I almost don't want to do this for this season, because there has been so much turnover on the MAC rosters that it's hard to guess which freshmen will play.

These are based on not just recruiting site hype (which is frequently overblown) but also who I think might play. It might be a lot of guesses

Toledo G Dwayne Rose Jr.
Northern Illinois C Owen Hamilton
Bowling Green F Derek Koch
Miami G Isaiah Coleman-Lands
Buffalo C Brock Bertram


Toledo's Rose might have a hard time getting playing time behind Tre'Shaun Fletcher.

Northern Illinois doesn't have a lot of returning lettermen, but at center they only have Andrew Zelis, so Hamilton might get playing time

Bowling Green has Demajeo Wiggins returning at forward and no one else, and Koch looks like the best of the freshmen there

Miami's Isaiah Coleman-Lands should get playing time at Miami

Brock Bertram looks good for Buffalo, but he'll have to get playing time away from Nick Perkins and Ikenna Smart. He redshirted last year, so he should be ready


Kent State freshmen don't get a lot of playing time, but Jimmy Hall left a big hole, and beyond Danny Pippen, there were no other returning forwards, so Duling might get the position

Ohio's A.J. Gareri is behind Jason Carter, though he might take time away from Doug Tayler

Derek Koch looks good for Ball StateBowling Green, but Ball StateBowling Green has a lot or returning players

Akron freshmen should get a lot of playing time, but I didn't see any that looked like they'll perform.

Ishmael El-Amin for Ball State is highly rated, but he's behind Tayler Persons, Francis Kiapway, and Jeremie Tyler

Eastern doesn't have a lot of returning scoring, but they've brought in a bunch of transafers and JUCOs, and not any highly-rated freshmen

[I almost want to skip the analysis and just say Western's Forward T.J. Clifford, Ohio's Forward A.J. Gareri, Kent's Forward B.J. Duling, Central's Forward A.J. Bullard, and Buffalo's Guard Jayvon Graces]

If I can hit on 3 of these in the MAC list at the end of the year, I'll be happy

"Highly rated" doesn't mean anything. I think one of Malik Ellison or Kevin McAdoo will get plenty of PT as our backup PG. Ellison is our best guess. He won three state titles and put up some absurd numbers while doing it. Only reason we even had a chance at him is because he's 5'8 and doesn't jump out of the gym like a Kay Felder or Nate Robinson. He probably won't end up on the "Freshman of the Year" radar due to the depth in front of him, but he could end up being a good one.

Ty Groce is another "freshman" (redshirt) that we expect to play a lot. He's an Ypsilanti native and initially committed to Northeastern, but transferred to EMU before the season even began. Great read on his battle with depression here: http://www.mlive.com/eagles/index.ssf/20...lanti.html

Bertram could have a chance at the All-Freshman squad just by sheer need for minutes. The Bulls will be thin at Forward until Ikenna Smart comes back from injury which won't be until at least December I hear. Bertram isn't ready yet for big minutes from what I've seen, but I think he'll be pressed into action a decent amount because Perkins and McRae seem to like to foul.

Of the three Buffalo freshman (Brock Bertram, James Reese, Jayvon Graves) I'd put my money on James Reese to have the biggest immediate impact. He's a great shooter and a good athlete and should factor into the SG rotation behind Massinburg who is just coming off a knee injury.

Dalonte Brown of Miami is one of the best MAC true freshman that I have seen. Sunday afternoon he had 23 points and 12 rebounds even though he missed part of the game with severe leg cramps.

Last year. he was the Player of The Year in Toledo and was Second Team All Ohio.

(11-06-2017 05:59 PM)Bang Burger Wrote:  Dalonte Brown of Miami is one of the best MAC true freshman that I have seen. Sunday afternoon he had 23 points and 12 rebounds even though he missed part of the game with severe leg cramps.

Last year. he was the Player of The Year in Toledo and was Second Team All Ohio.

Not sure on names yet ... but word is Ohio has a good freshman PG from Chicago that should start ... Miami has a good wing who should play a lot and have big numbers ... Buffalo actually has a couple of freshmen who could at least make all freshman team ... NIU's freshmen should be good ... in short, with so much turnover around the league wouldn't be surprised if there were enough players for two All-Freshman teams ... that's saying a lot because most years it's hard to find more than three freshmen that truly play enough to be 'All-Freshman" in this league ....

