kreed5120

In the last day or 2 I've started seeing commits. I imagine things will pick up on that front in the next week or so. A BG alum posted that Austin Parks plans to visit there this weekend. I believe BG, Toledo, and us have all had reported interest.

I was just sharing what everyone on the Kent board is claiming. I'm not pretending to be in the know. The Fordham program is a terrible job in the sense that it's one of if not the least funded in the A10. Since they joined the A10 in 1995, they have had 3 winning seasons in 30 years. They haven't made the NCAA tournament since 1992 or the NIT since 1991. Sendy would get a pay raise if he took the job so if you want to say that makes it a better job, sure. The odds of him actually winning at Fordham however are very low. Duquesne was a pretty poor program when Dambrot took it over, but at least there were monetary commitments to invest in the program, including a major renovation. Fordham plays in a 100 year old arena that to my knowledge has never seen a major renovation other than new flooring.

The Kent board seems convinced that Sendy has coached his last game with the team and that he's already accepted the Fordham job. Kind of odd that he was just on social media promoting Kent's collective days ago when he likely already knew he wouldn't be with the team next year. The Fordham job is pretty terrible. He must really want out of Kent badly. If he thinks Akron is the Dodgers, he's in a rude awakening when he faces the AL All-Stars (Dayton) and NL All-Stars (VCU) every year.

What I've seen posted on their forum is their collective is made up of 500+ donors and has a budget of ~500k in total, $400k of it allocated to MBB (football has a different collective, which the UMass athletic department took over. Not sure the budget for that). That included non-cash gifts as well. Like I saw one of their players was given a car, which I assume was leased. The person running their collective admitted they whiffed and overpaid a few transfers this year, which is why they took a step back. Hopefully they keep inefficiently spending their money as I have to assume they have a larger bankroll than us.

Michigan State is little brother to Michigan in their own state. They obviously have lots more resources than us at Akron, but relative to their peers (OSU, Michigan, etc.) they have to make their money stretch.

Pinning a post that way it stays at the top of the board would be useful and not require web design.

https://www.feartheroocollective.com/ For the wondering minds.

Kyle Neptune is who I've seen speculated for the Fordham job.

Bud must have been browsing the forum and heard us complaining the past few days /s

When I tried last week on my phone it tried to prompt me to email. After reading your post I went onto the website and it now seems to be functioning. I'm not sure if the site was recently updated or if mobile just isn't user friendly. Signing up now for recurring donation.

This I agree with. I would have also signed up for a monthly reoccurring donation. I'm a relatively small fish though. I imagine why they haven't taken the time to implement such a thing yet after talking about doing it for almost a year is they're more focused on attracting the larger one time gifts and corporate sponsors. Bud seems to have a lot on his plate and a finite amount of time. If the feature ever gets added, someone let me know.

If Kent basketball is as poorly funded as Sendy claims it to be, I think he has Kent basketball competing at the highest level it can reach (sustainably) in this NIL era. If he leaves, Kent likely regresses to the bottom half of the MAC.

If the only cost is a scholarship, it's not like it will cost us NIL $$$. I'd say just use those 2 scholarships on incoming freshman that you hope to develop into being future contributors. They can earn NIL in future years if they produce. If nothing else by giving them a scholarship you're attracting a higher caliber player that you can use in practice compared to a walk-on. Edit: Imagine if Dambrot had an extra scholarship to offer McCollum or Nance Jr.

We certainly let OSU off the hook in the NIT. Lost in OT if I recall correctly.

I could see how it might become burdensome for a sport like football as you have to add ~20 scholarships. 2 extra scholarships for basketball (4 if you add women's as well) shouldn't be much. Tuition + room/board costs are $28k/yr. That's the stated cost. The marginal cost of actually housing (in a dorm that is already built), feeding, and having them sit in a seat in a classroom that would have otherwise been vacant isn't much. Maybe 5k-13k/yr per scholarship.

If he's good enough to get 20 minutes a night on a team that was in the bubble conversation, he's good enough to see the court at Akron. Someone with his size, athleticism, and motor will help on defending opposing wings. Suder probably doesn't torch us with a ~20 point half if we had Evan following him around the court. This is mid-major basketball. We're not going to get guys who check every box. Some guys find their way onto an Akron roster because they're a little too short, were a late bloomer, or their game is unrefined. It's a matter of the staff looking through the list of potential recruits and finding the ones they think fits and they can develop to be a star in their role. If Evan was a more polished scorer, we wouldn't even be having this conversation about him potentially coming to Akron. He checks so many other boxes that P5 schools would be lining up for his services.

You're not allowed to. Marquette declined an at-large bid to the 1970 tournament to play in the NIT instead, which the won. In 1971 the NCAA instituted a rule that if you're selected to the tournament, you must participate or have no postseason.

So what you're saying is Kent State lost to a soon to be D3 school this past football season 🤣

Yes, it's most likely they just don't want to play us on the terms that we prefer. We probably ask for a larger payout than they wish to pay. If it's that much of a pain to schedule P5 opponents, we can negotiate as part of our football deals. If Rutgers, Minnesota, or a Nebraska want to pay us to come play football at their stadium, negotiate us going to play basketball there as well. Football drives the boat at these B1G/SEC schools so if it benefits their football program, they'll sacrifice basketball.

We live in the generation of hot takes. Get out of here with this rationale. I do agree that NIL will lesson mid-majors chances moving forward. Not just because of them taking the best players, but also because it keeps players like Mark Sears in college longer. I still think you will see mid-majors sneak into the Sweet 16, but just not as frequently.

Probably the only way we'd get someone like Cincinnati or Xavier is if our "home game" is in Cleveland and they get a share of ticket revenue. Although that would probably only work for an OSU as I'm not sure there are many Cincy or Xavier fans in the Cleveland area.

Ohio averaged 4487 and Toledo averaged 4402 per the MAC's official numbers. The JAR would need to average an 82%+ capacity every game to surpass OU. 7-8 (including NIU & Buffalo) of those home games are against cupcakes, who even I have no desire to to drive to Akron in the freezing cold to watch. We're just not going to be at or near capacity every night. Ohio isn't either, but they have a huge arena so they're able to inflate their season average by having 1-2 games a year where they attract 8k-9k fans. We could probably attract a similar number for Kent, but capacity caps us out at ~5500. Getting to ~3500 is something ideal to shoot for. We weren't far off from those numbers during the Dambrot days. Back then attendance hovered around 2800-3300 most years as I recall.

The only outstanding job that he might be remotely interested in WVU. There just aren't many options this year. He's likely already committed to Akron for next year, but wants to keep his options open for future years. With Akron returning most of last years key contributors and working the portal to address biggest needs, one would think Akron would be one of the highest regarded mid-majors heading into next season. Running it back with the current cast with the hopes of generating some noise is probably his best bet if he wants to get back to the P5 level at something other than a dead end job. Some here might not like to hear it, but an opening at OSU would probably be hard for him to pass up and Diebler has to be on the hot seat entering next year.

That will just further the gap between the haves and have nots. Like sure some local business might give Akron $100k to place logo, but MWC or AAC will probably then get $500k. P5 schools north of $1 million. Obviously these numbers are hypotheticals. I'm just trying to illustrate a point.

If you think a player can help you, even slightly, it doesn't make sense to redshirt them. I'm not sure what the statistics are, but the percentage of 5th year seniors who are still with the team who recruited them out of high school has to be low.