lembo could have been one of the all-time great MAC coaches while at BSU.

One last note on this one: Pinky seems miserable. He never really got into it, and his body language didn’t exactly give off the most confident vibe. He sold his soul to the devil the last couple years and it’s showing. As great as Carry was, he never let Sendy coach him and Pinky was just along for the ride. Now, he’s miserable with the injuries on top of a flawed roster. In 2019, he had Jaylin Walker get in a bar fight and miss senior night, then still play him in the tournament the following week in which they were bounced by CMU in their first game. In 2020, they finished 6th. In 2021, Danny Pippen beat the s*** out of Justyn Hamilton at the end of the season, and they were blown out in their lone tournament game. In 2022, Carry, who called Pinky and asked to play at his girlfriend’s school, led an improbable run only to end in embarrassment with a 20-point loss to rival Akron in the championship game. In 2023, they finally break through and win the tournament, again with a best player that refused to be coached. This season, he re-tooled his roster the best he could. Then injuries mounted up and he needed to bank on Reggie Bass to come up big, only for him to sit the final 8-10 minutes of the game he was so horrible. Winningest coach in their history. Now 13-18 vs. Akron, including a 7-8 record vs. Groce since he arrived at Akron with 4 scholarship players.

So we win one (1) MAC tournament game over a seven year period, because the men’s coach recruited the brother of a great women’s basketball player (Dawson), and all of a sudden we are above letting a lame duck coach’s contract expire and moving on? For those of us (you) who struggle to remember as way far back as 5 years ago, Akron got a lot worse before it got briefly better under Jackson. Let’s see what this is all about before drawing conclusions after a season. Hell, I believed in MJ til about midway through last year.

I know not even sniffing any of the top 4 teams with a starting lineup featuring four seniors and one of the best bigs in the league is enough for some, but I like the idea of resetting after a failed experiment. She got her chance and it was less than inspiring considering the amount of time here. But I happen to think more highly of the women’s program than most and don’t want it to just be a “participation trophy” program like you and good ol’ MJ.