Zip Watcher

Well, the Zips let a good team off the hook @ the JAR. It was an entertaining game for certain. But I can't shake the sense that the Zips really let a good resume win sneak out the back door. Kept some mental notes as it went down, and with apologies to Sergio Leone .. here goes: The Good Nikola carried the Zips for much of the game. The feeling I had watching this was that Nik is really starting to emerge as the clear leader of this team (with AA as well). He really played his tail off tonight. Was pretty efficient with the ball, and hit some clutch baskets. Along w/ Tree, did a pretty good job on Burgess tonight. The Defense. For most of the game, the Zips did a tremendous job of forcing VCU to score in the half-court set. VCU loves to force turnovers and get out on the break. For the game they had 8 fast break points (4 buckets?). That's pretty good. Furthermore, VCU only scored 22 points in the paint. The Zips forced them into making shots .. which is reflected in VCU shooting percentages of 26% on 3's and 39% overall. That's good defense against any team. Against a team like VCU .. great D. The team is starting to find defensive cohesion and identity. I like that a lot. Alex answers the bell. Dude just played 37 minutes 9 days after surgery. Played pretty well too. Had a big +/-, best of the Zips, even though it was clear he wasn't nearly 100%. He didn't have the quickest first step, and his strength wasn't all there. You could see that he was a bit off when he couldn't get some of the early layups to drop. That I think affected his 2nd half as far as going to the hole. He's not going 4-12 very often. Good game by AA. The Bad Couldn't put them away. A big game at the JAR with a lively crowd & a good opponent, and a very winnable game gets away from the Zips. It was clear at half time that this could go 3 ways. The Zips could win close, the Rams could win close .. or the Zips could pull away. One or two more buckets in the middle of the 2nd half, and this game is a 10 point win by the Zips. They just couldn't finish the deal. There were several times in the second half where the D did it's job, but they couldn't finish on the offensive side. This is a young team. We all get that. Tough one to see get away from them. They played hard and put it out there .. but they didn't ultimately finish. This one unfortunately got away. Turnovers. You aren't going to win often against good teams with 20 turnovers vs. only 15 assists. Those turnovers resulted in 25 points for VCU. That's 11 more than the Zips were able to generate. Untimely misses @ the line. When you go to the line 12 fewer times than your opponent in a close game, you've got to make yours. The Zips shot 68% as a team, which isn't really that bad .. but missed some really critical shots at the stripe. 2 front ends in the 2nd half, and one that could have iced the game late in regulation, or at least forced VCU to foul on the ensuing possession. The Ugly Breaking the Press. There are a few things that as a hoops fan I may never understand. #1: Why is it that teams that are pretty good on defense and have some success pressing themselves are almost never good at consistently breaking the press? #2: When you're getting pressed in the back court, doesn't it make it harder to get up the court if you have all 5 of your guys in the back court, and as a result the D has all 5 defenders back there, enabling zone traps? There must be a strategy to it .. but I don't understand these things. I don't understand how hard it is to throw a pass 20 feet to a guy who's 7' tall, can jump really well and isn't being fronted. There were some harrowing moments last night watching the Zips face the press w/ AA on the bench. Stretches of not playing together. Mostly early in the game, but also a bit in the second half when VCU was making their run, the Zips drifted back into one on 5 offense at times. Where one guy would take the ball to the rim against 2 or 3 defenders, and try to make everything happen by himself. Midway through the first half, we saw the Zips settle down and play offense together, and it was a beautiful thing. The lone ranger offense while out of control with the ball? Not so pretty. A Fistful of Talent Once the early nerves settled down for the Zips, it was apparent to me and most of those around me that this was a pretty even matchup. Talent, size, and athleticism were pretty much a wash. This against a top CAA team just off a Final Four trip. That wasn't the case against teams like Nevada, Rhode Island, Dayton in recent years. There was always a little quickness or size deficit that KD needed to scheme creatively to overcome. Not so vs. VCU .. the Zips were right there with them. I think it's been a little while since a MAC school was on par with the top rosters in the A10 or CAA. Great sign IMHO. ... And a few Comments More Gilliam played well when out there. Didn't hit much, but was a part of some of the best runs the Zips put together all game. Foul trouble I think limited his time in the second half, but when he sat down, the Zips led by 10, and he never re-entered the game. Hopefully there's not an injury at play here. I like having Gilliam out here, and think he'll be a critical component of the Zips success this season. I think Walsh & Deji need to be the backup PG's soon. We can't have AA going 30+ all season or he will wear down. So we need 10-15 minutes at the point from other places. Against all but one or two teams in conference it isn't going to be a problem, but against high caliber teams, it will be an issue. My point isn't that Diggs was struggling with the ball (which he did and can do) as much as the belief that Digs is one of our most explosive scorers from the SG or SF spots. He's best slashing from the wing and scoring from outside. Having to use him as the PG for stretches is disrupting one of the best weapons the Zips have. Hopefully they can get to the point where he can play less PG, and KD can count on Deji or Walsh for the minutes that AA sits. The PG depth might be the Zips' Achilles heel? Not referring to the last possession here, but I though the move to having Nikola bringing up the ball against the press was a great one. It really pretty much unplugged the pressure, since Nik was clearly quicker than the big guy guarding him, and so the guy couldn't really pressure him much. Shades of using Linhart the same way against Can't State in the MAC title game 4 years back. I think it was a good move. Well that's what I got for now. These were the thoughts that stuck with me a day after the game. Much more to come as the season progresses. A 1 point loss doesn't change my outlook on this team or this season. Sure would have been a nice win, but we move on to the next. Sincere hopes & wishes for all Zips fans and observers to have a safe Holiday weekend and prosperous New Year. May one of us win the Powerball Lottery in 2012 so we can solve the hoops facilities problems once and for all. B) B) Go Zips! View the full blog post here.

