Just told Russ the team still gets texts from Groce before big games. That's pretty cool.

Illinois is at O$U tomorrow, so the timing was fortuitous. 

Allison and fam were in the COnvo with Bobcat gear on. Gram and Gramps and the kids.

The wives of the entire staff (Ford , walker, Williams, Morris and their kids)  from last year made it in to say good bye to the senior class they were very close with. Nice touch.

Good to see them in green one more time.

Nice touch by the wives.  I'm not sure what protocal is in college coaching, but my leadership mentors have always told me that once you leave a place don't potentially undercut the new leader by staying in touch other than general "being nice" type gestures.  I'd say an occassional text saying "good luck" or "great job" would be acceptable.  You need to make a clean break and not be giving advice, or having secondary conversations, with your former Indians.  I'm sure Groce and staff have followed this practice and understand JC is now the coach of these players. 

I would hope not.

WHy don't you cite your source for that? Are you saying that because you know of a case or there is something inthe manual you have read? I owuld be interested to hear if you actually have a basis for that or if you are just throwing that out there.

I would say I know of at least 250 coaches and assts. who recruited kids at one school and moved on but still keep in touch with those kids as friends and humans.Coach Rhodes will be part of our families life till death. Groce will also be someone Tommy looks to as a mentor a nd confidant. YOu build a relationship with your recruiters through the recruiting process, home visits, on campus meetings and then while you are in the program. They are part of your family. THey see your kid more than you do and you trust them with your child as he steps into the world and becomes a man.

Those coaches are mentors in thier lives and will be till one of the 2 leaves this earth.
 
I would personally go down to the NCAA and say WTF are you thinking? if that were the case.

IMHO that would be like removing a family member from your life.

I see no reason and can not find a  source in a cursory view of the ncaa manual that says a former coach can not respond to or send a text to a kid he had a relationship at another school. If you see that please forward me a source.

It's not a violation. If he were soliciting the players to come play for him, then maybe. But he's reaching out as a friend. I'm pretty sure it's not the first time it has been done.

Now, if he were to buy them dinner...and even that's a stretch.

http://www.bigeast.org/AbouttheBIGEAST/NCAAGuidelines.aspx
It doesn't matter about the nature of the contact. He needs the ADs written permission to contact any of our athletes.

It IS the NCAA we're talking about here. They are the kings of completely pointless, over the top, ridiculous rules.

After looking it up I guess it is ok as long as it is not recruiting. I was just going off a conversation i had with a wrestling coach about a previous employee.

Possible first round match-up?    

Am I the only one that's more than a little nervous about our chances of winning the MAC tourney this weekend?  I'm not even going to entertain any thoughts of March Madness unless and until we win the MAC tourney.  It seems a lot of people already think we have this thing wrapped up.  It's probably the "Cleveland" in me, but the last thing I think is that Ohio has this tourney all wrapped up.  Like last year, we'll be fortunate to win it all.  It's not that I think Ohio can't win it; Ohio definitely CAN win it.  But I'm sure not going to assume such a result.

Watch for the classic John Groce lean when the shot goes up:

http://deadspin.com/gus-johnsonss-first-gusgasm-of-march-courtesy-of-an-i-453718812

I've seen that before:

Too funny. You can see it in all the replays too.