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The officiating was deplorably inconsistent. Just awful. By any standard anywhere. There was something about the artificial turf on the training fields adjacent to Historic Crew Stadium. Although the weather was dry and sunny, players from both teams kept slipping and sliding to ground. This persisted the entire match. The turf itself was dry to the touch. Was everyone wearing the wrong cleats? And no one adjusted? These conditions exacerbated the already overly physical play and reluctant refereeing. Terrible! Hopefully, no lasting injuries were sustained. This competition finale had been hosted in the actual Historic Crew Stadium some five (or more) years running. Rumor is that the new UFL franchise renting the stadium as home did not want the soccer field lines showing concurrently with the football field lines. Imagine that. Never mind that Historic Crew Stadium was the first soccer specific stadium built in the USA. Irony abounds! Consequently, the collegiate Spring League (or whatever) was bumped to the training facility. Restrooms were literally one half mile from the meager seating. It is doubtful any of the schools involved will want anything about this scenario repeated, so the Spring League has likely come to an end. It was fun while it lasted. Standouts for Zips were (unsurprisingly) Matt Dreas, Matthew Paiva and Farrel Ngongang.

We all rip Sendy for being a clown, which he is, but he seemingly brokered this with his Kelvin Sampson connection. Good on him for taking care of his guys, especially one that gave 4 years to Kent. With that being said, Kent sucks.

It was a 1-1 tie while losing in a shootout. The teams were evenly matched. Louisville is vastly improved over last Spring. We used the game to see who fit where. Many freshman got PT. We have a lot of talent not yet on campus and that is great because we have some holes to fill. I thought Rourke, Freddy K. and Dreas played very well. Jared used this to clearly evaluate what we have and where he needs to mine the portal. Expect a completely different team than this Spring to Open up next Fall against Dayton.

Good move for him. He will make a lot of money with the opportunity to get PT and play for a national contender.

After having guards named Sharron and Shammah on the court together which scrambled my simple, little brain…we will now have a Tai’Ree and a Tahj. 🤦‍♂️

First of all, the Tahj addition fits the system already in place. Time will tell, but this leads me to think Ford isn’t looking to make drastic offensive changes. I agree with this statement. I thought with the loss TJ to graduation bringing in senior leadership at PG was going to be necessary. And with Young in the portal, he is a good insurance policy, but won’t necessarily step on Young’s toes if he decides to stay. They are complimentary pieces. Just like TJ, Young and Scott were this year. He could very well be PG1. Hopefully there’s a vigorous battle this offseason with Young. But again, they likely share the PG responsibilities and play together a bunch. Tai’Ree will be in the PG rotation as well.

Zips add Tahj Staneskie. Zips entering the portal with a possibility of returning; Bowen Hardman, Sharron Young, Eric Mahaffey, Ognjen Stankovic. (Still on the chart in green) Those not likely to return; Connor Groce and Rich Brisco.

Enrique should play next game! 😂

I saw on Twitter that it ended in a 1-1 draw with Louisville winning on PKs 7-6. Overall, I think it was a good spring with three wins and two draws, plus the offense is looking good which can sometimes take time to get going. Looking forward to the fall!

Do we have any ZN members on-site at the match today?

Based on how bad they're screwing up the football marketing around the spring game...you're probably right.

I am actually interested if we keep the streak of adding one player from Ohio State each season. 😂

So you're saying that this was a terrible idea from Kent and Akron is right to not do anything to try and grow the fanbase: Kent State Football on X: "𝗞𝗜𝗗𝗦 𝗗𝗔𝗬 Thank you to everyone who came out this morning and spent your morning with us! ⚡️ https://t.co/n1d5BOLBZs" / X

this is the best Bud's computer program can spit out? nothing from Ohio State, WV, or Cornell?

Dr Darrell Scott has quite a set of posts on X!

Taje and Four Dudes from Concord will be my guess.

Wow, he looks like a home-grown kid right out of the foothills of the Ohio River. All he needs is some overalls, no shirt or shoes and a little brown jug.

There's some truth to that, but TJ shot .506 from the field (.373 from 3) vs. .403 (.333) for SY so it was more than a playing time result. I hope SY comes back but at this point I think ZNO is looking at potential instead of results. Either way, it looks like a good portal addition.

I'm interested to see what Cody provides. He had a pretty great year a s a freshman before regressing as a sophomore. I'm not really certain how he's performed in practice.

Yeah, I'm not sure what expectations some had for the portal. Outside of maybe Evan (whose game had limitations), this is probably the most proven player we've gotten in the NIL era. Typically we've targeted under the radar talent that we saw potential in. I don't see why he can't be as good, or better, than Young. He likely can't replace what TJ did and that's okay. ~6' guards who shoot ~50%/40%/90% and average close to 20 points per game are fetching far more money than we can afford. We were never going to be able to instantaneously replace that in 1 signing. Edit: I will add I would be disappointed if this was our only portal signing, but it's not going to be. Hard to make judgements until we see how things fill in.

I guess with Tajh being from Ohio, connection to Shammal, Akron success, early commitment, etc.. this cost us little.

Really hoping Sharron comes back, because I think he, Tahj, Cody, and Tai would form a really nice backcourt.

viable at the very least

Sharron had intangibles that no one else had and that's unmeasurable IMO. And he was behind TJ so that's why the stats aren't there.