MDZip

I voted for all five - because I could.

Some of the best quotes from the article: O’Dea grad and Crossfire Premier alum Yedlin is getting close to kicking off his first college season with the powerhouse Zips of Akron. Have you had a chance to talk with Steve Zakuani or any of the other Akron guys in the MLS about their experience at Akron? When I wasn’t on the Sounders yet, I added Steve (Zakuani) on Facebook to see if I could talk to him. I chatted with him. This was before I committed to Akron and I asked him how it was and he said it was amazing and (Caleb) Porter’s one of the best coaches he’s ever had. That was definitely a big deciding factor, if this great player is givng compliments to the program then it must be a really good program. I’ve also talked to Steve in the locker room and he basically told me that if I needed anything, that he’s got me; it’s kind of like one-love I guess with the Akron family. I haven’t really talked to any of the other guys from Akron in MLS but I probably will in the future sometime. Was Akron always the college of your choice or were there any other colleges in contention? I was really into Cal-Poly. I got an early offer from them and the campus was amazing and the team was pretty good. I talked to my uncle and he asked me how much location matters and I said to him it’s pretty big but if there’s a school like Akron, obviously that changes everything. Right after the national campionship they messaged me and I was like wow! The whole college thing just sort of changed then. I think my last three schools were Virginia, Louisville and Akron. Akron definitely had the better soccer and that’s what I’m looking to do in the future. Nice huh? Really did catch lightning in a bottle with Porter. Picking up kids like Yedlin and plugging them right in is pretty amazing.

Beautiful start to the title defense and a nice payback for last year. And an NCAA record to boot.

Completely agree. They also missed Balogun's goal because of it. I've lost the audio stream at this point but the video is still working well. Good move by the MAC.

Zach, Lets look at this from a very logical perspective. RI's job depends on him winning football games. That's really what it boils down to. His current and future jobs depend pretty much on that alone. He's doing what he thinks is right to do that. The man is not going to risk that for some "inside agenda". One area you may be correct though, winning at this instant may be secondary to making sure his long term plan works. If that means he has to get rid of what he might consider undisciplined or players who won't put in the effort he requires even if they are a little more talented, then he is right to do so. He is staking his whole future on it. If he's wrong, we're disappointed as fans but he is out on the street and will likely never get another head coaching job. Sometimes people who are too close to the program may not have that perspective or may be the ones "run off" and then they have an agenda. I remember one of the first jobs I had after Akron, I felt the management were all idiots and they didn't care about the employees, blah blah blah until I became one of those people and realized why some of those decisions were made (and had to be made). Rarely is an organization guided by a megalomaniac without some sort of checks and balances on it. Everyone was disappointed last season (even though in the end it is just a game) but we will have RI for at least two more seasons and all I want is to see improvement each year to show that his plan is working. We have no idea either way right now if it will, but that is the way businesses work and trust me college football is a business. You will have a certain amount of time (you can even tolerate a loss for a bit) as long as the end product becomes profitable (or wins). I can understand how people in the middle of something they do not like or are upset about can feel about it. But you really need some time on the other side to get the total perspective. So I believe your accounts about how people associated in some way with the program feel, I'll just tell you that is not generally the entire story.

I signed on earlier today and the list of members was displayed as usual and it always highlights one member name in red. I think that used to be your member name but somehow it seems random now. Anyway, the name that was highlighted when I logged on was an mbardo54, who is a new member. Mike, if this is you, welcome, we will miss your toughness and contributions to the the team. One of my bigger smiles at a Zips game was your dunk in Portland. We also met your mom in line there, she was pretty proud. If this new member is just a big Bardo fan, that's pretty cool too.

It's available now. Just sayin'

I actually can't find a link anywhere which I find surprising so I am posting the flyer that I got. One of the things that was fun last year was having the opportunity to talk with Keith with a small group of 5 or 6 of us. Price stayed at $150 for this year. As a side note, I wore my Zips basketball shirt from it a few weeks ago and when I was at a place called Fort Union on the Montana/North Dakota border, the reenactor at the site asked if I was from Akron. Turns out he was an OU grad from the 70's and kept up with the MAC. Even knew the Zips had won the NCAA title in soccer last year. I like wearing my Zips gear in unusual places because it often gets conversations started.

