GoZips

Tried to decipher from GoZips.com where at St. V's the men's soccer game is being played.Is it at venerable Green St. Stadium located across Market St. from St. V's; or is it over in North Hillat some sports complex on Patterson Ave.?Does anyone actually know besides the university (and, they ain't a talkin)?

Perhaps JD can join Lee Owens at Ashland as the Eagles Defense Co-ordinator.The 3-3-5 fits perfectly with LO's no pass rush scheme.

From Game Tracker ... Ohio State wins penality kick shoot out against Oakland 4-3Score was nil-nil for the match.

If any one of you thinks that anything less than a twenty win season and a post season game is in thecoaches plan, then you just do not know Zips basketball.I completely agree with the assessment that the young Zips will mature and get a lot better by March. The young warriors gave a decent performance all things considered. Especially when you considerthat PITT had to keep their first line in the game most of the time.It was an excellent learning experience that will do them well later on. Consider that a far more senior Miami team lost to PITT by twenty-nine a couple of days before the Zips played PITT.

Making the win just a little bit sweeter. Read this ...Michigan Already Played At Kentucky

The Lady Zips opened their 2008-09 basketball season in the JAR against a Pig Ten or is that elevenopponent. The Lady Zips tanked for fifteen minutes , and then, and then, and then, along came Jones.Or was that Baumgartner and company? The Lady Zips took it to the Wolverines for a 58-49 victory.Sweetest part ... watching the team celebrating the "I Believe..." chant with a nice sized contingentof AK-Rowdies. Rowdies, not Howdies for a change. Great job troops.

Guzijeff, thanks for an excellent post. It would seem that the Zips should get at worst a two seed.Anything lower has to be a slap by the NCAA Selection Committee.While our overall record is great our inability to score and close out weaker opponents all year long willhurt our selection chances. The Zips rely on great defense. It would be nice to get a second MAC team in the tournament, although unlikely. The MAAC will sendtwo, Fairfield and over rated Loyola, Md. Fairfield "upset" Loyola today. Loyola went 18-1-1 and neverfaced a top twenty-five opponent.The strategy of playing Steve Zakuani out on the wing led to the winning goal. I heard a number of Zipsfans bellyaching about all the off sides Steve was drawing. In the end the tactic worked. After the gamethe NIU players were "F-ing" Zakuani in long tirades. Nice tribute to their "hopes" ender.

This must be a fairly recent video as Zeke has definitely added some bulk. He looks great.Lasanga powered ... !!!! Thanks, Mom.

Doom 'n GloomReally? I saw the game in a different light. I saw two different Akron teams. A floundering, confused,insecure bunch of kids stumbling around through out the first half. The second half was played by acompletely different team.Steve (I never saw a defense I can play) McNees actually showed flushes of understanding what defenseis in the second half. Steve better learn to put his hands in the defensive posture if he wants to see playing time. As only an average offensive weapon Steve has been playing himself to the deep endof the bench. Steve gave a decent second half performance including a couple of nice defensive stops.His quick hands picked at least two loose balls on the defensive end. My only disappointment with Stevein the second half was bricking the front end of a one-and-one. Steve, you were on the floor for youroffense. If you want to stay on the floor, take a deep breath, relax and knock down the free throw(s).Our hero was the very man coach D singled out at the end of last season as the go to guy for thisseason. Brett McKnight played his tail off the last six minutes of the game. Brett was the differencemaker. Sure, he was pulled when the Zips went on defense. And, why not, with Mike Bardo emergingas a force in the post on defense. It was an excellent move by the coaches and the kids handled it well.Solid, though not spectacular games from CMac and Nate. They did their jobs well enough to be the glue or bonding agent for the team. The guards are still earning their craft, except Darryl Roberts who already is the man in the back court.Give the kids a chance. Floor time will allow Humpty and Ronnie to get synced in. This game, evenagainst a weak Canisius is a heck of a lot faster than high school.Rebounding may be a problem. Certainly CMac and Nate need to haul in more boards. Against Canisiusit was darn tough with the giant slug glued to the paint. The officials did not call Canisius for laneviolation ever. And they were camped in the paint all night. I was surprised that the officials evencalled any held balls. It took a minimum of eight seconds to get a five second call. Even the inboundheld ball ran over seven seconds before being whistled. Poor officiating.Give these kids a chance to grow and jell into a team. I have a hunch that they will defeat Winthropon Tuesday and give PITT more than they want or expect on Friday.It was nice to see Nik Cvetinovic on the floor. Looks like my predictions on who gets red shirtedare pretty accurate. Leaves only Brett McClanahan or Andrew Parrish with any chance of escapinga season of waiting. At this point, I would red shirt both of them even though both are sufficientlygood enough to play this year. KD played ten last night. That is a pretty deep rotation with EricCoblenz and Tim Carroll a couple of good reserves available.

