AKRON, Ohio — At the end of last season, Akron Zips star forward Enrique Freeman decided to declare for the NBA Draft. It was a decision that presented him with a wealth of opportunities, with dreams of a career in basketball at the top of his mind.
"It was a good process. I was able to work out with three teams, get a lot of good feedback on my game, a lot of things I wanted to go into the summer improve on," Freeman said. "Gave me the tools I needed for coming into the next season, things that teams are going to take away, things I want to exploit on, things I want to get better at. So it was a very good learning experience for myself. And I think it challenged me ultimately to keep getting better."
Freeman learned a lot through the pre-draft process. From growing his basketball IQ to working on his body to prepare for the potential to play professionally, teams made sure to give the forward plenty of notes. Among the three teams Freeman worked out with was the Cleveland Cavaliers—the team Freeman, a Cleveland native, grew up dreaming of being a part of. But with those dreams in mind, after the workouts, Freeman made another decision.
Armed with the feedback from the NBA teams who watched his game, Freeman opted to return to the Zips for one last season. He wasn't alone in that decision.
"Knowing the capabilities of this team, being here for a while and then knowing all the other guys coming back, it's like, 'why not?' It's my last year of college. I want [to] enjoy it, and I think I can do a lot of good things here too," Freeman said. His teammates also returned for another year.
Last season, the Zips lost to Kent State in the MAC Tournament, missing their shot at an NCAA Tournament bid. The team, with a roster full of talented players entering their senior year—including Greg Tribble, Sammy Hunter, Mikal Dawson, and Ali Ali—decided to stay together.
The Zips Men's Basketball team planned to "run it back."
"They all came in and basically said, 'hey coach, we're not playing around, let's put out something on social media.' We sent out a graphic that we're coming back, we're running it back," said Men's Basketball head coach John Groce. "I just think it meant something to them to do it together."
Groce has been coaching for a very long time. For the past 30 years, he has held assistant jobs and head coaching gigs across the Midwest, serving as Akron's head coach since 2017. Seeing the senior guys on his team come back for another year with a shared goal of success is something special, he said.
"I don't know if I'll coach again in my career where you have this many old guys all come back all to play with each other in today's climate of the portal and NIL and then to want to do that together," Groce said. "I call it kind of like the old Phil Jackson Chicago Bulls 'Last Dance' deal."
Whether the Zips have the same ending to this season that the '97-'98 Bulls had—a championship run that went down in history—remains to be seen. But 19 games into the season, the Zips are in first place in the MAC standings, undefeated so far in conference play.
Helping lead his team to success, Freeman's lessons from the pre-draft process are fueling him on the court in his final college season. Averaging 18.6 points, 12.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game, Freeman's game has evolved and reached new levels.
"If you watch him closely over this five years, a guy that didn't shoot any threes and now he shoots threes, to the way he handles the ball in the middle of the floor, to his body gaining 40 pounds of muscle to all the different things he's done to grow. Each year he's been here he just keeps getting better, not only statistically but growing as a player, a teammate, a leader, [a] person," Groce said.
That growth is ultimately for Freeman's big-picture goal: To make it in the NBA. More specifically, to play for his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"I grew up in Cleveland so the reality of playing for Cleveland would be a dream come true. I remember watching LeBron [James] playing here growing up in '09, I was nine years old. So it would be a surreal moment and is a dream truthfully," he said.
But for now, with his team leading the MAC, his focus is entirely on the Akron Zips.
"Obviously we want to get to the tournament, we want to play well in the tournament. We want to advance out of the MAC in the tournament and in the NCAA tournament in March," Freeman said.
And Freeman's journey has highlighted how special this entire 2023-24 Zips team is to those involved.
"I keep telling my wife, 'Let's enjoy every day with these guys,' whether it's a practice, a game, a meeting because here in two to three months, it'll be over," Groce said. "So we don't want to have any regrets."
