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

[Blue & Gold]

As well as a testament to the quality of Zips football.

[Illini Zip]

On 3/29/2025 at 5:42 PM, kreed5120 said:

 

He only has 31 attempts in total so I'm not sure what point you're trying to illustrate. 12 attempts would make up a large chunk of those 31. I also wouldn't want him taking much more than that anyway. Maybe 20 for the season. 30% on 54 attempts is abysmal. I wouldn't want an Akron player shooting that many if he's shooting it at those percentages. I imagine you wouldn't either. Generally you want to be around ~34%+ if you're going to shoot them at any volume.

 

Half an attempt a game is fine for Mahaffey. Mainly just shoot them when he's left wide open in the corner. Like I said it's not about trying to get him to get 3-4 looks a game. It's about showing the defense he's willing to shoot them and can make them. You have to keep the defense honest otherwise they will cheat and have 5 defenders guarding your 4 offensive players.

I cringe as I type this because we already beat this horse to death and we are in agreement. But here’s a possible scenario if Evan struggles to shoot and Amani regains his confidence. Evan plays with Amani, Evan at the wing defensively and Amani at the 5. Offensively they switch, Amani on the perimeter and Evan at the 5. I just wouldn’t suggest playing Evan and Okonkwo together under those circumstances. 

[zipinnc]

What are the  qualifications to start a game thread?

[clarkwgriswold]

1 hour ago, zipinnc said:

What are the  qualifications to start a game thread?

Absolutely none.  I am proof.

[kreed5120]

Looking ahead at next years OOC schedule we we have 6 out of our 13 games locked in although the opponent is still TBD in 5 of those. We should get whoever is the preseason Sun Belt favorite game 1 with the second being based off of NET. We know who is in the Paradise Jam, but it's impossible to know for certain who we would face.

 

1 vs Sun Belt Game 1

2

3

4

5

6

7 Paradise Jam

8 Paradise Jam

9 Paradise Jam

10

11

12 vs Princeton

13 at Sun Belt Game 2

 

I would have to believe we're one of the favorites for the Paradise Jam as other top teams Yale, Oregon State, and Charleston all lost their top scorer among other key contributors. I'm sure some of these schools will look to reload, but they likely won't be firing on all cylinders as players find and settle into their roles.

 

We only have 2 home games scheduled. If you add that to the 9 conference home games, that puts us at 11 as of now. This makes me believe out of the 7 remaining homes, 3 or 4 of them will be at home to get us to 14-15 in total. I assume we will host at least 1 non-D1 team and also play a mid-major on the road as part of a new home and home series. That would give us 5 other games to schedule with 2 or 3 of those being at home. What would you guys like to see, realistically speaking?

Edited 15 hours ago by kreed5120

[zippy5]

2 games @ P5 teams

1 cream puff in between those

2 solid mid majors, would love to get a home and home with an A-10 or MWC team, George Mason, Utah St, Grand Canyon etc. 

[1981 grad]

We need to schedule Duquesne and have a home and home series with them.  Lets honor Dru Joyce!!

[dirtyolcrowe]

Cleveland st.  

WV. Homecoming for Sharron.  Hopefully this keeps him from portal

 

where are we recruiting?   
Chicago?   Boston?  
why not schools like Loyola chicago

boston u or northeastern 

 

Dayton/Xavier/UC

 

[Illini Zip]

I would like to see the Zips play 2 neutral court games a year in large venues. Instead of home and home, it would be “home away from home” and “home away from home”. Our home away from home is Rocket Mortgage and I would like a OOC game to be played there annually so every one of our players has that experience before the MAC Tournament. Then we play a different team at their home away from home (Atlanta, Denver, New York, etc) so we experience yet another environment. The following year we flip the game locations. Next year I imagine we could start the season in Q2 (51-100) so we would target 2 teams from that range. That way there is not a NET advantage for any team. There is a lot of nice competition in this range. This is probably an expensive idea, but it’s my suggestion. 

[zippy5]

Just now, Illini Zip said:

I would like to see the Zips play 2 neutral court games a year in large venues. Instead of home and home, it would be “home away from home” and “home away from home”. Our home away from home is Rocket Mortgage and I would like a OOC game to be played there annually so every one of our players has that experience before the MAC Tournament. Then we play a different team at their home away from home (Atlanta, Denver, New York, etc) so we experience yet another environment. The following year we flip the game locations. Next year I imagine we could start the season in Q2 (51-100) so we would target 2 teams from that range. That way there is not a NET advantage for any team. There is a lot of nice competition in this range. This is probably an expensive idea, but it’s my suggestion. 

Would love a "home" and home vs a Xavier or Dayton with Rocket Arena being our home game 

[Illini Zip]

8 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

Would love a "home" and home vs a Xavier or Dayton with Rocket Arena being our home game 

Going off of this year’s NET that would work as a Q2 game for us as well as Xavier or Dayton so I’m in for that. I want more Q1 and Q2 opportunities. 

[ZipsFan31]

I would love a top 16 team on the road, like Kentucky. And then give me a home and home with liberty or another top mid major like VCU

[Let'sGoZips94]

Outside of the challenging games we all want to see, I'd limit my weaker portion of the schedule to the lesser teams in a select few conferences: A10, MW, MVC, etc.