LoyalZIP

Of course.

There's almost no worse feeling than getting swept by Kent, plain and simple. On the bright side, that is behind the Zips right now and all of the big goals are still very much on the table. It's still got to be the one game at a time mentality. Though the Zips have a favorable schedule the rest of the way, their half-court style means a lot of them will be close no matter what or how well they're playing. Their perimeter defense and how they guard ball-handlers has been a little disappointing to me this year. In this league, if you can do that, you can beat anyone. Tonight, they must keep White and Norman in check and make them uncomfortable. They obviously can torch the Zips as they've shown, and they're riding a lot of confidence after picking up their first MAC win. I want to see a big bounce back game from X after that final shot spoiled his decent showing. Also, Clarke's stock has been rising and he will be playing a huge role on this team as the season winds down. We also cannot wait until the second half to get Freeman the ball, and he needs to work harder out of the gate knowing that people are going to do all they can to stop him. If the Zips had worked harder to get him touches in his limited first half minutes on Friday, they would've had a much better chance. This one is at 6:00pm for whatever reason so keep that in mind. Go Zips!

I see what you’re saying……but no God please no!!! That dude is a program-changer. A glue guy if there ever was one. Plus, I don’t know if he has the skill set yet to be a top 2-3 player on a team at this level. A good point by you though, and something to watch for.

Thanks for the reminder, among all of the transfer rule changes I had forgotten one as basic as that. My bad on that. I do still think Wynn is gone as with the new guys coming in, I don't know why he would stick around to play 5 minutes a game. Trimble, on the other hand, could probably find a spot on any team as a shooter, but his streaky-ness could keep teams away. His shooting since coming back from COVID is in the 20% range and that could be enough for schools to pass on him. At that point, Groce believes in him and will give him minutes so I don't see why he'd think he would find a much better situation. I could be wrong, of course.

I still think Wynn is gone after this year. I’d be pretty surprised if Trimble left. I think he and Wynn both only have a year of eligibility left and have already used their first transfer, which my understanding is they would not be able to play immediately upon leaving. Clarke was on my official unofficial Portal Watch but the last couple of weeks has played much better. He was really good against Kent on Friday and has once again shown flashes of greatness. He bricked a wide open three in the first half Friday, which you just can’t do in big games. But I like him right now and I think he could be a great asset to this program in the long run.

I heard some rumblings a month or so ago that they were going after Yates from GT, then signing day passed and there was nothing so I assumed it was just a rumor. Either way, I too would expect them to add one at some point and the more competition the better.

Yeah, the dude is messed up in the head for sure. I have some close Solon friends who are not big fans of him. But as of right now, he’s the winner. And he’s brought back a lot of the good things about this rivalry. Still putting all of my stock in Groce and Akron over Kent and Pinky this year and in the future.

When he bailed on KD it was just about a done deal for him to come to Akron. Then Pinky got a phone call one day from him asking if he could play at Kent so he could be with his high school sweetheart on the women’s team. Then he committed to Kent and UA called up KD and said what gives? KD was shocked. Yet another example of Pinky lucking into success.

I’d say I’d love to see Akron do that after winning at Kent, but: 1. Kent has no fans at games anymore that they would do this to 2. The only students at Kent games anymore are the band, which might be the worst in America Why would anyone be surprised at what happened? That program had a 5 year player punch a teammate last year. Sendy is a good recruiter and nothing more. Hell, he didn’t even recruit Carry! Again, the loss hurts, but it’s cute to see Kent do that, just like it was cute to see their .500 football team parade the Wagon Wheel around infocision after beating the D3 assistant coach of the year.

Love the Rowdies. Best student turnout and participation I’ve ever seen at the JAR, that felt like old times. I do not believe Kent is better than Akron, but they are tougher physically and they’ve played their best two games of the year against Akron. I’m hoping Akron has this same mentality in every game moving forward. Trimble was getting at it with Carry, Dawson was a junkyard dog, Freeman played one of the best halves of Akron basketball ever. It’s just a tough matchup for Akron for whatever reason. And props to Carry and Santiago. They answered the bell every time they needed to and Akron came away with a close L after a ton of missed opportunities. Akron is tough and resilient, they just lack that killer instinct like I said. When we were down 1 or 2, if Trimble would’ve buried the deep right wing three he took I think we would’ve won it. But X made a play then made a bad one. If he kicks it to Ali, fake gangster Carry is going home with his tail between his legs. Great effort. Hate to lose, absolutely brutal to be swept, but Kent played a near perfect game and Akron didn’t. On to WMU. Enjoy your weekends everyone, that was a ton of fun. Go Zips!

Knew it. F***

Pinky’s best defensive team ever by far

Always haha. Just find it a little odd that it didn’t move at all until a couple hours before the game.

