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In case you haven't noticed it is happening at Akron now. We have exceptional people in all positions and they will work things out. They are doing it now.

Watching Freeman play on prime and he is really playing well. Last 4 games averaging over 20 points and already has 19 points tonight in 3rd quarter with double double.

I don't really know if that's true, but if I was an incoming freshman I certainly wouldn't stay committed to a team where I don't know the coaches. After all I doubt Groce was actively trying to recruit any of those players while at Illinois so he had no relationships with them. I would either follow that coach to the new school or go to one of the other schools that was originally trying to recruit me. I imagine you would to if you were in their shoes. That's why coaching changes void NLI. Big Dog and Cheatham were graduating. I believe it was widely known Noah planned to transfer even if Dambrot stayed. I believe the same was true for Josh wanting to play with his brother at Robert Morris. As you mention the portal isn't what it is now so Akron was always in for a rebuild year. May have even played a role in Dambrot deciding then was a better time than ever to make the move.

We now have our new head coach, a familiar face who has been with the Zips for 9 years. Dustin has been in charge of the defense and scheduling under Groce. He's certainly earned the chance. What do you expect from Ford's Zips squads?

That would go against what some have said.

He didn't take Ivey or Utomi either. Hughes only played in about half the games. Combined TDM and Hughes averaged 5.8/2/1.5. That would be like if Halligan and Oggy enter the portal this offseason and someone posts well damn there goes our entire team. Nobody here would treat those losses as something we couldn't recover from.

A signature win?

Heck of an endorsement from our 🐐

To add more context to the KD exit - Antino Jackson, Noah Robotham, Josh Williams, and Aaron Jackson were the best players with remaining eligibility. Groce had an opportunity to pitch to all 4, and all 4 transferred elsewhere (none to Duquesne). (That's not a knock on Groce, just the reality of the situation.) As @kreed5120 said, turnover is very common with a coaching change. It may not be that way with Ford because it's a unique situation where the players already know him well and vice-versa. We can only hope.

Sigh. We just broke up and I saw her with her new boyfriend.

Not gonna lie, those pictures make me sick

We view Groce as an elite coach but power conferences do not. His tenure at Illinois was a disaster. It looks even worse seeing what Underwood did there after they fired Groce. He wasn't mentioned for any P5 job aside from Butler. I think another mid-major like Charleston with a larger NIL budget was the best job he could get. He's still in a one-bid league, though, so his seasons are still going to come down to the conference tournament in March.