GoZips

Louisville had something in the range of 4,200 tonight. Not happy to see that much interest in the land of mint julips.

UCLA scores golden goal with EIGHT seconds left in the second overtime.

Don't you mean "Have a safe , llllooooooonnnnnnggggggggggg trip back home"?

Louisville advances 2-1.

Early weather forecast is for 30-36 degrees with a 40% chance of rain and/or snow. This should bode well for the Zips. Except for our frozen Mattocks.

Louisville scores ... 1-0 Louisville is wearing white in case you are watching.

I heard this comment as it was spoken. At the time of the remark Ian (sp?) was behind me, Jodi Kest was to my left and Keith Dambrot was across the table from me. iCoach was standing behind KD when he uttered that blunt, painful remark. The three of us were aghast to say the least. Ian handled the remark with a great deal of class and dignity. It was a "teachable moment" if only iCoach were aware of his faux pau. We are not cretins, country bumpkins, rubes or what have you. Akronites and the Zips are as educated and urbane as any one in South Bent (intentional). Get it icoach? Sigh, probably not. The football players that stuck it out for the entire year did themselves proud in the end. The mountain of adversity was more iCoach made than any other factor. Perhaps he a) resigns, or b ) grows up and becomes a part of this community and develops into one outstanding football coach. At this time, option "A" is preferred.

More proof that the referees hate Akron. Such a blatant, "bad" call. i.e. they knew the QB is right handed. They had been watching him for more than three quarters of a game. Sure had me screaming at the TV set. It ignored me. Was the QB out of the box? Who was the intended target? First thing I thought as the play unfolded was intentional grounding. Why was the ball in his left hand? Bad, really, really bad officiating.

Meatwad, thanks for the laugh.

I stand and shout the entire game (usually). Often told to sit down or shut up or both. Pained me to watch the Zips play defense. Which to the delight of Gary Waters, the Zips never did. Check the stat sheet for steals and turnovers. Make you puke. And to the AK-Howdie that was saying "M-F": you ass.

Do NOT over analyze this pathetic loss. Plain and simple the core of the problem is the complete lack of defense. Its a team problem. Its not some one missing cuts, taking poor shots. Its the total lack of defense. You can not win basketball games with your hands in your pockets. Cleveland State played defense. CSU played defense well. Their understanding and executing their defense was the difference in winning or losing the game. When you play hands in your pocket defense you are never in a position to get rebounds. Your hands must be high (both of them) to catch a rebound. I love Keith Dambrot and consider him a friend. That said, Keith, scrap all the fancy offense and get your kids on defense. Without defense you will win nothing. The next several practices should be defense and free throw shooting. No scrimmages, no offensive sets, they don't need them. The complete lack of defense killed this team. Go review the game tape and watch how Cleveland State ran their defense. In your face, hands high, force the turn over and be ready to rebound. One last thing. Steve McNees .. get a hair cut. A flop mop may be cute on a freshman, but, you, sir, are a senior. Its high time to look and act like one. Steve, take the leadership reins. This team seems to be rudderless. Its YOUR job to lead since KD essentially clipped Nikola's wings or other parts.

Rachel Trecca, worth the price of admission. Thirty points, twelve boards in thirty minutes. Kacie Cassell, true freshman runs the point to perfection filling in for the injured Natasha Williams. Kara Murphy, outstanding senior leadership, princess of hustle. Carly Young, freshman of the year; perhaps. Darn, I could go through the whole roster with superlatives. These gals are great. Three and one start and getting better by the game. Coach Kest knows her game. By season's end we will be sweating bullets wondering if we can keep her here. Finally fun to watch the Lady Zips put on a clinic. Need far more AK-Rowdies in the end zones. Kudos and hats off the ones who were there.

GoZips, bearer of bad news. Brett McKnight has played his last game as a Zip. Brett is not likely to suit up again. The reasons are many and not all of his making. Enough said.

I like his attitude ... !!!!

The news report on West Virginia's web site gives some pretty strong evidence of the problem. Men's Soccer: WVU Falls to No. 3 Akron By Grant Dovey for MSNsportsNET.com November 21, 2010 05:47 PM AKRON, Ohio – The West Virginia men’s soccer team ended its season with a 3-2 loss at No. 3 Akron in the second round of the NCAA Championship at Lee Jackson Field on Sunday evening. The Mountaineers finished the season with an 11-8-2 record, including a 10-1 mark at home. Uzi Tayou The 10 home victories are tied with the 2006 squad for the most in program history and the 11 win mark was the most since 2007. “Unfortunately in the last few games we have had to play from behind," coach Marlon LeBlanc said. "I thought that if we have five more minutes with the way the tempo changed throughout that game that we were going to get the third goal.” The Zips won their 26th consecutive game at home and it was their 37th consecutive game without a loss at home. Akron now awaits the winner of tonight’s Indiana-Tulsa match. Akron controlled possession to start the game and it only took 11 minutes for the Zips to net their first goal. Anthony Ampaipitakwong took a corner that Darren Mattocks was able to head onto goal. West Virginia sophomore Uwem Etuk was on the goal line, but headed the ball into the net for an own goal. Mattocks then picked up his second goal in the 30th minute after taking a shot that Johnson originally made a remarkable save on, but the ball trickled past the goal line to put the Zips up 2-0. The first chance in the second half came in the 60th minute when Mattocks sent a rocket towards the WVU goal. Sophomore defender Eric Schoenle registered the second team save to keep the Akron lead at two. "We came out of the locker room knowing that the third goal was going to win the game," LeBlanc said. "With our group we made a few adjustments with getting more pressure and guys forward." Akron notched their third goal in the 69th minute from Scott Caldwell. Caldwell was able to settle the ball from about 22 yards out and took a left-footed shot past Johnson. Sophomore Shadow Sebele broke the shutout in the 81st minute on a scorcher from 23 yards out that went into the upper left corner past Akron keeper David Meves. Senior Dan Hagey started the West Virginia pressure bringing the ball up the left side of the field. Hagey was able to cross the ball into center of the field to freshman Jay Williams, who played a pass back to Sebele to finish. Junior Uzi Tayou then cut the Akron lead to one as he scored his first goal of the season in the 85th minute. Tayou took a throw-in from Sebele and headed the ball into the lower right corner past Meves. The final West Virginia opportunity came in the 87th minute on a blast from junior Franck Tayou that wrapped around the outside of the Akron goal. While they twice mention Meves, where were the defenders? I'm not so sure that the fault lies with Meves. Looked to me like the entire team was in a fog, trance, sleep walking, premature celebrating, pick a term.

