Dave in Green

Yeah, but I was hoping for some intelligent discussion about an individual player as opposed to the generic "everything about the Big Ten sux."

Ah, I forgot about your generic disdain for everything related to the Big Ten to the exclusion of individual player evaluations.

The court document doesn't mention that he wants to play basketball at UA, just that he wants to complete his degree. I'm all for that. I'm not counting on him rejoining the team.

All backup players are created equal? No differences? No consideration for the capabilities of the player he's backing up or the capabilities he demonstrated when he was on the field? I'd expect a less generic evaluation from someone with a background in college football.

Though he was playing behind Spence, Marcus is really good. How Jamal Marcus' Dismissal Impacts Buckeyes' 2014 Season

The court document says he's planning to apply for readmission to UA in the near future, so maybe he's just visiting his family in PR before returning to Akron.

Can't find any confirmation on the following twitter exchange between two apparent Cavs fans, so take it with a grain of salt for now:

Skip, the Zips couldn't have moved any faster from a top 200 to a top 100 team under Coach Dambrot. They finished #205 the season before he took over and #60 in his first season as head coach. But you're right that there's no proof that the OOC schedule helped that. It would have been more accurate for me to have said that his OOC scheduling philosophy didn't hurt the immediate climb from a consistent top 200 team to a consistent top 100 team. The main point that you and I agree on is that the decade-old philosophy of few tough OOC road games and many soft home games has produced fairly flat results during Coach Dambrot's tenure. I think it might help raise the Zips' stature to trade 2-3 easy home games for 2-3 more tough road games per season.

Very disappointing when you look at the NBA Summer League rosters and the first name you see is Michael Bramos but no Zeke. The Orlando rosters are all filled but there are still lots of openings in the Las Vegas rosters, so there's still a chance.

The Zips' scheduling philosophy over the past decade has helped move the team from a consistent top 200 team to a consistent top 100 team. But over the past few years the improvement curve has flattened out and the Zips can't seem to take the next step up. All the former mid-major teams such as Gonzaga, VCU, Butler, etc., that moved up to regularly challenge high majors did so on the road, not at home. It's the only reliable path upwards. High majors will not schedule games at the JAR. So the only reasonable upward path for the Zips is to schedule more tough road games at the expense of fewer weak home games. Everyone just has to accept the reality that a loss to a name team on the road can be better for the Zips' growth both now and in the future than a home win over a cream puff. Zips fans have to get behind this strategy to the point that the Coach and AD get the message. If not now, when?

Having 4 ex-Zips on the 23-player 2018 U.S. roster would be pretty amazing. I wonder if any university has ever placed 4 former players together on a U.S. World Cup roster?

Captain is right about Zeke having to outperform Iverson, a big, tough center who the Celtics picked in the second round of last year's draft. The Celtics still like Iverson, who gained some good experience playing in Turkey. In the meantime, Zeke is currently keeping in shape for potential NBA opportunities by playing in the Pittsburgh Basketball Club Pro-Am Summer League, where he had a double-double yesterday with 15 points and 14 rebounds

Zips are in good company wasting their time on a four-star D2 QB who was also recruited by Arizona, Arkansas, Boston College, Cincinnati, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, West Virginia and Wisconsin, and signed by Pitt. The Northwestern offer reflects well on Chapman's 3.5 HS GPA, so at least we shouldn't have to worry about academic issues. An interesting point is that when Chapman committed to Pitt, Chandler Kincade decommitted from his previous verbal. At one point Pitt fans thought these two would have the QB position solidly filled for years to come. Now they're going to be teammates at UA.

The 18-22 demographic obviously has a different concept of what's cool to wear than the demographic of the typical fan posting here. So what's more important -- that the players think what they're wearing is cool or that older fans think what the players are wearing is cool?

If new uniforms make the players feel better about themselves, and if that positive attitude translates into more swagger and more effort into winning, then it would also be a win for fans regardless of how they may feel about the uniforms. Proving the effect the new uniforms have on the players is no more possible than proving the effect LeBron James has on Zips basketball recruiting. Both subjects generate long-running discussions without ever reaching a definitive conclusion.

It's another good sign that Lee Owens supported Chapman transferring to UA. With all the UA-connected people who know Chapman and his family, there were lots of opportunities to steer him in another direction if anyone thought he was a high risk for UA.

I suspect that John Nemec played a major role in this. Coach Nemec thought highly of Chapman's character before he got in trouble, and likely recommended that he was worthy of another chance.

Advertising never fully paid for printed newspapers. It was always a combination of advertising and readers either subscribing or buying newspapers at stores, etc., that paid the bills. It's unrealistic to expect the online version would work any differently. The more readers rely on electronic distribution the larger the burden on the electronic version to pay its share of the bills.

Pontificators don't debate.

Had lunch today in a nice little Mexican restaurant in Hartville (Mi Casa) which has the best Cuban sandwich I've had in Ohio. I was reminded that most Mexican restaurants have soccer on the tube even when World Cup is not being played. Soccer is obviously the favorite sport of Hispanics, who represent the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population. It's taken me awhile but I'm finally starting to develop an appreciation for soccer. I just had to learn that soccer has to be accepted on its own terms rather than on the terms of fans of other sports who want to impose their preconceived terms on soccer. The lack of scoring had an initial negative effect on my thinking as I enjoy watching wide-open offenses in basketball and football. When it comes to scoring, soccer is more like hockey, where defense is more dominant and scoring less common compared with other sports. Once you get beyond the scarcity of goals in soccer, there's a lot to appreciate about the athleticism and teamwork on display. Soccer does feature a lot of offense in terms of yards gained, passes completed, etc. It's only actual scoring that's lacking. The more soccer I watch the more I come around to the point of view that more points scored wouldn't necessarily add to the sport's excitement. I appreciate having a variety of sports -- including soccer -- to watch in moderation instead of all football, all basketball or all any one sport all the time.

Profiler.

Jeff Carlisle gives Yedlin a good grade for his first World Cup performance:

Just having fun with you. I forgot to add the smiley. I'm always amused when anyone brings up the much misinterpreted Sweet 16 reference.

You still beating up on GoZips because he shared with us a goal the Zips basketball players set for themselves?

Skip, I always appreciate your basketball analysis, and I think you nailed this one. Coach Dambrot will always begin the season starting the veterans even when a younger player is exceptional at his position. Even Zeke didn't start his first game as a freshman. PF Nik Cvetinovic started at center while center Zeke Marshall sat on the bench. Zeke didn't start at center until his 4th game as a freshman. I don't expect that to change next season. The veterans will start the early games and the newcomers will sub in. One clue will be the PT of the newcomers in the early games. Zeke didn't start his first game at UA, but he did play 24 minutes off the bench -- an early sign of what was to come. GoZips will have a good feel for what might happen as he attends all the practice sessions. He can't always say everything he wants to say, but he'll drop some clues about who he thinks is looking like they might be a candidate for long minutes as the season goes on. I should add that I probably put less weight on who starts than many on this forum. I look more at who plays the most minutes in each game and who's on the floor at the end of close games. Those are the players the coach tends to rely on the most. Any newcomers who break into that category should be clearly superior options to the veterans at their positions.