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The FAU fans here remind me of can't state fans the one year can't was good.

Aaaah, seems like just yesterday one of the Zips biggest fans was trying to convince us that the Zips were on the cusp of joining the ACC. God rest his soul.

You all realize that at the end of the season none of this SOS/RPI stuff means nothing, right? In today's MAC/NCAA dynamic, it makes little or no difference as you're only going to the NCAA tournament if you win the MAC tournament. We can hope for change, but that's the reality for now.

Who cares who beat who, we are underdogs & we will see you on Tuesday. I don’t understand why everyone is banging their head against the wall. Let’s agree to disagree We believe you lost to Buffalo & really beat no one FAU believes they are improved & not the same team Let’s Play ?

FAU Fans: You can dice up the schedules all you want, and compare opponents as subjectively as you wish. But you can't get any closer than looking at common opponents, and there's only 2 of them over the last 14 months. We beat Buffalo You lost to Buffalo We blew out Marshall by 30, on the ROAD. You squeaked by them at home. Excuse it away with injuries, new system, etc., but you can't just repeatedly ignore the two most direct comparisons we have, and ask us to look at comparisons that are far more distant and subjective.

Probably more likely to see Duke in the JAR.

"He has completed 61-of-125 passes for 44 percent completion rate" Huh?

https://www.ohio.com/akron/sports/university-of-akron/on-the-record-canton-charge-builds-big-lead-cruises-to-113-102-win-over-grand-rapids-drive "Former University of Akron standout Zeke Marshall performed well for Grand Rapids (7-10). The 7-footer logged 14 minutes off the bench, scoring 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the floor. He collected three rebounds and threw an assist while blocking one shot"

Don't think anything would make me happier than seeing the MAC send two teams to the tournament, right after KD bailed. Even if neither of those teams were the Zips. Just to stick it to him.

This team has already played better already than I expected. I have them getting 18-20 wins.

Congratulations to Zips Men's Soccer player Dener Dos Santos who is the student speaker at the Fall Graduation ceremony on Saturday, December 16, 2018 at 6 pm. https://uakron.edu/graduation/index.dot

I have not followed this thread much at all, considering my distance from the JAR or any threoretical new arena. However, I thought you all would like to read the word from the top. The folks who run the ZipsNation Twitter account have started a blog, and their first entry is a conversation with President Matt Wilson. Here is the entire blog entry to read. http://zipsnation.blogspot.com/2017/12/recently-we-interviewed-president.html Most significant for this Zips Nation thread however, is the response to a question about "building a new arena..." Short and sweet answer from the CEO: "We recently just raised money to support a $1.8 million scoreboard, sound system, and experience in the JAR. If you haven’t stopped by, you need to check it out. We are working to raise money to renovate the JAR and invite our alums and supporters to help out. Together, we can create a special space that will serve students for decades to come."

I'm sure FAU has the BEST beer

I did not think Akron would beat Toledo in the first meeting. I did not think Akron would beat Toledo in the second meeting. I was right, but I certainly hoped the Zips would rise up and win. I do not think Akron will beat FAU on Tuesday but I certainly hope they rise up and serve your Owls a large slice of humble pie. Especially after your last post. Good day, sir.

I absolutely loved that he had that attitude. Edit: Just to add, that night we played the Suckeyes, and we asked everyone to turn in their OSWho gear, that was the best promotion ever !!

Let me just say this. Lolla left here after 12 years, no Final 4 appearances, and Akron had not been to a Final 4 since 1986. He's now taken a team to the Final 4, and a Championship game. And he made more money. I don't think the guy thinks he made a bad move. Good for him. Thankfully for us, we caught "lightning in a bottle" with the guy we chose to replace him. I'll take it. Because, as all of us know who've been around here awhile, Akron's had a way of ending up on the bad end of many coaching transitions.

I'm confident in saying Keith Dambrot is cheering on the Zips from PA, so I'm not sure how you'd be sticking it to him (or why that would be important to you to do so).

