Let'sGoZips94

Do we not have any scholarships now for 2019?

Rumor has it he didn't play because SC doesn't believe 7' is tall enough to be considered a big man, and he didn't have the dribbling skills to be a PG.

Holy crap. Did we have a scholly left?

Of course the Steelers took Mason Rudolph.

https://www.hudl.com/profile/8420712/ahmed-allen https://www.hudl.com/video/3/8420712/586ffd245cb3fd0b1895a888 Big dude, especially for Akron. 6'3".

This is how I interpreted his posts. I agree its strange, but it sounds like he doesn't feel he's developing under the current coaching staff (I believe he came in under Miller?). 2 years to develop before entering the pro ranks - either the NBA or overseas - is a great option. Here's what I gathered from this article. He likes the words really, develop, and love.

How many more women's sports do we have to add to be able to make men's lacrosse an official DI program?

Yep, but he's going to play for us. Plus, don't think other recruits aren't watching and seeing a Dayton player - who played decent minutes with solid production - transferring to Akron. That helps. Does anyone know who else he was considering?

Heck of a get.

This is a great point. The spring game (one-handed touch football for the QB) really isn't the best arena for Kato to showcase and grow his abilities.

Wichita State added another guard. There is some speculation that Neftali might be getting pushed out of their picture. UTEP recently had a house visit and offered him, but Akron is still in the running as far as we know. Our JUCO additions are interesting because those guys don't really hinder Neftali since he would be a true freshman, with really only those guys possibly ahead of him.

Was that the best weather for an Akron spring game in a while? Beautiful day to be at the Info. This program is in good hands with Ramart backing up Kato at the very least. Kato made a beautiful deep throw, but still looks a bit indecisive at times when it comes to running or passing. Ramart makes pretty quick decisions, and is accurate (minus his deep ball interception). I'm hoping Ramart either pushes Kato to improve, or wins the job. Either way, I think we're fine at QB. Our WRs have a good mix of big and small guys, and I can't remember the last time we were this tall at WR; here's to hoping they have hands. Our OL depth is insane, considering the freshman weren't even on the roster sheet, yet half the sheet was OL. We're BIG, too. Again, like WR, size isn't necessarily everything but it helps. Very cool seeing Reggie Corner Jr. on the roster/team. Classic name from the glory days! This team will be fine this year. Compete in the P5 games (maybe steal one?) and win in the MAC. Get to Detroit, and let's see what happens. Go Zips!

Colby or Provolone? I'd be shocked if Mozzarella or Gouda were better than DII.

I think the odds are above 50%, but I don't think it's a done deal by any means. I've read a few articles that talk about the strong connection he has to WSU, and to me if he was sold on being a Shocker, he would have committed already. Enter Groce...

This is what the signing, along with the other commitments thus far, says to me. Groce noticed a huge deficiency in the back-court last year. Whether it be skill wise, character/personality wise, leadership wise, who knows, but there was a void. When you look around college basketball, guards dominate March. We have good size/depth in the front court, and the experience will come. However, we lacked the guards last year. I used to dislike JUCOs, especially when Can't State was essentially a DI JUCO team, but in today's college basketball landscape they are a necessity. Can you build a program with freshman guards? Absolutely, but there will probably be a drop off for a couple of years due to the room for physical, skill, and maturity growth. Groce isn't in the business of a multi-year drop off. He is in "win now" mode. We had our off year, and still nearly made it to the semi-finals of the MAC tourney. By going heavy on the JUCO route this off-season, he has by-passed the multi-year growth process, and let someone else work with the JUCO kids to grow physically, maturity wise, and skill wise. With these 3 commitments, our back-court now looks like this... Jackson (5-8) Hester (6-3) Roscoe (6-3) Cheese (6-4) Ivey (6-4) Banks (6-5) Utomi (6-6) Toles (6-6) Wow. Find me a MAC squad - aside from Buffalo - with that kind of size in their back-court. The best part? They're all play-makers. I'm not too familiar with Jackson's game, but Toles, Banks, Roscoe, Cheese, Ivey, Utomi, and Hester all have nice, well-rounded, aggressive games where they can get to the basket or shoot it from outside. We're becoming a matchup nightmare in one off-season, assuming these guys play to their perceived potential based on their highlight videos.

I see a marketing opportunity with Grandpa's Cheese Barn.

http://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/article208965349.html I will say I'm not sure how much this connection is helping WSU since he hasn't committed to be a Shocker yet. Also... @OntheRadarHoops: 2018 Miami Christian (FL) guard Neftali Alvarez @alvarez2neftali has picked up an offer from UTEP

Best in-season tournament field we've ever been apart of.

Time to add 20 inches back to his vertical.

According to the 247Sports page that @NWAkron(?) previously shared, we only have 1 outstanding offer left, which is Neftali Alvarez. We'll see what he does (he'd be one helluva get), but look at who we've lost out to. Rutgers, South Carolina, Xavier, Northwestern, Bucknell, and Colorado (I don't count Duquesne because I'm assuming those "offers" by Akron were made under Dambrot). All P5 schools and a Bucknell program with quite a bit of tournament notoriety in the last decade. The recent exodus of Akron players (Patton, Cotton, Parrish) is not a fluke/accident. They are re-tooling/upgrading, and I'm sure they have players in the pipeline that we don't know about. The sky is not falling.

Easy there, Chicken Little. There are nearly 500 players at the DI level that have transferred. It says more about how recruiting at this level is changing than it does about our program specifically. Again, Parrish wasn't a Groce recruit. We don't know if he fully bought into the system behind the scenes. We all know about Cotton's issues.

Ouch... Ultimately he wasn't a Groce recruit, so if he wasn't a system fit either talent or personality wise, it makes sense.

That's about 13% of the players in the DI ranks, if you figure each team has 10-12 players (I multiplied the numbers of teams - 351 - by 11 as the average roster size). I would love to see a breakdown of why the players are leaving. I wonder what percentage of the near 500 transfers are transferring because of coaching changes, more exposure/playing time (bigger school to smaller school), etc. I don't think transfers are a big deal, largely because these are 18+ year olds that are defined as adults according to society and have full control of their life. I do strongly dislike the transfer rule that forces players to sit out a year. Instead of punishing the young adult for looking to better his situation, what if the NCAA awarded the schools losing players an additional scholarship, on top of the one they would already have open up? A system like this could be modeled after the MLB's Rule 5 Draft (selection team pays $50k to the team losing the player) and restricted free agency in professional sports (draft pick compensation or something like that if an offer is not matched after an initial qualifying offer).

Shout out to the kid in the back repping the Akron jacket.

Not sure how much to read into this (VCU reporter?) or what his source is, but... https://twitter.com/RealBenMalakoff/status/978835847335247873