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 Thursday at 06:26 PM 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 Thursday at 09:30 PM 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