Blue & Gold

I was wondering that as well. The only thought I have is that with an academic scholarship you have to maintain a pretty high GPA to remain on scholarship. An athletic scholarship probably allows for a "C's get degrees" approach to academics so that the athlete can have more time to focus on his sport; e.g., spending time in the gym as opposed to the library. Playing D-1 sports is a pretty huge time commitment. If Enrique has a new goal of playing professional ball, he may want that athletic scholarship option.

I think you're right.

Yeah, I guess you're right. Unless someone else moves on. And this is assuming Freeman is put on scholarship.

Due to the COVID year who can know exactly how the current class designations are going to pan out, but here is an updated (as of 3/15) scholarship chart:

Good for him. I can't imagine practicing every day & never setting a foot on the court. Though with his attitude I liked him being around the team, ala, LePear Toles.

...still so confused... 🙃

*cough *cough Maishe Dailey *cough

I believe he got even less PT than Currie? Idk. But I don't have him in my hypothetical 2-deep because something must be up w/ him.

🙏🙏🙏

I agree. If none of our soon-to-be-juniors - Ali, Dawson, or Marshall - becomes a team leader (legit consistent scoring threat) we could have a sub par season. I think Greg Tribble, our other soon-to-be-junior, simply is who he is: a fantastic athlete who gives 100% and can play lock-down D... but who has rather shaky handles to run the point & isn't able to stretch a defense with his outside shooting. I don't anticipate a big jump, skill-wise, from Greg. Bryan Trimble & Michael Wynn are going to be our only seniors next year. (Actually, due to COVID they both may still be classified as juniors. Idk.) But anyway, they'll be our veterans. I still don't really know what to think or expect from either. Here's my projected 2-deep: PG: Clarke......... Johnson (uber stud incoming freshman; I think he'll be backup PG after Christmas) W: Trimble........ Tribble W: Dawson........ Wynn P: Ali Ali ........... Marshall P: Freeman...... Salle or Bandaogo I'm picking Kobe Mitchell to redshirt, though he will likely be the 2nd best 3-point shooter on the team as soon as he sets foot on campus. But watching his lousy, and I do mean lousy, competition in high school makes me think it'll take him a year to adapt to the D-1 college game.

Glad he wasn’t sugar coating it. Wake up call?

It’s kinda nice knowing we gave them all they could handle while we were still learning to walk. I’ll be rooting for them in the dance.

In the Post Mortem thread I guess i should reiterate my appreciation to Akron and the MAC for the guard play we were graced to enjoy this year. LCJ, Marreon Jackson, Jason Preston, Justin Turner. Good grief, that is some top shelf talent!

What a goof.

I hope Toledo gets in. For Marreon Jackson's sake, mostly. Does the NIT announce their field tonight?

Which conference(s) do you have in mind? I like the MAC. Or, I guess I should say I enjoy a handful of rivalries we have within the MAC. Ohio, Toledo, Buffalo, and Kent. How many schools even in the Big Ten can say they have sincere rivalries with 4 of their conference members? None of those 4 do it for me either, but I can't see a conference dropping a school, let alone 4. I do wish we could bring Marshall back. I miss that rivalry. (Just ear to the ground, but I think Herd fans do too.) James Madison is not a happy camper in their current conference (again, just ear to the ground). But JMU would have to upgrade their football program to FBS. What do you mean by that, Clark? Drop football down a division & campaign to join the A-10?

I had to search for this post. I posted this on December 7th. We went on to smash OU during our first matchup & I figured well of course, 'cause what do I know? Lol. But Boals has done a great job getting OU to gel into the team that worried me back in early December.

I've started toying with my 2-deep for next season already. 😂

In essence I think you really hit the nail on the head in noting that we simply became much too reliant on LCJ. We were not a well-rounded team. I still can't believe how off I was in my enthusiasm concerning Maishe Dailey. What a gorgeous athlete, ideally built for basketball. And in remembering his impressive skill set from high school, I thought Groce's style would be perfectly in his wheelhouse and that he'd become a 2nd Team All-MAC-caliber player. When that didn't materialize we were never the team I was envisioning preseason. Additionally, boy was I wrong about Currie. At 6'8"-6'9" I thought he'd be our staring center from day one. When he failed to earn any PT we suddenly became a very small team; our two true post players each coming in at 6'7". (And neither 6'7" guy was a stretch post player, like 6'9" X was, and like 6'8" Currie was touted to be.) So that also threw me a knuckleball from what I was anticipating preseason. We simply lost too much when we lost three leaders, tenacious defenders, rebounders, and 3-point threats in Cheese (6'5"), Banks (6'4"), and Williams (6'9"). Never were we able to begin to even slightly fill those shoes this season.

Just a nameless student manager.