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Have we checked for any quality backup bigs in the RC??

Antino?

Unfortunately, "upward mobility" has now become a part of the college game. Michael Weathers who bailed on Miami to head to Oklahoma State after a big freshman year is just one example.

Very very unlikely since they can transfer to another P5 team and play. This is a screwing for the mid majors. Where it WILL help is recruiting - you can get a top recruit who knows he will sit at tOSU for a year, but can play in the MAC, get noticed and get out. So we might get some good one year wonders, then lose them. With no sitting out a year, there is NOTHING to keep a major quality player at Akron, Buffalo, Toledo, Kent State et al.

I thought we were in the hoops forum

I don't know if that's entirely true. Aside from Steph Curry, who was the last standout from a mid-major to single-handily lead his team to an upset in the NCAA tournament while producing All-American statistics throughout that season or their career? Most upsets/Cinderellas are team efforts either where the coach puts together an extraordinary game plan/motivational speech or a few players play out of their minds, well above their season's standards. Another possibility is that more parity is created. The goal for many of these players is to get to the NBA or professional basketball in general, right? You get there by standing out, and as or if the P5 level teams start to get crowded, players might want to distance themselves from the crowd and create a name for themselves at the mid-major level.

I agree with this. The majority of the recruiting will still be high school players, but this greases the wheels of mobility. Talent will rise and fall more often and easily to fill those occasionally empty roster spots and needs at P5 Schools. This will kill parity. Say goodbye to Cinderella. The end result is the product at the P5 level will only increase and the product at the Mid-Major level will be watered down. Size, speed, talent and athleticism that is missed or developed early on coming out of high school will now make it's way up the ladder more often without a penalty in place. Only players who have loyalty to teammates/coaches, have reasons for staying close to home or are legacy products to a specific university will stay back.

Depends if you think he would have left without KD going.

Well if he is doing a great job then we have horrible talent on the OL. But I concede that may be the case. I also feel we need to upgrade at running back, but they weren't the reason our run game failed this year. There was no blocking for them to have a place to run. That was blatantly clear as you sat in the stands and watched our lineman get pushed back.

There are ways to grade offensive lineman performance, but I have not seen anything on Akron over the years. I have a suspicion that much of our running game anemia comes from the skill positions themselves and key injuries. I'm happy to see Akron finally getting some young running backs that may be able to start producing on offense. The fact that we finally have some highly touted young gun RB's committing to the Zips is another sign that Akron is on the upswing. While I noticed an uptick on the o-line when Funk was here (recruiting too) I'm not ready to point the finger at Ekkens. For all we know he may be doing a great job.

They had such bad talent they only beat Pitt by 9 last season. Lost by 12 this season.

Yes, he is sitting for the year. My point was that it's already happening before the rule change. With the change, it will only get worse. I would propose that the rule be changed immediately yet only temporarily for the sole purpose of getting Jackson, Hester and Riak on the floor now!

I don't really know how I feel about it. I'm sure there will be both positive and negative consequences in both football and basketball. Players may think that being at a larger program will help them make the NBA or NFL, but there is plenty of recent history that suggests you will get your shot no matter where you play. Dame Lilliard, Steph Curry, Cameron Payne, Larry Nance, Khalil Mack, Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, and Eric Fisher all immediately come to mind.

I don't think there is any denying the fact Duquesne has improved. Last year they were the cupcake. This year they are beating the cupcakes. That being said it's not some miraculous turnaround. When you're at the bottom, there is only 1 direction that you can go.

It is not the same conference or "cupcake" teams. Last year, the A10 finished 8th in conference RPI. They had 8 teams finish in the top 137, 3 of which finished in the top 31. They currently have 4 teams in the top 150, 2 of which are in the top 50, with a conference RPI of 10. For comparison, the MAC had a conference RPI of 14 last year, which has improved to 11 this year, with 5 teams in the top 150; the MAC also has a better winning percentage than the A10, albeit against a weaker SOS. I didn't think Duquesne would be towards the top of the A10 standings, but I also didn't expect the A10 to be so down this year. They have a sophomore stud in Mike Lewis II that is helping carry the team, and they have an atrociously low SOS (333) which they've taken advantage of. I still contend that part of why Dambrot left was he somehow knew that the A10 would be down. He also left the cupboard more bare in Akron than what he left for at Duquesne. It's no secret I have been and am very critical of Dambrot. I don't necessarily know if those who support him quite understand the side of those who are critical of him. In my opinion, Dambrot was a good/great coach to take Akron from a bottom-of-the-cellar MAC and mid-major program, to a top of the MAC and mid-major contender. The honeymoon period of that level of success ended in 2013 with the embarrassing loss to VCU in the NCAA Tournament, and continued to down-spiral from there with no return to the Big Dance in his final 4 seasons at Akron and continued disappointment in big games. I'm not surprised Dambrot has won more than 10 games at Duquesne this year, and I wouldn't be surprised (after seeing the level of the A10 this year) if he approaches 20 wins. That's his method of operation - schedule weaker competition, pray on a weaker conference, and build a "winning" reputation. As previously mentioned, a TAMU or Texas Tech coach used this strategy. It is yet to be seen if Dambrot can turn his regular season "success" into NCAA Tournament success, which is where his fallout occurred at Akron.

So yet another thing for us to worry about

Greed. It's one of the deadly sins and will eventually destroy what is good about college basketball. So the MAC could be like a feeder league. I'm not sure how many STAR players there are in the MAC that would get the call up to the big leagues.

I don't think we'll see top 25 teams exclusively recruit mid-major players, but it's certainly going to be a tool they use.

That is exactly what NCAA wants. We are nothing but fillers at the Dance and revenue from ESPN.

Dambrot must have heard you say, "big game."

I see this benefiting G5 in football, but hindering mid-majors in basketball.

Eye discovery

There is a Parents & Family event scheduled for Saturday from 4:00-6:00 at the Euro-Gyro. We scheduled this event for post game. I will relay this to the committee chairperson. These time changes are B.S. I don’t understand why they seem to arbitrarily change these game times. My wife is a member of the Parent & Family committee. They put in a lot of effort to help promote the University and bring parents and families on to Campus for various events. Many of the parents have to travel some distance and make plans to attend an event. We have reserved the upstairs at Euro-gyro for a postgame party. We have sent out emails for confirmation, and asked people to respond so we can get a head count. This allows us to pre-order food accordingly. I am frustrated as hell!!!!!