2024-25 Post Mortem and Looking Ahead to 2025-26

[Captain Kangaroo]

Under the "Looking ahead" category - anyone else think the Zips BB ticket prices will jump appreciably this coming year? Fielding a team has certainly become much more expensive over the past couple seasons.

[Let'sGoZips94]

19 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

Under the "Looking ahead" category - anyone else think the Zips BB ticket prices will jump appreciably this coming year? Fielding a team has certainly become much more expensive over the past couple seasons.

 

I had a conversation with Camden Stockton recently before putting in my season ticket deposit. He informed me there won't be any price increases. 

[kreed5120]

21 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

Under the "Looking ahead" category - anyone else think the Zips BB ticket prices will jump appreciably this coming year? Fielding a team has certainly become much more expensive over the past couple seasons.

 

In one of the tweets (or whatever they're called these days) it was mentioned Kent agreed to revenue sharing as part of the deal to get Sendy to stay. The MAC hasn't made any formal announcements (to my knowledge), but I imagine Akron will be forced to follow suit. I wouldn't be surprised to see ticket prices climb 10%-20% this season to help pay for it. I still find Akron basketball to be a very great value so I'll pay it. For those with premium seating I can see how it could become burdensome. 

 

Edit: Per @Let'sGoZips94 post, you can just disregard everything that I posted.

Edited March 28 by kreed5120

[Let'sGoZips94]

Speaking of season tickets, for those that don't know, you can combine multiple games into an equal number of tickets for a single game. For example, you have a one season ticket and there are 3 home games in December that you either can't make or are against DIII competition, you can contact the ticket office and they'll provide you with 3 tickets you can use for other games (i.e. 4 tickets in total for Miami OH). Especially for those with families/friends that like to go to games, it's a terrific value. It's one of the main reasons I placed a deposit for season tickets this year. Our family is growing to 5 here soon, and although we can't make as many games as I'd like, I'm still working on brainwashing my kids to bleed Akron Blue & Gold. The few games we'll be able to make is more than covered by the cost of the season ticket vs. buying individual game tickets. 

Edited March 28 by Let'sGoZips94

[Zippy87]

A few thoughts on Evan:

 

- Seems like a high character young man, so I'm sure he will fit in with our established culture. 

- I worry about his offensive game. I've only seen highlights, but 22.6% career from 3 Point territory and 52.3% from the FT stripe would've been at the bottom for us this year. 

- But maybe we don't need that much offense? He looks like an elite defender, and that's something I'm not sure we had this year. He'll get to know Suder (and players like him) well.

- My biggest concern is what he is not - and that's a post player (unless they play to convert him). I know the coaches are smart and know it was an issue against better teams this year, and just running that back isn't good enough. So I'm taking that as them being high on Rich Brisco and their believing in him as worthy of playing next season.

 

[zippy5]

We don't need a "post player" on this team. We just need someone that can defend one, and rebound 

[LZIp]

We just got a guy who played Wilson/Lyles/Okonkwo like minutes on a bubble Big 10 team. Worse case scenario he’s a great bench player. I see him as a Gray-like player with high major size.

[Zippy87]

11 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

We don't need a "post player" on this team. We just need someone that can defend one, and rebound 

 

Agree to disagree. You absolutely need good post play, and Evan isn't guarding someone like Tobe Awaka on Arizona. But maybe Brisco can. 

Edited March 29 by Zippy87

[Illini Zip]

Groce when at Ohio almost took out North Carolina with a 6-7 center. They were able to play his preferred style, spread the floor, drive and shoot a lot of threes. But it’s a new era and we just got out-rebounded by Arizona by something like 53-20. They doubled up our points in the paint and dominated second chance points. It wasn’t from a lack of effort. They were taller, stronger and more athletic at all positions. Others have already addressed this and Evan Mahaffey is definitely a step in the right direction. But Lyles on a free throw miss got pushed right off the blocks. I think Brisco will help, but a 7 footer or 6-10, 250lb, Austin Parks type player would be a welcome addition at some point. And even though you do lose some quickness and agility, Groce did run his offense with full-sized bigs when at Illinois. 

[Let'sGoZips94]

1 hour ago, Zippy87 said:

 

Agree to disagree. You absolutely need good post play, and Evan isn't guarding someone like Tobe Awaka on Arizona. But maybe Brisco can. 

