MDZip

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.

Having moved right after college, my greatest Rubber Bowl memory is meeting JohnnyZip84 at the Ball State game during the final season (and arguing with Nate Davis' family ). I saw the Marshall game on ESPN. One of the announcers mentioned that the University bought the Stadium from the city for $1. The second announcer stated "The University got taken". I think the Info was a good idea and one day it will pay off. Side note on the Barker perfect game. I was a student at Akron that year and some friends of mine had decided to go to an Indians game that weekend. Had we picked Friday we would have seen Barkers perfect game, Sunday was an Indians double header win. We picked Saturday, a blah Indians loss. I went to Indians fantasy camp in January 2008 and faced Barker in the "Pros vs. Joes" game. He struck me out (and he wasn't trying hard).

Ha ha. That's pretty good. But no self-respecting football fan in Hawaii can give any credibility to a list of the worst coaches that doesn't include this guy, who went 5-31 including being the first coach to lose twelve games in a season, and the following season June Jones arrived and won 10 games with the same players. So, there you go -- I-Coach has something to aim for.Being replaced by June Jones?

And it made ESPN's "Not Top Ten Plays of The Week". Ugh. Glad there were a couple awesome Zips goals this week to offset it.

Ada knows Baltimore! Almost - it's actually UMBC (University of Maryland - Baltimore County) where he transferred from, but I was just going to give credit for a possible typo. Locally, kids used to joke it stood for "U Must Be Crazy" or "U Made a Bad Choice" but actually its a pretty good school, it's mascot is a Retriever (Chesapeake Bay) and the school gives Chess scholarships out - and usually finishes quite high in the College Chess Championships. You may use any of these factoids to ingratiate yourself with Chauncey.

And Icoach hasn't made this list of the worst coaching tenures of all time yet. The Zips did get a mention, however, under the entry for Greg Robinson.5. Greg Robinson, Syracuse (10–37, 2005-08)Robinson’s overall record isn’t as bad as others on this list, but he gets low marks for destroying what was a solid Syracuse program. The Orangemen (as they used to be called) only had one losing season from 1987-2004. Robinson had four losing season in four years, with a high-water mark of 4–8 in 2006.Lowlight: Syracuse lost its 2008 home opener to Akron, 42–28.Ye Gods.

All 40? We didn't get any points for basketball or track even though we were in the NCAA Championships? Nope, the way the Capital One Cup breaks down is that you get points for a top ten finish (and it is mostly by the polls) so unless you finish in that group in the top ten, you don't get any points. And each sport gets a different level of recognition. So since Eastern Washington won the FCS football championship they finished ahead of the Zips since football "counts" more than soccer. And actually I think the Directors Cup (where they lump mens and womens sports together and every sport counts the same) is a much better measure. The Capital One Cup just has more money and publicity behind it.

I think it is terrific too, however, all 40 of those points were garnered by the soccer team. We actually led the standings for a brief time in the fall.