Akron’s John Groce to coach vs. brother Travis Steele at Miami of Ohio
Bragging rights are up for grabs Saturday for the Groce and Steele families when the University of Akron men’s basketball team visits Oxford for a game against Miami of Ohio.
Half brothers John Groce and Travis Steele will each patrol the sidelines and attempt to guide their team to a win.
Groce, 52, is in his seventh season guiding Akron and has a 131-74 record with the Zips. Akron is 15-4 overall this season and atop the Mid-American Conference standings at 7-0.
Steele, 42, is in his second season as the lead voice for a rebuilding Miami. The RedHawks are 21-30 under Steele, including 9-10 overall and 3-4 in the MAC this season.
“There will be a lot of family there,” Groce said Tuesday after Akron’s 67-58 win at home over Ohio University.
“I am glad they will get a chance to be there. He would tell you the same thing, I pull for him when we are not playing against each other, but we are playing against each other on Saturday at 1 o’clock. So, he is going to try to do eveything in his power to kick our tail and we are going to try to do everything in our power to kick his tail. It is what it is. The scheduling God’s have done my mother a favor because this is the second year in a row we have only played them once in the regular season.”
John and Travis’ mother is Barbara.
John’s father is Larry Groce and his full siblings are brother, David, and sister, Kim.
“My mom and my dad grew up in New Castle, Indiana, which has the world’s largest high school gymnasium,” Groce said. “It has a capacity of 9,235. I have been in there when it has been sold out for high school games. They grew up on high school basketball in Indiana. It is unique. At that time, there were no classes [in the state tournament]. There was one class. All 300-plus high schools competing for one state championship.”
Travis’ father is Jerry Steele and his full sibling is brother, Brandon.
John Groce said the combined families all get along.
“He is younger, has a little bit more hair, although it is starting to go,” Groce said with a laugh about his brother.
John and Travis both played basketball and graduated from Danville Community High School in Indiana. Groce also competed in football as a freshman, in tennis as a sophomore and junior and in track and field as a senior.
Groce then played college basketball at Taylor before beginning his coaching career.
“I coached Travis and Brandon’s AAU teams,” Groce said. “Travis was with us as a manager at Butler when Thad Matta was my boss and I was the assistant coach [for the 2000-2001 season]. He was a student manager at Butler and then he was a GA [graduate assistant] and with us at Ohio State [for the 2004-2005 season].”
Saturday’s game is also part of the NABC Coaches vs. Cancer Weekend.
“My grandmother [Eileen Wise] who lived with us, Trav and I were very close with her, and she passed from pancreatic cancer,” Groce said. “Our mom is a breast cancer survivor. She will be at the game, and my dad is dealing with it right now, and he will be at the game.”
John Groce’s path to Akron
Groce and his wife, Allison, have three children, Conner, Camden and Cate.
Groce served as an assistant coach at Taylor (1993-1996), North Carolina State (1996-2000), Butler (2000-2001), Xavier (2001-2004) and Ohio State (2004-2008) before becoming a head coach.
Groce worked with Matta for eight seasons with stints at Butler, Xavier and Ohio State that produced 207 wins, six NCAA Tournament appearances, five conference regular season championships and four conference tournament titles. OSU was the national runner-up in 2007 and won the NIT title in 2008.
Groce guided Ohio University to an 85-56 record in four seasons (2008-2012) with two MAC tournament titles, a NCAA Sweet 16 berth in 2012 and an NCAA Tournament second round appearance in 2010.
He then led Illinois to a 97-76 mark in five seasons (2012-2017) with two NCAA Tournament appearances and one NIT berth. The Illini made the NCAA Tournament’s third round in 2013 and the second round in 2014.
Travis Steele’s path to Miami of Ohio
Steele and his wife, Amanda, have three children, Winston, Anderson and Aspen.
Steele coached AAU ball from 2001-2006 and was anassistant coach at Ben Davis High School from 2001-2004 before roles on staffs at Wabash Valley College (2005-2006), Indiana (2006-2008) and Xavier (2008-2018).
While at Xavier, Steele worked under Sean Miller for one season and Chris Mack for nine seasons.
Steele was a part of nine NCAA Tournament teams at Xavier, including five teams that reached at least the Sweet 16. Mack won 215 games at Xavier with Steele, and the 2017-2018 team won XU’s first Big East regular season championship, a school-record final AP ranking of No. 3 and the first NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed in program history.
Steele then led Xavier’s program to a 70-50 record in four seasons (2018-2022) with two NIT appearances before landing in Oxford.
“They have been playing well,” Groce said of Miami. “… They are a tough cover. We know that. Last year, they diced us up in here [at Rhodes Arena] on offense, but we played well offensively that night, which is why we won [73-68 on Jan. 24, 2023].
Former Akron standout Xavier Castaneda scored 32 points in the win over Miami and Enrique Freeman contributed 13 points.
Michael Beaven can be reached at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.
