Zip Watcher

Not that I really have one, but my vote would be for an agressive renovation job on the JAR. We don't need to neccesarily build a 10k arena from scratch. Let's get rid of the track upstairs and build a new permanent upper level that comes up right behind the lower bowl. Making a new concourse behind & under the upper deck, with concessions / restrooms and tunnels to get in. It will tighten up the arena, and with a creative solution to eliminate the corner poles, we could add another 1500 to 2000 seats upstairs. 8k would be a real nice size and if you move the upper seats closer, it would be a louder, more intimate setting. The end seating, I'd like to see them re configured something like the Beeghly Center @ YSU. Just make it one straight shot of seats all the way up without a break (requires a modification of Porky's and the concessions underneath).. I'm interested to what they have to show us .. but I think it would be cool to upgrade the JAR now that it's not needed as a multipurpose facility due to the new center across the street. I'd rather have a jammed 8k seat gym than building something like CSU or OU and only fill it 2 or 3 times a season.

Surely, someone on campus who lurks the Nation went to this lunch yesterday and can comment on what transpired. I'm sure the Beacon was too cheap to spend the 10.25 on an intern sitting in on the lunch. What say ye!? MU Redhawks

GP, I respectfully disagree with your sentiment here, and we'll have to agree to disagree. My wanting the U to have good stewards of the Akron community image involved doesn't mean I'm for mediocrity or poor talent. It simply means that I think we should always remember we are talking about: The UNIVERSITY of Akron. This isn't the old Akron Pro's of professional football. These are student athletes. Now that simply pisses me off. Branding as racists or xenophobes those on this board that are wary of bringing on someone with a past that includes questionable choices is just ridiculous. Wanting good citizens has nothing to do with where the players come from or what they look like. That comment is a direct insult to the dozens of hard working, hard studying student athletes at UA who happen to come from an urban setting. I think you guys are reading WAY too much in to peoples reservations and posts here. We ALL want the Zips to be successful. We ALL understand the concept of redemption & personal growth. We ALL understand the concept of risk vs. reward. Many of us remember some of the "risks" taken by Crawford and Faust, and we also remember the "rewards." Simply expressing hesitation about the level of risk involved in certain situations doesn't make people bigots or lovers of mediocrity.

Per GoZips.com .. there's a lunch today open to the public at which KD will be speaking. I think it's at the Martin Center. Click Here for the Low-down Any slugs going to this & able to report back?

Heard through the grapevine that the ticket office wasn't open after the game ended last night. Some people who were interested in snapping up some Can't State reserved seats tried to get over there only to see a dark window. After a performance like that, I wonder if there might have been some good walk up traffic. Is there a standard time during games that the windows close? Anyone know? Info on gozips.com just mentions when it opens.

Good for them. UA means something more to a lot of us. And for me, it means doing it the right way. Winning can be accomplished cleanly or the Columbus State way. UA can and should do it right. I can be patient. It's tough to say the others are on the same level as marshall .. but either way, let JD get this thing done correctly, so there's no question it's clean. It's a GOOD thing if the team is an example in the community .. not just an unexpected bonus.

CK has pretty much hit on most of my thoughts. Some others that occur to me while I waste another day lurking the MAC forums here and there: - It's nice to be under the radar a little I think. Due to relative quite @ macbbs by the slugs, not much noise conference wide? I like that. Teams are definitely not gearing up to play against UA. If you read the BSU papers / forums .. they were much more concerned about their guy or the concept of a let-down prior to the game. Not much discussion of the Zips. Again these are the fans .. and media quotes of coaches. But a small indicator? - Miami fans are a bit more aware of things. Check out miamihawktalk.com. Nice site, but you'll find some whispers there that the Zips might be the biggest challenge in the east. Same among WMU fans .. a few of them recognized the Zips for what they could be when they were in Kalamazoozoozoo ... - Shot of the night: Quade goes up TOO STRONG. Nice! I'm liking the athleticism and fearless play that we see from QM when he's out there. Eat some cheeseburgers Quade. Might be a player in time. - The big area that will help the ZIps is half court sets to generate open looks. That's the way to sit on / stretch a lead while burning clock. I know it's silly, but I catch myself looking at the score and thinking "damn, they cut it to 13 again!" a lot. I think with experience, the team will get better at getting good looks late in the shot clock. That will be a necessity to steal a win down in Oxford. - This matchup should be an interesting one. Can the Zips turn the Redhawks over & get some quick baskets? That killed BSU, and they are certainly a team that prefers low scoring affairs to run and gun. - Anyone notice that Peterson has more career points than Horace (on the MAC site there's a story about 1000 pt scorers). DP in his 3rd year of action .. DH in his 4th. Horace more highly regarded as freshman, nice work by DP. - This team defense and effort is awesome. Brings back very good memories of the mid-late 80's. Add some pure scoring and bump the talent a little, and this thing could get scary. Can't say I really buy into this thinking entirely. Pretty much any team in the MAC and several in more upstream conferences (Syracuse for example) were after Andy out of Hoban. Pre-Back injury, he'd have been an asset to any system, and his quickness & size would have helped this team tons. Put a healthy Andy on this club in exchange for McFadden & tell me we wouldn't be even stronger. Regardless of how things ended up at the end of his 5 years, for me, the game @ WKU (Dec. 16th, 2000 I believe) will remain among the darkest days in Zips Basketball history. Crushing blow to a really talented, basketball smart player. Go Zips! Keep up the defense .. let's get one at Miami.

