Quickzips

I believe we are out of scholarships for 2010.Indeed. Unless someone transfers out or has a career ending injury the Zips are out of scholly's.

Biggest question for me is what kind of a recruiter is he? Is he going to be able to pick up the torch from Coach Boals and run with it?

Hmm, in 2005-2006 did anyone foresee any place other than the Rubber Bowl being football's home?I got here in 2003 and there was already talk of a stadium to replace the Rubber Bowl. The feeling then wasn't a matter of if it was going to happen but a matter of when. The handwriting has been on the wall of the Rubber Bowl (along with various other messages that probably shouldn't be repeated here) for quite some time.

The MAC will NEVER locate their tournaments in Columbus. It would be a disaster (come to think of it, the move does have MAC written all over it). The entire thing would get swallowed up in the media and with locals by Buckeye basketball or Buckeye football or Buckeye horticultural championships. There isn't a school within close enough proximity to Columbus that could anchor such an endeavor. You know what, the more I think about it, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if the MAC does it.

I am first and foremost a Zips fan. I have said it before and will say it again, as a Zips fan you are either with us or you are against us. Mack is quickly making his bed as far as that is concerned. I'm not naive enough to think that people don't change jobs. Particularly at the top level of collegiate athletics. But the guy is looking more and more like he thinks he's bigger than Akron and is ready to move on. Best of luck. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Just for clarification, I am assuming that this...http://www.lucascountyarena.com/would be the site for the women's tournament if it moved to Toledo.

It's a bad idea. If having the games played at the top-ranked school is a good thing, then let's do that for the men also. Will you go along with that? I didn't think so.I don't think the Presidents are talking about playing the women's tourney at a campus site. If I read the article correctly the women's tourney would be played at a neutral site in Toledo. In that respect it makes a lot of sense. Just as Akron and Can't being two of the better teams on the men's side anchor the attendance numbers in Cleveland for the men's tournament, BG and to a lesser extent Toledo could anchor a neutral site women's tournament in terms of attendance in Northwest Ohio.

Changing the format of the men's tournament is a bad idea. It isn't going to draw any more interest on low seeds home courts than it will in Cleveland and it ultimately hurts the image of the league. Moving the women's tourney isn't a wholly bad idea. Bowling Green is the big powerhouse of womens hoops in the MAC and putting that tournament closer to the BG campus would help to ensure higher attendance.

The numbers DON'T lie. On a consistent basis across almost every sport (football, basketball, hockey, soccer, etc.) great defensive teams beat great offensive teams. You can look the numbers up yourself if you don't believe me. Timely offense combined with a great defense is the best way to win yourself a championship. I'm not arguing that you can win championships with total anemia on offense. At some point you do have to put a few points on the board, even with the greatest of defenses. But teams that sacrifice on the defensive side of the ball in order to score more points tend to end up in shootouts that they often times don't win. I know everyone loves watching high scoring shootouts, but it isn't the way that your going to win a championship.

Defense. It's as simple as that. I don't care how many points your offense can score or how potent it is, you won't win many games by allowing teams to run and/or throw the ball down your throat all game long. The old adage that defense wins championships exists for a reason. It's been proven over and over again at all levels in all sports. A great defense beats a great offense more often than not. Unfortunatly, our defense doesn't show any signs of becoming great until we dump our ridiculous gimmick of a defensive scheme.

I think now the question is whether or not we will have a kicker who can consistently put the ball through them.

That sentence sent a chill down my spine. Seriously. :blink: Lol... don't do that, man!It's true though. Maybe not quite to the level of EMU basketball, but you can't expect the community to come out year after year and fill up the Info to watch 3-9, 4-8, 5-7 teams. People support winners. The newness of the stadium will add a certain amount of fans this year, but you have to have a good product on the field to keep them coming back. If the product on the field sucks, in a couple of years we will be right back to the general apathy that Akron historically has had for Zips football.

