zipboy

CMU with Kaman?

A few moreMost sections of bleachers codemned and covered by tarpMost likely to have bathroom temperature over 100 degreesMost likely to have pole block your vision on any given play

Perceptions vs reality. When you look at real numbers, we ain't that bad compared to everyone else. It is safe to say that we would have drawn at least 2500-3000 for the NIT game. Here is what each schools attendance was last night in the opening roundUTEP 7652Penn State 6770Butler 3088Stanford 2519Charlotte 1963North AZ 1602Manhattan 1232Temple 1017Hard to use Akron doesn't draw anyone excuse for this one. Go Zips!

Back in the old blue board days when we had about 10 posters, I remember Mike posting out there for the first time. He introduced himself, said he was now in charge of marketing, asked what ideas we had, and laid out some of his ideas they would start on that fall for football.I remember responding back with the comment half of me thinks you are just some jokester but your post seems serious. So half of me believes you really are the new marketing guy. I was incredulous that we actually had a marketing guy who 1 could find our site, 2 asked what we thought, and 3 had a vision for the future. I think that I almost cried that night. My 2nd memory is after the EMU football game that went into about 3 OTs, last game of the year ended up like 60 something to 60 something. It was Thanskgiving weekend I think. We had an announced crowd of 6K with about 2K in the stands. Mike came on and apologized for how pathetic the attendance was and vowed that it would never be that piss poor again on his watch.We are all indebted to the job that you did. I wish you the best Mike and hope to see you back in Akron someday. Take care

Post all over the place, so I just thought I would put my thoughts here.1. The board is here to take all opinions, but anyone questioning KD after 2 years with what he has done, well I just don't get it. No question, he made some questionable dec isions last night. But this guys is going to put the Zips on the national map. 2 years from now after our 2nd NCAA bid and sweet sixteen run, we will be begging for him to stay here. Then if he leaves, we will have the usual how could he leave, what a backstabber, Akron is a stepping stone approach, blah, blah, blah.2. The criticisim for Joyce and Travis? Travis was picked by MAC captains as the best forward in the league. He missed 2 key FTs and he forgot to box out which hurt us, but to say he only plays because he is in the Lebron gang again I don't get it. Dru is what he is, a solid MAC point guard. Nevada showed what a physical backcourt does to us.3. Joyce showed his limitations last night. Against more athletic, stronger guards, he struggles. Giving Middleton more minutes would have helped a lot. We should have had at least one more athletic guard in there which would have helped Joyce. He averaged 33 minutes per game this year. When he was not in there, I think throughout the season we still struggled. Middleton is not a true PG. He should be on the 2. We need a guy to come in next year and give 15 quality minutes a night. 4. To say this team has no heart and quit is idiotic. To say we panicked and fell apart last night is an understatement. But that is a far cry from losing to the 13 seed at home because you couldn't wait to get the season over. That was quitting and no heart. Last night was not. Last night was piss poor play the last 10 minutes of the game.5. Peterson vs Linhart - I wish Peterson would have played more. He played 20 minutes last night. Linhart played 16. It's not like Linhart ate all his minutes up. Peterson should have gotten a few more minutes especially when we needed to score. Toledo could not match up on him. But given that we got hammered on the boards and Linhart is our best rebounder of late, unless you bench Preston not sure what else to do.6. I was the most dissapointed in Dials last night. Shot selection in the first half allowed Toledo back in the game. Making the one jumper than lollygagging back on D, that is what really got me mad. I expected a lot more out of him. His frustration showed throughout the season and really bit us last night. Middleton should have gotten more of his minutes and I hope gets a serious shot at starting next year. 7. People can post what they want, and I don't mean to offend anyone. Give it a couple days and see if you are still this angry. I have been an Akron fan for 15 years now. I have never even felt remotely this good about Akron's future. No question we need to get more athletic. I am anxious to see what next years class looks like. No question, last night was a horrible ending to a very good season. Give me 3 more years of what happened last night, and I may start to agree with you. But be realistic. This was the best season in 20 years with still a largely Hipsher recruits and his team. If people don't want to show up next year because we blew it to Toledo, then F them. They will be the ones missing out on good basketball.Good season Zips that could have been great. Here is to the future.

