GoZips

Here is my prediction of the top eight seeds based on strength of schedule, conference affiliation,NCAA biases, etc.Number one seed goes to Virginia ACC tourney champs RPI #7Number two seed goes to UCLA PAC-10 champs RPI #5Number three seed goes to Wake Forest ACC regular season champs RPI #2Number four seed goes to Ohio State Big Ten Regular Season and tourney champs RPI #11Number five seed goes to North Carolina (ACC) RPI #4Number six seed goes to Harvard IVY League champs RPI #8Number seven seed goes to San Diego RPI #9Number eight seed goes to Akron MAC champs RPI #1This sets up Virginia with the "easiest" path to the College Cup. as per usual the College Cup isgeared for an ACC winner. It is possible with this scheme to have three of the Final Four teamsfrom the ACC. Plus the two West Coast teams eliminate one or the other.The NCAA is NOT going to seed Akron as the number one seed. Take that to the bank.

Best of fortune to Hunter.He was my preferred choice for the AD job at Akron.And, frankly, from what AD Wistrcill has or has not done thus far, sic, still is.

The Zips picked up some sweet help Wednesday."No. 2 North Carolina battled the elements and No. 20 NC State for 110 minutes of scoreless soccer Wednesday in Atlantic Coast Conference Championship quarterfinal action, but the Tar Heels were eliminated on penalty kicks, 4-1, at WakeMed Soccer Park."UNC certainly was in strong contention for one of the coveted top four seeds in the NCAA tournament.This quarter final loss just might have knocked UNC back a notch. Time will tell.

Watched a bit of the UNC vs NC-Central debacle in ESPN tonight. Yeah, I guess beating the crap out ofhapless D-1 team trumps beating the crap out of a hapless D-3 team. Didn't we pull the same nastyagainst NC-Central a year or two ago?

There is more to Steve than what he is often unfairly critizied for. Steve has the task of toughening upZeke Marshall. Steve's job is to beat up on Zeke every practice. He is doing a good job of teaching Zekehow to play the inside. Yes, the coaches, especially KD, oversee this process, but, it is Steve doing thework.Zeke's step-dad mentioned to me at half time that he thought (via Zeke) that Zeke has improved greatlysince the start of team practice. And, that Zeke had excellent coaching in AAU over the Summer. Zeke'sstep-dad credited Steve with being a large part of the process. I seriously doubt that Steve would be one of the players likely to leave for playing time. I think Steveis enjoying this important role. Thank you, Steve.

This is great news.Now, let's show up in force for the MAC tournament and help the Zips win.

Because these scrimmages are suppose to be behind closed doors I have not commented until now.One, a player (who will not be named) told me Saturday at the football game that Waters pouredeverything into "winning" the "game", while Keith took the approach of trying a long list of plannedcombinations. In that sense, both sides "won". Basically, KD was not keeping score and Waters was.Two, a UA athletic department person who was at the "scrimmage" told me Saturday evening thathad it been a "game", CSU's starting five all would have fouled out a couple of times over. In a scrimmage you can continue to play after your fifth foul. This source, much like the never to be named player stated that KD ran combinations of players that he continually switched up on.Until CSU agrees to play the missing away game at Akron, there will never be a series between thetwo schools. I have been making this statement for over three years. The situation has not changed.

Not so sure that the Zips are so great as Cant is playing with a monkey on its back.No, wait, that monkey is a gorilla and is named King Kong.

My impressions:Hartwick is far and away the dirtiest opponent the Zips have faced in a couple of years. The sad partis that they are talented enough to not need using dirty tactics. "Hacking" is the term if I remember.Hartwick spent the entire game chucking whichever Zip was handling the ball, mostly in the back.Despite repeated complaining by Akron fans, including one young Rowdie coming down the sidelinesto berate the linesman for his lack of calls (I completely agree).Eventually it caught up with Hartwick when one of their players was red carded (no yellow card involved).In a sense, playing a man down cost Hartwick the game. In my opinion, had the officials called a fairgame it never would have gotten out of hand. Tempers flared several times including at game's end.The Hartwick head coach frog marched his team off the field without shaking hands with the Zip players.His reason, "one of the Akron fans stole his goalie's water bottle". Would the thief please return theprecious water bottle? I know this because the coach berated me personally for calling out his shamplayers for their dirty tactics. Of course, stupid me, I failed to realize at the time that their raw playhas been taught to them by this coach. Once again the Zips got an easy, early goal which seemed to lull the Zips into complacency. Hartwickresponded with two well played goals to take the lead. Hartwick led at halftime 2-1. The second halfwas literally all Akron as the Zips pressed their attack for the full forty-five minutes.Hartwick is a scary, good team that Akron will face again in a week.Bad news, Michigan State lost to Northwestern 1-0. A MSU win would have helped the Zips. I heardseveral predictions that this battle against Hartwick cost Akron a top for seed. Not sure that I acceptthat analysis.

