Leaderboard

Ya'll reasons for not wanting Groce are just weird.

Groce interviewed Sunday, Akron started preparing an offer Monday. Williams never seriously considered any of Dambrot's staff. Jamion Christian was the only other major candidate.

The Zips targeting a guy like Groce says the Zips are still committed to winning basketball. They could easily went the cost efficient route and played it off to the fans. You don't spend large money on a guy like Groce then cut the basketball budget. That would defeat the purpose.

You know, these kinds of conversations remind me of how much we all have in common (besides just being Zips fans), as opposed to all of the time we spend here arguing and criticizing each other. It's refreshing and entertaining. We need more of that.

I think sometimes there's a very simple factor that makes it tough to keep local kids here- some kids want to go away for school.

And they fired him anyway. What does that tell you?

Sign me up

To be honest, on the surface, this isn't appealing to me. However, if he can recruit like he has and connect with the community(aka HS coaches, etc.), then I see this as a win-win. It's a win for Groce, and a win for us. If Groce leaves, then that means we won an NCAA Tournament game or two, and our head coaching job will possibly be more enticing than it is right now.

When you have a coach like Dambrot for as long as we did, it's hard to get that regular season matters mentality out of the way.

Groce would be a better hire than I expected. Hopefully if he chooses to come to Akron he doesn't jump ship in a couple of years. Even though he struggled at Illinois, I could see him going to an AAC, A10 or CUSA school if they came calling. Our only hope is that his "dislike" of Dambrot would drive him to try and break KD's records? right?

Awwwwww, group hug everybody.

Close enough to hear gunplay but far enough away to avoid street cred.

Every day I've been running out of "Likes" by around 8:00 a.m.! So I just wanted to thank everyone here for making this such an entertaining, educational & exciting process!

Here's what I'll say: If it's John Loyer or Jamion Christian, I'll buy season tickets. If it's Anthony Stewart or Russell Turner, i'll have to see his staff but I'll probably buy season tickets. Groce will be just single game tickets. If it's Jim Christian, the university will owe me season tickets. And if it's a curveball and my favorite, Nick McDevitt, as the next head coach, I'll buy myself season tickets and a random ZN.o poster season tickets

Duquesne was the only Pittsburgh team that I didn't hate. Namely because I felt pity for how terrible they've been. They've since been added to the list.

Somebody that has more than one inbounds play in his repetoire of coaching skills!

I am cool with this hire

Which coach could we realistically hire who could GUARANTEE success? Please give me a name of someone you can guarantee will make us a high mid-major. You can't do it. No one can.

Larry Williams's career will be defined by this hire. It says a lot about him and how he operates that he chose Groce out of all the possibilities.

Cooper (Groce's guy) was a key cog on that team that beat Georgetown. Cooper played more minutes that year than ANY other player in the MAC, but whatever narrative Zach wants to push.

Didn't he beat Georgetown in the First Round 2 years prior to their Sweet Sixteen run? I'd say that's hardly "lightning in a bottle" if he had NCAAT success in his 2 appearances, not to mention the recruiting success he was about to have before leaving for Illinois.

Some really bad after shocks hitting the Hocking Hills: http://www.bobcatattack.com/messageboard/topic.asp?FromPage=1&ForumPID=1&PID=233381&Page=3

You bring up some valid points, but the MAC BEast is the only division that matters. The MAC West is the JV division.

Here it is.... http://www.cleveland.com/sports/college/index.ssf/2017/04/akron_mens_basketball_job_draw.html At least the Cleveland paper is covering the latest developments in the story.

What exactly do people feel bad about? This is ridiculous. Bring this up IF he's hired and crashes and burns. When the out of conference schedule toughens up and we start winning some games we shouldn't and our players are actually motivated by an intense, firey coach instead of the "poor me" ..."I will bring one home for you coach" all will be forgiven.

If he wins they will get over it. Plus maybe some new people will open their checkbook.

Let me get this straight, now some Zip fans are making excuses for Groce winning in the tournament. I'm was just getting used to the excuses for KD losing in the tournament. I'm going to have to have some adjustment time. ?

