Zip Watcher

I concur. I think there's any number of ways that post Big TelEveN expansion chaos can benefit the Zips. - BE gets raided and goes hunting for teams, decimating the C-USA. Eastern C-USA teams band together and need a new home within an established conference. MAC provides that home & moves to 14 or 16 teams. Stronger conference for the Zips. - BE gets raided hard and picks a mix of teams, not decimating C-USA. C-USA needs a few teams and goes shopping for ones that provide a solid media market for expansion and good facilities, even if not at BE levels. A few MAC schools including UA take a flyer on C-USA and end up in a 12-14 team North-South conference with more TV coin and marginally better bowl tie-ins. Stronger conference and financial situation for the Zips. - Planets align in just the right way. BE gets raided, and the FB & BB sides of the BE complete a split, with the Catholic schools forming a new 12 team Metro League, Rutgers and one other team leave for other conferences. FB schools are left needing 6 FBS teams. Plusquellic wins the PowerBall and donates it to start the building of the 9500 seat Don Dome on Main St (Sorry Jake). BE in looking to minimize the buyouts needed to bring in the new 6 teams without infringing on existing fan bases, takes only Memphis from C-USA and opts for a strategy to strengthen its presence in the Great Lakes. Zips sneak in as team #12. Stronger conference, benefiting the Zips. The current lay of the land would seem to indicate that #1 above is the most likely of these 3. But the Zips need to keep taking steps to be ready and selectable in the event that TOTAL chaos breaks out this summer. Go Zips!

The current state of the basketball facilities could be a needle to that balloon in a hurry. No way Huggy is bringing his Mountaineers to the JAR if he can help it.

Now geographic Promotion & Relegation a la Futbol leagues in Europe .. that could be cool.

If my memory serves me right, this wouldn't be the first player lost to Jacksonville. I wish I could find that team photo. Might have been one of the funniest posts in ZN.O history. Go Zips.

If it were me .. and it's not, I'd be playing Nik @ the three on the defensive end, and Euton / Brett McKnight at the 3 on the offensive end. Nik has demonstrated enough athleticism to guard the perimeter player. He did a great job as a freshman on Bramos for Miami. If he can guard Bramos, he can guard the 3 spot. Now it's different from Nate & Jimmy. Nik's a guy that could guard 3 and 4 .. but not so the 2. Nate and Jimmy (especially Nate) had the ability to stay with a 2 after switches up top. Nik won't be able to do that. I have dreams about a front court that goes Nik, Dakotah & Zeke down the road. That's some serious bulk and potentially a lot of scoring punch for a conference school to have to match up with.

Abreu will have four years here to develop just like any other high school kid. It's nonsense to think if he isn't the starting PG in year one that he is a wasted scholarship. +1

False, in basketball you must sit out a year, release or not. If a coach releases you, you are eligible for aid the year you are sitting out. If you do not get the release, you are stuck paying your own way. What he said. The release means nothing to whether or not you have to sit. Most do. It has to do with being scholarship eligible during your transfer year. There are some wrinkles related to graduation however. The Duke PG who played QB @ Syracuse got through a loophole related to the fact that he had graduated, he was eligible to play immediately as he enrolled in grad school @ Syracuse. This could apply to Jake Anderson from NIU (graduating, per some reports) and possibly Swiech if he's done at the end of the summer. I'm not sure about the specifics of this, so don't cite me as an authority .. but the Duke/Cuse guy definitely did NOT have to sit.

Steward is most certainly a D1 caliber PG. Hope this is erroneous.

I think we need to distinguish between a "Coach K" summer camp .. and the big AAU tournaments and the like. UA hosts 2 of the more significant things from the AAU end of things. Not so much on the coaches camps / clinics.

I'll make an inquiry about this.

Good news for Dambrot. Lots of great high school players play at the JAR during the summer camps. There will be some benefit to UA due to the LBJ camps as long as LBJ remains committed to the Akron area. But this will mostly benefit the "big" schools that have most of the "big" camps. In general, the rich will continue to get richer. And if LBJ ever moves on to greener pastures, it will probably end up hurting UA more than helping. Dave, UA currently has 2 of the best attended tourney and camps there are. All the top 50 players were @ UA the year we were recruiting Zeke.