Michigan State is easily the best Big Ten team we have faced all year.Several factors made the game a nail biter. MSU came at us hard the entire game. No quit.MSU appeared to be as good at moving the ball as Akron is.First goal might have come too easy causing a sense of "stick a fork in it". Not to be.Akron had many more slips, falls and missed cuts than did MSU. Wonder if it was the cleats.Penalty kick goal hit the crossbar and defected down and into the goal. Whew!!!!Penalty kick came because the Akron player had the MSU player beat coming around the right side.Defender tackled the Zip player deliberately. It was that or give up an easy goal. It was a smart play.The nearly muffed PK attested to that.Heart stopping moment when MSU seemed to have scored an equalizer. But, the officials hadclearly called offside well before the shot. A great shot for sure.I told several MSU players after the game that they were the best Big Ten team we faced. To a manthey were all exhausted. Akron ran their butts off. The pace was way faster than they were use to.Kofi was pulled with 1:40 to go. He was exhausted and looked ready to collapse.Great game by both sides and the nation's best team claimed the Big Ten championship which theAK-Rowdies chanted at games end. "I believe ... I believe that we have won the Big Ten" Classy.

"The Penn State men's soccer (10-5-2, 3-1-1 Big Ten) maintained control of its own destiny in the race for the conference title at the same time moved into sole possession of first place in the Big Ten with a 2-1 victory over Wisconsin (6-8-2, 3-3-0) on Saturday afternoon at Jeffrey Field."Seems to me that the Akron Zips are currently 4-0-0 (5-0-0 if you factor in the Wisconsin game) in theBig Ten. That makes the Zips the first place team in the Big Ten. The Zips have already clinched the regular season title in the Big Ten. They still have to beat Hartwickto clinch in the MAC.Northern Illinois has a regular season win over Wisconsin. That means that Wisconsin will get an at largebid because if its conference affiliation while NIU stays home. You have to just love computer programmingwhere any result you want can be programmed in.Hurray for the NCAA ... !!!!

NCAA in a pickle. ACC favored daughter of the bastard NCAA lost tonight at unranked Boston College.Fortunately for the NCAA the other favored daughter UNC only has games against Elon and lowlyClumpstun remaining. So, in all likelihood, UNC is likely going to finish the regular season with justtwo loses. Thereby allowing the bastardized so called association of collegiate athletics (coff, coff)to crown UNC as the number one team in the nation.You see, kidz, it all works out. The big dog always wins even if it gets its ass torn off by a littleJack Russell kind of school. Hurray for the NCAA ..!!!!

I am glad that g-mann17 found the RFQ for us all to drool over.One thing I failed to mention was that included in the plan is a centralized permanenttoilet facility to serve the soccer stadium, baseball field and the softball complex.Or, so far as I understand it, that is to be included in the architectural drawings.

At the PSU match I was part of a conversation where one older gentleman, who has a soccerbackground, stated that Clemson is pursuing coach Porter.This person stated that coach Porter has been offered a package worth about $250,000 a year.I looked up Clemson via Top Drawer soccer web site. Clemson is dead last in the ACC. Soundfamiliar? Louisville was dead last in the Big East. Clemson has a nice, modern 6,500 seat stadium.

