GoZips

The first thing we need to remember is that this land was being acquired for new dorms, not the stadium. I wonder if the jury understood that, or the judge.Perhaps the wisest thing to do is the same thing most of us would do if the price was too high on something we wanted. Wait. Let the county tax assessors revalue theproperty. Do they agree with the court? If not, then go back to court with a current property evaluation. Let the Nemer's pay tax on $3.1 million. The city and countybenefit. We, the people benefit. Some how I do not see the Nemers being inclined to add to the tax coffers.The difficulty with all of this, whether you are pro University or pro Nemers, is the absurd, outlandish over evaluation of the property. One has to suspect the judge as being on the take. Certainly remember his name the next time he is up for re-election.

I am not able to bring up the cams.I have cleared my AOL and Internet Explorer cache and cookies. What else is there?Can some one please post a link to the working cams?

Dear Mom,The secret word is: lasagna.

Another nice write up on the Tim O'Shea move.Troop Report

Nice find, uakronkid. Smithfield, RI is right next door to my close friends who live in North Providence, RI.Good luck to O'Shea. He will be under a lot less pressure than he was getting at Ohio.

K-Roo, where is the problem? Do you not understand that your coaches know what they are doing?You wrote: "The big news is we said "No" to a home game with some big names to play a road game at UNC Greensboro???"I previously posted that the big time opponents were smelling blood. While the Zips are talented they are YOUNG. That brings the big fish. They sense two "lick theirchops" wins. The Zips need wins, not a butt kicking from a major-major. We are dealing with a team that is not only young they have never played together as a teambefore. They will be green as grass.The objective is to win at least twenty games and be in position for an NIT bid. With this young team a trip to the NIT would be a fine accomplishment. Get wins againstother mid-majors; not loses to high majors. The coaches know what they are doing. Sure, they would love to play and beat the ACC mega-majors. That is a pipe dream. UNC Greensboro is pretty much the same caliber as Illinois-Chicago Circle. It was a nice recovery from a bad situation. This is an opponent the Zips can beat twice.You wrote: "We would have taken the games if we were more experienced? WTF? Sorry but you take em when you can get em....."Please go back and read my earlier post. I stated that if the Zips were a Junior-Senior laden team the big fish would NOT schedule us.You wrote: "To be the best you gotta beat the best. To beat the best you gotta play the best (a la Gonzaga) and we turned down home games??? What are we afraid of???"It is not a matter of being afraid. It is a matter of wise planning. The coaches know what they are doing. Do you know what coaches who accumulate 9-18 recordsend up doing? That's right. They sell used cars for a living. Alumni never pat that coach on the back and console him on losing to Duke, North Carolina, Texas,Kentucky, etc. No, they write letters to the university president requesting that coach be fired.While playing in the NIT may not be as much fun as playing in the NCAA tourney it sure beats sitting at home during the post seasonYou wrote: "Who were the names????"I think the coaching staff would prefer to keep that information to themselves. Please respect that.Yes, the Zips defeated Mississippi State at the San Juan Shootout a couple of years ago. A small upset as that Zips team was a Junior-Senior team.

LA Zips Fan, that's a nice idea. I believe that KD would like to set up an annual event along those lines. EKU's tournament is a one time exempt (allows teams toplay more than the 28 game limit) tournament. EKU's tournament is probably part of a larger picture. I am not sure just how it works. Perhaps like the Coach's Classic the Zipsplayed in two years ago at Texas Tech.Schools may run a tournament annually. But, they are not exempt. Thus, if you play two games they count as two games. An exempt tournament only counts as one game.

Well, now the saga of the defecting opponent can be told. A replacement game has been obtained. What happened was that Illinois-Chicago Circle had contracted withthe Zips to play a home and home series with the first game scheduled at Akron. UIC dropped the Akron game in favor of home game this year. That little move costUIC a fair amount of cash AND next year's game will be played in Akron. Akron will not make a trip to UIC. This move has some what soured relations between the two programs.Backing out by UIC left Akron one game short on their schedule. There is a good and a bad to this. The Zips wanted an opponent of the same caliber as UIC. But, theoffers they were getting came from upper tier schools. If this team were primarily juniors and senior rather than freshmen and sophomores the Zips coaches wouldaccept. But, the upper tier schools would not be offering if that were the case. So, a mid-level opponent needed to be found. and, the Zips now have that opponent.The down side is that this year's game will be played on the road at UNC-Greensboro. Next season UNC-G comes to Akron. The good part is that the Zips will haveone more home game next season than they had planned on.The rest of the schedule is complete except for two opponents the Zips will play in the Eastern Kentucky exempt tournament. Akron will face Mississippi State in the first round and EKU in the second round. That is my understanding at this point. EKU has not named the other schools as of yet. Be patient. In KD I trust.

