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The reality is that no matter who was here and who will be here as the UA coach, somebody would/will b!+ch. That's the nature of sports. If the Zips win 100- 98, their defense needs work and the bad defensive coaching will eventually bite them in the ass. If they win games 40-30, the offense is struggling and the coach needs to pick up the tempo. If they win 26 games, they need to toughen up the schedule. If they win 15 or 16, they need to lighten up the schedule. No coach or scenario is going to make everyone happy. When this all calms down and we look back years down the line, I think we'll all see that the Dambrot era was a good one for the Zips. Perfect? No. Disappointing at times? Yes, but all in all, we'll recognize that KD was good for UA basketball.

Obviously Terry Pluto hasn't read ZN.o where several fans have stated they are bored with winning and are looking forward to our 15-17 win seasons ahead.

Arguing with people in 1 thread, meanwhile, agreeing with them in the next.

Please talk football in the football forum. There are plenty of topics started.

Nothing more frustrating then looking for updates on our coaching search and seeing nothing but football attendance nonsense. Does it really matter if only 100s actually go? and why not start another topic if it matters that much. Geeez....oh look squirrel...

Clark - You're damn right our defense needs work, a LOT of it, if we win 100-98 ... oh, sorry. kreed - I think a lot of us are tired of winning as in I just beat my 5-year-old (Malone, Coppin State, etc.) at checkers for the 137th time straight! We're ready and HAVE been ready to beat Nevada at home, Kent in Cleveland for a chance to Dance, Northwestern and Ohio State in the NIT, Notre Dame in March Madness, Miami and Bowling Green down the stretch to put ourselves in the best position to at least sniff an At-Large bid. No question - we won A LOT but we didn't win enough when it mattered. Lots of reasons for that but something wasn't working.

Many, many times. There's attendance record info. somewhere. We've even had over 40k. These all happened back in the Rubber Bowl days. There were actually effective promotions, and the community really looked at some of these games as "community gatherings". And interestingly enough, we drew all of these people despite crappy bench seating, unheated bathrooms, and long concession lines that people complain about so much today. It was a different, unspoiled generation of people in Akron. We were already D-1 in 1986. We just moved from D-1AA to D-1A. The "blank check" wasn't the case at all. Completely the opposite. We struggled mightily with resources, and were at a severe disadvantage to our competitors. The guys had to drive to the Rubber Bowl for practice. They had literally no training facilities. And despite the fact that we still played many road games on natural grass, it took another 10 years before we were able to even provide the team with a grass field for certain practices. The move to the "major" division of D-1 was a bold move. Nobody had successfully done it before. And we woefully struggled to even make minimal resources available. Huggins stayed here for 3 more years.

We need some coaching news fast

The two of you need to leave. You are NOT fans.

In our own minds, I think we're all trying to find the words to describe what we've witnessed over 13 years, and especially how to describe why we are a bit frustrated despite all of the winning. And I think you're very, very close. I'd change one word here. I'd replace "when it mattered" with "when it was significant". We won plenty of games "that mattered". I think we were 9-2 in MAC Semifinal games. That's unbelievable. As someone said recently, "Does anyone know how hard it is to get to 9 MAC Finals games in 11 years"? We also won 2 MAC Tournament titles when we were coming from the middle of the pack. I think most would acknowledge that the NIT wins against Temple, Florida and Houston on the road were unexpected as well. On the other hand, we missed every opportunity to beat the real top level D-1 teams at any point, including the nail biter at home against #25 Nevada 10 years ago that really could have supercharged this program. I also think that the 6 MAC Championship game losses are really going to be painful memories for us for a long time too. I see above that someone said that the Dambrot era will be looked at as "goodt for Akron basketball". I'll go with "really good for Akron basketball". But certainly, there were plenty of opportunities for more that were missed.

