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John Groce Officially Hired


Dr Z

John Groce as the head coach at Akron  

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  1. 1. What do you think of John Groce?


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29 minutes ago, RowdyZip said:

It's amazing it's been 5 years.  I was apprehensive on the initial hire, but he's certainly brought me into the fold these last 5 years.  

 

I think John Groce is the kind of basketball coach that you HATE when he's not your coach, and LOVE when he is your coach.  Probably like Bobby Hurley was for UB fans.  I got caught up in those years of hating him as OU's coach so it took me a few to warm up.  The latest news on the extension certainly pushes me further in that direction.  Let's hope we have a long-term solution in place for MBB and football. 

 

Go Zips!

agree, although he's no where in the league of Hurley on level of obnoxious.  I hated him at OU but was totally on the Groce wagon once Zips hired him.  Noting the story in the Transfer Portal thread, regarding players threatening to leave the power conference teams if they aren't compensated...I could see why a coach would want to stay at a mid major and not deal with that headache

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  • 3 weeks later...

Interesting fact. The first time brothers are head coaches in the same conference.

 

https://miamiredhawks.com/staff-directory/travis-steele/513

 

Steele, the brother of current University of Akron head coach John Groce, was born Nov. 12, 1981 in Danville, Indiana. He and his wife Amanda reside in Cincinnati with their sons, Winston and Anderson.

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Hilltopper said:

Interesting fact. The first time brothers are head coaches in the same conference.

 

https://miamiredhawks.com/staff-directory/travis-steele/513

 

Steele, the brother of current University of Akron head coach John Groce, was born Nov. 12, 1981 in Danville, Indiana. He and his wife Amanda reside in Cincinnati with their sons, Winston and Anderson.

 

 

Neat. Never would have known (obviously). Thanks for sharing. 

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14 hours ago, Hilltopper said:

Interesting fact. The first time brothers are head coaches in the same conference.

 

https://miamiredhawks.com/staff-directory/travis-steele/513

 

Steele, the brother of current University of Akron head coach John Groce, was born Nov. 12, 1981 in Danville, Indiana. He and his wife Amanda reside in Cincinnati with their sons, Winston and Anderson.

 

 

Must be half-brother through his mom?  Proof the "hair gene" runs through the mother's side.

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  • 5 months later...
1 hour ago, Zipmeister said:

 

Well if he is going to work out I certainly hope he has a change of clothes; he will get all sweaty in the outfit he is wearing in that photo.

 

We need a head slap emoji. 

 

Man that "2030" makes me feel old. 

Edited by Spin
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  • 2 months later...

Whatever happens this week, it's so "nice" or whatever adjective to have Groce and his staff on the bench and even better that they don't need the likes of Carry, Payton and a washed-up Jim Christian to succeed.

 

Side note.  This is crazy...Tribble was here with Jeremy Roscoe...and is only a junior.

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  • 2 weeks later...

For those of us who have been on this board for a long time, we always used to drool over the great guards in the MAC and wonder, why cant KD and Akron find these players and get them to Akron.  Well, with the play of LCJ and X, we have had the best guards in the league 4 of the past 5 years.  Groce has an eye for guard talent.  Meanwhile, KD seemed to have an eye for great centers and big men such as Big Dog, Zeke, and Treadwell.  (Groce did not recruit Freeman, he walked in from the cafeteria).   

Edited by 1981 grad
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2 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

For those of us who have been on this board for a long time, we always used to drool over the great guards in the MAC and wonder, why cant KD and Akron find these players and get them to Akron.  Well, with the play of LCJ and X, we have had the best guards in the league 4 of the past 5 years.  Groce has an eye for guard talent.  Meanwhile, KD seemed to have an eye great for centers and big men such as Big Dog, Zeke, and Treadwell.  (Groce did not recruit Freeman, he walked in from the cafeteria).   

Good conversation starter.  Groce may be able to recruit and/build a more cohesive unit.   Abreu and Noah, before felony and injury, were pretty good.  Having LCJ or X at the helm in 2016 and 2017 would have been a game-changer.

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11 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

For those of us who have been on this board for a long time, we always used to drool over the great guards in the MAC and wonder, why cant KD and Akron find these players and get them to Akron.  Well, with the play of LCJ and X, we have had the best guards in the league 4 of the past 5 years.  Groce has an eye for guard talent.  Meanwhile, KD seemed to have an eye great for centers and big men such as Big Dog, Zeke, and Treadwell.  (Groce did not recruit Freeman, he walked in from the cafeteria).   

Agreed that Coach Groce doesn't get credit for Freeman.  Has anyone ever been so lucky?  Serious question without an ounce of hyperbole. 

 

Groce gets the guards. We've gotten spoiled with LCJ, Cheese, Banks, and now X. Simply top-shelf guard play.  (Though, of course, I wish X had more help at the guard position this year.  Losing Dawson was huge & I LOVE Greg Tribble but his complete lack of the outside shot is a serious handicap.)

 

Looking to the future, I'm extremely excited about Tavari Johnson's potential. He can get into the lane at will & I think he's going to be an absolute KILLER when he's running the pick & roll... 🤞don't want to jinx him 😂

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1 hour ago, clarkwgriswold said:

Groce certainly gets no credit for getting Freeman to Akron but should get a great deal of credit for his development.  All you need to do is see his old Akron Canton Pro Am league tapes to understand that development. 

I agree that Groce gets credit for developing Freeman.  I still remember his first game.  Skinny kid with skinny legs that I thought was just a walk on who would never see any time.  However, my original post was that Groce was great at recruiting guards and KD was great at recruiting big men.  Groce has yet to bring in a big guy that made a big difference although he has a short time frame compared to KD.

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10 minutes ago, 1981 grad said:

I agree that Groce gets credit for developing Freeman.  I still remember his first game.  Skinny kid with skinny legs that I thought was just a walk on who would never see any time.  However, my original post was that Groce was great at recruiting guards and KD was great at recruiting big men.  Groce has yet to bring in a big guy that made a big difference although he has a short time frame compared to KD.

 

I think the times are a little different too.  There's not nearly the emphasis on having a big man (6'9" and up) that there was 10 years ago.  Coaches want mobile kids that can get up and down the floor now. 

 

Also, KD was here for 13 years and really had only 2 premier big men (Zeke and Big Dog).  All others were undersized guys that played bigger (e.g. Travis, Treadwell, Wood...).

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2 hours ago, clarkwgriswold said:

Groce certainly gets no credit for getting Freeman to Akron but should get a great deal of credit for his development.  All you need to do is see his old Akron Canton Pro Am league tapes to understand that development. 

Please post!  🤣

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