good post

I don't have to respect the point of view if it's pessimistic and foolish, which I think this is. Go Zips!

Gee,I liked it as the last game of the season. Next to the MAC Champ game in '05,one of the best games I ever went to was the Blizzard Bowl when we beat Can't to get in. +1 I like the idea of having the doormat rival @ the end as a TuneUp for the macc.

Nice of the PD to send someone down I-77 to cover it.

OU fans might well be wondering about the Tree they just ran into, and where it came from.

We gave our guy a Green Machine this year, and it's been a huge hit. It's bigger than a BigWheel, with the steering done on the back wheels. He took one look at it in the house in the morning .. wiggled the levers that do the steering, and said to me: "Dad, I think this is pretty cool. I'm pretty sure I can do some drifting on this thing." Green Machine's were around when we were kids .. but I never rod one or knew anyone that had one. Also not sure if what Huffy now markets as the Green Machine is the same type of ride it was in the old days.

Happy Holidays to all! My sincere wish for everyone is for prosperity with challenges in the new year, because prosperity in the face of challenges keeps us sharp and is the most rewarding type. Regardless, best to all. Due to a very busy couple of quarters, I haven't been posting many hoops thoughts. This entry was started 3 weeks ago, and I'm just now coming back to it now. A recent topic around ZN.O has been "what is Akron Basketball" .. probably because there's so many new faces trying to figure it out. On March 10th, 2004 a new coach for Zips Basketball was introduced. In that press conference, he introduced what his concept for "Akron Basketball" would be. Paraphrasing: "We will play hard, we will play smart, and we will play together. If we do those things to the best of our ability, we'll be successful here." So for the past seven season, the Zips mantra has always been "play hard, play smart, play together." I can think of only a few occasions (4 actually) in that time where it occurred to me that the Zips weren't doing that .. and even in those instances they fell down on one or two aspects .. not all three. This season, the Zips entered the year with 5 returning key contributors and 5 new faces, some of whom would be relied upon as contributors for the Zips to be successful. In the summer we saw glimpses of the athleticism of these new Zips. The talent level isn't really a question for most of us. The unknown was always going to be how quickly the new group came together and filled the gaps left by 4 of the winningest players in Zips history. So how are things going? Rather than trying to determine if the MAC is setting up for it's 5th at-large bid in 60 years, I thought I might just consider the definition of Akron Basketball and see how our guys are meeting the mantra. Play hard. This has been a real mixed bag thus far: In the MSU game, the Zips looked much more energetic and active than a team that later broke into the top 25. Then against Detroit, the Zips used their numbers to wear down the (admittedly undermanned) Titans. However in other games, it's gone the other way. The Zips had a lead late vs. Valpo and slid backwards down the stretch. I'm not sure that the early games can be attributed to effort, but the WVU and MTSU losses seemed to come with late game stretches where the urgency wasn't there. These streteches are hard to watch, not the least bit because we're so unaccustomed to seeing the Zips play with uneven effort. Now in the bakery aisle the week between exams and the holidays, they Zips were back on top of their game effort wise .. destroying all four opponents, generally keeping the pedal down troughout the entire games. Rebounding and Defense are effort based: In the past 2 weeks this has become a strength, albeit against some overmatched competition. Zeke, Nikola, and Treadwell have worked very well on the glass of late, all averaging (through my recollection math) about 6-8 rebounds a game. If the front court rebounds in the mid-20's night in and night out, the Zips should do well on the glass in conference. Side note: Walsh seems to rebound really well from the backcourt, and gets a lot of the same across the lane boards Linhart was famous for. So this has been a nice help. Finishing has been a challenge in losses: Certainly in the first 2 losses (Valpo and Duquesne) the Zips had the chance to close down the stretch, either in the lead or very close. Against WVU, we know that finishing wasn't really the problem, same for MTSU. Against CSU, however, the ship turned a bit and the Zips played better down the stretch than they had through much of the game. In the bakery