The 2013 Recruiting Thread

[GoZips]

PG - Nyles Evans

SG - Aaron Jackson

SF - B.J. Gladden

PF - Kwan Cheatham

C - Isaiah Johnson

The Zips have recruited an entire starting lineup and a pretty good looking one on paper for this class.

This is not a good sign for those who were hoping to see Quincy Diggs back next year.

I also have to imagine that this spells the end of the line for another one of our current scholarship players. Based on the current roster and available playing time my money would have to be on Blake Justice.

Finally, and someone can correct me if I am wrong here, I BELIEVE this is the first time in the KD era that the Zips have gone to the JUCO well. Not sure what to make of that, although I suppose you can also say that we offered Evans out of high school.

I fear that we will not have Quincy back myself. Though, there is still hope. Point guard was not Q's best position

You are correct; this is the first JUCO in the Dambrot era.

Evans brings two years of college level experience which the Zips need at the point. He has really elevated his game.

[Valpo Zip]

The Math still doesn't work for me. Zeke, Walsh, Gilliam, and Egner will be freeing 4 scholarships.

We have an incoming class of 5 + Forsythe needing 6 scholarships. We are two schollies in the red.

[wadszip]

The Math still doesn't work for me. Zeke, Walsh, Gilliam, and Egner will be freeing 4 scholarships.

We have an incoming class of 5 + Forsythe needing 6 scholarships. We are two schollies in the red.

Just a guess: Justice and Deji will transfer.

[akzipper]

I honesty don't really get all the excitement over this class. Out of all 5 players, only one offer from a "Big" school? All the rest had offers from MAC, A10, or below conferences. I've accepted the fact that we won't see another Zeke, ever. But I feel like people are greatly overrating these guys.

[GoZips]

I honesty don't really get all the excitement over this class. Out of all 5 players, only one offer from a "Big" school? All the rest had offers from MAC, A10, or below conferences. I've accepted the fact that we won't see another Zeke, ever. But I feel like people are greatly overrating these guys.

At the mid-major level the trick is to find the "diamonds in the rough". To put it another way; the coaches have to glean

and find those players that the "bigs" have under evaluated; or are late developers. The "bigs" passed on Harney and

Treadwell because of their grades.

We are already learning that the "bigs" missed the boat on incoming freshman Isaiah Johnson, B.J. Gladden and to an

extent Kwan Cheatam. Akron's scouting and recruiting brain trust is putting in over time. The past three years have brought

a definite upgrade in Akron's talent level.

As for how do we "pay" for being plus one or plus two over the scholly limit? Hmmmm. That remains to be seen. Your

guess is as good as mine.

[Hilltopper]

The Math still doesn't work for me. Zeke, Walsh, Gilliam, and Egner will be freeing 4 scholarships.

We have an incoming class of 5 + Forsythe needing 6 scholarships. We are two schollies in the red.

Right now we only have 12 players on scholarship. Egner has officially left the program at the semester break. So that leaves us with four openings for next year and now we have 5 incoming players. It looks like Justice is on the hot seat now. His inability to handle the ball will be the reason for his departure. We have plenty of big guys, now we need someone to get them the ball.

2012/2013 players on scholarship;

Zeke sr

Walsh sr

Chauncey sr

Tree jr

Harney jr

Alex jr

Melo fr

Kretzer fr

McAdams fr

Deji so

Pat F rfr

Justice rfr

[Quickzips]

Just a guess: Justice and Deji will transfer.

I don't think Deji transfers. He is getting more and more playing time as the year goes along, and with Walsh and Gilliam out of the equation next year he should be in the hunt for a possible starting spot.

As far as the rest of the equation. IF Quincy Diggs is not back our returning scholarship players for next year are:

Abreu

Betancourt

Ibitayo

Justice

McAdams

Kretzer

Treadwell

Harney

Forsythe (Forsythe is already on scholarship having taken over Q's scholarship IIRC)

That leaves 4 spots available, which means we still need one more scholarship. My best bet is that Justice transfers out. Now IF Diggs returns the situation gets a lot more complicated.

[Quickzips]

I honesty don't really get all the excitement over this class. Out of all 5 players, only one offer from a "Big" school? All the rest had offers from MAC, A10, or below conferences. I've accepted the fact that we won't see another Zeke, ever. But I feel like people are greatly overrating these guys.

