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Who? I think a few of us are just trying to illustrate how bizarre this is. No offers out of high school, decides not to play for a year, and then a reputable mid-major gives you a D-I scholarship? Is there anyone else at our MAC level who's gone to a basketball developmental school for a year after completing high school and then landed a D-1 full ride? I just hope to God that it's not because of desperation and panic to fill roster spots, but I see that we might be in that unfortunate position at this point.

Some would contend that we STILL do not really have a video feed. He was a Center out of Pittsburgh that got a lot of attention when he came here, hardly ever played, and ended up doing a graduate transfer to a D-II school. Great kid. He was on the roster during our 2009 title year. That's what makes it even more puzzling to me that he wasn't getting any offers. Like I said, it seems like just about everyone takes chances on these kinds of guys because of their size, even if they are completely raw, talent wise.

Big Dog? Yes. Zeke? We made him an instant starter, and tried to make him the focal point of our offense from Day 1.

It's a place where they can go to try to develop. I don't know anything about the cost, but I can see that he went to private high school, so maybe that wasn't an issue? But for a guy with really good size to skip his Freshman year of college to go there just seems bizarre to me. Yes, I know he had no offers. But why not go to a JC just so you can play college basketball. Then you can transfer out of there at any time. That's how we got a Big like S. Patterson back in 1986. I have no clue why anyone would want to go the route that this kid went on.

Everyone knows the things that we didn't accomplish. But, our 3 MAC Tournament Titles is the most of any team in the league over his tenure. We actually won almost as many Tournament titles as we won Regular Season titles. I'll be interested to see how excited you are to sing the "change" tune as we progress through this impending drop off in wins.

I didn't say that at all.

Did you even catch that you said those two things together? I'm far from being the biggest Zeke supporter here. But he was MAC All-Freshman, had a double/double in his first career start, and led the MAC in blocks as a freshman. I'll hope to get that from this guy as a Senior. Read what some of us are seeing about the guys he's playing against in those videos. There's a reason why this guy didn't go to college after he graduated from high school. These kinds of guys are the ones you hope will develop into something in maybe a few years. I hope you weren't the same guy who predicted that Swiech would dominate the MAC.

I'm not sure which issue you are commenting on here. We can certainly debate about what to expect from Ball, but there isn't a debate about Terry's offensive philosophy.

I agree with you on both points. Especially the 2nd point. This is very odd. When I commented on him earlier, I thought it was strange that he was in April of his Sr. year with only medium interest and no offers. Then I noticed that his Sr. year was actually LAST YEAR.....2016. So, he goes to IMG Academy for a year and only gets an offer from Iona? This is a strange path. I hope he's going to be just a very late bloomer in terms of his skill level. Recruiters typically salivate over a guy his size, even if he's still just a project. So, the fact that he had to go this route is very unusual.

And I was AT the Wisconsin game too.

Amazing? Probably not. We'll see. Good considering Duquesne's plight right now? Likely. Better than MAC bench talent? Very likely.

It's a passing-focused offense, and always will be as long as this coach is here I guess I've just always stayed with those on the "wait and see" side of this issue as I've been hearing a few people declare this guy as the solution to our offensive woes, when he's touched the ball only a couple dozen times in the last 5 years since high school.

Problem Solved. We can just go down to Canton and use what they are going to build. And they don't even have a D-1 basketball program anywhere in sight. He is the description of one of the buildings that will go into the new expansion of the Hall of Fame complex. The Performance Center will also house an indoor 100-yard football field with seating for 9,000 and a configuration for a basketball arena that will hold 6,000. It will also have 80,000 square feet of flat convention space. It does make you wonder why a little bit more forward thinking couldn't have resulted in having something like this being incorporated into the Fieldhouse. And don't even get me started on why we built that nice, large convention center as a separate, single-purpose complex, and without an attached hotel. Good grief.

This is fair. I just hope that Ball does something worthwhile for us this year, with all of the time that people have invested talking about him for the last few years. In the 20 carries we saw last year, he runs hard. If he can return and sustain his health this year, and beat up some MAC defenses for 10 carries or so a game, I think it could really help the wide open passing game that Terry loves so much.

I had to look at that name twice. For a second, I thought that King James had decided to return to college and play football for the Zips. Who knows? Maybe he could have a dramatic mid-career change like Michael Jordan.

Again, when you see the kinds of players that he's attracting there (two others are mentioned in the article as well), it just becomes more and more puzzling why he's tying up 2 scholarships for the next 4 years (1 transfer year and 3 playing years) on two MAC bench players that don't appear (at this point at least) to be guys that can really help them.

It looks like you might already be showing traits of a die hard Zips tailgater. You posted something at 4 AM on a gameday, and you're all excited and ready to go !!.

I'm wondering what's going on with this guy too. At that size, he's only getting medium interest, and mostly from only mid-major schools, and he's already completed his Sr. year of play? I wonder if anyone has seen him play beyond his hand-picked highlight reel. Yes, there has to be more to this story.

I don't think it should either. But giving him a chance to live the rest of his life isn't the same as welcoming him to your campus, making him a member of your notable basketball program, and offering him an academic scholarship. I'm wondering that too. Not that it lessens the severity of what he did, even without priors.

Oh boy. I'm not sure why you stated that it has been "proven" that it was a one-time mistake. That would certainly be the hope of whoever takes a chance on him. Judges don't like to levy that kind of penalty on someone so young with a promising future, so obviously the details were very serious. It was multiple serious charges too. My hunch would be that nobody notable would go out on that limb. I hope he continues on the right track.

That made me laugh. So many posts leave the door open to a smart a$$ reply, right? Man, I thought I had learned many years ago never to volunteer to do anything. Hopefully I will make some progress with my investigative work this weekend, if I see some of the people I expect to see.

I totally understand people getting bits of information about things, whether they share them truthfully or not, or whether they choose to share them at all. Many of us participate, work with, or have relationships within the University. But this situation is different. I don't think anyone can really claim to know what another human being is thinking. My own wife probably couldn't even tell you what I am thinking most of the time

Hmm. A battle of claims here, and two very different ones.

I'm with you on the last statement. Lets see what we "get", rather than getting too excited about what we might be "going after". But lets be fair here about categorizing recruiting objectives, no matter what side of the equation you are on concerning the coaching change. When we were going at it with OU for a few years under Groce, I think it would be ridiculous to think that it was role players vs. athletes when we had some guys like Tree, Harney, Chauncey, and Zeke matching up against guys like Ivo Baltic, Von Kempen and Keely. In fact, I would contend that by the end of that short era between the two teams, Akron probably even surpassed them in better overall athletic talent. There's MAC teams over the years that I would categorize as Very Athletic. The 2010-2013 Bobcats are not one of them. Every MAC team is going to have plenty of role player. I'll take the best basketball players we can get right now. Our previous coach did the same thing.

Maybe ONE would seem somewhat realistic? The "REALLY good" crop isn't lingering in obscurity in late April of their Sr. year. Even if it was much earlier in the recruiting season, I think you're fortunate at our level to maybe find 1 instant contributor who fell through the cracks. We're still Akron, folks. We have to find guys who have potential and look for the qualities/attributes that might make them good players in the future. But this time, we also face the challenge of not being able to prove to these kids what direction we are likely going. That part was easy for many, many years. Hope for the best. I just think you're wishing for a Dream outcome at this point.