GoZips

There are twelve teams in this conference (the obvious). Now ask yourself this simple question.Two, perhaps three teams from the MAC will be in any sort of post season play. Do you really stickyour nose up at playing in the NIT or even the CBI?That's pretty arrogant. Say, did your hundred grand donation check to Zips Athletics clear the bank?

I'm going to commit heresy here.First priority is winning the MAC tournament and getting invited to the big dance.What if we come up short? Options, options, options.Get an NIT bid. Best bet ... Beat CANT Friday night. Back up; lose the MAC championship game.Other than that ... its a crap shoot.Frankly, even a CBI invite needs to be looked upon favorably. The kids have earned a postseason bid somewhere. It is a well known fact that the NIT is now a part of the NCAA (thestench of the restraint of trade lingers heavily in the air). The CBI is independent of theover bearing and contentious NCAA (see the Akron men's soccer program for details).I am not going to pound my head against a brick wall if the Zips end up in CBI. It still beatsthe hell out of sitting at home (see 26-7 season and no invite).Beat CANT; if necessary ... twice

One can only hope that the MAC offices select the three best rated officials for Friday's game.A lot is on the line Friday night besides an important contest. The conference is on displayshowing its two best teams to a national audience. Officials can make or break how a nationalaudience views this game. Big time conference fans hate "ticky-tacky" fouls. Let them play.Of course, that does not include allowing Chris Singletary rabbit punching marathon.

Full ArticleFor all you rationalizers and worry-worts who're already preparing for a Zips loss...You know who you are...you already have "It doesn't matter if we beat K.e.n.t. or not...it only matters what happens in the MAC Tourney!" pre-written and stored as a text file on your hard drive. To YOU I say -Friday is HUGE! Freaking H-U-G-E. It is for a MAC Championship. It is for an NIT "lock." And if we don't get it...it goes to K.e.n.t. State. They get the banner, and the Zips may end up with nothing more than a Travis-Joyce-esque "feel-good" post season party @ the JAR. Losing on Friday is not an option. AMEN ... !!!!

The University of Akron has two outstanding basketball programs.Come to the JAR Tuesday and support the "other" great Zips team ... the Ladies.They have earned your support. If you are a true Zips fan its time to put your money where yourmouth is. Six bucks, or free with a student ID. Sure would be nice to see over 1,000 sweaty fanniesin the seats. Sweaty because the Ladies need to turn up the heat to pay back the Lady Bobkittiesfor upsetting the Zips down in Partyville.A win Tuesday guarantees our gals the four seed in the MAC tournament. It also sets new high watermarks for MAC wins and wins in Division one.

Taken directly from the Bob Huggins school of "what the hell are you doing in our paint? Do notcome in here again, or die."

Right now this kid's ego is clouding his judgement.Often times, the first school to offer has the inside track all the way to the finish line.

Not everyone needs to check with the coach before offering an opinion. You may need to do so, and that is perfectly ok. But don't belittle people with opinions for exercising their free will.Have you ever considered that, by constantly harping on and belaboring your Steve McNees point guard shtick that you grossly exacerbate the very situation you're attempting (in vain) to diffuse? By rambling on and on and on and on...by responding to every minor critique or opinion with a rambling, pointless, passive-aggressive condescending post....do you realize you're fanning the flames of otherwise self-extinguishing embers?You complain about the moderators because they don't have YOUR threshold for what is appropriate or inappropriate. You complain about the Buffalo fans, because they don't meet what YOU consider appropriate behavior.You complain about people who don't share your opinion about a given player. Have you ever considered that you, yourself might be as big a wingnut as those whom you endlessly rail against? Darn, Cap'n, where did you get that picture of me? I wasn't really yelling at the cloud. I wasyelling at the crowd. Or, was it the danged refs? I forget.Dave, actually I frequently talk to coach Dambrot. Often I attend the Monday night conclaveat the Tap House on Waterloo Road. The crowd tends to be small, so the opportunity todirectly ask KD questions exists.Dave, KD tends to play it conservative. He has a known quality in Steve at the point. He wouldlike to move Steve to the two and play Humpty or Ronnie at the point. Its largely a fear factor ofgetting behind in a game. So, KD is slow and a bit timid in making the move. I am sure his confidencein Ronnie skyrocketed the first ten minutes of the Buffalo game. It worked out beautifully like wewould all like to see.

