MDZip

Ballgame over. Flushes beat Miami 78-57. The East leaders (all 4 of them are 3-2), Zips at 2-3 and Ohio at 1-4.

Flushes up on the Sweaters by 15 with 15 minutes left. If they hang on, this is definitely anyones' division. We also have the three best teams in the West at home. There is still ground that can be made up.

I did put something together for Martin to use in his column. Can't wait to see Kitchen and Korb next year. Having followed the Akron Zips for the past 30 years, D.C. United made some smart moves during the MLS SuperDraft. I suspect most United Fans know that there was a little luck involved in having Perry Kitchen available with the third pick of the draft. I saw Ben Olsen state that if he had the first pick, he would have taken Kitchen. I believe it. There are two huge positives with Kitchen that both work very well for United. The first is that despite the fact that he is young, he is a natural leader on the pitch, taking charge for an Akron team all year long despite being the youngest player on the field. He is a very versatile player as well. The Zips generally used him as their sole defending midfielder and he was rarely beaten all the way through the Zips' National title win over Louisville. I don’t know United's plans for him, I’d love to see him paired with Andy Najar, but with some bigger defensive needs they may chose to move him to the backline as well. In a pinch he could even possibly play up front, but with the rocket leg he possesses (witness the 35 yard blast past Michigan in the National semifinals where their goalie barely even moved), midfield would be a good fit for him. The fact that he is young also means even more years of enjoying his play. Chris Korb was an excellent pick with the 31st pick of the draft. Korb was the senior leader on a defense that was one goal from setting a national fewest goals against average record last year. This year they again excelled in keeping opponents from the goal (only once did the Zips give up as many as three goals in a game in their last two years – a 50 game stretch). They tied a national record with 11 straight shutouts (five were in the 2009 NCAA tournament where they did not give up a goal in the entire tournament – but lost on PK’s to Virginia in the Championship game). Korb was the anchor of that defense. I expect to see him on the outside competing for a starting spot. There were other Akron defenders who were better known, but none who were steadier. Korb reminds me of a football offensive lineman whose name is only called when he makes a mistake. The difference is Korb’s name was never called. He never seemed to be the defender who was beaten on a play. He’s not the biggest or fastest defender I’ve ever seen, but he's very smart, very tough and rarely out of position. Neither of these guys are goal scoring threats for replacing Jaime Moreno, so help there isn’t going to come from them, but I will be looking forward to watching these young Zips grow and help return D.C. United back to their historical prominence.

Yep, I didn't get that one either. Talk about possibly alienating some fans. You need to know your market. Reminds me of the place we had a company event in Baltimore last weekend when the DJ delighted in announcing when the Steelers took out the Ravens. You really ought to know your audience, we won't be using them next year.

Nice start for Jennings and Starks in the NFC Championship game.

Finally, we have a cornerback with decent size. Yes he has good size for a CB. That should make us all happy if he has the speed. But if he truly was recruited at LB I have serious misgivings. I don't care if he has been in a weight program or not. At the desparate stage we find our team in now we need someone who can give us productive playing time after one year in our program. He may be too small for that at LB. Putting him in the average size of our current LB's means nothing because they are almost all undersized and under-performing. If we are to build the program we all want, our recruits will have to be better than what we have rather than equal to our average size. Now we are turning our noses at 3 star players because they don't fit "your" mold of what we should be recruiting. My god the negativity about everything Ianello does is getting annoying. Be thankful we got a 3 star "athlete". Let the coaching staff determine where he should play once he gets here. I've seen lots of three stars come to Akron who can't play in the MAC. The negativism comes from being 1-11 and having a coaching staff that did not make the team any better from the beginning of the season to the end, like Miami did last year when they went 1-11. This is not being negative, it's being realistic in the assessment of the program. We can't get better until we objectively assess what we have and then go get what we need. We need size and athleticism at LB. Not that I'm hanging up any banners over last year, but did you really feel that the team made no improvement from the beginning of the year? A loss to GW and a bunch of thrashings to being competetive the last three games and almost beating the MAC Champ? I saw a lot of negatives this year but not seeing some improvement over the course of the year was not one of them. And Zipmeister, I'm sorry people don't understand you.

But this give you a little idea of how far we have to go. Around 1,000 folks to celebrate the Zips soccer championship and 78,000 celebrate Auburn's football title.

Gutty win for the Zips tonight. If the Flushes knock off Miami, Zips will only be a game out of first. And we gave Ohio their only conference win so far and it was at our place. Arrgh.

And worse, Can't made their 90K goal and we helped that a lot.

I just waited to see who the most people voted for and voted for him, hoping the "wisdom of crowds" could get me through.

Not saying its equivalent but a lot of folks had Can't buried with a 1-2 start last season. It's certainly not over by a long shot but this team better wake up soon. Beating the East co-leader would certainly be a step in the right direction.

