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Butler is filled.

I hear there's an ultralight flying of a remote clearing of grass in Hudson tonight headed for Chapel Hill, North Carolina, under the radar. I will continue to monitor and keep everyone advised.

If it keeps Groce in Akron I won't fight the narrative.

That last bit doesn't seem to do Groce justice IMO. Akron finished #54 in NET and currently sits at #69 in Kenpom. There are 85 schools in the P4 + Big East. I imagine it's fair to say all of them had more NIL than Akron. Probably 3x-10x as much. Add in many teams from the A10, MWC, MVC, AAC, WCC, and some one offs like High Point/Liberty that outspent Akron and Akron might have had ~130-150 highest payroll in college basketball. Fielding a top 75 team while spending around the median amount in college hoops is still excellent. Very few programs likely got a better bang for their buck.

My take on Groce is that the only time I feel his disappointment with the Akron program is that no matter how good the team, we play to an arena that is only half full except for the Kent game. He always encourages fans to show up to the games and considering our home winning streak, we should draw better. The people on the board know that Akron does little to nothing to promote Akron basketball and the half time show of 3 or 3 frat basketball was dismal considering that was our biggest crowd of the season. I hope the pressure that he felt at Illinois is fresh on his mind because with a new program comes the pressure to win. Hoping Groce stays in Akron. Go Zips.

If he's truly interested in USF, to me that's disappointing because it signals he just truly wants out. I thought it would be a "perfect job" kind of scenario to pry JG away. That said, it's not like Jon Rothstein or Schefter are reporting this. We're looking at Samurai Hoops and "Higgins Halal" twitter accounts.

It's pretty obvious that Zips basketball has a decent fanbase and they show up when it really counts. Which speaks more to the MAC and how spoiled we have been, than anything else really. We all know that the MAC Tournament and Kent games mean something. So people show up. Everything else? Not really. The Zips could have a cupcake OOC schedule like Miami, finish below .500 and still end up making the NCAA tournament if they win in Cleveland. I try to attend games when I'm in town, but I live 2 hours away and it's not feasible. Even tuning in to ESPN+ to watch is very sporadic because most of the time I'm not invested in the outcome. Fun to watch? Sure. But in the end beating a MAC school by 20+ doesn't do much in the grand scheme of things.

I'm going to push back on this and say there has been a noticeable effort over the last two years to improve promotions and gameday experience. The unfortunate truth when it comes to the Zips is that they won't truly break through to the average fan until they take the next step and win a tournament game and/or hold a national ranking for some time. Groce was brought here to do that. He was supposed to do what KD couldn't.

If USF wants to run it back, Stan Heath is again available.

I only see Groce laving for a "prestige job" or in a situation where he's just fed up with the administration and the "ceiling" on the program (not unlike Dambrot). I never saw Butler as a "prestige" job so that one didn't worry me. We'll see what happens with the NC and possible Kansas fallout (good call by @kreed5120).

HUGE!

Revenue share makes up a huge portion of these budgets, perhaps close to 50% of the overall player spend at these P5 schools. At least in the present state. I don't feel all B1G programs are the same. What OSU or Michigan are able to collect in NIL donations is going to differ from what Nebraska or Iowa can. I guess I don't know what you mean by far and away surpass. If Nebraska has a $10 million roster spend next year and Butler has $9 million I wouldn't view that as far surpassing or be a dollar value that Butler couldn't overcome. If Butler spends $9M I'm not sure how Nebraska could 2.5x it's current figure to get to a number of close to $15M, which is around when I'd say far surpasses. At least under the current parameters. Edit: If we see an increase to the revenue share cap I would be more inclined to agree. I feel an increased revenue share is where B1G and SEC programs could really flex their money. More so than donations.

Phew, I guess "Samurai Hoops" and "Halal Higgins" weren't great sources. Who could have guessed

A weary ZipsNation looks to Charleston.

$9 million NIL yet some on this board think it's a mid-major job lol. For comparison it's believed UMass led the MAC with $1.3M-$1.5M spend.

Thanks for sharing. I don't find this all that surprising. Last year Utah State was at ~$850K and this year they climbed to $2.4M per Calhoun. NIL is still relatively new as is revenue sharing. I wouldn't be surprised if we see double digit annual growth for the next several years until we see the market mature.

Thad Matta was getting paid $2.6 million/yr. They might appear poor compared to UConn, but they have a lot more resources at their disposal compared to a mid-major program like Akron or Kent. If a program like Nebraska/Iowa can make a run to the Elite 8 I wouldn't see why Butler couldn't. They might not be able to keep their coach after doing it so it might not be sustainable year over year and certainly not the standard, but they can still get there.

I live in those areas and I travel to any zips game I can

Kent is taking a big hit to their team GPA.

It kind of shows how college athletics is shifting. NC State by a small margin has probably been the better program historically and plays what had been known as the basketball conference. 10 years ago you probably wouldn't expect an SEC school not named Kentucky to be able to poach NC State coach. The landscape has shifted.

I agree, I'm not sure what more they could have realistically done. What's disappointing is we see terrific turnouts in Cleveland every year which makes me wonder where these fans have been all season. I get if they live in Westlake, Bay Village, or Parma it might be a bit of a drive for them to regularly attend games, but even if we could get them to go to 3-4 games a year it would help attendance numbers a lot.

Yes, the AAC is a step up from the MAC. They have a beautiful college arena. Dambrot interviewed there before leaving Akron. They will likely end up in the ACC. It would be quite a move for his family and the grass is not always greener in the heat belt.

UNC and Kansas will be a tsunami on this coaching cycle. The only threat I see for us would be if Schertz moves on from Saint Louis. He hasn't signed the extension offer. I'm assuming that extension has restricting language. I'm keeping an eye on him for the domino effect with UNC and Kansas.

I'm still concerned about ripple effects from UNC. Like he's obviously not getting the UNC job, but it could open another downstream opening that could be appealing.

Maybe, but not a huge one given what he has built here. I don't think anything is clear.

It's a better job then Akron. Whether it's marginally better or clearly a step up is to be debated. I still think Claymann makes the most sense there as Groce has never coached outside the midwest and from a recruiting stand point he recruits Cincinnati and Cleveland fairly heavily. Not sure if he has the same connections in Florida or how he would do if fully reliant on the portal.

Buckle up for the craziest coaching carousel in the history of coaching carousels. Rumor is Bill Self will be retiring. UNC and Kansas will be open in the same offseason, and it potentially doesn't end there.

Not Groce related, but that account had Hubie Davis out 4 days ago. Maybe lucky, maybe onto something. We'll probably find out tomorrow.

I only thought he'd love for home (Butler/Indy). USF is not the type of job I had on my radar at all.

USF lurking

7.9 ppg on a team that was starved for scorers.

The agents do a good job convincing these young people that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.

Steele's personality might have something to do with it, too.

The work the AD's office did to get 8000ish there for the midweek Kent game gives me hope that...despite this awful schedule...those numbrs will improve this year.

Conference realignment was the eye-opener for me.