Dave in Green

LZip, I get it. I just think last week's tweet exclusively calling out the Zips win over Pitt without mentioning any other teams more than offsets the Zips being left off this week's long list. After all, the Zips were 20+ point favorites to destroy EMU.

Got to watch some of the game on TV. Nate did not look out of place playing against an NBA team. Though he didn't start, the coach obviously likes Nate's team play as only 4 of his Macabbi teammates played more minutes. His 6 rebounds were tied for most on his team. His +5 in the +/- ratings made him one of only 2 Macabbi players with a + rating for the game (one of their guards had a +1). Nate is a solid professional player.

So LeBron gets busted when he fails to tweet congratulations to the Zips and isn't worthy of acknowledgement when he does?

Aaron was listed at 6-7, 193 pounds last season at age 18. It's entirely possible that he wasn't done growing. At 6-8, 215 pounds he'd be an inch taller than Tree. As tough and gritty a player as Aaron is, I wonder how he'd handle playing in the frontcourt.

I don't care a lot about individual stats as long as the Zips are winning, and Pohl is playing well enough for the Zips to keep winning. But in any discussion about individual player performance, an important measurement is how they compare with others playing the position. In overall Quarterback Rating based on total performance Pohl is ranked #86 of 127 FBS QBs. EMU's Rob Bolden, who looked so awful yesterday, is ranked #126 of 127. Pohl played well enough in the second half of the EMU game to be featured in the Sunday New York Times sports section as the #1 player listed in The Day's Best feature:

Zips OOC SOS is never beaten into the ground. It always comes back for more on ZN.o. Whatever anyone may subjectively feel about it, Zips OOC SOS is neither great nor awful. By all objective measures it's above average.

Pohl had a nice second half against one of the weakest defensive units in the country after spending some time on the bench thinking about all the things he did wrong in the first half that produced only a 10-6 lead over one of the weakest college football teams in the country. Of course it's not all on him. The play-calling was nothing special and the 15 penalties his teammates committed were ridiculous. Pohl is good enough to lead the Zips to a MAC championship if everything goes right.

Forget the notion that other mid-majors have scintillating home OOC schedules. Every college basketball team in the country plays some weaker home OOC opponents who aren't fun to watch. Go look at some other mid-majors' home OOC schedules. Take Middle Tennessee for example. When the Zips signed their home and away series with MTSU most Zips fans appreciated playing them because they were one of the better mid-major teams and presented a strong challenge for the Zips. What games would you be excited to watch on MTSU's home OOC schedule this season? Martin Methodist (Exhibition) Ohio Valley Murray State Southern University Northern Arizona Chattanooga Tennessee State

I appreciate Pohl's self-awareness and honesty. His passing was not inspiring confidence from me way up in the stands, so it couldn't have been having a good effect on his teammates. It's maddening to see Pohl failing to see so many open receivers and either forcing it to his well-covered primary or throwing it away, which is at least better than throwing interceptions. Even though Woodson was a little shaky, he did quickly look around the field and find a secondary receiver on his very first series. On a scale of poor, fair, good, very good and excellent, Pohl looks to me to be good or about average. As a team, the Zips may be strong enough now to win the MAC with a good QB. With a very good or excellent QB they could be something special.

Just to close out the Zips SOS discussion, now that we've all expressed our opinions, let's take a more objective look at where they stand in the rankings. According to Team Rankings, last season out of 351 D1 teams the Zips had the #101 strongest OOC SOS, best of any team in the MAC ahead of #115 Eastern Michigan, #124 Toledo and #142 Miami. While I still wouldn't mind seeing the Zips schedule just a little bit tougher, I have to give Coach Dambrot credit for booking a tougher OOC schedule than any other team in the MAC, tougher than all but one or two teams in most other conferences, and tougher than more than 70% of all teams in D1. That's better than I had expected the numbers to show.

As always, announced attendance is paid attendance. Doesn't mean everyone who paid for a season ticket was at the game.

Big letdown in intensity after the Pitt game. If there was ever a good time to have that kind of game it was against EMU, which has little in the way of offense or defense. If the Zips had been up for this game it would have been a slaughter.

The Wikipedia entry for Ohio University specifically warns: Not to be confused with Ohio State University.

Athens County has a total population of about 64,000. There are probably close to 30,000 students (undergraduate and graduate), professors, support staff and other employees on the campus alone. Then there are all the people in the county who earn a large chunk of their incomes from OU-related business. OU should own that county. EDIT: Athens zip code is 45701. Looks like tOSU is 62% and OU is 14%. Athens County is 51% tOSU and 29.5% OU.

