Blue & Gold

Frank Jakubicek committed to Belmont.

Here's a bit more on J.J. Traynor. VerbalCommits dot com hudl dot com a little thread on 24/7 Sports dot com where Louiville fans are pretty excited about Traynor, though Louisville hasn't yet offered.

Having not seen any of our newcomers play, I'm with you. Cheese is aggressive and has a knack for putting the ball in the bucket. LCJ is streaky, but when he's on he's one of the more difficult-to-guard players in the MAC. If Banks can regain confidence in his 3-point shot he's going to be a strong #3. Being a local product, I'm looking forward to watching LePear Toles. He's a very good all-around player. He just occasionally lacks self-confidence. But once he grows accustomed to the speed of the D-1 game, I think he's going to be a real asset. He can handle the ball & in high school was known for his 3-point stroke.

Zips offer 6' 4" CG Ryan Rollins of Dakota HS in Macomb, MI.

Ray'Sean Taylor, 6-1, 165, PG, Collinsville HS, Collinsville, IL

More 2021 recruiting news from VerbalCommits dot com Jalen Blackmon, 6-1, 155, CG, Marion HS, Marion, IN Kooper Jacobi, 6-6, 180, SG, Silver Creek HS, Sellersburg, IN

As you can see in this link, VerbalCommits dot com just blew up with Akron offers. Frank Jakubicek, 6-8, 220, PF, Cary-Grove HS, Cary, IL Jeremiah Williams, 6-3, 165, PG, Saint Laurence HS, Burbank, IL Isaiah Rivera, 6-5, 185, SF, Geneseo HS, Geneseo, IL Cameron Young, 6-6, SF, Saints John Neumann and Maria Goretti HS, Woolwich, NJ Darius Burford, 6-0, PG, Bolingbrook HS, Bolingbrook, IL

I'm going with Toledo as preseason favorite to win the MAC. BUGS was really clicking at the end of last season, but they're losing Wiggins.

Love it! Can't wait to see him in blue & gold. I'm actually pretty enthused about three freshmen - Tribble, Mikal Dawson & Tre Edwards - all having potential to contribute early.

Welcome, @AkronAlumnus! Great to have another Zips brother on the board! To begin the season I'm going with: LCJ C. Banks T. Cheese X. Williams D. Riak Come conference season, I wouldn't be surprised if it looked more like: T. Cheese C. Banks L. Toles C. Reece X. Williams

Trimble has to sit a year. Tribble is immediately eligible. Confusing, I know! Lol

hudl link with highlights.

Yeah. I understand the game is changing and "Small Ball" and what not. But I'm also scratching my head a bit.

And another @LZIp called this one earlier in the week!

I was going to mention this with D'Andre Bulley's commitment. We've landed a couple of guys early in the recruiting cycle who have offers from P-5 schools. I like that. It seems like in the past when we've landed guys with P-5 offers, it's been very late in the recruiting cycle & we've wondered if the P-5 schools had backed off on them & encouraged them to look elsewhere. Pure speculation, but none-the-less, I like that we're landing players w/ P-5 offers before the season's even begun.

Wow! What a well-written verbal commitment. Extremely articulate and thoughtful.

That's quite a list! Great get, Coach Arth! And, yes, 6-1, 220 is one big boy. He may be the Thunder to Peter Hayes-Patrick's Lightning?

He did. I like Torrey and also hope he does well. He needed more confidence in his game, and maybe he's developed that over the past year.

How about Illinois State or Indiana State? I like the idea of playing FCS schools within closer proximity. Sure, none will likely draw as well as YSU, but none-the-less... IIRC, if YSU was to become a yearly gig, they wanted us to play in Youngstown on alternating years. Idk the details of that conversation, but I wouldn't be opposed to playing in Youngstown perhaps once every four years. For the sake of ticket sales we really need another rival.

Bio Triple-Double Prospects dot com presently has him ranked as the #1 SF in Ohio for '21. As an aside, TDP.com has two more Zips' targets - STVM's Malaki Branham & Cleveland Heights' E.J. Farmer ranked as the #1 & #2 SG's in Ohio, respectively.