LoyalZIP

No Corcoran tonight. Tough luck against a great guard team like UB.

Ever since this moment in CBB, I’m not comfortable with anything less than a 15 point lead in the final couple of minutes until the clock hits 0:00. Absolutely gut-wrenching to think if that happened to the Zips in any game, let alone a tournament game.

Kwan and Utomi drove me nuts. Kwan for back 2 back MAC title disappearing acts and Utomi for being Trimble-streaky on steroids. Who could forget his 1/14 showing @ Ball State in 2018...

If he had been more patient about playing time, Marshall would’ve been a huge contributor this year. Oh what could’ve been.

This is what I've been told by athletics admin. I'm concerned because so often, brand new logos can be disappointing. Plus, everyone's gear will be outdated AGAIN. I like that social media accounts have been using the Fear The Roo head, hopefully that becomes the secondary logo. Should be interesting to see how this shapes out.

LoyalZIP Transfer Portal Radar™ Advisory: Garvin Clarke Watch: NONE Warning: Wynn This is what I'm feeling now. If Akron doesn't get anything from more than like 3-4 guys a night, March could be ugly especially if it's a cold shooting night like last Friday. Clarke has so much potential. He's a good ball handler and a good passer, sometimes the moment just seems too big for him. He's shown he can shoot well and finish but he's so hit-or-miss. It's strange. I still trust Trimble to take any open three or mid-ranger. I wasn't upset with him last night because he took good shots and made his first 3-ball. Groce managed his minutes well, with the quick turnaround too. Dawson was also much better, and he will be very important over the next few weeks with games just about every other day. Nobody can shoot a right-wing transition three as well as he does, he plays such hard D and can get runs started when there's seemingly no life. Ultimately, this is shaping up to be Ali and X's team. It seems that Groce trusts them the most and they tend to make the biggest plays and show the most leadership. Tribble has quickly risen to being a second tier leader, if you will. Groce was praising him quite a bit for his vocal leadership yesterday late in the second half before the run. He will never be a great 3-point shooter but if he can shoot a percentage around 30% kind of like Cheese did taking a couple open ones per game, I will take it. Would love to see him get back to the line like he was earlier though. He and Ali were on that championship team two years ago and played some meaningful minutes then. I want to see that leadership come out so this group can build up chemistry like that team had. Is it too late? Probably. But at this point, it's just a fight to get to Cleveland. No game against any of the top 8 will be easy. I just want to see a 40-minute game at both ends before anything.

Before that happened, Akron had an 18-3 offensive rebound advantage!

Quick turnaround for both. As I write this post, the Zips finished their game about an hour ago, and the Falcons are about at the half against NIU. Thursday will be an interesting one for sure, would be great to get one on the road especially playing just about the worst non-Florida basketball of the season the last two.

Never in doubt! Man, that was scary, sad, embarrassing, etc. until 2:40. As winning isn’t deodorant for not playing well (Akron), 60% 3pt. shooting isn’t always deodorant for being a bad basketball team (WMU). Hopefully that was a wake up call that every game in league play will probably be a dog fight. Nice minutes from Aziz, Freeman came around toward the end which was good. I’m not too bummed with the defense as a whole, those dudes were hot. At the end when the plan was to trap, they kind of folded. Would’ve liked to see more of that earlier. Also Trimble still way ice cold from three, and I thought a lot of those were really good looks. The only time he took it into the lane and took a step back mid-ranger he hit it. I feel he can create those shots more often, veer Ali-like. Speaking of, Ali stepped up and that was great to see. What a tough turnaround coming up. I’m not sure the Zips will win a lot more if they require a Tribble 3-ball to overcome a 10-point deficit in the final 3 minutes. Go Zips!

I'm still extremely bitter about the loss on Friday. I just want to see Akron put 40 minutes together and take care of business against what will be one of the worst MAC teams of all time. Two weeks into MAC play and while UA has generally played well, they still have a long way to go and definitely look like a team that has had as many stoppages as it has. Go Zips

Former Hoban RB Todd Sibley heading to UA! He should get plenty of carries for Albany in his final year of eligibility.

Bingo. WMU requested it.

Not a single Akron player had what I would call a great performance, especially in the second half. Akron was dominated in every single statistical category the entire game. For 35 minutes the game was within 3-5 points in another game that Akron has no business being in at all considering how they were playing. When they kept getting out-rebounded, he put in a big lineup that fixed those issues. Aziz lost the ball going up for a dunk in a crucial moment and that along with a Trimble wide open missed three when it got to the final few minutes just about sealed the deal. What exactly did Senderoff do? Have a 30% 3pt. shooter take 10 of them and hit 6 of them? Even horrid shooters for them were knocking them down. Anyone who’s watched an Akron-Kent game over the last decade has seen that game quite a few times. He has a great player that hides the rest of the stink of mediocrity that program reeks of. Sometimes it results in beating good teams like Akron and Toledo, and it just as often results in home losses to CMU and NIU. Isn’t it mind-blowing that the best team isn’t always the one that wins? I’ve never seen that happen in sports in my life, especially in rivalries that have a .500 record after 150 games!

They’re….good? I can’t believe what I’ve seen so far!

