Dave in Green

I was pulling for Wisconsin to upset the usual suspects. Interesting point about the Badgers is that freshman Nigel Hayes has been their spark plug off the bench. The Zips coaching staff went pretty hard after Nigel as discussed in this thread. It's just really tough for UA to land a player like that when competing against Big Ten teams. Anyway, given a beggar's choice in the championship game, I guess I'd rather see the Precocious Ones lose as I don't think one-and-done is good for college basketball.

Coach Kest says it best in her tweet: Hanna couldn't have picked a better place to win a 3-point shooting competition than at the Pro Hoops Combine in Nashville where all of the best women players from across the country show what they've got in front of all the WNBA head coaches and their staffs.

JSF, isn't it odd that Schaus prefers candidates with head coaching experience when the only one without head coaching experience he's hired (Groce) delivered the best results (Sweet 16 run)?

Good for you, George. I remember one time working more than 100 days straight without a day off. That was when I was young and thought there was no end to my energy. Over the years I began to see the wisdom of getting away and getting recharged.

Skip, since there's no official word on whether or not Jeff Boals was considered, the reporter's source in the story I linked to is the best information we've got. My take is that makes it less likely he was considered but doesn't absolutely confirm it. All we can do is speculate unless someone has a really reliable inside source. Also, there's no "if" about Jon Smith leaving as this was his 5th season of eligibility. Phillips appears to be a pretty good hire. His record as a head coach is a little spotty. He was an assistant at NDSU who was promoted to head coach. His first season's (2007-2008) record was 16-13 which jumped to 26-7 in his second season. But then it fell to 11-18, 14-15 and 17-14 over the next three seasons. His record improved to 24-10 and 26-6 over the past two seasons with star players Taylor Braun and Marshall Bjorklund, who Zips fans got to see Zeke shut down at the JAR. Both finished their careers this season, and it's unclear if Phillips recruited enough quality players to replace them. Braun is from Oregon and Bjorklund from Minnesota, so Phillips was able to recruit at least two quality players from out of state to play in lovely Fargo, North Dakota. Athens, Ohio, is a garden spot by comparison with a more established basketball program, so maybe Phillips will do even better at OU.

Got it. So NH15 needs to show more of what he did in his brief appearance before being injured last season in order to generate confidence that he's at least an adequate backup.

Has Hirschman regressed from the player who last season appeared to be a potential challenger to KP16, or has KP16 just gotten that much better?

Found an 8th grade scouting report on young Noah that indicates he hasn't just come out of nowhere but was showing signs of great potential even prior to HS.

I missed the part about Jon Smith leaving the team. A quick search shows that Smith was pretty open about the fact that his sole reason for leaving the team was Jim Christian. From the comments in this story, it appears that Smith wasn't the only OU player unhappy with Christian. What a mess. If OU's AD doesn't pick the right coach this time around, their winning tradition in basketball could take the same kind of hit that's happened at Can't. Quickzips, I think that recent discussions here have shown that even those who criticize Coach Dambrot for not accomplishing more do have an appreciation for him bringing stability to the Zips program at a consistent winning level. There seems to be general agreement among Zips fans that we appreciate what we have in the current basketball program but want to see it take the next step. Most of the criticism these days seems to be more directed at what Coach Dambrot can do to take that next step up of winning post-season tournament games.

Beyond Zags and Zias, the only other use of Z I can think of in college sports is Zona for Arizona. To the best of my knowledge none of these schools uses the single letter Z on their team uniforms.

GoZips and I drove over to Pittsburgh today to attend Darryl's visitation and offer our condolences to the family on behalf of all Zips fans. There were many family members and friends in attendance. There was a nice floral arrangement from Akron Basketball, and we learned that the coaches and players are planning to pay a special visit to the family in the near future to pay their respects. They were unable to attend today due to prior commitments. Nicole and all the family members appreciate all the nice thoughts that have been expressed here by members of the Zips family. For those of you who never had a chance to meet Zeke's stepfather, he was one of the genuinely nicest and most positive persons I've ever met. I told the family how every time I spoke with Darryl at a Zips game, I always came away feeling energized and with better feelings about the world in general. Everyone I spoke with agreed that he had that effect on others. I made a special point to tell Zeke how Darryl had spoken so enthusiastically to me about Zeke over the years and how much he believed in Zeke. We spoke with Zeke at length and came away believing that he is absolutely committed to breaking down the door into the NBA. His international and D-League experiences have accelerated his maturation process. He's really developed into a confident, self-assured young man who we can all be proud of. An unexpected surprise was the deep basketball discussion that developed with someone who GoZips and I had never met before. It just happened, and it took me a few minutes to realize we were speaking with Zeke's father, Jon Marshall, who played for two seasons at Penn State in 1973 and 1974. He was the team's leading rebounder both seasons, and still appears on the PSU record books as having the 6th most rebounds for a season in the school's history. In one game against Cincinnati he had 25 rebounds. Jon's passion for defense was evident throughout the discussion, making it obvious where Zeke's passion for defense came from. A strong disciplinarian who believes that coaches should not go easy on players, Jon knows every current Zips player and has opinions about the strengths and weaknesses of each and every one of them, which I will not go into here! It was a sad day in saying our farewells to Darryl and at the same time a bright day in renewing friendships and getting to know other members of a warm, loving and strong family.