The following is an article found on Soccer News. Once again the NCAA Soccer Selection Committeecontinues to do a lot of underhanded dirty dealing. Just as twenty-third ranked Indiana has mysteriouslymanaged to get a top five RPI rating. Thus insuring them of a one or two seed in the up comingmen's soccer tournament. Beware Zippies. And to the person who wrote about being happy with a"six" seed. That means that more than twenty teams would be favored over the Zips. For my moneynothing less than a one seed would satisfy me.The tag line for Pepsi Max ads, “Wake up people”, seems to be an appropriate message to send over to the NCAA Division II Men’s Soccer Committee. The folks selecting the teams and constructing the brackets for the Division II Men’s Soccer Championship have taken a bias toward limiting travel and forcing balanced geographic representation across the championship field to an absurd extreme. Just ask the men’s soccer team at St. Edwards University in Austin, TX. They finished the season with a 13-4-2 overall record and a 7-1-2 mark and 2nd place finish in the Heartland Conference. The Hilltoppers losses came at the hands of #3 ranked Midwestern State (0-1 on 10/03) (1-2 on 10/24), #2 ranked Fort Lewis (0-2 on 9/27) and conference foe Incarnate Word (0-1 on 10/19). The Hilltoppers were ranked #14 in the NSCAA/Adidas National poll (11/12/08). Simply put, they got slammed. They are not alone. West Texas A&M finished the season with a 12-5-0 record and a #22 ranking in the NSCAA/Adidas National poll (11/12/08). To make their exclusion from the tournament even more galling, the Buffaloes finished the season with a 3-2 overtime win against #3 ranked Midwestern State. Go figure. Unfortunately, the mess that is the Division II Men’s Soccer Championship is not limited to the exclusion of deserving teams. The brackets are so imbalanced in both number and strength of teams that a plausible explanation can not be found. Super Region 1 has the #2, #3, #6, #9, #18, #19 and #25 ranked teams, in addition to one unranked team. On the other end of the bizarre spectrum, Super Region 4 has the #8, #12 and #20 ranked teams and three unranked teams. Both have a straight shot at the semi-final match. It’s actually gets even worse. Southern New Hampshire (#8) and Dowling (#12) are in Super Region 4 and are the only teams in the tournament that have a first round bye. They only have to win two games to get to the semi-finals. To reach the semi-finals, #1 Lynn University has to win three games against potentially the #5, #11 and #17 ranked teams. The imbalance continues as #2 Fort Lewis also has to win three games to reach the semi-finals against potentially the #3, #6 and #19 ranked teams. The brackets used to be force fed with four teams from each of the eight NCAA geographic regions (Atlantic, Central, East, Midwest, South, South Central, Southeast, and West). No automatic qualifiers are given and the selection criteria used is similar to that used in Division I, although one difference is that the RPI is replaced with the Quality of Winning Percentage Index. A recent change has each region placing as few as two teams or as many as six teams in the tournament. While you might think this is designed to accommodate several strong teams in one particular region, it seems to be used to maintain a geographic spread of teams in the tournament. Otherwise, how can you explain why Super Region #4 is comprised of six teams from the East Region, three of which were not even ranked in the NSCAA/Adidas National Poll. There are 35 teams playing DII soccer in the East Region representing 20.6% of the total teams in DII. The six selections from the East Region represent 18.8% of the 32 total selections in the tournament. The math works, it’s just not fair or logical. Similarly, take a look at Bracket #2 in Super Region 3. The Bracket is filled with four teams from the Atlantic Region representing 12.5% of the total selections in the tournament. The Atlantic Region has 24 teams representing 14.1% of the total teams in DII. While the selections provide a balanced representation in the tournament of the number of schools participating by region, two of the teams selected were not even ranked. Please don’t roll out the justification of limiting the cost of travel. Take a look over at the Division III bracket. Augsburg College of Minneapolis, MN has a first round match at Whitworth University in Spokane, WA. The winner of that match then advances to play the University of Redlands in Redlands, CA. They seem to be able to make it work. For many schools at the Division II level, the men’s soccer program is THE event. Participation in the NCAA tournament should be based on records, rankings and strength of schedule not on geographic distribution and limiting travel costs.