(11-06-2017 03:54 PM)Slinkin Street Flash Wrote:  Derek Koch looks good for Ball State, but Ball State has a lot or returning players

Ishmael El-Amin for Ball State is highly rated, but he's behind Tayler Persons, Francis Kiapway, and Jeremie Tyler; Derek Koch also loosk good, but I doubt he can take much time away from Tahjai Teague, Trey Moses, and Sean Sellers

I'm not quite clear as to who Derek Koch is, but he's not on BSU's team. Ball State's freshmen are Ishmael El-Amin, Zach Gunn, and Blake Huggins. El-Amin scored 8 pts with 4 assists in 16 min of exhibition action tonight, while Gunn racked 12 pts and 11 boards in 22 min, and Huggins tallied 5 pts and a block in 3 minutes. FWIW, Gunn apparently shot 10-15 from 3 in the IPFW secret scrimmage as well. The working theory is that Gunn will see a good amount of minutes, El-Amin will see less but will see action, while Huggins will redshirt (unless Moses stays injured for a significant amount of time, though he's supposed to be back for the opener on Friday at Dayton).

EDIT: Derek Koch is on BG's team, not BSU.

In all honesty, Miami's 4 most talented players are freshmen. They are all going to play big minutes. D'alante Brown had the best performance in our exhibition game, but watching a couple of practices I thought shooting guard Nike Sabonde (ranked #6 in Indiana last year, led his team to the big school state championship) would be our best player. We also have 6-4 wing Jalen Adaway from Groveport, Indiana who had 3 sensational dunks in the exhibition games. Our 4th freshman is point guard Isaiah Coleman-Lands who was already mentioned above.

Getting to play a lot and getting plenty of time controlling the ball or getting a lot of scoring opportunities is the key to being MAC FOY . Barring injury, these 4 guys will all play half or even most of every game and will have plenty of scoring chances.

yeah, I'd expect Miami to clean up on the Freshman of the Year ballot. That is usually determined more by holes in a team's roster that force freshmen into action, than by the ability of the frosh. Miami has a pretty solid freshman class considering the short recruiting window and a depleted roster otherwise, so the logic is that some pretty good freshmen will play a lot and rack up numbers, even if a freshman on another team is as good or better they probably won't have the minutes to prove their case. I could also BG doing well on the freshman team as they are similar to Miami in that they have a rather weak returning roster (though better than Miami) and signed a pretty good looking class of frosh.

I like Duling from Kent as a future MAC impact player, not sure if that shows up this year. I also like Saul Phillips eye for talent and while I don't know much about this Ohio class, I imagine he has some good talent. Their Illinois pg prospect will probably show well. Few states are more competitive in HS bball at pg than Illinois and lots of recent high level MAC pgs from there like DJ Cooper, Juice Brown, Jeremy Fears, etc... if there's a buzz around a pg from the Chicago area I generally believe it.

Toledo has a very good frosh class but none will likely start or be primary scoring options. Dylan Alderson is a real solid big guard who will start out as a role player and probably evolve into more of a scoring option later in his career. Dwayne Rose Jr is a baller but he won't take over a starting role on the wing this season with the good vets in front of him.

CMU has minutes to give also, so maybe somewhere there surprises. He's not a frosh but I think DiLeo (sp?) will have a breakout yr for them

Marreon Jackson is far more likely to be an All-Frosh type than Rose. Appears he will start at one guard for UT. Has started and played well in both exhibitions. 21 points, 10 assists and 10 boards in two games.

(11-06-2017 03:54 PM)Slinkin Street Flash Wrote:  Ohio's A.J. Gareri is behind Jason Carter, though he might take time away from Doug Tayler

I would rank A.J. Gareri as the 3rd most likely freshman to make an impact for the Bobcats and possibly 4th. He would have been 4th on the depth mix IMO behind Carter, Taylor and another frosh in Ben Van Der Plas. Alas both Gareri (shoulder) and Van Der Plas (foot) are battling injuries that may keep them out of the mix until after the new year. The guy that looks to make the biggest splash right now is PG Teyvion Kirk. He put up 10 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in 22 minutes in their exhibition win over Capital. Without a natural PG currently in the starting lineup it's possible he works his way into the starting 5 at some point.

It looks like Torrey Patton will be starting SG for the Zips. He is a freshman who was named d-2 player of the year in Ohio last season. He could make some noise in what should be a pretty fast-paced offense this season.

Akron has 5 Freshmen on the roster and all should get significant minutes. Torrey Patton (6'4" 200) was Ohio d-2 co-player of the year from Trotwood Madison. Mark Kostelac (6'11" 255) attended IMG academy last year. Eric Parrish (6'6" 195) was a Dambrot recruit from Houston Cypress Springs HS. Same school that produced Antino Jackson and current Zip Emanuel Olojapoke. Jayden Sayles (6'9" 235) is another Dambrot recruit from Cincinnati Sycamore HS, the same school that produced Kwan Cheatem. Virshon Cotton (6'1" 165) attended Hillcrest Prep which went 33-6 and was a top ten program. I would say the cupboard is not bare at Akron. There is plenty of opportunities for one or two of these guys to step up and produce. I'm confident that will happen.

