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What draws me to the women's basketball game is the authenticity of the game. The men's game can have the fundamentals of the game overshadowed by athleticism. Women's game has athleticism too(just look at Anita Brown's reverse layup-and-1), but they use that to improve their fundamentals. The men's game seems to use the athleticism to hide their lack of fundamentals. Call me an old soul, but the men's game just isn't pure basketball to me anymore.

Coach Dambrot is not interested in winning non-conference games big. He's more interested in preparing the team for conference play. There will be more tinkering with the lineup and combinations of players to see which groups work together best at which times during the game. Keep your eyes on who plays with who, when they're on the floor and how many minutes each player gets. UAPB is on another early season death march -- 13 straight games on the road to earn enough money to keep the athletic programs funded at a poorly funded traditional southern black university playing in the SWAC. After UA, they'll head up to Michigan to play #20 Michigan State. They will lose most of these games, but they will play hard and they will play tough, and the Zips will get a good workout. They play a helter-skelter game and force a lot of turnovers while having a high number of turnovers themselves. It will not be a pretty game. I have a lot of respect for SWAC schools because I have a good idea of the economic challenges they face. I'm glad that UA contributes every year to the budgets of one or more SWAC schools. I love to see the heart these kids play with. I hope the Rowdies will go easy on them. They deserve our respect.

You are off by a massive factor. Whomever told you it is 5k, or 2.5k, or whatever "k" is completely clueless.

I felt almost exactly the same way after the Can't game. I bit my tongue and didn't even bother to come here and post. There is one thing I would posit for consideration. It's a philosophical/psychological paradox. After you have given up all vested emotional interest in something, you will subsequently be liberated from the regret and negative feedback that caused you to want to give up that interest, and you will be free to take (albiet casual) interest again without pain. Take a break. Take a long one. Enjoy your new hobby.

My question would be why would they go to C-USA? Less exposure and more travel?!? The only way that happens if it is a package deal, IMHO

I was absolutely shocked by what happened in the NCAA Women's tournament over the weekend. I watched UCLA play twice this year, and they were the best women's team since at least the early 90's North Carolina outfits that featured Mia Hamm and several other future USWNT players. UCLA got knocked out of the tournament by Virginia 2-1. I would call that an historic upset -- and evidence of just how difficult it is to go undefeated and/or win an NCAA title. Tip my cap to the 2010 Zips!!

Disappointed with the record this year, but not ready to take down the flag. Our offense is a Spread type so I didn't quite get all of the comments that we should have changed and run the ball like we were a Power I offense after Pohl's injury. Changing to a running game would have been like ordering our light brigade to charge into a full frontal assault (see Tennyson). We just weren't muscular enough up front. Problem was, Woodson was not the player to lead us at that time. Chisholm was injured too. When both Pohl and Chisholm were back healthy we were a decent offense again. Some might say, 'but we ran all over Pitt'. Not really, as Hundley broke some big plays, but of our 21 first downs 13 were via the pass. We only ran for 129 yards in the Pitt Game. In the end, the Pitt game made the season for me and I enjoyed watching all of the games win or lose (even the Can't one that got out of the bag). I expected more later on after the 4-2 start, but depth due to injury and last year's graduation and some coaching decisions this year contributed to the 1-5 second half of the season slide. I believe the loss of Tank hurt a lot and how Jeff Bowden kept it together after the loss of his son I don't know, but now it is time to move on. We will be fine.

I believe coach Bowden has repeated many times "we need to find a way to win in the MAC." If it's not his top priority, it's pretty close. Maybe your speaking about fans though? If that's the case... As a fan, the one thing I value about both our basketball and football coach is their honesty. I think if you ask both a question (and I have), they give you a very honest answer. I would be disappointed to hear coach Bowden give an untruthful answer. I hate listening to Belichick and Tomlin answer questions with cliche after cliche, you learn nothing. If you were looking for things to value as an Akron fan, I would put "coaches thoughtful answers to questions" on the list somewhere. Unfortunately it's not a long list, but I can at least appreciate this. Wouldn't it be cool to write for the local paper with that quality out there?

Bowden and his staff have had 2 years to convince kids to come play for what was, the worst team in 1A football. How many true freshman played this year? That's right 0, outside of the place kicker in the first 2 games. So, you basically have 1 year of his recruiting class and the best transfers he could scrounge up. Akron had years of horrible recruiting and you want overnight results. It just doesn't work that way. Even the not so great MAC teams we faced this year had the leg up with years of better recruiting. Just because it isn't happening on your schedule doesn't mean it isn't happening. I think next year we will be better and the year after is when we really turn the corner to becoming a truly dominate MAC team. If Bowden had let previous coaching recruits go, who would he have played? True freshman who weren't ready? Kids coming from HS need that first year to acclimate to the move from HS to college. A few can get by but find me a coach who wouldn't rather red shirt freshmen. They have time to adjust mentally and get bigger, stronger, and faster. While there are a few people who were expecting instant gratification here, most rational people understand that convincing a kid to play here, in from, of a few thousand fans, versus teams that have been going to MAC Championships and bowl games is not an easy task. The fact that Bowden has brought in the quality recruits that he has is pretty remarkable - it's been almost like selling swamp land. It's going to take a little time and he isn't interested in building a 1 and done team, he wants to build a program.

I gotta say I've thoroughly enjoyed the women's basketball games the past few years. No, they don't have the athletic ability the men do, but they play more within their abilities (which are significant) and have many fewer "knucklehead" plays trying to make a play or shot they've only made in their dreams. It's a different game played below the rim, but still entertaining. It's also great to see players make their free throws. The men could learn a bit from them on that. I also see players shooting and making mid-range jumpers, something missing greatly from most men's (all NCAA) games. Those shots count too. I wish more people would come to the games and see what they are missing. The marketing department could work a little harder to promote them too. I saw very little effort last year for what we pretty much knew was going to be their best team ever.

Unseeded UMBC defeated #13 Louisville 1-0 this evening to move into the Elite 8 at Creighton. Still can't be done by Ken Lolla even though it was done by Akron in 2010.

1) We're always going to have that $1M payday game on the schedule (Oklahoma). It's a must. 2) I'm just thrilled that we managed to negotiate a home game with Pitt. I'm glad Syracuse was willing to do the same thing a few years ago. I commend those two programs. It's a blessing to get programs like that to play in Akron. Take it whenever you can get it. 3) If any Zips fan fears playing ANY Sun Belt team (UL-Lafayette?, Really?), at any time, it's time to pack it in.