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Ouch.....that brought back a bad memory.

I just wanted to point out the irony in 71's favorite player being an undersized center 😆

Adante Holiman is making his announcement tonight around 7:30.

I expect Freeman to announce he's leaving the Zips in the next couple of weeks. Not to enter the transfer portal but to declare for the NBA draft.

What's the difference between an athletic and academic scholarship? As long as one gets their education and expenses paid for, that's all that matters, right?

In the 2nd United Soccer Coaches Poll (March 9), the zips were #15 and the then 4-0-0 SIU-E Cougars were ranked 25 in the 3rd Soccer Coaches Poll (March 16), the zips dropped to 23...and SIU-E did not receive any votes https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-men/ game time on their news release shows as 1 pm they are near St. Louis...so that is central time... game will start at 2 eastern game will be available on ESPN+ https://www.siuecougars.com/sports/m-soccer/2020-21/files/msoc21_G6_Akron.pdf

Central or Eastern?

I think Groce is trending towards recruiting freshmen vs bringing in transfers. Wynn was the only one brought in this year - Maishe and Trimble came in the year before and sat. This year, at the moment, no incoming transfers.. now that can change as guys transfer out and spots open up. Which is just the nature of the beast I guess, there aren't many good recruits left to fill those spots. But I would say he's relying less on the portal than he has been, unless out of necessity.

He hardly played at all and no surprise. I thought he played hard when he did enter the games late in the season and made the big three point baskets against Bowling Green. It is weird how much basketball has changed where players keep floating around colleges trying to find a place where they will make an impact. Is anyone counting how many players have drifted through Akron since Groce became coach? Not saying this in a negative way but it has been a revolving door with players. If the NCAA gets rid of the transfer rule (one year waiting period) it will only get worse. It makes a mockery of the word student athletes. It should be athlete student or just athlete.

I will speculate that the minutes provided to Dailey were probably frustrating to him. Maishe never got it going despite a very long leash, and some guys probably sat on the bench none-to-happy about it. That also delayed the development of some of the young guys like Dawson and Tribble...both of whom made some nice progress when given extended minutes towards the end of the season. I can't blame the staff...Maishe certainly passed the eyeball test. But it didn't work out. Just my speculation, having not attended a game or practice in-person.

Well here it is. Marshall retweeted it too. I thought he was going to be a nice player. Though, I think we have more of a need for a 2 or 3 man than his spot. Oh well

Good point - I think Freeman should start selling En-freak-ee T-shirts and posters right now since he isn't subject to NCAA rules, correct? Since they haven't figured out NIL yet anyway. Go on Enrique cash in - I'm sure AkronZips71 alone would buy enough to paper a wall 😉

Hey B&G, showing your age. Do students today even know where the library is located? Why do we even employ librarians? Freeman is smart enough to figure this out himself. If he needs help Groce will easily make one of his 13 available to Freeman . If he has a outside (non-university awarded) full ride scholly I bet he would keep it and stay out of the muck of NCAA athletic scholarship rules.

I really don't understand this conversation. Why worry about something you cannot control. Freeman has almost no offensive skills and would be a project for any big time program. The best place for him is Akron where he will use the off season to develop an offensive skill set to match his defense. This young man has to put in the hard work to get better. Does he have the mind set to get to the next level. Time will tell.

I was wondering that as well. The only thought I have is that with an academic scholarship you have to maintain a pretty high GPA to remain on scholarship. An athletic scholarship probably allows for a "C's get degrees" approach to academics so that the athlete can have more time to focus on his sport; e.g., spending time in the gym as opposed to the library. Playing D-1 sports is a pretty huge time commitment. If Enrique has a new goal of playing professional ball, he may want that athletic scholarship option.

In the Buffalo game thread, I believe someone said they aren't sure what Buffalo's weakness is. I didn't want to jinx anything, so I kept my mouth shut, but I almost responded with Whitesell. Buffalo is the most talented team in the MAC and should barely lose a game in the MAC, let alone lose by double digits. He's a mediocre coach at best. Wow. Buffalo got in on pedigree from their NCAA tourney performances the last few years. Amazing. Someone took a Dambrot OOC schedule and made a postseason tournament out of it. What a waste of time for BG, especially with Turner, Diggs, and Plowden being seniors (usually you can justify a tourney like this if you're trying to get a young group more experience).

This link says he was recruited as a stretch 4 ... and his game transitioned to a stretch 5 w/back-to-the-basket skills. ... If true, then he should have been a VALUABLE backup at the least at PF and C. But he wasn't. Something does not compute. Didn't see enough on the court to make a judgement either way. Where he winds up will likely say a lot about what kind of player he really is.

Kent

Not sure why these aren't embedding lately. LCJ trying to raise money for a facility for his dad's program. Thought I'd share. https://www.instagram.com/p/CMdlh1CgpvC/?igshid=ctne5wamnf1v https://www.gofundme.com/f/coach-jacksons-dream?sharetype=teams&member=8848928&utm_medium=social&utm_source=instagram&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet

Clark,I conducted autopsy and found the cause of death to be the MAC. What’s worse than death?

It could be worse. Years back we had a well-intentioned diehard Zips fan on here that was convinced the Zips were on the verge of joining the ACC.

1) Please stop with the conference change. There is zero point in discussing this until Akron consistently wins or contends for the championship in the two major sports. We were there in basketball a few years back, and hopefully will be there again soon. 2) You have to look at this team through the lens of preseason expectations. I thought the MAC preseason prediction was a little rosy with us having lost 4 key contributors. Turns out, it was spot on. Below is the final standings (performance vs preseason poll). Us and CMU were the only two that were correct. Toledo (+5) Buffalo (+2) Akron (-) Ohio (-2) Kent (+2) BG (-5) Miami (+2) Ball State (-3) WMU (+3) EMU (-2) CMU (-) NIU (-2) 3) I am once again not very optimistic for next year and certainly hope the staff surprises me again. The one thing from last year that I overlooked/undervalued was the return of a MAC POTY that could create his own shot and facilitate for the rest of the team. We will be sorely missing that next year. Best hopes/guess is that we see another leap in development from Ali and rotation guys like Wynn and Dawson. I'd love to see Nate Johnson come in and get buckets immediately as a freshman. That will probably depend on how he picks up the defensive system in college, as he was a pretty hefty scorer in high school. Will we have the offense next year to compete? That's a big question when you're losing the guy that took almost 30% of your team's FG attempts and supplied ~50% of the assists.

*cough *cough Maishe Dailey *cough

To piggy back on my opinion of where the MAC is, we get two NIT bids for the first time since 06. Thats also with a shortened field and no auto bid to the regular season champ.

We need creators. I think our role players are suitable, but we need players. and more than one, who can create. I think Ali, Clarke, and Dawson can be creators, but they aren't proven. We are also bringing all freshman in for the first time in Groce's tenure. Any additional scholly's that open need to go to players you think can step on the floor right away and create their own shot. If one of the 3 mentioned don't step up and we don't hit on a transfer, we are middle of the pack next year while some of our underclassman gain more experience.

In the Post Mortem thread I guess i should reiterate my appreciation to Akron and the MAC for the guard play we were graced to enjoy this year. LCJ, Marreon Jackson, Jason Preston, Justin Turner. Good grief, that is some top shelf talent!

Maybe the new AD can get Akron into a better conference? Also I think the power 5 transfers were thrown off by the MAC’s long bus rides.

#OneMoreYear