What exactly is subscriber only now? I looked quickly at box scores & quotes and they remain the same .. free for all. The archived audio has always been a subscriber (to college sports network @ Real networks) function since they started offering the streaming audio. It's really not expensive, but they do need to recoup the costs. My quick appraisal of the website today is that all the stories and rosters ... etc are all free to view. Please clarify your comment.

Not to be critical of the kid's ability or of Evansville in general, but isn't this guy moving way up in the hoops food chain to come from Evansville to UA? Did UA have any interest when he was coming out of high school? I'm thinking he's a walk-on ... hope he gets his $#%& together and grabs a good degree @ UA. Perhaps he'll help us out in the long run, but hopefully he'll help the team in practices now ..

Still under the radar after a 40 point win? See link above for some brief comments by BSU fans. There's a link in one of the posts to a local paper article. Not much attention is being paid by Cardinal fans & media to the opponent they have for tonights game. Still very happy (as they should be) about the last 2 wins against BG & @WMU. I have to believe that Buckley will come prepared, but it's good to see that the Zips are still being largely discounted as one of those games that BSU "should" win .. and that a loss at the JAR would be a big letdown. Let's go Zips .. statement game!

I don't know .. maybe because a guy DIED?! Theft .. B&E, etc. are pretty different from Manslaughter in my book.

He would have to be a walk-on, right? Seems like there's not a scholi available for him at the moment: Myers Collins McFadden Preston Futch Peterson Travis Wood Joyce Milum Walther Middleton Subtract Myers, Collins & McFadden .. leaves 9 scholi players next season. 3 Signees and Nick Dials get the Zips back to 13. If the kid's paying his own way and proves to be a good citizen, I'm all for the redemption opportunity. Zero tolerance has to be the name of the game. Evansville isn't exactly high D1 these days .. perhaps he's just a role player down the road. From what people say about Conyers .. there's going to be some talent at the 2 in the next few years.

Waiting for Tuesday night is going to kill my productivity. I'm really looking forward to seeing BSU. "The Fiercest Mid-sized Birds" are coming off wins at WMU and vs. BGSU. This is a good measure of where the Zips are at the midpoint of conference schedule. Nice crowd. Weather killed the overall turnout .. might have been much better. I think this was Futch's best game of the year. Immediately before he got called for that hard foul, the guy he was guarding clubbed him in the jaw with a strong elbow. Can't say I was pleased to see that activity when you're up by 30, but I can't blame Matt for bringing the hammer down. The difference between last year and this was that he waited until the guy was going up with the shot to do it. The improvement I see in Futch is this: He spent a lot more time on the block working with his back to the basket against CMU. Maybe more time in this game than the whole rest of the season. He's a load, and he's getting better at using his size and strength to get himself close in shots by the rim .. now keep at it big fella and you'll get them to drop. A few times he got in TOO deep and had nowhere to go. I like the effort and the progress away from always choosing the 20 footer (1 shot not withstanding). I'm liking our Frosh A LOT! Agree wtih what's been said about Bubba. Middleton can flat out play. He's going to be our key stopper in the backcourt. Maybe a Shaw who can score? And does Quade have wings? I swear he was flying in the second half a few times. Generally, I have to like the team atmosphere in the JAR. They've really bought into the system on both ends of the court, and that will help them overcome bad shooting nights. If DP has an off night, they're ready and able to look elsewhere. Finding the open shooter has been a strength. There are moments in games where they begin to get less agressive on offense, and it stagnates, but they're getting shorter and less frequent. I do think they should be careful to not try and embarass a team too often. I know it's hard to tell a walkon not to shoot, but dropping 3 bombs less than 10 seconds into the shot clock when you're up 30 is sort of harsh. I say save that for Can't State .. especially in the MACC. In those games, there is no such thing as too much. Looking at the schedule, the next 5 are going to be big indicators of this team. I'm looking for a win on Tuesday and then at least a split of the next 4 after that. Winning 3 of 5 starts to solidify the home game on 7 March. 4 or 5 gets me thinking MAC East. Go Zips!

