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John Groce Officially Hired


Dr Z

John Groce as the head coach at Akron  

88 members have voted

  1. 1. What do you think of John Groce?


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8 hours ago, UAZippers said:

I know this is a dream and not happening.

 

Wanted to put that first, but can you imagine if Groce agreed to work for free or insanely low money for the first two years as long as UA agreed to put the salary he would have been payed towards an arena renovation. He still would get the same pay from Illinois and that would be a nice chunk of change to get the university started.

 

Even if it was just a higher scouting budget or an upgraded player locker/hang out room to make UA more desireable, at face value this could be a big opportunity to improve the program.

That's pretty creative thinking UAZipper, but I love it. It would immediately put Groce's stamp on the progrum and show he's bought in. It would be a shrewd PR move on his part. All that being said it will not happen in the real world, but it's fun to live in fantasy world for a brief moment.

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I'm not, but sometimes these fans give us more information than any of our local media does, so that's why I am throwing it out there. The Indiana people were certainly right when they said about the "If Groce doesn't get the Akron job, he'll be an assistant at Indiana" tweets.

So until our local media starts stepping it up, this is where I'm going for my "rumor mill" :thumb:

Edited by mes102
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1 hour ago, mes102 said:

I'm not, but sometimes these fans give us more information than any of our local media does, so that's why I am throwing it out there. The Indiana people were certainly right when they said about the "If Groce doesn't get the Akron job, he'll be an assistant at Indiana" tweets.

So until our local media starts stepping it up, this is where I'm going for my "rumor mill" :thumb:

I agree mes, local media is not going to get off their behinds to do the legwork to be informative.  They're spoiled by getting daily PR stuff from OSU SIDs and just cutting and pasting.  :unsure:

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well this is certainly an interesting development. congrats on the hire.

 

One thing that concerns me about Groce as a non-Akron fan is the loyalty he builds with recruits and players. You might not get a 5 star guy like Tilmon to commit but I wouldn't be surprised to see one or a few of his recruits/players come to Akron in the next couple of years. Perfect example is Walt Offutt. Offutt was a 4 star player in HS that Groce recruited to Ohio State. Offutt had signed his LOI when Groce took the job at OU, Offutt wanted to follow him but Groce, out of respect to Matta, talked him out of it. Couple years later he transferred to OU and was a key player for them. See also: Armon Bassett and Jon Smith.

 

Saul Phillips said today that he sent Groce a text that said "I guess we have to hate each other now. ;)" he went on to say how gracious Groce had been to him and how their wives have become friends. Needless to say, its going to be interesting when the Zips come to Athens next year.

 

I hope Groce becomes the coach that gets you guys all of the at-large bids you could ever want. B)

 

 

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We appreciate your post and at-large well wishes. :) We don't have to start hating each other until we finally play. Until then I think their is much respect between our progrums. The rivalry could grow to be very fierce which is good for both of us and the conference. 

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58 minutes ago, mes102 said:


It was nice while it lasted.

Yeah, this was never going to happen. I texted my buddy who is a Missouri fan and joked that "I know he'll end up at Missouri, but interesting that Tilmon officially announced his intention for a release hours after Groce became official." He said, yeah, "I was told if he asked out of the release, it was to come to Missouri."

 

He's tied in to what's going on at Mizzou ... told me about the Willie Jackson transfer a couple days before it came public. He also at that time said that Hughes was also for sure gone. Even after Hughes decided to finish out the year, he was still adamant that there was a 0 percent chance he returns. ... Not that it took inside knowledge for this, but he also said that Kim Anderson was 100 percent gone and did call the Cuonzo Martin/Michael Porter Sr. hires a couple days before each were announced. On a bit of an Akron-related note, he told me Monday that Cornell Mann was going to be hired as an assistant. ... That became official yesterday.

 

Anyway, his record has been pretty spotless. 

 

 

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8 hours ago, wadszip said:

Yeah, this was never going to happen. I texted my buddy who is a Missouri fan and joked that "I know he'll end up at Missouri, but interesting that Tilmon officially announced his intention for a release hours after Groce became official." He said, yeah, "I was told if he asked out of the release, it was to come to Missouri."

 

He's tied in to what's going on at Mizzou ... told me about the Willie Jackson transfer a couple days before it came public. He also at that time said that Hughes was also for sure gone. Even after Hughes decided to finish out the year, he was still adamant that there was a 0 percent chance he returns. ... Not that it took inside knowledge for this, but he also said that Kim Anderson was 100 percent gone and did call the Cuonzo Martin/Michael Porter Sr. hires a couple days before each were announced. On a bit of an Akron-related note, he told me Monday that Cornell Mann was going to be hired as an assistant. ... That became official yesterday.

 

Anyway, his record has been pretty spotless. 

 

 

Wait, so Hughes is officially gone?

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17 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

Wait, so Hughes is officially gone?


Missouri's Hughes...not Akron Hughes...


And it looks like I'm stuck watching the press conference at work. I couldn't convince my boss that I had a very special business meeting this morning in Akron. And I can't make the meet-and-greet, unless the gym for our AAU practice somehow loses power....

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MIzzou seems to be in a lot better place than it was last season. They hired Michael Porter Sr. and then he got his son, the #1 recruit in the country who was committed to Washington, to flip and sign with Mizzou. There was may have been another top guy who came too, but wadszip would no better than I and I don't really care to look into it more. Bottom line is Mizzou, at least currently, looks like a much better place than just a season ago. Makes sense for Tilmon to go there.

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Good Hire. Hopefully we can win in the post-season with coach Groce. KD was good enough to win in the MAC, but that was about it. Got old of "one and done" in KD's tournament appearances.  We need a coach that can take us to the next level. Hey, Jim Christian coached at KSU and than ended up at OU for a couple years. 

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