kreed5120

Time will tell. I would imagine we'll know more very soon, perhaps by weekends end. Schools like Butler or Cincy are going to want to fill their vacancies in the coming days that way whoever they hire has a chance re-recruit players on the current roster before the portal opens up.

I wouldn't be surprised if Dustin Ford was offered the job under said scenario. Especially since the closest thing to a Groce hire (coach with previous MAC success) would be Hurley and he doesn't fit the culture we've built. In that case I don't feel it's a given that either leave

Of those schools it's not surprising to hear Gonzaga (doesn't even feel right calling them a mid-major), VCU, and St. Louis are spending significantly more than other mid-majors. I wasn't aware of High Point, but evidently it's an elitist private University. There are talks of expanding the tournament, perhaps to 76 teams. Under that scenario the bubble line would be pushed back so using this year as an example instead of Akron being a 12 seed it would become a 13 seed with an expanded tournament. Things are probably going to get worse for mid-majors before they get better.

Meh, I will still take the $4M extra from the 2 credits Miami got for the MAC by being an at-large. That's money Akron, Miami, Kent, and Toledo can all reinvest into our programs to improve as a conference. I exclude the directionals because WMU will use the money for hockey and the others with use it for football. Edit: Speaking of which the MAC should consider evaluating payout structure for these credits. You have a handful of teams trying to compete, but the other half spending the bare minimum just trying to collect a paycheck. If there is more incentives to be good, more schools will focus on basketball.

You notice when we went to the zone that's when they extended the lead? We also tried using zone in the first half a bit, but they hit a couple of 3s so we switched back to man.

I don't want anything I've said to be misconstrued as pessimistic. There was a lot to be proud of this season. Even without a tournament win it was an enjoyable ride. There will naturally be a lot of new faces, but I'm looking forward to seeing what next year brings. As long as we have Groce and Bud we should be MAC contenders.

I personally didn't like the zone defense in the limited time we played it or trapping. I didn't feel this was an opponent that it was needed for since without Toppin they had no low post threat and Lyles and Mahaffey matched up to them fairly well size wise. I would have preferred to play man, fight through screens instead of switching, and limit any help defense (particularly not abandon Atwell). Those are the things you can control defensively as they're schematic changes.

I can't really weigh in right now. Not certain what production is expected from the redshirts or true freshmen. There will certainly be plenty of opportunities for anyone to earn minutes. We will certainly have to supplement some gaps by utilizing the portal.

You say that as though you can't run a shooter off the 3-point line. There are two sides of a basketball game. You can impact a game defensively despite what you may think. Edit: Go look at the boxscore. Tavari attempted 0 3PA. They ran him off the line and then forced him to drive where they had defensive help. Great defensive teams can take away what you do best.

Regardless of how you feel about perimeter defense I don't think there is no denying the fact that leaving someone who shoots 8.5 3s a game and knocks them down at 45%+ clip wide open isn't a winning strategy.

You don't have to wonder. Estimated figures are out there. I think Texas Tech was around $10.5 million if I remember correctly. I imagine $3-$4 million of that went to Toppin who obviously didn't play. You can still win as a mid-major. The margin of error is just very small. It requires a great gameplan and even better execution.

This is based. At least that's what I believe the youth call it.

If you remove your Zippy colored glasses this is an accurate take. 0 wins over top 125 teams. We were a very good, but not a great team. Our style of play allowed us to run up the score up on inferior competition, but we had too many holes defensively to take the next step. Namely we needed better perimeter defense. Edit: As @Captain Kangaroo pointed out this was probably a game Nate Johnson could have made a difference.

Could have certainly helped disrupt Anderson more.

Didn't do a good enough job of defending the 3 against an elite shooting team. Perimeter defense has plagued us all year when playing elite shooting teams. Could have maybe won a 90-88 game if Tavari had it going offensively.

Going to take late game heroics at this point.

Going to need a few stops defensively.

Watts fouling out was huge. He was their 1 big hurting us offensively. We can now focus more attention on their perimeter shooters.

Would have preferred Tavari pushing it after the steal. Even if he didn't make it he probably would have drawn a foul.

You can't leave Atwell open. He's one of the best volume 3-point shooters in the country. Keep someone glued to him.

Tavari is picking a bad time to have his worst half of the season.

Scott Cross reportedly accepted Georgia Tech job.

I feel all of this is true. I also feel Bettiol was probably the most skilled traditional center in the MAC. He both had the size and fundamentals to eat Miami alive in the low post. Miami didn't really have an answer for it. SMU had bigs, but they seemed much more raw offensively. They didn't have the same footwork or ability to finish near the rim that Bettiol did.

With Toppin out I don't feel their bigs are particularly skilled and they have plenty of warm bodies to run out there if 1 gets in foul trouble. It's going to come down to limiting Atwell and Anderson. They seem very thin at guard as both only get a couple minutes of rest each game. If Anderson gets in foul trouble or aggravates his groin injury that would be a massive boost. He's more important to Texas Tech's offense (post Toppin) than Tavari is to ours.

I actually feel those metrics don't even fully show how 3-pt dependent they are. You have to remember JT Toppin was taking ~15 2-pt fgs per game. He's obviously no longer playing so I would imagine in the last 5-10 games their 3-pt attempts are even further up as much of those attempts got absorbed by their perimeter shooters, namely Atwell and Anderson. Edit: Atwell in particular we have to run off the line. He averages 9.4 FGA per game. 8.5 of the are 3-pointers. I'm guessing the other .9 is him having his toe on the line /s.