First truly bad game since Florida and the sky is falling on good ol’ ZN. I call it the Sendy Special. It’s what won his sorry-a** a MAC title. He throws a darn good player at you and he miraculously beats you with absolutely nothing else. The Zips win that game 8/10 times. How many times does Freeman get out rebounded by a group of crappy bigs like that? It doesn’t happen very often. I’m disappointed as everyone is. The Zips are far better than they showed tonight. But at the end of the day this is just another loss in Portage County. Trimble has these games, we’ve seen it plenty. Ali was disappointing, I’ll give you that. And Freeman was getting destroyed on the boards, albeit with BS put backs and rebounds on loose balls after great defensive possessions. I am not sold on this Akron team as MAC Champions, but I’m still happy to buy stock. Groce out coached Pinky tonight. Don’t let 50% of his teams’ points coming from one Doo-Cane transfer fool you. It was neck and neck until the last few minutes and UA was playing it’s worst game since before Thanksgiving! It just came down to execution and Akron wasn’t able to tonight. On to the next one. It’s a marathon, not a race.

Same ol’ trip to Brimfield. Senderoff is awful, Groce out coached him in every way. He just had the best player tonight. Maybe more thoughts later. On to the next one.

Need perimeter shooting. Need it.

Line has moved to -2.5

Not at all surprised to the the Flushes be favored. They did beat Toledo at home after all. Whether Santiago is back for them or not is probably the biggest thing. That line may suggest that he is back. He's their second best player on a team that relies a lot on guard play. Our guards need to lock down Carry and force someone else to win the game for them. They do not shoot the 3-ball well at all, and they don't have a great inside scorer. The Zips have had some trouble stopping driving layups so that is a concern I have. Also, Kent is one of the best foul shooting teams in the country so we can't afford to get into foul trouble like we saw on Tuesday. I really like this Akron team and how they're playing. I just want to see a full 40 minutes. You can't come from behind double digits every game, especially on the road and especially against this program. Hopefully X and Trimble find their shot early and Freeman and Aziz stay out of foul trouble. I like the matchup for Akron, but there's just something about this arena... Can't wait to be there though, Go Zips!!!!!

Initially going into this one, I would like to think that the Zips are going to win, but time and time again the home team almost always wins this one no matter how good or bad either side is. I'll get into more of the matchups and the game itself tomorrow as it gets closer and we see who is favored, but I don't know the last time Akron has gone to Portage County with them being under .500 overall and in the league. I've not seen Pinky so clueless and defeated before. But, they won back to back MAC games over Toledo and @ Ball State just last week, which is why I'm not necessarily expecting Akron to win this one. I'm optimistic about their chances, it's just that Kent has been playing to their competition almost all season. The Zips haven't played away from the JAR in ages and have had few practices with everyone available. I don't know what to expect. All I know, is their students aren't back on campus yet, their crowds have been bad, far worse than ours actually, their campus is getting upset that fans aren't wearing masks. I want Zip fans to take over the MACC tomorrow. I'll have a nice sized group. Let's make a statement!

GaTech is probably going to get one more year out of that staff before they're canned. Collins is 9-25 there with 3 wins in each season. That's probably going to be a big selling point by the UA staff on 1/28. The only thing I remember Collins for is before his first game there, which was @ Clemson, they were lifting weights out on the field during warmups, which is something I have never seen anyone do before. That's such a boneheaded BS fake tough guy thing if I've ever seen one. I am hugely biased of course, but I'm buying stock in Akron right now before I am GaTech. He'll be in a better situation with an offensive coach and will make a far more immediate impact. What a get this would be!

That's odd. It's a CBSSN game. Maybe ESPN's schedule hasn't updated since it was put on CBS.

This may be the best they have played over a 3 game stretch since Melissa took over. I’m hoping last night proved this is not a fluke. It’s been way too long since this team played in Cleveland. Get to the JAR on Saturday! Ball State head coach Brady “The Volcano” Sallee always puts on a good show.

Some more thoughts from this one. I'm really bummed with Wynn. With Aziz and Freeman in such bad foul trouble, he really had an opportunity to make an impact as a force inside with a small lineup. But in his few minutes, he played poorly and committed more dumb fouls. You can tell he is a project for Groce, he doesn't seem nearly as invested as a lot of the guys on the team, hopefully that changes. Having him as the 9th/10th guy is huge as I feel he has more ability than anyone else in the league at that depth on the bench, but there's just something that's been keeping him from taking advantage of his opportunities. I think he will be gone after this year. Also thinking Ali may have been in protocol and missed some practice. Yes, he does take some step backs and mid range fadeaways as that is a shot that has always been in his arsenal. But last night he was forcing them badly. Trimble forces quite a few shots, but rarely are they quite as contested as the ones Ali was taking. Perhaps he was frustrated and trying to force the issue by putting the ball in the basket. Look for that to change back to normal going forward.

Wow. What a performance on offense in the second half. The first half was brutal to watch, just awful. But the Zips were really sharp in the second half with very few mistakes. Groce managed the bigs well with foul trouble which was huge. X and Trim absolutely phenomenal in the mid range, that’s great to see and very important. That changes all the dynamic. The three headed monster of Ali, X, Trimble has a lot of potential, I like it. Ball State came out playing great D and they played harder and made more plays the first 30 minutes. Sparks and Cochran are a pain. I thought Cochran looked familiar and then I realized he was from NIU and he gave us a ton of trouble in the game here with them last year. Overall, nice win. This team has a long way to go until it’s a well oiled machine. Friday win would be massive. Kent will come ready to play. In Groce we trust! Go Zips!