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John Groce Officially Hired


Dr Z

John Groce as the head coach at Akron  

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  1. 1. What do you think of John Groce?


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12 minutes ago, akronzips71 said:

 

And as always we are back to this. KD's teams were able to win the MAC and get to the Conference finals, but not do much of anything else.

 

Time for a change.

 

Everyone knows the things that we didn't accomplish.  But, our 3 MAC Tournament Titles is the most of any team in the league over his tenure.  We actually won almost as many Tournament titles as we won Regular Season titles.  

 

I'll be interested to see how excited you are to sing the "change" tune as we progress through this impending drop off in wins.  

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5 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:


Couple things I take away from that article

 

Quote

“Obviously we need to recruit right now,” Groce said. “... We had three official visits this past weekend. We have three this weekend. We have two the following weekend. We have two the middle of the week this week.
 

“We have a lot coming at us, but I do understand the most important thing is to make sure we have the right people in the locker room, the right people on our staff and the right people on our support staff. It’s about people. We’ll figure out the other stuff later.”



 

Quote

Groce also hired Cole Pittis, a former Mount Union assistant who previously worked on Dambrot’s staff.

 

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17 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

In a 1 bid league the goal should always be to win the conference as that's your only chance to make the tourney. The Zips came up short, but it was no fault of Big Dog as him and Ivey were the only ones who performed. Antino and Kwan combining for 5 points on 2/12 shooting is what sunk the Zips vs Kent.

High IQ player? He had offensive numbers based off Dambrot. That is why POY. Huge loss? Nah.  Only if we are subtracting from overall team weight. 

 

You must have missed his D v. Kent in the championship game... Liability in transition and ball screen D. 

Edited by Blackburn
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9 hours ago, LZIp said:

Now maybe Blackburn will stop crying about the "Akron connection" and his boy Nick Dials.

FYI... 1. Dials is not my boy 2. I am for Akron guys being here, especially for the ones that got this program going. They deserve it and, quite frankly, they were the toughness that the Zips have not had since. And the best team the Zips have ever had. I have pulled for Joyce, Dials and Travis to be on staff... 

 

And how is Pittis an "Akron Boy"? It is a Ford boy if anything... 

 

Edited by Blackburn
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4 hours ago, Blackburn said:

they were the toughness that the Zips have not had since.

 

100% agree with you on that point.   I actually think we unfortunately ventured away from seeking those kinds of guys over the course of KD's tenure as we sought players with higher levels of athletic talent.  

 

I also would not put Pittis in the category of being an "Akron Boy" either, just because he was a low level assistant here for a short time.  At the same time, I also don't think that his light and brief connection should bother those on the other side looking for a "clean break from the old staff" either.  

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5 hours ago, Blackburn said:

High IQ player? He had offensive numbers based off Dambrot. That is why POY. Huge loss? Nah.  Only if we are subtracting from overall team weight. 

 

You must have missed his D v. Kent in the championship game... Liability in transition and ball screen D. 

 

Revisionist history. The dude made 62.5% of his shots despite consistently facing double teams this year, which placed him among the tops in the entire NCAA. It's not like Dambrot was out there shooting the basketball for him. A coach would be a moron not feeding the ball to a guy who makes 62.5% of his shots who also shown the ability to find open teammates by his ability to attract extra defenders.

 

I was at the MACT and saw him score nearly 40% of our points against Kent. We lost because Antino and Kwan combined for 5 points on 2/12 shooting. Big Dog and Ivey were really the only 2 players who showed up that game. Without Big Dog we would have lost by 20.

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6 hours ago, Blackburn said:

High IQ player? He had offensive numbers based off Dambrot. That is why POY. Huge loss? Nah.  Only if we are subtracting from overall team weight. 

 

You must have missed his D v. Kent in the championship game... Liability in transition and ball screen D. 

If it was based on offensive numbers, wouldn't Marcus Keene have been POY?

 

I realize there's a whole lot of butt hurt in Zipland, but let's transfer that hurt into enthusiasm for the new regime, not revisionist history.  Sure, it's painful that we're in a period of transition, but that doesn't need to result in the knee jerk reaction that everything under the prior regime was substandard.

