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Take this with a grain of salt but me and a friend saw Mikal Dawson and Sammy today and asked them if they will be back next season. Dawson replied “we will be back. I think everyone is sticking around” That most likely will change but overall a good sign that no one is itching to get out

Emoni Bates got to know him pretty well

My disclaimer prior to posting is that I love anyone who wears the Akron blue & gold... but we've got such high character guys I'd love them even if they never played for Akron. Having said that... We're losing: Hankerson - not a big deal. After watching for 10 games I was no longer ever surprised when he made regular mistakes 5th year seniors shouldn't make X - And on the other hand... impossibly huge shoes to fill & no single player on this roster is remotely ready to fill them We're returning (until we hear otherwise): SENIORS: Freeman - best big in the MAC & one of the best in the country. #1 priority for the staff is keeping Freeman. Tribble - not a guard. Not even a wing. Greg is a 6'1 power forward. (Greg only hit on 1 3-pointer this year in 12 attempts. ONE. Obviously that's not D-1 caliber.) Groce love Tribble but good grief you simply don't have to guard him outside 4 feet from the basket. And everyone in the MAC knows it. Dawson - can't wait to get him back in the lineup. Will fill Hankerson's role, only much better... but he's coming of an Achilles injury so we'll have to see if his mobility has been hampered. Sammy - If he keeps playing like he did the last 2 weeks of the season he's an honorable mention all-MAC type of player. But he's certainly an enigma. JUNIOR: Garvin - barely a D-1 caliber guard. Only hit 4 3-pointers all year. He's pure hustle & a tenacious defender but extremely inconsistent on the offensive end. R-FR: Kobe Mitchell - would be better off transferring to a level more suited to his game (honestly, we need him to transfer) Nate Johnson - early in the season I called him a future pro, but he needs to quickly develop The Eye of the Tiger Mikal Dawson. Against KSUcks as soon has the ball would hit his hands he was looking to pass before even glancing at the basket; he had zero will to score. Obviously unacceptable. In the TP era we need him to develop The Eye of Mikal Dawson by NEXT year, NOT two years from now. We need that development THIS OFF SEASON. If not, we're better off with him transferring to a level where he can just have fun playing and open up the scholarship for us FRESHMEN: Amani - Amani will be a serviceable big. He's not explosive but is powerfully built & will probably learn to bully most MAC bigs in the paint. I can't wait to see what his build looks like after an off season of working out. He's going to be huge. After a game against Amani you should need an ice bath. And once he learns a little pump fake at the rim I think he'll be a solid player off the bench. Who knows, if he can develop just a little more explosiveness, with that body, he could be a beast. Tavari - I can see Tavari developing into something special. He's got a scorer's mentality (something currently sorely lacking on next year's roster), and while not terribly quick, is tricky with the ball. Once he gets just a little more comfortable with his teardrop J I think he's going to be devastating running the pick and roll - he does it quite well already; he's a natural. I can see Tavari being a regular 20 PPG scorer his junior & senior seasons. Prather - who knows what to think? He's got nice size & was a 3-star prospect coming out of HS. But, if you remember, his senior year when he transferred to a new school (a stacked powerhouse, admittedly) his coach praised him for his willingness to be the team's 6th-man. Frankly, that doesn't inspire me. If someone's a D1 caliber player you'd better believe a HS coach starts him... and rarely takes him off the floor; you ride your horses. Also (now I'm getting judgy), he's got that sleepy (too cool for school?) demeanor which drives me crazy, e.g., when a guy looks like he just woke up from a nap while sitting on the bench (Kobe Mitchell). Need that fire in your belly. "There is a gleam, gentlemen. A gleam." (I guess they all can't be Mikal Dawson.) Prince - Another intriguing 3-star prospect. Looks athletic and is apparently a stretch-4. But who knows; we get zero information about these guys. All I know is that Groce & Co. thought Amani would provide better minutes than Prince... so who knows what to expect. I do appreciate his demeanor on the bench. Summary: 1. We all know it's impossible to over emphasize how important it is to retain Freeman. Frankly, if we lose Freeman I think we're going to suck next year. 2. We need to hit the TP hard for scoring guards. Plural. Tribble & Clarke are role players at best. Nate is a deer in headlights in big games. Get us some guards who can shoot and who want the ball in their hands. That means we need two players to transfer out. Kobe is a no brainer. Coach Groce needs to have a heart-to-heart with Nate Johnson, but Nate's got so much potential I don't think he'll transfer. There's no way Tribble is going to transfer as he is the heart and soul of the team. IMO that leaves Garvin Clarke. So yeah, in summary, I'm expecting Kobe & Garvin to transfer & for Groce & Co. to bring in two solid shooting cold blooded scoring guards who will both be starters from the jump next season. They had better. If not then it's going to be an awfully long, cold winter in the JAR next year.

