Hugh Cregg

People will come. They'll come to Akron for reasons they can't even fathom, They'll drive up 76 not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at the Rubber Bowl as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you sit and watch this great rivalry, we'll say. It's only a $15 dollars per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in winter coats on a blustery November afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the sidelines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. OH YES PEOPLE WILL COME and Akron will again win the Wagon Wheel!

Defense was the story of the day. Much much more aggressive and overall better than in the past = lots quicker than any defense I have seen at Akron U in the last 20 years. Can they be int he right place at the right time? Time will tell as they are very young. Lots, if not most of the new freshman signees were present. Both QB's - Jacquemain and Jackson were there. Both should have a chance to compete for the QB job this fall given the performances of the current QB's. Getsy's balls were all over the place. Arthur thinks to run first before staying in the pocket. Ferguson has some nice balls and some real ducks. Ferguson is not very good at all. Many big linemen in the new recruit class, thick kids too. Some other notes... Travis made it through half of one practice before he quit. Playing at St. V and Akron U are very different, which he soon found out. The players I talked to had a good laugh about that and said he was back where he belonged. Matt Pichardo - Transferred to UCF, may not even play FB again. Brian Flaherty - Moved to TE after a second should surgery. CJ Gruber - Medical Hardship due to bad shoulders, will not play again. Gary Frisby - Never attended Akron, went to Wayne State last year. Jamail Jackson - Never made grades. Myron Howard - All-Ohio Relays were this weekend, track pays the freight so he is with track. Cloud, Reid, Allman, Henry and Pace were all out with injury, will be back in fall. Dennis Basch is done for his career due to multiple concussions, per his dad. I agree with Zipboy - a 500 season is within reach, but in my opinion it is far far away from a given. 3-4 wins would be more in line with my thoughts after seeing this display. What a great facility - a nice touch to have this in the fieldhouse despite it being a nice day. Always a gamble this time of year. Good to see many of the former players back. Got a handout at the door that detailed all of the promotions fo the year and every game has a player reunion scheduled. Also bus trips to every away game are being offered. Finally. Would be nice to take a big crowd to the away games.

Granddaughter is sick, an't get a minutes sleep, so it's prediction time. Ot is hard to predict anything before you know how the games play out time wise. A game against a certain opponent early in the season is better than another late in the slate and so forth. Where is the open date? Any mid-week games, etc... all play into the equation, especially with a very young team. Here are my best guesses. Can't State (Toss, but edge Akron) flushes have everything back on defense and we have very little back up front or in the pocket. flushes have a JUCO QB newcomer and Akron has a defense with many holes to fill leadership wise, which was just not very good the past few years. Kicking game edge goes to Akron, as does coaching intangible. Home field helps, 1-0. @Â Purdue (Loss) Would be nice, but not going to happen, 1-1. @Â Middle Tennessee State (Toss) All things being equal we lost more to graduation that MTSU did, this game is at their place, and it is early in the season and coming off the trip to Purdue, just like last year coming off Penn State. A tossup, with the edge going to MTSU for the two-year series sweep, 1-2. ARMY (Win) Late in the season, team should be ready to peak, 2-2. @Â BG (Loss) They are better than Akron in all phases of the game, 2-3. N ILLINOIS (Loss) They are better than Akron in all phases of the game, 2-4. @Â Ball State (Toss) Depends on when this is played. After the middle of the season I give the edge to Akron, early on, on the road, and with a maturing team and a third year head coach the edge goes to Ball State, 2-4-1 > to close to call. OHIO (Toss) Again, it depends on when this is played. After the middle of the season I give the edge to Akron. The earlier this is played I give the edge to Ohio by ways of surprise of their system, and the fact that they have been in control of the lasttwo games against Akron only to blow big leads due to awful coaching from their former HC. 2-4-2 > to close to call. @Â Miami (L) They are better than Akron in all phases of the game and this game is on the road, 2-5-2. @Â Buffalo (W) Akron is better in all phases of the game, 3-5-2. C. MICHIGAN (W) This should be a good game. CMU came on strong late last season, has a comparable coach to JD over in the West, and will have an burr up their saddle. They have decent talent, another too close to call depending on when the game is played and how the season has progressed to that point in the season. If one team is hot and the other team has struggled the intanglibles come into play. Akron won at CMU two years ago and lost in the bowl three years ago, but since those games the head coaches have been fired/resigned and these could be the up and coming programs in the MAC. A nice game, too close to call, 3-5-3. If the Zips can win 2 of the three tossup games they would get 5 wins. The five losses are sure bets and I will take anyone's money now. I agree with others I have talked with that this team will really struggle early with the lack of leadership up front on both sides of the ball. I have a feeling that youth will be served this year and we will see a lot of true freshmen and red-shirt freshmen/sophs getting a majority of the PT unless an older player is just out of this world. This is not going to be a team of world beaters and is easily the weakest team of the last 3 Zip squads. No Frye, no other veteran lead by example type players on the roster in the grunt positions. This will be a bunch of pups who will have to grow up fast to win games. I expect a year of hard knocks in 2005 which will lay the base in experience for many wins in 2006 and beyond. The foundation is just not there with SR/JR talent or leadership to merit much more. If the rumors about Travis are true that is an enigma - potentially good for football, but disasterous for basketball if he were to get hurt. At best Travis is in cleats until Thanksgiving which does not have him in basketball shape or in the team dynamic via practice until new years. He'd miss Puerto Rico and the early season chemistry time which cupled with Wood being on the mend does not look good on the glass. Even Gates waited until after college to pick up the second sport, this seems pretty selfish and ego driven.