Dude! That's awesome. Bet that got a rise out of the crowd! :rock:

They don't HAVE to do anything during this period. This is simply the opening up of the spring signing period. A guy who's transferring has the whole summer to decide where he's going and enroll in time for fall classes in order to start the clock on his transfer year. Obviously if scholi's are in consideration, it's likely to happen earlier rather than later so they don't miss out. You weren't around back then, but it was commonplace for an earlier Zips regime to be filling the scholarships for an upcoming season during the summer months. IIRC the all time leading scorer in Colorado history didn't sign with the Zips until mid to late summer. And you'll see lots of signings over the next 4 months all over the college hoops world. Don't fool yourself into thinking that all will reveal itself in the next 14 magical days .. because it might not. Go Zips!

FYI. The three known recruits signed their LOI in the fall. Go Zips!

Understood. Ali would still be a legend in these parts if one of those shots had fallen. B) Go Zips!

Whatever. My issue with your line of discussion is NOT that you have a problem with the promotions, or lack of them. Anyone going to the games (or not going!) knows that these are areas for improvement. I don't differ on that point. My difference from your line of thinking is that you're lumping success of the team with the success or failure of the marketing / promotions. What I read in your sentiments through this thread and elsewhere is: "The hot dogs are cold, the lines are long, Joe Akron doesn't care, therefore, the season wasn't a success." If the team was 33-2 and lost on a bank shot in the NCAA title game but averaged 1200 a game @ home, is it still a failure because Joe Akron isn't smart enough to know what he's missing? Or because Joe Akron doesn't know that he's missing it? When do the achievements of the team start to factor in to an objective assessment of the season? This topic started by you with great questions wasn't about "Hey guys, where are we with Butler on toilet paper quality and selection of mustard?" It started with questions surrounding what happened on the floor these last 3 weeks. Others (myself included) observed that to get to Butler status, some things need to be addressed (my opinion: back room team facilities items). Your (self described) rant took it to promotions / marketing .. etc. So on the original topic, and in general .. I maintain my stance that the team is in great shape .. just had a nice season. Didn't win all the games .. but won most of them. Proud of the guys. Really proud of Conyers. Looking forward to what comes next. You and I know that our perspectives on this sort of things will never be in the same neighborhood, much less pointing in the same direction. Recall the Can't State title game a few years ago. I'm ok with that .. it is what it is. But IMHO this is a clear case of FB Guy judging the BB Program in a different light than he does his FB Program. Anthony Stacy was ELEVEN years ago, McLeod - 8 years ago, Hunter - 7, Davis - TWELVE .. all with a different program and coach. They're no more relevant to this season and the current hoops program than the failures of Faust and Owens are to 2010 spring ball. You want to bury the Rubber Bowl past and move forward with the football program? Sure we all do. Might I suggest you do the same with the hoops team? No one here thinks there's no painful losses in the hoops program. But some here like to marginalize the wins and successes of the program and focus only on those losses, some of which happened YEARS before KD was remotely associated w/ UA. I don't think that's laughable .. I think it's sad. I'll make a suggestion: If you want to have a season where there's no losses by your basketball team, become a UConn Women's hoops fan. Otherwise, there are going to be losses. Some of them will be painful. When your team is really good .. the losses will feel worse than they did before. But they don't erase the wins. They don't make irrelevant a MAC title 13 months ago. And they don't make a good 24-11 season a bad season. Geeze this is way too long to say all this. My apologies. Ciff Note's Version: You like FB more than BB. I'm the opposite. You remember the BB losses that stung you for a long time, but want us to move past (bury) the RB era for FB. I'm suggesting you do the same for the era between Huggins & Dambrot. We're both all in for the Zips. Somebody get that tall kid another cheeseburger. B) Go Zips!

I'm pretty sure that was unnecessary. And I guess you will continue to hold failures of 10 years ago above championships of 2 years ago. You want to dwell on and live in the past, that's your choice. B) Go Zips!

Are you saying Bhuddism? Or Bootyism? Creative heckle from the sky this afternoon:

Since it's typically very cold before and after home hoops games, you're welcome to come observe my group and I "tailgate" before and after home games at any of several local refreshment venues. We don't need to stand around in a parking lot to be valid fans. Go Zips!

Might be your best post ever!

I agree w/ Topper .. GREAT post. Curious .. do you buy the seat behind you?

