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Funny that Kent's Paul Hayes spent several years at Ohio State, yet all the OSU transfers seem to prefer Akron. Speaks well for the respect our staff has. Tough choice: You can play for Bowden and Amato...or Laurel and Hardy.

What about the Hall of Bain?

George Thomas ‏@GeorgeThomasABJ 6m6 minutes ago Warren Ball, 6-1 RB from Ohio State will graduate and transfer to UA to play for @ZipsFB, according to a source. This is huge. Guy was highly rated IIRC. Never saw the field due to all of the talent in front of him.

This guy could be a 1,500 yard rusher if he stays healthy. Good news in the depths of Winter. Bell should have his sights set on Mike Clark's 1986 single season rushing record of 1,786.

After the Toledo game, I questioned how this team would perform after they got blown out by Toledo and KD questioned the heart of the team since he indicated on the post game show how they were taking poor shots and not playing with any toughness. However, the last 4 games the team has turned it around. We are playing better defense, forcing more turnovers, and stopping the uncontested dribble drives. More importantly, we have improved in the one area I thought was a weakness on this team this year and last year, getting to the foul line and making foul shots. In the first 4 games, we were outshot at the foul line, 96 to 73, In the last 4 games we outshot the opposition 95 to 57 and are shooting around 80% at the foul line. In our last game we had 18 assist. We are no longer seeing guys dribble left, dribble right and shoot a three or a pick and pop three. The ball is going through our big men who draw fouls, our wings are attacking the basket and our three point shots are coming off assist. I think KD has done a good job of getting these guys to play good team ball and stop taking the easy three ball. Further, this is the only year that I can remember where there have not been any complaints from this board about the rotation. KD is playing 7 guys full time and the frosh, Josh and Ivey, are getting about 25 minutes together. Although the post might be premature, I think KD has done a good job turning this team around.

Vetted by OSU? There is no higher order of morality than the ability to keep a scholarship at OSU.

I am excited about this kid and certainly hope that he pans out, but I gotta say something. . . The opinions on this board make me giggle sometimes. Stars mean absolutely nothing when our recruits don't have them but those same stars carry so much more weight when they do. Hopefully Ball can ball like a legit 4 star baller for the Zips against Ball State & the rest of the MAC.

Has UA ever had a higher caliber RB? I'm more worried about the OL than him. Not being able to get time over the likes of Carlos Hyde and Zeke Elliot isn't a knock against him.

Wow, an awful of of enthusiasm over an unproven guy. I'm excited as this certainly has potential to be a real coup for Akron, but I wouldn't sign him up for UA HOF quite yet.

I just viewed a small story on Fox 8 news at lunchtime on the bobbleheads?!? After reading the story, the two teleprompter readers went on to have a conversation about what it would have been like if LeBron played at Akron, instead of pursuing a professional career directly out of high school. The lady that reads the teleprompter thought he made a good choice.

Play it loud.

He's listed at 6'1" 225 now. He was 200 back then.

This is from 4.5 years ago. This is also before 4 years of Ohio State workouts and drills. This is also before learning from Urban Meyer, Carlos Hyde, and Zeke Elliot. This guy can be a gamechanger. Looks like Ohio State was where he wanted to go from the get-go. He had other P5 offers but, being from Columbus, he committed to Ohio State.

He was a four-star prospect who was ranked as the No. 13 running back by Scout.com, No. 16 by Rivals.com and No. 26 by ESPNU Rushed for 1,232 yards and 29 touchdowns as a DeSales senior and was named first-team Division III all-state. Meh... certainly not as good as Bethune Cookman or Lamar pulled in this year, but we're desperate, so we can give him a look.

Akron's RPI climbed to 40. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/rpi/_/sort/RPI Kenpom has them at 63 http://kenpom.com Lunardi has them as a 13th seed. https://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

Their arrival on campus along with the promotion of KD to head coach marks the beginning of the winning for the Zips basketball program.

I've been crunching some numbers on the mid-major teams who still have at large aspirations (usuing KenPom). The Zips compare pretty well to almost all of them: Valpo, Stony Brook, Chattanooga, Monmouth, UNC-Wilmington, William & Mary, James Madison, Hawaii, UC Irvine, St. Mary's, etc. The problem is there are not many elite teams this year, so the P5 schools are spreading top 50/100 wins around more than usual. Then the A10 and American are really going to squeeze the true mid majors out of a spot or two. Take Temple, they are 15-8, but have 5 top 50 wins. 7 of their losses are to teams ranked in the top 117 (cutoff for top 1/3). While I think Akron is better than Temple, no way can Akron's resume compare to that. Same with Houston, while Akron is closer in resume, the Cougars have 5 top 100 wins (Akron has 1). Even Tulsa probably has a stronger case. Like Temple, they are 15-8. They have 4 top 100 wins. And they also have 7 top 100 losses. Plus, they have three eye-opening wins: Wichita State (11), UConn (22) and @SMU (23). Looks like the American could go from a 2 bid league (Cincy, UConn) to a 3-5 one. Situation is the same in the A10. A couple weeks ago, it looked like just a two bid league (Dayton and VCU). Now, St. Joseph's is definitely in and George Washington and St. Bonaventure have resumes comparable to Akron's. It won't get five, but three is a lock and four is realistic. I went through who I thought was in and came up with 66 schools (every true MM as a one bid league). That would mean only two open spots ... Probably one for Wichita State and Gonzaga if neither win an auto bid. If both win, then those spots are back open, but probably a dozen teams who have pretty similar resumes. This team has played its way closer to an at large than it ever has. But one more loss (before the MAC title game) ends those hopes. Even with just a MAC title game loss, while I think enough of Akron's comps would also falter where the Zips would claim one of the last couple spots, its not a given. Bottom line, its still about winning in Cleveland (like it always is).

from zips msoc twitter DeAndre Yedlin entered for Sunderland in the 75th minute today, with his side trailing Liverpool 2-0 & helped them fight back to a 2-2 draw. 7 retweets 20 likes