aisle, this wasn't a challenge for the front line guys. In general, I think the Zips' effort has been there, and there's a good deal of hustle apparent on the court. As in previous years, there's not guys taking plays off .. and I don't expect it to be an issue in games this year either. KD simply has too much depth and talent to be forced to deal with this, and he won't need to. The Zips are playing hard. Play smart. New players have forced a simplification of play book (dumbed down). KD has not hid the fact that he's trimmed his offensive playbook significantly as he mixes the new guys in. This has potentially helped the guys, but I think at times it has hurt the team as well. The plays in the 2nd and 3rd week of the season seemed geared more to leveraging the athleticism of individual guys, and less to working together as a unit to get the open / easy look. The upside is that it's helped get 5 new guys on the court and getting experience. The downside is that it's easier to guard a club with limited plays. Now the good sign is that we've seen much more of the offense in the past 2 weeks as he seems to put more in play. Leading to a lot more one-on-one clear outs (see below): This is a comment I wrote mainly after the Valpo / Duquesne games. The simplification of the play book at times led to lots of NBA style possessions where we cleared out for Q or Harney, relied on them beating their man as an individual and getting an open look. It led to struggles against Valpo when the calls weren't there on contact in the lane, and what ordinarily might generate 2 FT's generated a TO instead. There was also a period where Nikola took it upon himself to try and score individually .. and that inhibited the ability of the Zips to get into a flow together. I think that it has been good of late to see the assist total rise as the offensive cohesion improves and buckets are generated by 2 and 3 man possessions. Off the court:In order to be successful on the court as a team, the guys need to be smart off the court as individuals. It's been rare in KD's tenure here, but this season the off the court stuff has caught up with the younger players. I think we're at 9 missed games due to suspension / violation of team rules. My understanding is that these are all correctable, learning events that can be moved past in each case. But the guys need to grow and move past them so that they can continue to grow as a team and have good chemistry together. This will be difficult to get to if the available group of players changes every week. Play smarter of the court guys! As the weeks have gone by, it seems as the collective basketball IQ has risen for the Zips, and the results have improved. What remains to be seen is how much that is linked to the youth and talent level of the opponent, and how much it is linked to the cohesion and effort by the Zips themselves. I think the next 2 games vs. VCU & @ Marshall will reveal much about Play together. Assists are down: This is another area where things have changed in the past 2 weeks for the better. Early on in the road trip, the Zips were playing a lot of man to man offense, letting the athleticism try and take over, with guys trying to beat their man off the dribble. This resulted in a few games where the assist totals were well off prior season's pace. Statsheet has a nice chart plotting total assists for the Zips against their opponents on a game by game basis. If you scan backwards over the past 3-5 years, you'll find no instances where the opponents' assist totals tracks as high as the Zips. However in the middle stretch of the non conference this season, you'll see that for a time, the Zips opponents actually had MORE assists than the Zips. This is in stark contrast to years past, and I think evidence that blending the new faces, and perhaps simplification has led to less sharing of the ball. The other side of the coin no doubt is that the Zips are converting more fast break attempts, and running more .. so those may result fewer assists. Too much one on one w/ no help: At times, the clearouts have really hurt the offensive flow. Notably the ends of the Valpo and Duquesne game. There have been moments where the guys are playing individually not as a unit. Nikola had his stretch where this was a problem, and several of the guys have been pressing. Lately however, this has improved a bunch. Nikola is back to his old self, and the offensive flow is getting better and better. The past 4 games @ the JAR have shown a pretty cohesive unit, moving the ball well in the half-court. Hopefully that trend can continue. You can't play together when you can't play: I've heard it a couple of times in the past week or so .. apparently KD