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I don’t think Akron could compete with Jackson State. They have G5 talent at the FCS level. Thankfully they don’t have them scheduled. Article on Coach Prime and the talent he has at Jackson State.. His defense is made up of power 5 transfers. Within the next year or two they’ll be competing with power 5s https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.clarionledger.com/amp/8127200002

I am not finding a whole lot of video of Tavari Johnson so far. It makes sense if he is a late bloomer. There are a couple short compilation videos on his twitter account. Hopefully going forward into his senior year he will post more similar content. https://twitter.com/Tavarijohnson5?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1435811852445962241|twgr^|twcon^s2_&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fzipsnation.org%2Fforums%2Findex.php%3Fapp%3Dcoremodule%3Dsystemcontroller%3Dembedurl%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FCokesSunday%2Fstatus%2F1435811852445962241 Wanting to learn more I spent the monthly dues to get the Tavari Johnson notes from Scott Burgess of Prep Hoops. Burgess has proven to be a solid high school talent evaluator in Illinois. Here are the most recent write-ups after camps and tournaments where Tavari is mentioned. I will simply copy and past below. Much of the content is redundant, but to me hearing repetition reinforces his profile. It appears it's his height/slight frame that has him limited to the mid-major conversation because he has all the tools. Currently he is the 6th best 2022 prospect out of Illinois, third best PG. The number one prospect just committed to Duke, the next two are getting high-major offers and then I don't see much difference in the fourth and fifth rated prospects and Tavari in terms of offers. Prospects four and five are both point guards as well. Scott Burgess of Prep Hoops notes on Tavari Johnson ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted On: 07/6/21 7:43 PM Tavari Johnson (6’ 2022 PG, Young & Reckless)- Not sure I’ve ever seen Tavari play a bad game, as he’s constantly finding ways to produce. His feel for the game and basketball IQ is extremely high, and that’s evident with how he handles the ball in pick & roll situations. He finds ways to react to defenders in a variety of ways to make plays, whether it be hitting a pull up jumper, lobbing a pass over the top, splitting defenders to attack, or threading the needle with an accurate bounce pass. No matter what the defense throws at him he’s able to remain calm under pressure. Against a talented Wisconsin PGC team that went undefeated on the weekend, Tavari had a strong outing scoring at all three levels and dishing out a handful of assists. Posted On: 07/14/21 10:00 AM Tavari Johnson (Young & Reckless/Authentic Basketball 17U) One of the more underappreciated point guards in the Midwest once again showed why. He led his team to a strong weekend including beating EYBL squad LivOn on a floater at the buzzer. His ability to get in the teeth of a defense and pick them apart with his passing and runner game is tremendous. Electric around ball screen situations slicing the defense up over and over again. Some will be scared off because of height, but he is a mid-major prospect all the way. Posted On: 07/20/21 8:00 PM Tavari Johnson (Young & Reckless/Authentic Basketball 17U) Anyone who reads what I write or follows me on twitter is very well aware of my fondness for this point guard. He is the kind of mid-major guard that wins games in March in upset games. Electric passer that reads the floor like a college veteran already. Pick and roll savant. Changes gears, burst with the ball, and finishes in the lane with floaters over bigs despite his slight frame. Effective shooter off the bounce. (emphasis is mine) Posted On: 07/27/21 5:00 PM Tavari Johnson (Young & Reckless/Authentic Basketball 17U) Johnson is making a case for himself to continue to move up the board in 2022. He is a PH favorite with the way he operates in ball screen situations and his advanced IQ for the game. Makes some absolutely incredible passes. What impressed college coaches most was his ability to knock down shots at as high of a rate as he did off the bounce. Elite mid-major lead guard. Posted On: 08/12/21 6:00 AM - by Steve Parham Tavari Johnson (Lyons Township) 2022 Tavari was clearly one of the most consistent lead guards on the Prep Hoops Circuit this year. He has a knack to make the right decision majority of the time. Johnson would flourish in the pick and roll game and with shooters spaced out all around him, Tavari would have high assists numbers. And when defenders would take away his passing options look to Johnson to also score from all three levels. A dangerous weapon that Illinois could unleash. Posted On: 08/18/21 6:00 AM Tavari Johnson (Lyons) Johnson is a high level point guard that runs a team, hits shots, and makes everyone around him better. He has lined up four visits: August 25-26 Akron, September 10-12 UW-Milwaukee, September 17-19 Bowling Green, and September 24-26 Toledo. Posted On: 08/19/21 6:00 AM Tavari Johnson (Young & Reckless) Johnson is a high IQ point guard with the ball on a string. He understands how to run a team and is an absolute ball screen savant. Makes excellent reads in that area along with being able to find teammates picking/popping or getting to the rim himself and even pulling up from mid-range for jumpers. With his play for Y&R/Authentic he became a coveted mid-major target. Posted On: 08/28/21 6:00 AM Tavari Johnson (Young & Reckless) Johnson is such a complete point guard which includes being able to shoot the rock at a high level especially pulling up. Posted On: 08/31/21 6:00 AM Tavari Johnson (Young & Reckless) One of the more electric guards in the senior class with the ball in his hands he weaves in and out of traffic for scores in the paint. Posted On: 09/2/21 6:00 AM Tavari Johnson (Young & Reckless) Johnson is the most electric passer in the state. Has eyes in the back of his head and is elite in pick/roll or pick/pop situations. Posted On: 09/8/21 6:00 AM Tavari Johnson (Lyons) Current Ranking: #6 Johnson is a PH favorite. The Lyons Township point guard is an elite ball screen player that makes decisions with such ease. High level passer that sees the floor like a college upperclassmen. Plus shooter that can knock down shots pulling up off the dribble or spot up threes. Despite being smaller he is a very pesky defender. Posted On: 09/13/21 3:00 PM Tavari Johnson (Lyons) Johnson leads a nice list of point guard commitments this week. The LT floor general is a ball screen savant with the way he operates getting himself and teammates the looks they want. Narrowed it down to four and ultimately decided he would commit to Akron. Go Zips!!!