At some point after defenses start loading up to stop Grice, he'll be used as a decoy to set up a QB rollout and TD run or a short TD pass to an open receiver.

Yahoo Sports has a great story entitled Why No One Wants to Host the 2022 Olympics. There have been a lot of stories documenting how corrupt the IOC is, but this story summarizes a lot of the corruptness in a short read and explains why so many countries have dropped out of the bidding altogether. For those who don't want to read the whole thing, just consider the final few paragraphs:

One minor victory is that the Zips rank 2nd or 3rd in 5 counties while Can't is 2nd or 3rd in just 2 counties.

Do you think the Zips don't use this list to try to schedule games? Who ever said "no one wants to play us"? Look, I said earlier in this thread that I'd like to see the Zips play a little tougher schedule. I had a chance to speak directly with Coach Dambrot about it, and he explained how he has looked at everything we fans have looked at and more, and after weighing all the pros and cons, he schedules the degree of difficulty he thinks is best overall for the team. By the way, Basketball Travelers is no revelation on ZN.o. We've discussed it several times. I referenced it last year here to point out the availability of good teams looking for opponents that the Zips might call. Going back to 2010 it was pointed out here that the Zips had requests posted on Basketball Travelers. The fact that the Zips currently don't have requests posted doesn't mean they aren't calling to inquire about other teams' offers. The bottom line is that while there are some good teams Coach Dambrot would like to schedule that won't play ball, he's not making excuses because he's satisfied that he has the right balance of tough and not-so-tough teams on the schedule. He understands that some fans will never be satisfied with what he believes is best for the team. If anyone on here thinks they can convince him to change his scheduling philosophy, go discuss your thoughts with him. He's easily approachable and appreciates talking with passionate Zips basketball fans.

Just because a team posts on Team Travelers doesn't mean they will accept a deal if the Zips come calling. So no one should get too excited about some of the opportunities there. But there are certainly enough options there that some could be had. Could the Zips have a tougher OOC schedule if they wanted it? Yes. Would the schedule upgrade result in noticeably higher attendance at the JAR? No. Would it help the Zips be a better team? Questionable. There are pros and cons to having a more difficult OOC schedule. Coach Dambrot has weighed all the pros and cons and schedules the level of difficulty he believes is overall best for the team, including recruiting. Winning more than 20 games per season against an OOC schedule that some consider not strong enough is one of the reasons why UA has been able to recruit some of its better players. If anyone is relying on Noah Robotham to solve the Zips PG situation as a true freshman, consider what Noah said in his own words:

In addition to losing Q and Nick, the Zips also have to face the fact that the team's biggest weakness last season was lack of consistent performance at point guard. There's a good chance if the two returning PGs haven't greatly improved that the Zips could be relying heavily on a true freshman running the offense. So, yes, this team could end up relying heavily on inexperienced underclassmen at key positions this season.

I said that not many good mid-majors will agree to come to Akron. A few will, and the Zips have at least a couple on the schedule every season. Cleveland State is a good example in recent years. Detroit is another. I'll also repeat that some mid-majors who some on this forum believe could easily be had for a home and away series have refused offers from the Zips and will only play the Zips at their place. In addition to this, I was also addressing the separate issue raised by someone that the reason for poor attendance at the JAR is due to not scheduling big name teams. They cannot be scheduled if they refuse to come. The type of mid-majors that will come to Akron are not the marquee names that would draw big crowds.

It's easier to predict the score of the game than the weather. Regardless of forecast, it could rain all day Saturday or be dry all day. The current Akron hourly weather forecast I'm looking at says scattered showers are expected to end Saturday around noon.

I see Jeremy Pargo is also on the Maccabi roster. I remember Pargo well from the Zips vs. Gonzaga NCAA tournament game out in Portland. Steve McNees probably remembers him, too.

A little more information comes out on SB Nation's Hustle Belt: MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher Speaks About ESPN Deal

Sure, the Zips had a 2-game series with the Horizon's Youngstown State just a couple of years ago. They even agreed to come play in Akron for both games. It didn't generate a lot of excitement here on the forum, and the games at the JAR drew a whopping attendance of 2,408 and 2,527. When the Horizon's Valparaiso visited the JAR a few years ago attendance was 2,825. The teams that will agree to play in Akron, even when the Zips agree to a return game at their place, just don't have the name brands to generate fan excitement.