Transfer Portal 2026

[Blue & Gold]

I believe Micah Young is either Tai Perkins' half-brother or step brother. Closely related somehow.

[ZipForNow]

15 hours ago, Reslife4Life said:

That is a bummer to me. I still think he has tremendous upside. He was a freshman new to US basketball on a team with 5 seniors and 2 guys that made all conference freshmen teams. Could be like a ryan prather type guy that excels in a place given more minutes

Player development is a Zip strength. The calculus of that is tougher in the new era. But also, couldn’t Oggy have gotten more minutes in blowouts? Has KenPom distorted playing time decisions?

[Let'sGoZips94]

9 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

I believe Micah Young is either Tai Perkins' half-brother or step brother. Closely related somehow.

 

Forgot about that. Feel like a bit of an idiot replying to Mr. Perkins asking if Micah is someone who could follow Todd May to Akron lol. 

[Zippy87]

6 hours ago, ZipForNow said:

Player development is a Zip strength. The calculus of that is tougher in the new era. But also, couldn’t Oggy have gotten more minutes in blowouts? Has KenPom distorted playing time decisions?

 

Legitimately one of the oddest usage patterns during the Groce era. Played quite a bit early and then just got completely buried on the bench. 

 

[clarkwgriswold]

I think Oggie's shortcomings on defense cost him time.  Groce also always emphasizes how the guys practice and I suspect this did not bode well for a kid in a new country and new system.  The Zips system is much more up tempo and physical when what he was likely seeing in Europe.   Also, Groce's rotations tend to shrink as the season wears on and he ended up as the 10th or 11th guy in a 9 man rotation.

[kreed5120]

19 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

I think Oggie's shortcomings on defense cost him time.  Groce also always emphasizes how the guys practice and I suspect this did not bode well for a kid in a new country and new system.  The Zips system is much more up tempo and physical when what he was likely seeing in Europe.   Also, Groce's rotations tend to shrink as the season wears on and he ended up as the 10th or 11th guy in a 9 man rotation.

 

I think a full offseason with the team would have done him well. I'm not sure what others saw that made them think he deserved more playing time, but he looked a bit lost out there at times. Being out of position defensively, trying to make a pass that wasn't there. 

 

I think there is potential there. He just needed more than 2 months (or however long it was) to adapt to the American game. In reality he probably should have redshirted as he clearly wasn't ready to play.

Edited yesterday at 05:11 PM by kreed5120

[Blue & Gold]

@clarkwgriswold weren't you at the YSU preseason scrimmage? I was there but my memory is fuzzy. I believe Oggy was in the starting lineup for that scrimmage, wasn't he?

[Zippy87]

33 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

 

I think a full offseason with the team would have done him well. I'm not sure what others saw that made them think he deserved more playing time, but he looked a bit lost out there at times. Being out of position defensively, trying to make a pass that wasn't there. 

 

I think there is potential there. He just needed more than 2 months (or however long it was) to adapt to the American game. In reality he probably should have redshirted as he clearly wasn't ready to play.

 

I think he looked solid offensively in the first few games he played, and was a pretty good rebounder. Very raw as a player, but no reason he couldn't have played more and developed over the course of the season. 

 

[zippy5]

We've spent way too much time talking about this guy and I suspect if he was from Mogadore we'd be talking about how he was encouraged to transfer out and will end up at Walsh

[ZipForNow]

10 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

We've spent way too much time talking about this guy and I suspect if he was from Mogadore we'd be talking about how he was encouraged to transfer out and will end up at Walsh

I disagree. We are talking about a 6’8” guard from Serbia who at one point would have been brought along and developed and, who knows, could eventually be all-MAC. I vaguely remember extreme excitement when he was successfully recruited.

[LZIp]

1 hour ago, Zippy87 said:

 

Legitimately one of the oddest usage patterns during the Groce era. Played quite a bit early and then just got completely buried on the bench. 

 

Not as odd as the Halligan experiment.

[zippy5]

7 minutes ago, ZipForNow said:

I disagree. We are talking about a 6’8” guard from Serbia who at one point would have been brought along and developed and, who knows, could eventually be all-MAC. I vaguely remember extreme excitement when he was successfully recruited.

Same with Josh Egner

[Let'sGoZips94]

5 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

Same with Josh Egner

 

Holy blast from the past. His Jackson Polar Bear highlights are still playing on loop somewhere to hype someone up. 

[blueandgold]

I'm already getting antsy waiting to see who our first signing will be.

[clarkwgriswold]

48 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

@clarkwgriswold weren't you at the YSU preseason scrimmage? I was there but my memory is fuzzy. I believe Oggy was in the starting lineup for that scrimmage, wasn't he?

I was there and he played but I do not recall him starting.

[Zip JD]

1 hour ago, clarkwgriswold said:

I think Oggie's shortcomings on defense cost him time.  Groce also always emphasizes how the guys practice and I suspect this did not bode well for a kid in a new country and new system.  The Zips system is much more up tempo and physical when what he was likely seeing in Europe.   Also, Groce's rotations tend to shrink as the season wears on and he ended up as the 10th or 11th guy in a 9 man rotation.

Oggie aka the Big Stank started playing more and more hero ball when he got his runs.  There were more than a couple bad 1-on-3 takes or no look passes out of bounds that had Groce just staring at him in disbelief.  Bad defense and not running the offense means take a seat kid.  I would have liked him to stay b/c he does have a lot of upside but the portal will tell us a lot about his true value.  

[clarkwgriswold]

I think a full off-season of work on his defense and strength would have gone a long way for Oggie.  Unfortunately, he didn't get here until late August or early September as I recall.

[Zip JD]

4 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said:

I was there and he played but I do not recall him starting.

Briscoe and Barre saw the court a lot more than a regular season game as well.  It was an exhibition and Groce got everyone out there.

[HoopsFan03]

Re: Big Stank.

I have been holding off my thoughts on our former coach. Trying to let a little time heal the wounds.

 

Coach didn't play him and he was clearly better than a few that got more minutes. Probably why he is transferring. 6'9" ball handler with offensive skills. Yes he was raw but he could of helped us. 

 

 

[Zippy87]

 

[72 Roo]

2 hours ago, Zippy87 said:

 

This only tells me he can't play the way we want. WMU is not committed to basketball, new gym or not.

[kreed5120]

8 hours ago, 72 Roo said:

This only tells me he can't play the way we want. WMU is not committed to basketball, new gym or not.

 

He might not even be someone we scouted. There are thousands of players in these international development leagues. It's not like we can scout all of them.

 

I don't know if he'll be good at the MAC level or not. I will say based off the photo that it appears he will need to put on some muscle.

[Zips1991]

I know the portal is only barely open but I'm growing impatient and want to see us start signing some guys. 😅

[kreed5120]

4 minutes ago, Zips1991 said:

I know the portal is only barely open but I'm growing impatient and want to see us start signing some guys. 😅

 

I'm honestly surprised by how few commits there have been overall. Out of the top 25 transfers listed on 247 only 1 shows committed. One has to think the dominoes would have to fall on those players so the value can trickle down to the next tier and so on.