LCJ left some big size 8's for Tavari to fill.

During my time at UA, a kid who was a bouncer at The Townhouse got shot at the Katheryn Place party. He was in my (now) wife's Spanish class. He survived. Katheryn Place was a great college party in the mid-to-late 80's. Over time, more non-college kids began showing up. At the last party I attended, I saw a co-worker from Mentor. He'd heard about the big party and drove down with a van load of friends and some Stroh's 15 packs. Katheryn Place was always packed with people. Shoulder to shoulder, for a full block. The night of the shooting a group of maybe 10 kids just began pushing through the crowd trying to start a fight. I left. The next day I read about the "riot" in the Beacon. Glad I left. I used to love the Katheryn, Wheeler and other block parties. We had a 15 kegger in our back yard, complete with beer truck, a couple times. But once things get too big, the riff raff comes in, and things get out of control. Having a 20 year old son @ UC right now, I can't imagine getting the phone call those parents received. Absolutely heartbreaking.

Im glad you have that confidence. Getting to Cary and the College Cup will be a tall task. Marshall done it last year because they were basically and unknown. A school that had only been to one NCAA and that was the previous year in 2019. Even though Chris Grassie and his staff had put together a talented roster I feel some schools didn't fully prepare for The Herd last year. It was never more evident than in the 2nd game in the NCAA against #1 1 seed Clemson. We are now the defending National Champions Ive noticed in the first seven games that every team has been playing Marshall more aggressive and a lot more physical than last year. Everyone wants to knock off the last National Title holder.