More than any Zips fan would ever want to know about OU AD Jim Schaus' search for a new head basketball coach: Schaus, Ohio Looking For Next Head Coach

Bad math from the Boston Globe. Christian is 49-22 not 49-42 in his 2 seasons at OU.

From Zac Jackson Twitter:

I'm with Captain Kangaroo on the use of the Z. There are a bunch of football teams in FBS alone whose schools start with the letter A. Just looking at a few, Arkansas has used a big letter A on their uniforms at times. So has Alabama. Auburn University uses an A superimposed on a U, which could be read as UA as easily as AU. Bottom line is that a big A or UA are not distinctive in college football. A big Z is. No one else in college football uses it. When you see a big Z on a college uniform, there's no question that it's the University of Akron Zips. When you have something unique, flaunt it.

Captain Kangaroo, I also assumed the story was written by GT until I looked at the byline and saw it was the ABJ's Ryan Lewis. Don't know if there's any significance to that.

Anyone who enjoys watching players sink the 3-point shot will enjoy reading this detailed description of how a skinny little kid who many thought wouldn't make it in college ball is redefining the long ball in the NBA.

Interesting fact about this season's Wisconsin team is that their coach credits the team's preseason Canadian tour for helping get the team to the Final Four. In particular a loss to the same Carleton University the Zips played caused the coach to change his team's playing style to an uptempo pace that has them two games away from winning the national championship.

Noah appears to have all the tools to be an outstanding college PG, and a level of maturity to start delivering as a true freshman.

If you think that the NCAA is one screwed up organization, let's turn it over to the U.S. Congress, aka the Senate and House of Representatives. There are a lot of sports fans in Congress, and they like to believe they can fix anything that someone somewhere thinks is broken. Did anyone ever doubt that they would play a big role in the ultimate solution to the question of whether or not college athletes should be allowed to unionize? The folks who filed the suit in the first place had no doubts. Shortly after winning round 1, they were already planning their trip to Washington D.C. to plead their case to the folks who may provide the ultimate solution: A quick primer on Congress and how they think on union matters: Generally speaking, Democrats are more liberal and support unions while Republicans are more conservative and anti-union. Currently, the House of Representatives is controlled by Republicans, so there's a general anti-union sentiment to most decisions that come out of the House. The Senate, on the other hand, is controlled by Democrats, so there's a general pro-union sentiment to most decisions that come out of the Senate. An early signal of what might happen next has already been sounded by both sides. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D- Nev.) is already on record with the following: Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a former U.S. Department of Education secretary and former president of the University of Tennessee, states the Congressional opposition's viewpoint: And there you have it. Unionization of college athletes is such a critical issue to the future of the U.S. that it will push Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, Iran's program for nuclear bombs, North Korea's total insanity, global warming, Obamacare and all the other hot issues of the times far into the background. Elections will be won and lost on the issue of college athlete unionization. Civilization stands in the balance. Hold your breath. Read about it here.

Jim Tressel could have helped set up the interview by recommending to UA that Coach Bowden should be one of their top targets. UA could have then asked the search firm to call Coach Bowden to get a reading on his interest. We really don't know all the fine details, just what we've read in news stories.

Balsy, haven't heard for sure if Jim Tressel helped set up the interview with Coach Bowden. But that was right around the time that UA was talking to JT, and UA released an official statement saying that while JT was not interested in the coaching position himself, he was assisting in the search. It makes a lot of sense that JT would have seen Coach Bowden as a leading candidate.

I understand the poll to be based on which team was best over the course of the season at full strength and not just in the last few games of each season when a key player might be missing. So the 2012-2013 team should not be considered with Nick playing out of position but with Alex at PG. The 2012-2013 team was considerably weakened without its regular starting PG over its last few games yet still won the MAC tournament by dismantling OU's returning Sweet 16 team in a major upset. I thought some of the earlier teams played with a lot of heart. But I think the 2012-2013 team edges earlier teams by virtue of deeper talent in the full rotation. Going all the way back to the Len Paul and Bill Turner days, those guys were immensely talented individual players. But I don't think those teams had the same level of depth of the 2012-2013 team.

Nicole, Zeke and Rhema, I am just in a total state of shock. Darryl is so much alive in my mind and my heart from all the wonderful conversations we had over the years. I remember him so clearly and so full of life from talking with him at the Red Claws game in Canton just a few weeks ago. All of my thoughts and prayers are with you in this difficult time. Please let me know if there's anything I can do, and please do let us all know the details of the arrangements.