Akron coach John Groce talks about how Zips rallied for MAC title
The Akron Zips had to "scratch and claw" to beat the Toledo Rockets in the Mid-American Conference Championship game March 14, coach John Groce said
Video Transcript
Just to do it, you get a feel from listening to those guys when they're sitting up here, how special those guys are as people, and that's what makes it so much fun, to coach them.
and you get to see the personal side a little bit when they're up here in front of the media.
I get to see it from different vantage points, and they're just, You know, it's, it's such a privilege to coach those guys.
I've been saying that.
I know sometimes you hear that, and it becomes clich, but it really, it's really true, with these guys.
So that's the first thing I would say.
obviously from the game standpoint, give Toledo a lot of credit.
I thought the first half they were really ready to play.
they made shots.
their ball movement, their execution was precise.
Obviously, it put us on our heels a little bit, and then we made some adjustments coming out of halftime, that I thought were good for us.
It gave us a chance to kind of fight our way, scratch and claw back into it and make enough plays at the end, to get the outcome that we did.
But, you know, g- obviously give them a, a ton of credit.
I thought a lot of guys stepped up obviously and made plays throughout the second half that played, and it was a total team effort.
Yeah, I mean, obviously we wanted to get the ball in his, in his hands there and make sure that we As much as we could, there was a little bit of a differential, Michael, in game clock and shot clock.
But we wanted to give ourselves the best chance to have the last shot.
And so with the ball in his hands, obviously we trust him, his teammates trust him, and, he made a big shot and a big play.
You know, it's unfathomable.
I mean, it's just You know, you think about all the great coaches, great players that have been in this league, the ones that are currently in the league, and how long the league's been around.
I mean, it's, humbling.
