kreed5120

I'm just taking it as someone who we thought was on scholarship this year is in reality paying their way. Perhaps with a promise to be on scholarship next season. You see that type of stuff happen in football all the time.

WVU, Louisville, Marshall, and potentially Liberty (if that's who we play game 2) should all be pretty good tests. UMass and Tulane should offer us opportunities to pick up some wins over teams from more prestigious conferences. The rest so far look like legitimate cupcakes. Cleveland State may end up giving Chicago State a run for their money as being the worst team in D1 basketball given the recent mass exodus of their players. Overall I'd say the schedule is alright given where we're at in our rebuild.

I haven't received anything yet about renewing, but thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'll certainly try to take advantage of it.

? Mr. Moneybags here with his court side seats

It should be a good boost to the local economy. It's suppose to bring 1500 jobs to Akron with all 1500 employees making at least $15/hr. Also, Amazon does offer programs to help pay for employees higher education so it may lead to a small uptick in Akron's part-time student enrollment. All-in-all I'd say this should be more beneficial to the local economy than a Community College would have been.

These are the OOC games I've heard of so far. I'm not sure if the list is 100% accurate. In total it's either 10 or 11 games depending how many games we play as part of the "Battle of the Capital" tournament. This means there is still somewhere between 2-3 games left TBD. Of those I'd expect one to be some random NAIA team. @WVU Cleveland State (not sure where the coaches vs. cancer game will be played this year) @Marshall UMass @Louisville YSU N.C. Central USC Upstate Akron's also participating in the Battle for the Capital, which is a 4 team tournament. The field includes Liberty, Towson, Tulane, and obviously Akron so we're likely playing at least 2 of those team, maybe all 3.

I suppose it's possible 1 or 2 of the "incoming freshmen" are going to play at a prep school for a year.

You can watch replays of the game on ESPN+. I did for 1-2 basketball games that I missed.

I don't know the real solution. As @clarkwgriswold said season tickets are already insanely cheap. It comes out to like $4 per game for GA admission. I do agree single game tickets should be more like $8-$10 per game instead of $15-$20 at least until demand indicates otherwise. Even with reduced prices I don't think we'll see attendance improve much. Students can get in for free and they still don't show up. It's all about trying to create that fun atmosphere to make going to the game on a Tuesday night "the cool thing to do". I for one would like to see better promotions. Maybe have a dollar dog night or buy 1 get 1 ticket night. I was watching an EMU game on ESPN+ and they had craft beer night where you paid $x-number for a ticket, got x-number of drink tickets, and a GoT themed stein that read "House Eagle". Of course doing a promotion like that would require the JAR opening up beer sales.

Considering the athletic program is operating at a $20+ million annual deficit and there is talks of slashing the athletic budget, I'd agree it is already in a world of hurt.

You seem to be just furthering my point. If you can't get students interested now what's the chances of getting them interested once they graduate? The basketball program is going to be in a serious world of hurt 20-30 years from now once us old geesers are gone.

They might be a recognizable brand if you're in your mid 30s+, but to the average college age student they're just another team that doesn't move the needle whatsoever. They've made the tournament only 1x this century.

He appears he has quire a few D1 offers and I'd say Akron is probably his best offer with either Sam Houston State or Louisiana Tech being the next best. http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/kenneth-lofton-jr

According to this we're going to be in the Global Sports Classic. It's a 5 team field, however, only 3 teams have been selected thus far (Akron, Louisville, and NC Central). https://www.bloggingthebracket.com/2018/10/24/18020280/2019-20-college-basketball-early-season-tournaments-events-mte-neutral-site-showcases-thanksgiving

St. Bonaventure, Rhode Island, and St. Joe's are all bigger basketball brands than Akron, but none of them are big enough that I'd say we'd have no chance of beating out for a recruit. In fact, to improve in the college basketball landscape these are the type of programs we need to beat out in recruiting battles to move up.

It's still to be seen if it translates to wins, but it's nice having a recruiting staff that can actually get players that other programs want.

That looks like a pretty good offer list. I haven't seen any tape on him, but from this list it would seem he would be a hell of a get for us.

Toledo's AJ Edu tore his ACL and will miss the entirety of next season. Last season he led the MAC in blocked shots and made the all-freshman team.

The football program still loses money, but mainly from Infocision, which we would have to continue to pay regardless.

We were in those games in large part because Riak was the leader and anchor of a top 25 defense. He's also as I understand it set to be a senior with Reece and Sayles both being juniors. You're right that bigs take some time to develop that's why we need at least one this class that way they have a year to develop behind Reece and Sayles.

I have no problem with an athletic 6'8 or 6'9 big. This issue is by 2021 we'll have no player 6'7 or taller under scholarship and so far it doesn't seem like we've made an effort to recruit any. Maybe Groce is planning on using a grad transfer to fill the void when the time comes, idk. If that's the case that would be a pretty optimistic view considering it would require both a MAC caliber big wanting to transfer and said player wanting to come to Akron when there might be better options elsewhere.

According to verbal commits Riak, Reece, and Sayles will all be juniors this year. We absolutely need at least 1, preferably 2, bigs this class. I don't want to have to start 2 true freshmen in the post.

Buffalo did quite a bit of reloading. I'd say Buffalo, Toledo, and BGSU would be the favorites right now. I don't see any of those teams being that far ahead of the rest of the pack so I wouldn't be surprised if one of the other 9 MAC teams wins the regular season title or tournament. Edit: As I whole I expect the MAC to be down compared to the prior two years where it was one of the premier mid-major conferences.

If only the opposing defenses in the MAC were this bad...

I think it will be LCJ, Cheese, Banks, Williams, and Riak to start the season. These new guys are going to have to show they're willing to put forth the effort on the defensive end to earn their minutes. This probably won't end up being the starting 5 once conference play rolls around.