I think Villegas is the key for Toledo. If he is on, the game will be tight. If he is not, Toledo does not have enough firepower. Man, this is the best that I have ever felt going into this big of a game.I look for Preston to step up big tonight. He played great D and did the little stuff, but his shot was off. Glad to see the Linhart of old return. Carry us through Dru, go Zips!

Thanks Hilltopper, this really gets me excited. Glad to hear that Gerry is helping and doing a great job. Nice guy, we need everone on board to move the program forward.

There as always. Go Zips!

Didn't Chambers replace Terrell Williams at YSU?

Amazing for how much heat that Joplin has taken this year, no one mentions that Dakich is in trouble. He has not anything for 5 years.

Final attendance numbers for MAC games only. Again, I feel this is a better barometer when students are mostly in session and it is tough to compare when some teams play a big non conference foe while others do not. Overall, avg attendance for the league was 34131. ohio 56352. toledo 45083. ball 43964. buffalo 42175. Can't 40576. akron 37937. miami 36978. wmu 33709. niu 212210 cmu 199911 bg 181312 emu 1347Including non conference games, our attendance was 3470 which is 7th highest in school history (assuming pre JAR days are lower than this).A few thoughts after seeing these numbers1. I always had the perception how bad we are relative to the rest of the league. Relative to being the national power where KD will take us, there is a lot of work to do. I look at 5K as the magical number to put us in the top 100 of the country. But relative to the rest of the league, we are very solid. Anyone singling us out from another school is ignorant.2. We were only lower than 2350 once in school history, the last year of the Coleman Crawford era, my senior year in Akron. Even if your team is bad, the bottom 4 have a lot of work to do. From a league standpoint, everyone needs to average at least 3K.3. I like NIU, but I guess they are not a bball school. Great support in football. They won the MAC West, beat DePaul and Kan State, and they want to fire their coach and have pretty low attendance numbers. But they are one of the best in the league for football support.4. Kudos to Ohio. A lot of that has to do with their students who show up in droves. From a paying customer standpoint, my guess is that we have about the same support as everyone else in the top 8 or close to it. Also kudos to Buffalo who have really gained a stable crowd.5. Non conference games never draw well. Keep the local teams, CSU, YSU and 2 other home and homes. Play everything else on neutral court tournaments. It will improve our RPI, give us a chance for some name wins, and make overall attendance better.6. In Dan Hipshers' last year, we had bottomed out to 2500 fans per game. In only 2 years. we have seen a 39% increase in attendance. I look for next year in football and bball to show big jumps. Just getting another 200 students per game and 200 paying customers per game will put us near the Buffalo, Ball, and Toledo group. I love the MAC, but if the MAC loses their top 3-4 teams over the next few years, I want to be part of that group. Good attendance in both football and bball is key. Go Zips!

Good post.Any of 6-7 teams can win it. Given that teams will need to play 3 consistent games in a row, only Akron, Can't, and Miami have shown that throughout the year. Keys for us are to shoot decent, keep the big guys out of foul trouble, and rebound. I have never felt better about the Zips in a big game, tight game situation. KD said earlier in the year, you win big games with character guys. I think we have that this year.

3 reasons for me.1. I am not an insider. But from what I have seen this year, Linhart played some very good ball up through the first 20 games. I love DP and have always been a big fan of his, but I thought the team was better with Linhart in there for the most part up until a month ago. It seems like Nate hit a wall over the last month or so and I was glad to see DP get the bulk of minutes. 2. DP is not the best defensive guy. His shot was on yesterday. And he really exploited matchups with Can't. But if he is not hitting, it gets tougher to leave him in for extended stretches.3. After the Miami game he said that his back has good days and bad days. And he just had to live with the pain for the rest of the year. I would rather have him saved for this weekend instead of him blowing his back out 2 weeks ago. I look for him to get serious minutes this weekend. If we win it, we will need him to play 3 good ballgames.

