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I'll be rooting for Garvin wherever he ends up. I get it, and he wasn't my first choice to take the reins next year at PG, but he seemed to be a good kid that worked hard and represented our school well

Its like this board thinks just like the coaching staff. Refreshing for sure. I like Garvin, but probably not a complete and consistent enough player for a program like Akron. Thanks for his contributions and hope he finds success as his new home. At this point, I personally hope we don't lose anyone else. If I had to pick 3 from the roster to look for a better fit, the three who are leaving are it.

These are only players I've seen personally (I didn't really start paying attention to Zips b-ball till '95 - Coleman Crawford's last season). PG - LCJIII Honorable Mentions: Dru Joyce II, Jimmal "Spider Man" Ball, Xavier Castenada, Alex Abreu, Noah Robatham, Antino Jackson, Darryl Roberts, Humpty Hitchens 2G/W - Quincy Diggs Honorable Mentions: Derrick Tarver, Jamie Bosley, Tron Jenkins, Tyler Cheese, Nick Dials, Jimmond Ivey, Steve McNees, Scotty Gooden SF/W - *Jimmy Conyers Honorable Mentions: Ali Ali, Darryl Peterson, Brett McKnight, Dan Hipsher, Nate Linhart, Jawanza Moore, Daniel Utomi PF/P - Enrique Freeman Honorable Mentions: Romeo Travis, Demetrius "Tree" Treadwell, Xerius Williams, George Phillips, Kwan Cheatham C/P - Zeke Marshall Honorable Mentions: Jeremiah "Big Daddy" Wood, Isaiah "Big Dog" Johnson *Jimmy Conyers only had one good year... his senior season... but man was it special.

I would also add Eric "Cricket" McLaughlin as an excellent option at G.

Thinking back recently to some of our past teams/players and I'm curious to hear thoughts on this. Who is your all-time Zips starting five? To keep it simple, I'm only looking at Division 1 Era. Here's mine: F-Enrique Freeman Already an all-time leading rebounder and 8th all-time in blocks, he will rise into the top 10 all-time leading scoring list next season as well. He has the highest PER of any Zip over the past 20 years. F-Romeo Travis Total package. Most win shares of any Zip over the past 20 years. Bonus points for being one of a couple players who really helped elevate Akron's program near the beginning of the KD Era. C-Zeke Marshall Didn't develop the offensive game of other great Zips bigs, but the rim protection he provided was something special. #1 all-time in blocks at Akron and #31 among all collegiate players since 1985. I'll never forget his block against Kent in OT in Cleveland. G-Joe Jakubick I never had the pleasure of watching him play, but the stats don't lie here - dude was a walking bucket. Two-time OVC POY. From 1980-2023, only 6 D1 players have averaged more points per game in a season than Joe did in 1983-84 (30.1 ppg). G-Loren Cristian Jackson Ball, Dru, XC, McNees, Dials, Abreu...we've had some really good point guards. I'll go with one of the best scorers in school history (especially knowing the defense I have behind him).

Garvin experienced a conference tournament championship and a trip to March Madness. During the MAC tourney he made some solid contributions. However, for the level the coaching staff wants to achieve he wasn't on par with his teammates.

Funny story. I just met Jamie Bosley last week. Had a long conversation. He was fun to speak with and still super pumped about Akron basketball.

Big Dog won MPOY. I'd have to think he'd at least be deserving of an honorable mention.

I’m going back through the position groups and adding “star rating take” for all the players. Using Rivals formula I’m re-rating the players to what they should have been according to their college production.

And Michigan State will be the only Big Ten team in the Sweet Sixteen out of 8 teams sent. Worse than I predicted.

Clarke's departure is by no means backbreaking, but it does make the need for a 25-30 minute a game guard transfer all that more pressing. I wish him well.

I am hoping/thinking Groce and Company release players into the portal in order of the least productive and as replacements are landed. Which would mean they might already have two players lined up and believe they can make the team better yet. We didn't get to see much of Kobe Mitchell and Prince Mosengo, but we did have an idea of Garvin Clarke's value. So his release should give us a gage of how the recruiting process is playing out behind the scenes. My theory anyway.

Garvin and Kobe were the 2 I had circled as the most likely transfer candidates. 3 open scholarships. Let's go to work. 2 guards and either a 3rd guard or stretch-4/big.

Good luck to Garvin. I don't think any of his shortcomings were a result of a lack of effort. I think he could have been a solid backup point guard for the Zips which holds some value but I am not losing any sleep over his loss. On a positive note, it may increase the chances of Tavari's return.

Welp…

We were both exhibitors at a trade show in Columbus. Yes, I can't believe he was on the team in the mid 90's. Doesn't seem that long ago.

Tomorrow's game is televised on B1G, a subscription version of Big10 Network. You can get all B10 baseball baseball games for $40, but the only other game is with tOSU and I don't know if I'm working that day yet. heck for $40 I could probably drive to either. Anyway that's that. With my work schedule it'll be April before I can see a live game. If work isn't this busy/understaffed by then...

He is on the NCAA selection committee. If I had to guess, the committee may have sent a representative to each site.

Indeed. I had my heart ripped out a handful of times last season 😩😂

Bump for “Star Rating Take.”

Thanks, I appreciate all of your thoughts and contributions as well! I’m excited about the upcoming season and confident this will be a breakthrough year. I’ve seen this scenario play out time and time again. The only thing that really surprised me is the amount of close games we lost last year and the fashion in which they happened. I guess the bright side to that is we could potentially triple (or more) last season’s win total and receive national recognition.

Dude, you're amazing! And now that the Zips basketball season is over I'm beginning to itch for some Zips football again!

To his credit, he appears to have kept his head in the game and tried to contribute in other ways. He had to have a target on his back after the lead up to Dayton.

Just in case anybody missed it, Shaka's #2 seeded boys took another early exit today losing to #7 seed Michigan State. 😁

He had a fantastic season. He's a 3-point deadeye. Luke was on the short list of Mr. Basketball candidates. Would love to see Luke in the blue & gold!

Idk who any of the guys in the pool are but I'm rooting for Luke to pull off the perfect quadrant in the Midwest.

Great job by Atkins in a complete game win. 3-2 in the MAC going into Sunday game 3!

Zips swept both games of the double header -v- BUGS today.

I hope this post sets the ZN.o record for likes.

Those are funny ways of spelling AKRON.