Leaderboard

Eric can sit with his parents and watch Evan play in March Madness. Cincinnati season will be over by then.

Mahaffey-Akron Fantasy Camp was 2025-26. At UC, Eric is likely pulling in a minimum of $400,000 more than the Zips best offer. Eric and his fat wallet can hook up with big bro' at mom and dad's at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Evan would be pretty huge to have for his leadership in transitioning from Groce to Ford. I think MMK and Halligan will be, too, but Evan seems like he'd be in a better position to lead. His defense and energy on the court would set the tone for the rest of the team. I really hope this happens.

I don't think many, outside of top 25, have rankings out for college basketball yet. Bart Torvik is probably one of the few reputable ones that has their rankings out currently and he has Akron at #114. That would place them 2nd in the MAC behind Miami, who sits at #101. Toledo is 3rd at #135. Either way I wouldn't put much weight into preseason rankings. With roster turnover it becomes nearly impossible to project once you get past the top dozen or so teams. Preseason rankings were always kind of dumb, but in this day and age of teams turning over entire rosters in 1 offseason they're pretty pointless. Not going to lose sleep over them.

Plus even Eric is probably surprised Evan had a chance to play another year lol

You say that as though Cincy is a bottom feeder P4 program like Boston College. Cincy is adequately funded for basketball and Calhoun has exceeded expectations everywhere he's been. There's a very good chance Cincy makes the tournament. Possibly makes it past the first round as well.

Akron posted some photos showcasing Evan practicing. Awesome to see him out there. Wonder what the "experts" think of Akron now that he's back and there's familiar experience on the roster. Are we still middle of the road in the preseason rankings or did we jump up? I think we would've been ok in terms of leadership/culture without Evan because the HC was promoted from the existing culture, but having Evan certainly completely fills - if not overfills - the culture/leadership bucket. The MAC has to be pissed. Hopefully blood isn't thicker than intelligence. Turning down the type of money Eric got would be Kent level stupid.

Yes, this. Most of my worries with Groce leaving, and Evan and Sharron was not having that link to the previous groups. Like I feel it's been passed down from LCJ to Ali Ali, X, Enrique etc to Tavari and Sharron and then.. who's the "leader" this year? I think Evan playing this year answers that question. Not so worried about talent in and out in the portal day and age but leadership and culture is very important, imo.