zipboy

I caught most of the first 3 hours of the show, almost an Akron infomercial. It was great.1st time that I heard the AD speak at length. He was a good interview.

Not much more to add, I am still shellshocked today. I will be at the Q all weekend and having us in the final is a lot better than getting bounced on Thursday. Here is hoping for Buffalo to be on their game who probably has the only shot to knock Can't off.A few other things I thought while watching 1. Singletary seemed so relaxed and together out there. Not that they neeeded him, he only played 15 minutes. 2. In 2 games, they have exploited every weakness we have on D. Does a zone do anything differently?3. KD made a great comment in the postgame - He said what has disappointed him the most is this team is scared to play Can't, same way last year. He said Wood, Travis, Joyce, Dials etc had no fear of Can't, this team does. 4. Even when Akron was outclassed during the Hipsher era, they somehow played balls out at home again Can't. Can't is better, Can't should not be 20 points better on our court which is essentially what the game was.5. As CK said, I am praying for someone else to knock them off before Saturday and the good Zips to show up for the weekend.

I was able to catch most of the show last night. A few comments from KD that I thought were right on. When asked about scheduling (side note, credit to whoever in the crowd asked him this as I can feel his blood boiling everytime he talks about this)KD said - "We are not quite ready to step the schedule up yet. When Zeke develops and when we get more consistent guard play we will. He under scheduled the year of Romeo and Dru, that team could have handled a tougher schedule. You need to win games to get players."My thoughts is that he is right on. Schedule to win 20. If the team gets better, schedule harder. For my enjoyment I wish that we would play a couple better home games. But I will trust Dambrot with whatever he does. He has made March relevant the last 5 years for me.There isn't much of a margin with the rest of the league, but there is a margin. KD is generally the best coach on the floor that night, and the players are generally a cut above most other teams. 10-6 league play and schedule to go 9-5 or 10-4 in OOC play. I was also able to catch French's show last night. His comments on the game Friday - "should be a great night for NE Ohio. Athletic teams hurt Akron. Can't is more athletic. On paper Can't is the better team and should be favored but that is why they play."

There has been talk in the past about how to make the league stronger, punishing members for not holding their own. I like the idea that if your RPI is above 200, you don't get to share in tournament revenue. I knew that there was a disrepancy between the 2 divsions but did not expect it to be this large.

I watched a little of Butler vs Valpo Friday night and saw Boroski doing the game. I think that he does a good job.Side note, back in the Hipsher era Ted Valentine was calling the game. Hipsher complains about a non call in the 1st minute, Valentine comes over and reams in, says he is not putting up with anything. Dan backed off the rest of the night.2 minutes later, Ted misses an obvious call and a fan in the floor seats yells that he traveled. Ted comes over and reams him. Another fan says something, and he threatened to throw him out there. It was a more subdued crowd than usual after that. Fast foward to later in the year or maybe the next season, and Ted is T'ing up someone in the sweet 16 or elite 8 game in the last minute after blowing another call. That is one guy I hope I never see officiate a game in person again.

Thanks Dave

Disappointing loss to say the least and it shows how different a top 100 team and a top 50-60 team is. Tall, athletic teams give us trouble. If Akron had played William and Mary who I watched Friday night and is 3rd in the Colonial, we match up much better.I go back to something that GP1 often says, "Let's be happy with us and be Akron." Wel what are we? We are in a conference ranked 15th in the country out of 31 conferences, a very mediocre league. And over the past 5 years, Akron has won about 65% of their conference games and made the title game the last 3 years and if I remember right have been in the top 100 (top 30%) in final RPI rankings the last 5 years. This year may be a stretch. So we are a good team in an average conference that draws about 3,000 per game and can beat about 2/3 of the country and there is a wide gap between us and a top 50 team. And if we continue to spend 1.4M per year, that may be as far as KD or anyone else can take the Zips on a consistent basis without cheating. While I want Akron to go to the next level, when we play a tough division MAC school or get the rare times we get a quality OOC opponent at the JAR, I am always entertained and see good basketball. Another quote from GP1 that has stuck with me is the Dollar General analogy with MAC football which is a good anaology. I can't even watch MAC football on TV most of the time. When we get a good opponent at home for basketball, I don't feel that way, it is good, exciting basketball.Maybe the program is at a crossroads. KD has continued to build momentum each year and this is the 1st year where it feels stagnant. The thought of Gonzaga of the East is fools good without more monetary support. Maybe Zeke and Humpty develop the consistency we need and become breakout stars which is out best chance to go from top 100 to top 50/60 and become a VCU. But if you told me we would go to the NCAAs a couple more times over the next 5 years, win 65% of our MAC games, be a top 100 team and graduate everyone, I would take that in a heart beat.

