Let'sGoZips94

Doubtful but way to put 2 and 2 together haha.

WOW.

Hint?

Looks like a commitment is incoming.

Because P4s are so insanely subsidized and for whatever reason feel the need to field every sport that exists. It would take YEARS for Akron to reach the athletic bloat of P4s, so in the meantime, an infusion of tens of millions in annual revenue would really solve our financial problems. This whole discussion is a dumb hypothetical anyways, but hypothetically declining tens of millions in revenue from the football/basketball media deal along is just stupid.

Who cares when their bank accounts are greener?

Yup. Why do we even have eligibility restrictions anymore? Just let them play college ball for as long as they want. (This is sarcasm by the way)

Yeah... Passing on tens of millions in increased annual revenue doesn't benefit anyone you mentioned.

You think joining the Big Ten would be a bad thing?

Payton Sparks is back in the Portal. So is Ra'Heim Moss.

Per Grok... Yes, a college basketball player can enter the transfer portal on the day it closes, as long as they submit their entry before the deadline. The NCAA transfer portal has specific windows, typically closing in mid-April for basketball (e.g., April 16, 2025, based on recent cycles). Entries must be finalized by 11:59 p.m. local time on the closing date. Just over 24 hours left in the anxiety department.

If they're wanting success, Utah and Kansas State aren't exactly winning programs. This is purely a 1-year money grab and they cannot be blamed given the $$$ amounts we're hearing. They absolutely benefitted from the system Groce has in place here, and they're cashing in. All the more reason I'm in favor of transfer fees.

We were 1 of 5 teams to offer him out of high school. Marshall, Western Kentucky, and Maryland were the other notable programs. Didn't have any stats last year as a freshman (not sure if he redshirted).

Technically all 4 returning starters if you include Harris who was a starter before his injury. I don't care how they are positioned in our lineup. Teams are paying 6+ figures for our least efficient scorers (despite most FGA per game) and leading turnover guys because of accolades that struggled vs. top teams. Good luck to them, thank you for your service as Zips, and let's reload with better fits.

There it is. I would not worry much about a mass exodus.

I completely forgot about the potential for JUCOs. There has to be a ton of value at that level if we can find it.

Keep in mind that part of Akron's NIL is a post-Akron-career partnership (if I've understood what has been mentioned previously). Unless a player is getting life-changing money like Nate & presumably Okonkwo have, Akron's total NIL package is pretty attractive if someone is willing to commit and be loyal to the Zips.

That's certainly a possibility, although I haven't heard that other players outside of Tavari are looking to "cash in". My hope is this means we can attract better-than-expected talent with the funds that have seemingly become available with the departures.

I'm not sure you've read a single one of my posts outside of the original one you replied to haha. Go Zips.

Yup. Sounds like it's ~$1.5M and Kentucky had a similar offer to Nate. Agreed.

Is there a point difference I'm unaware of between a dunk/layup and a turnaround 14 ft jumper? Otherwise, I did the math & projections in a previous post. Those projections are based on the volume increases we've seen with our other transfers. I'm not saying Evan has Nate's ceiling, but his averages shouldn't be far off from Nate's averages.

No - MAC POTY, 1st Team All MAC, and MAC DPOY are worth that if a team is desperate enough to make a "splash".

Rumor has it K State offered north of $1 million.

Like I said, offensive game was probably the wrong verbiage. However, seeing the highlights, he has dribble-drive capabilities and he is more developed basketball IQ wise on the offense end than MMK. He looks to make backdoor cuts and make runs towards the hoop on baseline drives by his teammates. Scheming towards his explosiveness/athleticism is something I expect Groce to do, in addition to his put backs and clean ups. Let's say he takes 6-8 shots per game from these scenarios, which is a realistic range given his expected increased role at Akron vs Ohio State. If he's making 50% minimum, that's 6-8 pts; 60% is 7-10 pts. Add in some free throws, and you're not far off from Nate's more inefficient 14 PPG.

And you'd still have your senior 6th Man of the Year PG, who arguably was your most steady, stabilizing player all season (led the team in assists-to-turnover ratio), along with your All Freshman Team PG who led the team in 3P%. Nate took the most shots on the team, yet had one of the lowest FG%. Tavari took the second most shots and was slightly more efficient scoring wise, but did not run the offense very well at times either (led the team in TO). My point is the accolades being used to amplify the losses of Nate and most likely Tavari are volume-based accolades from the two highest scorers on the best team in the league. Nate's 14 PPG was good for 378th nationally in that category and Tavari's 13 PPG ranked him 518th. We have talent currently that, if given similar volume, can put up very similar numbers in possibly a more efficient manner. We also have 2, most likely 3 open roster spots to add even more talent. Assuming Tavari departs, we'll likely be bigger at all 3 roster spots, too. I'm not saying we'd necessarily be better without them; that remains to be seen. I'm saying their production is nowhere near irreplaceable, especially given their inability to produce most of the time vs top talent OOC.