If I were Dan Peters . . .

and I was looking to fill the schedule out keeping KDs philosophy of home and home and also trying to make Zipboy excited to go to the JAR, who is comparable to Akron?

So I looked up teams with an RPI 125 or better (approx top 35%) for each of the last 3 years. My thought being we either sign 2 or 4 year deals and what is the probability a team will actually be decent for that amount of time? I was a little surprised by what I found.

Taking out BCS teams who I doubt that we would get a home and home with, 58 non BCS teams were in the top 125 for each of the last 3 years. Of those 58, 24 were top 125 all 3 years including Akron and Can't, the only 2 from the MAC.

From an economic standpoint, I figure that we would have to play teams with similar attendance. I know that we might get lucky if Jakkar Simpson ends up at Xavier or Dayton to get a home and home once ala Marcus Johnson but otherwise, we probably are not getting a team that averages 10K to do a home and home at the JAR.

So of the 24 teams that made the cut, teams with attendance under 8K include

Akron, Can't ( roughly 3K)

Houston (4K)

Rhode Island, Wright St, West Can't, UAB (5K)

Butler, Gonzaga, Old Dom, Temple, Tulsa, VCU (6K)

Illinois St, San Diego St, Siena (7K)

A few thoughts

1. I was surprised how little is really out there of quality competition that we might actually get a home and home with
2. Our attendance really does lag our success compared to other teams. I saw a comment from Lou Reed who is leaving CSU for Georgetown and he talked how disappointed he was to never have the fan support at CSU and how hard it is to get that support in NE Ohio. Between Akron, Can't, and CSU, it should not be unreasonable to expect 5K per game. CSU especially with a nice arena, have had good OOC opponents in Cleveland, still draws like flies. If we played teams with attendance like ours, they would all be RIs in the 175 and up range.
3. An Houston vs Akron series would be nice, we still have direct flights to Houston at least for now. WKU or ODU would also get me very excited.
4. Too bad RI and Akron did not renew. That is a perfect type of team for us.
5. I always thought Temple drew more than they do.


Just some random thoughts on a slow Sunday afternoon.

Final ZipsLive show - KD's comments

For those who missed it, here is the best that I can remember from Monday's show. I did not have a chance to post until now so hopefully I rememebered ok. Some interesting comments especially about a 4th player coming in. The radio feed went out when he was talking about a 4th guy coming so I hope that I heard right. Ianello's interview got caught off as the feed went out and I heard commericals for 10 minutes before they came back on the air. I hope this gets fixed for next year.

KD's comments

"We will bring a 4th player in, a guard. We have to have someone who can guard the perimeter. We have some personnel issues and decisions to make this offseason."

"I am not happy with 24 wins. We did not get where we wanted to go this year so it was disappointing. We are going to examine every area of the program this offseason. and get this fixed and get to where we want to be I have a good idea what needs to be done."

"I was most disappointed with our inability to guard the perimeter and on the ball defense. We also did not shoot consistently. Those are 2 things that went on in practice all season. We have to get better on offense and defense."

"Zeke will be a different player next year with 25 lbs. I expect him to make a big leap. By his junior year he will be an impact player. It will take a lot of hard work by him and a lot of coaching by us."

"Darryl Roberts is definitely fine for playing next year. His grades are fine, he has never been close to having a problem with that."

"We have to have the same mindset like the old Zips. The last 2 years we were so so at home. That will have to change beginning this offseason. We have to become dominant at home again. A great team needs to be unbeatable at home."

"This is not a major overhaul, just some tweaking. If we get the right guy in and change our mindset, we will be fine. We should be in the thick of it next year. We just have to do some fine tuning. We don't need to blow it up"

"The guys gave me all they had this year, we won a lot of close games more than in the past, where in a lot of close games. We just have to get better."

"We have a hole at the 3. We are going to try Brett McKnight there and really work on his conditioning this offseason. Nik will split time with Brett there and help us out on defense."

"We have to be tougher (must have said this 5 times). We need to have the right mindset. That will start now in the offseason."

"We rebuilt with 23 and 24 wins and an NCAA and CBI appearance."

"Doesn't the new guy look like Jim Carrey? I need to break him in."

