Zip Watcher

I'm here to say you guys need to lay off msopher ... take some time to read his posts.Dude's a Rocket grad .. has legitimate reasons for UT fandom. Dude's a UA student now .. has legitimate reasons for UA fandom.msopher is NOT TrolledoRockets .. careful with the wide brush strokes fellas.Go Zips!

I'll add the following:#1: Each and every one of us in the Zips Nation owes a debt of gratitude to UAM. Under his watch, we saw what a big time Athletic Department looks like, long before it was matched on the courts and fields of UA. The production value of the events at UA are at or above those of most BCS level programs. That's important to moving forward. UA needs to think bigtime and act bigtime in order to become bigtime. Kudos to Mike for helping UA see that.#2: He's done this job .. Asst. AD for Marketing .. at UA for several years now. He's done this job smashingly for several years now. What else can we ask of him here? He's set the table for a sound and cohesive marketing plan for UA Athletics for years to come. You ever do the same job for 7 years without moving up or on? I certainly can't criticize someone for pursuing new challenges.#3: Read his letter again. He speaks of opportunities, both "professional and educational." There's a lot to that. Life is about learning and moving upward and onward with new lessons. He sees a chance to move closer to his ultimate professional goal and is going after it. I hope that I'd have the fortitude and awareness to recognize such an opportunity and follow it in the same manner.#4: Don't assume it's all about the Benjamins. That's an insult to UAM & his family. Maybe your sole motivation is the almighty dollar .. good for you if it is. I find that most people aren't that simple. Coin doesn't hurt & it has to be considered, but be careful about jumping to that conclusion. Many of you know UAM better than I am fortunate to, and I'll bet anyone who knows him would agree that coin alone doesn't drive the guy. He's a better man than that, and he deserves more than to have Zips fans posting that kind of BS around here.#5: Mike's pursuing a dream & sees an opportunity to move closer to and better prepare himself for reaching that dream. It's easy for most people to give up on a dream. Way easier than chasing one. If you aren't striving for a dream, then you can't fall short if you don't attain it. Props to Mike for getting after it. I know he'll get to it. I've been blessed to get there once & it's damn rewarding & fulfilling when you do.#6: More than one time in the remainder of UAM's long and successful career, UA will be in need of a new Boss. He'll be on the short list. Count on it. And if & when he does ride back into town on the hood of Z-P's Pinto .. he'll come back with a boatload of new experience, ideas and wisdom. And UA will be better for it.Finally ..I'll always have a healthy respect for UAM. I'll always remember that HE was the AD the night that UA won the MACC @ Ford Field. He's the only AD in UA history to claim a football title. We've been blessed to see him work his magic in helping awake the Zips Nation from a deep, deep slumber. Things evolve and times call for new people and new challenges. God speed Mike & family in your next step & hurry back now, ya hear?!Below: UAM & JD accept Motor City Bowl Invite!

HEY ZIPS FANS!!!!If you read anything before heading to the game READ THIS!I remember a few years ago before the team quit, how Pluto and some of the other fishhacks around these parts couldn't wait to immortalize Ball, Bosley & co. with retired jerseys @ the JAR. Many of us thought it to be premature since they hadn't won anything yet .. but another reason was that the Cricket wasn't yet recognized in that manner. I never had the pleasure to see Jenkins play.I'm as excited about Saturday's game for the Halftime ceremony as I am for the game itself. For someone whose love for Zips hoops was cemented permanently in my heart during the mid-to-late 80's, I think this day has been a long time coming. I know you can't be knee-jerk on these types of things .. that's how you end up with 6 retired numbers with a history of mediocrity (see the Cavaliers).This isn't honoring World B. Free for simply putting butts in seats. This is honoring two of the best ever to wear the Zips colors. Under Eric McLaughlin's watch, the Zips 85-32 with 3 postseason appearances (all in the first 8 years in DI I might add). Perhaps no other UA player has had that distinction since the Wyatt Webb era ended. Larry Jenkins went 86-22 and tallied 3 straight NCAA trips, with a National runner-up finish in 1972 (nb: Tradition runs deeper than 7 years friends!).So let's get some stories about Jenkins and the Cricket going .. anyone have any specific thoughts?!Here's one of mine, though it doesn't have to do with him lighting things up: I have a LOT of reasons for hating the Suckeyes. Many of them more recent than others. But probably the deepest seated dislike of Columbus State stems from the 1989 NIT game. That's the game that UA was winning at St. John Arena before one of Ayer's thugs put EM into the scorers table, ending his Zips career with an injury. Bush league crap from a bush league school afraid to admit they weren't the best team in the state that year. Columbus State went on to the NIT finals @ MSG that year .. but fortunately were taken down by my soon to be school, UConn on the beginning of its rise to dominance.Nice to finally honor Eric McLaughlin and Larry Jenkins. Get out there to welcome them home to the rafters of the JAR.GO ZIPS!

