zipboy

My bad, I should have said anyone on the search committee.

A few other thoughts after reading this article. 1. This is as much a sales job as coaching job right now. Why did no one raise a red flag with Ianello? I could see if he had a Bowden like personality and could not coach why they might have hired Rob (which still would have been bad). I will scratch my head forever with that hiring. Even if he is friends with TW, a guy isn't going to commit career suicide to hire a friend. 2. As bad as Ianello was, Bowden will be even better. He may be the only guy to bring us out of this. I have no doubt that he will win and hope he stays until he retires. There will be enough improvement over the next 10 years, respectable in the MAC, winning the MAC, moving to another conference, and winning there for him to be loved the rest of his career here. I know it is a longshot but there is a chance. 3. A better slant would have been "how the heck did Akron only spend $60 million and get a stadium as good as this?" I read an article in the Wall Street Journal last week about Cal, looking to do $300M in renovations to their current stadium which is built on an earthquake fault. They were confident of raising that in donations. They raised 30M over the last 5 years, blamed the economy and will be raising student fees. My first thought was how dumb is their administration? I could see coming in 10-20% short due to the economy but not 90%. How do you expect to raise 300M just to renovate? The article also quoted Michigan as spending 148M to renovate and add loges. Minnesota (I think it was them) spent 220M. 4. If we build a new arena that is mostly to move to a new league. KD commented a new arena will help marginally in the MAC. We are already a top 3 team in the league year in and year out with the JAR. I understand a comment from some old guy about a waste of money for a new arena. But in football the Rubber Bowl was dead. Even if we moved to 1-AA and built a 20K stadium, it would have been 30-40M. I don't understand the negative comments about what was built for the price it was built at. 5. 5 years ago I thought Akron was never in a better place to advance and move up if the time were right down the road. A year ago at this time was the low point as the direction of football was horrible. I was a naive person a few years ago thinking build it and everything else will fall into place. What I learned which several of you have pointed out is the right people in place is by and away #1. With the right facilities we have a better chance of keeping the right people in place longer but we need the right leadership. We have the right leadership in the flagship sports with KD, Bowden, Porter. I hope Proenza has 5 good years left to see this through and I expect big things from Tressell. A 40,000 student, research powerhouse university makes Northeast Ohio much stronger and a better place to live. As a fan I want to see good entertainment but there is a much bigger prize if Akron can execute.

Good points above, a few other thoughts. 1. Broderick Alexander looks 100%, he ran hard. He and #44 will be a strength. 2. We have at least 4 good WRs, another strength. LT Smith looked comfortable with the transition. 3. No QB stood out, Moore looked the best of the 3. I like Pohl's arm and size, hope he gets more comfortable over the summer. 4. We are small. There was a very noticeable difference between the 1 and 2 defense. Brought a buddy (who ended up buying a season ticket) and he commented that looked like a Div 2 line up size wise but with much better skill. 5. I have no doubt that Bowden will win and sooner rather than later. A few guys were out with injuries, a few new guys will contribute, if we win 3 I will be happy. If we win 3 and beat Can't, I will be really happy. 6. In general good energy, Bowden and staff will put guys in position to make plays.

Soon I am quite bullish for the next few years. The Creighton game and ND game from 2 years ago was the 1st time I started to believe, we could play good outside of the MAC. This year solidified that for me. There is not much difference from the 20th ranked team and the 60th ranked team. In the past we just were not quite good enough to be in that top 50-60 category, we are now. This team plays loose and they have talent. I like our chances next year in the big games.

I seem to remember Proenza making a statement a few years ago that we want all of our coaches to be in the top 25% of the MAC for salary. Christian at OU moves to #1, KD should always be in the top 2-3 of the league. In the MAC, 600K just does not fit. But I like the idea of reworking his contract. This was the best regular season that we have had - no bad losses in the MAC, a top 50 OOS schedule, a win over a team that was in the top 25, I saw a lot of progress this year. 3 years ago if we beat Gonzaga, that would have been a fluke and we would have gotten hammered by UNC in round 2. The level of talent in the program took a step up this year. Good things are going to happen, I don't see the program at a stalemate. I see a team built to be a top 50-60 program for the next 3 years. Gary Waters is one of the best coaches that I have seen come through the MAC in 20 years. In 16 years his teams have made the NCAAs 3 times and he has 2 wins. He has 2 more wins than us, I get that, but it is not like he is regularly making the tourney.

