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I was on campus last week and had the chance to speak to Coach Bowden. I asked him about the addition of Marcus to the staff and here's what he had to say: "Because the local recruiting is so important to the success of our program, when running backs coach Eric Hickson left for Kansas State our goal was to fill the vacancy with a local guy. That guy is Marcus Wattley. Marcus went to Copley High School, played for The University of Akron, coached at Copley, and was then an assistant to Dan Boarman at St V for 9 years before becoming their head coach. He fit perfectly our goal of getting an outstanding, high character coach that knows the local community. Now that we’re a winning program, we have to do the best possible job of recruiting the local kids. Kids from St V come from all over the area, so I think Marcus’ hire really strengthens our position to best recruit northeast Ohio. Marcus has a lot of knowledge on the defensive side of the ball, so we’ll have him working with our defensive linemen and outside linebackers. I think we have about 8 guys on scholarship from St V, so obviously we’ve known Marcus for a long time." Trent Boykin will assume the duties of running back coach. A running back himself at YSU in the early 90's, he held that position for his first three years at Akron. Also - Kory Gribben was moved up from a grad assistant position to become the H-back coach. Congrats to Kory! Nobody noteworthy is leaving the Zips program or transferring out.

Transferred from Southern Illinois 6'3" SG 195# JUCO player

When is anyone going to mention how AAU B-ball has a big hand in this and has been for a long time. The NCAA and HS sports has let them run amok for the past 30 years....

Well, this past weekend the Zips Swimming and Diving Team won their fifth - FIFTH! - consecutive MAC Championships, setting a record for the most points won in a competition. I was apprehensive when the team lost a dual to Eastern Michigan earlier this season, but WOW did they come through as the season progressed, and this is a bright spot for Akron Athletics, although most of us are focused on Football and Basketball. And there are 8 teams on the MAC womens' championships. Women like Paloma Marrero, Sadie Fazekas, Maddy Myers, Ellie Nebraska, Jackie Pash, Mackenzie Vargas, and oters all contributed greatly. And they really didn't have much fo a diving presence for the first time in a long time, or the total points would have been astronomical. Coach Peresie and Medvedeff should be feted across campus and the press (HAH HAH!) as miracle workers for a program that never finished in the top half ever! And then there was wow? What the heck happened to the track squads this indoor season? The Championships this weekend say the Akron men finish in 3rd out of only 5 teams, behind Eastern Michigan (expected) and Portage Community College (kinda thought it would happen) while the women somehow got enough field points to pull off a runner-up spot. On the women's side, remarkably, only Dara Parry (Champion 60 hurdles), Patty Ortega (5th hurdles), and Haley Hess (8th in 800) actually were on the podium for running events. We didn't even enter a contestant in the 3k or the 5k! And we finished 11th of 12 team sin the 4x4 relay. But Jenna Franz (2nd) and Lucy Brian (3rd) won points in the pole vault, Jackie Siefring won the long jump, Ariadna Ramos Gandia was 3rd in triple jump and Olivia Snyder and Abby Wilson (3rd and 5th) scored in the shot. But....we went 1st-2nd in the Pentathalon with Siefring and Ortega, which is huge. On the guys side, soem good individual results but lack of depth hurt. Taron Slone was a work horse with 2nd in the 60 and 3rd in the 200. Young Freshman Noah Williams was impressive in the 400 where he took 2nd. Garrett Crichlow had a 4th in the mile. Another freshman, Patrick Kimble took 3rd in the 60 hurdles, while Preton Fillman was 6th. The team was 2nd in the 4x4, 3rd in the DMR. Curtis Richardson and Cody Stime went 1-2 in the High Jump, both clearing 7 feet. Matt Ludwig won the PV as expected, but Cole Wigal and Tyler Fraker surprised in a tie for 3rd. Jordan Lattimer won the Long Jump, while Jamir Coleman took 5th, Maurice Harris had a 5th in shot while Phil Jagers was 3rd in the weight throw. But another HUGE was Kamar Majid - a Firestone HS product - won the Heptathalon, surprising the field. So....lots of work to do here for outdoors, and the underclassmen will need to keep improving for next winter.

I have been told that Ezana and David Egbo scored the 2 goals.

