LoyalZIP

This is honestly amazing to watch. Bradley is playing good D, but it’s not been anywhere close to good enough that we would only have 7 points. The bad passes, the dribbling the air out of the ball. I’m stunned. Truly stunned.

Freeman’s head is so far up his a**. What the hell.

Every Akron game seems to start out slow, a bucket or two in the first 5 minutes. Every time I watch Kent, they jump out to 7-10 point leads in the first 3 minutes. Man this team is so much further behind than I thought they would be.

This will be a great test for the Zips, and should be an entertaining and interesting game. After the debacle at Marshall and disappointing outcomes against LSU and Nevada, they've looked a lot better after some home cookin'. Bradley is a really good defensive team, rarely giving up more than 50-60 points per game. Freeman must stay out of foul trouble, and someone needs to help X on the perimeter. If we get eggs being laid by Hunter, Hank, Tavari, Kobe, and Nate, it will be a long night. If they bury some early ones and keep themselves out of a hole, we may be in business. The MAC hasn't gotten a lot of good wins in nonconference play. Toledo's win over UAB, ours over WKU, Kent's over Portland are probably the best. Bradley is 95 in KenPom now, better than everyone I just listed except UAB (39). Safe to say this would be the signature win of the year so far for the Zips, and it would be huge with conference play looming. I'm not confident that the Zips will win, but for some reason I have a good feeling they will play a decent game. The first of many midweek games in the bitter cold midwest. And X and Tavari in their home states. Go Zips!!!!

Lingard has signed.

The Lingard situation is interesting. It didn’t seem like the Zips were really targeting RB, and all of a sudden they’ve gotten a commitment from him. He had one other offer I think on his Twitter. He seems like a Warren Ball type guy. Rated a bit higher of course. The potential is there, and P5s don’t seem to want to take a flyer on him for a year, and I can’t blame them as he’s been a bust. But a place like Akron is perfect for him, if he works out of course.

Also not MAC, but Aziz has maintained his solid production this year for Utah Valley. Averaging a double-double and shooting 60%+ from the foul line. Throwing a 3 in every now and then too. They’ve beaten Oregon and BYU on the road.

Well said. *** And “let down” is perfectly fair. It doesn’t mean Zips fans are disappointed or disgruntled. It’s just been a bit of a pain to see so many growing pains thus far. It’s understandable, but still a bit frustrating. The Zips should have beaten Nevada, and probably Marshall too. And they shot so poorly against the two SEC teams, who they both led in the 2nd half. If they beat NV and Marshall and keep those other two in control, they’re talked and rated just as highly as the team they beat by 20 in the MAC title game. However, they’ve showed up in big games (though haven’t really beaten anyone) and they Zips have 3 double digit losses to great teams, and a choke job against a comparable team. This home stand has been good medicine though, and I have a much better feeling going into Peioria on Thursday. That would be a signature win for the MAC this year. And yeah, UA’s marketing strategy is so whack. Like I said of the SDSU game, if you weren’t a die-hard fan, how would you know the game is happening? Sure, the opponents as a whole should be better. But this team was in the NCAA tournament 9 months ago, and even the home opening crowd was abysmal.

Zips lose their strength & conditioning coach to the same position at Washington State.

The Jackrabbits fall to 5-8 and 0-1 in Summit League play after losing at Oral Roberts 79-40. Holy smokes. They’re not nearly as good as we all thought.

That’s much more like it. Dominant at both ends. Turnovers, silly ones, were an issue, but one you can live with when you force even more. Obviously you’re not going to lose when you shoot like that. But they kept up the intensity at both ends pretty much the whole game. Maine had some moments on offense, but the Zips answered every time. We haven’t seen that from them much this year, so that was refreshing. I would argue this was the best game for Kobe and Amani as well. Kobe continuing to out play Nate. Sammy didn’t touch the stat sheet much, but he wasn’t a liability. Well take it. But we will need more from him, we can only “hide” his poor scoring production so much. Thursday will be a great test. Go Zips!

They were looking rough in the first half. I was unable to catch the second half but it was a nice surprise to check and see that they pulled it off! Keep it rolling!