We got shaken pretty hard by the earthquake in Maryland, but its pretty amazing how far it was felt. Any of you feel it in Akron? I was reading the BJ story on it and they had this line: Can't State University evacuated its main library as a precaution. Bet that didn't take long - Bwahaahahahah.

This is probably a good thing for the team, meaning that Moore showed enough to beat someone who started for 19 games (regardless of what some of you may think of him, he did beat out others for the job). Just don't want to see Nicely lose heart. We still need him.

Maybe their blueprint allows us to combine forces with Temple for the day. They're off that day since they open two days before.

I got an e-mail that the mens basketball golf outing will be Sepember 19th this year. I really enjoyed it last year, but sadly won't be able to make the trip this year (I suspect our foursome will be the better for it ). I did have to laugh though when I noticed the return email address for the event ended in @osu.edu. I didn't post this for OSU bashing because I don't care about that, but I did find it funny that a fund raiser for a significant UA team would have return email address other than @ua.edu. Anyway, the outing is a lot of fun and I'd encourage people to play if they can.

And the US men's team came in no better than 5th. But in the spirit of Akron's trip GoZips.com just posted their top ten Zips dunks for the Canada trip. #2 was my personal favorite.

In another slightly interesting tournament twist, NCAA Mens Basketball selection committee chair Jeff Hathway is out after resigning as the AD at UConn. His replacement: Xavier athletic director Mike Bobinski was named the chair of the 2013 NCAA tournament and said late Friday there are a number of options available to the committee. One of them could be to bump up Bobinski's chair to 2012. Each of the 10 members of the committee have five-year terms.

Who would have thought a year ago that Michigan would become our soccer bitch? No complaints. That would have been the last school in Michigan in it that I would have guessed.

Hustlebelt posted an article "New MAC Basketball Format: Would Akron Still have won?" where they simulate the game results. After the first two rounds, the results looked pretty much the same except that Akron played WMU before Miami (and would still meet Can't in the final). Because of that switch, they had Akron losing to WMU even though they played those exact same teams. Silly article.

No. It's straight-seeded 1-12 based on conference record. At least they aren't doing it where a weaker team gets the automatic #2. This will also help prevent the "bunching" of the East teams we've seen before where it is often more advantageous to be the #3 than the #2.

The paranoia seems to running a little deep. Anyone stop to consider this might be the year this rule change helps the Zips? Pick up the 1 or two seed and the path is easier, even a three or four looks to be the same as last year so this might actually be a good thing, especially this year. Maybe they were discussing a nine seed (OU) making it a couple years ago and didn't want to repeat that (although sometimes it seems the tournament hot hand could have the best chance for a win in the NCAA tournament).

SAT question. If the Zips do well it will likely be because of all the new talent that has very recently been recruited. Could it be that Anthony Ampaipatakwong is to Akron soccer as Zeke Marshall is to Akron basketball? Once a few (or even one) high caliber players join your team, other players seem to want to join in. Not predicting a national chmapionship or anything (that obviously has to wait until next year when Zeke is a senior ) but just an observation to keep in mind if this and next year go very well. Tough year to predict but I still see the Zips as no lower than a MAC 3 seed. What happens from there is too tough to call because the MAC tournament never seems to go quite to form.

#90. Seems about right.

I would be shocked to see a top 5 ranking let alone a top one. The Zips lost a lot of talent and even though it looks like a good set of replacements, these guys have never been on the pitch together. A lot of teams (e.g. Tulsa, UNC) return a lot of last years very good teams. I expect the Zips in the 6-10 range.

And team #2 was Texas A&M who sponsors the award so the Zips must have really done something extraordinary this year.

Why are you going with Can't fans? Yeah, sorry - too easy.

Just got back from a trip to Costa Rica. I was up at a hot springs called Tabacon on the side of a volcano at the top of a mountain range. As I was waiting for my daughters I looked over and saw an Akron Zips T-shirt. I talked to the young man wearing it who had gotten it from his cousins in Akron. I continue to see Zips gear in very strange places.

Even though this isn't specific to one player, I am most interested in seeing if these new players help sustain the improvement we saw in the last three games of last year. Since two of them were Buffalo and Ball State was that improvement genuine or just a mirage? These guys will help prove that one way or another.