Miami website says the game will be on ONN

We replace an IU or Kentucky with a sunbelt home and home like FAU or whoever would be perfect as GP1 said. But I also like as Blue and Gold said no top 15 team. We may start 1-3, but all 4 games should be competitive. I also like the 1st 2 games at home. That has not happened ever from what I remember. This is the most favorable OOC schedule that I can remember over the last 20 years. Best chance for great weather the 1st 2 weeks of the year as well. Hopefully we get 2 more home games by Oct 15th. Have the bye week in Nov when the weather is crappy anyway.

Thanks for the updates.

Ruffin McNeal Texas Tech DC was just hired.

Akron is scheduled to be away for the Bracketbuster ZIP. RI looked very good, excited for Tuesday.

From what I remember, Mitch was one of the finalists for the Akron job when JD was hired. Rob said that he would take his time with the staff and it appears that after his first 3-4 guys, that is what he is doing. One benefit unlike when JD came in, he has worked for several different head coaches and with more assistants. Seeing what people do first hand is the best way to see what they can do.

Thanks for the scouting report. I am still hoping for Akron and VCU to schedule some games. Both good teams, easy to get to Richmond or Akron, coaches are friends, it makes to much sense. VCU is the kind of high mid major many of us talk about playing.

Their game vs OSU looks to be in CT, "home" game at a bigger arena.

Interesting point that I wasn't aware of. Elton had an article a few days ago about Akron's schedule and mentioned how weak the MVC schedule is but their collective RPI is very good which I questioned. When Rick Boyages was in charge of MAC basketball (now with the Big 10 I think), he recommended 3 things from what I remember, 1. At least 50% of OOC games at home, 2. Limit money games, 3. Limit Div 3 games. He wanted the OOC schedule waterd down. Akron schedules as close to what he suggested as anyone in the league. Let's say Akron beats RI, had beaten AP (the game we gave away), and had somehow managed to beat A&M (got lucky or whatever). At that point, the buzz would be a 1 loss team with a win over a top 25 team. Kind of like the MVC, beat the 1 top 25 team you play and have a gaudy record, what you see is so and so beat a top 25 team on Sportscenter and they are 12-1, they must be really good.Looking forward to RI on Tuesday. Over the last 4-5 years, the best games, athletic hard fought games that I remember at the JAR were Nevada, VCU, and the Can't games. Akron is fun to watch and when they play a good team, it really does make for exciting basketball.

I wasn't there but Akron shot 29 FTs and Wyoming shot 35. I remember that guy at the JAR 2 years ago in his first season as coach. He was shooting out the F bombs the whole game, reminded me of Dan Hipsher in a way.