From Gregg Easterbrook's ESPN Tuesday Morning Quarterback column, where he detailed how the Jets beat the Patriots. Brady tried a quick out to tight end Rob Gronkowski on third-and-4, but Gronkowski was jammed at the line by linebacker David Harris and stumbling as the ball arrived. Jersey/B spent most of the contest in a 3-3-5, with the extra defensive back, Drew Coleman, sometimes playing man-to-man and sometimes playing zone. Damn, maybe we were just playing it wrong.

I wouldn't count Legursky since he played at Marshall after they left the MAC (and Briggs is close at UCF so I'm not sure there), but the thing I think is impressive is that 10 current MAC schools are represented plus Marshall (and maybe UCF). The only schools not to have a player on any of the four rosters are Temple, Ball State and Ohio. Brad Maynard punted for Testicle Tech a few centuries ago Had Ball State joined the MAC yet? So thats 11 out of 13 current members then.

I wouldn't count Legursky since he played at Marshall after they left the MAC (and Briggs is close at UCF so I'm not sure there), but the thing I think is impressive is that 10 current MAC schools are represented plus Marshall (and maybe UCF). The only schools not to have a player on any of the four rosters are Temple, Ball State and Ohio.

Pittsburgh has only MAC QB's. Also have Batch and Leftwich. And of course Harrison from Can't.

I am drawing a complete blank. I'm trying to remember what our back line looked like for the championship game. I know Kofi was at right back but I cannot remember where Valentin, Korb and Barson were. Can anyone help? Excellent news on Gallego, though. Reloading in 3, 2, 1 ...

My niece actually plays for Our Lady of the Elms. They were apparently amused enough by this quote to send the following to Coach Dambrot comparing their coach to him. Dambrot_vs._Giel.doc

So when do we start posting that Notre Dame's best player decided to transfer to Akron?

I was talking to some of Crew's season ticket sales people there and they were all hoping for a Zip to help generate some interest. Ampai and Korb are both really good players but probably would have been seen as a reach at #12 and #18 apparently.

There's at least one Akron fan there. Maybe there were two. Just took a long lunch to go up and check it out. Pretty fun atmosphere. There was a chant at the beginning that sounded a lot like the Rowdies "Worst/Best Golaie in the World" but it was Philadelphia fans. They were also amusing when New England fans chanted "Revo-lu-tion" and Philly fans kept following it up with "Sucks!". Great to see so many Zips at the top of the board. Think they were getting tired of saying "from the University of Akron (and they did get it right )". I think Nagbe maybe didn't go #1 because of the immigration issues but surprised Kitchen didn't either. Anyway, pretty excited about Kitchen coming to DC United, so I can see him play. Once the end of the first round dwindled down I was able to talk for a few minutes with Porter, Nanchoff, Sarkodie and Korb. All of them signed my College Cup program too which was nice. Chris looked a little dejected but I think he'll still go. Ampai (who didn't appear to be there) I think would have gone early if he was 5'11", 180 but he will go sson too. Fun thing to do to support the Zips. I took a few pictures which I'll try to post later. Edit: While I was typing, Korb and Ampai went. Great! Now I have Kitchen and Korb to root for.

I don't want them yelled at either. Yelling is for practice. I'm more interested in whether or not a different strategy was deployed. We pressured and double-teamed a lot in the 2nd half. OU picked us apart. I wouldn't read too much into one game. OU played well, but they have not shown the ability to play with any consistency thus far. Very thin in the front court until next year. Even very good teams come out flat from time to time. If this Ohio team were to play Akron in a 10-game series, Akron would still win 7. In my mind, the jury is still out on John Groce - he's certainly a good recruiter and should have a much better team next year, but I'm not sold on his ability to coach up a team its full potential. Dambrot is much better than that in my mind. Who are you and what have you done with jupitertoo's body?

Bill Turner Figures you'd know. But, yep, Bill Turner was actually drafted and played in the NBA for six years and is the only Zips player to ever play in the NBA. Played for the Zips in the 60's. Of course, Jakubick was drafted by the Cavaliers in I think 1984, but was cut and never played for them. This was back when the NBA draft lasted longer than two rounds.

Can't crushed BGSU 80-63. Makes me feel a little better about the East. Also NIU beat EMU. We need to take down Ohio tonight since our next three will be on the road.

I'm sure the Rowdies will let this one slide.

I was wondering the same thing. It's supposed to be nasty tomorrow. I'll be there either way, but I sure hope people come out even with subpar weather conditions. I'll never forget the OU game. That was Bubba's first return to Akron. If I remember correctly, the game was sold out, or nearly sold out, but it looked like only about 1,000 people made it. I remember not even being able to pull into my driveway when I got home. One of the worst snow storms I ever remember hitting Akron. And Nick Dials playing a major part in that game and never even scored a point.