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First game three weeks from today!


akronzips71

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The most interesting thing about today's Media Day, to me: None of the media types have any real clue as to the depth and

quality of this year's team. Interestingly, they failed to grasp just how good Akron is. Even when told by Coach Dambrot they

discounted the information.

Harvey Glover and Leonard Paul understood and both called the Zips a near top twenty-five team at this point in the season.

They have to be forgiven their views since both of them have watched the Zips practice more than once. Today was Elton

Alexander's first look at the Zips. He was chirping how good Ohio looked against Xavier in a controlled scrimmage.

Uberhunds with their own Big Dog. For clarification the media wonks learned that Big Dog wants to be known as Big Dog.

If Len Paul said it you can count on it.

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He should officially change his name like Chad Johnson did. That way it would force people to use that name. Worked for Chad. ;)

Elton writes Zips are ready.

New rules: Both the men and the women will see officiating emphasis on hand-checking on the perimeter, and a new block/charge rule that emphasizes players being stationary when a player goes into a shooting motion. Before it was when an offensive player left his feet.

A few years ago, they attempted to eliminate hand-checking from the women's game, and early season games were a FT-fest. The players adapted, and fewer calls were made as the season went along. I personally hate the change in the charging rule -- taking a charge is one thing good defenders do -- and it's one of the most exciting plays in the game. A charge should be called if the defender is stationary prior to contact. Period.

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EA describes Big Dog as 6-10 and 305 pounds, which is a full 20 pounds more than he's listed on the roster. That would make him one of the heaviest players in college basketball. If he can game at 300+ pounds, Big Dog may be an understatement for a nickname. Massive Mastodon might be more apt.

Statistically speaking, it might be a VERY bad idea to call him that to his face.

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Hilltopper just informed me that Coach Dambrot said at today's press conference that Massive Mastiff didn't balloon up from 285 to 305, but had reduced his weight from 325 to 305! :eek: That 325 is a magic number, because that was Shaquille O'Neal's official NBA playing weight, and Shaq is Massive Mastiff's favorite athlete and most-like-to-meet person.

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Saw both Hilltopper and Dave In Green at this morning's intra-squad scrimmage. They be holding out on you folks.

Hey, we've been reporting on the new lights in the arena thread! :D The scrimmage was pretty intense, with the players obviously going hard at it most of the time. I spent a lot of time watching Pat and Big Dog going at it in the paint. Pat showed some really nice offensive moves and scored several buckets on effective little hooks. He also drove from the top of the key almost like a wing, snagged quite a few rebounds and blocked a couple of shots.

Big Dog looks like he's laboring when he runs up and down the court. But once he gets into the paint, he shows some amazingly quick moves. On one possession he had the ball near the bucket and did such a quick spin move that my jaw hit my chest. I just didn't think it was possible for a man that big to spin so quickly. As in previous practices, I was impressed by his soft touch in getting the ball through the hoop, both from under the bucket and from the free throw line. I think a lot of Zips fans are going to be surprised at how agile and skilled he is for a 300+ pound basketball player.

Overall I'm impressed with the depth from top to bottom. All of the players, including the freshmen, can shoot well. They can also all handle the ball pretty well, including the big guys. They all had a taste today of having the new rules enforced, as the refs nailed several players for hand checking. The good news is that the players seemed to catch on pretty quickly and most of the hand check fouls were called earlier rather than later after the players had a chance to adjust. Hope everyone can make it to the first exhibition game to have a look at all the freshmen before Coach Dambrot has to make the difficult decision about who to redshirt.

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Saw both Hilltopper and Dave In Green at this morning's intra-squad scrimmage. They be holding out on you folks.

Q was the starting point guard for the Zips. The other starters were Tree, Pat, Reggie and Nick. Nyles was the starting PG for the other team. The other starters were Big Dog, Kretzer, Khwan and BJ. Tree was a beast as usual. Khwan Cheatam can really shoot from anywhere on the court. Deji got whacked in the back at practice yesterday, he sat this one out.

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Big Dog is a big man from head to toe. He has big biceps and forearms, big torso, big thighs and calves. He has such regular proportions that he really doesn't look that big until you see him standing next to someone else. He has the kind of build that you would never think of describing as "fat." Hopefully his joints are built like Shaquille O'Neal's, as the 325-pound Shaq had a reasonably injury-free career despite carrying all that weight.

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Big Dog is a big man from head to toe. He has big biceps and forearms, big torso, big thighs and calves. He has such regular proportions that he really doesn't look that big until you see him standing next to someone else. He has the kind of build that you would never think of describing as "fat." Hopefully his joints are built like Shaquille O'Neal's, as the 325-pound Shaq had a reasonably injury-free career despite carrying all that weight.

I was @ the scrimmage today. KD had Big Dog switch teams, so Isaiah took off his jersey & turned it inside out. If you see Big Dog without his shirt on you realize this guy is not fat. He's just simply huge.

My $0.02 - I was incredibly impressed with the freshmen. Big Dog, Kwan, BJ & AJ held their own against Forsythe, Tree, Harney & Q.

They are all tall, can move, handle the rock, shoot from the outside and have pogo sticks for legs. Crazy good recruiting class.

I'm guessing BJ & Big Dog will not be redshirted. Redshirts will go to Kwan & AJ.

Edit: As I look at the numbers, I guess BJ will probably get a redshirt too. There's just a numbers crunch & too many good players. The only freshman we'll really need is Big Dog to provide minutes at the 5.

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