BS..no one ever said that...just bc some of us want NCAA tourney success doesn't mean we're BORED with winning...garbage post

This is a great point. Everyone on here doesn't seem to understand what is going on.....go ahead and give me the repetitive mark or kick me off. It's supply and demand....it's not build it and they will come. The previous administration went for that and built a beautiful campus......exponentially better than when I was there. Apparently they convinced people (banks) that was the solution. Now there are vacant buildings, dorms, stadiums, declining enrollment and now financial distress. I seriously don't understand. If someone could explain it to me I will drop it. I don't see a logical marketing study or trend to justify "that stadium" as much as I love it. All you have to do is look at the statistics around UA sports attendance, MAC attendance from the last 30 years. When has there ever been over 30K come to a UA football game? EVER!! So why would you build a luxurious stadium that big? For those of you that want out of the MAC and aspire to the A10....why don't you look at those schools.....how many of them have football programs.....let alone money pit football programs. Is that too hard to see? I'll help ya http://www.atlantic10.com There are two schools in Ohio that can maintain competitive football and basketball programs - Ohio State and Cincinnati. After that.......you gotta deal with Xavier, Dayton and then the rest of the MAC. We had an advantage because of KD and Lebron. Now that is gone. Do you really have to ask why KD left? All you have to do is look at UA history. The same decision was made back in 1986 to invest in football at the expense of basketball. UA fired my coach D, dissed Huggins and gave Gerry Faust a blank check to go D1. Huggins was gone a year later ....yes he ultimately would have left but I can tell you he left for the same reason KD now left. To get to the next level KD needed players. In order to get players you need facilities. In order to get facilities you need money. You get money from attendance and support. Akron has NEVER had that. Same holds true for football..........you ain't getting top recruits with high school (5K) attendance. We are now just another MAC program. A couple years ago we had Keith Dambrot, Caleb Porter, Terry Bowden and Jim Tressel.....wow! It ain't getting better folks. Revolving door of an up a coming coach if we are that lucky.

Given the quality of the seating, I would suggest the following sponsor for naming rights to the JAR-

I did not say to cut Women's basketball. I said cuts should start on the women's basketball side. To be more specific Jodi Kest's run seems to be over. They've had a few down seasons now, including a very bad one last year and the future does not look bright. The sport produces essentially no revenue yet has similar expenses (give or take a few hundred thousand due to coaching salaries) to the men's basketball team. Jodi is paid somewhere north of 320k. In my quick 10 minutes of research, that seems to be close to twice the amount of the average MAC women's coaches salary. As for you calling bullshit about good sports teams attracting students, donors, etc., I will simply leave this. http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/03/a-cinderella-story-how-universities-benefit-from-being-an-ncaa-tournament-underdog

I don't think a decision like that would be made at all. Title IV and all. Blatantly cutting back on a woman's sport to feed the Men's sport kinda feels like a violation to me. Bullshit. Having a 20+ win Akron team hasn't attracted a single student, a single teacher or a single benefactor. Sorry, but I'm calling bullshit. I'm tired of people in education (as someone who works in education) spouting crap like that. It's unsubstantiated, and is a decision made on less than the reality. The private sector is also riddled with illogical garbage like that as well. Usually so someone can use it as justification to make a decision that personally benefits themselves, that they will never have to face the repercussions of making. Attracts students? Bullshit. That might work for isolated circumstances related to the 100th percentile of colleges, but not the majority. Certainly not a school like Akron. Attract Teachers? If you want to attract better teachers focus on: pay, benefits, research $. Benefactors? Maybe...as in new alumni becoming benefactors after graduation. But winning doesn't do that...CULTURE does. After all this success, has Akron had a drastic change in Culture? I haven't seen it in the 8 years I've been a Zips fan. I'm not trying to be a negative-nancy, but a comment like that is just asinine. Like seriously, we're never going to win the game of "Keeping Up With The Jonses". We've already lost it, we're already very far behind. But Universities will continue to throw money down the toilet chasing garbage logic like this.

