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Even a power 5 worthy defense can give up big yards on the ground if it's on the field all day, especially to a quality opponent. Pitt, with Conner, Boyd and what I believe is a much better coaching staff, surely seems to fall into this category. As good as I believe the 2015 Zip Zefense will be, the onus is on the offense to minimize turnovers and move the ball more consistently than in 2014.

Zips win 3-2 in OT on goal by Macchioni right after he came into the game.

Empire builders never concern themselves with human life or existing facilities. Their goal is always making their own name shine the brightest. The university needs many things; a new entrance is not on the list. Oddly, the new main entrance is on the back side of the campus. touche'

Check this thread for a possible solution to the paste problem.

As always, Dave Giffard was classy in his comments Quotable "That was a very tough way for us to lose. We fought back twice and I thought deserved at least a point out of that game. But I was very proud of this young group for answering twice after going down. If we can learn lessons from tonight and continue to improve each day, this could have the makings of a very good team before it's all said and done." --Head Coach Dave Giffard "I also want to say congrats to Akron, they are a quality, well coached team, who will win a ton of games this year." --Head Coach Dave Giffard

Just got back to my hotel room in Richmond after going to the game. as fnbuflobo said, the zips really controlled the tempo. Sean Sepe made a beautiful run to set up the 2nd goal. The zips stopped attacking after the first goal. After the 2nd goal, the zips still played aggressive. Very good substitution to bring Robby Dambrot in for the overtime periods. The zips had several good opportunities in the first overtime...in large part due to Robby. Robby was the best player on the field in the first overtime. I don't know how to show the starting 11....like fnbuflobo does so well. back 4....were Brad Ruhaak and Andrew Souders...Niko DeVera and Nate shultz Stuart Holthusen played up front. Pau Belana and Victor Souto were front of the back 4. Sam Gainford, Adam and Sean Sepe were the 3 before Stuart Holthusen Ezana Kahsay came in for Stuart late in 2nd half. Glad that the zips got the win. VCU really packed it in the first half Sean was really good in the 2nd half in attacking. Victor was very good at winning 50-50 balls. just looked at old Dominion site....Coastal Carolina def. Old Dominion 2-0 tonight.

But I will take the W. Good things are that Zips definitely dictated tempo, something we have not done well recently. We made them play our game. Gainford's goals were treats. The first was highly improbable. The second was sublime; I hope everyone gets the chance to see it.

In considering the big picture of Zips basketball scheduling, let's at least all start from the same place with the basics: 31 = NCAA maximum number of regular season games; 18 = MAC-scheduled conference games; 13 = Available games to be scheduled out of conference. With that in mind we have tournament, road, home and overall scheduling to discuss. The Zips have been facing their biggest name opponents in tournaments which are always away from the JAR. The exceptions are when a tournament allows UA to host a lesser opponent as the NIT Season Tip-Off did this year with Charleston Southern, which was only 13-18 last season. I think most would agree that adding one weak home opponent in exchange for shots at Villanova, Arkansas and Green Bay is a fair tradeoff. Iona and UC Santa Barbara are both respectable mid-majors the Zips get to meet on a neutral court in the Las Vegas tournament. Those two tournaments eat up 6 of the Zips' available 13 OOC dates and account for 1 unexciting home game. No one has expressed major objections to the Zips' recent tournament strategy. Of the remaining 7 open OOC dates, 2 are on the road and 5 at the JAR. That adds up to a season OOC split of 7 away games and 6 at the JAR. Taking the 2 road games first, Cleveland State is a solid opponent and Coaches vs. Cancer is a worthy cause. Hard to fault that. The game at Marshall is one of those home-and-away series we'd like to see more of. But it was scheduled back when Marshall had a decent program and they've lately taken a fall. It was a good idea at the time but it's not always predictable when teams are going to fall in competitiveness and prestige before all the games are played. Sometimes it works the opposite way and teams turn out to be even better than when they were originally scheduled. Of the remaining 5 home games, the first one with Hiram is exactly what several have suggested on this forum: Instead of playing a weak D-I team that hurts RPI even when you win, play a quality lower division team that has no negative impact on RPI. Virtually every D-I team in the country schedules 1 or 2 early season tuneup home games with lower division teams for precisely this reason. That takes care of 27 of the Zips' 31-game schedule and leaves us with 4 home games that are really at the heart of this discussion. If the Zips had been able to schedule 4 more respected opponents in place of the 4 on the schedule (Coppin State, Bethune-Cookman, South Carolina State and Lipscomb), there would be little to seriously criticize about the overall schedule.

They are having fireworks after the Pitt game. I applaud the effort in doing something different with the marketing to get more butts in seats. Now they need to spread the word so more people know about it.

If he can catch a ball thrown at him instead of having it bounce off his hands, he'll be an upgrade over last year's receivers, hard workouts or no.

I was thinking more along the lines of Akron taking ownership of the Ohio football image the way NIU is sticking it to the bigger teams in Illinois. But if everyone thinks Akron should duck any association with the state in which it's located, how about an outline of the city map of Akron? That would likely show up on all the college football trivia lists right up there with the Zips nickname and kangaroo mascot.

I will publicly say, as I was very harsh on Pohl for his leadership skills, that I am a fan of this young man and hope he has a kick A$$ season. Was able to watch him in practice over last weekend, and I was more than impressed with his growth as a leader. His physical skills were never in question, but the way I saw him practice and interact with his offense, you could without question see growth and maturity................... Best of luck to this young man