Dave in Green

@Spin, stats are nothing more than numbers used to quantify trends. Stats have to be correctly interpreted to produce accurate conclusions. But so do trends. Stats, trends, or almost anything can be arranged to try to prove almost anything. Caveat emptor. Strongly held beliefs are the hardest to disprove because true believers tend to resist considering that their faith might be built on incomplete or inaccurate data or analysis. While I respect the beliefs of others, I'm not convinced by anyone else's faith. Again, I have no interest in trying to prove anything about soccer, hockey or baseball, or in trying to win a debate. I have more questions than answers.

I don't have a dog in this fight. I am neither a big fan of soccer in general nor a soccer hater. My only interest in soccer is when it's good for UA. In most things, I'm primarily interested in factual data as opposed to impressions, feelings, and unsubstantiated data. In this light, I have no earthly idea if Columbus is "not a pro sports town." But the statement above did make me want to search for some kind of verifiable data to get an idea what the real story is on Columbus. That took me to National Hockey League statistics, as Columbus is certainly not a traditional hotbed for hockey, yet they have a professional hockey team. Sure enough, the Columbus Blue Jackets are 27th out of 30 NHL teams in average attendance, averaging 14,660 for 41 home games But wait, there's more. The Blue Jackets actually outdraw two other metropolitan areas that are obviously also not traditional hockey areas but do have much larger populations -- Dallas and Phoenix. They also outdraw the New York Islanders, a more established and traditional NHL franchise. I've never seen anyone try to make the case that Dallas, Phoenix and New York City are not pro sports towns. And where it gets even more interesting is that Columbus averages only about 350 fewer spectators per game than Winnipeg in hockey-crazed Canada. So I'd say there are at least mixed results on whether or not Columbus is so focused on tOSU that professional sports cannot succeed there. I'm open-minded on this and would welcome any additional data, pro or con.

"Probably" isn't quite the same as "definitely," but I guess we'll see in a few weeks if it's really a done deal. “We pretty much have a deal with the university that has been accepted,” Mason said. “... Probably within the next two to three weeks, we will take ownership of the Akron Rubber Bowl." Good news would be that UA unloads a white elephant and rakes in a lot of cash right now. Bad news would be that the Info gains a local event competitor and loses potential future income. Let's hope the UA bean counters have crunched all the numbers and are doing what they think is best overall for UA.

Word out of UA is that ND ran into a scheduling conflict and bought out of the Zips game. Add that up with the latest word out of ND that the Irish are considering moving their Olympic sports to the Big 12 and, as part of the agreement, could eventually schedule up to six football games per season against Big 12 teams. Could be just a coincidence that the Zips' series against the Big 12's Iowa State should be announced at virtually the same time that the ND game is dropped and ND is rumored to be scheduling up to half of their football games against Big 12 opponents. But it all fits together pretty well.

Back to basketball, I'd like to see the Zips schedule more Big East teams -- home and home.

ZachTheZip just posted a link to the original tweet in the basketball forum by accident. Pretty big deal to get a Big 12 football team to play in Akron. Here's a link to the full story: FBSchedules.com

SOS is always a factor in BCS selections. All of the computer programs used by the BCS (Sagarin, etc.) include SOS algorithms. All of the BCS voters consider SOS to some degree, whether consciously or subconciously. None of that is going to change.

Shows once again that while nice facilities alone won't bring in a flood of good recruits, they do have an impact as part of an overall recruiting package that includes a quality, proven coaching staff, etc.

@ZachTheZip, good definition of "interest" as it pertains to colleges and HS players. I was thinking more along the lines of exactly how much interest some of these major programs have, i.e. do they automatically send out information packages to the top 100 HS QBs, etc. A little research shows that at least one major program had more than a passing interest in Stockett. Here's what his HS coach had to say in a recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story: "West Virginia wants me to send them film on every throw he's made so far this season," Ward said. "I can't see him not being a national recruit next year. I don't know what he truly lacks. Some guys are not real accurate, but have a big arm. Or they have a big arm, but they are not accurate. He has all the tools." (Obviously the writer garbled a few words on the big arm/accuracy comments.) And there's a good description of the way Stockett operates in McKeesport's air raid offense, plus an interesting comment about who he was mentored by in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story: Stockett's statistics and prototypical 6-foot-4, 210 pound NFL quarterback frame have drawn interest from colleges such as Stanford, West Virginia and Southern California. Last summer, he attended the Manning Passing Academy in Thibodaux, La., and was mentored by Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, a camp counselor. The deeper you dig on Stockett, the more interesting things you find. For example, he has played shortstop on his HS baseball team. It's unusual for someone his size to play SS. It shows that he's probably quicker and more agile than the typical 6-4, 212-pound HS kid. Talk on some of the major college sports forums suggests that Stockett is a little raw but could grow quickly in the right coaching environment. From his early comments about why he chose UA, it appears that he considers the Zips' new coaching staff to be first class -- right up there with the Big East. Fingers crossed that he's a diamond in the rough.

From the PennLive article: Through his recruiting process, Stockett amassed a pair of offers - the aforementioned Zips and Rutgers - and had drawn interest from programs like Connecticut, Boston College, Illinois, Michigan State, Northwestern, Penn State, Pitt, Purdue, Stanford and West Virginia, among others. I wonder how they define the term "interest?"

@wadszip, don't worry. The Toledo situation will come up regularly when fall comes around, and especially as we get closer to the MAC basketball tournament. You've made good points, and your posting of this thread is appreciated.