One of the better refs in the MAC retired last year and became the head of the MAC referee crew, Sam something. At the beginning of the year, he said that he was paring down from 60 refs to the top 20. I can't see any improvement. People are human and make mistakes. But the league became a lot more physical this year to the detriment of the league.

I have not seen the replay but talked to 2 people who saw it on TV. They said it was a total joke. I am not sure of the rules either, but if he is supposed to be suspended, I would appeal based off the video tape. The MAC wants Akron and Can't in the finals. I can't see them screwing us over this year.

Good post, overall one of the best wins in a long time. DP has gotten through the season healthly, we need him next weekend. He kept us in it. Great game by Cedric as well. I never comment on the officiating, but today was a joke. I hope that Rick Chryst was at the game today. Good day to be a Zip. Not much else to say, my head is still spinning. On to Cleveland.

I hope to see Mike tomorrow and wish him well. He did a lot.

I like the rotation as is. People know their roles and when they will get minutes. Looking at minutes over the last 3 weeks, Ced is almost the same as Dials and Dru. A bigger question is do we start all the seniors against Can't or stick with the normal rotation? Or does it really matter who starts?

I would be happy with that. I thought that Elton had a good article today in the PD where he pushed Dru and Romeo, Hatcher from Miami and Youngblood and Haynes from Can't for POY.

Great win on Saturday. Not sure where to post since comments are all over. Just a few thoughts.1. Middleton played his best game of the year. As he continues to learn when to attack and when to slow down, he will continue to get better. I love KD, but looking back, I don't know how he was not getting more minutes earlier in the year. Does Allen Hanson even play?2. When Preston got in foul trouble, that really hurt the offense the last 10 minutes of the game. Our O runs a lot smoother with him in there.3. Smart playing by Romeo. The 2 early fouls on Williams hurt them. Romeo played within himself.4. Nice to see Dru looking for his shot more.5. The buzzer beater by Dials was the first time I think that we scored with the ball before the half. Can we at least come up with a play instead of having Dru dribble for 25 seconds and hoist a 30 footer? I think half of his turnovers for the year are on the last possession before the half.6. Any game we shoot over 50% the rest of the way, we will not lose. 7. Nice job at the line. Huge improvement from last year.8. Assist to turnover ratio continues to deteriorate from midpoint of season.9. Nice job, Zips. Buffalo is winnable, but we need to bring our A game.

Thanks for the post. It would be nice for attendance to have a final four of OU, Akron, Can't, and Miami. Looks like OU's chance of sliding to 7 is doubtful.Also, kudos to the league for scheduling this year. Having the last 10 out of 12 interdivsion with so many critical match ups the last 2 weeks of the year has really added to the excitement

Well thought out comments. I agree for MVP, no one on the good teams may even make 1st team except Reitz. He won't get MVP, but I can't argue with the choice. My guess is that Bowler will win it but I like the choice of Reitz.FR of the year, Medlock has more potential that Acker but Acker had one heck of a season.Coach of the year, I am partial to KD. Christian will probably win it which I can't argue with.Other thoughts Biggest surprise of the year - Can't and WMUBiggest surprise in a bad way - OU and to a lesser extent Ball.All MAC - Reitz, Bowler, Samarco, Mills, and CageTravis should make 2nd team

I wish him well, and JD will get someone else in who is pretty good. I thought he recruited FL for us but I may be wrong.

I think that we lose the tiebreakers. Isn't the next tiebreaker after head to head, record in the East divsion?

Good point, I have thought about that too. Both Joyce and Dials have looked to shoot near the end of games this year. Last year it seemed that McFadden was the only guy looking to pull the trigger. If I had one shot to win it at the end, I would run a play for Peterson.