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Miami had a man closely on Bowen even when the ball was on the other side of the court. To his credit, he is contributing in ways other than being a shooter this year. He's just streaky. My opinion is that his accuracy is directly related to his form. When he has time, squares up and is steady, it goes in. When he rushes and is drifting to one side or the other his shooting suffers. As for Evan, he's not in the lineup for his shooting. You can see now that the opponents know it and are almost daring him to shoot when he's on the perimeter. I think Pete Suder could tell you why Evan is in the lineup.

Evan is doing great. 4th in scoring average #1 offensive rebounds #1 steals My eye test thinks big Stank should play more.

I don't see it going away anytime soon. Millionaire boosters get to pretend to be sport owners without the multi-billion dollar price tag. It will only go away when booster fatigue settles in, but even then maybe a school like Indiana will see someone like Cuban slowdown on his spending, but there is probably another booster worth 100s of millions at some other school that will take his place. Some schools like Alabama, OSU, or Notre Dame have such a large fanbase that they will always be able to attract the corporate dollars to fund the program. If you see anything it will probably be the ~50 schools with the means break away from the rest and form their own league. You're kind of already seeing it with the B1G and SEC raiding the best teams from the former PAC-12 and Big 12.

TBF I'm sure not 100% who enter are expecting to find a better home. I'm sure some are entering because their coaches were very candid with them that they aren't cut for this level. Some also probably want to drop down to get playing time or prefer playing closer to home. It's hard to pencil in how many of the transfers entered expecting a payday or not.

I also believe he missed a game or two for disciplinary reasons as well if I remember correctly.

I thought Jake would stay primarily because he has something to prove and last season he was not a real factor at the TE position. He has all the physical tools to have a good year and I wish him well. I also hope he stays injury free. That was not the case this past season. His leaving the program does not impact us that much.

Limits the options for the Papa John's sub of the game.

Evan, unlike Bowman, wasn't brought in to shoot. He can impact the game without the ball in his hands. In the games he scores double figures its usually because of run outs or offensive put backs. Not really by creating his own offense. Offensively he's probably overachieved considering he's shooting 10% from beyond the arc compared to his career average.

Another one gone to greener pastures

He only played 7 minutes against Miami. I'm kind of surprised he even got 4 shot attempts off. Then again at least 1, maybe 2 were designed plays out of an inbounds. It definitely seems Groce is shrinking the rotation. Only 6 players played over 10 minutes. 2 players played exactly 10 minutes and 1 player (Bowman) played 7.

We're facing Troy on Feb. 7 in the 2nd round of the MAC-SBC. They're currently 10-5 (3-0) and are 125 in the NET. They beat Kent but lost to Toledo (in a holiday tournament). https://gozips.com/news/2026/1/6/mens-basketball-second-round-of-the-mac-sbc-challenge-announced-zips-set-to-travel-to-troy

And Groce's 2nd Buckeye pick-up, Evan, had a combined point total of 10 (TEN) points against Murray State, Miami, and Yale. I'm not ready to say they are "whiffs" for this season but...

Zips legend Jim Dennsion has passed. https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/sports/college/zips/2026/01/05/jim-dennison-died-obit-akron-zips-football-coach-walsh/77733069007/ https://medina-gazette.com/news/453612/college-football-wadsworth-native-jim-dennison-dies-at-87/ https://gozips.com/news/2026/1/5/general-akron-athletics-mourns-loss-of-hall-of-fame-football-coach-and-athletics-director-jim-dennison https://www.beaconjournal.com/obituaries/pwoo1374962

But can we get one of them? 😆

Don’t know if it’s accurate but I just read that there are currently 188 QB’s in the Transfer Portal

If you feel daring, you can get CMU at +2200 on the moneyline.

Since November 29th he's 9-34 from the three line. That's 26.5%, which is horrible for a "hired gun/sharpshooter."

Ham you see what is happening at the "bigger" D1 schools? Iowa State was left with 16 players on their roster ! That is insane... JMU went to the playoffs, lost their head coach, and then lost their entire starting offense to the portal and graduation. Cincinnati qb just got 5 million to go be Texas Tech qb for one year. That is more than Shadeur Sanders rookie contract, I am no Shadeur Sanders fan mind you, but that is crazy... College football until controlled is going to be like MLB free agency without a salary cap. The players will get while they can get and get what they can get. If a kid doesn't think they are going to make it to the NFL better get paid now... When Finn left for Toledo, Weiner (Toledo QB Coach) told me personally that he was receiving 400k to go Baylor and that he had to do what was best for his family. He played 3 games threw 23 passes and rushed the ball 21 times. He made $133,33.33 a game! I'd say that was a pretty good investment if he doesn't make it to the NFL. The money being thrown at these players is mindboggling. It won't last forever... Something will have to give either some type of cap, some type of super conference, or something else but even the smaller P-4 schools can't compete. Backup offensive linemen at Pitt get 100k and they are the backups... A lot of these athletes are making the decision of do I want the money or do I want to play football knowing they may never get on the field and be just a back up?

Bowen has one job to do: make 3s. He needs to start doing his job.

Over 4000 in the portal? 30+/ team? nearly 40% of the roster? That's hard to believe. I know some teams loose more than others, but if this is true D1 football is in a real bad place.

Beaven references Miami game statistics & I found this interesting: Akron held an edge over Miami in rebounds (37-36), assists (14-12), steals (11-6), points in the paint (38-18) and points from reserves (27-0), but lost. The teams each committed 15 turnovers. Personal hot take: I think we should move Shammah & Eric back into the starting lineup. We haven't been playing with as much moxie since Groce made the switch.

Looks like Myers went the JUCO route out of high school before landing at ODU, while Hilburn will be coming straight from JUCO. Both receivers were very productive at that level, albeit as two different types of players. Hilburn looks like a guy who could step right in on both kickoff and punt return. If Brookhart can get similar production out of them as they had in JUCO, then these two commitments should be excellent additions.

Good point LZip. I never claimed to be the brightest. I assumed he decommitted before the offer from Akron came but you could be right. He had decent numbers. I'm willing to give anyone a chance.