mrelegazna

There is more to progress than just a teams records. Yes, it's also measure in Championships. We happen to the reigning ones of the MAC.

ZipWatcher,I have to respectfully disagree that it was a bad 48 hours for ZipsNation. I thought last weekend was one of the best moments in the history of ZipsNation. Since I started coming on this board about a year and a half ago, the quantity and quality of posts has improved drastically. Last wekend Zips fans said, "We're mad as Hell and we're not going to take it any more!". Instead of going home mad and sulking until next season trying to gain some hope from the early season wins against Dennison and a bad conference this season, Zips fans stood up and let their voices ring out. I've been through enough losing in my years with Akron sports and I want some winning of championships. That means having a team show up and show some balls against a bad team like Toledo. If the players and coaches can't take some fan criticism, they should go to a DIII school where nobody gives a crap. I would bet that there are some posters out there like Captain Kangaroo, Zips Win! and King Zip that are almost as pissed off today as they were last weekend. Thank God for people like that.Nate Linhart? Will he improve? Probably. Does he have the natural ability to make significant improvements? Probably not. I asked the question last weekend pertaining to whom he could get playing time in front of at Can't State. I'm still waiting for an answer from anybody who thinks he could. Nate, because he was on the all MAC freshman team now has a bullseye on his back from every team we play. If you were another team, do you think he would be a difficult guy to shut down? As he gets older, he will need to become the "go to" guy for Akron. Does the prospect of that make anyone comfortable? Akron doesn't need a steady influx of "suburban" (you said white, not me) kids lacking the athletic talent to take them to the next level, they need studs who even on an average day are still better than the nonathletic players. We saw the benefits of "suburban" players during the Owens years in football, nine years of that misery was enough. It's not that criticism is uncalled for. It's not even that some of the criticism of KD's coaching wasn't reasonable (althouth I disagreed with most of it personally) It's that honestly asking whether KD is the right for this team, and implying that he's not, is just patently ridiculous considering we accomplished some things that we hadn't since 1989 and other things that we hadn't since joining DI. If this season wasn't good enough to vindicate the coach, then you're gonna run through a LOT of coaches in your neverending quest for a coach that never makes mistakes, or only makes on or two a year. They were emotional posts after we were angry after losing to Toledo. Those who want to fire the coach after every bad/tough loss probably aren't in a good position to evaluate mental toughness themselves.As for Linhart, it's news to me that he's gonna have to be our "go-to" guy, ever. I guess the rest of the 11 or so on the roster, as well as the recruits we have coming in and will have coming in the next three seasons, aren't as good as I thought they could be.And he'll have a target on his back because he made the all-freshman team? Give me a break. When MAC play rolls around next year, ask a few random players from different teams to recite last year's all-freshman team. The only ones they might get are Aker (who won Frosh of the Year) and anyone from their own team who might've made it.

6'10" jucos, other than total stiffs, can go anywhere they want in D1 land, pretty much. It'd be difficult to lure such a guy to Akron. The Zips best hope is to get "project" big guys as freshmen and develop them.And Balki, if your prediction comes true (and it will), screw the Big East, we should be able to take that permanent invite the Big Ten always has for Notre Dame.

True, and that has always bothered me (though I do like not just the logo but pretty much the entire package of logos, alternate logos, uniforms, etc). If there's one type of institution that shouldn't be outsourcing creative graphic arts stuff, it's a university. Hello, a pool of 20,000+ bright young minds eager to create! I'm absolutely positive that the students could've put something together just as good, if not better, than our current package. You could make it a contest. It would've been a GREAT pr move, and it's always good to involve students as much as possible. It's what a university is there for. As a side note, I liked the basketball throwbacks but I'm ready to go back to the regular ones now...er, next season.

Trimmy sort of made the same point, but HS and JHS kids think everything is dumb. And why would our fandom play a biased role? The Z is our logo too. Wouldn't we just as biased towards that?I like the A/kangaroo head better than the Z, myself.

Well, since we were the second-best team in the MAC this year, and Can't is losing four starters, and we get Wood back and are only losing three contributors, it pretty likely we're gonna get picked by most publications to win the MAC.Now let's go out there and do it!

At the risk of sounding ridiculously rose-colored.....I'll take it. An 11-point loss with our C game (at best) on an MVC floor with 10,000 in the stands against a team many feel deserved a bid to the NCAA.It's been a hell of a season. Hell of a good season.

I'm proud of them for clawing back into it. It didn't turn into another Nevada game. Had a couple opportunities to cut it back to six.Next year is our year.

Argh! Big TO from an unexpected source (Ced). Still a 9 point game.

Dials hits a 3, cuts the lead to 11 with 4:10 to go.Let's see how close we can get this.And I'm looking forward to next year. And I'm talking about basketball.

Biggest lead of the night now, 58-40. 8:58 to go

THERE'S one for you Maggie (monster block by Romeo).

Now Goddard ("from Wadworth (sic) Ohio") is in. 46-34.

Door is open a crack.

Rybak's in the game now, missing a three....Finally Dials hits a jumper but Creighton answers immediately. 44-28.

Romeo misses the fast-break bunny. Good metaphor for tonight. Still 40-26. Creighton starts the second half flat, Zips have not taken advantage.

Word. Maybe Ced can give us a spark to start the second (he sat most of the first half with two fouls).It's not over yet, though. LET'S GO ZIPS!!!!! He actually has 3 fouls. Both him and Milum do. If those guys are gonna be a factor they are gonna have to be careful in doing it. Well feck. I thought it was two.Oh well. Sampson Simpson, I stand by mah story! Let 'em loose anyway, let's go for broke. Too bad Milum hasn't made any semblance of a repeat performance from Temple. He frankly looks like he's in over his head.

Word. Maybe Ced can give us a spark to start the second (he sat most of the first half with two fouls).It's not over yet, though. LET'S GO ZIPS!!!!!

And I would say that he is slightly fond of the phrase "nothing but nylon."Alright, Zip ball. Drain a 3. Cut it to six.EDIT: Nope, instead another Milum TO.

These last two minutes (down by 11) are crucial. I don't want another Nevada.

I could be wrong, it happened very fast, but that dunk looked like basket interference to me. Bah. Down by ten again.

30-22 Creighton, 4:13 left

ANOTHER throwaway by Dials, and Creighton is playing walkons now. Nice.

Shite. Had a chance to tie it a minute ago, Dials commits two straight TO's and now Creighton is up by 8 again, 23-15.

Dials and Peterson are heating up...Zips back in the game, hopefully Dials cuts it to one at the FT line after the timeout...