has only had his full complement of guys for 2 games the entire year. Much of this was Deji's injury .. and now AA's surgery. But a LOT of it is suspension related. Maybe 9 games missed due to "unspecified violation of team or department policies"? This is far too much, and it will continue to have a detrimental affect on team chemistry and playing together. If guys aren't able to be out there .. then they can't play well together. I sincerely hope these issues can find their way into the rear-view mirror soon. The sooner the Zips can field their best 9 or 10 .. the better off they will be. Even with the small losing streak on the road, I think this Zips team is a bit ahead of where last year's club was at this time. Sitting at 7-5 with 2 non-con games isn't where we thought we'd be after taking it to MSU in the opener. However, looking at the flow of things on the court .. I look for the Zips to salvage no worse than a split of the next 2, going into conference play at 8-6 or 9-5. Bottom line: these guys need to play together. That means taking care of business off the court so that KD can play them together. Hope this turns around soon. As with the basketball IQ on the floor .. the cohesiveness has improved game over game since the early slump. It's really critical that Harney get back soon, so that he can be mixed in to the rotations before the roadie to start conference play. As KD said on his TV show this week .. guys are out of position due to the injuries and missed games .. and they need to play in their preferred positions and get comfortable with each other. Hopefully Nick can resume his role smoothly very soon. Additional thoughts: I'm VERY bullish about this team: I was lucky to see these guys a few times over the summer and in early season practices. I'll maintain that this is the most raw talent ever assembled at UA, certainly in the last 20 years. The challenge comes down to the guys and the staff as to how well they put it together. We saw vs MSU, and I think we'll see a lot during MAC play .. the length and athleticism of this team is a very difficult matchup for most teams. That can pay big dividends when they get to the post season. Tree is an animal not a plant: Haven't gone too much into individual players in this post, but I'm continually astounded by Treadwell. He seems to have a real tenacity for the basketball on both boards, has some ball skills to put the ball on the floor to drive, or on the break .. and he apparently can fly. One of these days one of those ridiculous dunks is going to stay down .. and the JAR will go nuts. I think we're only seeing a small fraction of what he's capable. Should be a wild ride if they can get on a roll: I think this is a team that will ultimately be sensitive to momentum .. both during games and from game to game. When they're up, they're pretty good already .. when they're down, they've been mediocre. A challenge for the staff is to keep them level headed and on the upbeat side from game to game. You can see how some of the new pieces play much better when they're not pressing. This is where veteran leadership can help. The guys who have been through the full season w/ KD & co should be able to help the newer guys through it. Finally: It's been an up and down few weeks related to the FB coaching search. Seems like we've been teased with resolution a few times only to have to wait a few days. Like many others, I'm really pleased with the hire that's been made, and looking forward to what it may bring for Akron Football. However, I can't shake the feeling that UA needs to balance its priorities soon. We're putting a lot of resources to the Football program. We've put investment into Soccer. Both for good and defendable reasons. I think a challenge for LP, TW & GVH is how to make sure hoops doesn't get left behind. Coach Bowden can be a big fundraiser and proponent for Zips Athletics. That's great. But a rising tide needs to lift all boats here. I don't bring this up for any reason but this nagging feeling I have about our current situation as it relates to 1986. In '86 we were in a great era of hoops. UA essentially pulled the plug on that to move the FB program to previously (and thus far) unseen heights. I hope we don't make the same mistake twice. I hope that we can use some of the new energy (and hopefully success) of Bowden's program to leverage whatever we can to improve hoops resources in the same way that Football and Soccer have seen their needs attended to the past few years. KD has brought the hoops team to the top of the conference. They're a consistent winner. They need to be treated as such sooner rather than later. Get some extra pairs .. you're gonna need them: B) B) Go Zips!