 

Groce's near Elite Eight team at Ohio had Ivan Baltic & Reggie Keely as their front court at 6'8". Those were the tallest contributors on the roster. The key is avoiding garbage matchups unlike this year vs Zona, and hit your shots. Win more in the OOC, get a 12 seed or better, and this system can absolutely have success in March. Quite frankly, the more I've thought about it, the more I've realized Evan Mahaffey solves what would've been our biggest hole: sizeable lockdown defensive guard. We will have one of the more athletic front courts in the country and the way Dustin Ford coaches em up, I'm not worried. We would've had a lot more matchup problems without a guy like Evan. 

Edited March 29 by Let'sGoZips94

[Zippy87]

2 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Groce's near Elite Eight team at Ohio had Ivan Baltic & Reggie Keely as their front court at 6'8". Those were the tallest contributors on the roster. The key is avoiding garbage matchups unlike this year vs Zona, and hit your shots. Win more in the OOC, get a 12 seed or better, and this system can absolutely have success in March. Quite frankly, the more I've thought about it, the more I've realized Evan Mahaffey solves what would've been our biggest hole: sizeable lockdown defensive guard. We will have one of the more athletic front courts in the country and the way Dustin Ford coaches em up, I'm not worried. We would've had a lot more matchup problems without a guy like Evan. 

 

Baltic and Keely were both 6'9" (I know, it's close enough) but moreso, I hesitate to believe what worked in 2012 will work in a post-NIL environment. P4 teams have realized the best path to winning now is to combine the blue chip prospects they've always been able to get with upperclassmen who establish themselves as stars at smaller programs. The result is more complete teams than the groups like OU faced to reach the Sweet Sixteen. I do agree getting a higher seed would be huge - but I also think having at least sufficient size and rebounding is vital to knocking off a top seed. The fact that they're adding Evan instead of someone with more size is still somewhat worrisome to me, but it also shows me a big vote of confidence in further improvements from Okonkwo and Lyles, and Brisco being able to play some impactful minutes next season. 

[Let'sGoZips94]

9 minutes ago, Zippy87 said:

 

Baltic and Keely were both 6'9" (I know, it's close enough) but moreso, I hesitate to believe what worked in 2012 will work in a post-NIL environment. P4 teams have realized the best path to winning now is to combine the blue chip prospects they've always been able to get with upperclassmen who establish themselves as stars at smaller programs. The result is more complete teams than the groups like OU faced to reach the Sweet Sixteen. I do agree getting a higher seed would be huge - but I also think having at least sufficient size and rebounding is vital to knocking off a top seed. The fact that they're adding Evan instead of someone with more size is still somewhat worrisome to me, but it also shows me a big vote of confidence in further improvements from Okonkwo and Lyles, and Brisco being able to play some impactful minutes next season. 

 

Drake's tallest player was 6'8" this year. They went 31-4 and beat Mizzou in the first round. The key is to win in the OOC and avoid one of the top 16 teams in the country - those are teams that have more of the roster build you're referring to. 

[Illini Zip]

Baltic moved really good for 6-9. 

[Zippy87]

14 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Drake's tallest player was 6'8" this year. They went 31-4 and beat Mizzou in the first round. The key is to win in the OOC and avoid one of the top 16 teams in the country - those are teams that have more of the roster build you're referring to. 

 

Drake's starting lineup:

 

6'8"

6'6"

6'5"

6'4"

6'3"

 

Akron's starting lineup this year:

 

6'8"

6'3"

6'3"

6'2"

5'11"

 

The smallest player on Drake's entire roster was 6'3". They had good size throughout their rotation. 

 

 

 

[zippy5]

9 hours ago, Zippy87 said:

 

Agree to disagree. You absolutely need good post play, and Evan isn't guarding someone like Tobe Awaka on Arizona. But maybe Brisco can. 

Sounds like you agree with me, we need someone to guard the post

[ZipsFan31]

Evan is perfect for MAC play. We needed a big P4 sized Guard. I have hopes he is just an upgrade from Gray. Taller and more Athletic on both end of the floor. 
 

it would of been nice to get a 6’11 3rd string center to hack 5 times a game when we needed him. 
 

Evan will help every night and be a strong contributor… at the MAC level I assume his offense will improve! 

[Let'sGoZips94]

8 hours ago, Zippy87 said:

 

Drake's starting lineup:

 

6'8"

6'6"

6'5"

6'4"

6'3"

 

Akron's starting lineup this year:

 

6'8"

6'3"

6'3"

6'2"

5'11"

 

The smallest player on Drake's entire roster was 6'3". They had good size throughout their rotation. 

