Dave in Green

Just to expand on that a bt, I believe that Ianello will DEFINITELY be dismissed before next season is over if the team doesn't show significant progress. I was at least slightly hopeful after the FIU game. That hope was extinguished by the team's performance in the OU game.Unlike some others who don't believe that UA will eat some of Ianello's contract, I believe that they will if they don't see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.It's one thing to have a mediocre football program. It's another thing altogether to be locked into the Bottom 10 with no chance of escape.The clock is ticking louder.

OK, I've got it now. More than one person actually believes that a college football coach prefers losing to winning. This definitely rates consideration as a Guinness World Record entry.

@trimmy10, just for clarification, when you say Ianello "has no intention of winning," you don't really mean to imply that he prefers losing to winning, do you? Because in all the years I've followed sports, I've never heard of a coach or player who doesn't prefer winning to losing. Now we've all seen coaches and players who've tried to win and weren't able to, so I'm going to assume that's what you really meant unless you say otherwise.

Assuming that neither of the two true freshmen play significant minutes this season, this is the way I see it:Grouping the Zips' SGs and SFs into the single category of wings, Nitro, Q, Gilliam, Walsh and Harney probably share most of the wing time. Depending on which wings are in the game at any given time, the best rebounder might be considered the SF and the best ball handler and outside shooter the SG.Rico is the only pure PG, so backup PG time will almost certainly come from one or more of the wings. With five talented wing players competing for PT, it would obviously help the team a lot if one of those five focused more on improving their PG skills.Grouping the only C in with the PFs in the bigs category, Zeke, the Serb, Egner and Tree should share most of those minutes.The player who I can't yet fit into one of those three broad groups is Green. On the one hand, he has a sweet 3-point stroke for a big man. On the other hand, he's apparently bulked up to 230 pounds, which suggests he might be suited to banging under the basket. So he could possibly fit in both the wings and bigs categories. It's also possible that Harney could float between the wings and bigs roles depending on game circumstances.Taking all of the above into consideration, I see a lot of flexibility in this season's team. There are 11 players who could earn significant PT without even counting the possibility of either of the two true freshmen developing more quickly than expected.While the team gets a lot shorter in the frontcourt with Zeke on the bench, they get a lot taller in the backcourt with Rico sitting. The shortest backcourt with Rico on the bench would be 6-4 and 6-5 (Nitro and Walsh or Gilliam), and the tallest would be 6-5 and 6-6 (Walsh or Gilliam and Q).A lot will depend on how well all 11 players develop. But if all goes well, the Zips could present a tough matchup for almost every opponent on their schedule this season.

It's way too limiting to only call out the coaching and QB play. What I saw yesterday in almost all areas of the Zips' game left me feeling pretty depressed. There is no quick and easy solution to be had by focusing on one or two areas.

Is this a formal entry in the write down and save competition?

I saw both CK and Dr Z in lot 9.

But wait ..... it gets even bigger and smellier. How about a Global Conference that would include more than a quarter of all FBS schools?MWC/CUSA behind Global Conference proposal

Wow. Two of the top 3 ranked teams in the country couldn't draw more than that in the hot-for-soccer ACC? Not good.

A reasonable position shared by many, including me. LR8's stats are in line with the on-field performance we've seen. As low as those stats are, I believe LR8's QB rating so far is still somewhat above PN7's from last season. So it's not like the Zips have a true QB controversy. Neither has shown they can carry the rest of the team on their shoulders. It's about that point in the season when even the most patient fans are expecting to see a better performance out of LR8 and the whole team.

I'm writing this one down and saving it.Go ZIPS Ha! Well I wouldn't advise anyone submitting a term paper with that use of the word correlate. I was thinking about the correlation between stats and assumptions, but the proper word to use in the context of that sentence is that statistical analysis can help corroberate assumptions.

