kreed5120

I can't remember the coach who originally popularized it, but it seems Akron is adopting the get old; stay old mantra. We were going to have an old team last year, but we still went out and added experienced players to the roster. This year we graduated 4 seniors so we went out and replaced them with 4 new juniors/seniors.

It looks like we got our Tribble (prior to 2023-2024) replacement. Tough nosed guard who can play defense, get to the rim, and is willing to get gritty. Hopefully Groce and the rest of the staff can work with him to improve his perimeter shooting, like they did Tribble. That seems to be the main thing missing from his game. Overall, I'm pleased with this add.

The rich getting richer. The poor getting poorer. The B1G was the big winners in adding value. The SEC, ACC, and Big 12 were bunched up next. The Big East and A10 notably made big improvements as well and look distanced from the pack. Everyone else is bringing up the rear. The MAC does look to be near the top of the best of the rest, but still miles behind the top 5-6 conferences.

I think this is more about the differences between the haves and have nots. Players like Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M or Joe Burrow at LSU certainly move the needle and made money for their school therefore they should be paid. It's probably realistic for players to get paid at the the top 30-40 or so schools as they're competing at a semi-pro level. When you get to the MAC level, no one player is going to drive 100s of thousands to millions of extra dollars for the school. The MAC is really what amateur athletics is about, but now we're forced to try to spend like a semi-pro team to maintain our status. Using Ali as an example, I'm glad he returned, but him returning didn't directly lead Akron to selling 1000s of extra season tickets.

You don't have to like the system, but it's either adapt or be left behind.

I doubt that's the case at Akron. It looks like between tuition, room & board, and other fees, the cost of attendance at Akron is nearly $30k now. That's not including what you'd have to pay the player on top of that. That would seem very wasteful spending when you have limited resources to start.

They did say in the interview that Okonkwo wasn't who they were initially targeting. He became suddenly available and was too good to pass up. I wouldn't be surprised if Harris and Wilson played a part in recruiting him.

For those of you that aren't able to get around to listen, I'll list a few takeaways. - Bud says Akron is still looking to add 1, maybe 2 players. - Akron is taking a moneyball approach relying on algorithms to determine players value and who to target. - They are working on developing a system for one-time, quarterly, and monthly donations reoccurring donations. There will be different tiers where you can get t-shirts, hats, courtside seats, attend a practice, etc based off donation size. - Football collective was just recently started with a large donation. I'm sure there are other things that I might have missed.

9 out of the top 10 losers are also mid-majors. Not to mention the losers are losing a lot more NET OVR (not familiar with what that metric exactly is) than the top gainers are gaining. I'm counting in total 13 P6 (including Gonzaga) on the top gainers. That's nearly half the list. I'm only counting 4 P6 on the top losers list. Furthermore, there are 350+ D1 basketball programs and only about 1/4 of them come from a P6 conference therefore one would expect more mid-majors on both lists. Either way the data shows mid-majors are getting hit much harder on transfers. That's not to say a program like Akron isn't holding their own, but for every Akron there are 3 or 4 CMU types out there that have had their roster gutted.

Ali had more to do with how raw he was as a player. A 6'8 wing is big even by P6 standards. I do think you will see more and more of those big sized developmental players trickle down to the mid-majors. It doesn't make sense for an Iowa State or Northwestern to take a flyer on developing a player for 2-3 years when they can just go buy a proven contributor from Kent, Akron, Toledo, etc. The MAC is the AAA farm system now. We both develop the players and now take the guys who are being sent back down.

FedEx announced a $5 million per year commitment in NIL to the University of Memphis. One has to think this will make them the top program in the AAC. https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/sports/college/memphis-tigers/2024/04/19/fedex-memphis-athletics-nil-fred-smith-football-basketball-laird-veatch/73376523007/

I still feel last years team never reached its peak potential. Tribble was probably the only player that exceeded my expectations coming into the season. Freeman may have slightly exceeded them too, but I expected a big year from him. Ali had a good year, but I expected more from him, particularly as a floor spacer. Everyone else fell well short of what I thought they'd do. Per kenpom, last season was Groce's 4th best Akron squad. I want to say next year's team won't be as good as this one, but it's not like this year's team was all that special. The MAC on paper looks weaker. I think we can make it back to the tournament next year, but we probably won't be the odds on favorites to win the MAC.

Not a strength and conditioning issue, but I also don't think we had much of an answer for Kalkbrenner. It's easy to see why he won Big East DPOY. He only was credited with 3 blocks, but he disrupted every shot within 5 feet of the basket.

That makes more sense. I was thinking no way all those new donors donated in such a short span.

Up to $123k from 530 donors now.

Yes, the day of giving has been going on long before NIL was a thing. It goes towards the University to fund the athletic programs. The University doesn't pay for NIL.

I haven't actually seen any real film of these players. Highlight reels don't count as those only show the good. Harris probably has the highest ceiling.

Do we even have any available scholarships left?

Those are numbers that sound believable.

Unless you're a Kansas or North Carolina and can buy a title contending roster each year by reloading.

If you can dodge traffic on Exchange, you can dodge a ball.

I didn't even realize UA bought the Wonder Bread building. I wonder what even led to them purchasing that in the first place.

Once again a lower quality piece than what I'd find written here. If this is what journalism is these days, it's no surprise chatgpt is replacing the 'talent'.

The last time Toledo made the tournament the #1 song on the billboard charts was crazy little thing called love by Queen. The #1 movie at the box office was The Fog. The price of a Big Mac was $1.20.

I never want to play Kent in Cleveland. It's not like they were good this year, but Senderoff had them playing their best basketball in March when it matters most.