Article about Akron's 7-footer Zeke Marshall

Post by **ZiggyZoomba** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:00 am

http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2008/0 ... ospec.html

Love the first paragraph:

Eastern Michigan's Earl Boykins was too small. Miami's Wally Szczerbiak was too slow. Bowling Green's Antonio Daniels couldn't shoot.

h2oville rocket · Post by **h2oville rocket** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:07 am

Highest rated MAC recruit ever? Wonder what Walter Luckett has to say about that.

Manny_being_Steve · Post by **Manny_being_Steve** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:52 am

All in all, a good piece. Recruiting is highly speculative by nature but still a good "get" for Akron. It will be interesting to see how he develops there.

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:00 am

Obviously bringing in a player of this caliber will make it more difficult for BG and the other teams to compete in the league, but at the same time it makes the league better. I'm all for making this league better overall. The overall quality of talent has been noticeably less than it was a decade ago. Hopefully getting guys like this into the conference will help bring that talent level back up.

Globetrotter · Post by **Globetrotter** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:40 am

hammb wrote:Obviously bringing in a player of this caliber will make it more difficult for BG and the other teams to compete in the league, but at the same time it makes the league better. I'm all for making this league better overall. The overall quality of talent has been noticeably less than it was a decade ago. Hopefully getting guys like this into the conference will help bring that talent level back up.

This seems to be how good teams in the MAC have been formed in recent years. Outside of Kent anyway. One good/outstanding player (Kaman, Daniels, Szerbiak) makes all the other guys around him better. Usually they arrive with less notoriety though. I agree with you. If players like this see MAC schools as "fits" and it happens to be for a rival, I have no problem. The more the merrier. In the end we will hopefully reap the benefits.

JoeFalcon · Post by **JoeFalcon** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 2:49 pm

So the #8 ranked center in the country chooses Akron in large measure due to the fact that LeBron James is "into" them because his high school coach is now coaching there and recruiting isn't witchcraft?

Ohio and Kent made huge mistakes in hiring John Groce and Geno Ford when they could have just scooped up the high school coaches of Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony.

h2oville rocket · Post by **h2oville rocket** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 7:59 pm

Globetrotter wrote:[ Usually they arrive with less notoriety though.

Notoriety? Sounded like a pretty solid kid to me. What's the problem?

Globetrotter · Post by **Globetrotter** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 8:47 pm

h2oville rocket wrote:
Globetrotter wrote:[ Usually they arrive with less notoriety though.
Notoriety? Sounded like a pretty solid kid to me. What's the problem?

Who's on first?

BleedOrange · Post by **BleedOrange** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 9:54 am

hammb wrote:Obviously bringing in a player of this caliber will make it more difficult for BG and the other teams to compete in the league, but at the same time it makes the league better. I'm all for making this league better overall. The overall quality of talent has been noticeably less than it was a decade ago. Hopefully getting guys like this into the conference will help bring that talent level back up.

I would rather have BG in a stronger league any day, and it's a great sign when a kid like this signs with a MAC.

Looking over Akron's roster, they loose a lot to graduation. However, they return enough raw material to be tough. If this kid pans out, they definitely compete in the east.

tiznow · Post by **tiznow** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 9:35 pm

There are almost as many threads about this guy as there is Nolan Reimold.