2025-26 season in process

[RoyalBlu]

Don't know how many have noticed but Buffalo looks like it is turning the corner back to respectable ... Eastern seems to have found a quality post guy that was riding the bench at CMU (albeit behind a really god player who transferred) and is it me, or has Kent State abandoned defense for a chuk-n-duk offense.

[csims0917]

1 hour ago, RoyalBlu said:

Don't know how many have noticed but Buffalo looks like it is turning the corner back to respectable ... Eastern seems to have found a quality post guy that was riding the bench at CMU (albeit behind a really god player who transferred) and is it me, or has Kent State abandoned defense for a chuk-n-duk offense.

I gave Buffalo a shout out in the mac chat!

[csims0917]

Murray state lost by 11 to SMU, Tulane won, Princeton beat bucknell by 10, I’ll update Kenpom when I go in the office Thursday I’m tired 

[tpsjugglerdude]

I love our OOC schedule this year. Overall our opponents are 16-5 with two of those loses being to Akron. None of our opponents have a "bad" loss yet outside of Milwaukee losing to Wofford. Obviously a small sample size, but off to a great start.
 

JMU 2-1 (Akron)
Princeton 1-1 (Akron)
Purdue 2-0
Iona 2-0
Milwaukee 2-1(Wofford)
Bucknell 2-1 (Princeton)
Tulane 3-0
Murray St 2-1 (SMU)

Potential Paradise Jam opponents:
Evansville 2-1 (Purdue)
Oregon St 2-0
 

[Let'sGoZips94]

1 hour ago, tpsjugglerdude said:

I love our OOC schedule this year. Overall our opponents are 16-5 with two of those loses being to Akron. None of our opponents have a "bad" loss yet outside of Milwaukee losing to Wofford. Obviously a small sample size, but off to a great start.
 

JMU 2-1 (Akron) 146
Princeton 1-1 (Akron) 223
Purdue 2-0 7
Iona 2-0 186
Milwaukee 2-1(Wofford) 191
Bucknell 2-1 (Princeton) 259
Tulane 3-0 109
Murray St 2-1 (SMU) 125

Potential Paradise Jam opponents:
2nd Round: Evansville 2-1 (Purdue) 263
2nd Round: Oregon St 2-0 139

Other Side of Bracket: Charleston 171
Other Side of Bracket: UMass 175

Other Side of Bracket: Yale 65
Other Side of Bracket: Green Bay 333

 

I added the current KenPom rankings for each team, and added the rest of the Paradise Jam field. I know it's early, but this is a nice, competitive-yet-winnable OOC schedule. If the Paradise Jam includes a combination of beating Iona and 2/3 Oregon State/Charleston/Yale, it'll have a similar outlook to last year's OOC schedule which was pretty solid. The team this year is seemingly much more capable, however, of making this at this point in the season. 

 

For comparison, here is where last year's OOC schedule ended up in KenPom:

 

Arkansas State 84

Saint Mary's 25

Lamar 158

Omaha 165

Alabama St 269

Northern Kentucky 230

Milwaukee 141

Yale 74

Jackson State 246

Princeton 177

South Alabama 109

Edited November 12 by Let'sGoZips94

[kreed5120]

26 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

The team this year is seemingly much more capable

 

I know we technically have 4 new starters, but we seemed to have returned a lot more minutes compared to most teams as we returned pretty much all our bench players and then elevated them to bigger roles.

 

Of the new players added to this years rotation thus far Eric already had 1 year learning the system in practice and Evan was born to play this style of basketball. That leaves only Ognjen who admittedly seems to still be adapting. Meanwhile, other teams have 5, 6, 7 new players in their rotation. It gives us a huge advantage this early in the year.

Edited November 12 by kreed5120

[Let'sGoZips94]

1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

 

I know we technically have 4 new starters, but we seemed to have returned a lot more minutes compared to most teams as we returned pretty much all our bench players and then elevated them to bigger roles.

 

Of the new players added to this years rotation thus far Eric already had 1 year learning the system in practice and Evan was born to play this style of basketball. That leaves only Ognjen who admittedly seems to still be adapting. Meanwhile, other teams have 5, 6, 7 new players in their rotation. It gives us a huge advantage this early in the year.

 

It also helps when one of the new starters is the older brother of the stud redshirt freshman starter. Evan has been a blessing so far this season. Kudos to their parents who seemingly raised terrific young men. 