Rookie Zeke fouled out almost every game and scored few points Rookie Big Dog was a boat anchor Give it time.

Oh, I played basketball for many years, but probably maxed out at 12" vertical. My brother was the dunker. I think he got better genes. Hey, I'm fine with eliminating the "mandatory 1 yr. of college" rule. It does bother me that they are using colleges as "minor leagues" for the nba, and these kids enroll with absolutely no intention of ever getting a college education.

Channel Banks(JUCO) PG 6'4" 185# Sheridan College Hometown-Las Vegas NV!!! VEGAS BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are we seriously comparing a freshman to a senior?

He is leading his team in assists.

Terry left something out though --

Gonna be young, Van Edwards, Sands coming back from injury & a true freshman already on campus in White, there are a couple more freshman in Alce & Floyd reporting in summer, i’ve been hearing that White looks good in workouts

No offense to Mr. Turfe, but I can't see him ever being more than a special teams contributor.

Love Jest....absolutely ecstatic for his return.

http://isnsoccer.com/news/2018/02/25/eventful-2018-lands-biros-with-akron-and-crew-sc-first-team/

Hopefully, as opposed to our DB Cooper.

Didn't go but here are some pics from the game, my guess is Egbo scored based on a pic of him pointing to the sky

Exactly. And the same ones who say that just keep coming back.

That part has always made me laugh. Who do they think they're fooling?

For those interested, I took a look at Duquesne's outlook for 2018-2019. I have admittedly not seen some of these players play before, so I'm guessing on a lot of this, but I don't see much PT for Dunn-Martin. Williams Jr. and Lewis are the Dukes' leading scorers this year as a freshman and a sophomore respectively, so I'd expect they'll continue to play. Frankie Hughes and Craig Randall are both transferring in, and I'd expect both to be ahead of TDM. It will also be interesting to see who the scholarships go to...by my count they have 16 players for next year. My guess is that's my error, but maybe they really do have a roster crunch. I'd expect them to be pretty good starting next year.

http://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/890839?referrer_id=2333971 The visitors took the lead in the 60th minute as left back Joao Moutinho moved forward into the attacking third and fired a low shot that tucked just inside the right post. https://www.dailynews.com/2018/02/24/los-angeles-football-club-gearing-up-for-final-preseason-game-against-sacramento-republic/ Rookie defenders Joao Moutinho (first pick) and Tristan Blackmon (third) have more than held their own in camp. “Both have done really well,” Bradley said. “What I like is that they show every day, they compete, they try to play (soccer) and they’re not afraid and on the back foot.

Fair enough. Then give them an option to not be a college athlete and do away with the ridiculous "one and done" rule. I think your two inch vertical held you back from that free education skip!

Most years it gets you excited. This year it is just depressing.

I will say they are playing hard on defense. I haven't seen as many defensive breakdowns in the last couple of weeks. If they play that hard when they have more talent, I'll be pleased. On offense, it's a mess in large part because they have so few kids that can effectively score the ball.

I know. It was absolutely horrible being a fan of the school that had the most successful record in the MAC Tournament for more than a decade. Please, let someone else have that.

I was just going to start this post when I saw your post so here is my take. Even though we lost yesterday in a game that we led almost the entire time, there are a lot of positives going into Buffalo and the MAC tournament. Zips fans, be happy: Three weeks agp Groce did not like this team's effort, intensity or coachability. In the post game he indicated he was happy with all 3. Happy coach, happy team! We have been competitive the last 5 games. Utomi is playing his best ball right now. We finally have a road win so if we play on the road in the first round we have got that monkey off our back. We led most of the game yesterday without 2 scholarship players that will hopefully return for the MAC tournament. We played our best defense of the season yesterday according to the coach. This is the MAC, playing well at the end of the season even with lesser talent can mean upset in the tourney. Finally, for the small but vocal minority that is still is upset with KD leaving, the Dukes have lost 6 in a row. Go Zips!!

Carry on gentlemen!

I know. I was feeling pretty good about it initially, until the negatives started getting pointed out. Look on the bright side. Season tickets will be cheaper, so we might sell 10 more than we did last year.

Is this his first public appearance? I can't recall seeing him at any sporting event.