Thanks for that Pouch. We appreciate it.

Update on the server move:As of mid-day on the 24th (Friday) .. everything appeared to be settled down on the server move.As of right now (1AM on Saturday the 25th) all posts & topics that seemed to have dissappeared have been recovered and synced into the board. Hopefully at this point, no one's life changing original thoughts that were posted here have been lost. If you feel like something critical is still missing, please drop me a PM or post someting in the Tech Support Forum.Thanks for your patience. It was a big inconvenience for this to happen right before a big game .. but I really had no control whatsoever on the timing. Trust me when I say that it wreaked much more havoc on my business site that is hosted on the same server. It's been a long couple of days.Thanks again for your patience & patronage.Let's Go Zips! If you're on the fence .. please get out to see the game on Saturday and give the Cricket some love. It's been a long time coming.ZW

Update.As of mid-day on the 24th (Friday) .. everything appeared to be settled down on the server move.As of right now (1AM on Saturday the 25th) all posts & topics that seemed to have dissappeared have been recovered and synced into the board. Hopefully at this point, no one's life changing original thoughts that were posted here have been lost. If you feel like something critical is still missing, please drop me a PM or post someting in the Tech Support Forum.Thanks for your patience. It was a big inconvenience for this to happen right before a big game .. but I really had no control whatsoever on the timing. Trust me when I say that it wreaked much more havoc on my business site that is hosted on the same server. It's been a long couple of days.Thanks again for your patience & patronage. Let's Go Zips! If you're on the fence .. please get out to see the game on Saturday and give the Cricket some love. It's been a long time coming.ZW

I for one really like the side boards & hope they're maintained. I understand the notion of getting status up to the center scoreboard also, but please don't drop them from the side. After about the 3rd game of having them it became second nature for me to find what I was looking for in a split second.Knowing the fact that they don't generally update during live action will save people some trouble. I think they're a huge thing to have and they provide stats that exceed any other MAC arena I've ever been in. Hell, Mackey Arena @ Purdue and Gampel Pavilion @ UConn don't have that much information available, at least they didn't the last time I was in either of those gyms.The only tweak I would make to the side boards would be to see if we could squeeze rebounds in there somehow. The scoreboard at the old Coliseum in Richfield had 3 columns for each player: Pts. RBs PF's. It's the only place I've ever seen that, and I've missed it ever since it got blown up. I think that'd be a cool stat to have real time .. but I'm sure the numbers would get small.What would be good would be if anyone could post the resolution of the side boards (pixels x pixels .. etc), and the minimum size necessary for any character & then we could all play along in the offseason to see if there's a tweak that can help.Thanks again for stopping in UAM !!! You and your staff are doing a hell of a job. Give that snappy Newhouse boy a $.01 raise and send the bill to the Nation!

All,Our hosting company is in the process of migrating the server that includes ZipsNation.Org. As a result, you may notice some flaky performance on ZipsNation.Org today (the 23rd) and maybe into tomorrow.I may shut down the board on the old server so that no one can post new topics. Once the migration is complete, I will do a sync of old to new to make sure that all topics appear here at the new board. If you're reading this topic. You are on the NEW server and don't need to worry about anything & can post away.Thanks for your patience,ZW