Stepping up and producing doesn't equate to FOTY candidacy, though. In fact, the number of freshmen on Akron's roster works against any one of them standing out too much. The coaches are going to be tinkering with the line-ups and minutes a whole lot. By the time the rotation solidifies it may be too late for anybody to accumulate the number totals needed to stand out.

I don't expect any of Akron's freshmen to be very good. Athletic and naturally talented, maybe, but that only gets you so far. A well-disciplined team with average talent will beat a a team with above-average talent playing street ball more often than not. Groce is not an Xs and Os coach by any measure. His strategy has always been to out-talent the competition. Teams that play good defense should be licking their chops when they play the Zips.

(11-07-2017 05:55 PM)uakronkid Wrote:  Stepping up and producing doesn't equate to FOTY candidacy, though. In fact, the number of freshmen on Akron's roster works against any one of them standing out too much. The coaches are going to be tinkering with the line-ups and minutes a whole lot. By the time the rotation solidifies it may be too late for anybody to accumulate the number totals needed to stand out.

I don't expect any of Akron's freshmen to be very good. Athletic and naturally talented, maybe, but that only gets you so far. A well-disciplined team with average talent will beat a a team with above-average talent playing street ball more often than not. Groce is not an Xs and Os coach by any measure. His strategy has always been to out-talent the competition. Teams that play good defense should be licking their chops when they play the Zips.

Groce was a very good game coach at Ohio. Not one of the four years he was in Athens did the Bobcats play anything close to "street ball". Other than the first year the teams were very good and disciplined on defense. They were typically one of the best passing teams in the conference every year he was there. Even at Illinois his teams didn't turn the ball over much. Unless he has completely changed his stripes I seriously doubt you'll see "street ball".

(11-07-2017 05:48 PM)hilltopper Wrote:  <snip>Eric Parrish (6'6" 195) was a Dambrot recruit from Houston Cypress Springs HS. Same school that produced Antino Jackson and current Zip Emanuel Olojapoke. Jayden Sayles (6'9" 235) is another Dambrot recruit from Cincinnati Sycamore HS, the same school that produced Kwan Cheatem<snip>

Hey - I went to the same school as LeBron James...do you think I would help Akron?

(11-08-2017 07:45 AM)Slinkin Street Flash Wrote:  Hey - I went to the same school as LeBron James...do you think I would help Akron?

You'd have a pretty good shot to make it as a walk-on this year.

(11-08-2017 07:45 AM)Slinkin Street Flash Wrote:  

(11-07-2017 05:48 PM)hilltopper Wrote:  <snip>Eric Parrish (6'6" 195) was a Dambrot recruit from Houston Cypress Springs HS. Same school that produced Antino Jackson and current Zip Emanuel Olojapoke. Jayden Sayles (6'9" 235) is another Dambrot recruit from Cincinnati Sycamore HS, the same school that produced Kwan Cheatem<snip>

Hey - I went to the same school as LeBron James...do you think I would help Akron?

I don't know, Are you 6'6"? Can you dribble and finish at the rim with both hands? Do you have a 42" verticle? Do you have a 6' wing span? Did you play for a high level highschool team? If not, you should just keep your day job.

(11-09-2017 02:34 PM)hilltopper Wrote:  

(11-08-2017 07:45 AM)Slinkin Street Flash Wrote:  

(11-07-2017 05:48 PM)hilltopper Wrote:  <snip>Eric Parrish (6'6" 195) was a Dambrot recruit from Houston Cypress Springs HS. Same school that produced Antino Jackson and current Zip Emanuel Olojapoke. Jayden Sayles (6'9" 235) is another Dambrot recruit from Cincinnati Sycamore HS, the same school that produced Kwan Cheatem<snip>

Hey - I went to the same school as LeBron James...do you think I would help Akron?

I don't know, Are you 6'6"? Can you dribble and finish at the rim with both hands? Do you have a 42" verticle? Do you have a 6' wing span? Did you play for a high level highschool team? If not, you should just keep your day job.

I'm 6'2, no, no, I have a 4.2" vertical, no, and no.

Darn

Miami's 4 Freshmen opened their college career at Fordham tonight and three of them played poorly (not unusual for first game on the road) but Jalen Adaway had 14 points and 15 rebounds and scored the winning basket with 3 seconds left as Miami came from behind to win, down 6 with 1:10 to go.

Adaway is gonna be something special.