Quick, the extremely bad ball handling at the end of the game can be traced back to not playingthe full rotation. The kids were dead on their feet at the end. Notice how they also clanked a number offree throws off the front of the rim during that time frame.KD had his best free throw shooters on the floor at the end. They were also darn tired. The brain tendsto run slower when we are tired. The same thing happens to basketball players. A little better floortime management by assistant coaches might have given the Zips fresher legs at game's end.Just an observation.

Nothing quite like being up at 2:45 AM. Well, how did you like Steve McNees at the two guard? Is he a load or what? Steve can flat out drain the three ball if set up and wide open. He took the starch out of Buffalawho in mere minutes.Of course, to poke all you "I love Steve at the point" people .... Steve gacks the last fifteen secondsof the first half once again. He has no business playing the point. How many of these non-turnoverscan you accept? I already went way past my limit.Zeke Marshall played his best game yet. What an improvement since the start of the season. And, this kid is just going to get BETTER.The McKnights deliver again. As KD said, when they score twelve and fourteen, we are going to win alot of basketball games.Nice to see the role players deliver as well. Hats off to hard working Tim Carroll.Saved the best for last. Jimmy gets his SEVENTH double-double ... in front of his mother. How sweet is that? Any one thinking MVP? Way to deliver, Jim.

Oh, I see.tOSU wannabes. Front runners. Only root for a sure thing. Too bad those Howdies missed a wellplayed Zips basketball game. Let's see if the Howdies have enough nads to show for the Kant Sucksbeatdown.

Those were our fans?

I see that Mike Rasor is taking the AK-Howdies to task for their dismal attendance.Good for him. They need a trip to the wood shed. A trip to BUGS on Saturday would be better.When I entered the JAR (North entrance) I was pleased to see the end zone bleachers nearlyfull of kids (students?). Can't be UA students. I kept looking up all game to see how many hadexpired as in died. They cheered like they were all dead.After the game I saw sheets of paper saying the seats were reserved for "Greek Life" Here's a tip.Geeks. Yeah, I said it. A pack of geeks, not Greeks. Actually, I hate to put down geeks. You so called, lame assed geeky Greeks. Get up off your Pepsi soaked bums and cheer.Are you morons expecting to be at the CANT game? If you are ... go sit with them. For shame.You lame assed Howdies ... get to the game and join the few real AK-Rowdies who were outstandingagainst Buff-a-lu. That team from Canada. Good job ... !!!!!

What about Green? Where does he fit in? I don't know that I would call J. Conyers an outside shooter, more of a slasher and offensive rebounder.Jimmy, like Nate and Josh are swing men ... that is, they play the small forward. Some, like Jimmy crashthe boards while others, like Nate, tend to be more on the perimeter. Josh will fill a need at the three.Where do you want Dave Green, Dakotah Euton and Brett McKnight to play? Zeke has the post alongwith Nik Cvetinovic.Oh, I heard a rumbling that the Zips just might be getting a fourth incoming freshman. Details later.

John Enger better have an outside shot as the Zips have him penciled in at the three spot.Josh Egner is the coming Nate Linhart/Jimmy Conyers replacement and will start as a Freshman.

Well, the deciders learned something along the way.Faust was a Notre Dame reject and he had mediocre results with terrible facilities and sub zerocommunity support due to the angst caused by disgruntled Jim Dennison supporters.So, the deciders tried a new tack ... bring in a coach with zero big time experience. He failed.Actually, given the several well taken points by INZ, he had mediocre success. Truth is ... hadOwens actually installed and used a pass rush, he would still be the head coach, probably witha long term winning record. But, alas, the concept of a pass rush escaped him.Again the deciders realized that they almost had it figured out. They sacked the nearly successfulcoach and installed a new coach whose only resume asset was a hot looking babe wife. He failed.So, learning from this, the deciders have now installed another in experienced coach who gladhands with the best of them. But, he has one redeeming quality. He is from Notre Dame.Hey, isn't this where we came in?

Ron Paul is by no stretch of the imagination a Conservative.Constitutional? Are you serious? In this country thanks to the Dred Scott Supreme Court decisionin 1854 it was legal to own slaves. In fact, the Supreme Court declared it was the legal right of a slaveowner to shoot dead any slave who rebelled or, God forbid, ran away. Ron Paul would support that view today.Ron Paul and his idiot spawn are pro-death. Same as the moron in the White House.Get your facts straight before you choose sides.Ron Paul is a crack pot. Any one who ascribes to his views is also a crack pot.There, I said it.

