kreed5120

I don't have the figures, but I'd imagine we're near the bottom. As several of the ADs mentioned, we spread out our spend into sports like soccer and basketball. Many MAC schools are throwing everything they have at football, which is a big reason why the MAC has regressed so much in MAC basketball. You only have Akron, Kent, Toledo, and Ohio spending on the sport.

Even if Akron stumbled into being good, I feel it would be challenging to get enough fans to games to make it an exciting atmosphere. A big issue is they built Infocision too big as they had delusions of grandeur. Nothing says small time like going to a game and having a whole row of bleachers to yourself. The Rubber Duck's have a lot going for them. It's very family friendly with ticket and concession prices. The ballpark is small and intimate, which creates a fun atmosphere. If you took those 4k fans at Rubber Duck's games and spread them out across Progressive Field, the game would begin to feel as sad as an Oakland A's game. That's what Akron is currently facing.

Last year we lost to both Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan. Why are you trying to count wins before games are played? Nothing is a guaranteed. I don't see any team in the MAC like those Buffalo teams of a few years back where they're head and shoulders better than every team. No team is too good that it makes me scared to play them. In fact, I'd prefer a 'tougher' schedule. We play enough cupcakes OOC. Why would I want to play more during conference play?

Ah okay

Hasn't that how it normally has been. The easy work around for that is if you want 4 tickets for 2 adults and 2 kids, you create 2 accounts and buy them that way.

They had one surprisingly good year under Huger. They have pretty much underachieved every year since. The MAC looks to be very weak at the top this coming year. Even Akron or Ohio, who look to be the favorites heading into this season, would probably only be 3rd or 4th in the MAC if this was 5-6 years ago. The MAC is full of cupcakes these days. If we can't win it outright, we don't deserve the meaningless regular season title. I say meaningless because without the NIT auto-bid, what value does a regular season title even have?

Akron definitely is paying them to come. All the cupcakes we've played at the JAR over the years we had to cut them a check to come. Akron is also getting paid to compete in the Sun Bowl invitational. My guess is they're using that money to cover much of the costs to pay these lesser programs to come here.

To be fair, I'm guessing that's a home and home with Princeton so I'm operating under the assumption they will play at the JAR next season. Overall, there is a lot with the schedule that you can criticize.

It's because we're hosting a MTE

The MAC is too horrendous to even think about at-large chances. Despite our OOC SOS being #45, our overall SOS finished at #206. Even if we won 2-3 of those Kenpom top 100 games, we weren't going to be close to sniffing an at-large, nor should we. I think you might be confused. I'm not saying we shouldn't have scheduled more challenging OOC games. I'm saying Groce likely didn't schedule them because he cares more about using the early part of the season to develop chemistry and build continuity. I'm fairly indifferent as with how bad the MAC is, the only realistic path to the big dance is winning the MAC Tournament. The MAC needs to return to being a top 10-12 conference before an at-large becomes remotely realistic.

This is my thought as well. Last years team had a lot more hype than this years team and Groce had no problem compiling a top 50 (per KenPom) OOC schedule. In the past if we wanted games against P5 or top echelon mid-majors we could find them. Groce probably just wants a lighter OOC schedule as he wants to give the team time to gel since it's mostly a completely new roster.

There are also only so many MTE and only so many destination locations. For some schools they might schedule these because the alternative is they weren't invited to a tournament therefore would play no games at all. Playing 3 games against cupcake schools is better than playing no games. I don't know if this was the case for Akron.

League offices are in Cleveland. Logistically it makes the most sense.

Cleveland would be nice. Another option would be to team with the Hall of Fame Village if the project ever gets completed. After all, many of these MTE are hosted by regional tourist destinations and bank on hotel stay, dining, entertainment, etc to breakeven.

We played a regular season game there last season.

I honestly hope not. I'd much rather go to Cleveland, the Bahamas, or wherever and play real teams on a neutral court. We already play enough cupcakes at the JAR every year. Using the MTE to schedule more is a waste.

I know there was some talks about him playing the wing during the draft process. I kind of always viewed him either as a potential stretch 4 or as a 5 in a small ball lineup. He plays much bigger than his 6'7" frame. You probably wouldn't want to have him play 30 minutes a night at the 5, but against the right opponent or matchup he can provide a change of pace and versatility to a lineup.

I wouldn't necessarily call any OOC schedule 'easy'. At least not until we show that we can consistently beat other mid teams.

I see they finished 6th in the Horizon last year and even though it's technically a "neutral" court, we'll be playing Milwaukee in Milwaukee.

I'm just not as sold on Young as some of you are. That's not to say he won't be a great player. It's just my expectations for him year 1 are tempered. I think Harris has the highest ceiling potential for next season.

It sounds like he won't be eligible to play in the summer league games, but will be able to practice with the team. Probably as an extra body for the scout team.

We've played in the UTEP tournament 5 or so years back and that didn't count as our mid-season tournament exemption.

Yes, that's kind of when they were just establishing themselves as a premier mid-major. What separates a program like St. Mary's from a George Mason or Middle Tennessee is that St. Mary's has shown they aren't a flash in the pan. This also brings me to the point of how much I miss BracketBusters.

They have played 4 times and Kent is 1-3 against them, at least according to Kent's website. Then again we all know how much Kent struggles with numbers. The last time Saint Mary's played at Kent was 2008. That was before they established themselves as one of the premier mid-major programs in the country. It's certainly a golden opportunity to add a quality win, but I don't expect them making a return trip to Akron next year. The reality is Akron needs to elevate ourselves to Saint Mary's level before we start getting schools like St. Mary's to agree to come to Akron. We're not that far off, but we need to be more consistent and find ways of beating programs like UCLA, Utah State, and UNLV instead of just hanging around and narrowing losing.

They hosted Kent last year and there isn't a return game at Kent this year. I wouldn't get your hopes up.