Oh, I always ask that! And if the person didn't actually attend Ohio State he or she gets a sneer or maybe an eye roll. I don't know about you all, but I'm done with the Dambrot threads. The new coach is all that matters now. I'm all for paying big bucks and getting the best...But with youth and exuberance.

Yes, and nobody cares about VMI, but that didn't stop 11,000 Akron fans attending last years football game. People don't attend Akron basketball games because they aren't interested in attending. Any opponent that would drive up attendance UNC, Duke, OSU, Kentucky isn't going to come to the JAR. As for your 2nd point, using this unbiased arena ranking Siena jumps out at me as they averaged 5,925 fans playing in the MAAC. http://www.scout.com/stadium-journey/story/1681072-college-basketball-arena-rankings

Great points, all around. But I'll just say that universities football and basketball (and soccer at UA) teams are the faces of the university. Those two (three) teams are generally the only reason a local population pays attention to a school. I didn't attend UA (I had a tiny little athletics scholly to Malone) but I've been following UA since I was in high school b/c they wear "Akron" on their chests (I could never have competed at UA's level). Over the years I've given thousands of dollars to UA b/c of football & basketball. Sadly, I'll admit, not because of their world-class engineering programs. Again, not saying that's a good thing, but it is what it is. I know I can't be the only Akron-area resident who supports the U b/c it's Akron U. One pet peeve of mine: when I'm wearing a UA t-shirt & someone asks, "Oh, did you go to Akron?" When I used to wear Ohio State gear no one ever asked me, "Oh, did you go to Ohio State?" Oh, and let me add this, which I occasionally post: IMO there shouldn't even be an "Athletics" budget. Anything athletics related should be grouped under "Advertising/Marketing" b/c that's what D-1 athletics actually are.

Ding. Ding. Ding. Correct Answer. He'll have to work his way up to Keith's salary, I can guarantee you that. Why would we want to be saddled with a huge debt if he ends up being a dud? It's a business, indeed. This might give us limitations, but that's the way it will be.

Three of out home games are against good MAC teams. OU, Kent, and Buffalo. The entire West is garbage and has been for many years now, same with BG and Miami. Three decent games out of fifteen is not worth season tickets. It's not even worth multi-game ticket packages.

on the flip side, it says "I'm not reducing the number of quality candidates by narrowing the scope right off the bat."

Here's something... Cleveland dot com: Akron AD Larry Williams says Keith Dambrot replacement list is long

There goes one of my top choices for the Zips.

You beat me to it so I will go with CIT.

NIT= Potato Bowl.

I would love to see a smaller lineup at times playing uptempo with some full court pressure defense. I think with our guards and lengthy wings we have a nice roster for it. But I think we would get hammered on the boards with it being our main lineup. I do agree that we don't really have any other options down low unless we get a transfer in. I think Olajapoke and Hughes can move a lot better than Dog. Should be interesting

I actually agree it isn't preferable. There was a noticeable dip in our ability to get a rebound when Utomi was in to give Kwan a breather. It was even worse when both Poke and Utomi were on the court together. Maybe as Clark mentioned we get a JUCO player in, but until then Utomi has to be our 4 as we really just have no other options.

Only thing missing is a cartoon of KD as Batman (utility belt with stacks of money), and TDM as Robin standing (mice size) in downtown Pittsburgh with the buildings dwarfing them. Trying to think of some good captions.....

Because you think our competitors in the MAC are loaded with multiple low post scoring machines?

Sure, if you want to get handled down low

I wish people wouldn't get so hung up on Position Numbers. Noah, Antino, Ivey, Utomi along with a "more traditional post player" can easily all play together. I bet that already happened many times this year. Heck we started the season with 3 (relatively small) guards all starting together. Those traditional position numbers are some people's focus way too often.

If we're talking UT-Martin coaches, Heath Schoyer would seem the better choice. He inherited a team that went a combined 21-71 in the 3 years prior to him taking over and in year 1 he turned them into a 21-13 team and 41-28 as his 2 years as head coach before taking the assistant job at NC State. Stewart inherited what Schoyer built.

