2025-26 Post Mortem and Looking Ahead to 2026-27

[NWAkron]

The rain blew but everyone made the most out of it.  Kinda have to find the humor in situations.  I learned at the event that there were significant negotiations with Bowen until Groce swooped in.  But now Bowen is out at COC and still hoping to bring him back.  But like with Evan and Reese wanting and getting don't always mesh.  

[clarkwgriswold]

8 hours ago, NWAkron said:

The rain blew but everyone made the most out of it.  Kinda have to find the humor in situations.  I learned at the event that there were significant negotiations with Bowen until Groce swooped in.  But now Bowen is out at COC and still hoping to bring him back.  But like with Evan and Reese wanting and getting don't always mesh.  

I felt for the folks that had to play in the afternoon flight.  The morning weather wasn't great but the afternoon weather looked really ugly.

[Let'sGoZips94]

19 hours ago, clarkwgriswold said:

One of the problems with the judicial side of this is that there are many cases in many different courts.  That may result in different ansers for different players.  

 

While we were waiting for the group in front of us to finish hole 18, we were talking to KD and Dustin about this. Dustin mentioned this as the biggest fear because Pav at OU is in the Louisiana case, and we all know what that state is willing to do right now judicially to gain an advantage athletically. Evan is in the Ohio case and Oriol I believe is in the Georgia case, so unless there's a firm blanket ruling, it could get even messier which shouldn't even be possible given how much the NCAA screwed everything up with this class. 

 

Dustin also made the point that the NCAA's argument is the 2022 class knew what they were signing up for eligibility wise, but when he was recruiting freshman last year and they committed under the 4 year rule, they're getting more than what they signed up for. 

 

There isn't a legitimate argument to not grandfather in the 2022 class. This all would've been MUCH cleaner. 

[kreed5120]

The only thing that makes this messy is they should have been proactive and announced they would be grandfathered in back in January/February. 

 

Rosters getting filled and NIL largely being committed before any of these injunctions took place really messed up team building this year. We already saw it in football some as our "starting QB" can no longer start. Basketball seems to have a lot more of these type of players so it's going to be much more chaotic comparatively to football.

[Zips1991]

20 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

The only thing that makes this messy is they should have been proactive and announced they would be grandfathered in back in January/February. 

 

Rosters getting filled and NIL largely being committed before any of these injunctions took place really messed up team building this year. We already saw it in football some as our "starting QB" can no longer start. Basketball seems to have a lot more of these type of players so it's going to be much more chaotic comparatively to football.

It's fine, there's still 6 weeks until the season starts. Plenty of time to figure things out. 😉

[clarkwgriswold]

17 hours ago, NWAkron said:

The rain blew but everyone made the most out of it.  Kinda have to find the humor in situations.  I learned at the event that there were significant negotiations with Bowen until Groce swooped in.  But now Bowen is out at COC and still hoping to bring him back.  But like with Evan and Reese wanting and getting don't always mesh.  

I felt for the folks that had to play in the afternoon flight.  The morning weather wasn't great but the afternoon weather looked really ugly.

[clarkwgriswold]

Sounds like some news as the the Ohio Supreme Court denied the motion to stay and restore the preliminary injunction that allowed the players, including Evan, to play.

 

https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2026/2026-Ohio-3723.pdf

 

The first district could still grant relief but the original preliminary injunction that allowed them to play then remains on hold. 

 

Edited September 23 by clarkwgriswold

[Zippy87]

18 hours ago, NWAkron said:

The rain blew but everyone made the most out of it.  Kinda have to find the humor in situations.  I learned at the event that there were significant negotiations with Bowen until Groce swooped in.  But now Bowen is out at COC and still hoping to bring him back.  But like with Evan and Reese wanting and getting don't always mesh.  

 

Bowen just posted on his IG that he was granted eligibility. 

[Zips1991]

1 hour ago, Zippy87 said:

 

Bowen just posted on his IG that he was granted eligibility. 

Here's the whole post from Twitter. Figured I'd share since it lists the lawsuit that grants eligibility.

 

 

 

[NWAkron]

1 hour ago, Zips1991 said:

Here's the whole post from Twitter. Figured I'd share since it lists the lawsuit that grants eligibility.

 

 

 

Apparently, he has an official visit to PCCC on Monday.

[kreed5120]

11 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

Apparently, he has an official visit to PCCC on Monday.

 

Honestly, I'm not really heartbroken. It's not that I didn't like Bowen, but he was very much a 1 dimensional player that really couldn't create his own shot. If his catch and shoot shots weren't failling he suddenly became a huge liability on the floor.

 

I wish him success (unless he goes to PCCC), but I'm glad it seems this year's roster has more multi dimensional players.