Thank you. I think I understand better where we differ on this topic. You appear to care deeply about Joe Akron's interest level. Me? Not so much. I don't think it's a singular indicator of anything. There's too many variables to pin it down precisely. For me, the measure of success of the program isn't the average attendance. It's the team's performance on the floor, in the classroom and in the community. I root for the players and group to be successful in these areas. I'm happy for them when they are. I enjoy basketball. I'm enjoying this unparalleled era of DI success at UA. I will continue to do so and hope the momentum of the program continues on an upward trajectory. Frankly I don't care if Joe Akron doesn't appreciate winning basketball. I'll be happy to see him if he decides to join us @ the JAR. But until then, I don't really need to give him a second thought. I think the Nation does its part to help fans follow the Zips in different ways. I'm not going to lose sleep about how many empty seats there are. It'd be nice if the place was jammed, sure. But in the presence of repeated successful seasons, the current attendance by itself isn't to me a symptom of some other bigger problem that we need to be wringing our hands about. B) Go Zips!

Good article. Nice work Tom! I wonder how many million emails he got in his inbox after the last one that made it ok to do this article. On a related note, my wife and I had the opportunity to meet some of the FB coaches at the Cadillac Ranch last month. When I saw the staff coming together on paper, I was pretty impressed with the pedigree of these guys. Meeting them in person confirmed it. I'm blown away by the experience level that the FB program has in the coaching staff now .. blow away. Latina especially was a real nice guy to talk to. If you have the opportunity, don't pass it up. Great guy. B) Go Zips!

Word on the street is Ianello had the existing scoreboard torn down. New 2010 InfoCision endzone view is below: What's funny about that photo is that it seems like UND has been irrelevant since they obstructed the view of TD Jesus. Coincidence? I think not!

First off, I like your response. It does get old .. it was tired 15 years ago. Once we can all join together, sing "we shall overcome" and agree that UA is a hoops school, it should settle down a bit . Agree entirely about looking forward, not backwards. There's just not a lot about the 90's worth remembering w/ Zips Athletics. My gut tells me that if in 2014, the FB operating revenues exceed operating expenditures (NB: capital expenditures, debt servicing EXCLUDED), then it means the Zips are in a different conference with a different TV contract. It's a huge uphill fight for 80% of FBS teams to turn a profit. Our facilities, and at this early time our coaching staff, appear to give UA every opportunity to be in the other 20%. I look forward to being there to watch it happen. Sort of .. you listed your complaints. Not all of them are documented problems that have to be improved to move forward. Your list is reasonable, coming from someone with more of a FB tint to his blood. Fact is, they DIDN'T get waxed by every decent team they played. They played w/ URI the whole way and lost by 5 on late free throws in what essentially was a one possession game. They hung with Texas A&M, they beat a team that won it's first round NCAA game TWICE. They struggled against Can't State, NC St. & VCU. FB guy continuing to beat the "Zips don't compete with any good teams, they always get blown out drum" doesn't make it any more true than it is. And it's not. Winning will continue to put more butts in the seats. Having a new local kid around may put more butts in the seats. People came to see Ball & Bosely on some pretty mediocre teams (comparatively) .. maybe Egner will help that. The Marketing, promotions, team shop, concessions .. etc .. improvements are important. And these are part of what BB Guy is looking to see investment in. They will require some cash .. they will require attention, and these things are part of what we want addressed. Fixing promotions, actually marketing the team and building the team shop out and stocking it up DOES cost money. Money that recently, the Athletic Department hasn't (chosen to or been able to) spend on hoops. It seems we're coming to agreement that it needs the focus, just not that it's free. A LOT of your other items on the list need investment to be fully addressed. You've been in the lockerroom @ the JAR. Not sure you've been in any others (maybe the Info or Stile?) .. but seeing the team facility KD is working with, how do you expect him to be pulling in the Zeke's and Euton's of the world as the norm, and not the exception. This is a BIG thing that would address at least 3 or 4 of the items in your list. It's the improvement that would have the biggest impact on the floor .. which would either solve the other problems or make you think less about them. When your kid or my kid is the next Maravich or Bird, and they take their allotted visits to 2 other elite hoops schools before committing to KD & the Zips .. the facilities chasm hopefully will have been closed, and they won't be swayed by what they find in Indianapolis or Spokane. B) B) Go Zips!!