Some thoughts heading into tonight's game at Miami:- I'm not convinced that Miami won't defend their regular season title. They control their own destiny to at least force a tie. I wouldn't put it past Charlie to get that done.- One Zips win or an OU loss seals up the bye for the MAC tournament. I can't tell you how happy I'll be to have that ticket in my packets go unused.- With 4 to play at 18-6 (sans Denison), I think that 2-2 should put the Zips safely in the NIT. They certainly need to hold serve the first game at the Q, but I have to believe a 21-8 or 22-7 team gets the NIT bid that last year's 19-10 didnt get. NCAA will be nice, but NIT would do this team a world of good also.- With that said, I think they will probably do better than that. I think they will protect the home court and come away with 2 victories (Can't will be VERY tough though), and a split on the road is feasible.- This season we've all been aware of how far the Zips have come since 03-04. The Nevada game showed clearly how far the Zips have yet to go. The size, quickness and athleticism of the Wolf Pack destroyed the Zips. In order to make any kind of postseason run, you need to be able to combat that. I do think the Zips had an off night, while the Pack was on fire .. but even an on night against the Pack doesn't win that game.- Sometimes our quickest players are the best players for a given situation. They might not be our most seasoned players, but the quicker ones can help in those types of games. DJ was simply not a factor in the Nevada game, where Cedric was more effective. Cedric will and can take the ball inside on anyone we've played this year. He's fearless & extremely athletic and strong. That's not to say he always makes the best decisions, but he's our best penetration threat with the ball .. and our best perimeter defender, IMHO. He's not Rashon Brown yet, but I'll tell anyone who asks that I think he's our best all around guard.- Milum seemed comfortable with the pace of things at Nevada. He might be a project, but you can't deny his physical hops & quickness. Defensive instincts seem to be there. I see him contributing the next 2 years.- Preston is our best player right now. He's a huge matchup problem for probably anyone in the league, except Nate Peavey (of MU). 6-9 who can drive a little and elevates on a jumper with good percentages inside and out. Reminds me now of Yost or whatever that guys name at WMU was. We'll go as far as Rob can take us this season. I also think he'll get paid to play ball for awhile. If Phillips can do it, Rob can do it better.- With a strong finish by the Zips, Travis could very well walk away as MAC POY. I think it would be great for him and the team, but he should be destroying this league with his skills. I have a rant about that, but I'll save it for later. Cliff notes: USE THE GLASS & become a 25 point, 10 rebound guy.- I think that KD is doing a greatjob this season, and I have a theory about DP. DP has so much gas left in the tank (knees) and KD isn't going to risk that against a non-conf. opponent during the stretch run in the MAC. With the defense that Miami is going to play, I look for DP to have a solid outing as he did in the JAR. Down the stretch in the next 4-8 games, look for DP to become more of a factor.- The MAC is a really really AVERAGE D-I conference this year. Akron and Miami are above average within the league, and Can't appears to be the best at this point. Winning by 18 at Anderson .. they have to be that good. You don't accidently come out of Anderson and Millet with double digit wins on the road. Props to Jimmy C for taking what looked like a punch bowl situation for flush fan and turning it into a nice season.- I'm very excited for the next few weeks, and NO outcome is going to bring me down. I think this team is nice .. best we've had in 20 years .. but I'm starting to get a sense for how nice the team in 2 years will be. The athleticism will increase & the talent will follow that. Assuming that KD continues to get the buy in that he has with this team (& last year's) .. this team is only headed up. We'll look back in a few years and wonder how the 05-06 team won 24 games. The wait from March to November might kill me this year.- It's really great to see a team this late in the season still focused on group effort and winning together. US - WE - TEAM. Nice to have another senior class go out on a strong note. That's 2 in a row and we should all be very proud of RP, DP & MF. I know I am. For anyone who reads the SportsGuy on ESPN, I've developed a corrollary I call the Jawanza Moore Effect. I'll expound on that later in the week.-Remember This: THIS IS ONLY YEAR 2 OF THE DAMBROT ERA. This is NOT year 18 of the post-Huggins era. It is the second year of a rise back to where the Zips belong .. not another year of just waiting for it to happen. Enjoy the ride Zips fans!Thanks for sticking with me on a long post. Go Zips!

