Big Zip

Listen Porter took a top national program and made them champs. I don't think KD or anyone can make Akron champs, but the expectation at the very least would be to hang MAC Regular Season and Tournament Champion Banners in the JAR -- every year! Also, if we are okay with competing in the MAC then I simply have higher expectations. I don't want to be MAC good I want to be much better than MAC good. MAC good isn't too good at all.

Zach I think you miss the point of the entire thread. This is not a thread of complaining -- I would actually suggest it is a thread of soul searching and trying to gauge the rest of the community in their belief in this program. This is KD's sixth season and I at some point the hard questions need to be asked. I will be suprised if this team wins the MAC Championship but I will not be surprised if they play in the MAC Championship game again. I have said I'm willing to wait to see what happens with the incoming transfers, but I've also thought this program has had the talent in the past to be much better than they are and they have failed my expectations.

Perhaps the better question for this thread pertains to our expectations at the Zips faithful for this program. I do agree KD has made some adjustments and I'm very interested in seeing them play out -- hopefully for the positive. I will say I'm not satisfied with 20 win seasons and failure in the post season. I was here for back end of the Huggins era and the subsequent Coleman Crawford era and the Hipsher era....I've seen bad basketball. For some to automatically assume the risk of a new coach is too great because Toledo failed is ludicrous. Ultimately my dream for Akron athletics is to get the hell out of the MAC and in a better conference. The Horizon League is a better basketball conference -- who cares if they don't have football. They could probably start playing football in that conference and be at the MAC level in a matter of years. Ultimately when you look at our athletic programs we have soccer and a bunch of not much. Football is a joke and basketball is the one place I think we should have an opportunity to dominate. The conference sucks and we need to capitalize on the ineptitude of the other schools. Finally I wasn't comparing soccer to basketball...I was comparing the situation with the coaches. Lola was great, but Caleb has been amazing. I can't imagine there is a person on this board who thought this program was going to get better after Lola left....I know my hope was we wouldn't slide back. It turns out we did get better and Lola leaving was the best thing to happen to the soccer program. I would support KD playing out this contract, but without significant progress I would be okay with him riding off into the sunset after it is done.

I've been thinking about this post for a few weeks and have hesitated to post it because I'm sure I will get blasted. The basketball program continues to sit on the edge of being real good year in and year out -- yet year in and year out we get right to the edge and nothing. We lose in the MAC Tourney, we don't win again in the post season etc. I would assume the goal every season is to make it to the NCAA Tourney and then win games in the NCAA Tourney. This program is in much better shape than when KD took it over, but the question at some point has to become is he the guy who is going to get us the next step. Look at our Soccer program. We were all pretty happy with Ken Lola and disappointed when he left. Caleb has come in and I would guess everyone is pretty happy Ken left because Caleb has taken us to the next level. Are we getting close to that situation with our basketball program. Will KD ever be able to do anything other than bring us a 20 game winning season (in a shitty conference with a soft schedule) and then nothing else? Would you trade Gary Waters for KD? I'm not trying to run KD out of town, but I feel like we have been on this merry go round before and I'm pretty sure how it ends. This team will most likely not make it out of Cleveland and I'm guessing will lose in the MAC Championship. Is that good enough for the people on this board? There was a time on this board where we talked about wanting to be the next Gonzaga. At this point I'll settle for less than Gonzaga....give me the next OU that upsets a team in the Tourney. The next CSU that does the same or even god forbid the next Can't. 20 wins, no MAC Championship and no post season win isn't good enough for me -- is it for all of you?

I would love to see an article written similar to this one lookin at recruit in classes four years ago or one that looks at the All MAC performers from last year or even one that looks at each team's starters as a point of comparison. That type of article might help us better understand what to really think about this article.

Stop with the inferiority complex! Akron is its own city...Akron is as big of an empty shell of a rust belt city as Cleveland. NE Ohio has the ability to impact the world at least the country economically a lot better than just one city alone. Yet the pissing match continues between the cities. Just dumb! Suck up to Lebron all you want....I don't care if you wish to be on his jock. The guy had a chance to be something special here and not he dumped Akron just like he dumped Cleveland. Don't act like he wasn't telling Akron to "F" off when he left the Cavaliers. Great he has a house here and a bike rodeo...oh yeah he also donated some computers to the schools -- great! His impact on this city and our University has been far less than many other business leaders in this community that didn't tuck their tail and run south. He played for the team that had the best record in basketball the last two years and he took a dive in the playoffs last year to help his exit. The guy is an ass and I don't think he has any connection to my alma mater.

You can't prove something didn't happen....you can prove something did happen and I'm asking for actual hard evidence. So what the city gets mentioned when talking about him. Has it even brought one job to this community? Has it done anything to better anyone's life in this community. If he had a real measurable impact it would be visible.