A point well taken. Excellent observation.

GoZip's honest player evaluations.Wm Buford headed to the Sucks is a legitimate six. Its great to recruited by the most blessed over dog.Anthony "Humpty" Hitchens. One of the premier players in Ohio is also a six. Alex Sullivan. A kid who carried a program on his back and made them notable is a three.Andrew Parrish. Big, strong, leaper, defender is a three. If he could score he would be a five.Brett McClanahan has been listed as the fourth best player in West Virginia. Sounds like a four to me.Nikola Cvetinovic. Big, strong, rebounds, scores, led his team to fine record rates as a four.So, six + three + three + four + four equals eleven? Twenty-one is much more realistic. But, Hoop-poop caters to the big name schools who subscribe to theirservice. It is amazing how much better your recruits get ranked if you subscribe.

Hooey, hagwash, flapperdoodle ....What are these so called evaluations really worth? Giving a few players exorbitant numbers there by inflating their status. Poor old Akron was way back in the packjust among the MAC schools. Which one of you really believes that the Zips have recruited that poorly? Little Anthony Hitchens is a three point value. Obviously no one from Hoop-poop watched the Ohio state tournament. Buford, headed to the Sucks was valued asan eight. In the state championship game against Hitchens and the Chillicothe team he looked pretty good. After all, he was the state's Mr. Basketball for 2008.Poor little Humpty finished fourth in the balloting for that honor. For which Hitchens is valued as a three point. Ahem. Really?Buford had a nice game against Chillicothe. He scored the most points of any player. He had a better, more talented team around him than Anthony did. When thedust cleared there was the Chillicothe Cavaliers holding the championship trophy and little Humpty awarded MVP of the tournament. Mind you, not the MVP of division 2, but MVP of the entire tournament. And, he is a three? Buford is rated an eight. Wunderbar.Most if not all of the Zips recruits were under valued. The coming years will bear this out.As for Zeke. He is rated a four. Which should improve by the end of his senior year. Perhaps to a six or seven. Which will place the Zips at around one hundredninetieth because of having just one scholarship.Let us determine the worth of these players on the court.In KD I trust.

I have not written about Zips football in a long time. Pretty much I left the intelligent comments to GP1 and Cap'N. Occasionally another poster or twomakes a savvy comment or two. The rest of the posts appear to be unthought out quips from people who really do not know the game.Here's my take. JD is in his fifth year and the team is in worse condition than when he started. My expectation would be that it would have improved just as JDand his staff's skills should have improved. Sorry, I do not see that. There is a major issue at QB. Frankly, the red shirt freshman kid, Matt Rodgers had a farsuperior Spring game than did Chris Jacquemain. This should have moved Rodgers into the starting role. Instead, this staff seems hell bent on going down in flames.The entire offense is stagnant. Looks like the talent is there. Where is the drive? Where is the sound play calling? Where is the emotion? Where is the pride?The defense I can not fault the players on. The 3-3-5 concept was installed to cover up a major problem. That problem should have been addressed, correctedand forgotten by now. So, why is the sieve like 3-3-5 still in place? Have to fault the coaching staff on this. Why anyone is enamored with that bogus defense isfar beyond my understanding.This is the last gasp. Anything short of 7-5 it is high time to overhaul the coaching staff from the top down. No more excuses. Get the job done.We seem to have Chuck "the chest" Amato Jr. here. Win or pack.

