Let'sGoZips94

Your post in its entirety doesn't explain away the ceiling you put on the team regardless of TJ's official decision. Nate is a loss until he's replaced and we've already replaced half his production (Evan Mahaffey's defense). He had a few games that he took over, but was largely inefficient in doing so. His game requires the ball to be in his hands, which often killed movement on offense. There's a world where the offense operates better without him and even without TJ. We had a competitive but weaker OOC that saw no significant wins for Akron. Nate had 4 pts vs Yale, 11 vs Arkansas State (26.7% from the field), 8 vs Saint Mary's (33% from the field), and 17 vs Princeton (although he only shot 37.5% from the field). Nate won MAC POTY because he dominated a weak MAC, and deservedly so. However, I'm not sure Nate is the type of player that elevates the program to the next level. You said our ceiling next year is likely the same as this year - MAC Champions with a +15 pt spread as a 13 seed in the NCAAT. I would make the argument that was the ceiling with Nate as our "best player" given the volume he occupied each game. Depending on how he's replaced, our ceiling could be higher. TJ is a similar player, although a more efficient shooter. His shooting would be a bigger loss, but he is a ball-dominant PG that might not be the best fit for this offense; Tavari iso-ball was aggravating most of the time and killed the flow of the offense. We'd also have the opportunity to get bigger at guard (or elsewhere since we're still very loaded at guard). Okonkwo was absolutely fine in his role, but he's replaceable. I don't know who the replacement(s) will be for him, but they're out there. Potter can ask for all the money he wants - he's still a free agent which may say something about his asking price. Akron is an attractive destination for a lot of players and we have way more money now than before to upgrade the front court.

What in the Chicken Little Sky is Falling crap is this? My goodness this couldn't be further from the truth. Is that a realistic outcome? Sure. Is it the only and best realistic outcome? Hell no; not even close. The 3 players that have been confirmed to be lost are a guy that wasn't a team fit/didn't play all year, and undersized/poor finishing/foul-happy PF, and a guard that made quite a few mistakes in many games/scored 4 pts vs Yale/shot 11% vs Arizona/not a greater shooter in general/great defensive player otherwise. We have, at the moment until TJ is official, 2 open roster spots. The previously open 3rd spot has already been filled with an even bigger version of Nate Johnson with maybe a slightly worse offensive game (TBD). With the 2 open spots, we have an opportunity to add more scoring AND get bigger in the front court. Not to mention we will have room for the talent that's already on the roster to have a higher volume and flourish more. We performed as poorly as realistically possible in the OOC last year and that wasn't in spite of Nate/Okonkwo/Harris. Our floor next season is that. Our ceiling is higher. Aaron Rodgers said it best. R-E-L-A-X.

I don't think Evan has anything to do with what has happened. I think an earlier post eluded to what is probably the closest thing to the truth - teams are getting desperate to fill roster spots and All-Conference Teams are easy accolades to find and sell to your fan/donor base. James is a little bit different because his value comes from basic supply & demand economics for bigs. I truly believe we have a shot to really improve with these 3 open spots. Can't wait to see who we add.

Something tells me we're going to like this get.

Wow. I... uhhh... I don't think this list was given much thought.

It all depends on how we fill these vacant roster spots (I think we are overvaluing a bit the talent portion of what we've lost), but this constant turnover year after year isn't fun. What a broken, rotten system the NCAA has.

Eric Mahaffey has allegedly grown to 6'6". He's the same height as his brother now without the muscle build (yet). @Illini Zip Sorry you have to do more scholarship chart work than originally expected.

Just confirmed with Shammah's grandpa that he's staying put.

Where are you seeing this?

The issue isn't backups making millions. It doesn't matter what the young adults make. The issue is 99% of the schools in the country are feeder schools every single year for the 1% without any return on their investment. If the NCAA is going to allow this to be free agency, they need to establish a legitimate group of approved agents and put in place contractual requirements and a transfer fee. If P4s want to poach, they need to pay the school for their development. This current iteration of NIL is BS.

There are thousands of players in the Portal. Auburn just lost their 2nd best player today. We'll be fine. The Portal closes next week and we've already seen transfers decommit and re-enter the Portal.

Came out of the delivery room to this crap news. Happy for Nate - life changing money coming his way. In no way, shape, or form should players ever be shamed for taking the money; always blame the NCAA and the greedy bastards that have let this be a free for all with no guardrails. In addition, continue to hold guys like Freeman on the highest pedestal for their loyalty. I don't think this is that big of a talent loss. As Captain said, you'll struggle to improve by losing your will-be-senior and reining MAC POTY, but the discussion all season was how average the competition was for that award. Nate isn't that great of a shooter and he had so many boneheaded plays over the years. The biggest hits will come in the experience & fit departments. If we can find a shooter or even another front court player to replace Nate, I don't think we'll see much - if any - drop in success. Good luck to Nate and thanks for some wonderful memories, especially the euro floater just over a month ago.

The Kent component really muddies the water. This is absurd for a normal person, but a Kent person...

My son is being born this morning - they're getting a new fan. 😂 The baby's room is nothing but sports with plenty of Akron, and I'm wearing an Akron sweatshirt and the 2025 MAC Champions t-shirt, so he has no choice.

They were a top 4 team and had 2 guys over 7 ft tall (including Edey) when they lost to 16 seed FDU.

That's a good fit for him. They have zero expectations athletically so when he gives up game winning floaters with the worst possible transition defense, they won't hate him.

Now I see why the ABJ article was so absent of details. Kent was aware of half the alleged behavior and never investigated it. Not a great look by the University. What would be interesting is if the University ignored the allegations of drinking on the job, gambling, and staff abuse when they gave him the extension.

Go Zips but college sports suck now. F the NCAA.

There was only one tweet mentioning this and it was an Ohio State fan. I replied to the tweet asking where they got this information and they haven't replied yet.

He's AJ Storr without the talent or the money AND he was dumb enough to go to Kent for a year. 3 strikes, you're out.

Amanda Garrett got paid to type a lot of words that ultimately provided zero details. The 30 seconds I spent skimming that article are lost forever. Bummer.

They're going the Drake/Ben McCollum route. Interesting.

Thanks as always Captain. How did the OLine look?