Wow, I'm impressed how much you know about all of these guys.... I can't wait to see your NFL Mock Draft #1

Limiting the AD a little with such a small list.... (:

Per the kitten network, Add OSU's Oden and Conley to list of past recruits by Groce. If this guy falls into our lap, we should be pretty happy.

I never said him having a poor demeanor made him less of a coach. I guess what I'm saying is all things considered I'm less excited about it than I should be based on my recollection of he used to behave. That said, if he's as great of a recruiter as everyone says he is, then I'm interested to see how this turns out. I think myself and lilroodude have the same outlook on him, essentially.

Exactly this. 100%. I think there's a fine line between fiery and belligerent and in my eyes Groce used to be on the wrong side of that line more often than not.

http://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/777490?referrer_id=2333971 Congratulations to former soccer zip Michael Nanchoff..... selected to the USL team of the week

For probably one more year at most. Trying to get ahead of it, instead of after the fact. Makes sense to me why he would want the Akron job, but it makes no sense for Akron to want him...

Fleck just now stumbled upon 7-on-7 drills? How "elite."

What a tool

Fleck is a Genius, Just Ask Him 7 on 7, how inventive, he should contact LegalZoom for the patent. Why don't I miss this guy?

That was inspiring

Good. We need someone who can recruit Canton. It's going to be season tickets for me no matter what even if it's Jim Christian. (what else do I have to do Dec thru March than watch a train wreck twice a week) However, don't be surprised if George Thomas tweets that it's Jim Christian because he thinks Jim is short for Jamion.

I could have guessed that was coming.

Actually, search firms are often used as "cover". That is to say, it may be a lawsuit or NCAA violation if UA initiates contact with a coach currently under contract. But a search firm exists to do just that. And IF they bring the school together with a currently contracted coach, the "story" will be that the coach had contacted the firm looking for openings, or that the firm reached out to him unknown to the school. Plausible deny ability. It is done all the time in business, in fact, the company will use the search firm to reach out to someone they might be prohibited from contacting directly.

Thanks for that Skip -- I had to check, because I thought Foster Loyer was a UofM Wolverine recruit (Class of 2018). He IS going to be a Spartan Izzo -- and he's a Big Time Player. And he has a brother in 7th grade. Here's a clip of him talking about his upbringing. http://www.freep.com/story/sports/high-school/2017/01/13/foster-loyer-basketball/96521474/ Clarkston HS -- same as the Fife Brothers went to (older bro played with Fab 5) Interesting article from the Bobinski files too! Coleman always talked about finding his "battleship" in the middle, but could never come close. Team played in Hawai'i in 1991, and their starting center was a 6-7 white kid from Salem, Ohio. What a nice kid -- the opponents all agreed!

It's pretty bad we have to rely on sketchy twitter handles, other teams message boards, and 1 ZN.o poster for our coaching updates. It would be nice if the local media at least made an effort to make it at least appear they were trying to cover the coaching search.

How will using a search firm cover the AD? Like Williams will say, "I just took the one the firm recommended. Really. It wasn't my choice." Utter nonsense. Having a middle man I think would help especially in a limited time frame. The firm could reach out to McDevitt or Ja Christian and see what the deal is before contact is made. If it's a 24-48 hour window, then a name should start floating around tomorrow.

We should know who our new coach is within 24-48 hours.

You talkin about Peggy Elliott? If you recall, she infamously is given credit for switching us to that bright yellow color on the football unis too. Great story about promoting Loyer. Yes, I think everyone believes that the incident in Cincinnati was a "throw someone else under the bus" scenario. That doesn't concern me. The lack of recruiting experience does. Although, his relationships with High Schools from his 10 years in Cincinnati might be good, but maybe too long ago. Isn't he currently an NBA Scout? How much money do they make?

When it comes down to it, this is kind of what we want right? We had the MAC regular season success but no postseason success. That's a trade I'm okay with making. He had LeVert committed there before he left - they were on track to take the next step. I wish we had a coach that could get our guys playing well at the end of the year.

DJ Cooper carried that team by transforming into Steph Curry before anybody knew who Steph Curry was, pulling off circus shot after circus shot. Groce hasn't won anything without Cooper. He basically stumbled onto a "diamond in the rough".

Not knowing him, I think his falls into impulsive youth category.