Gonna be interesting to watch Akron's announcer, Steve French, and his sidekick, Joe Dunn, walk back their multiple criticisms of Groce. French has referred to JG as a "clown" in years past.

A lot of revisionist history and cherry picking going on in this thread. John Groce was and is a very good college basketball coach. It takes time to build a program and that’s what he was doing. We finished 3rd in 2012 but make no mistake we were the best team in the conference all season long. We had two bad losses in February which cost us the #1 seed (Akron and Buffalo had their bad losses OOC) but every other metric showed we were the best team. We had a 5-1 record against the two teams ahead of us in the conference standings. It wasn’t a fluke. We were the best team. 2010 also wasn’t a fluke. It’s just there was so much turmoil (Bassett and DeVaughn suspensions, Coleman and Kinney leaving the team, working 3 freshman into the rotation) surrounding the team that year that we didn’t gel until March. But make no mistake, Groce’s teams always got better as the year went along and he was building a program.

I’ll admit that I was happy to hear that Dambrot was leaving but this is a bad trade for us. I’d rather have Mr. February coaching Akron than Mr. March.

Exactly. The seat most certainly isn't hot for the vast majority of Bobcat fans, and most importantly, not in the eyes of the AD. Could it be in a couple years? Maybe. The other side of this to consider is that maybe Ohio goes Dancin' before Akron does in the next couple years. Then the seat gets a little more comfortable. Or maybe, the seat becomes available because he left? Time will tell.

Looks like Groce got a 6 year deal at Akron.

https://twitter.com/GoodmanESPN/status/849631863027015680

I no longer wish him well in his future endeavors.

It all depends on who he recruits to Akron, which is a way tougher sell than Athens IMO based on facilities, atmosphere, quality of education, etc. We could be looking down the barrell of Year 3 or 4 before we see his true potential up there. It's not guaranteed he's gonna catch the lightning in a bottle that he found here.

So Saul didn't replace Groce and isn't coaching any of Groce's players, but we'll rip Saul if Groce wins the MAC Tournament before Saul does?

I'm usually with you, GoCats, bUt not on this. I think Akron would be a good place for recruiting. They haven't had trouble recruiting there for a long, long time. And now there's the King James angle. Will be interesting to see how Coach Groce and staff try to cultivate a relationship w King James.

I agree that Akron is a tougher sell. Akron is a dreadful city, excluding Lebron and the University of Akron gets lost in in mid city atmosphere. Ohio is in a college town. Ohio makes Athens and Athens loves Ohio back. Lebron is the ex factor, if Groce were to hire a Romeo Travis as an assistant and get Lebron to go to a few games, that changes things. We will have to step our game up recruiting wise because Buffalo and Akron will probably step their's up, heck Buffalo has. We are in year 4 of Saul's system, he has some schollies available to get his type of players to come in. Dartis and Carter will be here for a while and they are pretty good. The question is can Saul develop them? We definitely have a leg up on Akron right now. Buffalo has more pieces, but they play undisciplined at times.

The distaste for the city of Akron on this board is unrealistic.

I love Ohio's campus. I think Athens is EASILY one of the best "college towns" in the country and for many kids, that is a HUGE draw in our recruiting. On the flip-side, you cannot deny a reasonable % of kids like the idea of going to a more urban campus, and Akron has come a long way in the last decade to make their campus more desirable in that demographic. The JAR on the other-hand, is 100% trash. If anything is going to limit Groce at Akron, it is that arena.

Ultimately, Groce is a good recruiter. He won't sign them all but I think he'll be able to assemble a good team at Akron. How much you want to bet Groce is already on the phone recruiting?
Ohio really does have a huge head start over Groce. Saul is a much better recruiter than some on this board have given him credit for. The two bigs in this year's class (one hailing from Akron) are huge signings for us. Prior to Dambrot leaving and the transfers out, Akron was already losing a lot from their team this year. We return 4 of 5 starters including possibly the best player in the league in Jaaron Simmons. I think we'll eat them alive next year.

Groce’s problem is that he has to do something he has never really had to do before. That is defend his record. He has to look a recruit in the eye (or Dad, Mom, guardian) and explain how he will win at Akron when he couldn't at Illinois. Some would call him a retread.

That is a great article.

I wish him well. It's not a zero sum game.