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This is an Akron Zip board....and we obviously all deservedly want to pay credit to former zip great Darlington Nagbe and legendary former zip coach Caleb Porter. However, I also want to pay credit to the "architect". The architect also has some Akron connections. The architect is 39 year old general manager Tim Bezbatchenko. Bezbatchenko was heavily involved in building the great Toronto teams (won an MLS cup in 2017). This was Bezbatchenko's 2nd year as Crew general manager. He has obviously made brilliant decisions....Nagbe, Zelarayan, etal and this 39 year old leader deserve a ton of credit. The Akron connection for Mr. Bezbatchenko. His grandmother and one of his uncles are both Akron zip mens soccer season ticket holders. Another one of Tim's uncles was the starting QB on some of Jim Dennison's finest gridiron teams in the mid to late 70's. Tremendous credit to Tim Bezbatchenko and Caleb Porter for building a MLS championship team in Columbus.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up for many of these early season games. I was really excited after the Cedarville game given how well Akron shot the ball, but as Tuesday's game approached I started to come down from the high of simply watching Akron basketball again to realize this team will be good, but they've got a ways to go before they're great. I think in a normal year, guys on the roster like Currie and Clarke have a great pre season and are well into the rotation by now. I really think Currie could make or break our chances at winning a title. Because what I've seen so far is when the three doesn't fall, the offense doesn't necessarily get frantic, they just try to force too much. Of course, in a normal year Aziz would have been here for months already and I would think would be in Freeman's spot. In the past, they had Cheese and X to rely on to either get to the bucket or make a mid range shot to open things up. Right now, this team doesn't have pieces like that. I was expecting Marshall to be more of a slasher, but so far he's been somewhat of a rebounding stretch 4. Do I want that from a guy like that? I don't think so right now. I'll take it since he plays his ass off and gives good minutes, but we've got enough guys spotting up. I knew Ali would improve his game, and I can't wait to see what he can develop into! I'd love to see the jumper come along more, and he's been masterful at making his own shots all over the floor so far. We even saw very small glimpses of that last year. LCJ is LCJ. I didn't think he was very good yesterday, but he's so amazing that even in a sub-par game he can single handedly keep the team afloat. If he hits a couple of those 3s before the half, that game could have been much different. In reality, I do not see him as winning POY again as teams have kind of figured him out. I'm not saying he can't, but when he gets forced to drive and teams take away the lob, he's forced to be more of a distributor, which is not the kind of PG that he is. This team can just about out-talent anyone in the league. I'm going to call Dailey's game yesterday a repeat of X against Louisville and hope it doesn't happen again. The pieces are there, this repeat will simply have to be a little bit more difficult for Groce than last year's title. I'm looking forward to Saturday, Go Zips!

Kipp is a great player but here is some perspective about winning award over Marousek: For most of his career, Kipp played behind a line that featured 3 Big 10 recruits and was throwing to Floriea who turned down BC for Kent, plus multiple other college players on Mentor, a perennial power. Marousek started at North Royalton (never a football power) as a freshmen and played for four years behind an offensive line that had I believe, zero (0) linemen who have played in college, anywhere, including D3. In fact, I believe there are only two kids from Marousek’s HS years that are currently playing in college, one at a D2 Tiffin and Akron’s Kyle Baumann , long snapper. When Kipp missed the semi final game this year due to COVID, they started a sophomore in his first game, who put up over thirty points and almost won the game. Marousek missed the final 4 games of his senior year due to injury so he wasn’t going to be up for any awards as compared to his Junior year, yet his team was 4-2 and looking for only their 4th playoff appearance ever. After he was hurt, they lost their final 4 games and 10 in a row including this year. I know a number of NR coaches and have followed them for years. Marousek was recruited D1 for both football and baseball. If Marousek is healthy, he will compete for the starting job. My prediction is Kipp is holding out maybe til the February signing date to see if any other offers come, otherwise he will join Floriea at Kent, with Crum leaving after next year.

Bowden took the program as far as he was going to take it. He got it back to somewhat a level of respectability. But, it was time to try to go to the next level in the MAC.