Go Zeke ... !!!! Go Trevor ... !!!! Go Zips ... !!!! Thanks Mom... !!!!

National Player of the WeekSteve gets well deserved national kudos.College Soccer News also ranks the Zips as the number two team nationally.Go Zips ... !!!! Go Trevor ... !!!! Go Zeke ... !!!!

It sure was not pretty.Not to be mean spirited to a previous poster, BUT, are you sure you were watching Humpty shooting?Humpty was zero for four shots including a couple of air balls. I see great promise in Humpty, justnot last night. He yielded the starting PG spot to a fun to watch Ronnie Steward.Speaking of yielding one's starting role. Steve McNees still has no clue on defense. He gave his starting job to a deserving Darryl Roberts. Go ahead, argue with me. Who was on the floor at theend when the game was on the line? Darryl Roberts was. There is a clue.Rebounding? What rebounding. There is a glaring problem that needs immediate attention. I thoughtthat Mike Bardo did a decent job on the boards. I was disappointed in CMac's rebounding. CMacdoes so many things well that the rebounding is a lesser issue. That heavy taping of his arm hadto hamper getting his hands over his head.Linhart played well. He was a joy to watch.Coach D says that the team is two weeks away from jelling. Fortunately only a weak Canisius standsin the way. Winthrop will give us a true read on this edition of the Zips.Well, I came out of retirement to take a full time job. So, until I get adjusted to working a fortyhour stress level job I will not be making as many comments.

We love you, too. Please keep us posted on Zeke's HS game schedule. Perhaps a LARGE contingentof AK-Rowdies could bus over for a home game or a road game reasonably close to Zippyland.See Zeke and family at the Akron vs. PITT game, Friday, November 21st.

Sunday afternoon pleasure. #25 Michigan State clinches Big Ten regular season men's soccer titlewith a 1-nil victory over #6 Northwestern. This bodes well for the Zips. All this juggles the infamousRPI pretty much in Akron's favor. The Zippies just might get a good seed this year.Northwestern has literally zero offense. How they ever got ranked as high as second is beyond me.

Penn State tops #17 Indiana 1-0#18 Michigan beats Ohio State 1-0Its like finding hot chocolate fudge on your scoop of plain vanilla ice cream.Now its up to the AK-Rowdies to deliver next Friday night in Cowlumbus.

No details available, but Hartwick's web site lists a victory for the Zips 2-1 over Hartwick.

If that were to happen you can count on the selection committee making darn sure that the gameis played in Louisville. The fix may be in for Indiana to win it all. Don't you just love it?

From Mike Razor's blog ...Joe Vidovic, offensive tackle, WilloughbyOffers: Akron, Bowling Green and OhioHeight: 6-7Weight: 245Speed: Not listedNotes: Rivals.com says Vidovic's stock has soared this season. Although he only has three offers, Akron is not in his top three. Ball State, who has not offered him a scholarship, is one of his favorites, however.Brilliant kid. Don't make your parents drive 90 minutes tops to watch you play. Make them drive sixhours. Brilliant.

