kreed5120

I still didn't think CMU was all that good that year. They went 12-6, but that was in large part because the MAC was very bad. When 2 cupcakes face-off someone has to win. They finished that season #277 in Kenpom and I imagine NET was similar. Personally, I think it's a positive for CMU. They could have continued riding it out with a coach that was below average (.417 winning percentage in MAC games), but not dumpster fire horrendous. By firing him they're saying they think they can do better. Maybe that means they plan to invest more in their program. Time will tell.

Barbee canned at CMU. It seems a bit odd that they waited until now to fire him. I'm not sure why they decided to wait until 3 weeks after the season to do it. https://cmuchippewas.com/news/2025/4/3/cmu-athletics-announces-leadership-change-in-mens-basketball-program

I see in the article the ABJ mentioned that they submitted a records request to get any updates to Groce's contract. We might be seeing an article pertaining to that in the coming days.

There were several more players who entered the portal yesterday pertaining to the MAC UMass - Nate Guerengomba UMass - Shahid Mahammad NIU - Ethan Butler NIU - David Mack EMU - Arne Osojnik Tyler Vanderjagt, former CMU 6th man, committed to Toledo. NIU poster says NIU has 3 scholarship players remaining on the roster (2 freshmen, 1 sophomore). The positive for them is they were already one of bottom 10-15 teams in the country so they can't possibly get any worse.

It looks like you posted a Donovan Mitchell article

I peaked at their fan forum the other day. They feel they are the favorites to win the MAC next year, which gave me a good laugh.

Looking ahead at next years OOC schedule we we have 6 out of our 13 games locked in although the opponent is still TBD in 5 of those. We should get whoever is the preseason Sun Belt favorite game 1 with the second being based off of NET. We know who is in the Paradise Jam, but it's impossible to know for certain who we would face. 1 vs Sun Belt Game 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Paradise Jam 8 Paradise Jam 9 Paradise Jam 10 11 12 vs Princeton 13 at Sun Belt Game 2 I would have to believe we're one of the favorites for the Paradise Jam as other top teams Yale, Oregon State, and Charleston all lost their top scorer among other key contributors. I'm sure some of these schools will look to reload, but they likely won't be firing on all cylinders as players find and settle into their roles. We only have 2 home games scheduled. If you add that to the 9 conference home games, that puts us at 11 as of now. This makes me believe out of the 7 remaining homes, 3 or 4 of them will be at home to get us to 14-15 in total. I assume we will host at least 1 non-D1 team and also play a mid-major on the road as part of a new home and home series. That would give us 5 other games to schedule with 2 or 3 of those being at home. What would you guys like to see, realistically speaking?

From what I read it's not all concessions. The free stuff is limited to 4 items. If I recall correctly it was hot dogs, soda, nachos, and popcorn.

I was puzzled by this statement until I remembered Akron added lacrosse. That's a fair statement and not something that I factored in.

I believe the athletic department is charged something like $4 million for the stadium while the school pays the rest. If you take $4 million and divide it by the 5 home games (which is what we typically host), we need to generate $800k revenue per home game just to pay the mortgage. I wouldn't even begin to guess what the other costs add up to. I feel a lot depends on what costs you choose to include or exclude. If you include stadium costs, we're in deep red. If you exclude it, someone who actually seen the books would have to weigh in.

Coastal Carolina single game tickets are close to $30 for their cheapest seat if I recall. Akron's is something like $15. It's not just the cost of a hot dog and a bun to consider. Those people working the concession stands, working the gates, security, and other game day personnel cost money. We're already losing money hosting games. Giving away unlimited free food just puts us further into the hole. If they wanted to add $5, $10 loaded value to tickets that way someone could use it to buy a beer and/or a hot dog then sure. Akron just doesn't charge enough for their tickets to also be serving as a Golden Corral. Besides, isn't that supposed to be one of the perks of club seats? If you provide that same service to all the fans, suddenly some may begin to ask why they're paying $150 (or whatever they cost) a game for their tickets.

I actually don't mind the Crown. I won't watch it, but it opened up space in the NIT. Now we have a mid-major tournament, like many here asked for, that isn't pay to play. The 2nd, and if the MAC improves 3rd, place MAC team has a place for a postseason. The path we were heading down was if you didn't win the MAC tournament your season was over. Regardless of how your regular season was.

Outside of Young, the others are still unknown. Mahaffey has reportedly shown promise in practice, but that's not the same as games. This coming season will be used to evaluate what we have and what we'll need to target in the portal. The more players that develop, the less we'll need to target.

Really not much different than Freeman's senior year. We will just use the portal to reload, similar to how we did this past year.