February 3rd Late Signing Day Signees: *Dontae Pollard, DB, 6-0, 195, Penn Hills HS, Penn Hills, PA *Garret Ramsey, WR, 6-4, 205, Newark HS, Newark, OH *Joe Malchesky, DB, 6-2, 195, Mentor Lake Catholic HS, Mentor, OH *Asian Burt, WR, 6-2, 195, St. Thomas Aquinas HS, Louisville, OH *Jalen Ross, WR, 6-3, 205, McKinley HS, Canton, OH *Dakari Bradford, TE, 6-5, 195, Lincoln Park HS, Western Beaver, PA *Mason Lovely, LB, 6-1, 210, Paintsville HS, Salyersville, KY Early Signing Day Signees: *Luke Bauer, LB, 5-11, 242, Archbishop Hoban HS, Akron, OH *Rishad Hence, CB, 5-11, 180, Martin Luther King HS, Detroit, MI *Noel Roach III, S, 6-2, 195, Penn Hills HS, Pittsburgh, PA *Darrian Lewis, ATH, 5-11, 180, SVSM HS, Akron, OH *Matthew Monaghan, TE, 6-5, 240, England *Rey'Noi Summersett, DE, 6-4, 230, North Mecklenburg HS, Huntersville, NC *Andre Proffitt, DT, 6-3, 281, Lakota West HS, West Chester, OH *Jasaiah Gathings, WR, 6-3, 190, Statesville HS, Statesville, NC *Oran Singleton, Jr., WR, 5-11, 185, Clewiston HS, Clewiston, FL *Myles Walker, WR, 5-11, 170, Central Valley HS, Monaca, PA *DJ Irons, QB, 6-6, 215, Iowa Central CC *Bennett Adler, DE, 6-2, 260, St. Ignatius HS, Cleveland, OH *Colin Lyons, OL, 6-5, 275, Mckeesport HS, Mckeesport, PA Current Greyshirts: *Ryan Jankowski, QB, 6-3, 190, Vero Beach HS, Vero Beach, FL *Konata Mumpfield, WR, 6-1, 180, Dacula HS, Hoschton, GA Transfers: *Jeslord Boateng, OLB, 6-2, 210, Dublin Coffman HS, Dublin, OH (Michigan State) *Anthony Williams, RB, 6-0, 195, Bolingbrook HS, Chicago, IL (Michigan State) *S.L. McCall, DE, 6-3, 240, Columbia HS, FL (Iowa Western CC) *Curtis Fann, DE, 6-2, 251, Emanuel County Institute, Twin City, GA (Florida State) *Karey Lee, DB, 6-0, 190, Thomasville, GA (Iowa Western CC) *Gavin Malott, OT, 6-9, 310, Trinity HS, Louisville, KY (Butler CC) *Nikolas Ognenovic, TE, 6-6, 235, Cardinal Gibbons HS, Ft. Lauderdale, FL (Kentucky) Total Signees: 29 Offense: 15 OL: 2 (Lyons, Malott) TE: 3 (Monaghan, Bradford, Ognenovic) QB: 2 (Jankowski, Irons) WR: 7 (Gathings, Singleton, Walker, Mumpfield, Ramsey, Burt, Ross) RB: 1 (Williams) Defense: 13 DL: 5 (Summersett, Proffitt, Adler, McCall, Fann) LB: 3 (Bauer, Boateng, Lovely) DB: 5 (Hence, Roach, Pollard, Malchesky, Lee) Athletes: 1 (Lewis) Specialists: 0 .......... PWO's: 3 (of which we are aware) Liam Colo, OL, 6-1, 310, Wadsworth HS, Wadsworth, Ohio Tyler Rieger, 6-0, 205, Upper St. Clair HS, Pittsburgh, PA (announced commitment via twitter on 2/2/21) Josh Bryant, RB, ??, ???, Middletown HS, Middletown, OH (announced commitment via twitter on 2/3/21)

Welcome Mike Wynn!

There's a management system at work and one of the questions it asks at sign on is "Your high school's mascot" The computer powers off if someone types in "Magic."

Thank goodness the Doylestown area went with the name Chippewa or you may have ended up with Doylestown Doylies. I'd be happy with Chipps!

Always felt it was kind of lame to have a nickname that was just a shortened name of your town/institution (St Bonaventure Bonnies, Duquesne Dukes). Wayne County seems to suffer a bit from this (Chippewa Chipps, Smithville Smithies). Thank goodness Wooster decided not to follow that trend.

I know we don't really need another 5'11", 160 lb. speedster, but I'd still love to see us sign Hoban's Kharion Davis.

Losing 28 days of team activities (practices, meetings, lifting etc..) really showed yesterday. Lots of rust to shake off. Zips will improve as some chemistry starts to build.