Yesterday at the JAR the place was infested with way too many ugly orange shirts.Where were you folks? The AK-Rowdies and the band helped a good bit. Thanks.The Ladies have gotten to the point where the best teams in the MAC must bring their "A" gamein order to defeat the Lady Zips. The gals have come from dead last to now being the fourthbest squad in the conference. If they can defeat CANT on the road they elevate to third best.That is quite an over all improvement. Playing better defense (they never heard of the classicdefensive stance or keeping their hands in the air) would solve some issues. Taking better careof the rock (its not a fricking egg, girls) would lead to more points on offense. Until they showotherwise they are still the queens of turnovers. Let me say in their defense ... the potentialis there.Thanks to coach Kest and her staff the Ladies have elevated their game. They are fun to watch.They will miss Jolene Tamboue and Ayla Guzzardo, two excellent JUCO players who helped pump life into this team.Next season sees the addition of four outstanding HS players. All will be a shot in arm.You need to go see Rachel Tecca play. Not only is she a knock out looker ... she can flat out play.I cannot write about all the ladies at this time. Suffice it to say that they are playing well. And, asfans we should be pleased and proud of this team.In my opinion, next year's team will contend for the MAC championship. They will give it a fightthis year. The Lady Zips are no longer an easy win. Good job, Ladies.

This one is easyWoodTravisConyersMiddletonDialsThe only debate is whether to replace Middleton with somebody else. That doesn't have anything to do with skill, he is easily better than any of the current guards, but he flourished providing a spark off the bench. But under your scenario, there isn't anybody better suited to replace him. Maybe you can go big with Wood, Travis, McKnight, Conyers, Dials. But I think McKnight is a horrible fit at SF (he would just bog down the paint) and Conyers doesn't shoot the ball well enough to be a SG.Wadszip, Not bad. I used the same argument and got toasted. People forget that by the timeQuade was a senior he was a pretty darn good player. He could leap like a kangaroo, blockedshots, dunked (remember those high light films?), rebounded and shot free throws well. What I wastold was that Jimmy is just a bit less valuable than Quade was. The other four are locks.For the person who pointed out that the current team won a MAC championship they forget that the heart and soul of that team was Nate Linhart. And, guess what ... he is sorely missed.

This was pulled on me. So, now I pull this on you.My starting line up is: Jeremiah Wood in the post. Romeo Travis at power forward Quade Milum at the wing Cedric Middleton at shooting guard Nick Dials at the pointYour task: Replace any of these starters with your starters using the current 2009-2010 squad.Then the hard part: Prove your player is better than mine.

I appreciate your service to the country, and envy you for flying in a Rhino.Thanks, Dave, I have to admit that a full military take off in an F-4 (F-4F in my day with the highspeed wing) is still the greatest thrill I have ever had. That includes being present at my daughter'sbirth (to say nothing of being there for her conception). I rode in the back seat as a REO. Cute Concorde story: When we were lining up on the runway the plane's pilot announced that thetake off would be just like taking off in an F-4. Those four Rolls-Royce Olympus engines have quitea kick. The take off set us back in our seats pretty good, but no where near what an F-4 can do.When it was my turn to view the cockpit I mentioned that I thought the Concorde launched more like a hot running Corvette. The crew agreed and we had a nice chat. I mentioned that this was the first time I ever went supersonic without worrying about getting my balls squeezed off. The old Navypressurized flight suit had a nasty habit of pinching you if you weren't very, very careful. We alllaughed. All four of the flight crew were former Royal Navy Phantom jocks.

Gaaaaaaak ... !!!!It is NOT about the RPI. It has never been about our RPI.The Zips are in the MAC. A conference where you can win TWENTY-SIX games and not even getan NIT bid. The Zips could had an RPI of 12 and stayed home. So long as selection committeesare composed of biased old men .. the cheating will continue. And, it does.Forget the stupid RPI. Only one team goes to the NCAA tournament from the MAC. The team thatwins the conference tournament.It is far more important to capture the NIT bid by winning the regular season. Thus, the loss toEMU is far, far, far more important to Akron then the silly RPI. I'll take an 11-2 conferencerecord over a 49 RPI any day. (btw .. a 49 RPI is fracking worthless; you still wont get selected).A win on Saturday at VCU could be worth a ton to the NIT selection committee.Flat Earth Society? They still around (pun intended)? Since I am probably the only ZN person to haveflown above seventy thousand feet ( done in the Concorde and Navy F-4 Phantoms), I have personallyobserved that the Earth is round, or at least the curvature is apparent at that altitude.