Wife and I renewed ours two seats in section 208 for $198. That’s a great value IMO. We would blow that much going to dinner and a movie. Looking forward to more tailgating next season. Recently purchased a Jeep Gladiator. The bed has an enough room for the Traeger pellet smoker, a cooler, and a couple of chairs 👍🏼. We didn’t get to do any tailgating last year because we were still living out of state and didn’t get to attend many games.

Last year I thought Tribble would hit the gym hard to develop a decent jump shot. It did not happen. Although Clark was injured early, his game did not get any better offensively and he stopped shooting the outside shot. When those 2 were on the floor together, it made it easier for Kent to just clog the middle. I am disappointed in that both players really did not improve their shooting over the off season. I expected more improvement from these 2 players.

Tribble has the lowest turnover rate of any of the regular starters and was occasionally the point guard so I am not concerned with his dribbling. He has a high dribble but his dribbling is fine.

Toledo occasionally used the defense against Carry that the Zips used in the championship game last year, but didn't consistently do it. Toledo panicked in the end and rushed one on one matchups for the last 10 or 12 minutes. I've been harsh on Senderoff over the years. I even came up with "Mr. Pinky" and should have copyrighted/trademarked it! That being said, he had his team ready for the tournament and they answered the call on numerous occasions. Carry and some of his teammates aren't the most likable kids for their opponents, but what we see as cockiness and showboating is seen as confidence and having fun by their fans. If Carry's sweetie was a UA undergrad, many Zips fans would have seen him similarly.

CMU sophomore G (PG?) Kevin Miller sounds like a Groce-type player. He's from Chicago and attended LCJ's father's basketball school Victory Rock Prep. his senior year in HS.

Well, here we are, a week or more earlier that we had hoped but pretty much where many of us had predicted in the pre-season early predictions/projections thread. This team suffered from very early on from a lack of depth and talent beyond X and Enrique. It had two elite MAC top 5 players and otherwise no one above an average MAC talent. On the positive side, this team had character and heart. The kids were very likable, always played hard and you never got the sense that criminal charges were on the verge of ruining the season. I'd take one Greg Tribble over ten Nick Harneys. Dawson's injury and Bandaogo's departure put this team behind the eight ball early on. Dawson is not likely to lead the team in any major statistical category but he has an edge/fire no one else on the team possesses. You need a guy or two like Tyler Cheese and Channel Banks that have a little of that streetfighter edge to them down the stretch. As long as Groce is here the Zips will be competitive. This team had holes. Part of that's attributable to bad luck (e.g. Dawson, Bandaogo) some of it is attributable to a lack of success on the recruiting trail. I'll address individual players in a future post, but I would say in advance that none of the players suffered from a lack of effort. Inattention occasionally, poor judgment at times, but I never saw anyone dogging it. May the recruiting and transfer gods be with us.

Rob Senderoff. Indiana. Chuckle. The committee has a sense of humor.

I love the end of a Zips basketball season in how it brings out people we never otherwise see on ZipsNation- people that come to p!$$, moan and b!+ch after a loss and those who come to celebrate and bask in success. The most amusing are those who are actually in both groups.

I really wish they would just expand the NIT to 64 teams, like how the women's is set up, then eliminate these third rate tournaments.

Zips vs Duquesne

Finished up the conference preview with predictions. I still need to complete Morgan State, Kentucky, and Indiana. That being said I will predict beating Morgan State with losses to UK and Indiana. Overall record prediction is 7-5 and 6-2 conference. I will say the conference prediction may be a little too aggressive and we’ll probably be more like 5-3, but that’s just how it came out when I reviewed each team game by game. If it’s 5-3 conference, that’d be 6-6 Overall. I think Temple is a definite swing game and the last 3 games on our schedule could also go either way.

A little bit in Corcoran's defense, the Detroit Mercy program was a dumpster fire and everyone left. She certainly would have contributed this year as a backup to Camp. Not sure what her latest reason for leaving was. The Miami player averaged 8 pts over 2 years, so it doesn't sound like a huge loss.

And the Coach loves him...and, I'm guessing here, that's probably what matters most.

Here is the marketplace. https://opendorse.com/akron-zips?athlete_page=2 As far as commercials/ads, I don't know where that information can be found. I know I've seen X and Freeman in at least one each. The NIL money most talked about are the P5s when they get involved with a car dealership or something that pays hundreds of thousands if not more. It's basically a salary for playing (insert sport but mostly football) at (insert school here but mostly P5). What will throw a wrench into this for athletes is if the stars like Jaxon Smith-Njigba continue to collect massive amounts of money and not play. Otherwise, the key with NIL was opening up the opportunity for these young adults to earn an income on the side - i.e. YouTube revenue, merchandise/clothing, cameos, etc. That's what was broken about the NCAA system. These kids were unable to earn any sort of side income. Take a look at Linguard's profile on that marketplace linked above. Coming from Florida, they probably gave him the masterclass on how to maximize the financial opportunity. $170 for a sales pitch, for example. Good for him, and good for these young adults.