Spoke at length with a gentleman during the Penn State match.The company he works for just signed a $1.7 million contract to design the new soccer stadium.He estimates that the plans will be completed in a couple of months and a stadium built with in a year,IF, and its a big IF, everything goes well.

by Paul KennedyMEN'S NEWS ... The second Men's Division I RPI index the NCAA released Tuesday underscores the parity in men's college soccer this year. The RPI -- Ratings Percentage Index -- includes teams from 14 different conferences among the top 28 teams and two major surprises. Not one of the 16 Big East teams is in the top 25, nor is any team from the Big West.Three Big East teams are among the top nine teams in this week's Soccer America Men's Top 25: No. 5 Connecticut, No. 6 South Florida and No. 9 Louisville rank 30-34-44 in the RPI index. If the current RPI index were used to rank the 48 NCAA qualifiers -- the top-ranked teams from the 21 conferences whose champions get automatic bids and 27 at-large teams -- Louisville would not get in.The two Big West teams in this week's Top 25 -- No. 7 UC Santa Barbara and No. 19 UC Irvine -- are No. 48 and No. 38 in the RPI index. Like Louisville, UCSB falls below the 42 teams who would get in as conference champions or at-large teams.Also of note:-- Two top 25 RPI teams -- No. 7 Indiana and No. 15 Loyola Marymount -- have .500 records.-- Since the Mid-American Conference does not get an automatic berth this year, Northern Illinois (No. 46) and Hartwick (No. 61) have their work cut out. Akron (15-0-0) is No. 3 in the RPI Index and a shoo-in for an NCAA Tournament bid.NCAA RPI IndexThe Ratings Percentage Index is the most important of the criteria the NCAA uses to determine the 64-team field for the NCAA Division I Women's Tournament. The RPI is a mathematical formula designed to objectively compare results and strength of schedule.

Once again the NCAA is making sure that they and not the teams control the seeding.Wake Forest at number one with two home loses. Who did they lose to? The top team inthe MLS and a European professional team?This scenario is not who you beat. Its, who did you play. Winning does not matter.Louisville is clear down at forty-forth. Few teams ranked ahead of them could beat them.We may gain a little ground by winning out. Hartwick hurt us by tieing lowly Bowling Green.One soccer site predicted that five of the seven Big Ten teams would make the field. Perhapsour RPI would improve if we beat a Big Ten team or two or three or four or five.

Slow, steady improvement. Ben now has 16.7% of the vote. He is still a distant second.Can the Rowdies fix this?Every one, VOTE ...!!!!

Rain. The great equalizer. Seventeen shots, five on goal to three shots, none on goal.

Vote For BenRemember to vote for Ben.Please add this link to your favorites.

Just read C.J. Kaufman's Zip soccer blog. I took CJ's advice and voted for Ben.Please, you vote for Ben ,too. You can vote ONCE A DAY.Ben is currently in second place.Vote For Ben

As I previously reported in a different thread, I spoke with EA at the Saturday afternoon practice.Day two, practice number four, and EA spent most of his time jawing, not watching the floor.As I previously mentioned, it was way, way too early to judge much, if anything.I did not previously mention this; Steve Swiech is assigned to closely guard and generally rough upZeke during drills. Steve is pretty good at it. Zeke will learn tons. Playing against men as big ashe is will help Zeke a lot.Any one care to bet that EA will be slobbering all over the mighty Cleveland State?

Michigan Head Coach Steve Burns On the game ... "Akron is every bit as good today as their top billing suggests. We needed nine of our players to be at their best in the game, and unfortunately, we were nowhere near that. The game has been played for over 150 years and it does not change. The team that passes the ball better and moves off the ball better usually wins. Akron showed that today." On how the team will respond ... "There's nothing that cleanses the soul like getting the snot kicked out of you. Our team has done a good job responding all season long and we know we have many goals still within our reach."SNOT?

[GOAL ...!!!!!! 3-nil Zips ...!!!!!!!

Had the pleasure and privilege of watching the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning practices.Way too early to cull out who is starting, etc.Chris McKnight is displaying Romeo Travis quality play. C-Mac has not yet perfected that patentedNate Linhart reverse lay up. He is most definitely working on the move.The perimeter guys are stroking the ball extremely well. Lots of net and little, if any, rim.Look for double low post options. Zeke paired up with Bardo means shooters on the perimeter.Like in past years, the rotation will be deep and often. KD's philosophy of "play yer arse off 'causeyou ain't going to be on the floor long", appears to be the order of the day.With all the depth the Zips can craft a number of different looks. More than ever before.With only two newcomers (Zeke and 6'-6" C.J. Oldham) the practices are on par with mid-seasonlast year. The two newbies are picking it up quickly.New drill. Lob over the top to the bigs who turn and dunk. Believe that came from tOSU via coach Peters.The tempo and the morale is high. The kids know they will be good and marked as the team to beat.Heard that Northern Illinois will be the second best team in the MAC, east or west. They have loaded up.