I'm actually a pretty big fan of how our OOC is set up this year. I think it is about the perfect blend. We've got 2 home games and 2 road games. We've got the big, national championship contender in PSU that is more or less a money game but if we could figure out a way to beat them it would give us some huge press. We've got the I-AA pushover that we should be able to beat in our sleep that will pad the bowl chances. We've got two midling BCS teams in Indiana and Syracuse that are both very beatable and would show up as decent wins. This really is the season that the foundation will have to be laid on. Interest in this team is going to be higher simply as a result of the new stadium. A crapper of a season and we run the risk of turning into EMU basketball with a nice new stadium that we can't get fans too. A nice solid 7-5, 8-4 season with a good home record and a bowl game win and we can start to build something.As far as future schedules go, I don't concern myself too much with them. We have all seen it over the last couple of years that teams back out at the last minute and leave you scrambling. We could be scheduled to play Ohio State, Michigan State, Syracuse and Indiana today and by the time that official schedule is released we could be playing Ohio State, Indiana, Marshall and Rice.

The word on Payne seems to change on a daily basis. For a while there it was almost a sure thing that he was going to Dayton. Then Coach Boals all supposedly had him all but convinced to go to OSU. Now apparently he's taking a serious look at Kentucky. Schools seem to be flowing in and out of his alleged "short list" at a breakneck speed. Not sure what to make of the whole situation right now, but I don't like our odds.

I REALLY hate to open this can of worms again, but I feel that people need to temper their expectations of student support once the stadium opens. I fully expect the first couple games to be sellouts or close to it, but to expect a 6000 student average on the season is unreasonable in my mind. I've seen nothing in the history of our athletic programs that indicates to me that that many students are just going to suddenly start supporting us because we have a new stadium on campus. In response to Class of 82, this stadium isn't exactly "right in their neighborhood." Just over 3,000 of our students live on campus. A very small amount compared to overall enrollment. Even if you figure that another 3,000 students (a pretty high estimate in my opinion) live off campus but within walking distance that only accounts for about 6,000 students "in the neighborhood" and you would need to get 100% attendance from them in order to get to that 6,000 average. I would love to be proven wrong about all of this. Believe me, I would. But I think it is going to take more than just a shiny new stadium to get students on this campus to come out and support the Zips in droves the way some of you on here are expecting.

This IS big news. Looks like Can't has changed their recruiting strategy a bit. Instead of offering scholarships exclusively to JUCO's they have now signed a kid out of high school and will send him to a JUCO instead of getting him on campus. Not sure what angle the flushes are trying to play here, but it should be dangerous for the MAC.

Rasor's blog indicates that we are out of the Payne sweepstakes. According to his "inside sources" Payne's decision will come down to Michigan State, OSU and Kentucky. I don't know how much to believe this. Everything we've heard about Adreian is that he wants a smaller campus closer to home. None of those schools exactly fit the bill in terms of a smaller campus. Ohio State and I guess maybe Kentucky would be reasonably close to home but Dayton to East Lansing is a pretty far drive. On top of that you have the news coming out now that OSU doesn't have any scholarships left to give. Rasor's "inside sources" have been wrong before. Not saying the Zips are still in it for Adreian, but I find this information to be a little bit out there.

I think everyone needs to remember that Payne is well known to not be your average recruit seeking bright lights, fast cars and faster women. You can't just pigeonhole a kid like him the way you can a lot of other recruits.

For every overseas prospect that comes in and is effective at the college level there is another guy like a Kenneth Van Kempen who comes in and is a complete flop. I know the same can be said for local recruiting, but the price of having a local kid come into the program and flop is significantly less than flying overseas, scouting a kid, talking to him, signing him up, bringing him stateside and then watching him flounder around. I'll stick to local recruiting. You've also got to remember that we found Nik C. once he was already stateside and playing in Virginia.

Ohh joy, another Big East expansion thread.

Exactly what I've been afraid of with Boals leaving.

Interesting. All the talk that I've heard had Dayton in the lead for his services. Maybe he's cooled on the Flyers? Ofcourse scout still doesn't even list us as being on the radar and we know from his comments last weekend that that isn't true. Not sure how much you can rely on scout when it comes to stuff like this.

Understood. But we also weren't in the process of recruiting the #11 player in the country while we were going after Nate Linhart. I'm not saying this kid is a bad pickup, just doesn't generate the kind of excitement that someone like Payne would. Those are just the facts.

Interesting. Certainly doesn't have the sizzle of some of the other prospects we've been discussing here lately (Payne, Weatherspoon, Wright). 6'7" probably isn't going to be a center for us. At least not anymore. More than likely a PF. Hadn't really heard of this kid before. Anyone know anything about him?

I think I need to go get my eyes checked. I can't believe some of the stuff I think I'm reading today.