Dave in Green

@Captain Kangaroo, absolutely great positive post with a good example of how great teams adapt to bad situations. I'd just add that if we expect an insanely motivated Zips team to show up tonight, we really need to be an insanely motivated Zips fan base. I think some may be expecting the crowd to be subdued tonight due to the circumstances. I'm expecting the exact opposite. I'm planning to leave my voice at the JAR tonight and take several days to recover. Go Zips!

A little positive news for the Zips: Louisiana Tech was trying to tie the Zips for the season's longest winning streak at 19 last night, but they were thoroughly beaten down (78-60) at New Mexico State. So it's still possible that when the season is over the Zips will have had the season's longest winning streak at 19.

Bless you, UAZip0510. I've been biting my tongue off in the other thread reading post after post speculating that there may even be worse problems that we don't yet even know about. I'm just sick of all the negativism. Sometimes I forget that there are some really positive thinkers on this forum, and this thread renews my faith. If this team comes together, they can overcome a lot. I'm not sure exactly how far they can go. But I'm with them every step of the way. I don't think that they are quitters, and I don't think Zips fans should quit on them.

@Quickzips, I see no useful purpose in Zips fans speculating about the worst possible scenarios far above and beyond what we already know about one person, which, by the way, is not entirely certain due to conflicting media reports and incomplete data. If we expect the Zips to pull together as a team and try to overcome this, the least we fans can do is give them our full support rather than imagining things being even worse than they are. So, yes, your first post did leave scars on my tongue.

I should also add that I've gained respect for some people here tonight.

I've about bitten my tongue off here. Some of the things I'm seeing posted here make me embarrassed to be a Zips fan. I've definitely lost respect for a few people on this forum tonight.

Absolutely stunning news. The rest of the team just has to pull together and find a way through this.

Add me to the list of those who get choked up on senior night. Coach Dambrot has recruited some really special players over the years, and they get to be like old friends. And it's not just the players, but their families, as well. When I think back to seeing (and hearing) the McKnight family at every game, I get all nostalgic. And GameChngr44 has been such a great member of this forum for the past four years, I'll miss her when she moves on to an NBA forum next season. Tomorrow night is going to be tough.

Good. Glad to hear there will be a demand for these near-campus residences. If it helps empty out some of the sub-standard residences, maybe they'll end up getting torn down and more new residences and businesses can be built to help upgrade the neighborhood.

Agreed. Don't waste money on suites unless there's a demand for them. They absolutely have to pay for themselves.

A new Associated Press story, College Hoops Season Filled with Surprises, features Akron as one of six surprise teams:

@HS Stripes, I think any decision on suites and/or club level at any size arena should be based on local demand. UA would need to poll all of their top level financial supporters and local companies to see how much interest there would be in purchasing suites in a new arena. If there's zero demand, there'd be no need for suites. If there was modest demand, you could always go with a limited number of suites on one side or the other. If all the demand was for club level, you could go 100% club level. Or maybe it would work out 50/50 suites and club level. Point is that it's important to cater to your customers rather than setting arbitrary limits.

@Dr Z, not sure why the original thread was locked, but I wanted to thank you for the tip on using the quote tag. I wasn't aware of it or I would have been using it. Am I correct in interpreting your response to my original question that someone over a period of many months has been taking the time to manually micro-edit boldface out of many dozens of my posts? Seems like a terrible waste of time. In the future, all you have to do is let me know if I'm not adhering to ZN.o style standards. I always try to follow forum rules when they're clearly stated and fairly enforced.

Did we really need another reason to beat Can't Friday?

I'd like to report a problem I've been experiencing recently with my posts. I've variously used italics or boldface to separate direct story quotes from my comments. A number of times now when I've gone back to look at my posts, the italics or boldface has disappeared. I've never had this problem on any of the many other forums I've posted on, so don't quite know what to think. Maybe the resident software guru can figure it out.

I like the attitude expressed in this story prior to the Miami game:

ESPN names Zeke Defensive Player of the Year among all teams outside of this season's Big 7 conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Mountain West, Pac-12 and SEC).