The last 10 years the MAC spent a lot of money on football which got worse and the basketball coaches complain about the lack of spending in basketball which made their sport worse, go figure.Interesting topic, to me it is the longevity of coaches. I thought about the most successful MAC coaches over the past 15-20 years. My list and how long they stayed as head coach in the MACRandy Walker ( 9 years), Gary Blackney (10), Jim Grobe (6), Terry Hoeppner (6), Gary Darnell (8), Bob Pruett (9), Joe Novak (12), Gary Pinkel (10), Tom Amustutz (8). All of those guys stayed at least 6 years, had multiple winning seasons, had more success sustained longer than coaches who have moved up in the past year, Turner Gill (4), Brady Hoke (6 with 1 good year), Butch Jones (3). Gill and Jones are great examples, if they don't get an opportunity to jump and stay 2-3 more years, the league is better for it and if they really are good coaches take their team to the next level which is a MAC elite team 10 years ago. Instead both schools get assistants who will grow into the job hopefully but no way they sustain as much success in the next year or two than if those 2 had stayed. And I don't think those 2 were world beaters either. The MAC is full of guys learning on the job. When 75% of your coaches are in that situation, less than 3 years as HC, you aren't going to be as good. I am not bemoaning them leaving, I just don't feel the opportunites to move that quickly 10 years ago existed. Urban Myer and Brian Kelly both stayed 2 years and 2 years after that were coaching FL and ND. Second thing is the MAC started the spread to some degree before it caught on eveywhere else. Good QB play can neutralize a lot and whether it was the spread, luck, or good coaching, a lot of good college QBs came through back then. Look how hard it was for JD to recruit and identify a QB the past 6 years.Third, no question Marshall leaving hurt. At the end Marshall came back down and several others came back up so the margin between Marshall and everyone else wasn't much different, but they carried an attitude that carried over to the rest of the league. Temple is spending the money and builing a talented team in the same mold, but no one cares at Temple. At Marshall, they cared, and that made beating them relevant.Fourth, who has gone down faster over the past 10 years, MAC or Big Ten? Maybe geography does play a part in what is happening.I don't believe the mid week games on ESPN have hurt or helped. The MAC drew flies before and still does. One year BG and NIU played and they had college gameday at the game, I think BG. Sellout, 30K, etc. 2 weeks later, BG plays a Sat night game in Nov with announced attendance at 11K.

I saw Elton take off around halftime. Maybe he was bored and decided to do the full Can't game?

I don't think he redshirted in 08. I thought that he enrolled in the spring to keep that extra year.

I feel like Steve French's agent. He said this morning a good chancd the hire will happen on Monday. He had a couple of names but would not give them out.

I caught part of Frenchie's show tonight. His list in no particular order1. Mark Stoops - French has heard that Stoops is interested. I am excited about this one.2. Pat Narducci - MSU DC3. Paul Winters4. Paul Chryst- he also mentioned that Akron was one of the MAC schools that wanted Rick Chryst out5. Luke Fickell6. Terry Allen - North IowaStoops seemed like the only guy where French acknowleded hearing something, the rest were what he thought would be a list of people interested.Also, on ZipLive Wistercill said he was looking to have the new coach in the next 2-3 weeks. I say don't hire a search firm and save an extra hundred thousand. He seems like he knows what he wants.

Akron went with a 3 guard line up most of the 2nd half and the team was playing pretty well which is why I don't think Zeke played. KD wanted to win the game and went with the line up that was working.I had a good vantage point of the handshakes, I couldn't see the foul itself very well. What I saw, game ended, Humpty made a beeline for their coach and started yelling/pleading about what happened. Their assisstant, a little guy started screaming back at Humpty, then some pushing came in, the McKnight kids started getting heated, Bardo was pissed as well. McFadden got Humpty out of there and Nik and a couple of others got in there and broke it up. The AD as the coaches did a good job controlling the situation. I don't know what happened, but the McKnight kids are pretty calm and they were pissed so take it for what it is worth.I can't imagine anything happening, no punches were thrown just a little pushing and a lot of jawing. I wanted to hear KD's postgame but he never made it on the air.As far as the coaches and AD, I saw all of them, both sides apologizing to each other. From my view the foul looked like a hard foul with maybe an elbow to the eye? Humpty's eye looked red after game. In any case, the guy has played here over a year and isn't a guy that goes off the deep end. I am going to give Humpty the benefit of the doubt until I hear something different.

Good luck to him in figuring out what he wants to do and doing a premed major. If JD goes, we will lose some kids that he recruited but the reality also is for any kid going to a non top 20 program which would be virtually any non BCS team and any BCS team not in the top 3-4 of their league, the coach staying over 5 years is under 25%. If he goes to CMU, Butch Jones is going to move on in the next year or two and Lynch will probably get fired at IU in another year. Again, he has a lot of other things to consider, but if the coach makes up a big part of where to go, the chances of the guy who recruited him being there for all 4 or 5 years is remote.

I watched part of French's show last night. He made it sound like it was 50/50 if JD stays or not.French said no decision has been made, JD is a solid guy one of French's favorites, the freshman class is really good, don't be surprised one way or the other what happens.