Maine comes in at #288 in KenPom, but did pick up that big win at Boston College earlier in the year. They followed it up with a trio of losses to sub-300 teams. We are probably the best team they've played to this point in the year, and while it should be an easy win, they're potentially dangerous. What do I want to see that I haven't seen enough of this year? I need a good 40 minutes from Freeman, first of all. He is called for a lot of iffy fouls, but plenty of the fouls called on him are due to over-aggression. He needs to play smarter at that end. The Wright State game showed us the difference he makes when he's able to play freely and fly around the gym. I need Sammy Hunter to do it again! That was electric last week, and it's hard to see Akron within 10 at the half without his production. He got a little overly eager and tried to shoot it from the same spot 5 times in a row, had one blocked, and didn't do much the rest of the night. He is the difference between this Akron team being average and champions. I need Nate Johnson and Kobe Mitchell to come alive. Johnson's showing against WKU seemed like the start of something special, but I can't even remember him making a shot since then. He just seems to get lost in the shuffle and just fills minutes right now. Not good. Kobe, on the other hand, hasn't been making shots consistently. With that said, he has been very visible to me and has passed the eye test more often than not. Groce talks about him grading out well defensively, and you can see him putting in the effort. Great to see. I would also ask that Tribble finish at the rim with more success, but that ship may have sailed. Not only can he not make a hook shot or floater within 5 feet, but he's also not getting to the foul line like he did in the past. And when he does, he's not making it as often. He's barely over 50% on the season (the entire team's FT shooting has been an embarrassment and a big red flag) and he's simply not drawing fouls. He went 9-10 at the FT line in the MAC tournament last year, which was HUGE! 6-6 against Buffalo! He's been a shell of himself so far this year. With that said, Greg Tribble is John Groce Akron Basketball personified, and I still believe in the guy. All in all, this team hasn't necessarily lost a game that it isn't supposed to, but they also haven't beaten anyone they need to beat if they want to prove to themselves, the fans, the MAC, the country that they're the real deal. Tonight isn't one of those opportunities, but Thursday is. There are no more early-season excuses. Sure, I can live with MSU, LSU, heck even Marshall as they seem to be the real deal. But I'm tired of this team being a boring stick in the mud. I'd love to see them come out with fire this week and remind the college basketball world that the MAC still belongs to Akron, and the league better get ready in a couple weeks. GO ZIPS!!!!!

Winning games they should be winning! Great to see. Conference play will be interesting. A top 8 finish would be great as a rebound year after Dawson.

Not the MAC, but Ali made his debut for Butler today. In 13 minutes off the bench, went 1-4 from the floor, 3-3 on FTs for 6 points. They lost by 22 at home to UConn.

Not followed on Twitter by any of the Zips staff. Odd.

Akron and Toledo have really dropped the ball in nonconference play as they should be on par with Kent. What should have been one of the MAC’s best seasons has proved to be one of the worst so far. Lots of underachieving across the board.

Andrew Marshall, LB from Bloom-Carroll, has de-committed from Kent. Zips offered last January.

Checking in on Jordan Daniels, no FBS offers. FAMU, Samford, Gardner Webb, etc.

Groce said on the post game that his former player at OU Tommy Freeman is on Maine's staff. Freeman is the best three-point shooter in OU history, with the most career makes, shooting 44%.

Yup. And just as Groce built momentum up--had the rough year in 2018 with some flashes of good, a much better and few close losses from a bye year in 2019 that included blowing out Kent at home (most fun I've ever had in that building), and of course the incredible 2020 season--COVID hit and no fans were in the building for two years. Nobody was there to see LCJ's magic in his final season. And last year's team dragged a** until the very end of the year. So hard to get people to come, and come back regularly.

Fantastic second half. Great D all night. Offense was paaaaaiinful in the first half. But Enrique came out like a bat out of hell in the 2nd half, playing unselfishly and mostly smart, and that was the difference. Kobe has surpassed Nate Johnson in production all of a sudden. And Tavari will be a force until someone forced him to go to the left. Nice win!

I’m continually blown away by how bad this team is as shooting

Ha, not even remotely close. Just holding him accountable is all. I have faith that this group will improve immensely, I just expect a bit more to this point.

The 1-7 ATS Akron Zips are -6 tonight. Opened at -8. It’s still very early in the year, but this team’s flaws are still very apparent. Sunday looked like a step in the right direction before a near disaster. If they don’t put together a decent 30-40 minutes tonight, the home nonconference win streak may come to an end. This is going to be a tough coaching job for this staff, and it’s their own fault as I’m a little questionable on some of the new personnel. Go Zips!