Here's my take on this: KD has deep family connections to two schools -- UA and Duquesne -- that would cause him to consider coaching for either to be more special than for other schools. He's already proven he can turn the UA basketball program into a consistent winner. Duquesne offers a bigger challenge because it's in a tougher conference, and Duquesne has made a commitment to raising the level of its basketball program and is putting money behind it, including offering KD a lot more money than he makes at UA. KD needed proof that UA was also willing to commit to raising the level of its basketball program, including such possibilities as a new arena, a more prestigious conference and more respect for the coaching staff (including monetary rewards). KD's decision to remain at UA was largely based on the point above, which means that he did get assurances from UA that the school is even more committed to raising the level of its basketball program than Duquesne. KD basically acknowledged all of this in the newspaper interview, and the reporter slanted the story to the local (Duquesne) audience. So what's the take away for Zips fans, players, recruits, etc.? That UA has a brighter basketball future than Duquesne even though Duquesne is currently in a more prestigious conference than UA and is committed to raising the level of its basketball program. I see no downside to anything KD said in that story.

I'm sure there were people back in 1905 saying that no one would watch football if it had a bunch of sissy rules enforced to stop players from being seriously injured and killed. As for modern football safety, since the medical community did not understand the dangers of brain damage from football prior to conducting longterm scientific studies, how could the players be expected to have understood these unknown dangers prior to choosing to try to make a career of playing? Sure, they all understand the broken bones, wasted knees and even the remote possibility of paralysis. But no one really understood the concept of widespread longterm brain imjury until only recently. This is a game changer.

Sometimes it's hard for old geezers like me to keep up with the flow of modern social conversation. But as best I understand it, the theory being advanced here is that when all of us old folks die off, local TV news will disappear, baseball will fade into obscurity and future generations will still be arguing over whether or not soccer will take over as America's national pastime. Is that about right? Since I won't be around at that time to discuss the situation, I'll try to monitor it as best I can from the nether regions, where I expect to be residing.

Holy crap! The Can't loss to Arkansas led the Channel 3 TV news tonight, and took up the first 5 minutes of the broadcast with multiple reports. I'm not sure the Zips' national championship win in soccer produced as much coverage as the Flush's loss many games away from the college baseball national championship. The reality check is that even the numbest of TV talking heads gets baseball and is mystified by soccer.

@Zipmeister, Hill was listed at 6-6, 185 pounds in HS. So if Dayton is fudging his height, they wouldn't be the first. But I was thinking the same thing you were -- that his brightest future may be at Oakland, unless KD has seen something that we're missing.

Hill is a 6-6, 210-pound small forward, and the Zips are pretty loaded at that position right now. If he comes to UA and sits out this coming season, he might be able to help fill in the following season for Q and Gilliam, who will be seniors this season. But his limited playing time at Dayton in his sophomore season suggests that he might be more of a backup than a starter for the Zips. Then again, Hill was a top player in HS and it's possible he could elevate his game at UA. For the 2013-14 season, the Zips will likely have Harney, McAdams and Kretzer all trying to earn minutes at the 3 position. Hill is also supposed to be able to play the 2 spot, though he doesn't have a lot of weight to bang with the beefier power forwards. He's supposed to have good hops, though.

Maybe this thread should be retitled "Zips Still Growing?" Latest report from on campus is that Justice appears to have added an inch or two to his listed height from last season of 6-3. If he's in fact now closer to 6-5 like Walsh, it could make it a bit easier for him to carry over his high 3-point shooting percentage from HS to college.

Got confirmation from someone who saw Tree and Harney together that Harney now appears to be about an inch taller than Tree, and it's not all in the hair. Both were listed at 6-7 last season, so that would put Harney closer to 6-8, assuming that Tree hasn't also gained some height. Maybe more intriguing is an observer's report that Deji appears to have grown a couple of inches since last season, when he was listed at 6-3. That would put him more in the 6-5 area, catching up with his 6-9 wingspan. If he can live up in college to his HS reputation as a lockdown defender, a 6-5 Deji could gain more PT by virtue of being able to defend against the 1, 2 and 3 positions. Pure speculation on my part, but isn't that what the off-season is all about for hardcore fans?

Also mentioned here.

I was talking the other day with former ZN.o contributor GoZips, and he asked me if I'd seen the Uncle Drew video on YouTube. I said I hadn't, so he said to be sure to watch it and share a link with his old ZN.o friends. Maybe someone already posted a link somewhere around here. But I haven't seen it mentioned on here, so here it is:

Coach Bowden delivers on his promise to recruit Florida for speed. Watching the video, this kid is fast, elusive and deceptive. Even more impressive, for a little guy (5-7, 170) he's fearless running up the middle and leaping up and over the line for a TD. Video

JPT clearly remains a polarizing figure for some. I have no emotional investment in the man, pro or con. For me, he's simply an asset -- neither a deity nor a devil. If some continue to worship the ground he walks on, then I'm glad that he's walking on UA campus ground and not a rival Ohio university. Ideally the JPT worship will result in some benefit to UA, perhaps less than his worshippers might imagine and more than his detractors would admit. I'm confident that Coach Bowden is a big enough thinker to see JPT more as an asset than a rival, and that the two men understand that working together can accomplish more good things for UA than they could alone or working against each other.

Really interesting point that Tressel is not totally barred from all connections to the football program. There's probably a detailed NCAA description somewhere outlining exactly what he can and can't do that would take a team of attorneys to decipher. But the important point is that Tressel can coordinate with Coach Bowden in at least some ways that might benefit the football program.

All reports say that he did not play football at Butler Community College, so he should have all four years of college football eligibility remaining.