kreed5120

I never understood the appeal. The last thing that I'd need is multiple women nagging me to take out the trash. One is plenty.

I don't think it's anything. The page only has ~1300 followers. It seems to be jumping to conclusions solely based off of where Nate is from. Tagging those pages in hopes of driving views to his post.

Where are you seeing that? The last post that I see on his page is his announcement about entering the draft.

I feel you're just setting yourself up for disappointment. If it was just 1 of them leaving because Akron felt they couldn't afford both, especially given our depth at guard, that would be 1 thing. Losing both is extremely devastating. I'm not even going to bother commenting on the state of the roster until the portal closes. This could get ugly fast if others join. We would have been better off had we known of these departures in March. Into mid-April we likely missed out on guys we would have otherwise targeted. Others are likely close to deals with teams they've built relationships over the past several weeks.

If anything was orchestrated it would have been the players holding their own meeting and deciding collectively that they were going to get a bag instead of running it back. No way Bud and Groce pushed out 2 1st Team All-MAC players. Whoever we bring in to replace them likely won't be as good.

When you have 'teamism' and make a commitment to stay there is probably a lot of pressure to not be the one to let your friends down. Once someone else breaks it, it likely becomes easier for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc guy to follow suit.

Also, how disconnected former athletes are from the program. Men's soccer raised the most by a significant sum. A large chunk of that money came from former players.

That was my thought as well lol

Losing either of those 2 would be devastating as it magnitudes the loss of Nate that much more.

Any time the NCAA tries to put rules in place to get things under control they get sued and lose in court. They have no authority. Without the players forming a union and a collective bargaining agreement being formed, there is no way to restore order.

The article mentions that back when it started top players were making $400k. Now those same caliber players are making $2.5-4 million. P5 payrolls have climbed to $5-10 million. At some point one would think it will level off. Not saying we're there yet, but players pay doubling annually isn't sustainable long-term. Also, one wonders if donor fatigue settles in at some point. Not at a place like Florida or Purdue as you're seeing your dollars are making a difference. More so at places like Georgia Tech, Boston College, Penn State, etc where alumni are spending millions a year and the team still isn't competing for Tournament appearances.

A tad unrelated, but it appears feartheroocollective.com has been updated so football and soccer are now live for donations. The general fund link still prompts an email.

The Toledo Blade ran an article a week or two back where they pulled MAC coaches to find out what MAC teams are paying and what players are making. If I recall correctly, one anonymous MAC coach said he believed Nate Johnson would be worth $400k on the open market and said Akron's total roster had to be $1+ million. What exactly Nate will sign for I have no idea.

Probably not, but his defense alone should make him good enough to see the floor 15-20 minutes/game. I think that's the part of his game we'll miss most. We have other offensively talented guards to help fill the void.

I wouldn't be surprised if a school reached out to his agent and a deal is already in place. If he was dead set on transferring, he probably would have entered much sooner. Teams that missed out on their initial targets are probably getting more desperate to land a difference maker as the portal is nearing close so upping offers.

That certainly stings. Fortunately we're already deep at guard so we can absorb some of the lost production in the aggregate of the current roster. Still it's tough losing a two way player of Johnson's caliber.

It seems very premature with the portal still active and rosters still being finalized to rank teams.

Kam Craft to Georgia Tech. He announced yesterday, but I just noticed it. So much for the return to Miami like the Redhawk faithful were praying.

I'm not even sure if I'd want him. He played 8.3 minutes a game and only averaged .9 boards. The person you'd be asking him to replace averaged 18.2 minutes and 7.2 boards. If you multiply Parks stats by 2.2 to account for the minutes disparity, he'd average 1.98 boards a game. Heck, even Okonkwo's 2nd year at WVU he averaged 3.2 boards while playing 11 minutes so that's a fairly apples to apples comparison since the minutes and level of competition is more level. How big you play is often more important than how tall you are. We saw that with Freeman as a prime example for a number of years. Just because Parks is taller doesn't make him better. I would hope that we could find better even if it means bringing in another 6'8 PF to play C. Edit: All that said, I trust whoever Groce and his staff decide to bring in.

Players can't enter the portal after April 22nd, but players who are already in the portal can commit to a new school after that date.

EMU named Maxx Crosby assistant GM. I assume this role is more assisting the program in getting donations and appealing to recruits. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/44673506/eastern-michigan-tabs-raiders-maxx-crosby-assistant-gm

The article stated CMU is near or at the bottom of the MAC in NIL. Probably the only way for them to succeed is being able to identify D2 players who are overlooked and then landing them. I wouldn't bet on him succeeding unless financial support steps up for the program, but he's probably the type of candidate that gives them their best chance.

CMU has a head coach now. They only have 1 scholarship players on the roster so this will be a year 0 build situation. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/more-colleges/2025/04/14/central-michigan-to-hire-andy-bronkema-as-new-mens-basketball-coach/83086164007/

Also, like the pros the better you are the more teams are willing put up with. He was fairly mid last season. Would he be a upgrade at a lot of schools? Sure, but not a big enough one to give him the $4 million he's asking for or dealing with his antics.

It's hard for me to fault the kid. I love my job, but if a recruiter reached out to me telling me they would double or triple my pay to do the exact same job for a competitor, I'd probably leave as well. That doesn't necessarily mean he didn't enjoy his time here.