Thanks George, great reporting, much appreciated.

+1

I ran into zw before the semis at the q. He mentioned that he gave up posting for lent.

Looking forward to seeing our 3rd title in 4 years tonight. Both teams play at a high level, we are a little better.

Would you rather have any coach in the league other than kd? Let's bury them all this weekend.

Congratulations and thanks for another great year. Looking forward to next week and watching you guys bring home that trophy too.

Just got here, always forget how much Can't smells. Get it done tonight fellas

From what I remember, kd started seniors until Tim Carroll's senior year. He asked to come off the bench as the game was too key to lose. I think that we lost. Since then, kd has not started the seniors.

Ok, I have given up now. Win on wed, let buffalo and ou fight it out in the semi. We will be fine in Cleveland.

Don't give up hope yet.

Clevelander is nice except it is owned by ou alums unless something has changed.

Thanks for the update. I would be interested if you do it again. Weekdays it is hard enough to make it down before gametime.

And this team is definitely fun to watch.

On the postgame yesterday when asked kd said if we win out and lose MAC title game, he feels that we would get an at large that our rpi and finish to the season would be to hard to ignore. I will believe it when I see it, but we should at least be in the conversation.

Thanks Dave. Win out and they project us with a 27 rpi. That should get strong cosideration for an at large.

Zak, thanks for all the work, much appreciated.

On Zips live, kd said 6-8k would be the ideal size. He said if the deep thinkers ever want to move up down the road ling after kd is gone you need an arena at least that size to attract a conference like cusa or big east.

5,648 although I don't know how they go over capacity.

Thanks Dave, very interesting. Not correlated as much as I thought.

Good win yesterday, another fun evening in Akron. Some random thoughts from the game. 1. Watching a game like this really makes me appreciate Q. He flows between several positions throughout the game and is versatile enough to allow others to play well in their roles. Last year Q did some of the things that Harney is doing now, instant offense off the bench, the ability to get to the room. Q has moved over to other areas, PG, lockdown D (he was good in the zone last year but is much better in man to man nowZ) which has made the team better. I thought AA was great on Cooper the whole game. 1st break for AA, and Q comes in to take over guarding Cooper. At that point I thought Cooper has got to feel this pressure the whole game, we can just keep running guys at him. He needs to make FTs. I don't mind the T (the refs were quick to trigger) and I like that he plays with an edge to him, kind of how Tree comes across as well. Great game, Q. 2. The two guys who need to get 30 minutes a night, AA and Zeke were fantastic. AA was in control and he nor the team lost sight of Cooper once the whole time. No step back wide open 3's, no sagging, mentally everyone looked to be in it. Last year AA let Cooper get to him, not this year, composure was excellent. And good to see AA get 30 minutes not 35+ to win the game. Q played great at PG when needed. And Zeke was a man down low. The way we kept going inside reminded me of ND last year and you can see how much better Zeke is offensively. 3. Stevie Taylor hits his one 3 and taunts the Zips bench. Next time down, out of control 3, A few times later Zeke swats him to the 3rd row. I like that we played with composure. 4. First time that I have seen Harney in extended minutes, wow what a first step to the basket. He really is instant offense. 5. Nice to see McClanahan return to the guy that I saw last year. 6. Walsh with 28 minutes, more than remember, quiet offensive game but 7 boards and all around good game. 7. All 9 guys in the rotation played at crunch time and made plays when needed. 8. OU misses Washington, a big that ran the floor and could score. When they are on, they will be tough. I like our perimeter D better this year vs them. As KD said in the post game, our wings are long. 9. Refs had to call it tight at the end, too much bad blood. The intentional foul on Nik wasn't warranted either but they had to keep it from getting out of hand. 10. They could have called OU for another 15 fouls for all the pushing they did to Zeke in his back. Let's get one this Wed.