One can only hope... The Zip Strip looks like a slum.

The WMU story was out last night... Nothing new on the Miami, Buffalo or Can't State sites, nor on GoZips.com. It looks like Akron is going to be the last tea,m left out of both the football and basketball postseasons... how f$%^& pathetic is that. Akron Athletics has no juice at all if this type of crap keeps happening.

The MAC is no where as a basketball league and today's bracket proves it. If the MAC failes to get 4 teams in the NIT it should just cease operation. Akron would be better off in the MVC.

When a team like Northern Iowa gets in over the MAC regular season champion with a higher RPI something is amuk. Five no-anything bowl bids be damned, this sucks for the MAC. Why even bother playing the regular season, if you win the title in March, you play in the dance. If you win 10 of your last 12 games and lose on a last second tip, fuck off - you go to the Not Important Tournament. Sounds like it would be better just to load up on patsies, get your confidence up, rest your players in late February and go .500 in the MAC and then hope you get a good draw and win in Cleveland.

That's not being a Monday Morning "Point Guard", it's being truthful. Fans don't have to be blind positive, they look at it through realistic terms. Akron overachieved, got in position to do something, then flamed out. Season over, game, set, match, moving on to football.

Does Akron have any scholarships left to give this spring? I ask because this season is over and it is so because the team kept getting killed on the glass. By the looks of the roster no one from this past freshman class is a big body rebounder and no one from the already announced class is a big body type. This would mean two straight classes of no rebounding. One the team next year the big bodied Zips who return are Wood (coming of a major injury and is a ?) Travis (who is an aggressive rebounder) Preston (Not too good on the glass - wants to play on the wing) Futch (Got out rebounded by Nick Goddard this year - a bit tongue in cheek with the comment, but?) Milam (Has less bulk than my 11 year old daughter - can jump but not when he is boxed out and giving up 100 lbs on the block) If Wood is not 100% come December, which is a probability, and god forbid Travis gets hurt at any point next year, Akron will have no one on the bench who can rebound. I am really worried that we have no big guns to compete with the guys from BG, Miami, Ohio, Can't State, and Buffalo - all of whom have guys coming back who hit the glass. This means that even though Akron is better, the team could still be 6th best in the MAC East because it cannot get a rebound to save it's life. Shooting threes and playing up tempo is all great when the team is hitting, but when you cannot make high percentage shots by going inside or continually get crushed by 15+ on the boards you are not going to win more than you lose. Dials is not going to rebound at 6' and the transfer kid from Evansville is another guard. Other than thefive guys listed above there is no one on the roster who will think about hitting the glass before shooting. At SV/SM Dambrot had Sian Cotton, Travis and James hitting the glass and Dru, Cory and others bombing from the outside. Now having the best player on the planet probably helped, but at least it was balanced. The biggest flaw in Zips ball right now is a lack of balance from the last two recruiting classes. I sure hope KD has a ace up his sleeve and maybe a juco player coming in to help out in the boards. Right now it looks like Romeo and the 7 dwarfs.

FINAL CALL FOR THE STUDENT BUS TRIP TO THE MAC MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT THURSDAY AFTERNOON... UA STUDENTS are encouraged to sign up NOW for the Student Bus Trip to Gund Arena in Cleveland and the MAC Tournament Quarterfinal match-up with Western Michigan. Tip-off for this game is set for 2 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. UA Students can get a game ticket, round-trip charter bus travel to Gund Arena, Zips "6th Man" gold T-shirt, plus Pepsi products on the bus trip for only $12. The bus will depart at Noon on Thursday from PINTS Restaurant (426 EAST EXCHANGE STREET) and will return to campus immediately following the game. Only Fifteen (15) seats remain on the trip. To sign-up for this trip please e-mail Kevin Olivett at olivett@uakron.edu or stop by and sign up in person before 10 a.m. at the Zips Athletics Ticket Office, which is located in the main lobby of Rhodes Arena.

The only people who are negative like that are lonely and live in a dark, damp place. The mods should ban King Zip.

This was a great idea! Must have been tough having to plan something like this weeks in advance with not knowing when or if the Zips would be playing. Kudos to the staff.