Zip Watcher

This is pretty silly, IMHO. I've seen Mark in practice, and I can promise you he has every bit the athleticism you've determined he doesn't have. His speed up the court is top half of the team. Should we read into Sayles only getting 6 minutes that he's a project? Game 1, friends, game 1.

I hope you are all well. I certainly have much to be thankful for these days. After seeing just a bit of practice, I'm now also thankful that my friends and fellow Zips hoops fans won't be disappointed by the upcoming season. It's been some time since I could say that about ZN.O. Go Zips!

This. Can't wait to see him progress on and off the court. Go Zips!

Seems like maybe it's working again:

2PM Saturday crushes my ability to bring my youth teams, since we'll be playing most Saturday afternoons.

Updated to add Cotton, and correct eligibility of Riak. Groce confirmed at golf outing that he has to sit 1 to play 2. Go Zips!

Wasn't the money split up somehow to make a local representative happy .. and hence the existence of Ocasek Natatorium? After the scoreboard, the renovation I'm most interested in is some new banners in the rafters with the words "Sweet 16" included. The rest is just good money after bad, IMHO.

The Zips still play in the MAC, right? There's no such thing as a rebuild for the Zips. They won the regular season last year. Sure there's tons of new faces and a new staff .. but you re-build when you're at the bottom. This team needs to find 8 or so non-conference wins to guarantee a 20 win season. IMHO, this is a reload, not a re-build. Re-calibration to a new system, maybe. The Zips are gonna be really young this year .. and really loaded next year. If any team in the MAC wants to get over on the Zips .. they had better get it done now, cause it's only gonna get harder in 18-19. Remember, it's still the MAC. 9 home games. Win 7 of those, and beat the crappy teams on the road, and you're at 10-12 MAC wins .. it's not a Herculean Task. Jimond and the guys are up to it. Go Zips!

I'm thinking the 2' x 13' ribbon boards are the ones in the image on the bottom of the smaller end boards. The part that has the score in the rendering. 2' x 13' is pretty small for the endline space .. but it's not far off of what the rendering shows. With the addition of the corner boards for stats, the end line ribbons become unnecessary, don't they? Go Zips!

Are the Zips undefeated vs. USC in Hawaii?

It was more recent than that. Walsh was the shooter at the end of that game at UD Arena.

It's worth your time to look up some of these games. Some high level basketball being played in some of them. Quincy Diggs looked quite good in the Matadors' first game. I haven't seen the 2nd game, which was a competitive loss to the 2-time defending champs, as of yet.

Good observation. At the moment, I understand that his first season would be considered a medical redshirt year, since it was under the limit of games and time played for that consideration. So he ought to be able to play 3 here. I'll tweak once the official roster has the new guys on it.

Graphic in original post is updated per the recent changes. Some are not official, but it seems to be complete. I'll revise if the GoZips releases don't match up. Go Zips!

I've got it pretty much ready to drop. Waiting for a final announcement on GoZips.Com. I feel like there's one more change brewing.

Good luck to him. STILL: Go Zips!

And ?

Sorry, but I think this is rubbish. *Maybe* those names will matter the first time a hiring manager is hiring someone. After that, they'll quickly learn / understand the institution name on the sheepskin has diddly squat to do with the profitability, productivity, whatever of the division they've hired for. The characteristics of the individual whose name is on the sheepskin drive everything after the first interview. To say nothing that your 2 arguments are conflicting. Are people jumping on the Princeton grad because in 1996 at the Hoosier Dome, Pete Carrill's team ended Jim Harrick's UCLA team's hopes of defending its NCAA title? I can only speak from experience specific to the technical / engineering side of things, but I can promise you I only made what I call the "Case Mistake" one time. Sure, it might be more regional, but I'm certain that managers hiring engineers know the value of UA sheepskin and how much it can add to their organization. Their perception of UA isn't a static thing based on who was in the tournament when they were in college. It's a living evolving perception formed from the pure performance of the members of their organization. N.B.: I write this as someone who never took a class at UA and holds degrees from 2 schools who *are* on all the lists. Those of you carrying a UA degree have no reason to be self conscious about it. I promise you those of us that work with you don't give a squat about it. It's another example of NEOH defeatism. Own it, be proud of it. Go Zips!

My favorite tweet about all of this:

I still have this game on my DVR. The charge drawn by Melo with about 10 minutes left in the game is one of my all time favorite Zips basketball moments. It eliminated any fight that OU had left. Sure the kid was thrown in the deep end in more ways than one .. but when push came to shove, he made a play. A defensive play. A Zips basketball play. I believe Betancourt is still the only starting Zips PG to beat OU in the MAC Tournament .. and he did it twice. Go Zips!

Loyer intrigues me. An outside the box hire. Has a tie to UA basketball, though not the recent string of successes. You could play up his experience in NBA circles and scouting to show that we're thinking differently to advance the program. Older donors would probably embrace him due to the history, and LW can point to doing a "nationwide search to find a candidate that gets Akron, and has a vision for moving upwards and onwards." Helps LW establish that UA Hoops isn't just defined by only the past 12 or 13 years .. it has a long, rich history of success, as the rafters demonstrate. If he's truly in the mix, I'm comfortable with how this search is being handled. Bring in Loyer, {name your senior assistant from the college ranks}, Dials, Futch .. and then get to work defending the MAC title! Go Zips! P.S. Would Mrs. CK attend more or fewer games in this case?

My regrets regarding the pendulum swing of comments here. We certainly all would have preferred a different result last night. It's always amazing how the emotions on a forum get directed at the players when things don't go perfectly. It's as if some fans think the players and coaches didn't want to win as badly as we wanted to see them win. It's ludicrous, and not unique to ZN.O. You've lots to be proud of about your son. He's been a credit to our community, the jersey he wears and the university. Off the top of my head, I can't think of many players at Akron who have won back to back MAC titles .. and Kwan is certainly among that select group, and a big reason they've won while he's been here. And that's a small thing compared to how he's succeeded as a student at the U. I also send several of my youth basketball players to the summer camps at the University, including my own son. I can tell you that all of the boys really love the camps, primarily because of the opportunity to get to know the players and learn the game from them. Kwan is one of the ones the kids talk about when they come back after the camps. This fan for one appreciates his efforts and sacrifice while on the Zips. I look forward to following his continuing exploits, and hope to see him win his last game as a Zip. Go Zips!

I believe the Jawanza Moore award is reserved for the player that simply goes off in his last game at the JAR, which Jawanza did. Regarding the big leap in the Senior Year, until now, there's only been one answer:

With Shades on. Hope some of my favorite fans and players are there! Go Zips!