Let's take a look at this in comparison to another fairly large class that had good success at Akron throughout their careers under KD (for this comparison I am using data compiled from the rivals.com database):

Comparison Class:

Player 1 had offers from Akron, Bowling Green, Hampton, Robert Morris and Wright State

Player 2 only had an offer from Akron

Player 3 only had an offer from Akron

This Class:

Player 1 had offers from Akron and Middle Tennessee State

Player 2 had offers from Akron, Can't State, Ohio and Xavier

Player 3 only had an offer from Akron

Player 4 had offers from Akron, Miami (OH), Ohio and Toledo

Player 5 had offers from Akron, Charlotte, East Carolina, NC Greensboro, NC Wilmington, VCU, Wake Forest, Winthrop and Xavier

The comparative class had just over one offer from another school per player and had a grand total of one other offer from a MAC school. All other offers came from schools in lower conferences. This class averages close to three offers from another school per player. Five offers from other MAC programs are included. It also includes offers from the A10 (two), ACC (one), CUSA (one) and some other very good mid-majors such as Middle Tennesee, VCU and Winthrop.

Now, for the revealing:

The comparative class:

Player 1 - Romeo Travis

Player 2 - Dru Joyce

Player 3 - Jeremiah Wood

This class:

Player 1 - Nyles Evans

Player 2 - Aaron Jackson

Player 3 - Kwan Cheatham

Player 4 - Isaiah Johnson

Player 5 - B.J. Gladden

Ask yourself this. Knowing what you know now, would you have passed on Romeo, Dru and J.Wood simply because the best offer (outside of Akron) between them was from Bowling Green? If the answer to that (as it should be) is no, then you start to see a little bit of the picture of why everyone is excited about this recruiting class. KD is the coach that brought us those 3 guys who nobody else was really interested in nearly a decade ago. Now, 10 years later he will be bringing in a class of new athletes that has seen interest from other significant programs.

[GoZips]

The University basketball staff does NOT use Rivals or Scout in their player evaluations. The resources they use are kept

confidential and generally include PAID scouting/recruiting services. Tips from other coaches friendly to Akron such as

Shaka Smart and others also provide input. The network among college coaches (assistants and head coaches) is vast

and interconnected.

As I stated in another post, the level of recruit sought by the Zips has continually improved under Dambrot. Coach Rich

McFadden handles most of the recruiting over the past 3 or 4 years. He seems to have a keen eye for talent that fits

Coach Dambrot's system.

Evaluating talent using only Rivals or Scout free services will befuddle you about player abilities. The free stuff is only

an overview and not an in depth analysis of the players.

Most recruits are spot on. A few will fail to live up to expectations and a few will excel. Success comes from finding more

players that exceed expectations than come up short.

Usually coaches will not "cut" a player. They tend to indicate to the player that he needs to improve X, Y, and Z. Some

players opt to transfer in order to get playing time. If a player is warming the pine for 40 minutes of a game that should

be a clue that he is not meeting expectations. The ultimate decision is up to him. Recall Steve Swiech and Dakota Euton.

Both left and excelled at a lower level.

[Quickzips]

The University basketball staff does NOT use Rivals or Scout in their player evaluations. The resources they use are kept

confidential and generally include PAID scouting/recruiting services. Tips from other coaches friendly to Akron such as

Shaka Smart and others also provide input. The network among college coaches (assistants and head coaches) is vast

and interconnected.

As I stated in another post, the level of recruit sought by the Zips has continually improved under Dambrot. Coach Rich

McFadden handles most of the recruiting over the past 3 or 4 years. He seems to have a keen eye for talent that fits

Coach Dambrot's system.

Evaluating talent using only Rivals or Scout free services will befuddle you about player abilities. The free stuff is only

an overview and not an in depth analysis of the players.

Most recruits are spot on. A few will fail to live up to expectations and a few will excel. Success comes from finding more

players that exceed expectations than come up short.

Usually coaches will not "cut" a player. They tend to indicate to the player that he needs to improve X, Y, and Z. Some

players opt to transfer in order to get playing time. If a player is warming the pine for 40 minutes of a game that should

be a clue that he is not meeting expectations. The ultimate decision is up to him. Recall Steve Swiech and Dakota Euton.

Both left and excelled at a lower level.

In no way was I trying to imply that the coaching staff relies on Rivals, Scout, ESPN or any other publicly available recruiting service. The original post that I was replying to made issue with this class based on who else offered these guys. I was simply making the comparison, based on the publicly available information on Rivals, of the offers this class had compared with what I consider to be one of the best recruiting classes of the KD era.