The RPI is totally bogus.#1 Indiana has a 2-3-2 record against the top twenty-five. The Hoosiers probably have the strongest SOS#2 St. John has a 2-1-1 record against the top twenty-five#3 Wake Forest has a 3-0-0 record against the top twenty-five and a home tie against a good Duke team#4 Loyola (Md.) has not played a top twenty-five team#5 Akron has a 2-0-1 record against top twenty-five teamsWake Forest is clearly the best team in the country. Look up the statistics on ... College Soccer NewsA full analysis certainly would not put Wake at the number three best RPI. Nor would Indiana even be in the top five. I smell a rat. Like, its Indiana's turn again.

Blue & Gold, the Zips held their second intra squad scrimmage this morning (Tuesday).It was closed to the public in preparation for their scrimmage at Xavier on Saturday. A few invites were present. Mostly fans you would recognize myself included.Word is that Brett McClanahan is playing himself into the rotation and out of a red shirt. He looked good today during the scrimmage. Despite being big, physical and with a lot of skills, Nikola Cvetinovic could find himself red shirted. Nik just is not picking up either the offense or defensive schemes.Today's scrimmage was much smoother and competitive. Thankfully Tim Carroll played quite a bit.In case you are not aware, Tim has some heart issues. He plays his heart out. They are monitoringhim closely.With four quick guards most of the eight minute sessions were wall to wall. Players are seeing the open man better than during the first go around. McClanahan ran the point a bit. Similar to whatI saw before with Cvetinovic on the point. It is nice to have a BIG point guard some of the time.Other than Alex Sullivan who is now wearing a boot type appliance the troops are still healthy.Guesses: red shirt determinations will not be made any time soon. A couple of players are likelycandidates besides Alex who is daily losing ground like Ronnie Steward did last year. Possibleinjuries and player development will determine who gets red shirted. This probably in late November.More guesses: Probable starting line up shaping up. Going out on a weak limb I think the startingline up is thus: Chris McKnight at PF, Brett McKnight at C, Nate Linhart at SF, Darryl Roberts at the 2G, and Anthony Hitchens at the point. Early off the bench are Steve McNees, Ronnie Steward andMike Bardo. I would call this the top eight. Jimmy Conyers is in the two deep. Eric Coblentz willget a fair amount of playing time.The Zips are talented and deep at the guards. It is fair to say that spliting time by twenty minutesor even fifteen and opting in Coblentz and/or McClanahan could allow the Zips run, run, run, andplay full court all the time. That could wear down opponents quickly.Bring in Cvetinovic or McClanahan and Linhart gets 30 minutes and is more rested.Nate is beginning to exert his leadership.

The Zips are now ranked as the number ONE team in the Great Lakes region.Michigan moved up to second while Northwestern fell to third.1) Akron 13-1-22) Michigan 10-4-23) Northwestern 11-1-24) Indiana 8-4-25) Michigan State 9-5-16) Notre Dame 9-5-27) Illinois Chicago 10-2-48) Louisville 9-5-28) Northern Illinois 8-3-4 10) Butler 11-2-3The Zips should be no lower than third in the Adidas poll.

Monday morning and already Soccer News has their new poll out.The Zips climb from fifth to second. Check it out.Ranked Second

Hey now, i take offense to that. The reason that many students/Rowdies were not there tonight was because most people were observing Halloween tonight. Whether it be (God forbid) going to Can't for it or just around Akron. That's why the crowd was small.Oh for Pete's sake. Aren't you kids a bit old for "Trick or Treat"? Wait, did you say that the town folks were giving away free beer up in Cant Town?

We get a little more help.#4 ranked St. John's plays to a nil-nil draw at DePaul.Zips have a real possibility of moving up to third in the Adidas/NCSAA poll (the one that counts the most).