Please enlighten me to which elite basketball player we have on our current roster who came to Akron as a result of KD's relationship with Lebron? Also, this continued sycophant belief that he brings anything to Akron has yet to be proved. He brings a basketball tournament in the summer (which I believe he moved elsewhere) and he brings a bicycle ride (which donated a paltry sum of $180,000) last year to the Akron Ubran League. If he had written this check himself it would have come to the palry .3% of his earnings in 2010. That is like donating $78 for someone making $20,000. This imaginery benefit Lebron James brings to Akron or the University needs to stop. Please include actually facts when talking about the impact he has on this community. Lebron James turned his back on this community (whether you want to believe it or not) when he left for Miami. He wasn't an Akron Cavalier, but if you think his ability to impact this community is better from Miami than it would have been playing in Cleveland you are out of your damn mind. Like it or not the only pro franchises in NE Ohio exist in Cleveland. That is where his opportunity to play close to home is like it or not.

The statement was not meant to be two different statements...my thought was simply they would need to have someone in there interim until they made a hire. I don't think even government bureaucracy would stop putting an interim tag on someone. Then again maybe sports is different than the rest of the University and they don't need to open things to the public.

I'll never understand the little kid syndrome that plagues the Akron people or for that matter the people in Cleveland who think they are better than the people from Akron. I heard Proenza said it early in his tenure at Akron when speaking at the Cleveland City Club....we need to think more NE Ohio as a region in order to bring the entire region back to prosperity. We can't have an us and them mentality. I've got no time for a$$holes like Lebron who continue to perpetrate that mentality and give the finger to a city who supported and loved him. This conversation is in the general UA & Campus Discussion forum and this has nothing to do with The University of Akron it has to do with Lebron continuing to try to divide the city of Akron and Cleveland -- instead of being the force that could unify them and bring the area back to economic good times. Akron continues to be a leader in job loss and lack of job creation....this isn't going to help anything.

I'm sure government bureaucracy dictates they need to open the position to the public. I hope they can take care of this quickly and name Vince an interim coach.

Off the top of my head George Mason Colonial Conference final four 2006.....OU beat Georgetown last year.....I'm sure there are plenty more. Maybe they said to play in the Championship game.

How bad is this team?

So we have had no surprises today....pretty disappointing if you ask me. On the flip side we've had highly touted classes that did nothing so maybe we'll get the opposite here. Still have a hard time with losing recruits to lower leve schools - pathetic!

Got to say losing players to YSU certainly doesn't exude confidence in I-Coach. You out facility them, you out schedule them and you play in a higher division yet you can't bring home the bacon? WTF!

I'm guessing a kid playing wide receiver just might be more interested in playing in a spread offense where the ball is thrown all over the place instead of playing in our pro style offense. Also a team that went 9-2 and puts up 35 points a game probably seems more interesting than our team too. I know it is Div. 1-AA but they probably would have beat us last year. Going to be tough to recruit if you ask me.

WOW how bad is he MAC this year when this is a final score in a Men's game? Hard to believe they used a shot clock in this game. CMU shot 23% and EMU shot 33%. CMU only had 13 points at half time.

I agree that Rome has gotten terrible. I tried listening recently only to hear him talk to himself about the same thing for 30 minutes. He kept saying the same thing over and over...I got back in the car 30 minutes later and he was still talking about it. He has jumped the shark.

I think GP1 posted something a while back about the Oregon type of offense or run and shoot, spread, pistol, shotgun or you name it offense was the type of offense that leveled the playing field between a team that has less talent. (If it wasn't you GP1 I apologize.) I think this is exactly the type of offense a team in MAC should be running. The line up and put your best 11 against our best 11 has a chance to work against like leveled teams, but I think it significantly reduces your chances against a BCS level school which will consistently out talent you on the field size, speed and depth wise. On the flip side this was the philosophy of the 3-3-5 on the defensive side too, but I think offense and defense are two different animals when it comes to doing something different. At the very least an offense like this would be far more entertaining to watch. I remember trying to convince my friends to come see the Zips back in the LO/Paul Winters days....at least I had the ability to tell them it would be an entertaining offensive game even if we couldn't stop anyone. When trying to get friends to commit to see this team I have tailgating, new stadium and that is about it. When the weather gets even slightly bad I got no shot at getting them to come to a game with me. Unfortunately for me this included my family this year too.

Does iCoach watch a game like tonight and think to himself these guys are doing it all wrong....they should be running a pro style offense. Especially that Oregon team they are lucky then won one game playing like that.

Thanks PA Zippy...looking forward to watching the game.

As I caught a little of the Cavs game last night played by he likes of Christian Eyenga, Ramon Sessions, Alonzo Gee and Samardo Samuels I wondered what is the chance Varajeo's injury gives Linhart a call up and chance to play. He would seem like the type of player any NBA coach would love...leaving it all on the floor playing harder than anyone out there.

Seattle played at Rippers Tap Room a week or two ago. I heard Ripper was going to step on stage for a few songs too. Why not have his band play a show after the game at the JAR?

The last Browns/Steelers game I was at was last year and I laughed too. My laughter was reserved for the bitch smacking the Browns put on Rothliesberer....I think they sacked him seven times. It wasn't nearly as fun as watching the 51-0 beat down Bud Carson's boys put on the Steelers in there worse loss ever.

I'm just going to point out that he went to East Technical High School, but it says on his twitter feed he's from Orange? He also was at VASJ? The Jets background.....hmmm?