FYI Panther, the 3 pointers made are also included in the FG Made, so his line from last night was: 5-7 FG 3-5 3FG 5-5 FT So 5 FG made is 10, add 3 additional points for 3 3PT FG's and 5 from the line and that gets him to 18. He had a great game last night and is showing some off the dribble skills now. Could end up being a good MAC player!! Go Zips!

Indeed they do .. misread my schedule this morning. See you at the JAR.

Just got back from a meeting on Waterloo in Akron, drove north to the turnpike. It's pretty nasty out .. sky seems to be clearing up, but the roads are a mess. If the snow comes down much more through the afternoon .. I gotta wonder if this game might be postponed .. both teams off until at least Wednesday .. I'm sure the Chips aren't leaving .. maybe turns into a Sunday?? I hope it goes off tonight ... I might have to leave now on Nordic skis to get there in time. On to the game: - Don't know much about CMU. 7-8 (2-5). Wins against Marshall on the road and NIU at home. Lost to OU at home to break OU's dismal road streak. - The Zips beat them 2 times last year. Not tight scores. - If Romeo can stay on the floor, KD should be able to use the depth to pull away from teams, rather than using the depth to make up for foul trouble. - Is McFadden due? Seems like he's on again off again ... down game at Marshall. Big game tonight. - Is it Zach Sowers' turn to record a career high tonight? - Hope to see a big crowd (weather and all). It's been a long time since we've seen a JAR filled with Zips fans .. it's been filled, but usually with about 1000 opposing fans (some with a serious hygene problem ... if you know what I mean). This will be a Zips building .. hopefully FULL and should be fun. - Looking forward to the next 2 at home .. getting to 6-3 in conference before heading to BG & Miami would be big. Then the confidence will be there to attempt a split or better and really put themselves in the driver seat in the east. Defense wins championships and there's a MAC East Division Title looking for a team that wants it. Might as well be the Zips, right? Let's go ZIps!! Ooohh Ahhhh ... Gotta beat the chippewas .. ooohh ahhh .. gotta beat the chippewas .. OOHH AAAHH....

I'd love to find the box score from the OVC final game against MTSU in '86. I'm sure there were more than 6500 in there, with all of the students being let in w/ ID. To this day I still remember how hot and humid it was in there. I always thought the initial capacity was higher than that.

