Akron coach defends schedule after blowout loss to Arizona: 'Don't disrespect Saint Mary's'

John Groce was not happy with the line of questioning after Akron's NCAA Tournament loss

Akron Zips head coach John Groce during the first half in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Climate Pledge Arena. | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

The Akron Zips did not play a difficult schedule this season. That's not up for debate.

Akron's schedule ranked No. 250 in the country out of 364 Division I teams, according to KenPom. The Zips played one Quad 1 game all season, an 87-68 loss to Saint Mary's in November.

So when a reporter asked Akron coach John Groce about his team's schedule after their 93-65 blowout loss to Arizona in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, it was a fair question.

Groce wasn't happy about it, though. Akron's coach cut off the reporter and quickly brought up the Saint Mary's game.

"You guys played no competition like Arizona in your non-conference schedule, do you feel like that maybe ... ," the reporter started to ask in Friday's postgame press conference.

"Don't disrespect Saint Mary's like that," Groce shot back. "Don't disrespect them like that. I think they're still in the tournament, aren't they? Didn't they win? They're pretty big too. So let's don't disrespect them."

Groce wasn't done. When pressed on his team's soft schedule not adequately preparing them for facing a team like Arizona, Groce was not having it.

"Not at all. I thought we played a really competitive schedule, one of the top third in the league, we do that every year," Groce said. "I thought Saint Mary's was just as big or bigger, quite frankly, if you look at their height, you would have to check KenPom on that, but I think it's pretty close. Certainly with (Harry) Wessels and (Mitchell) Saxon, those guys are two seven-footers, today (Henri) Veesaar played as a seven-footer. (Tobe) Awaka plays bigger than what he is, very physically strong, tough on the glass and has had many double-doubles throughout the year. So I think from a size perspective they were certainly comparable. Both two really, really, really, really good teams."

Akron came into the NCAA Tournament riding high. The Zips had won 21 of their past 22 games and boasted the No. 8 scoring offense in college basketball at 84.6 points per game.

But it all came undone against No. 4 Arizona, who played the fourth-toughest schedule in the country and had a significant size advantage. Arizona pounded Akron on the glass 53-22 and shot 12-of-25 from the 3-point line — and many of them were wide-open shots.

Akron backed off Arizona point guard Jaden Bradley and dared him to shoot 3-pointers. Bradley went 3-of-5 and scored a game-high 19 points.

"That's hard living, not guarding somebody, because you're giving up open shots in a meaningful moment," Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said after the game. "It's not like this is the first time that somebody's guarded them like that."