I also understand that recruiting is hit or miss and is dependent upon a lot of variables, many of which come down to the personality and work ethic of 17 and 18 year old kids. 13 scholarships to give, on average you should have 3 open scholarships each year. If you hit on 2 of those each year you have a pretty nice rotation. Some kids will unexpectedly "hit" early (see Jake Kretzer this season), others will only "hit" late in their careers (see Jimmy Conyers). Overall, I think KD has done a better job than much of the conference over his tenure here at finding more hits than misses.

[RACER]

from what i aread of johnson they played huntingon prep with was #3 team in the nation.they also have the #1 ranked

player in the nation.the coach said the top25 teams missed out out on johnson,and more than held his own against the

#3 ranked team in the country.

[akzipper]

I get the whole "diamond in the rough" thinking, but isn't that how all Akron teams function? How well has that worked in football?

Only focusing on basketball, our team is obviously better and I'd expect to get a diamond every now and then. But to claim all five of these guys that way is a bit extreme. I just don't see it, but I hope I'm wrong.

[Dave in Green]

@akzipper, how would you propose going about convincing high-level talent that it's in their best interest to pass on offers to go play for established, winning programs at big-name schools and come to UA instead?

[wadszip]

If anybody read the Canton Repository today, there was a short blurb on Nyles Evans committing to Akron, with a couple of quotes from his high school coach Randy Montgomery (who apparently doesn't follow the UA basketball team at all). I don't have it in front of me, but Montgomery (paraphrasing) said:

"Nyles is going to be a great addition to the team. They have good players throughout the roster, but if there was one position they aren't as strong, it's point guard. Nyles will step in there."

I guess if only having an All-MAC PG (who is a junior) is a weakness, this team is in very good shape. Of course, this is a coach talking up his player, but had to chuckle when I read it. Although, I do think that Evans could bump Carmelo out of the rotation next year, then Evans and Melo sharing duties in 14-15, with Melo taking over over the full-time starting gig his senior year.

I would post the link, but the story wasn't posted online.

[Dr Z]

I would post the link, but the story wasn't posted online.

This one?

[wadszip]

This one?

Yeah, that's the one. I didn't see it online when I went to look for it.

[PB1719]

Nyles has some nice moves

[gozips19]

Nyles has some nice moves

almost all the highlights are agaisnt Akron players.

[Hilltopper]

Nyles Evans Brevard CC team just clinched the Southern Conference Basketball Championship, going 24-6. They will play in the March 7 first round of the FCSAA/NJCAA Division I Region 8 tournament at Chipola College in Marianna.

"Coming into the season Coach (Jeremy) Shulman, he told me last year he was fully bought into me, Nyles and Gary and told us we were going to lead this team to a conference championship and go to state and possibly go to the national tournament," Spruill said.

For his part Evans finished with eight points but his season-long heady play at guard along with freshman Ben Patrick was a key.

"It feels awesome, great," Evans said. "Everything we went through from the summer. At the end of the day we're the champions of this conference.

It didn't come easily.

"Broward is a tough team," Evans said. "They're scrappy, they play good man defense, they get all up into you. This year they seemed to cause us a lot of problems but at the end of the day we got the win.

"That's been our goal all year to get to state and get a chance to go to the national tournament."

[Zipper10]

Right now we only have 12 players on scholarship. Egner has officially left the program at the semester break. So that leaves us with four openings for next year and now we have 5 incoming players. It looks like Justice is on the hot seat now. His inability to handle the ball will be the reason for his departure. We have plenty of big guys, now we need someone to get them the ball.

2012/2013 players on scholarship;

Zeke sr

Walsh sr

Chauncey sr

Tree jr

Harney jr

Alex jr

Melo fr

Kretzer fr

McAdams fr

Deji so

Pat F rfr

Justice rfr

Well one zips player might see a silver lining to Abreu's poor decisions. I'm sure he's not happy that it happened but it might just work out in his favor for his future in Akron...if Abreu is not coming back.

Now let me be clear. I am not saying anything bad about anyone and I hope everything works itself out in court for AA. If he's guilty he's guilty if not that's great. But either way I'm not sure he's returning next year.

Now lets hope we make this NCAA run....For our current players and for future recruiting years.

Go Zips!!