The Zips do not need to change up from their lame schedule (there, I said it). The Zips badly need to stop making gacks. The two loses that killed RPI and any number of other things were the loses to Austin Peay and Eastern Michigan. Think about it. Win those two games and the Zips are 22-5. Plus, 11-2 in conference. In the driver's seat.I am still steamed from early on to witness such crap as STARTING Tim Carroll. Now, I hold Timin high regard. He is a walk on. He is a role player. He is not a starter. Every minute Tim playedrobbed some one of needed time. The is no substitute for experience. Bench time is notexperience.Losing to Austin Peay was bad. Losing to EMU is inexcusable.This team has been up and down like a roller coaster. It has NO legitimate point guard. Well, thepoint guards (Ronnie and Humpty) are sucking hind tit to a combo guard. I heard the post gameradio interview with Steve McNees who now acknowledges that he needs to step up to the leadershiprole. If Steve does, he will solidify himself as the point guard. I hope he does.Folks, please do not bother with the BS arguments about Steve's turnovers or lack of them. That isall BS. Other teams have long ago figured out that letting Steve go dribble crazy is to their advantage.So, stuff it.One can show the converse of over scheduling. Witness Miami. They play an even tougher OOCschedule than CANT does. Look where it got them. Their fans on the their message boardscalculated that they would handily beat Akron. Akron's OOC schedule is so lame. We'll tear them up.The schedule is what it is. It is a calculated risk. Key word being "calculated". Losing to Austin Peayand especially lowly Eastern Michigan did the damage.If Akron and CANT's RPIs were both in the 50s and perhaps the 40s the MAC would still be a one bidleague. Take a good look at the A-10. Five, six teams with great RPIs. That makes you a multiplebid league. Watch what happens to the PAC-10 this year. A one bid league just like the MAC.To KD and the team ... just go out, focus and win, everything will take care of itself.

The dude is a knucklehead of the first order.The MAC is a better and stronger conference than the sucky Horizon. Butler would probably NOT win the MAC this year. Butler is not likely to win enough MAC gamesto finish in first place. Butler is totally over rated. Yeah, the Bulldogs are a good team. Could theybeat Akron, CANT, Miami on the road? Not likely. The MAC is a tough place to play.The MAC is having a decent year while the Horizon is completely in the dumper.Wow, what a neat deal, reward Butler for failing in their conference tournament. Smell a rat? Itsan ancient ACC trick. Make sure the marginal team wins the conference tournament so the ACCgets maximum teams in. The Horizon has been just as guilty. Its called cheating.You can bet that KD would not vote Butler as the best Mid-major. It is difficult to believe that anyonewould. They just aren't that good. In my opinion, Butler should not even make the top ten. Topfifteen I would agree. Other than Wright State, no other Horizon team should be getting votes.The MAC has at least four programs worthy of gathering votes (all in the East). CANT and Akron, at this point of the season, have earned a ticket to the NCAAs. Will both get one?Not likely. One or the other will end up in the NIT. We can see this coming as the two schoolshave separated themselves from the pack. One of the other will win the regular season title,thus assuring an NIT bid.Should a rabbit pop out of the hat and pull an upset in the MAC tourney neither CANT or Akron hasany chance of getting an NCAA bid and the team that did not win the regular season is doomed tothe likes of the CBT.For the lowly Horizon, Butler is guaranteed an NIT bid, which they wont need as they will get anNCAA bid even if they are blown out in their first Horizon tourney game. Presumably Wright Stategoes to the NIT and the crap down their leg team that pulls this year's (sic) upset also gets anNCAA bid. What a load of crap.If anyone has any delusions that Butler is the best Mid-major ... schedule them against Gonzaga.

RACER, Steve McNees belongs on the floor the major of minutes (in excess of 20-25). Steveplays excellent defense. Steve is showing signs of leadership which this team badly needs. Looks likea couple of others are starting to man up as well.That idiot dunking over Steve is no mark against Steve. Pardo is lucky he didn't try that stunt over me.His nuts would have ended up in his throat.