kreed5120

Touché

I noticed it last year that soccer has done a great job of keeping former players engaged with the program. Them and the swimming and diving team seem to have great participation. The soccer donations just typically come in at a higher dollar amount. On the flipside it's disappointing that football doesn't do better. There are 3x-6x more former student athletes in football compared to the other sports, but the number of donors is relatively smaller. At least for day of giving. Not sure what's done differently that makes select sports former athletes stay involved and other not so much.

That's one way to fund a training table.

Day of giving has arrived. https://fundraise.givesmart.com/vf/ATHDoG26

Transfer portal is now officially closed. Players can still sign, but nobody else can enter.

This level of futility has lasted nearly 50 years for NW Ohio MAC schools. This extends beyond both Todd's. There has to be something in the water as the other Ohio MAC schools are running circles around them. Edit: Perhaps Michigan was correct with their claim in the border war. Toledo performs like a Michigan school, not Ohio.

He put up really good numbers for a sophomore at Saint Joe's, which is the most comparable league to the MAC he's played in. Even his season at Providence looks good on the surface given his rotation player role. I'm kind of surprised BG could afford him. I don't think he's P4 caliber given his struggle at South Carolina, but he could be all-conference at the mid-major level. I would have thought he'd land at an A10 or AAC type school.

Bettiol was probably the best back to the basket traditional big in the MAC last season. UMass paid him a good amount of money. All that got UMass was an 8th place finish in the MAC and 2nd round finish in MAC tournament. As you said, money is better spent elsewhere, especially since Ford has shown the ability of developing raw bigs.

A Gillespie replacement would cost $1M+. Of course they're not going to find that in the portal. Just like how we aren't going to add a proven Amani Lyles or Enrique Freeman. Those type of players you have to develop. I assume Williams will play PF for Kent, but he isn't as good as Gillespie. There are a few international players coming to the MAC that I struggle to project what they're impact will be so this statement could be off base. The only MAC team as of right now that I feel has added more than they lost is Ball State, who I still view as a middle of the pack team. Much of that is because they really stepped up their financial commitment as part of the deal with their new coach. Miami, Akron, Toledo (in addition to Kent) all have taken a step back, at least on paper. We'll see how the coming weeks play out. Dhani Miller from Kent looks like a baller. I expect him to make all-freshman team and wouldn't be surprised if he wins FOY.

Kent added Cam Williams from Portland. It looks like a fairly solid add.

We'll see what additions we still have added to the roster. My comment was more regarding the current state of the roster. I'm just not sure I see a PF on the roster as of right now (unless I'm missing someone obvious) and recently the Zips have been starting 3 guards, 1 SF, and 1 big. I saw some mention MMK, but we only saw him at the 5 last season and don't see him playing big minutes at the 4 unless he adds ability to score beyond 5 feet from the basket.

Helps when you have 2x-3x the amount to spend on players.

I would guess Wilson would start over Head. Burton/Barre/MMK probably will be a position battle. I would prefer if we can add another SF/PF, but I would guess Henderson as of now is primary backup for White while also playing a few minutes at SF.

I'm not as thrilled about this signing as some of you seem. He definitely looks like the favorite (as of now) to start at PF, but even if you multiply his numbers by 3 to adjust his numbers to numbers he would put up in ~26 mpg they seem underwhelming, particularly 3P% and rebound rate. I suppose the hope would be that he was a step too slow and an inch or two too short for the B1G and that water finds it level in the MAC.

Praying for a stretch 4.

It's definitely nice seeing the growth in corporate sponsors and donations. That said, I'm inclined to believe there is an uptick in ticket revenue in the years Akron hosts Kent in football compared to the years that they don't. I wonder how much of the 20% that accounts for vs how much of it is organic growth.

Has anyone in MAC history ever consistently achieved less with more?

He was a very inefficient scorer (.280 from 3 and .386 from the field) on a bad SEC team. Considering he's going to have an extra year to develop and will be facing a lower level of competition it's possible he takes a step forward. I can't imagine many, if any, P5 programs were competing with CoC for his services.

I don't believe the others accumulated enough playing time to be graded. Eric was obviously the big loss here. They actually graded him as a high major starter/mid-major all conference for next year, which to me checks out. As I said before the percentiles are position based. Burton with a higher playmaker score doesn't mean he's a better playmaker than Eric. It just means he was borderline elite for a big in that category while Eric was good relative to other wings.

The portal tool I have access to agrees with you. The only area Young has Staveskie beat in is defense. Edit: It should be noted that those numbers you see below represent percentiles at your position. 50 would mean you were average.

Buffalo Oboh to Penn State. This one surprised me a bit as he doesn't seem like a B1G caliber player. Then again Penn State is usually near the bottom of the B1G. https://x.com/i/status/2045886713516429419

I'm more than okay with this. We're certainly still in need of a 3 & D guy (although not like Bowen played good defense) but I am hoping for a little more size. We have plenty of 6' guards on the roster right now.

I can't really speak about Young, but Eric attended Ford's press conference the same day he committed to Cincy. I feel it's telling how much respect and appreciation Eric had for Ford that he attended even though he knew he was leaving. Coaching change seems like a non-factor. In fact, maybe Groce left because he knew he was going to lose Eric and Young so he figured if he was going to have to rebuild anyway now was the right time to leave. Hilltopper threw a number out randomly (not sure if accurate) saying Eric was going to get $700k+, which to me sounds right when you hear what others at P5 schools are making. You can't walk away from that. Maybe he stays another year and improves his value further (mind you he would have to nearly double his value to make it worthwhile as he would have 2 years instead of 3 to cash in if he stayed at Akron). Maybe he stays another year and tears his ACL like Ipsaro did at Miami. Now all that money is gone and he doesn't have a head start on life.

Why wouldn't they be able to? I'm sure there is a lot of embellishing going on in the portal to make players appear more marketable than they really are. I would imagine at the very least Akron probably did reach out to him at some point. Whether or not Akron decided on someone else and that offer is no longer valid, your guess is as good as mine. Edit: If he does come here I imagine he's a replacement for Bowen's role.

The offensive line last season was the most solid it has been in a long while. I know we had a lot of turnover at the position. Any word from coaches or eye ball test that would help you indicate how it appears?