[RoyalBlu]

10 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

I added the current KenPom rankings for each team, and added the rest of the Paradise Jam field. I know it's early, but this is a nice, competitive-yet-winnable OOC schedule. If the Paradise Jam includes a combination of beating Iona and 2/3 Oregon State/Charleston/Yale, it'll have a similar outlook to last year's OOC schedule which was pretty solid. The team this year is seemingly much more capable, however, of making this at this point in the season. 

 

For comparison, here is where last year's OOC schedule ended up in KenPom:

 

Arkansas State 84

Saint Mary's 25

Lamar 158

Omaha 165

Alabama St 269

Northern Kentucky 230

Milwaukee 141

Yale 74

Jackson State 246

Princeton 177

South Alabama 109

 

As we can see with this, only five of the games hit that 'sweet spot' for games vs. Kenpom teams 50-150, and two of those, thank goodness, came via the Sun Belt Challenge. Considering how it is becoming harder and harder for top end MAC programs to get those 50-150 Kenpom games, Groce and the more veteran MAC Coaches should try to get one more conference (C-USA, Mo-Valley, CAA) challenge on the books. It would make scheduling a lot easier, w/the caveat those second round games are Kenpom-based, even if they are repeat matchups from the previous season.

 

Just a suggestion.

[csims0917]

James Madison lost to Longwood. We got catfished out of a good opponent it seems. JMU has been ugly so far 

 

Milwaukee lost to Indiana. They kept it around 10 for 30 mins and Indiana pulled away 

Edited November 13 by csims0917

[kreed5120]

1 hour ago, csims0917 said:

James Madison lost to Longwood. We got catfished out of a good opponent it seems. JMU has been ugly so far 

It might still be a little too early to say definitively. They have a lot of new bodies this year. It will likely take them most of OOC to find themselves. I certainly know last year we struggled in OOC play for similar reasons.

[Let'sGoZips94]

2 hours ago, csims0917 said:

James Madison lost to Longwood. We got catfished out of a good opponent it seems. JMU has been ugly so far 

 

Milwaukee lost to Indiana. They kept it around 10 for 30 mins and Indiana pulled away 

 

James Madison has quite a bit of talent with no chemistry yet. They'll be fine, and when they are fine, we won't have to play them. 

Edited November 13 by Let'sGoZips94

[csims0917]

Update #3! Buffalo and Toledo were the biggest risers. Some fallers including JMU but teams like Murray St fell due to P4 losses. It’s that time of year for those but they’ll go back up. Zips go down to 77 for just existing as I like to call it 

[csims0917]

If you guys need a hate watch it’s Fordham vs Iona on espn+ rn. Iona win helps Akron and fordham has Guthrie as AD lol

[csims0917]

Iona Wins! Bucknell loses a home game to Hofstra 

[csims0917]

Milwaukee (to #15 TTU) and Tulane lose

[Illini Zip]

Ohio playing at #12 Louisville on WGN. Still early on. 

[zipsrule]

Ohio falls to 1-3 after a 106-81 loss.

[Let'sGoZips94]

4 hours ago, zipsrule said:

Ohio falls to 1-3 after a 106-81 loss.

 

Their 1 win coming against Illinois State (respectable) where the viral highlight is the Ohio player missing a dunk at the buzzer with the whole team around him. Iconic. 

[zipinnc]

Is Cody Head ok?

[Let'sGoZips94]

51 minutes ago, zipinnc said:

Is Cody Head ok?

 

Redshirt. 

[Let'sGoZips94]

Strong optimism for the MAC to start the season. 

 

Murray State looks like it will be a great matchup. Yale could be an opponent in the Paradise Jam. 

 

 

Edited November 17 by Let'sGoZips94

[Illini Zip]

The loss to Purdue didn’t affect our Kenpom rating too much. 79

[Blue & Gold]

KSUcks' Gillespie has been a monster so far this year

 

[Let'sGoZips94]

2 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

KSUcks' Gillespie has been a monster so far this year

 

 

Helps when their competition is as weak as it has been. Cleveland State beat D3 Capital by 1, lost in buzzer beater fashion to a really bad Loyola team, and they were so bad vs Northwestern the Evanston police started a missing persons search for the whole team. Kent beat them by 7 and let them put up 95. 

 

The UNCW game, which is supposedly a good win, didnt feature much competition for Gillespie. UNCW's big wasn't much to write home about. 

 

Based on these early performances by Kent, I think they'll be ~.500 in the MAC.

 

EDIT: Didn't realize Kent plays Cleveland State again later this week. What a joke their schedule is. 

Edited November 17 by Let'sGoZips94

[Blue & Gold]

Buffalo is 4-0 including wins over Southern Miss., Green Bay, and DePaul  👀