As always, statistical analysis can help correlate assumptions.Obviously, the Zips were in control of the VMI game with running, so you'd expect the lower percentage of passing shown in the stats. In the other games, the Zips were playing from behind for most of the time, so you'd expect a higher percentage of passes vs. runs, which also shows up in the stats.It's a fair question to ask about what percentage of passes vs. runs is reasonable to expect in games where you're playing from behind. The Zips' percentage is hovering around 50% while many people expect to see a higher percentage of passes from a team that has lots of points to make up.One mitigating factor in the first few games of the season would be Moore's inexperience at the D1 level, and the added complication of playing against tougher teams with better pass rushes and secondaries.Now that Moore has some experience and the remaining games on the schedule are against weaker teams, one might reasonably expect the Zips to pass more than 50% of the time in situations where they are trailing and need to come from behind, especially if the ground game is not reliably sustaining drives.

Having fallen for a few sarcastic remarks in my time, I hope we don't become overly sensitive here and lose our appreciation for good sarcasm. Heck, if we lose all sarcasm on ZN.O, Zipmeister as we know him will cease to exist. What a loss that would be to these forums.@mes102, your contributions are appreciated by more than just a few around here. I know we all have bad days when we think the world is against us. But we have to try to avoid taking everything so seriously that we lose our sense of humor.There are some genuinely humorous posts on ZN.O, including some that might have been intended to be taken seriously but which are well worth laughing at. Think of what a boring place this would be without laughter-inducing posts.I think it's healthier for everyone to assume the best and not the worst about everyone else's posts. Even if the occasional poster is seriously trying to zing you, it only works if you allow it to.Don't let someone else set the rules for you.

Good idea on the endzone seating, Doug. I think there are multiple solutions that would work to start with the concept of an arena optimized for basketball, and then modify the design for multi-use without compromising the basketball optimization. I think the concern of some people is based on poorly designed multi-use facilities where basketball wasn't given primary consideration. A poor design would be unacceptable to all of us.

It's official now that the thought of schools ditching the NCAA is no longer exclusive to those on the fringe:Coach K says schools leaving NCAA 'could happen'

In another preseason review (CBS Sports), two MAC players make the list of the top 100 players in college basketball:91. Javon McCrea (sophomore forward, Buffalo). McCrea could be on his way to being the next dominant mid-major player. If he doesn't make a huge leap this year, it will come next year. Was the fifth-most effective offensive rebounder in the country last season.93. D.J. Cooper (junior guard, Ohio). Lookie here, it's another MAC player. Had a coach's-dream 44.7 percent assist rate last season, second-best in D-I.2011-12 season preview: Top 100 players in college basketball

Wouldn't that depend on whether the arena was optimized for hockey or basketball?If optimized for hockey, the endzone seating would come down to floor level at the ends of the longer hockey rink, leaving big gaps at each end for the shorter basketball court. As basketball fans, all of us would be against this.If optimized for basketball, the endzone seating would come down to floor level at the ends of the shorter basketball court. For hockey games you'd take out a modular section of 8-10 rows at each end, so the endzone seating for hockey would only come down to about the 9th-11th row level and not all the way to the floor.I think it's a given that you would optimize an Akron arena for basketball rather than hockey as basketball is bigger than hockey in Akron. So the net result would be seating comparable to a dedicated basketball arena with slightly compromised endzone seating for hockey.Seems like the best of both worlds to me to optimize it for basketball while giving it the flexibility to host multiple activities that would result in enough business to make it a good investment for the whole community.

More and more proof every week that there are quite a few competitive teams this year that aren't so dominant that they aren't susceptible to being upset by lesser teams, and in many cases multiple times.Most of the other college soccer fan bases of the nation's top-ranked teams must be feeling about the same as Zips fans right now. They know their teams are really good. But they have doubts about whether they're good enough to overcome the team weaknesses that resulted in regular season losses and go undefeated in the postseason to win the national championship.

