LoyalZIP

Soon!!! 👀🤐🦘

Love the move by JoeMo. Atmosphere in the field house was great, and the game itself was simple and quick. I thought Irons looked pretty good. Ant Williams and Cam Wiley looked great out of the backfield. Adams and Grimes all over the place in the secondary. Bubba stuck out to me on offense. Norrils could’ve been better. I like the direction of this team, and today was a great day to be a Zip! Hopefully the guys can put a lot of good work in this summer, this is going to be a special few years.

Moorhead wanted it inside also. If he wanted it outside, they would have made it work. I am bummed, but I get it. I would imagine it has to do with practicing inside for every practice so far, and the turf at the stadium is sh*t compared to the field house. Plus lax. It’s a great day to be a Zip whether they’re in Infocision or the Norton Middle School auditorium.

Miryne Thomas from Ball State is headed to Portage County

#FireGuthrie ?

Joe's call. I don't like it and it confuses me, but oh well.

Great news, great for every party involved! #1Akron

Man, I always liked Hankerson. But you’ve got to the sh***ing me, I can’t believe Groce went for another mediocre MAC team’s best player. Hope it works out much much better than the last one.

A good athletic looking body, but his numbers at Ole Miss are not very good. One spot filled, though. Probably could have been better, but I need to watch him play first to see what he does.

Well said. Hanna was a nice guy and I’ve enjoyed all my interactions with him. But any time they began trailing in games, he would do all he could to interrupt the officials and blame them, extending the game with delays for no reason, challenging plays that aren’t close. All for I think just one conference tournament appearance. It was past time.

Mark Sears heading home to Alabama to join Nate Oats in Tuscaloosa.

Ryan Rollins is hiring an agent for the NBA draft. It doesn’t appear he’s leaving the door open to come back to school.

Tyson Norton. Lot's of experience out west. Hopefully the Zips can eventually compete in the MAC with him. VB isn't my favorite sport, but it's fun to get into the JAR early in the fall for a few evenings while it's still nice out. https://gozips.com/news/2022/4/7/womens-volleyball-tyson-norton-named-ua-head-volleyball-coach.aspx

Thad Matta to Butler. Dakich continues to be a useless gasbag.

Boals was a finalist for Penn State last year. Kind of amazing to see a guy so far out the door at his alma mater where he was a legend.

The Butler job has opened up. Might Groce be interested?

Trimble has landed at Missouri State

Absolutely correct. However, this is a situation where you have to control what you can control. I would love to have been able to run it back with the same exact roster plus maybe one piece (Kalle replacement). Reality has taken a couple of weeks to hit our program, though. Even so, 10 years ago I would be excited to return the current level of production from a championship team. If we get to a point (God forbid) that Freeman and X leave us this offseason, then we start to get into the worry zone as far as replacing production. At this point, we basically graduated a senior and lost a freshman who didn't play a ton of meaningful minutes. The ceiling with potential new pieces is higher now, but the floor is also lower than it would have been. It should be an interesting offseason, and I look forward to the challenge that it gives this staff.

A weird 2 days for sure, like I said, the honeymoon is over. Is this really that big of a deal? Yes and no. I am not surprised to see Aziz leave, though I thought he could be a very good MAC player a couple years down the line. No clue what's going through his mind right now. As for Ali, he's probably banking on some advice from prospective future agents, or his family wants him to be a Hoosier so they can watch him play for a high major close to home. Are these a big deal to get exasperated about? I don't believe so. What is Groce & Co. doing to make these guys jump ship? Is it the fun they're clearly having? All of the winning over 3 seasons? The trip to the NCAA tournament? Success was defined by John Wooden as the peace of mind knowing you did all you could, worked as hard as you could, to achieve your goals. Well, if Ali and Aziz feel that their futures are better served with a different basketball program, then so be it. Yes, these are big shoes to fill, but I'm not going to be shaking my fist at anyone this summer and into next season because of the transfer portal. We (Groce) can sit here and bitch about the portal and the players leaving all we went, or we can shut our mouths and recruit and stick to the process that's resulted in 2 titles in the last 3 years. Count me out on "woe is me, this is a huge deal and an awful day" blah blah blah blah. I like the guys in charge of our favorite team. They have to deal with the same crap everyone else has to deal with, it's what they've signed up for in 2022.

After letting this stew for a few more hours, I’ve got a few more thoughts. All indications so far from people close to the program have told me this is a shocking move, not so much a mutual thing. That could be wrong, but if you just look at the whole Ali-Akron story, you can put 2 + 2 together to understand why this would be shocking. Reading the tea leaves on the past couple of seasons, it’s easy to see that his attitude isn’t always where it should be. He has also shown to be afraid to shoot at times, while also letting possessions die with a bad turnover, a back down, a poor attempt to draw a foul. Also, he had a ton of technical fouls this year for chirping at the refs and opponents. I’m not saying he’s a bad character guy, but under that façade, there’s certainly quite the ego. I’m thinking ego has a lot to do with this move, and perhaps wanting to be closer to home in Indiana now that one of those programs will give him a shot. With that said, I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment that this is BS for a guy to do to a program and staff that found him and gave him a chance. It’s almost like Carry at Duquesne. His only offer, and he’s been given the keys to make this program his. He just didn’t want it for whatever reason. Like I said earlier, it’s just got to be an on to the next one mentality. The Zips still have a top 3 roster in the MAC going into next season. 4/5 starters return along with 3 bench guys and 2 redshirts that all have championships under their belt. The honeymoon is officially over, and the title defense begins today as far as I’m concerned. #1Akron

Next man up, in Groce we trust baby!!!

Well, after processing for a few minutes I’ve got a couple thoughts. He probably is either believing in his own press, or knows that the likelihood of playing pro basketball in America isnt great when you play college ball in the MAC. I am more surprised that he would leave the program that gave him a chance when no others did, after an amazing title run and with the same group moving forward. Maybe he comes back, who knows what his intentions are. I haven’t seen anything from him on social media. If he does leave, that’s another open roster spot we can fill with a guy who is a good fit with a similar or better skill set. It’s not the end of the world, just a bit of a shock.