kreed5120

I read that article a short bit ago. What may be relevant for us is that mid-major spending is up 44% YoY.

Yep, as an undergrad I would go to 3-4 games a year when JD was the coach. I quit attending regularly under I-coach as going to games and being down 3 scores at half-time frankly wasn't worth my time. I've attended 2, maybe 3 games in the last 10 years and am in no rush to attend anymore anytime soon. In that same time I've attended 5-6 alumni tailgates, but typically just go to Euro to hang out with friends or go home when kickoff nears. The school has no interest in committing the resources necessary to put a competitive team on the field and I have no interest in watching a consistent 0-4 win MAC program that I have little reason to get excited over. No amount of bouncy houses or kid fun days will change that. Joe Akron is likely even less invested than I am.

I agree with this. I'll add it's just not money, but there is also a finite amount of roster spots on those teams as well.

Gillespie is no Freeman, but he IMO was the 2nd best player in the MAC last season (behind TJ). When you have a player of that talent it makes sense you adjust your system to feed off his talents. That was what Groce did with Freeman even though Groce teams typically play through their guards. With Gillespie now gone it would make sense for Sendy to modify his style of play to fit what he prefers to play.

Probably a bit off topic, but I saw there is something like 1,400 in the women's portal. I found this a bit surprising. I get it with men's hoops as even between a CSU and UMass the pay difference for a starter is substantial. Maybe $75k-$100k difference, perhaps more for an all-conference caliber contribtutor. In the women's game those same wages aren't available. I read that UConn men's roster is $8-10 million spend while the women's is $1.6-$2.5 million. Don't get me wrong that's a good chunk of money, but that's comparable to what Utah State is spending on mens. Now if you take into account UConn is probably at or near the top in women's spending, that would mean most mid-majors are likely at $300k or less. Now mind you that's split across a roster of 15 players. It would seem to me a lot are entering the portal and end up making pretty much a similar amount unless they're going to one of the top ~50 programs that are investing heavily into women's hoops. It begs the question is it really worth making an extra $5k-10k if it disrupts you obtaining a degree because you're on your 3rd school in 4 years?

Evan Miya grades him as an above average offensive player, but below average defender. Rated #53 in the MAC last season overall. Probably a win for both teams. He's better than what Ball State had last season, but a position UMass probably hopes to upgrade if they want to compete at the top of the MAC next year.

I assume Josiah was given a medical redshirt playing only 6 games with Akron. He actually got engaged a few days ago. I saw several Zips players on Instagram share it on their story so they must stay in touch.

I don't think we've gotten anything officially. That's just a prediction. Considering the page only has 6k followers and can't even spell the players name correctly it's hard for me to give it much weight.

Yeah, I think when I looked a few days ago they only had ~300 out of the ~1500 portal players rated. I don't even think they listed Young in the portal until about a week after he declared. It feels there are much better sources out there for listing and ranking portal players. Unfortunately most of them are hidden behind paywalls.

You can achieve that without an open spring practice. A few years ago they had a concert featuring Soul Asylum and other festivities before a home game. The focus should be on improving the gameday experience, not on a spring practice that maybe a few hundred attend. Most of which are already long-term season ticket holders like @Captain Kangaroo.

It doesn't help he's playing out of position. He's being asked to play on the perimeter, which wasn't what made him impactful at Akron. I understand NBA size makes it impractical for him to play him at the 5 unless it's situational. It's just going to be challenging for him to make the NBA long-term (5+ year career) if he's being asked to play SF or stretch 4. He's hindered by the fact he's not 2-3 inches taller.

Anyone know if Wednesdays press conference will be streamed on facebook or youtube for those of us who aren't retired or self employed?

Concord's Boubacar Djigo has committed to Marshall. That's one fewer Concord player @NWAkron has to worry about being on Akron's roster this year.

I thought theirs looked pretty empty myself. Casuals don't attend spring practices, at least not at the MAC level. The ones who show up are mainly the ones who are regulars anyway.

Could potentially be a good pickup for them if he builds off a solid freshman year. Mainly needs to work on improving scoring efficiency. He seems to rebound the ball really good for a guard.

I haven't seen him play, but by the numbers he looks like a chucker. A career .341 shooter from the field and .329 from 3. I'm not sure if he's an elite perimeter defender and that's the appeal, but his rebounding, blocks, and steal totals leave a lot to be desired. Personally, I hope one of the other MAC teams sign him. I would hope that we could do better. Edit: Evan Miya graded him as the 7th best player on a 12-21 Sun Belt team. The #2302 rated player in college basketball overall.

He appears to have pretty good handles and decent footwork for someone of his size. I could definitely see being able to play both him and Barre at the same time without it being much of an issue. https://x.com/i/status/2043368372922921403 Edit: Last season against us he had 6 points on 2/6 shooting, 4 boards, and 2 blocks. I'm probably most pleased with the rim protection (and obviously 3P%). That was obviously a weakness for us last year. Would prefer if he was a stronger rebounder. Likely needs to put on some muscle to better fight for position.

By God, that's Todd May's music!

I'm interested to see what Cody provides. He had a pretty great year a s a freshman before regressing as a sophomore. I'm not really certain how he's performed in practice.

Yeah, I'm not sure what expectations some had for the portal. Outside of maybe Evan (whose game had limitations), this is probably the most proven player we've gotten in the NIL era. Typically we've targeted under the radar talent that we saw potential in. I don't see why he can't be as good, or better, than Young. He likely can't replace what TJ did and that's okay. ~6' guards who shoot ~50%/40%/90% and average close to 20 points per game are fetching far more money than we can afford. We were never going to be able to instantaneously replace that in 1 signing. Edit: I will add I would be disappointed if this was our only portal signing, but it's not going to be. Hard to make judgements until we see how things fill in.

Overall I'm pleased with the signing. Those were some efficient scoring numbers and the highlight reel looked very Tavari like. Obviously highlights only show the good. Now onto finding a wing and a big as those are our next 2 biggest holes.

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

This is likely. If it helps sell a few more season tickets then so be it. As @clarkwgriswold said this event has been poorly attended in recent years anyway. I personally haven't attended since the surplus sale days. 90% of the people who go are probably season ticket holders anyway. The other 10% probably didn't care that much to attend anyway if a $75 season ticket is going to deter them from going.

Apparently spring practice will be open to season ticket holders.

No argument there. The hope is if the MAC does expand to a 22 game conference schedule those would be the games eliminated. Whether it plays out that way who knows.