UAZippers

Interesting. He was a two-year starter that sat out last season die to "personal reasons". I would certainly welcome an older guard who can come in and play from day 1.

It is official.

Nothing to see here... he chose USF

Welcome to the newest Zip, Torrey Patton!

He has an appeal in with the NCAA for a sixth year, but even the OU fans that I have seen are not too hopeful of his chances.

Stolen from the MAC CSNBBS board: So, of the 15 players who were named to the All-MAC first, second, and third teams, only three players are returning. Am I missing someone else leaving? All-MAC First Team Isaiah Johnson, C, Akron, Senior Marcus Keene, G, Central Michigan, Junior Jimmy Hall, F, Kent State, Senior Jaaron Simmons, G, Ohio, Junior Thomas Wilder, G, Western Michigan, Junior All-MAC Second Team Kwan Cheatham Jr., F, Akron, Senior Tayler Persons, G, Ball State, Sophomore Blake Hamilton, Wing, Buffalo, Senior James Thompson IV, F, Eastern Michigan, Sophomore Steve Taylor Jr., F, Toledo, Senior All-MAC Third Team Franko House, F, Ball State, Senior Braylon Rayson, G, Central Michigan, Senior Marin Maric, C, Northern Illinois, Senior Jon Williams, G, Toledo, Senior Tucker Haymond, F, Western Michigan, Senior That is bad! The MAC was already having a down year this past season, next year is looking pretty bleak.

I gave you an example of a player who had plenty of offers: LePear Toles. Here is another: Andre Drummond, an all star NBA center, was fully prepared to turn down all of his offers and signed to go to a prep school until deciding to go to UCONN at the very last moment. There is also every other player mentioned in the article that I posted that you seem to have conveniently ignored.

Potentially something to watch out for: Torrey Patton is expected to announce his commitment tomorrow morning. I don't know how hard JG has kept up with recruiting Patton, but he still listed UA as top 5 on April 18th.

Michael (the good one) Weathers is now a point guard for Oklahoma State.

Speaking of Dambrot recruiting MAC bench players: Marcus Weathers, who played for Miami last season, is transferring to Duquesne.

Who? Obviously, I'm talking about the player that we are discussing. He did play for the past year, just not at a collegiate level. Another great example is LePear Toles, whom Akron offered in high school and multiple posters on this forum have been drooling over. Players generally go the route of a year of prep school, because they feel that they are better than their scholarship offers, it can be because they had a severe injury in high school, went to a small school and didn't have a high level of opposition, or many other things. In Mark's case, it seems that he had a pretty bad ankle injury and he feels that it affected who recruited him. He may or may not have gotten offers, I really can't find any official offers myself, but I have seen stories about significant interest from Dayton, Kent, Wright State, Northern Kentucky, and Toledo while he was in high school. It is not like IMG is a nobody. They are a well respected, national program. It is not even new phenomenon. Here is a story from 7 years ago about players choosing to go to prep schools: http://www.ctpost.com/basketball/article/Prep-schools-can-provide-avenue-to-college-512963.php

You go this direction, because you don't skip your freshman year. He still has 5 years to play 4 seasons. If you go to a JC you lose a year of eligibility.

The JAR is undergoing a $1.8 million renovation to its AV systems. http://uakron.edu/purchasing/docs/JAR Renovation AV Upgrade (SF 330) Rev1.pdf

Article from when he was sentenced: http://northdallasgazette.com/2012/08/27/rising-basketball-star-tony-farmers-tragic-fall/ The author of that article obviously has a personal belief that the ruling was unfair, but I think it speaks volumes that so many people, including the victim (who had still broken up with him, so this is probably not some kind of fear situation), talked about his strengths and pleaded for leniency. The kid fainted when he heard his sentence; that screams mistake to me, not hardened thug. A big kid was distraught when his girlfriend broke up with him and lashed out in a way he shouldn't have. I don't believe that should exclude him from living the rest of his life after he served his punishment.

I actually considered posting about Farmer when I shared the list. I would 100% support UA giving him another chance. I have read multiple articles both from the time of the incident and in the years since. Every one talks about how many coaches/teachers/mentors that have worked with Farmer believe that it was one horrible decision and they hope that it does not ruin his life. Also interesting is that he goes to Lee College which is right outside of Houston. The top 100 list also has two of his teammates listed. One is a wing that has already signed with TCU, but the third is an unsigned point guard. I would love a package deal. I know that our Houston connection left with our coaching staff, but I think that we could still play up the Houston kids that we still have on the roster.

Rated as the #71 JUCO prospect this year. http://www.jucorecruiting.com/2017jucotop100

Conner wrote an open letter to NFL GM's about how he wants to be seen heading into the draft. It is really an excellent read. https://www.theplayerstribune.com/james-conner-pitt-letter-to-nfl-gms/

I agree that Ivey and Antino are very good players. I think the best player on the team last season was far and away Big Dog, but I am excited to see what Ivey can do next year with a team that I would guess will be more structured towards his skill set. I am at the point where I am assuming Antino is gone. I will be happily surprised if he returns. Utomi showed promise, but that is it. There is not enough sample size to know how he will turn out. His problem is that it looks like he might have to play out of his natural position his whole career. I by no means am saying that there is not talented Zips, but I do not understand how anyone could think that we are far more talented than the other upper-level members of the MAC. EMU is pure talent, they just have a coach that I wouldn't trust with a junior high women's squad and you can tell just by watching that they have no chemistry. Buffalo and Kent both showed what can be done when you just let athletic freaks do what they want on the court. As far as the quotes, I agree that I was disappointed in the play of the some of the Zips last season, but there is a reason that certain player played over others. To say that we won't miss every guard we had on the team (If we call Ivey a 3 since that is what he played last season) is laughable and I have 0 faith that Aaron Jackson will be a productive player next year. I hope I am wrong.

You completely contradict this point with everything else that you said. I don't know how we have so much talent when you claim that 4/5 starters and our top 2 bench players were below par. I would argue that Akron has been below the top teams in the MAC in terms of talent recently. I believe that Buffalo, Kent, EMU, and maybe OU all had more talent than the Zips last season. We won because we have a system that our players bought into and they all knew their role to help the team succeed. With 6 of our top 8 leaving, I'm not sure how the team is going to be able to react. I hope that JG can give us a winner next season, but won't be because the current team is just loaded with talent.

How many games is there in the non-conference schedule? Between the Hawaii games, the Coaches v Cancer season opener, and our ongoing home-and-home with Marshall (which I am pretty sure is not over yet), did KD schedule a single game for next season?

The idea that JG can pull in Bragg is not looking too great.

Before it was closed down in 2015(?). The Pie Factory in Quaker Square made all of the Zippy cookies. I guess I have never thought about where they come from now. I would assume just general Catering Services through the university.

Its fun to hear that Big Dog had a good game, but lets not act like one day tells a whole story. His first game on Wednesday, he went 0-4 and didn't score. Single games very rarely tell you anything. As Kreed said above me, Big Dog has been shooting and hitting 3's during warm-ups all season. However, I feel like the last thing that the Zips needed last season was another guy who wants to stand at the 3-point line.

Don't get your hopes up on Jeter. He wants to stay with a pretty major school and he is looking out west.

I wouldn't say that I am ok with assault, but I am not willing to blame Groce for what other men did. He took a couple bad risks, and as far as I can tell, dealt with the issues as well as I would expect from a coach. You never know how a player will respond to an opportunity. Think of all the "high risk" people on our football team right now. The vast majority have been model citizens.