Happy Holidays to all! My sincere wish for everyone is for prosperity with challenges in the new year, because prosperity in the face of challenges keeps us sharp and is the most rewarding type. Regardless, best to all. Due to a very busy couple of quarters, I haven't been posting many hoops thoughts. This entry was started 3 weeks ago, and I'm just now coming back to it now. A recent topic around ZN.O has been "what is Akron Basketball" .. probably because there's so many new faces trying to figure it out. On March 10th, 2004 a new coach for Zips Basketball was introduced. In that press conference, he introduced what his concept for "Akron Basketball" would be. Paraphrasing: "We will play hard, we will play smart, and we will play together. If we do those things to the best of our ability, we'll be successful here." So for the past seven season, the Zips mantra has always been "play hard, play smart, play together." I can think of only a few occasions (4 actually) in that time where it occurred to me that the Zips weren't doing that .. and even in those instances they fell down on one or two aspects .. not all three. This season, the Zips entered the year with 5 returning key contributors and 5 new faces, some of whom would be relied upon as contributors for the Zips to be successful. In the summer we saw glimpses of the athleticism of these new Zips. The talent level isn't really a question for most of us. The unknown was always going to be how quickly the new group came together and filled the gaps left by 4 of the winningest players in Zips history. So how are things going? Rather than trying to determine if the MAC is setting up for it's 5th at-large bid in 60 years, I thought I might just consider the definition of Akron Basketball and see how our guys are meeting the mantra. Play hard. This has been a real mixed bag thus far: In the MSU game, the Zips looked much more energetic and active than a team that later broke into the top 25. Then against Detroit, the Zips used their numbers to wear down the (admittedly undermanned) Titans. However in other games, it's gone the other way. The Zips had a lead late vs. Valpo and slid backwards down the stretch. I'm not sure that the early games can be attributed to effort, but the WVU and MTSU losses seemed to come with late game stretches where the urgency wasn't there. These streteches are hard to watch, not the least bit because we're so unaccustomed to seeing the Zips play with uneven effort. Now in the bakery aisle the week between exams and the holidays, they Zips were back on top of their game effort wise .. destroying all four opponents, generally keeping the pedal down troughout the entire games. Rebounding and Defense are effort based: In the past 2 weeks this has become a strength, albeit against some overmatched competition. Zeke, Nikola, and Treadwell have worked very well on the glass of late, all averaging (through my recollection math) about 6-8 rebounds a game. If the front court rebounds in the mid-20's night in and night out, the Zips should do well on the glass in conference. Side note: Walsh seems to rebound really well from the backcourt, and gets a lot of the same across the lane boards Linhart was famous for. So this has been a nice help. Finishing has been a challenge in losses: Certainly in the first 2 losses (Valpo and Duquesne) the Zips had the chance to close down the stretch, either in the lead or very close. Against WVU, we know that finishing wasn't really the problem, same for MTSU. Against CSU, however, the ship turned a bit and the Zips played better down the stretch than they had through much of the game. In the bakery aisle, this wasn't a challenge for the front line guys. In general, I think the Zips' effort has been there, and there's a good deal of hustle apparent on the court. As in previous years, there's not guys taking plays off .. and I don't expect it to be an issue in games this year either. KD simply has too much depth and talent to be forced to deal with this, and he won't need to. The Zips are playing hard. Play smart. New players have forced a simplification of play book (dumbed down). KD has not hid the fact that he's trimmed his offensive playbook significantly as he mixes the new guys in. This has potentially helped the guys, but I think at times it has hurt the team as well. The plays in the 2nd and 3rd week of the season seemed geared more to leveraging the athleticism of individual guys, and less to working together as a unit to get the open / easy look. The upside is that it's helped get 5 new guys on the court and getting experience. The downside is that it's easier to guard a club with limited plays. Now the good sign is that we've seen much more of the offense in the past 2 weeks as he seems to put more in play. Leading to a lot more one-on-one clear outs (see below): This is a comment I wrote mainly after the Valpo / Duquesne games. The simplification of the play book at times led to lots of NBA style possessions where we cleared out for Q or Harney, relied on them beating their man as an individual and getting an open look. It led to struggles against Valpo when the calls weren't there on contact in the lane, and what ordinarily might generate 2 FT's generated a TO instead. There was also a period where Nikola took it upon himself to try and score individually .. and that inhibited the ability of the Zips to get into a flow together. I think that it has been good of late to see the assist total rise as the offensive cohesion improves and buckets are generated by 2 and 3 man possessions. Off the court:In order to be successful on the court as a team, the guys need to be smart off the court as individuals. It's been rare in KD's tenure here, but this season the off the court stuff has caught up with the younger players. I think we're at 9 missed games due to suspension / violation of team rules. My understanding is that these are all correctable, learning events that can be moved past in each case. But the guys need to grow and move past them so that they can continue to grow as a team and have good chemistry together. This will be difficult to get to if the available group of players changes every week. Play smarter of the court guys! As the weeks have gone by, it seems as the collective basketball IQ has risen for the Zips, and the results have improved. What remains to be seen is how much that is linked to the youth and talent level of the opponent, and how much it is linked to the cohesion and effort by the Zips themselves. I think the next 2 games