Not sure you're any more indifferent than I am. I just like beating Lolla's team when we play. If you look back at the thread concerning the tournament (prior to the bracket announcement), you'll notice I was among those that said I had no need to face Lolla's team in the NCAA Tourney. I don't feel the need to play and beat his team, but if the Zips are forced to, I get great pleasure from the Zips winning...so much winning!!! peace

I am not going to argue over semantics, Zip_ME87. I agree with nearly everything you say, and the differences are not worthy of discussion. I think Porter believed in himself AND Akron. His attitude with anything regarding tOSU is why we all love him...that in your face attitude of we are gonna kick your ass any time, any where. Lolla believed in only himself and was mentally checked out of Akron after giving it everything he had. So be it. I just seem to be more indifferent about it than you do.

Fixed it for you.

Yep - Buffalo was no doubt way better than Wisconsin!!!

I don't want to say the MAC will never get an at-large bid, but if that's what you're banking on, odds are you'll be SOL.

Sorry no offense. At first we were not happy about this matchup, through no fault of your own. We have been told for 3 years by our AD (who I believe should be fired) how we don't want to play in the Boca Bowl, we want two other teams playing in it to show case the campus and the university while 2 other teams are playing here. We then would play somewhere else and have another 3 hour commercial about FAU. Our AD is a sack of crap. But after some grumblings about this matchup most people are looking forward to the game.

I've seen some of the way too ahead of ourselves comments, but again most projections FAU saw had USF and then a few had FSU as our bowl opponent. And I absolutely wished we would have played either (or both) FSU and Florida this year. Put that in perspective, if Ohio State was having an awful season and Akron was having the best season in school history, wouldn't you want to play them? Even playing a tightly contested game you end up losing can do wonders for your program against the big boys from where you recruit. And most FAU fans readily-admit we have been bad for a decade or more. That's why this season, Kiffin and the staff, and the players we have coming back have FAU fans overly excited.

I don't mind other teams coming in and talking, they had a good year. Good for them. But it is one good year. Acting like you haven't been a garbage program, which you will return right to when Kiffin leaves, is hysterical due to the level of arrogance they seem to carry. I don't think the Zips win, the defense has been poor all year versus big play teams. I hope the game is competitive. I just think it's funny they are too good to play Akron, yet chomping at the big to play FSU in their one poor year, knowing full well this was their only chance to even sniff a chance at competing against them as they would get rolled 99/100 times.

I like the FAU fellas here. They seem pretty cool & it's making me more excited for the game.

My original complaint relates more to what I saw in Twitter and it was the unfounded superiority complex and we deserve better than Akron attitudes that I took issue with, to be clear.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact Troy Alabama is in the middle of freakin' nowhere! Nearest cities - Macon GA is the biggest city besdies Montgomery AL. It is in the middle of a very rural area. There is no major sports teams with in hundreds of miles to compete with....I know we all are looking for something - ANYTHING - to figure out how we can boost attendance, but Troy's success at bringing in more fans has a lot to do with nothing else to do in Troy AL or anywhere within a 100 mile radius.

Akron Zips getting ready for trip to Boca Raton Bowl “We are getting their pace of the speed down pat so, I think going into the game the only challenge will be to just get lined up and playing fast and matching their speed of the game,” said Jamal Davis of Canton.

You could have ended your first point at "inbounds plays"

Ran across this interesting tidbit on twitter: Not sure if they did anything specific (game day experience, publicity, marketing, etc.) or if this meteoric rise in attendance is simply the result of them being a better team but it would be an interesting case study.

I would like to add to your list: Inbounds plays that lead to layups instead of just tossing the ball into our center Fighting through the screen or pick. Duviver is the best! Team is much better at boxing out. NO early shots. This team always run an offense unless we have numbers on a fast break. Anticipating the pass and looking for the steal. We had 11 steals in one game!

I found it interesting that one the commentators for the Louisville-Akron game was Bob Valvano, brother of NC State Men's Basketball 1983 National Championship coach and founder of the V Foundation, Jim Valvano. The game was played days after I watched the beautiful, moving, and entertaining, 30 For 30: Survive and Advance, which chronicles the story of the 1983 NC State team and the amazing person Jim Valvano was. I recommend it to all ZNO faithful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Valvano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Valvano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982–83_NC_State_Wolfpack_men's_basketball_team

Don't look now folks, but the gutting of Portland Timbers continues, with the trade of Darlington Nagbe to Atlanta United for allocation $$$ and a 2018 international slot. Holy cow!