This has become a regular feature of the 2010 Zips men's soccer team. What gives? This was not a one time event. It has happened repeatedly costing the Zips a win at OSwho and an embarrassing loss at Cleveland State. It took the shine off a nice win in the MAC tournament when Western Michigan scored a quick goal late in the game and the Zips up three-nil. And, Root, it did happen at OSwho and Cleveland State. So ... where is the problem? We pretty much know that David Meves was the architect of the OSwho debacle. Can he be blamed for the other games? Is it the defender line, the midfielders, the attackers or a combination of any and all of them going to sleep? I wonder. What ever it is; it is ugly.

The kiss of death.

If Cant gets wise and hires Luke Fickle ... I hate to think of the carnage. Best plan I read above is iCoach applying for and getting the job. Let's sell him on the idea that he'd be stepping into a nearly winning program. Frankly, Doug Martin is one heck of a lot better coach than the i-man.

Wake up call for the Zips. Teams do score in the last few minutes, last minute, last second. Zips once again shifted into sleep walk mode against West Virginia. Remember leading Western Michigan 3-0 with barely three minutes to play? Lazy keep got scored on. Today the same lazy, out of position keep got blasted twice. But, what the hey? What's the worry?

This pissed me off royally. Perhaps it was me that KD whined about in the post game interview. The whine about "nay sayers". Well, I am no nay sayer; just a moderately well informed fan. I saw an awful lot tonight that really bothered me. First off, kudos to Brett McClanahan for his game saving shot. Now, if he had squared up on his man through out the game instead of playing fifteen feet off of who ever he was "guarding" a fair number of YSU's threes would not have been scored. Brett plays defense a lot like Brett McKnight use to. That is, none. Akron showed its famous "hands in their pockets" defense again tonight. Its part of the reason that they suck at rebounding. It takes two hands to gather in a rebound. Some one needs to teach the Zips what a bounce pass is. Chest to chest passes get intercepted far more often than bounce passes do No in your face ball hawking. No dribble drives. Whining (yes, you, Nikola) to the refs. Screw the refs. Refs have never liked the Zips and tonight was no exception. Just play hard. Pleased to see KD force a technical out of the lazy refs. He was constantly harping about how YSU was fouling Zeke and no calls. Conversely, YSU's #44 cleared with his elbows every time he dribbled the ball. I mentioned it to the refs at half time, but, to no avail. I suppose a "win is a win". There is an awful lot of room for improvement. This game was a regression for Akron. They played their hearts out in Dayton and played floppsie against YSU. I hate to say this: Get Steve McNees off the point. He nearly cost Akron the game tonight. Steve is not now, nor ever has been a point guard. KD moved Steve to the two guard and Steve responded by continually passing up open shots so he could run his sorry version of a point guard imitation. Steve ... play the two guard. The Zips need your fantastic scoring. I could whine a whole lot more. Why bother? This team needs to get better in a hurry. I suspect that Brett McKnight is history. His name was not on tonight's line up card. One last thing. Mike Bardo is a great kid. His on the floor performance in games continues to suck. Why invest minutes in a poor playing senior when there are freshmen who are already better than Mike will ever be. Save big Mike for mop up time.

Yes. They could have at least provided a warning that they were going to double in size and then kick out about 75 Rowdies from sitting down below. If their job is to fire up the crowd then they need to move closer to the part of the crowd that actually needs firing up, not next to the group that would make noise regardless of the band's proximity. Disgusted with the band arrangement. Was told that it is for just one game. A number of St. V band members merged in with the Zips regulars. What I don't like is the loud and often ill timed band playing in the ears of the Zips players and coaches during time outs. The overly aggressive band leader seems to think the game is about him. Fire the band. Bring back the Rowdies.

It is a sorry state of affairs when political correctness dictates what coach is hired. I don't give a damn about the color of a coach's or players skin. Crap like this turns my stomach. Reverse discrimination has never cured anything. Rather it fosters bitterness and resentment. Sorry, Charlie, you are the best man for the job, but, we can not hire you because you are white. Most of us do not believe that iCoach is the right man for the job, but we can not fire him because he is Italian?

WVa wins 4-2

West Virginia now up 4-2 with under 20 to play.

Agreed. If this team builds on last nights performance and continues to play well that signature win (or two) is going to come this season. The opportunities will be there (Miami, Temple, Minnesota). Zips have to figure out how to close. AMEN