Some quick thoughts after the Marshall game and leading into CMU: - Nice to get a road W. Even with Marshall in desparate straights for a win of any kind, this was a game the Zips had to have. Would have been a tough loss for this team to take. -With the relative struggles of Can't State and Miami (and I guess the whole conference) on the road this season, I think that 3 road wins would pretty much guarantee a home game on March 7th, outside shot at a day off on the 7th. Anyone have an idea where they can grab 2 or more additional road W's? - I was of the mindset that Milum would be red-shirted, but pretty glad he was out there to help last night. Stepped up big for a true frosh on the road. I understand the need to balance out the scholis ... and it helped the team last night. - Marshall shot 29.6% last night. It's becoming commonplace that teams are having HORRIBLE shooting nights against the Zips. Remember the whining that Dunn & French used to do that "it always seems that teams have their best shooting nights agains the Zips" .. ? Open shooters make more shots that harrassed shooters. The team defense should only continue to improve as they play more together. - Similar to all the current discussions by the national press about Bill Belicheck building a team of simply Football Players, with less emphasis on specific positions, does anyone see a trend at UA in this direction. In the other thread, there's this notion about center or no center. Don't we essentially have 3-5 interchangeable frontcourt players? I think that's helping this team defend when different players have good shooting nights or get in foul trouble. Pure team basketball .. is this what it's like? (Off topic .. probably a good explanation for all of JDB's TE signings). - Memo to Joe Dunn: I like your enthusiasm, I really do. But when your interviewing the coach in the post-game show. Can you please ASK HIM A QUESTION!? We tune in to the game and hear your analysis, we don't listen to the postgame to hear you postulate about what happen and then get a brief yes or no reply from the coach. You have 40 minutes to tell us what you think, and 5 minutes to find out what KD thinks. Help us hear what the coach has to offer. Maybe make up some questions in advance?? Please interview (ask questions). - Did I hear correctly that there are only 500 tickets left for the CMU game?! Does this mean there are actually 5000 seats sold, and people holding real tickets, or are there 2500 "Vouchers" floating around out there. I'd sure like to see what the JAR looks like filled with Zips fans .. it's been a long long time. I'm struggling to keep my expectations in check here. At this point just really enjoying the ride up and the product and people involved on the court. Hey Z-P: I don't need your seat, but I can probably move it for you if you want to off load it (them). Let me know! We should have some cheeks in your seat.

Z-P : You need a password reset on your registration? Need help recovering it .. let me know.

I was long in the category of Hooper, wondering why no good big guys in some recent classes. Then a fellow MAC fan friend of mine asked me 2 simple questions: "How many NBA caliber centers have you seen pass through the MAC since Akron joined the conference? How many bonafide dominant low post players over 6' 8" have you seen?" It made me think for awhile, and I could only come up with Kaman as a MAC player who went on to play / get drafted by the NBA as a center. As for dominant low post players, I can think of a few: Anthony Stacey, Gary Trent, Brandon Hunter, Antonio Gates .. I'm sure I'm missing a few ... but these were all great players in the MAC, and none were any taller than Romeo. Beefier .. perhaps, but height wasn't such a big part of their success. If you stood next to Stacey, he was actually about 6-3 .. and he used to DESTROY us inside, when we had a 7' center. Ultimately, we have to consider the conference in recruiting, and having a stable of athletic 6-7 to 6-9 guys is going to help bring success in the league. I'm off the issue of having a true center. Edwards was a stiff, no matter who's writing his paycheck these days.

I'm with you .. I was thinking the other day that there must be some "Jam the JAR" promotion they could do that would get people there. Maybe mix it in with an Akron Food Bank non-perishable drive or something where you get a free GA ticket when you buy 1 and bring some canned goods or something. That way, you'd get some press for community building and still have some gate $$$ to defray costs. If they could handle giving away as many tickets as they did for the Marshall game, which represented 1/5th of the home football schedule .. 2500 seats to one game that is 1/15th of the hoops home slate shouldn't break any budgets. The hurdle here may be a high one for the first game, but if they keep up what we've seen thus far, people will come back on thier own. What sucks is that after all the good hoops last week, there's no mention of "what you're missing here in Akron" in the local paper. Nice support by the hacks. I see them at the games every time .. are they just using the press pass for free entertainment?? Regardless, I'll be there with multiple people in tow .. a win in Huntington and it's going to be hard to keep my expectations in check. The East might be in reach here and now! Go Zips.