From a Chad Ford/ESPN chat on the NBA Draft: Chat Link

Now, let's take a look at this from the tOSU perspective, as expressed by Matt Brown on SBNation. Brown takes a look at likely tOSU first round opponents and ranks them by "fear factor," which he rates in terms of "panics." Louisiana Tech is 1 panics, Valparaiso is 1.5 panics, Middle Tennessee is 1.5 panics, Belmont is 3.5 panics, Tennessee is 2.5 panics, Villanova is 2 panics, and finally: Story Link

I noticed the following in the ABJ article: University Edge is the fourth project specifically geared toward university students in downtown Akron. Recently, Akron City Council members have questioned whether there was too much housing geared toward students. Does anyone have a feel for how much of on-campus housing is currently filled? I hope there isn't a miscalculation of how many resident students are in need of housing, and how many are able to afford these kinds of "luxury apartments."

@ZachTheZip, maybe I'm missing something, but I see no reason to limit single level arena seating to a shallow rake when a steeper rake provides less obstructed viewing. When I sit in the lower level of the JAR, my view of the court is obstructed by people sitting in front of me due to the shallow rake of the seating. When I sit in the upper level, I can see the whole court since people sitting in front of me don't obstruct my view because of the steeper rake. The rake doesn't need to be excessive, just enough to be able to comfortably see over the heads of people sitting in front of you.

I found a great photo of a 7,200-seat (for basketball) single level arena with steeply raked seating and suites at the top. But you have to use a little imagination for a basketball-optimized arena because Agganis Arena at Boston University is a multipurpose arena for hockey and concerts as well as basketball, so it's a bowl at only one end and open at the other. In the photo you are looking from the bowl end to the open end at a concert stage. Be sure to view the full image and imagine something like this with bowls at both ends.

Don't know how many of you read the story on stadiums and arenas I linked to in my previous post, but there were some really important points in there that are worthy of consideration in trying to come up with the perfect arena for the Zips. First, the following: Larger venues most often feature an upper seating bowl or balcony in addition to the lower bowl. Traditionally, the goal when designing arenas with multiple seating decks is to locate the majority of the seats in the lower level. This is significant, because in order to maintain optimal views, the rake of the upper bowl must be steeper than that in the lower. Since all patrons desire to be close to the action, the fewer the number of seats in the steeper upper deck, the better. I never understood why the pitch of lower level seating was less than upper level seating. But apparently it's mandatory for good viewing. So if we insist on both lower and upper level seating, we will be stuck with a shallower pitch on the lower level, which I think loses the intimidation factor of having more of the crowd "on top" of the court. Then there's the following: In smaller arenas (5,000 to 7,000 seats), the suites and their private concourse can be located at the top of the seating bowl. At this size and in this configuration, the suites are close enough to the action to still be considered premium locations, while not adversely affecting sightlines within the main seating bowl or the proximity of standard seats to the event floor. Taking the above with the previous point, it means that the maximum capacity of a single level arena with steep pitch seating and suites at the top is 7,000. Any larger capacity and you have to go to two levels, with the lower level having shallower seating pitch and suites in the middle. Taking all of the above into consideration, I think that a 7,000-seat arena with steep pitch seating leading up to suites at the top may be the optimum arena for the Zips. It adds 1,500 seats to the current capacity at the JAR, plus maybe another 500 in suite capacity for a total of 7,500 or so. Can anyone recall if any of the many existing arenas we've discussed over the years match these parameters? If so, I'd sure like to take a more detailed look at photos.

Speaking of extra free throws, has everyone noticed that certain players are often short on free throws toward the end of the game when they're getting fatigued? It was suggested to one Zips player who shall go unnamed that he shoot extra free throws after practice. He said he was shooting extra free throws before practice. He was told that he needed to do it after practice when he was fatigued. This is one of those finer coaching points that can make a big difference toward the end of close games.

A few observations on the Zips' current standing in the Bracket Matrix. The Matrix monitors 91 bracketology websites and updates frequently. In addition to showing each site's projected seeding for each team, the individual team seedings are averaged. Of the 91 sites, 90 list the Zips while one site lists OU as the MAC representative. Here's the current distribution of the 90 seeds projected for the Zips: #9 (1) #11 (3) #12 (20) #13 (66) The Zips' average seed from those 90 sites is 12.67, which is tied with Louisiana Tech for the top #13 seed. Bucknell (13.00 average) and Stephen F. Austin (13.47) are the other #13 seeds, while Valparaiso (13.76) is the top #14 seed. There's a fairly large gap between the Zips' 12.67 average and the bottom #12 seed, Villanova (11.99). Obviously the selection committee doesn't consult all of these bracketologists before making their decision, so this is speculative. But more than 70% of them see the Zips as a #13. Winning the next three games may improve the Zips' odds of landing a #12 in the Bracket Matrix, depending on what other teams in that range do between now and Selection Sunday. The selection committee may or may not agree.