I was able to watch part of the first half and most of the second half yesterday. I was afraid of our penchant of relying on long range shots and playing in a completely empty NBA arena. The glaring difference that I saw yesterday was that once the perimeter shots weren't falling, one team adjusted and did the majority of their scoring in the paint.

Uhh...there is a fierce urgency of NOW. We need players to be "impactful" immediately.

Hold up - we forced 3 punts this year?

POST-GAZETTE ARTICLE Love this kid already. Please note the way Arth sold him on Akron.

I expect Dailey and Trimble to come around. Don't forget, they've been limited to practice for nearly two years.

Sounds like Kato's dad. I do agree that the competition should be wide open.

Yeah. If Dailey could have just hit a couple of his 3’s... but, no, he didn’t have a very good game. The newbie I was quite unimpressed with was Bryan Trimble. I hope that was simply a one-off.

My bad, confused him with Reese who was quite effective underneath.

Sounds like they've upped their academic game, if not basketball..

I only got to watch 6 or 7 minutes. From what I saw, they are definitely still in early season mode, where they usually are in mid-November when playing the Carolina directionals and Tennessee regionals. Figuring things out, ironing out lineup and defensive rotations, feeling each other out. Lots of new faces that will take time to gel. St. Bonaventure is a really good team and will be one of the top teams in the A10. They are better than any MAC team the Zips will see. Pleasantly surprised by Freeman. Marshall is much more of a player, and a different type of player, than I anticipated. I could see him as the starting 4 when things settle out. Sure wish we knew what was up with Currie. Oh, and we're all wrong. The Zips website currently has them beating St. B 81-74 and the Zips at 2-0. I think Groce walked into the post-game presser and told everyone the Zips had won and that anything to the contrary was fake news and fraud.

Athleticism wise, we're there. Shooting wise, we'll be there. Effort wise and defensively, lots of room for growth. One of those teams I could see Groce having ready for March, but it's going to be a turbulent regular season.

I had low expectations coming into this game, and leave it feeling pretty good. Dailey will need to get on track quickly, but he has a nice stroke, so I think he will. That will take some of the scoring burden off LCJ. Dawson looks much more confident, and with a much-improved 3-point shot. Same with Ali. Freeman is a revelation. What a blessing to have a walk-on big (height, not width) that's impactful. Especially when we're missing a couple bigs. Trimble looked out-of-sorts. I'll hope he's just shaking off some rust. Lots of new faces, and a tough opponent. Groce will figure it out. His teams always get better as the year progresses.

Sloppy. It’s gonna take a month for them to gel. Lots of talent though.

Not for a few more years. He has a full ride academic scholly already. Now you see why I thought he could be a starter.

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I have to set my alarm to remember to throw this on. Last year I'd have to stream this at the office on a 20" monitor. This year we're streaming this in the home office on the big screen. One of the perks of 2020!

Your post struck a good chord with me in that you are one of the few on here to ackowledge that one can be critical of Arth and Bowden at the same time. Since Bowden's departure people want to characterize everyone on here as Pro-Bowden/Anti-Arth or Pro-Arth/Anti-Bowden. I for one was anti-Bowden and my jury is still out on Arth, and I am critical of some of the things I have seen. At one win in two years, the jury is definitely leaning towards convicting Arth but it is still out.

Zippy you raise thoughts about the coaching staff and that usually brings out a variety of strong opinions, especially amongst the crowd that won't accept Bowden's firing. I do and I'm glad he's gone. There is one thing about this staff that to me is fact, not opinion. It is that they will have to grow into the position of a competent staff. They aren't there yet, but if they can grow I'm OK with that. I like that they (Arth) are character driven. I have no issue with not playing any player who is not meeting their standards, on and off the field. I do have an issue with them not showing they can improve the product during the course of the season. Last year we showed no growth. This year was the same except for Dollard and I consider him to be akin to catching lightning in a bottle by accident. If Arth can learn to be a competent HC and his staff can keep up I will give him the life of his contract to show it. One thing is for certain though. Williams never thought he would be hiring a "learning on the job" coach. But he, and us, are stuck with him. He's got three more years. Good luck coach. We need and deserve a better product. It remains to be seen if you have the staff that can "coach 'em up".

Not a Zip, but this former Hoosier deserves kudos and respect for his performance stepping in so well for Darlington...

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