I was reminded yesterday, while reading an article about Jason Taylor, that he is the only guy who's ever worn an Akron uniform who had as many sacks as Jason. That alone is a super accomplishment. Much like Jason, Jatavis came here with several limitations. So, kudos to all of the "late bloomers" out there who worked hard to become great players vs. the entitled brats who barely used their natural ability. I love guys who can simply "play football" despite not meeting all of the preconceived standards and measurements set by people who think they know better.

Nooooo. He was only listed at 290.

I think Big Dog was an assassin. I think it's an "I'm the best player on the court so give me the ball & get out of the way," mentality. But Big Dog was a 6'10" 330-pound assassin so it looked a lot different than a G or W assassin.

Thank you for the clarification. Coach Stewart really intrigues me. He's quickly established UT-Martin as a top mid-major & is a Hoban grad, which I like.

Not true at all. I was on staff with Coach Stewart the 2 years he was there with Jim. He wasn't ever fired. He left Ohio for the opportunity to be the Head Coach at UT Martin which he currently holds and is doing a fabulous job. They had a run in his last year when Coach Stewart took him to task about how Jim historically treats his minority assistants. Something sad, that had been going on for years but people were afraid to step up and say anything about it. Coach Stewart actually did. I was there and saw it!!

He loved us so much that he had to let us go. It's like the MAC version of The Notebook.

I know I'm hammering this name lately, but it's more about the situation than the name. Nick McDevitt - UNC Asheville head coach Current annual salary: $114,000 “Well, we talk to (recruits) about (our philosophy) during the recruiting process, to be honest with you,” McDevitt sad. “We show them film of how we play, how we see them fitting in (with) what we do and the style of play we’re going to play on both ends of the floor. That’s something they kind of know before they get on campus. That’s how we’re going to win games – or the way we’re going to try to win games.” I highly recommend listening to the clip between 6:00 - 7:58 of the 10 minute interview http://da.radio.cbssports.com/2016/03/09/unc-ashevillle-coach-we-sell-defense-when-recruiting/ Another bit from that: "I think when you do things one way (defensively) all the time, in my opinion you better have the best five players on the court each and every game you play. And certainly our goal is to get to the NCAA tournament, so if we're going to go up against the Kentucky's, Duke's, and Syracuse's of college basketball, and we go toe-to-toe with them, and they're going to play man-man half court defense the whole game while we play man-man half court defense the whole game, then we're in trouble. So we have to find ways to try and keep teams guessing a little bit, a little off balance, show them some things they may not see every night. Because of that, we try mix it up from playing half court to full court, from man-man defense to zone defenses, and hopefully we can keep teams out of rhythm a little bit and see where things happen over the last 4-5 minutes of the game(s)." ======================================================================================================= If we can find anyone that is getting paid that much while having SUCCESSFUL DI head coaching experience, the salary increase and our current talent on the team could be enticing for someone from a smaller conference, like a Nick McDevitt at UNC-Asheville in Big South Conference. That's the type of guy we should be looking for. I think this program could fall off if we get someone learning to be a head coach on the job. If Ohio can get a DI head coach, we should be able to do so as well.

After thinking about all of this for nearly a day, there is one thing I can't get out of my head and it scares me to death. I do not want to go through all the years of torture again that I experienced when Huggins left Akron and we brought in Coleman Crawford. Those were the worst years of Akron basketball and I never want to experience that again!

I'm hoping, and guessing that the next HC of the Akron Zips will not have recent ties to coach Dambrot. I'm ready to watch some different coaching philosophies at the JAR.

Good point. I often wondered why a team like Saint Louis University is in the A10. Reputation???? And I wonder how they are doing. My buddy was an IT guy there. I mean a private Jesuit college laying people off? I'm sure athletics has to be affected there

I saw that too...commits to the Zips...signs with Rice...plays for Villanova...then transfers to Oregon. Advice to his wife.... get a pre-nup.