I've said before Gillespie is really the only one worth being excited about and even then he's not someone who can put a team on his back. Sumlin is a fine role player. Perhaps he develops into a 4th option. Medley I actually found to be underwhelming. They will have to put those supposed portal dollars to work if they hope for anything better than a 4th place finish in the MAC. Edit: Safford I believe is also returning as he got a medical redshirt. He should give them another solid 28-30 minutes a night. IMO they need another guard that can both score and create offense for others. They also need another starting caliber big.

Kam Craft has visits scheduled with Dayton and DePaul. Him returning to Miami, like they were hoping, is looking unlikely. Edit: it looks like it posted this do a different thread than I intended. Oops

I held my breathe every time he put one up as well. I imagine that's an area of his game he will be working on this offseason.

He only has 31 attempts in total so I'm not sure what point you're trying to illustrate. 12 attempts would make up a large chunk of those 31. I also wouldn't want him taking much more than that anyway. Maybe 20 for the season. 30% on 54 attempts is abysmal. I wouldn't want an Akron player shooting that many if he's shooting it at those percentages. I imagine you wouldn't either. Generally you want to be around ~34%+ if you're going to shoot them at any volume. Half an attempt a game is fine for Mahaffey. Mainly just shoot them when he's left wide open in the corner. Like I said it's not about trying to get him to get 3-4 looks a game. It's about showing the defense he's willing to shoot them and can make them. You have to keep the defense honest otherwise they will cheat and have 5 defenders guarding your 4 offensive players.

30% isn't respectable. Evan shot a modest .333 as a freshman, which is better than Gray's best year at Cornell. He only shot two attempts last year so you can only really look at his first two years. His only 'bad year' was his sophomore season. I'm not suggesting scheming ways for Mahaffey to shoot 3-4 3s a game. That's not his game. I'm more saying if the defense is sagging, it's not unrealistic that he could go back to shooting 3s at the same percentage, or slightly better, than he did his year at Penn State. Mainly just to keep the defense honest. You bring up Tribble. Go back and look at his first 4 years at Akron. His numbers would make Mahaffey look like Steph Curry. It wasn't until his fifth year that he figured it out yet you seem to believe Mahaffey can't.

There are a lot of basketball programs in the New York City area and they're all kind of underwhelming. St. John's has had periods of success, but even they you would think would be more successful given they're the premier basketball program in NYC. The most rationale explanation for why I've heard NYC areas schools underperform is because of the 1950s point shaving scandal. First off, CCNY was the best basketball program in NYC at the time and they disbanded their program over it. Other NYC schools tried to distance themselves from the shame by focusing on academics and lessening the emphasis on basketball. That culture has kind of just stuck over the decades.

I edited a prior comment. Gray was also a very poor shooter prior to coming to Akron. He shot ~.270 at Cornell and .365 in year 1 at Akron. In Groce's time at Akron we've seen some players make huge leaps Freeman, Lyles, Tavari, etc. Mahaffey shot improving is certainly a possibility, but not a given.

I think it's too early to see how this team will shape up. Nobody predicted the improvement we saw out of Tavari and Lyles this season. Perhaps Okonkwo or someone else in year 2 under Groce will take a similar leap. If Lyles continues to develop a perimeter shot, we could also very well see him playing PF and Mahaffey at SF for stretches of games. That would of course require Brisco being able to provide 5-10 minutes off the bench a night.

I actually think the opposite. Bigs are less utilized today compared to 10, 20, 30 years ago. A lot of teams play with 3 guards, 1 SF, and only one true big. It's all part of that positionless basketball craze going on in basketball circles. Edit: Also, it should be noted Gray was also a very poor 3 point shooter prior to coming to Akron. His career average at Cornell was around .270. His first year at Akron he shot .365. Akron's staff also helped improve Lyles and Freeman's shooting over the years. I don't think it's a given that Mahaffey's shot can't improve.

First off, let's get the record straight. I've never really shared much of an opinion on Guthrie so when you say "you" I hope you're referring to others, not me. I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other about his time here. Fordham ended up settling for their 3rd or 4th candidate so yes I would say that does reflect poorly on them. Maybe you don't, but we can agree to disagree. Time will tell if it's the homerun hire you're claiming others are saying. Turning around Fordham is going to be a monumental task. One that probably isn't achievable unless the administration and donors step up.

In one of the tweets (or whatever they're called these days) it was mentioned Kent agreed to revenue sharing as part of the deal to get Sendy to stay. The MAC hasn't made any formal announcements (to my knowledge), but I imagine Akron will be forced to follow suit. I wouldn't be surprised to see ticket prices climb 10%-20% this season to help pay for it. I still find Akron basketball to be a very great value so I'll pay it. For those with premium seating I can see how it could become burdensome. Edit: Per @Let'sGoZips94 post, you can just disregard everything that I posted.