[Zippy87]

1 hour ago, NWAkron said:

Apparently, he has an official visit to PCCC on Monday.

 

That would be disappointing. 

[Let'sGoZips94]

13 hours ago, NWAkron said:

Apparently, he has an official visit to PCCC on Monday.

 

Pretty sure he's at Charleston unless a major fall out happened. 

[Zippy87]

When KD left for Duquesne, he was ripped here by many for taking players - Tavian Dunn-Martin and Michael Hughes. Groce has taken Tavari Johnson (pending eligibility), JaShawn Ladd, and possibly Bowen Hardman.

 

I wonder if the same people will be upset? 

 

FWIW it didn't bother me when those players followed KD, nor does this bother me. But it's interesting for sure. 

Edited September 24 by Zippy87

[kreed5120]

3 hours ago, Zippy87 said:

When KD left for Duquesne, he was ripped here by many for taking players - Tavian Dunn-Martin and Michael Hughes. Groce has taken Tavari Johnson (pending eligibility), JaShawn Ladd, and possibly Bowen Hardman.

 

I wonder if the same people will be upset? 

 

FWIW it didn't bother me when those players followed KD, nor does this bother me. But it's interesting for sure. 

 

I don't disagree. I feel it's comparable how many over react when their first time long-term relationship ended. Dambrot gave Akron prolonged success that we hadn't seen in basketball up to that point in perhaps ever. Groce came in built off that success. I feel Akron fans now see the program is in a place where it's bigger than just 1 coach and they have faith Ford will continue the success.

 

Personally, I was bummed when Dambrot left. The main resentment I had towards the situation wasn't so much directed towards Dambrot, but more so towards the complainers who were just Dambrot fans who masqueraded as Zips fans.

Edited September 24 by kreed5120

[infofan]

41 minutes ago, Zippy87 said:

When KD left for Duquesne, he was ripped here by many for taking players - Tavian Dunn-Martin and Michael Hughes. Groce has taken Tavari Johnson (pending eligibility), JaShawn Ladd, and possibly Bowen Hardman.

 

I wonder if the same people will be upset? 

 

FWIW it didn't bother me when those players followed KD, nor does this bother me. But it's interesting for sure. 

Dont forget he took Conner 

[AkronAlumnus]

The NCAA giving Roddy Gayle another season should open the door for Amani to return to college as well, if he wants to. 👀

[NWAkron]

How dare KD take Tavion and how dare Groce take Conner.  

[Hilltopper]

15 hours ago, AkronAlumnus said:

The NCAA giving Roddy Gayle another season should open the door for Amani to return to college as well, if he wants to. 👀

Rumor is he might end up at Providence 

[clarkwgriswold]

The NCAA issued a statement that the Ohio Court of Appeals has issued a decision that the preliminary injunction allowing players like Evan to play was an abuse of discretion by the trial court and undid the injunction.  There should still be an avenue available to the Ohio Supreme Court but I suspect that would take more time than they have.  

[Zippy87]

Pulled this via Google Gemini:

 

For Mahaffey to gain eligibility before or during the 2026–27 season, one of three low-probability scenarios would have to happen:

 

1) The First District Court of Appeals unexpectedly reverses course and decides the full appeal in favor of the players on an emergency expedited basis.

2) The NCAA decides to settle the Borovicanin v. NCAA case and grant a blanket exemption to the 2022 high school class (which they have aggressively fought against in court).

3) The NCAA grants Mahaffey an individual, retroactive hardship/waiver, which is rarely approved under these circumstances.

 

Without an active injunction or a sudden NCAA policy change, Akron cannot put him on the floor without risking forfeited games and NCAA penalties. Barring an unforeseen legal breakthrough, he will not be eligible to play for the Zips this season.

[Zippy87]

If Evan is ineligible but Lyles is, do we go hard after Amani? I know @Hilltoppermentioned Providence and he may have G League offers, but maybe Ford can convince him to return? 

[kreed5120]

10 minutes ago, Zippy87 said:

If Evan is ineligible but Lyles is, do we go hard after Amani? I know @Hilltoppermentioned Providence and he may have G League offers, but maybe Ford can convince him to return? 

 

I don't think there is any possibility of Evan being ineligible, but Amani being eligible. They were both part of the Ohio case that you mentioned.

[Zippy87]

18 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

 

I don't think there is any possibility of Evan being ineligible, but Amani being eligible. They were both part of the Ohio case that you mentioned.

 

Good call, for some reason I was thinking they were in different cases. 

[Zips1991]

I think what we need is for them both to commit to LSU, then re-file in Louisiana, get granted eligibility by a judge there, and then re-commit to Akron.