I like your positive post. Let's give a lot of credit to Marshall for how the zips looked last night. Marshall is a scary good offensive team. Marshall defenders did a very good job of "dis-possessing the zips in 1 v. 1 defending. I fully expect that Marshall will be in Cary in December for the college cup. There is no question that this Akron team will be better in November than they are right now. The MAC has 3 teams in the top 20 of the coaches poll...West Virginia at 4, Bowling Green at 17 and Akron at 20. As you can see below in the Marshall comments, Marshall has played all 3. WVU played Marshall to a 2-2 tie, BGSU and Marshall were tied 0-0 after 88 minutes with Marshall winning 1-0. West Virginia is going to be a brutal first conference game for the zips. That being said, the young zips need to concentrate on Yale and get a win on Saturday night before they can even think about conference play. There are positives for the zips. Malik Henry had some excellent moments last night. Malik started the game at right winger and put the ball on a zips striker foot...in front of the goal 5 minutes into the match. If the zips had been able to get on the board there, that would have provided a lot of confidence and momentum. Malik looked like he moved to right defensive back in the 2nd half. Malik was a huge factor in several good zip counter attacks in the 2nd half. I am sure that Jared and the coaches will find the best position for Malik but I am excited about this young man's potential and skill set. Will Meyer has kept the zips in games this year.....with very good saves. Will made back to back saves at 13 minutes and 14 minutes into the first half to prevent the game from getting out of hand. The zips are very fortunate to have 3 very good center backs. In the first half, Carlo and Jonas Buechte were the CBS with Daniel Strachan at HMF. Daniel and Jonas were the CBS in the 2nd half. I love all 3 guys.....but this team is better with Daniel playing center back. His steady veteran presence and great decision making provide this young team with the structure that they need. The zips need to get back to death by 1,000 passes...possession soccer and spreading the field. Right now, the zips are trying to pass from the defensive backs up to the forward/wingers. Renato and Wan Kuzri can be good distributors/passers. Pacheco, Clapier, Shokalook and Kingsford.....are having to battle 1 vs. 2 when they are now getting long passes from the defenders. All 4 are very talented and they will start to jell with the midfielders. The talent is here. Looking forward to seeing this team improve during the season. https://herdzone.com/news/2021/9/21/mens-soccer-no-5-mens-soccer-blanks-no-20-akron-2-0.aspx "We definitely needed the win tonight," Herd head coach Chris Grassie said. "We played three top 20 teams from the MAC in Bowling Green, WVU and Akron. Two wins and a tie from that stretch is fantastic. "We talked to the guys about this game being a fight and it really was today. You saw how open the game was at times. I think we had about seven or eight breakaways, they had three or four that they could have had pretty good goals. And I think we had to pick those moments to fight and those moments to play. It was important for us to stay mentally focused. The guys were definitely up for the fight today and did a great job."

Though Tennessee isn't on the level of Auburn or OSU, Guthrie would appear to be continuing the tradition of whoring ourselves out for a pay day. We'll already be playing Michigan State and Liberty which will both be very tough games. Only home OOC game will be vs St Francis. Would much rather see us play another G5 or a 2 for 1 with a P5. https://gozips.com/news/2021/9/21/akron-football-to-play-at-tennessee-in-2022.aspx

Oh yeah. If he's half the player LCJ was, we'll be lucky. Though I don't see a pair of size 4s doing much damage in the MAC

As a fan of a mid major soccer team, I will be rooting for both Marshall and Akron to do well. Marshall plays an attractive brand of soccer as they try to get goals from the run of play. Good luck to the herd for the rest of the year.

Thank you for your hard work and thank you for sharing!

They should just start calling these things Q & A with GT.

Great post, @Illini Zip 🙌💪💪

Hoping these guys are able to jell before the MAC tourney. Right now they are a bunch of very talented players with little cohesiveness and their play is much more fluid on their own pitch. Typical of young teams. So I look for another Pitt/Indy type effort in Akron on Saturday vs. Yale and then they'll build on that effort. I believe there may be growing pains yet but they will jell.

I would say good game Akron but after controlling the 1st 6 mins of the game Akron became sloppy with their ball handling and passing. Akron was lucky, very lucky to only give up 2 goals. This could have been easily 4-6 to nil. I believe Akron is much better than what they showed tonight and I fully expect to see Akron in the NCAAs this year. I do hope Akron stays on the Marshall schedule. It is a good game for both schools.

Covid adjusted chart based on GoZips website.

Eventually it will be uncovered that Haslam is behind the concessions company.

When was the last time the Zips were shut out in back-to-back matches??????

no shots on goal for the zips yet!!!!

The problem may be societal, but it is also one of perception. In that area UA suffers greatly. Kent has a far better reputation in the eyes of Joe and Mary Ohio. It has had better leadership in touting its strengths, keeping financially viable and having a positive image in both sports and campus life. I have talked with several guidance counselors in greater Columbus and all have a higher opinion of Kent than UA. We have much to rebuild.