vs. VCU & @ Marshall will reveal much about Play together. Assists are down: This is another area where things have changed in the past 2 weeks for the better. Early on in the road trip, the Zips were playing a lot of man to man offense, letting the athleticism try and take over, with guys trying to beat their man off the dribble. This resulted in a few games where the assist totals were well off prior season's pace. Statsheet has a nice chart plotting total assists for the Zips against their opponents on a game by game basis. If you scan backwards over the past 3-5 years, you'll find no instances where the opponents' assist totals tracks as high as the Zips. However in the middle stretch of the non conference this season, you'll see that for a time, the Zips opponents actually had MORE assists than the Zips. This is in stark contrast to years past, and I think evidence that blending the new faces, and perhaps simplification has led to less sharing of the ball. The other side of the coin no doubt is that the Zips are converting more fast break attempts, and running more .. so those may result fewer assists. Too much one on one w/ no help: At times, the clearouts have really hurt the offensive flow. Notably the ends of the Valpo and Duquesne game. There have been moments where the guys are playing individually not as a unit. Nikola had his stretch where this was a problem, and several of the guys have been pressing. Lately however, this has improved a bunch. Nikola is back to his old self, and the offensive flow is getting better and better. The past 4 games @ the JAR have shown a pretty cohesive unit, moving the ball well in the half-court. Hopefully that trend can continue. You can't play together when you can't play: I've heard it a couple of times in the past week or so .. apparently KD has only had his full complement of guys for 2 games the entire year. Much of this was Deji's injury .. and now AA's surgery. But a LOT of it is suspension related. Maybe 9 games missed due to "unspecified violation of team or department policies"? This is far too much, and it will continue to have a detrimental affect on team chemistry and playing together. If guys aren't able to be out there .. then they can't play well together. I sincerely hope these issues can find their way into the rear-view mirror soon. The sooner the Zips can field their best 9 or 10 .. the better off they will be. Even with the small losing streak on the road, I think this Zips team is a bit ahead of where last year's club was at this time. Sitting at 7-5 with 2 non-con games isn't where we thought we'd be after taking it to MSU in the opener. However, looking at the flow of things on the court .. I look for the Zips to salvage no worse than a split of the next 2, going into conference play at 8-6 or 9-5. Bottom line: these guys need to play together. That means taking care of business off the court so that KD can play them together. Hope this turns around soon. As with the basketball IQ on the floor .. the cohesiveness has improved game over game since the early slump. It's really critical that Harney get back soon, so that he can be mixed in to the rotations before the roadie to start conference play. As KD said on his TV show this week .. guys are out of position due to the injuries and missed games .. and they need to play in their preferred positions and get comfortable with each other. Hopefully Nick can resume his role smoothly very soon. Additional thoughts: I'm VERY bullish about this team: I was lucky to see these guys a few times over the summer and in early season practices. I'll maintain that this is the most raw talent ever assembled at UA, certainly in the last 20 years. The challenge comes down to the guys and the staff as to how well they put it together. We saw vs MSU, and I think we'll see a lot during MAC play .. the length and athleticism of this team is a very difficult matchup for most teams. That can pay big dividends when they get to the post season. Tree is an animal not a plant: Haven't gone too much into individual players in this post, but I'm continually astounded by Treadwell. He seems to have a real tenacity for the basketball on both boards, has some ball skills to put the ball on the floor to drive, or on the break .. and he apparently can fly. One of these days one of those ridiculous dunks is going to stay down .. and the JAR will go nuts. I think we're only seeing a small fraction of what he's capable. Should be a wild ride if they can get on a roll: I think this is a team that will ultimately be sensitive to momentum .. both during games and from game to game. When they're up, they're pretty good already .. when they're down, they've been mediocre. A challenge for the staff is to keep them level headed and on the upbeat side from game to game. You can see how some of the new pieces play much better when they're not pressing. This is where veteran leadership can help. The guys who have been through the full season w/ KD & co should be able to help the newer guys through it. Finally: It's been an up and down few weeks related to the FB coaching search. Seems like we've been teased with resolution a few times only to have to wait a few days. Like many others, I'm really pleased with the hire that's been made, and looking forward to what it may bring for Akron Football. However, I can't shake the feeling that UA needs to balance its priorities soon. We're putting a lot of resources to the Football program. We've put investment into Soccer. Both for good and defendable reasons. I think a challenge for LP, TW & GVH is how to make sure hoops doesn't get left behind. Coach Bowden can be a big fundraiser and proponent for Zips Athletics. That's great. But a rising tide needs to lift all boats here. I don't bring this up for any reason but this nagging feeling I have about our current situation as it relates to 1986. In '86 we were in a great era of hoops. UA essentially pulled the plug on that to move the FB program to previously (and thus far) unseen heights. I hope we don't make the same mistake twice. I hope that we can use some of the new energy (and hopefully success) of Bowden's program to leverage whatever we can to improve hoops resources in the same way that Football and Soccer have seen their needs attended to the past few years. KD has brought the hoops team to the top of the conference. They're a consistent winner. They need to be treated as such sooner rather than later. Get some extra pairs .. you're gonna need them: B) B) Go Zips! View the full blog post here.