Line has jumped down from Zips -3.5 to -2.5 in the last couple of hours.

I want this one so badly. I'm super nervous and really excited, nothing would be better than a dominant 40 minute game where UA controls the pace and gets good looks. The biggest thing to me is the rebounding. Akron has one of the best rebounders in the country and is one of the best rebounding teams in the country as a whole, but Kent absolutely dominated the glass a few weeks ago. They had a 40-29 advantage. And though they didn't have a ton of second chance points, it forced Akron to need to shoot the ball at very high percentage offensively to have a chance to win with fewer possessions. You get so many more chances and take so much away from your opponent when you rebound the ball well. I also look at Dawson to be a difference maker. Maybe he'll only score a handful of points, if that. But he's so tough and plays so hard, he can make the key hustle plays to give Akron an advantage and get the barn rocking. Kent is a really good defensive team, so getting a contribution from him offensively or even a made three from a guy like Clarke can go a long way. I'm still so bummed about the performance at Kent, and that gave them a lot of the confidence that they're still riding since that game. Kent is the hottest team in the league right now, and Akron still has so much to prove. A loss isn't the end of the world, but it would put a huge damper on this season as a whole. GO ZIPS!!!

It’s 11:20 and @NWAkron couldn’t be more right. Also, Kent State Still Sucks.

That’s a fair assessment, but I don’t think I’m general it’s fair to say they lost in Cleveland because Dog was the best player. They lost to Kent because of no-shows by pretty much anyone who could shoot on the perimeter. They lost the same way in the championship two years in a row.

KENT STATE STILL SUCKS!!!

HOT TAKE TIME: Disclaimer--in no way am I taking away from Zeke, as he is certainly one of the best bigs we have ever had, but I would put Freeman right about at his level right now, perhaps a half step behind, but he's right there IMO. He has good hands, great offensive post moves, is a better FT shooter, is a tremendous rebounder at 5" shorter, and blocks a fair amount of shots. While Zeke will be the best shot blocker in Akron history probably for as long as we'll be around, Enrique makes an almost equally big difference defensively despite his lack of size. I think he is significantly further behind Tree and Romeo however, as those guys were capable of taking over games and imposed people with their beef and toughness. Though Aziz will hopefully (as in neither of them leave) be behind Freeman for a couple more years still, he could definitely become equally as good if not better than Zeke himself, without being the starting big until he's a senior. Looking at numbers, they're a lot more similar than even I was expecting, and that's while not playing basketball in the US until he got to Akron. I think the public perception of Zeke will in all likelihood be more favorable tenfold than it ever is with Aziz in the long run, but I don't see a ton of difference between young Zeke and young Aziz. Yet another reason to hope Groce is here another couple of years, a Sr. Freeman and Jr. Aziz as bigs could be something special. Am I off base? Probably. But I think it could be an interesting thing to keep an eye on down the road. BEAT KENT!

There will be a total meltdown in this thread the next time Akron doesn't defeat mighty Bowling Green, the program that Arth made his B**** for nearly his entire tenure at Akron. We should have been more grateful! How can you get rid of that guy?!?!?!?

In 2 seasons without a 2020 postseason, too. Absolutely stellar player who will go down as one of the most underrated Zips of all time. He was the third best player on that title team, would’ve been the best player on a lot of MAC teams that year. Huge Cheese man myself!

I am very disappointed we are still on the first page! Hopefully someone can keep a log of all Charger results and passing game statistics in here so we can keep up with our fired coach who is completely irrelevant to the future of Akron football.

I'm thinking in the 50% range, hopefully. I'm not sure what attendance figures have been announced as this year, but it's been rough, which is too bad but UA is certainly not alone. Kent games at the MACC have become about as well-attended as a midweek morning Catholic Mass, and there were only 1,700 there for the game in Kent according to ticket people I know between the two schools. Our students have been showing out, though, and even last Friday given the circumstances, there was a decent crowd. It'll feel great to have an atmosphere like this again, which would be on par with perhaps a late February game in the past with the Zips in first place, which at this point would feel like a 5500 sold out crowd. The students being where they are now could actually make an impact on the game if they get loud and into it, that would be awesome. As for the game itself, I will get more into the matchup tomorrow but I'm quite worried. The Zips are playing good-not-great and the Flushes seem to be running at their peak. To me, there feels like an elephant's weight of pressure to win this one to create some space between the two teams in the standings, and if the Zips have any prayer at the regular season title, they have to win out and get some help. Also, the biggest thing in my mind is being swept, which hasn't happened since 2010 I believe. Not only being swept, but being swept by an obviously inferior Kent team. I'm glad to have one more day to mentally and physically prepare. I care way too much about this S#!+