Zippy87

Has anyone ever attended one of these? Curious what to expect.

Should we be worried that Ali hasn't been in any of the media day photo shoots? (From what I've seen)

We have the full schedule and final roster. Hopefully no major preseason injuries impact us like losing Dawson last year. I'm fascinated to see who gets minutes and how they're divided up. Freeman, Ali, Hunter, and Tribble will play a lot. They may manage Dawson's minutes a bit early on, but he'll play a lot too. I'd assume Thornton and Scott didn't transfer here to sit. Nate Johnson was 6th in MPG and started a few, so I'd expect him to play. That leaves: Tavari Johnson - averaged 15 MPG and started 9 games. I viewed him as a potential transfer last spring because there's so many backcourt players on the roster. The talent is there, though. Amani Lyles - Didn't play a ton last year. Would love to see him add to our frontcourt depth. Darrion Baker - Most freshmen are redshirt candidates, but Baker doesn't seem like a typical freshman. Will be watching this one closely. Ryan Prather Jr - Already used his redshirt. Good size for a guard and was an excellent scorer in HS. Marvin Musiime-Kamali - Defensive-juggernaut in HS. Guessing he's a redshirt as a freshman.

I'm going to push back on this. First, we have an example in-house to show winning doesn't necessarily = attendance (MBB). Second, there are glaring weaknesses this athletic department has had for *years* that have held it back. There's no creativity, no fun, barely any marketing/promotions - these are things you have to do to draw fans even when you're winning and especially when you're not. Different sport, but we go to quite a few Rubberducks games. It's not because they win - I couldn't even tell you their record this year and quite honestly, don't care if they win or lose. It's because they are super-creative with marketing/promotions/ticketing, they engage with their supporters and make them feel valued, and their in-game entertainment is fantastic. We always have fun at those game. I was so bored Saturday I probably won't go back. We do none of this well, and it's beyond embarrassing for a D1 Athletic Department to be so bad for so long.

I was there and aside from it being a tough loss, the game was incredibly boring. I'm not sure what the answer is, but the gameday experience as a whole just isn't anything that is going to bring people out.

The investment was/is.

Building that stadium will haunt us for a long, long time.

X worked out with six teams prior to the draft. Should get a good look in the summer league.

Odd to see KD being painted so negatively. They really show him walking off the court with 6 minutes left in the state championship lol (which, according to the movie, took place at the JAR!)

He definitely doesn't seem like a walk-on type, but I thought we were out of schollys?

Did we find out any other info on this? Is this a possible walk-on?

This isn't at all why people are reacting negatively to his words. I had a supervisor at UA who had an incredible impact on my life, probably moreso than anyone aside from my parents. He taught me (and others) about professionalism, responsibility, leadership, and so much more. Helped myself and countless people better our lives and our careers and become better people. Truly a remarkable man. He also happened to be gay. I recall one day my Junior year overhearing a classmate use disparaging remarks toward LGBT people. This supervisor heard it too. He was an educator first, so he approached the situation with love instead of anger and helped the student to understand why his words were wrong to use. But I could tell hearing one of his students say them was hurtful to him, and I never forgot it. You may not have been impacted by Huggins' words, and that's ok. But I promise they had an impact on others. A LGBT student-athlete hearing a powerful and respected coach use them, possibly even someone on his own team. Or another coach. Or a professor at the school. Or any WV student or employee, for that matter. Recognizing that although words may not have hurt us personally but likely hurt others isn't "herd mentality", it's having empathy for others. I don't know Huggins - I'm guessing most here don't. I don't know if this was a reflection of who he is or if he got caught up trying to be funny and had a really bad moment. I'm not going to say he should be fired or not fired.so much more context is needed to make that decision. But what he said was wrong and hurtful to many, and I hope he genuinely learns and becomes a better person and leader from this. Now, I move on. Go Zips.

I don't know you so I'm not going to get drawn into a personal beef. It's clear you think what he said wasn't a big deal (and even funny?), I think it was awful and bigoted...agree to disagree and move on. Go Zips.

That'd be really fun to see the core of that group together again!

Bob Huggins said a stupid, ignorant comment that was wrong and everyone but you seems to get that. Your defenses of him were all over the place and, quite frankly, ridiculous. I'm not going to go further than that because I'm not trying to get a vacation from the forum. Name-call all you want if it makes you feel better. Have a good one.

Nah, we probably don't need to go there. Nothing productive comes out of that and I want to be respectful to the mods and this forum. It is what it is.

The fact that you keep bringing up rap songs is pretty telling, but I'll leave it at that.

These things have nothing to do with each other. You're grasping at non-sensical arguments to defend the indefensible. Huggins said something really ignorant. He was wrong. Period. We can debate if he should lose his job or not - that's fine - but he was wrong for what he said and any consequences he receives will be because of his own doing.

This ain't it.

"What it was, was all those fags, those Catholic fags, I think." Not at all overblown. He deserves every bit of consequence he has coming to him.

Not making it to the championship game at all is worse, no? Programs are built over time and mid-majors in particular take longer to build up. Prior to KD's arrival, Akron was 1-6 in the MAC Tournament. He elevated a program that was mostly mediocre to one that competed at the top of its conference every year for over a decade. No, we didn't get that elusive tournament win, but that doesn't mean everything else was for nothing. The program being elevated to a consistent league power made it an attractive spot for a talented coach like Groce, who is now trying to take us to that next level as a program. I don't know why we have to try to diminish KD's accomplishments here though. He was a big part of where this program is now and, from everything I've seen/heard, still has roots in our city and very much cheers for our success. I'm thrilled he was our coach during such a transformative period for our program and I'm equally thrilled Groce is our coach now to lead us to those next steps.

Our non-conference schedules haven't looked much different to me under Groce. Also not sure how a program that played in its conference championship game 7 straight seasons and 9 out of 11 underachieved.

Not sure time has proven anything about Akron's ceiling. I love Groce and believe in him, but our ceiling hasn't changed...so far. Hopefully that's coming, though. Concerning the state of the program, it was in good enough shape to attract Groce to it (Boals wanted the job, too, FWIW). Do you think those guys would've been pursuing an opening at, say, Western Michigan? We only had two down-ish seasons after he left, which isn't much compared to most mid-majors that lose a long-tenured coach. KD wasn't perfect. Sometimes he was too honest. But he was a damn good coach that elevated our program from a mostly middling MAC team that hadn't won much since the 80's to a top mid-major consistently in contention for the league title. I think we probably needed a change and believe Groce can take us to that next level eventually, but that doesn't mean we have to diminish the important work KD did in front of him. I know plenty about Zips basketball history. Personally, I don't think lower division accomplishments match up in terms of impact to being able to build a consistent winner at the D1 level. As for Huggins he was obviously fantastic, but I don't think he was here long enough to have sustained success that truly elevates a program over a long term.

The way some of you talk about this man is wild to me. Most impactful head coach the program has ever had.