Illini Zip

🤣🤣🤣 Is that taking creativity a step too far?! I'm going to blame it on being caught up in the excitement.

My contribution.

East Virginia Zips???

Is this the year for the up-tempo offense? If @RoyalBlu is correct and Young contributes meaningful minutes at the point I believe it's possible. I keep waiting for it. I so enjoy it. Some of you might remember the team South of Akron running it. Please basketball gods make it be so. Groce usually teaches one position to true Freshman. For Sharron Young that will be at point guard. Tavari should be able to play all three guard positions by now, but he is not likely to be able to guard the wing position well. I expect to see both Wilson and Okonkwo play 35+ minutes a game. But Wilson will probably only play up to half of those minutes at the point. The rest of the minutes will be at the 2 and 3 positions. Wilson unlike Tavari is plenty strong enough to guard the 3 position. We could possibly have three point guards on the floor together and the half-court offense could be initiated by any of them. Talk about a defensive nightmare. So the rotation I would like to see next year is Young at the point, Tavari or Scott at the 2, Wilson at the 3, Nate or Prather at the 4 and Okonkwo, Marvin, Baker, Lyles (or our last recruit??) at the 5. We would have 4 guards capable of bringing the ball up the court in transition. So we would be able to rebound and run. And with a rim runner like Okonkwo our fast breaks could become lethal. Unlike last year our guards have to be able to hit a fair amount of those open shots from deep. If that is the case we can spread out opposing defenses then drive and kick, drive and kick, etc. It's not something you typically run all game or against every opponent. But it's effective and damn cool. Please, please, please!!!

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We have 1 scholarship remaining to finish off the 2024 class, but hopefully what Bud Wentz is saying is this momentum leads us to a great 2025 class as well.

Kent State just learned of our latest acquisitions.

Mikal Dawson departs. Zips add Seth Wilson and James Okonkwo.

My two cents: I would move Prather down to WF (Dawson's old spot). Wilson will probably play both PG and WG. Redshirt Mahaffey and Brisco. Add another wing, forward or center - best available. Josiah Harris would be fine with me.

Not getting greedy. Just curious who the third player is and is he still on campus?

Nice!!!

That’s interesting. 🤔

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https://www.bluegoldsports.com/2024/04/10/wvus-pat-suemnick-enters-transfer-portal/ Not seeing a PAC 12 connection. Maybe that was fake news.

There are no guarantees (the list of disappointments is long enough), but I see a rim protector with a high motor. And a strong, physical combo guard who can play some point guard, but is best off the ball hitting from deep at a decent clip. Just for 1 season. But they would help our young guys tremendously and Richard Brisco might even redshirt as a result. And we would not be talking about a rebuild year. It would take time for a new group of guys to gel, but they could be something special come March.

I think this could be big all the way around. Just like Shammah Scott coming back home. And Enrique before him. Make staying put in Akron cool again.

We need someone willing to spend the weekend hanging out at Diamond Deli.

These are former West Virginia teammates. James Okonkwo transferred to North Carolina for one year.

Fixed it: JG and the Akron Zips don’t rebuild, we RELOAD.

Okay, now I’m getting anxious too. I’m refreshing this forum way too often for a healthy, well-balanced individual. So maybe I’m not that. Ha!! I believe Groce waits to announce his full class of recruits together once he’s done. I hope the longer he takes is a sign of a successful haul. 🙏🤞

Ahhhh!! Thanks. Never heard that one. I have heard of Press Virginia (WV).

I would never think of Arkansas or Utah for the Top 25. And our ranking of the top 5 is different than theirs for whatever reason. Very cool.

That’s awful. He acts like a high school recruit and does it BYU’s gym. I would be pissed as a BYU fan.

Illinois in basketball and Ole Miss in football are 2 programs unapologetically taking advantage on this NIL Wild West with booster cash. If either of them get their first championship it will be during this window before the NCAA tries to cap it.

Add Illinois to that list.