Isn't it a hemorrhoid .. er asteroid or something now?

As good as this article was by Marla, the corresponding article in the PD was just as bad. The guy is still spending time talking about Withers or someone. Unbelievable. Go Zips!

What he said.

More than one representative of UA went to Detroit. Any speculation that TW went solo is incorrect.

Perhaps a little more patience and time during that change would have yielded a better result?

He is a different player this season. He's looking for his shot. He's being aggressive. He has had a couple games where he's committed some stupid fouls. Usually when he starts thinking he's a guard and strays outside the paint. But his entire game is better this season. Last year, when everyone was down on the kid, I simply stated a universal truth - 7-footers Develop Slow. With the rarest of exceptions, this is true. I believe I predicted his numbers would be roughly double from last season. We'll see if that holds true. It'll probably fall a little short, but he'll still make a huge leap over 2010-11. +10

I don't see a contradiction there, ZW. CK was simply stating that there was, in actuality, no sincere search happening & that TW was just sitting around waiting for PW. Essentially not accomplishing much of anything over those three weeks. Then when PW declined the offer, TW probably crapped his pants. I wonder if TW is beginning at all to suspect himself an idiot. No, he said: And it's a fallacy that TW was sitting around and waiting for PW. It's misinformed hyperbole. There's a committee .. a search .. and it is real. The committee (rightfully, IMHO) seriously considered and acted upon the wishes of football alumni to have PW part of the process. Thus, a big component of the search may have focused for a time on PW. Has the search been quick? No. Was the timeframe of the search altered by PW's situation and ultimate actions? Perhaps. But to continue to promulgate the theory that our AD was just sitting around waiting to talk with ONE guy .. not fielding and pursuing any other candidates until that guy turned it down remains laughable.

