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2019-2020 Akron Zips Basketball- Looking Forward


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3 hours ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:
19 hours ago, akronzips71 said:

That explains why he is 19.

 But he had all conference honors in High School. How does no one offer him a scholarship? At his size there has to be a program that takes a chance on him, the world is not full of athletes that size who also happened to be all conference in High School.

 

I thought 6'10" was the threshold by which everyone should be judged by and given a scholarship offer if that requirement is met? ?

ONLY FOR POINT GUARDS

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2 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

College ball just in general is a much different game. It's more comparable to the European game than the NBA. The NBA seems much more focused on individual performance and hero ball tactics. College ball is a much more team oriented game.

 

If they could just get those cool lanes that widen as they get closer to the baselines!

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10 hours ago, NWAkron said:

Nice!  Why did he leave Dayton?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something with either a coaching change and he didn't fit into the game plan as much, or he slowly faded out of playing time. Regardless, he's an A10 talent with a P5 body and solid experience that will instantly help us out this year. I think he's going to be like Linhart. 

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11 hours ago, NWAkron said:

Nice!  Why did he leave Dayton?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of his stats dropped off from his sophomore to junior year.  Apparently, he hurt his back mid-season and when he returned he was essentially phased out.  Here's a good explanation-

 

https://www.whio.com/news/jablonski-transfer-decision-xeyrius-williams-not-surprise/yNBTRliP7JT16XaGie6BFI/

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His sophomore year he was 4th in minutes played for a Dayton team that won the regular season A10 title. There was a coaching change his junior year and his numbers and playing time kind of took a hit. I can't recall who said it, but a poster on here who watched some of the practices last season said if he was eligible last season he would have been our best player.

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27 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

His sophomore year he was 4th in minutes played for a Dayton team that won the regular season A10 title. There was a coaching change his junior year and his numbers and playing time kind of took a hit. I can't recall who said it, but a poster on here who watched some of the practices last season said if he was eligible last season he would have been our best player.

 

Yep, Archie Miller leaving for Indiana coupled with the injury combined to end his time at Dayton.

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47 minutes ago, AkronAlumnus said:

Any validity behind X's chance of winning MAC player of the year? 

 

Read an article over the summer that gave him the third highest odds to win POY, however, I can not find the article anymore. 

 

Hard to say considering I haven't seen what he will look like in Groce offense or know how he will fit in with the other cast of players. Personally, I'd think Knapke, German, Sibande, or Graves would be the early season favorites.

 

Edit: The more respectable preseason polls should be coming out in about 2 weeks. You should get a better sense of where people see him relative to others by then.

Edited by kreed5120
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1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

 

Hard to say considering I haven't seen what he will look like in Groce offense or know how he will fit in with the other cast of players. Personally, I'd think Knapke, German, Sibande, or Graves would be the early season favorites.

 

Edit: The more respectable preseason polls should be coming out in about 2 weeks. You should get a better sense of where people see him relative to others by then.

 

Preseason polls and "more respectable". What a relative oxymoron. 

 

Agreed about Knapke, German, Sibande, and Graves. 

Edited by Let'sGoZips94
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3 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Preseason polls and "more respectable". What a relative oxymoron. 

 

Agreed about Knapke, German, Sibande, and Graves. 

By respectable I meant polls that are actually voted upon by people (coaches/media) that actually follow the league, not some random internet blogger.

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37 minutes ago, AkronAlumnus said:

According to Kenpom.com Akron ranks 124th out of 353 teams. Four MAC teams ahead of us. 

 

This is a respectable pre-season ranking. Even at our peak, our typical pre-season rankings put us ~100 (+/- 10) at the highest before working our way up to the 50s-60s. 

 

The four teams ahead of us...

 

KSUcks (118)

BUGS (117)

Buffalo (93)

Toledo (82)

 

Regarding Groce's comments...

 

- I like hearing the team chemistry seems to be good

- WE HAVE DEPTH?!

- I would be shocked if we aren't one of the best - if not THE (sue me, OSUcks) best - conditioned team in the MAC. Following the team's social media, they hit fitness HARD this off-season, including Orange Theory Fitness which I've done; it's no joke on the public class level, and I can't imagine how it was tweaked for the team. 

- Who was the scrimmage against? He said, "Andy's program."

Edited by Let'sGoZips94
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2 hours ago, kangaroo kid said:

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/ranking-every-college-basketball-team-from-no-1-to-353-for-2019-20-and-an-interesting-fact-on-every-team/

 

FWIW, CBS has us at 155:

 

"155. Akron: Top-three defensive team in the MAC, but there are still plenty of questions on how the team can score enough to win 20 games."

Have to laugh at choke-monsters Toledo Rockets being at the head of the pack.

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17 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

Buffalo received some good news today. Buffalo AD tweeted out today that the NCAA approved Texas Tech transfer Josh Mballa waiver so he'll now be eligible this season.

 

image.png

 

Solid news for them. 6'7" 215 lbs Sophomore. Excerpts from Texas Tech's website...

 

FRESHMAN SEASON (2018-19)
Mballa appeared in 17 games in his freshman season for the Red Raiders with a season-high three points at Kansas… He also scored in games against Incarnate Word, Northern Colorado, Northwestern State, Abilene Christian and Baylor… Mballa finished the season 4-for-9 from the field and had two blocked shots coming against Kansas and West Virginia... He gained NCAA Tournament experience in the second-round win over Buffalo and the Sweet 16 victory over Michigan.

PRIOR TO TEXAS TECH
Mballa is a strong rebounder and defender who is long, athletic and plays with a high motor … Prepped at Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut under Tom Espinosa, the same program as forward Malik Ondigo … Team turned in a 38-4 record and won the program’s first national championship in 2018 … Mballa was born in Detroit, Michigan but grew up in Bordeaux, France where he played for Kameet Academy while growing up before coming back to the United States for high school...  Possesses extensive international experience with the French National Team … Played in the FIBA U17 World Championships in 2016 and the FIBA U18 European Championships in 2017 … Posted 7.4 points and 4.9 rebounds per game during the 2017 event … Signed his Athletic Scholarship Agreement (ASA) in July 2018.

 

Their cupboard still emptied with last year's graduating class. We'll see how they're able to re-tool - IF they're able to re-tool. 

 

17 hours ago, zvillezip said:

Robert Morris, coach Andrew Toole

 

https://watchstadium.com/news/not-so-secret-list/

 

 

Interesting. Looking forward to hearing how the scrimmage against Xavier ends up in 2 days. 

 

16 hours ago, kreed5120 said:

Any reason we don't schedule Robert Morris in the regular season? They're probably better than any team we play at home this year in OOC play outside of maybe UMass.

 

*Plugs Robert Morris into the Excitement Meter*

 

Oh! I think it twitched! Wait... Nevermind. That was just Joe Akron tapping on it to see if it's working. 

 

14 hours ago, NWAkron said:

Have to laugh at choke-monsters Toledo Rockets being at the head of the pack.

 

They have the most experience returning. Choke-masters or not, this shows how wide open the MAC is this year. 

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