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The Akron basketball team’s season ended in the first round of the NCAA Tournament with a loss to four-seed Arizona. The Zips plan to run it back again in 2025-26.
The team’s star players rejected the temptations of the transfer portal to stay put in Ohio. Their conference championship defense will begin on a high note.
The Zips won the MAC regular season and conference tournament titles while posting a 28-7 overall record. They landed their third invite to the Big Dance in four years.
In today’s day and age of NIL and the portal, success at the mid-major level often results in a rebuild. Star players quickly jump at more lucrative cash offers at the Power 4 level.
That won’t be the case for Akron’s basketball team. The Zips plan to reload, not rebuild.
Akron basketball has already won the offseason.
The portal window opened on Monday, days after the Zips’ season came to an end. On Sunday, the team largely knew its fate in terms of potential transfer attrition.
With help from the Fear the Roo Collective, Akron was able to retain all of its star power. That includes leading scorer Nate Johnson, veteran guard Tavari Johnson, and top rebounder James Okonkwo.
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“That was always the goal,” said Nate Johnson, the MAC Player of the Year, after the loss to the Wildcats. “That’s the plan.”
The response offered a stark difference to what’s often seen in college basketball. There are more than 500 players currently in the portal on Day 1.
There are already more than 500 men’s basketball players in the portal – and we’re not even through the first day of its official opening.
Ridiculous.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 24, 2025
Many of those stars have already been contacted by outside suitors with enticing offers. The tampering extends to coaches, too.
It’s worth noting that the Zips have a notable NIL presence under head coach John Groce. One rival called him the “Joe Torre” of the MAC, suggesting his program’s set up best financially to land talent in “free agency.”
Still, no mid-major is able to compete with the bankrolls of the Power 4. That didn’t matter to Groce’s bunch. The allure of making another March Madness run weighed more heavily.
Akron’s basketball team has shown loyalty in a time when many don’t. They’ll hope to be repaid with a third consecutive NCAA Tournament bid next March.