kreed5120

For those interested, I found this elsewhere on the internet. It lists all the incoming and outgoing transfers for the MAC, including player stats. It was probably last updated 2-3 days ago as I see Vanderjagt listed for Toledo, but not Ohio's transfers. I'm sure it will be fully updated soon. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1_KQr_u9-3pHbYajqHmII1vuwYWZJLmw2UImJrAsiIIM/htmlview?pli=1

UMass has lost 8-9 players to the portal. They did just bring in a top 100 JUCO rated player to replace some of the production lost. I'm sure they will be active and add more. Their fan base doesn't seem to believe they will compete with Akron this coming year, but that it will be a top 4 MAC team. Miami has their 2nd best player and 2 additional rotational players in the portal. They still haven't added anyone. I think for them it's too soon to tell. They could be improved if Craft decides to return. Otherwise they will have to replace 26ppg, 9 rpg, and 5 assists from the loss of Craft, Potter, and Cooper. Ohio is losing AJ Clayton to graduation and Elmore James to the portal. That roughly offsets what they've added in the portal. I think they would still need to add another piece, which is certainly possible, in order to see meaningful improvement. Kowalchoke has had luck both raiding other MAC rosters and finding guys at the D2 level in prior years. I think they will be about on par with what they were this year.

Exactly, revenue sharing is about to start and it's not like the University has deep pockets. Akron revenue sharing $1 million to pay players goes much further to building a competitive roster than a flashy arena would and costs a fraction of the price. The JAR is like a 12 year old Toyota. It's not flashy, maybe even has a few rust spots, but it's still dependable to get you from point A to point B. When it starts to become dilapidated then it becomes a different conversation.

If they did it would probably only be situational and for limited minutes.

I think way too much stock gets placed on who starts. I feel what's more important is who Groce has in to close out games and how many minutes everyone logs. My guess is he'll ride the hot hand.

I think they added 4 or 5 years to his existing deal. Also, it appeared to be intentionally meant to stay silent by both Groce and the University at the time. Likely because it wasn't long ago Akron said they needed to do another round of budget cuts. It's not a great look giving your highest paid employee a raise while eliminating programs and other jobs. The ABJ would eat that up even though Groce is worth the money.

Doesn't she already have her bachelor's degree? According to ESPN next year she will be a 3rd year senior so I'm guessing she must have done junior college before Memphis, but am no expert. In that case she could be looking to start her masters. My comment also wasn't about 4 schools in 4 years, which is dumb. More about if you spent 2 years at a school and they're no closer to winning than when you first got there it's understandable that you might want to look elsewhere. There isn't going to be huge NIL dollars thrown around in women's hoops or other Olympic sports unless you're at the top of the game. I imagine players jumping around yearly to the highest bidder in those sports will be far less common than in men's hoops.

I don't think that comment changes much. He was going to replace Gray in the lineup, which is still what I see likely happening. Akron will almost certainly start 3 guards, 1 wing, and 1 big. It's an improvement in size over the 4 guards and 1 big lineup we deployed last year.

That's a likely take. It's surprising the AD said in the article stated he thinks it will help Toledo basketball if that's the case. Other places online I've seen online are projecting when revenue sharing is fully implemented, FBS football will get ~60%, mens basketball 25-30%, and all other sports would split the remaining 10-15%. If a schools punts on football to focus on basketball and other sports, that gives them a fairly decent advantage in those sports.

Even before NIL it was challenging for bottom feeding teams to keep their best players. Those players want the opportunity to play meaningful games in March. Once you start adding NIL into the mix, now those players can both get paid more and have a chance of competing. What real incentive is there to stay?

Their basketball team was just gutted. One of their best players just went to conference rival Ohio. If they have all this money, where is it getting spent?

Any summary for those of us who can't read due to paywall

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.