 

 

 

 

Now you're moving the goal posts. The fact remains their front court didn't feature a single person over 6'8" which is the exact same situation we're in. I've laid out in previous posts how Akron has gotten taller without increasing the height of the "tallest player" label. Schools like Akron will never be matchup proof; we will always have disadvantages against at least a few opponents.

 

Again, the key is winning in the OOC and continuing to dominate the MAC to avoid those top 16 teams in March that do have more matchup proof rosters. Part of the "we need a big man" reaction stems from what Arizona did to us, but that's also a team that put up 93 on Duke and only lost by 7. We have numerous height disadvantages through the season and although we lost some of those games, the bigger issue was not making our shots. 

 

If you look at the Miami OH roster, it's very similar size wise to Arizona. Athleticism wise there's a bit of a difference, but it proves size isn't the end all be all counter to our roster/system. 

[clarkwgriswold]

11 hours ago, LZIp said:

We just got a guy who played Wilson/Lyles/Okonkwo like minutes on a bubble Big 10 team. Worse case scenario he’s a great bench player. I see him as a Gray-like player with high major size.

That's a solid comparison.  He doesn't have Gray's outside shot, but I can see him manning up on defense on the opposing team's second big as Gray did.  I see him more like a power forward type on this squad, something they've missed.  He also looks athletic enough to cover a big wing like Toledo's Lewis. 

Edited Saturday at 01:18 PM by clarkwgriswold

[clarkwgriswold]

Big, small or in between, we can count on Groce to figure it out.  He's won here with Riak and X in the lineup, with Enrique being the focus and with a fast paced guard driven 3 point focused offense.  He doesn't lock into one plan and force his players into it, he gets the talent and character and fits the plan to what he has.

[Let'sGoZips94]

37 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

That's a solid comparison.  He doesn't have Gray's outside shot, but I can see him manning up on defense on the opposing team's second big as Gray did.  I see him more like a power forward type on this squad, something they've missed.  He also looks athletic enough to cover a big wing like Toledo's Lewis. 

 

Lewis is in the Portal. 

[Illini Zip]

1 minute ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Lewis is in the Portal. 

So I guess we’ll just have to wait and see where Lewis ends up and Evan can guard him there. 

[clarkwgriswold]

15 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Lewis is in the Portal. 

Aware.   Just using him as an example.

Edited Saturday at 01:54 PM by clarkwgriswold

[Illini Zip]

47 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

Big, small or in between, we can count on Groce to figure it out.  He's won here with Riak and X in the lineup, with Enrique being the focus and with a fast paced guard driven 3 point focused offense.  He doesn't lock into one plan and force his players into it, he gets the talent and character and fits the plan to what he has.

That team with Riak and X was our most balanced/complete yet.

[kreed5120]

13 hours ago, Zippy87 said:

 

Baltic and Keely were both 6'9" (I know, it's close enough) but moreso, I hesitate to believe what worked in 2012 will work in a post-NIL environment. P4 teams have realized the best path to winning now is to combine the blue chip prospects they've always been able to get with upperclassmen who establish themselves as stars at smaller programs. The result is more complete teams than the groups like OU faced to reach the Sweet Sixteen. I do agree getting a higher seed would be huge - but I also think having at least sufficient size and rebounding is vital to knocking off a top seed. The fact that they're adding Evan instead of someone with more size is still somewhat worrisome to me, but it also shows me a big vote of confidence in further improvements from Okonkwo and Lyles, and Brisco being able to play some impactful minutes next season. 

 

I actually think the opposite. Bigs are less utilized today compared to 10, 20, 30 years ago. A lot of teams play with 3 guards, 1 SF, and only one true big. It's all part of that positionless basketball craze going on in basketball circles. 

 

Edit: Also, it should be noted Gray was also a very poor 3 point shooter prior to coming to Akron. His career average at Cornell was around .270. His first year at Akron he shot .365. Akron's staff also helped improve Lyles and Freeman's shooting over the years. I don't think it's a given that Mahaffey's shot can't improve.

Edited Saturday at 04:24 PM by kreed5120

[Illini Zip]

4 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

 

I actually think the opposite. Bigs are less utilized today compared to 10, 20, 30 years ago. A lot of teams play with 3 guards, 1 SF, and only one true big. It's all part of that positionless basketball craze going on in basketball circles. 

I agree with both of you.