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On 4/25/2017 at 8:27 AM, clarkwgriswold said:

If it was based on offensive numbers, wouldn't Marcus Keene have been POY?

 

I realize there's a whole lot of butt hurt in Zipland, but let's transfer that hurt into enthusiasm for the new regime, not revisionist history.  Sure, it's painful that we're in a period of transition, but that doesn't need to result in the knee jerk reaction that everything under the prior regime was substandard.

 

Best offensive numbers on best record team... or at least top in divisions.  NOT a secret MAC does it that way.

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On 4/25/2017 at 7:19 AM, kreed5120 said:

 

Revisionist history. The dude made 62.5% of his shots despite consistently facing double teams this year, which placed him among the tops in the entire NCAA. It's not like Dambrot was out there shooting the basketball for him. A coach would be a moron not feeding the ball to a guy who makes 62.5% of his shots who also shown the ability to find open teammates by his ability to attract extra defenders.

 

I was at the MACT and saw him score nearly 40% of our points against Kent. We lost because Antino and Kwan combined for 5 points on 2/12 shooting. Big Dog and Ivey were really the only 2 players who showed up that game. Without Big Dog we would have lost by 20.

 

Must have gotten nachos while we were on defense...

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On 4/25/2017 at 1:35 AM, Blackburn said:

He had offensive numbers based off Dambrot. That is why POY. 

 

8 hours ago, Blackburn said:

Best offensive numbers on best record team... or at least top in divisions. 

Any other qualifications to your original statement?  

 

The coaches and media vote on MAC Player of the Year.  It wasn't even remotely close.

 

I distinctly recall people pi$$ing and moaning about Zeke until he was gone and we had to watch Forsythe for a couple if years.  Sure. Big Dog had defensive shortcomings, much like Zeke had offensive shortcomings, but to deride his contribution is ridiculous.

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On 4/27/2017 at 8:29 AM, clarkwgriswold said:

 

Any other qualifications to your original statement?  

 

The coaches and media vote on MAC Player of the Year.  It wasn't even remotely close.

 

I distinctly recall people pi$$ing and moaning about Zeke until he was gone and we had to watch Forsythe for a couple if years.  Sure. Big Dog had defensive shortcomings, much like Zeke had offensive shortcomings, but to deride his contribution is ridiculous.

 

I was not one of those people... Zeke was much better for winning in the MAC.  Changed the game when he was here. 

 

Im not saying Big Dogg made 0 contribution. But just because he has the MAC POY title doesn't mean he is the best player in the league or even the team.  He is easily replaceable, especially for someone who has a much different style of coaching philosophy.

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1 hour ago, Blackburn said:

 

Im not saying Big Dogg made 0 contribution. But just because he has the MAC POY title doesn't mean he is the best player in the league or even the team.  He is easily replaceable, especially for someone who has a much different style of coaching philosophy.

 

I don't think Big Dog was the best player in the MAC, but he was certainly one of the best players in the MAC and was the main reason why Akron won the MAC regular season title and made it to the MACT final. The fact you're trying to minimalize his importance to the team when it is evident he was far and away the best player on the team is comical.

Edited by kreed5120
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25 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

 

I don't think Big Dog was the best player in the MAC, but he was certainly one of the best players in the MAC and was the main reason why Akron won the MAC regular season title and made it to the MACT final. The fact you're trying to minimalize his importance to the team when it is evident he was far and away the best player on the team is comical.

 

I don't think anyone is trying to downplay Big Dog's importance to the team last year. The point that is trying to be made is Big Dog was the best player on a team that LARGELY underachieved (due to the coaching/style of play) in a conference that was down, a conference in which we didn't win the MAC Tournament, and struggled to win the regular season title. If Dambrot were still here, yes, he would be a huge loss. But with Groce, Big Dog's production can easily be replicated due to a different style of play. 

 

With Big Dog/Kwan, we didn't make the NCAA Tournament once, and struggled in the MAC Tournament. Whether that's due to coaching, surrounding talent, etc., who knows. 

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