Yet you were shocked that Winters wasn't announced as the head coach? Which is it?

No one will ever accuse Zach of not being opinionated. or reasoned. or objective.

Possible Winters won't even talk to TW until Sunday?

Uh, Matt Campbell? No, actually Beckman LEFT .. he wasn't let go. The only example I can think of isn't in FB .. it was when KD was elevated to HC after Thunder Dan was released.

It most certainly has everything to do with Grant's top assistant for the offensive side of the ball.

Was watching the finale of the Amazing Race last night, and it would appear that a UA fan / friend .. etc .. helped cost one of the teams a victory and the cool $1M that comes with it. In the middle of the episode, the couple stops a guy who's getting into his truck, he gets out, and has a MINT new UA shirt, with all the current logos .. and he gives the best answer to their question he can come up with .. and they run with it. Cost them probably a half hour or so. At this point they were in the lead, but it's now squandered and they don't recover. Finished second. Shame on them for not checking the intel out .. but regardless .. great shot of a UA fan on the show.

I think the idea that the search is a "sham" is laughable. - Do you ever hear about the details of one of these searches fully in public when they're happening? All parties involved have a vested interest to maintain discretion until it gets close to the point where they become the coach. The amount of information we're getting is on par with what we should get. Much more, and it could compromise the ability of a coach or coaches to speak freely w/ UA and maintain stability in their current position if it doesn't work out. - There are 3 - 4 names linked to the search: These are likely the "finalists." Winters (former player & coach), Johnson (former player, longtime coach at higher levels), Narduzzi (no UA ties .. DC @ MSU) .. and depending what you believe, Campbell and Stoops may be in the mix (neither has UA ties). - Overtures of some sort were made to Tressel .. certainly there seems to have been some smoke there. - For each of the 4 guys we are told (by the media) that are interviewing, there's probably a dozen more who had preliminary conversations and either didn't make the cut, or declined further discussions. What about this isn't a national search? One guy hasn't been @ UA in almost 20 years, and coaches on the West coast, 2 guys are HIGHLY thought of DC's at upper level BCS schools, and another guy is a head coach at a lower level showing an aptitude for improving a program in a difficult situation (and UA grad). If it lands on Winters, so be it .. it's not like they're pulling a guy who's the special teams coordinator at Uniontown Lake who happened to play for Faust, the guy has worked his craft here and elsewhere getting ready to be a D1-A coach. But to start labeling the search as a "sham" smacks to me as laying the groundwork for having displeasure with the result or the parties responsible, no matter what the result is. Last time the coach was named quickly, and many people were skeptical before the presser was even held. This time, the net (it appears) is being cast wider, and the search is taking more time .. and people don't like the process being followed. Which way do you want it? If Winters is in the mix with one or 10 other guys, and the committee is intent on having him be considered .. then it HAS to wait until he's done with games @ Wayne State. They're not just waiting on him .. press reports indicate others like Johnson are interviewing currently .. the timing of the hire is affected by Winters' team still playing. It doesn't mean this is a rubberstamp hire with no search. If the guy's a candidate, it has to wait. That's how searches work. It's not a recruitment, it's a search. Go Zips!

Seems to me this will be a cycle ripe for a feasible 3rd candidate run. The libertarians (generally) have opinions that will resonate with much of the country, but their inability to plan and raise money because they're afraid of centralized organization or authority means they'll probably never take a good run at the WH. If Bloomberg is ever going to make a go of it, it's probably this time through. The sad thing to me is that Joe Voter is rarely willing to go for good results over good rhetoric. Just the way things are now. Go Zips!