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Long Beach State transfer Loren Jackson visited Akron yesterday. Rated a 3 star prospect and #9 PG in IL when he came out of HS. http://www.longbeachstate.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/loren_jackson_1028260.html

He was a Rivals 3 star out of HS. http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/malcolm-duvivier

Antino was a gritty player. Not afraid of the big stage. He was a spotty 3-point shooter who struggled to finish at the rim. His defense was marginal at best. Marginal assist guy too. Overall, and above-average MAC guard. But eminently replaceable. I look forward to using transferring his scholarship to a young, skilled player who wants to be a Zip.

HOF Luncheon article

Antino who?

Figure we should have a Browns thread on here as I imagine a lot of us are also fans of the team that plays on the shore of Lake Erie. Tomorrow is a big day. I'm a big believer in these guys in charge. Sashi, Paul, Hue, and Williams. Last season was very rough, but I think they are positioned pretty well for the future (outside of QB). With that said, I don't hate Kessler. He was better statistically than Wentz last season in just about every category, but I think he is limited. Bunch of reports saying its split between Garrett and Trubs right now. I think its Garrett. The draft really starts at 2.

ECU transfer Deng Riak had a visit to Akron yesterday. 4 star ESPN recruit out of HS. http://247sports.com/player/deng-riak-80532 http://insider.espn.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/player/evaluation/_/id/202584/deng-riak

Breaking!

That would be justice, wouldn't it? Although, she obviously lacks the patience and customer service skills. You'll find her doing Sports on a TV station somewhere like Des Moines Iowa sometime soon.

I'm sure Groce knows about him from his time in Illinois. Physically, he looks like a drop-in replacement for Antino. #9-rated PG in Illinois is pretty impressive.

Any other qualifications to your original statement? The coaches and media vote on MAC Player of the Year. It wasn't even remotely close. I distinctly recall people pi$$ing and moaning about Zeke until he was gone and we had to watch Forsythe for a couple if years. Sure. Big Dog had defensive shortcomings, much like Zeke had offensive shortcomings, but to deride his contribution is ridiculous.

It's not really that crazy. Another good year could put him on the radar. He wouldn't sniff the NBA right now

They very well might end up being terrible evaluators of talent. Time will tell. Either way I feel they have a really good plan. Now it's just a matter of if they can turn that draft capital into players that can actually perform. As long as teams are willing to continue giving up next years 3rd rounder for this years 4th rounder, I expect the Browns under this regime to always expose that market deficiency.

Great points, from both of you; and I get the enthusiasm...I'm starting to feel better about the Browns (pending what they do in this draft). My biggest concern of course is the idea of asset acquisition; when do you stop acquiring "chance" and take quality. Statistically speaking yes you do have a better chance of hitting on a good player by trading out of 1, picking at two lower picks. But the last decade of history has shown that trading down for more picks does nothing for you if you don't actually find a player worthy of the pick, which goes to evaluation of talent. Yes the book is still out on their evaluation of talent (one year isn't enough I agree), but so far I'm not impressed. But lets be real here, probably most criticism is from 17 years of watching garbage, bad decisions, which isn't fair to judge them on. Side Note: I'd love to see one of the Zips players in the draft to land in a Browns uniform...probably as a UFA, but it would go a long way to making me feel like the Browns are actually paying attention and doing their homework. The steelers have made a significant effort to watch MAC talent, and go out and get it. The Browns really missed on Jatavis Brown, and Akron is pretty easy for Browns brass to pay attention to being 40-min drive, where most players would probably be over looked.

minor correction, it would be for a 5th year, not a 6th. side note: I find it amusing that Jaaron Simmons pulls a Dambrot and blames his conference for not achieving his goals while Tony Campbell is willing to postpone a pro career overseas (and possibly in the NBA) for a year for a chance to play one more time in the MAC.

Jimond was front row center. Smart kid. The Antino story is warmed over blahness.

One draft is too small of a sample size to give a fair evaluation. A huge part of last years draft was acquiring extra picks for this year and next years draft. It's also too soon to speculate how Coleman and others from last draft will pan out. We actually picked up Jamie Collins using a compensatory pick they acquired from letting one of Gibson, Schwartz, or Mack walk (not sure exactly which one). I believe in the philosophy of acquiring picks and exploiting other teams overvaluing this years picks over future years picks to maximize our return. They are pushing the envelope to find ways of acquiring more assets. Now it's just a matter of hitting on those picks and statistically speaking the more picks you have, the better your odds should be. For once I actually feel the Browns have a real plan that is something more than just trying to rubber band and glue a team together then hope for the best.

Yep. Finally scored one.

Go to your safe place. It will all be ok after you do that and your mom brings you ice cream.

the power of the horrible Zip Nation posters who can run off any player we want at anytime. Yeah, right, we are the puppet masters.

I think he would have thrived this year in Groce's system, but next man up. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!

No bad situation? What about all the fans and boosters putting down good players just because they don't want to play for someone who didn't recruit them? All this "they're dead to me" crap has to stop. I swear half the posters here are like thirteen year-olds after their first break-up.

They were for sale at the surplus sale.

Stopppppppppp

There's no bad situation at Akron. Whatever. No great loss... Seriously.

The last hurrah, I guess

Please have Britt McHenry on that list. I think she's awful.

ESPN layoffs continue and could reach 100.

Next recruit up. Good luck to David. meanwhile we are building something special.

Just looking at the depth chart on verbal commits and wow, we are going to see pretty much a completely different team next year. And one that is super young. If I'm seeing things correctly, we are made up of mostly freshman and sophomores. It's going to be a long summer waiting for this team to take the court. I don't remember the last time I was this interested in Zips basketball this early before the next season.

Nick Harney in the 2013 MAC Championship.