Brief Sunday night comments a day later: 0. I wholeheartedly disagree with any notion that fatigue had anything to do with the last 8 minutes last night. These were mental and strategy breakdowns. 1. It will never make sense to me that teams that play good pressure defense can sometimes have enormous difficulties in breaking the press. This was very clear last night, and I suspect the rest of the MAC will pick up on this until they prove otherwise. Way too many backwards passes in the back court. Dribbling into traps all too common. 2. When a team is struggling to break the press and get the ball up the court, why does a coach continue to bring all 5 guys into the backcourt? 5 offensive players in the backcourt = 5 defensive players in the backcourt. This can ONLY serve to crowd things up more than usual, and often enables the defense to employ a zone press in the backcourt to effectively disrupt the offense's ability to advance the ball. Get at least 2 guys out of there to the front court and things will open up! To be fair, this was the first decision all year by KD that didn't make sense to me. There's reasons he's the coach and not me. 3. Best game yet by Preston, Futch was solid .. these guys should get better throughout the year. 4. 30 minutes of the best hoops in the JAR since 1989. That team can beat anyone in the MAC. 10 minutes of some of the worst hoops in the JAR since 1995. Erasing these episodes will be a big part of this team growing up and coming together. 5. Can someone tell Joe Dunn to ASK QUESTIONS IN THE COACHES / PLAYER INTERVIEW??!!! After the game, we already know what you think Joe, from your 10 minutes w/ Frenchie. When KD sits down, it's your job to ask a brief question and let the coach give us some insight into the game. We shouldn't be hearing you give some seminar on what you saw and ask the coach to agree. Ask a question and get out of the way. We'll all (you included) learn a lot more and enjoy the interview more. 6. The Mr. Hero Perseverence Guy of the Game Award goes to: The kid on the press row side of the court during the 12minute timeout in the 2nd half. Nice recovery after getting your head lost in the jersey during the dressing component of the contest. Didn't lose his head for good & recovered to sink the hoop first. WELL DONE! Finally: :gun: How fun was that first 30 minutes? I haven't been this pumped about the team in a long time. I rarely miss games, but I can't wait until Saturday for the next game. Hey PASTIE! You've been missing some good action this week. You'll be glad you're there when you make it back. Defense wins championships, and there's a MAC East Championship to be had here with a few road wins! Go get the Herd & we'll see you back at the ranch on Saturday night! Go Zips.

I agree that it was a nice coaching job, but I'm not sure KD can coach sitting down. I've never seen him sit at the JAR yet this year. If you look, they don't even keep a chair open for him! He's always on the move .. maybe that's the inspiration our team needs for energetic defense.

I saw that too .. Motown Bronco has made 2 such comments in the past week. Right after the game, he referred to it this way: Another poster wrote: I think it will be interesting to read the reviews of Can't State by the Bronco fans after tonights game.

I concur CK. AWESOME showing on the defensive end of the floor tonight. Held UB about 20 pts below their season scoring average. That will overcome a huge rebounding deficit in a hurry. Other thoughts: 1. Cedric wins the first Battle of the Middletons .. hands down. RM not really a factor, as most of the Bulls guards were taken out of the game. Cedric's shot deserted him in the second half, but I thought in general, he made good decisions and played some nice D. Exceptional block in the second half. 2. Futch kills me sometime. He repeatedly demonstrates good footwork and hands, and relatively good quickness. I just think he takes the WRONG shots almost ALL of the time. I haven't looked at a box score, but I can think of at least 3 possessions tonight where he got the ball in the paint, and used a drop step or dribble to get himself right at the rim, and then he takes some goofy flip shot at the hoop that doesn't have a prayer of falling. While he's not really clicking right now, with some work on laying the ball in the hole / reversing it .. he could be a contributor. Right now he's passing up the easy shot for the more difficult. 3. Preston making strides on D. Nice to see that, because most defenders don't really know what to do with him when he gets the ball out at the arc. He blew by some people tonight, and has the step back jumper. Some defense and rebounding would get him buckets of minutes. 4. Were the Zips playing volleyball in the first half on the glass? I'm thinking there were at least 5 or 6 rebounds lost because guys were tapping at the ball instead of just grabbing it. Ditto on the turnovers .. grab the ball & go .. don't bat at it .. 5. Were there really 3000 people there tonight? If you had asked me, I would have guessed 2100 or so. Seemed like a much smaller crowd than the OU game. More on this later .. Z-P you missed one of the better efforts by a Zips team in a few years. 6. Where's the 50/50 this year? Maybe this was discussed at football time, but is there some new NCAA thing prohibiting a good old fashoined raffle at hoops games? It's not like we don't have enought cheerleaders to pull it off?! 7. Home court being defended well. After tonight, I think the Zips should be able to beat any team in the league when the games are played at the JAR. Certainly won't happen that way, but UB's a strong team, and the UA defense just took them out of their game. Anyone else notice the relative confusion / panic that set in for UB after Bubba's bombs? They went into this super slowdown for a few possessions because they knew they were in danger of getting blown out of the building. Imagine what it would be like with lots of Zips fans in the building. I remember the MTSU game very well & look forward to that atmosphere again. All home games are winnable for this club. 8. Can't State got clobbered tonight in Kalamazoozoozoo. Too early to gage the Zips in some of these games, but I can't say I'm anything but excited for Saturday and the next game .. this could be a very interesting season.