Slow, lumbering half-court team is not a totally inaccurate description of the deliberate style the Zips have played in recent years. With the current roster, I suspect that's about to change. But it will take time for the Zips to earn a rep as a good running team.

It's really great to have you and other player family members contributing to ZN.O. It's definitely understood why you have a special interest in Q. He's a special player with great potential. It's rare when Coach Dambrot states publicly that one of his players has NBA potential, and he has said that about Q. So we're all hoping Q fully realizes that potential at UA and goes on to represent the Zips in the NBA.You should be aware that in the past there have been many great, enthusiastic player family members who have posted here, and the rest of us Zips basketball fans have really enjoyed the conversation.There has also been at least one, shall we say, slightly annoying family member whose main contributions were to lobby incessantly for their relative to get more playing time. While understandable, it really didn't contribute a lot to the discussion here.You are obviously keenly aware by now that some Zips fans are passionate about their basketball team, and may come across as somewhat blunt in their assessments of player and team performance. That's true in every sports forum I've visited, so nothing new here.When you perceive that someone here is being a little harsh on Q, I hope you will understand that it is because we all want the best for Q and the whole team. Zips fans can be free in both their praise and criticism of the players, and we tend to hold the better players to a higher standard.So please don't take offense at any legitimate criticism of Q. If you see a post that goes over the top and turns into a personal attack, just use the Report button to report it to the moderators and let them handle it.Looking forward to your comments during the upcoming basketball season.

Why don't we look at the dimensions of hockey rinks and basketball courts to get a better idea of exactly what it would take for an arena to accomodate both:A hockey rink is 200 feet long and 85 feet wide.A basketball court is 94 feet long and 50 feet wide.Taking width first, because most fans are seated on the sides, there's only a 35 foot difference. Assuming the permanent seats run right up to the edge of the hockey rink, for basketball the seats would be 17.5 feet (about 2.5 Zekes) from the edge of the court on each side. Isn't that about the amount of space left between the court and seats of a dedicated basketball arena where teams and the media sit? If so, then there would be no big difference.Length is where there's a more significant difference -- 106 feet to be exact. Again, assuming the permanent seats run right up to the edge of the hockey rink, that means 53 feet at each end between the court and the seats. So there would need to be maybe about 35 feet (8-10 rows) of moveable seating at the ends to fill in that gap between the court and the permanent seats. I'm guessing the best multi-use arenas have pretty seemless modular seating arrangements at the ends where a section can be easily removed for hockey, and when in place for basketball would be virtually indistiguishable from the permanent, unmoveable seats.Is that about right, or does someone else see it a little differently?

We saw how much Q grew over the course of last season and how good he was at the end of the season. If he's even better now, then we would expect to see him get even more PT this season.I think what GoZips is trying to tell us is that the Zips' talent level at the 1-2-3 positions -- the three spots Q can play -- is a lot higher than last season. So even though Q will be even better this season, he has a lot of company now to help him out.If we look at it from the team point of view instead of from an individual player point of view, it's really good news that the Zips won't have to play Q long minutes in order to be successful.I understand that some people have favorite players who they want to see on the floor for 40 minutes, and that's OK.But it's a lot more exciting to me to think that the Zips have 10-12 players who can sub in and sub out with no noticeable drop in team effectiveness. If the Zips have a lot of players who can go all-out for about 20 minutes each, they could really be a tough team to match up against.

@GoZips, any update on Tree? Does he appear to be playing with a little more intensity? I still see him as an important cog in playing against teams with big frontcourt players. The Zips lose some frontcourt height and bulk with Egner replacing Bardo at backup center, and Tree could help that situation a lot if he can translate his HS success at rebounding, blocking and inside scoring into the college game.

The way I see it, if they keep bringing forward new arena plans every couple of years as part of hypothetical overall Akron development, statistics suggest that one of these random times it could actually happen if only by accident.

There's already an active thread on this very subject:arena project going forward?