My thoughts

As always, KD is a good interview. Dambrot always says what he thinks. He sounded upbeat but pretty intense even now. He made it a point of emphasis that the mindset needs to change and I felt a sense of urgency which hopefully filters down to everyone else. With a 4th guard coming in who he made it sound will get a lot of playing time, I guess that Sullivan is a transfer out. I am excited to see who this 4th guy is as he sounds like an impact guy. And it came across to me like adding one missing guy and the returning nucleus of the team changing a few things and we should be really good next year. Dambrot doesn't blow smoke and I had the impression that next year's team will be better than this year. I am more excited now than I was 2 weeks ago for next year.

I did hear about 5 minutes of Rob's interview until the feed went out. Nothing new, just more of a rah rah session and how pumped he was to get into camp.

Zips Live - KD comments last night

I was able to catch most of the show last night. I won't get this right verbatum, but this is what I remember from KD's comments last night

When asked how does Akron go to the next level next year?
"Zeke needs to make a strong jump. We need to play through him and our margin of error increases. His attitude and work ethic are the best that it has ever been. He is a team guy. I will be very surprised if he does not take a major leap next year. He learned a lot about the game this year. He needs to get stronger and better conditioned and that will happen. We are going to build the program around him. We will still be good if he does not develop as quickly but not great" Note, he must have said 5 times Zeke is the key to going to the next level and seemed pretty upbeat on Zeke showing huge strides next season.

"We need to be more athletic on the wing next year. Losing Jimmy will be very tough."

"I never expect anything from freshmen. We like all of them. I expect 2 to play but sometimes the guy who I don't think will contribute early becomes the biggest contributor. If they come in and play at a high level, we will be even better but I don't count on it. That is why they are freshmen."

"We need to take a step back in order to move forward. Our defense needs to get better from the inside out. It wasn't as good this year as in the past. We will go back to the basics."

When asked about the MAC getting more teams in postseason and how to accomplish that

A 5 second pause of silence . . . "I don't have an answer. In 64 years, we have had it happen 6 times so obviously the right things are not being done (I am guessing 2 bids for the MAC 6 times in 64 years?) 15 years ago the MVC, MW, Horizon, none of those leagues were better than the MAC. Now they are. Schools have under invested in their basketball programs compared to those other conferences. Now you not only have to get to that level, but play catch up."

"Our fans help us win. We would like a big crowd for Wed. Green Bay is a good team, but we have had good teams in the past that people did not come out for, Dayton, Rhode Island, Nevada. We have to win those games and we haven't and I understand that. Our fans have been very good, not great, but good. This past weekend and the Can't game the support was unbelievable, we need people to come for all the games not just the big ones. Our players love playing in front of them and they help us win, they really do."

Zips Live last night

I was able to catch most of the show last night.

A few comments from KD that I thought were right on. When asked about scheduling (side note, credit to whoever in the crowd asked him this as I can feel his blood boiling everytime he talks about this)

KD said - "We are not quite ready to step the schedule up yet. When Zeke develops and when we get more consistent guard play we will. He under scheduled the year of Romeo and Dru, that team could have handled a tougher schedule. You need to win games to get players."

My thoughts is that he is right on. Schedule to win 20. If the team gets better, schedule harder. For my enjoyment I wish that we would play a couple better home games. But I will trust Dambrot with whatever he does. He has made March relevant the last 5 years for me.

There isn't much of a margin with the rest of the league, but there is a margin. KD is generally the best coach on the floor that night, and the players are generally a cut above most other teams. 10-6 league play and schedule to go 9-5 or 10-4 in OOC play.

I was also able to catch French's show last night. His comments on the game Friday - "should be a great night for NE Ohio. Athletic teams hurt Akron. Can't is more athletic. On paper Can't is the better team and should be favored but that is why they play."

Steve French's short list of candidates

I caught part of Frenchie's show tonight. His list in no particular order

1. Mark Stoops - French has heard that Stoops is interested. I am excited about this one.
2. Pat Narducci - MSU DC
3. Paul Winters
4. Paul Chryst- he also mentioned that Akron was one of the MAC schools that wanted Rick Chryst out
5. Luke Fickell
6. Terry Allen - North Iowa

Stoops seemed like the only guy where French acknowleded hearing something, the rest were what he thought would be a list of people interested.

Also, on ZipLive Wistercill said he was looking to have the new coach in the next 2-3 weeks. I say don't hire a search firm and save an extra hundred thousand. He seems like he knows what he wants.