kreed5120

Below is a list of some players who have gone through IMG Academy. There are players who emerge after 1 year of JUCO. I guess I don't see how this couldn't be any different. Renaldo Balkman, former forward for the New York Knicks.[4] Michael Beasley, currently power and small forward for the Milwaukee Bucks Satnam Singh Bhamara, center playing for the Texas Legends; the first ever Indian to get selected in the NBA (drafted by the Dallas Mavericks) Ramel Bradley, currently playing for Hapoel Holon in the Israeli Super League Earl Clark, forward for the Delaware 87ers[6] Erick Dampier, former professional basketball player who last played for the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA Taurean Green, currently plays point guard in Spain for CB Gran Canaria; drafted in the 2nd round (52nd overall) in 2007 by the Portland Trail Blazers; also played for the Denver Nuggets Ricky Sanchez, drafted in the 2nd round of the 2005 NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets; currently plays for the Santurce Crabbers of the National Superior Basketball League of Puerto Rico Dwight Powell, current forward for the Dallas Mavericks. Jonathan Isaac, college basketball player for the Florida State Seminoles. Dwayne Bacon, college basketball player for the Florida State Seminoles. Elton Brand, who has played for multiple NBA teams Patrick Patterson, current forward for the Toronto Raptors.

We've finished something between 6-9th place in the MAC the past 4 years. There is nothing that I've seen so far that makes me feel this team is any different. It's a long summer and much can change between now and August, but we're going to need numerous players taking monumental strides between now and the start of MAC play if we hope to contend in the MAC.

As @clarkwgriswold pointed out these are highlight reels. I don't know how anyone can claim he would be better than Zeke off of a 3 minute video. There are certainly some things to like, but as others mentioned there is some reason only us and Iona offered him. There is obviously some hole in his game that has driven away more and better offers. I'm not going to speculate how good he will or won't be until he is on campus practicing against D-1 competition. I'll be cheering for him to succeed. What he does have that Zeke and Big Dog didn't was an easier path to earning playing time.

Not all academies are structured the same. IMG Academy is a large enough one that it has its own wiki page. They actually have their own campus. A lot of other academies partner with private schools. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMG_Academy

You're the one who brought this discussion full circle as I didn't even bring mention to if a coaching change was or wasn't needed. All I stated was Big Dog wasn't the problem. We just didn't have enough around him. It could be seen by how pathetic our team looked everytime he went to the bench.

In a 1 bid league the goal should always be to win the conference as that's your only chance to make the tourney. The Zips came up short, but it was no fault of Big Dog as him and Ivey were the only ones who performed. Antino and Kwan combining for 5 points on 2/12 shooting is what sunk the Zips vs Kent.

Nice getting that first commit.

He WAS MAC POY and that is fact so I don't know what you are disputing? If you want to argue Big Dog wouldn't have won MAC POY under a different coach, I'm not going to argue hypotheticals. It still doesn't change the fact he was a damn fine basketball player who could both score at a highly efficient level and had the court vision and basketball IQ to make the right passes. Losing him is a huge loss no matter how you try sugarcoating it.

I really like how the shirt has the fight song on the back. I wish I would have hit up a goodwill on the way up to find an OSU, Kent, or OU shirt to trade in.

https://mobile.twitter.com/ZipsEquipment/status/855049458329026560/video/1

https://mobile.twitter.com/ZipsEquipment/status/855509197613658112/photo/1

+1,000 I didn't see your post, but looks like we had the same idea.

I quit reading after the bolded print.

So you expect no drop off despite losing our MAC POY and a 2nd team All-MAC player in Kwan? Groce might recruit some good players, but I highly doubt day 1 they walk into the building and be as good as what Big Dog was his junior and senior year.

On the plus side or negative side, depending on how you look at it, those games should be more competitive this year considering all the talent we lost.

Why? Dambrot's staff, who were the ones negotiating games, packed up and left. Groce 1st, 2nd, and 3rd priority should all be recruiting so we have enough players to field a full team. Our schedule is the least of my concerns.

I don't believe I've ever had one of these said cookies

I'm going to guess he will still be involved, but not as involved as before. Even with Dambrot being gone, he has connections with the university through his foundation. I foresee him still lobbying Nike to give Akron a favorable apparel deal and I still see him tweeting stuff out when Akron basketball does something newsworthy. Akron will also be able to use his likeness for jerseys and bobbleheads or whatever else.

Dambrot called his number to shoot that 17 foot game winner against Ball State. Big Dog just wasn't looking to shoot the 3, nor should have he. Outside of Karnowski he was bigger than anyone he faced. Settling for 20 footers would have just done the opposing defense a favor. Edit: In a glorified scrimmage I can see why he would want to shoot the 3 to show scouts he has the ability. Big Dog was always a team player and I assume he didn't shoot them was because he felt that wasn't what Akron needed out of its only legitimate post player.

I'm surprised we don't see more mid-majors recruit international players. St Mary's built their program on landing guys like Patty Mills and Dellavedova. They had 7 Aussies on their roster this past season.

Better players in theory should lead to more wins. He finally was in position of landing that recruiting that narrowly eluded him years prior, but unfortunately for him it was 1-2 years too late. I've actually seen a number of Illinois fans wish they gave him 1 more year to see what he could have done with the players he had coming in.

I feel you were interpreting what I was saying incorrectly. I'm wanting us to target the best players we can get regardless of if they have 10 offers or 0 offers. I'm just reserving my excitement for when we actually get them to commit.

What pretty much cost Groce his job at Illinois was he had a bad habit of finishing 2nd place in recruiting battles. Hopefully he can close at Akron.

The Duquesne visit would have been before Dambrot.

Edit: 4) 80,000 tickets sold at $5 a piece means OSU, not including concessions nor parking, made $400,000 off of a spring practice. How about we focus less on what a team 2 hours south of us, whom we have no chance of ever catching, and focus more on our team along with our peer competitors.