I know this hasn't been discussed much here, but I don't think the importance of this weekend for the Athletic Department can be overstated. This is a very unusual and powerful opportunity to demonstrate UA's first rate facility and it's ability to manage it effectively around a major conference championship. Don't think for a minute that Mack and the boys are overlooking that fact. This is a relationship builder and an opportunity. I don't know the reason behind this hosting opportunity, and whether or not it had to do with scheduling difficulties at all the Big East facilities. It would be really cool for this to come back on a regular basis. Get these folks comfortable w/ UA as a good facility destination.Regardless, should be a good weekend for area hotels & restaurants.

I couldn't agree more about this. As I type this, I'm looking at a generally unused hurlee and sliotar that sit in the corner of my office.We could get in a league with other schools that play this .. you have to figure that Fordham, BC, Iona .. maybe Manhattan have club teams.I've had the opportunity to witness this sport in person one time @ in County Galway .. B flight adult level, and it is AWESOME. It's not a game that you can pick up as an adult since there are some instinctual behaviors that if you don't have them, you might get killed. But talk about a fast pace game that requires athleticism, quickness, endurance and precise hand eye coordination.Hurlers (all amateurs by the way) are probably the toughest athletes in the world, IMO.I have a list of sporting events that I have to take in live before I go to the dirt nap. Among them was a Ryder Cup, which I crossed off last year (Thanks to KF.lasher!). Final Four would be cool .. but attending the All Ireland Hurling championship is the top thing on my list. Wifey and I are hoping that it might fall close to the Ryder Cup next September so we could grab both events on a weeklong trip.Great post ASA!

I would vote for football, but you don't have it included.

Mrs. ZW happens to be a BG alumn, so this was an easy convincing job for me.

Actually, the forum DOES have a General section .. just gotta scroll down a little.So I have moved this topic to the right forum.Zippy rules. Children love Zippy. My kid (15months) totes his beanie Zippy around like it's his best friend.The manacing Roo should remain as it is .. something lurking that you never really see. It's much more effective as an abstract idea .. sort of an unknown.

My theory:When you have a college team that has wavered between pathetic and mediocre for 18 years, people simply don't go "bananas" overnight. We're 16-5 in February, not 31-2 in March.If the Zips make it to the finals at "The Q" everyone will be shocked to see 10k-12k Zips fans packing the arena. Those fans will come to the JAR the following season. For now we simply have to live with the nominal increases we've seen thusfar. 12k sound crazy? In mid-October, how much weed would you have been accused of smoking if you predicted the Zips would bring 15,000 fans to a road game of ANY sort? Bales and bales of the stuff. The Zips fans are there...waiting...BTW: The TV game vs OU and the Can't rematch will put our attendance in the MAC upper-half by season's end. What he said. :macc:

Congratulations on your 4 NCAA victories. That's in the history of the school, isn't?Please come talk to us when you reach the 20 NCAA win plateau.Tradition runs deeper than 7 years.

Is he really getting interest from Miami, given the class of RB down there? Maybe they're looking at him as an athlete?

Any news on this guy? Rivals is still listing him as a UA guy, but no LOI?

Per ESPN, the Zips are playing @ Nevada for the Bracket Buster.It will be on one of the ESPN networks, time & channel TBA.Here's the Link!

I LOVE to see this "we" coming from msopher!BE the ROO

My hope is for a visit w/ the Jaspers @ Manhattan .. I could totally take a weekender to the Island. Never mind that it's in the Bronx.

This sounds to me like a nice hire, even if it did take a couple of months.This guy's been living and breathing soccer at the absolute top of the heap for over 10 years. Key recruiter for a team that's been to 4 recent College Cups. Knows & recruits the best talent in the nation.This is a step up for the UA program and a nice get. This program is primed to become one of the best in the country and a guy with this type of experience should keep things going nicely. My hope is that we didn't lose any players as a result of the delay. Recruiting wise .. the impact is difficult at best to really gage.Nice work committee, UAM & MR on this one. Lolla built something nice here & we'll see if this guy can turn it into something great.

I've got a full car headed out there on Sunday.Great place to see a game if the students show up in force.

Hey Topper,You getting a MAC PAC for 550? .. just got my renewals and they're hitting me for 600 for each PAC.I think they're jamming me since I got away with the goods & gear at last year's sessions.Let me know if you don't get any bites. I'm keeping steady at 3 PACs this season again, but there may be renewed interest & I might be able to get someone to split with you.ZW