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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/17/2019 in all areas

  1. Not sure that's a fair statement. The landscape of college basketball and recruiting is changing. Groce has been tasked with stopping the bleeding, and 4 year players don't exactly do that at this level, especially when some of your initial 4 year players aren't locker room fits. Get me a winning product. I don't care if that's 10 4 year players, 10 1 year players, 10 JUCOs, or a concoction of everything. Win.
    5 points
  2. ...and his mommy didn't have to pretend he was on the crew team and pay half a mill to get him in!
    5 points
  3. I thought we could compete for a MAC title next year had Utomi returned. Watching Cheese and LCJ progress along with knowing we'd be adding Williams gave me hope we could make strides to improving our offense enough to win in a very weakened MAC. We already had the best defense in the MAC. Fast forward to now and I don't see a real plan. We have 4 graduating seniors on next years team and an additional 5 the year after. The goal should have been to try to win this upcoming season while the MAC is down and before he have to rebuild. Instead of going out and adding a grad transfer that could help replace Utomi's production, our prized off-season acquisition can't even play this season and we now have to spend 2 years worth of scholarships to get 1 year of eligibility. Looking at the scholarship chart @Illini Zip kindly tracks I just don't see where in the next 4 years that we'll be a serious contender for a MAC title. I'm expecting us to hover around mediocrity. I'm not ready to call for Groce head, but I'm certainly losing faith in him.
    3 points
  4. It is so hard to separate the good news from the bad news in Iowa City. For the record, Dailey is a very good player. Very underutilized in Iowa City, partly because Mad Fran would try to use 10-man rotations. I don't think he ever got a fair shot. He doesn't seem like a disgruntled kid, even though he has good reasons to be. He is very articulate and thoughtful. I think he will bring maturity, not baggage.
    3 points
  5. ...he's also not 6'11".
    3 points
  6. 2 points
  7. That would make Cykron happy!
    2 points
  8. I was hoping for more activity today as well. There is still an open scholarship so maybe something is still in the works. The frustrating part for me is so much of the recruiting process is unknown. Other than watching Verbal Commits we really don't have any idea how things are truly playing out. As they say, recruiting is fluid. I do think Maishe Dailey will bring maturity, athleticism, tough defense and experience from playing in the NCAA tourney this year. Not to mention he has Iowa on his resume. I know they haven't all worked out, but Groce has picked up transfers from Oregon State (Duvivier), Florida (Hester), East Carolina (Riak), South Carolina (Gueye), Dayton (Williams) and now Iowa (Dailey). If nothing else Groce is resourceful, but I do think hearing those other programs has to weigh positively with new recruits. Also, these transfer guys are not intimidated by playing against teams from power conferences and should promote growth within the program. That said, I too prefer the bulk of new recruits come out of high school. Another thing to keep in mind is Groce might have already recruited and locked up his next recruiting class which will be signing in the Fall. How does finishing off this class mesh with them and his overall plan? Again, I am only speculating. Who knows?! I am very happy for Utomi and truly hope he has a great run with USC. I think the decision to move on was mutual. Utomi was maxed out in this system. When he is left alone he can make defenses pay with the big shot. USC should really like his production and strong bodied defense. But I also remember watching that last game against Buffalo and both Utomi and Ivey lost their footing and hit the floor like drunk sailors trying their hardest to drive against their defense. His lack of quickness and inability to drive and close-out effectively against athletic competition was only going to hold us back. This move was a win-win in my opinion.
    1 point
  9. GT told me he's doing the graduate transfer thing.
    1 point
  10. First off, Utomi was a key piece of our top 25 defense. He played nearly 34 mpg on that top 25 defense and was a versatile defender who played great team defense. Secondly, his shooting wasn't the problem. He shot 37.3% from 3, which is a down year for Utomi, but is still pretty damn good for a volume shooter. In fact, only 43 out of 351 D1 teams shot the ball better than Utomi's 37.3% clip. Your turnover complaint is revisionist history. Akron had the fewest turnovers in the MAC and despite Utomi being the #1 scoring option on the team, he was 4th on the team in turnovers per game with a modest 1.8 per game. You're really expecting Dailey to be the leader on a team he has never previously been a part of? Utomi and Ivey were the leaders on the team and both are now gone. I'd guess Cheese and LCJ will have to be the ones to step into that role now, not Dailey. I have no idea what Toles and Reece will do. Williams I have already shown optimism for. The MAC is going to be really bad this coming year so we might still end up contending, but I'd like our odds much more had Utomi stayed or we added someone who could have helped fill in for his loss. There is a reason Utomi had a long list of P5s interested in him. He plays great team defense, can guard multiple positions, and is a career 39.3% 3P% shooter. I think you really underestimate what he brought to the team.
    1 point
  11. Thank you. It's called Optimism. And no, I didn't get it from a former PG. He was selling stuff called Ceiling, named after the coach that recruited him.
    1 point
  12. He really looks like an Utomi type spot-up shooter, and at 6-7 with B1G experience, I could see Maishe as an impact senior, similar to Mal Duvivier a year ago. That said, this team has so many holes, we need all we can get, and coach clearly has trouble landing 4-year players.
    1 point
  13. Nice article describing his defensive intensity. https://247sports.com/college/iowa/Article/Iowa-Hawkeyes-Basketball-Maishe-Dailey-Transfer-Akron-Zips-Fran-McCaffery-Big-Ten-131227486/
    1 point
  14. No, Hester. Didn't even know Dre posted - the beauty of the Block Button. Admins should look into a "Send To Duquesne Forum" button, that takes troll posts from ZN and posts them to the Duquesne message board instead.
    1 point
  15. Who? Dre? We KNOW where he is....Trollsville!
    1 point
  16. He's been gone for a good 7+ months already.
    1 point
  17. It means he hasn't graduated yet
    1 point
  18. Evan Bush had a few crraaazy stops vs. Crew.
    1 point
  19. Let's be honest here. A kid who was recruited to a Big 10 school generally has the talent to succeed in the MAC.
    1 point
  20. he will add practice depth.
    1 point
  21. Comes from a big school that played in the tourney and was ranked most of the year. His big at 6’7” as well
    1 point
  22. Does anyone remember how excited we were to get Forsythe, a West Virginia transfer who did not have to sit out a year. He had some great games but it did not end well.
    0 points
  23. Florida, Akron to Tallahassee Junior College. Anyone else see a trend here.
    0 points
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