Another transfer???

[ZachTheZip]

It is strongly rumored on the A-10 and St. Joe's message boards that Akron is getting a St. Joe's transfer by the name of Bryant Irwin. He's a sophomore forward who averaged just over 4 pts and 2 rebounds in 13 minutes per game for an awful St. Joe's squad. They're talking like it's a completely done deal. I don't think he redshirted, so he could sit out a year and still have two to play. Do we even have room for another forward? I strongly doubt it. This implies that another player is leaving, likely a frontcourt player.

And on the AEC conference board it says that UMBC's guard Chauncey Gilliam took an official visit to Akron sometime around April 19th.

[Dave in Green]

It is strongly rumored on the A-10 and St. Joe's message boards that Akron is getting a St. Joe's transfer by the name of Bryant Irwin. He's a sophomore forward who averaged just over 4 pts and 2 rebounds in 13 minutes per game for an awful St. Joe's squad. They're talking like it's a completely done deal. I don't think he redshirted, so he could sit out a year and still have two to play. Do we even have room for another forward? I strongly doubt it. This implies that another player is leaving, likely a frontcourt player.

And on the AEC conference board it says that UMBC's guard Chauncey Gilliam took an official visit to Akron sometime around April 19th.

Good catch. Assuming the 3 verbals for 2011 stay committed, there's still room for a 4th scholarship in 2011. Any new scholarship for 2010 would take further movement from current players.

The more you look into these rumors, the more you find there's more talk than action. But some of the talk does eventually turn into action. The trick is in predicting exactly which talk will turn into action.

[Quickzips]

Not going to get to worked up about this one until we see something official, but I'm puzzled by this. At 6'7" 218lbs he's in the same size range that guys like Cvetinovic, Euton, Egner, Green and Harney. Not sure we really need another kid like him. His numbers from St. Joe's are horrible. Seems like a big kid who likes to shoot the 3 but isn't very good at it. Last year nearly half of his shots were from 3 and he hit a blazing 17.6% of them. Apparently he was quite the scorer in high school in West Virginia, but it doesn't look like that has translated to the college game at all. For a big guy to be shooting under 38% for his career is pretty embarassing. I personally think we can do a lot better with that 4th scholarship.

[Blue & Gold]

Wow, how do you find this stuff, Zach?

Anyway, if I remember correctly, the Zips were very high on Bryant in high school. He played @ the same prep school as Nik. In fact, I believe the Zips staff stumbled upon Nik while scouting one of Bryant's games. They offered him coming out of high school.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Wow, how do you find this stuff, Zach?

Anyway, if I remember correctly, the Zips were very high on Bryant in high school. He played @ the same prep school as Nik. In fact, I believe the Zips staff stumbled upon Nik while scouting one of Bryant's games. They offered him coming out of high school.

You are corrrect.

It would be interesting to see him come to UA on the rebound, so-to-speak.

[Quickzips]

I'd much rather have Gilliam than Irwin. Not only are his career numbers significantly better (though in a weaker conference and getting more playing time does have to be taken into account), but he fits what we need on this team come next year a lot better.

If we bring in Irwin as the fourth scholarship we have only two real SG's on the roster, McClanahan who is dangerously close to being labeled a bust and a true Freshman in Blake Justice who is going to be making a big leap in terms of the talent he is facing. We would then be bursting at the seams with combo-forwards with Nik, Euton, Harney, Egner, Green and also Irwin. Total logjam. Someone is bound to get pissed in there about playing time. Bring in Gilliam and you can probably insert him as the starting SG, you can redshirt Justice and it makes it easier to find minutes for all the forwards.

[Blue & Gold]

I'd much rather have Gilliam than Irwin. Not only are his career numbers significantly better (though in a weaker conference and getting more playing time does have to be taken into account), but he fits what we need on this team come next year a lot better.

If we bring in Irwin as the fourth scholarship we have only two real SG's on the roster, McClanahan who is dangerously close to being labeled a bust and a true Freshman in Blake Justice who is going to be making a big leap in terms of the talent he is facing. We would then be bursting at the seams with combo-forwards with Nik, Euton, Harney, Egner, Green and also Irwin. Total logjam. Someone is bound to get pissed in there about playing time. Bring in Gilliam and you can probably insert him as the starting SG, you can redshirt Justice and it makes it easier to find minutes for all the forwards.

I agree. Gilliam's got great size & in reading his bio, looks like he'd be a very good pick up.

Gilliam's UMBC Bio

Zach's initial post stated that Gilliam took an official visit to Akron. Players enrolled in one college can take "official" visits to other colleges? That strikes me as odd.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Rumor Mill Link

[Buckzip]

Rumor Mill Link

Maybe we can get a transfer that actually played and had some production instead of these guys that barely played on bad teams.

Walkons are one thing, but if KD is giving them a scholarship, what's up?

[zippyman23]

Rumor Mill Link

Maybe we can get a transfer that actually played and had some production instead of these guys that barely played on bad teams.

Walkons are one thing, but if KD is giving them a scholarship, what's up?

I was thinking the same thing. Tough to get excited about either of them.

[ZachTheZip]

Sounds like a couple Zips posters will be happy.

[Quickzips]

Pretty happy with the Gilliam transfer, as I stated in the other thread. We are getting a kid who lead his team in scoring last year, shoots well from the free throw line, is a relatively consistent scorer and appears to have active hands on the defensive end. Whats more, with Roberts and McNees graduating this year we are going to need a SG who can come in and pick up the slack. We still have McClanahan, but he has been a pretty big disappointment at this venture. Outside of that we will have a true freshman trying to make a big jump from lower level high school play in Blake Justice as our only other SG. Gilliam should hopefully stabilize that situation a bit.