kreed5120

I'm not as thrilled about this signing as some of you seem. He definitely looks like the favorite (as of now) to start at PF, but even if you multiply his numbers by 3 to adjust his numbers to numbers he would put up in ~26 mpg they seem underwhelming, particularly 3P% and rebound rate. I suppose the hope would be that he was a step too slow and an inch or two too short for the B1G and that water finds it level in the MAC.

Praying for a stretch 4.

It's definitely nice seeing the growth in corporate sponsors and donations. That said, I'm inclined to believe there is an uptick in ticket revenue in the years Akron hosts Kent in football compared to the years that they don't. I wonder how much of the 20% that accounts for vs how much of it is organic growth.

Has anyone in MAC history ever consistently achieved less with more?

He was a very inefficient scorer (.280 from 3 and .386 from the field) on a bad SEC team. Considering he's going to have an extra year to develop and will be facing a lower level of competition it's possible he takes a step forward. I can't imagine many, if any, P5 programs were competing with CoC for his services.

I don't believe the others accumulated enough playing time to be graded. Eric was obviously the big loss here. They actually graded him as a high major starter/mid-major all conference for next year, which to me checks out. As I said before the percentiles are position based. Burton with a higher playmaker score doesn't mean he's a better playmaker than Eric. It just means he was borderline elite for a big in that category while Eric was good relative to other wings.

The portal tool I have access to agrees with you. The only area Young has Staveskie beat in is defense. Edit: It should be noted that those numbers you see below represent percentiles at your position. 50 would mean you were average.

Buffalo Oboh to Penn State. This one surprised me a bit as he doesn't seem like a B1G caliber player. Then again Penn State is usually near the bottom of the B1G. https://x.com/i/status/2045886713516429419

I'm more than okay with this. We're certainly still in need of a 3 & D guy (although not like Bowen played good defense) but I am hoping for a little more size. We have plenty of 6' guards on the roster right now.

I can't really speak about Young, but Eric attended Ford's press conference the same day he committed to Cincy. I feel it's telling how much respect and appreciation Eric had for Ford that he attended even though he knew he was leaving. Coaching change seems like a non-factor. In fact, maybe Groce left because he knew he was going to lose Eric and Young so he figured if he was going to have to rebuild anyway now was the right time to leave. Hilltopper threw a number out randomly (not sure if accurate) saying Eric was going to get $700k+, which to me sounds right when you hear what others at P5 schools are making. You can't walk away from that. Maybe he stays another year and improves his value further (mind you he would have to nearly double his value to make it worthwhile as he would have 2 years instead of 3 to cash in if he stayed at Akron). Maybe he stays another year and tears his ACL like Ipsaro did at Miami. Now all that money is gone and he doesn't have a head start on life.

Why wouldn't they be able to? I'm sure there is a lot of embellishing going on in the portal to make players appear more marketable than they really are. I would imagine at the very least Akron probably did reach out to him at some point. Whether or not Akron decided on someone else and that offer is no longer valid, your guess is as good as mine. Edit: If he does come here I imagine he's a replacement for Bowen's role.

The offensive line last season was the most solid it has been in a long while. I know we had a lot of turnover at the position. Any word from coaches or eye ball test that would help you indicate how it appears?

That's not accurate, however, his shooting percentages aren't anything to be scared of.

Drew Steffe to Buffalo. https://x.com/i/status/2045623367227539950

I agree. There does seem to be an uptick in international players so it's hard to get an idea of how good those players are so maybe there is an unknown gem there. The other transfers it's hard to get excited over anyone. As musical chairs starts to near an end and there are no seats left at these high major schools, I think you will see someone like UMass sign 1-2 high quality mid-major producers.

Thanks for sharing. It sounds like Ford signed a 5 year deal at $500K/yr. That's $350k less than what Groce was making, plus we received a $350K buyout from Groce leaving. Hopefully that money was mostly reinvested in the program. Whether it be assistant coach salaries, revenue share, travel, etc.

Teams are allowed up to 15 scholarships now and the real cost to the University for the marginal cost of 1-2 extra students is very minimal and way less than the stated cost. I wouldn't see why if someone is under scholarship or not is material any longer since the number of scholarships allowed now matches the roster spots allowed.

I peaked at the WKU message board and they were posting about a week ago about Young joining so it must have been a deal that was done for several days, but they were ironing out the details. The person who posted about it said CoC and Marshall were the other two serious bidders.

I think it's a bit telling that Groce didn't make a strong play for him. After all if the rumors are true about CoC NIL they should be able to outbid WKU. Edit: I think WKU followed him higher than Akron/CoC thought his market value was.

I said before Eric was always going to have a bigger demand than Sharron. There are tons of talented 6' tall guys in the portal. I assume we probably could have matched whatever WKU offered, but preferred spreading the money throughout the roster instead.

Behind a paywall so can't read the full article, but thought I'd share. https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/sports/college/zips/2026/04/16/exavier-wilson-akron-zips-mens-basketball-ncaa-transfer-portal/89647253007/

Queue complaining about a spring practice that they most likely weren't going to attend anyway 🙄

Not sure if this comment is serious or sarcasm because there have been some complaints about every signing thus far.

No mention of who it is anywhere I've looked.

Eric Mahaffey to Cincy.