Sergeant Zip

MCKEESPORT DAILY NEWS Akron hit it big with McKeesport's Marshall

From the Genius that is Pat Forde: Notre Dame (2) Best Case: Mike Brey does what Digger Phelps and every other men's basketball coach in school history failed to do -- capture a national title. Riding the rarest commodity in the game -- lavish experience -- the heady Fighting Irish reverse the trend that says you must have surefire pros to win it all. The Irish shoot the lights out of three successive venues and win a succession of close games -- they beat Louisville in their third overtime meeting of the season, then take out Kansas State in Houston and slay Ohio State in the title game. Ben Hansbrough joins big brother Tyler in the fellowship of the (championship) ring. Phelps gives Brey a gold-plated highlighter. Notre Dame faces reality and officially becomes a basketball school, and to prove it, the Irish commit to building a new arena. Worst Case: Experience is great, but athleticism can beat it. Notre Dame runs into that in a second-round upset loss to Florida State. The Seminoles blanket the Irish shooters and savage them on the offensive glass. Crestfallen Notre Dame fans remember that Mike Brey has never been to a regional final, much less a Final Four, as a head coach. Then they go back to scrutinizing the spring football depth chart. Meanwhile, Mike Krzyzewski unexpectedly retires after winning a fifth national title and Duke names Brey to succeed him. Akron (15) Best Case: The Zips take inspiration from a text message sent from former Akron homie LeBron James: "Take your talents to Chicago. And shock the world." Balanced team that won 11 of its past 13 games jumps on sleepy Notre Dame in afternoon tipoff, instills unease in pro-Irish crowd in the United Center and hangs around until the final media timeout before capitulating. LeBron sends consoling postgame text saying that he knows what it's like to lose in a playoff format. Gerry Faust shows up to root for both teams. Worst Case: There are no motivational texts from LeBron, and no hope, either. Akron team that didn't beat anybody in the RPI top 75 and lost to a pair of teams in the 300s is in far beyond its depth against the Fighting Irish (No. 8 RPI). Zips fail to challenge Notre Dame inside and are buried beneath an avalanche of 3s. Faust gets booed by both fan bases.

I saw a lot of missed shots in this...

What ever happened to Vincent Dorsey's blog?

MAC Sports website has video and audio of 2011 Men's Basketball Awards Ceremony, Akron Championship Game Postgame Comments, Akron's Zeke Marshall Post Game Interview, Can't State Championship Game Postgame Comments, and Akron Net Cutting Ceremony.

Wow, especially with Ohio State being right in Cleveland.

Can't State was a 7 in the NIT too

Live shot from BH looked good.

What was the clause in your beat relating to this, Dr. Z?

Good bad with a good message.

Kudos to Zipmeister, it takes skill to write a completely sarcastic comment and make it sound so serious. I think you stepped your game up on this one with the breakdown of business law. To answer your question, good money would be on the parlor operator (if he is sober (not impaired)). What about undue influence though, did the parlor operator exercise undue influence (presumed or actual) over the OSU player? I think that could void the contract. Could there have been fraud in the inducement? Maybe that is why the US attorney is involved. The plot thickens...

UNC Asheville beat Coastal Carolina 60-47 on Saturday in the Big South Conference title game on the Chanticleers’ home court. It’s the second year in a row that NIT bound Coastal Carolina was the tournament’s top seed and lost the title game.

Domenik Hixon re-signed with the Giants under a one-year contract. His rehab is going well and his knee feels strong, according to ESPNNewYork.com's Ohm Youngmisuk.

Before playing in a foursome with Jack Nicklaus, Tim Tebow and Kenny G, Jason Taylor said, "If I’m going to play, I want to play with the Jets.... if they’ll have me, I think I’d enjoy doing it again.”

Hopefully they don't need to look at the photo and they were there last night supporting the BBall team and saw it in person.

Pat Forde: The MAC currently is rated the No. 18 league in the land by Jeff Sagarin's computer (and 21st in the RPI). That's a fairly precipitous fall from even the modest position the Midwestern collection of colleges once held. From 2000 to '05, the MAC average was No. 11 in Sagarin's ratings. From 2006 to the present, that rank is No. 16. And this season, it's all the way down to 18 -- just behind the Summit League and just ahead of the Big West (not to be confused in the slightest with the Big East). Sagarin does not rank a single MAC school in his top 100 -- there simply isn't a single entity in the 12-team league to get overly excited about. As recently as 2007-08, the MAC had five in the Sagarin top 100. In 2002, Can't State reached the Elite Eight with Antonio Gates playing power forward. In 1999, Miami (Ohio) made the Sweet 16 behind Wally Szczerbiak. In 1990, Ball State advanced to the Sweet 16, where the Cardinals nearly upset eventual national champion UNLV. The next season, Eastern Michigan made it to that round. So this is a league with some history. But it now has become a mystery. Maybe the general population decline in the industrial centers of the upper Midwest has had an impact on recruiting. Maybe schools have felt the budgetary crunch of playing football at the highest classification and it has affected the basketball bottom line. Maybe there are too many aging facilities, mismanaged athletic departments and uninspiring coaches. Whatever the root cause, MAC basketball is floundering. And there's no reason to believe that will change anytime soon. Wow, do I have rose colored glasses on or is this over the top? Uninspring coaches? Floudering? Does Forde think Can't State spends too much cash on football? Think Forde will be in Cleveland watching any games because he probably hasn't seen a game this year? It seems to me he looked at some computer's numbers and put down a bunch of words to fill an article?

And get clean and sober or get naked in a restaurant and start screaming the obscenities?

+1 I think there was a lot of excitement during the early KD/Romeo/Dru years that we were laying a foundation & building a program that would be recognized on a national level. However, since Rome & Dru graduated we've pretty much been treading water. We really haven't taken the program to the "next level," however one may define that. We are a constantly winning, more students living on campus, and have increasing enrollment but attendance has stayed the same? That is disappointing.

Stephen Curry was born in Akron. Dell Curry was playing for the Cavaliers when Stephen was born (March 14, 1988).

80 to 40, awesome!

And thinking about some of RI's personnel decisions last year, and ability (or lack thereof) to extract the most from the talent he has as shown by last season, this gives you hope why?? It doesn't but we still have a couple of years to find out if he can or can't.

To look at these recruits now is nothing but fun discussion. Aaron Rodgers went to JUCO because he did not receive any scholarship offers from Division I football teams. Miami of Ohio was the only college that wanted Ben Roethlisberger to be a quarterback. How these recruits are coached up and put in positions to succeed matter more than the rivals.com rankings.

From "Parents Just Don't Understand" by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince... "I asked her for Adidas and she bought me Zips!"

Other MAC Power Rankings... Akron #4 and considered the "sleeper."

Link to magazine It also can be accessed at the bottom of here. It is a pop-up.