Spoiler Alert- many women from this year's team are going to leave and next year will suck. We will then get "this would have never happened if Coach Jackson was still here" to which the logical of us will respond "No $h!+, this is hat happens with coaching changes."

I think Jim Christian must be making a difference. They obviously respect each other's roles and can work together to develop a team.

I don't like it one damn bit, but there's a very simple answer as to who had the better team this year- SCOREBOARD. Now it's up to the Groce and his staff to remedy that so that we're not watching while they're still playing.

There are 3-4 posters that just show up when we lose. It's not worth your time

Enrique has at least one NIL deal. I forget what he advertises for. X as well.

I think on instagram, perhaps? But I'm not on instagram so I never see them.

Nah, Kent forced those turnovers. They won that game

Many posters seem to have a differing opinion but I feel, while Kent won the game, they didn't beat us - we beat ourselves. Too many TO's were not the result of defense, but stupidity and bad basketball IQ. On top of that Groce, who I love, got outcouched. Carry put X under great pressure. When Tribble and Clarke had the ball it was a TO waiting to happen whenever they went into the lane. The better team won.

In that regard KSUcks never rebuilds, they just reload.

And we don't have to see him or Payton or Jacobs in the JAR ever again. Although, Im sure Christian and Pinky have a few ingrates lined up for next season.

Akron's Athletic Department botched the rebrand rollout and doesn't even try with promotions anymore, I'm not holding my breath on them finding NIL opportunities for their student athletes.

Zips beat these guys so bad they ran it back and beat Tod’s best team. Northeast Ohio runs this league

From 2008 onward, only Kent, Akron, Ohio, and Buffalo have won the tournament...except for Western Michigan in 2014 who, ironically, beat Toledo.

I have no idea what big players (relatively speaking) there would be for NIL, but if we want to stand any chance at all, some initiative needs to get rolling. Yes its football (so cue the jokes), but I saw DJ Irons today basically indicate nobody on the football team is getting anything.

they ripped the band aid off. It wasn't going to get any better.

This is where having a winning culture will matter. Players can go to Akron, Kent, Toledo, and Ohio and expect to be on good teams. Not so much with CMU, EMU, etc. Doesn't mean we won't lose players, but I think they're less likely to bolt right away vs those types of schools.

#NeverAZip

Without the ability to trade talent for future draft picks.

70-49, 45-27 MAC. Coaching is a tough gig.

CMU's Reggie Bass 6-4 2G MAC Freshman of the Year

It's hard for me to expect Tavari to be the starting PG when Groce clearly didn't trust him enough to play him in games like last night. I'm not saying he can't be a rotation player or push for starter-like minutes next year, but banking on him as your starting PG would be a dangerous bet. We need to be aggressive in nabbing an experienced PG in the portal.

Tribble can not dribble and he plays like a six foot one power forward.I think he should tryout for the zips football team that would free up a scholarship.Tribble is a liability too many turnovers with him.

Tavari showed more as a true freshman than anyone I've ever seen as a Zip in the Groce era. Obviously he hit a freshman wall he couldn't quote seem to get over. Maybe he won't be ready to do what LCJ and X did in their upper classman/final seasons as a true sophomore (and that wouldn't be a fair standard to hold him to), but I sure as hell hope he stays. In addition to Clarke "being what he is", he also isn't consistent enough at making positive plays outside of his limitations like Tribble is. He has some games where he makes a good impact, but seems like its empty or negative minutes more often than not.

If the Zips firmly believe they deserve the NIT and don't make it, they should not play. If they don't make the NIT and understand they reasons why they didn't make it,and are ok with playing some more games, go for it. Just do the fans a solid and give it 100%.

This is a good group of guys and I'd enjoy the chance to watch them play again.

Not sure about the Tavari transfer talk. He's in line to be the starting PG if there isn't a transfer in at the moment

Former Zip Ayla Guzzardo just lead SE Louisiana to an NCAA tournament berth with a 66-57 win over Lamar

That's called "transfer portal" prep. LOL. Actually, it's in their union agreement to talk each other up. Coach Jackson earned a lot of loyalty and respect from her players and counterparts. That's a real credit to her.

Pressure's on for Guthrie to get the new hire right.

Fantastic that Tribble got this recognition. Well deserved. 👏👏👏

Sad to say, but MAC Tournament game last year was an outlier. Great win for the Zips to be sure, and great gameplan, too, but Kent not having Jacobs for the first half really helped that gameplan, and sent Carry into a game-long funk. Akron home win this year was stellar as well. But the last two games Kent was clearly the better team, and I actually think Akron matched up better last year (w/Ali) ... but still lost two close ones. Tough to swallow ... but it is what it is.

Think small Be small