Coach Dambrot and his staff have carefully crafted schedules that have raised expectations. In four seasons Dambrot's Zips worst season was a 19-10 record. Eachseason the team has improved. They certainly know what they are doing. Geting their butts kicked at home is not exactly a fine means to improve their post seasonchances.Losing on the road to a UNC may pump up one's RPI. Losing to the same UNC at home only helps the strength of schedule. The said high major is not UNC. Purdue played in the JAR a few years back. Akron barely managed to put just over 4,000 souls in the seats. Akron is not yet a household name that causes peopleto rush out and buy season tickets. This high major is not likely to generate any more ticket sales than playing Toledo or any other MAC West team. Akron fans arenot sufficiently knowledgeable to appreciate a high major with an excellent recent performance record unless said team is a high profile easily recognized name.In KD I trust.

After all the years of being 100% against Cant State I am moved by the plight of their live eagle.PETA is a pack of big, fat liars. There is nothing ethical about their own treatment of animals. Seems PETA has accumulated enemies of their own.PETA Kills AnimalsWhile it may be great fun to poke fun at Cant this is a time to rally with them. Many of us saw the debut of the eagle at the Akron vs. Flushes game back in January.The bird seemed to throughly enjoy itself at the halftime debut. Had to laugh about the post game feed the bird enjoyed. It could also explain the frequent disappearanceof several smaller Cant students this past schoool year.

Talked to Jimmy Conyers today. He is looking fit and well muscled. Obviously banging away in the weight room.The coaches are staying on him about his grades.I liked his maturity and easy attitude. No longer a sulker, but a nice young man.Waving paw at Tim Carroll whom I also spoke with. I like Tim a lot. Here is a man.

Playing West Virginia this year at home might happen. Due to unforeseen circumstances a team that the Zips scheduled for a home-n-home series was suppose to playin Akron this year. They want out of the contract. Apparently they are willing to pay a substantial penalty and give us a home game next season. They will not geta home game per the penalties in the contract. This leaves an open home date that was suppose to have been filled. This team is NOT any one I have previously mentioned. The Zips may have to buy a home game.Problem is that most schools have already filled their schedule.There is a silver cloud will a black lining hanging near by. A high major-major is willing come to the JAR this year as part of a home-n-home deal. Problem is that theAkron coaching staff view this as two loses. They are probably right considering the high major that made the offer. Perhaps the follow up return game could be putoff until 2010-11 season. The Zips should be competitive with anyone then.Forget PITT. They will not play Akron in the foreseeable future. Certainly not as long as rubber band legs Jamie Dixon is the head coach.

Cap'n, excellent and informative post.OU's home schedule is definitely in the soft catagory unless they add some "meat". Will OU be hosting Xavier next year? That would be an excellent "get".George Mason is the return game for last season's Bracket Buster. Marshall is a logical regular home-n-home series for OU. It would seem that Delawareis a home-n-home. Delaware is a rapidly improving mid-major. The Louisville tourney will be a chance to get their brains beat out early.Overall, I predict that this schedule is not going to please rabid Bobcat fans.

Hawai'ian Blessed Zipper Dude, I will ask coach D just for you as to when we can expect a trip to Ono's. Coach D does love eating at Ono's.Think about this: seven freshman, ten out thirteen either freshmen or sophomores. The team schedule is designed to bring the kids up to speed by playing softiesearly and slowly getting to the tough opponents. That's why playing at VCU will be the eighth game of the OOC season and URI the last OOC game.KD is promising very difficult opponents the following two years. I know a couple of the potential opponents and I concer with his statement. KD wants to playa major-major opponent at the Q each season. It remains to be seen if this happens. No promnises from me. I am just a fan.

Unless there is a miracle ... the game with the big time opponent to be played in the Q has evaporated.The big time opponent offered Akron six available dates, later reduced to three. Danny Ferry arranged the to make the Q available those dates. The so called big timeopponent now tells the coaching staff that those dates are not suitable to them. So, no game at the Q this year. The late addition of a series with URI replaces thebig name opponent. Overall, the composite RPI rating of the Zips out of conference opponents is a bit improved over last year. The OOC RPI is actually lower (better) than the in conferencegames. Based on 2007-08 RPIs the OOC RPI projects at 148 while the MAC conference projects at 166. This is merely a projection and does not include the gamesto be played in the exempt tournament. Akron does not know two of the three opponents. Since the tournament will be at Eastern Kentucky (RPI 255), you canfigure out that EKU is one of the opponents. One nice thing about the exempt tournament is that because of its format Akron will get to play 15 OOC games plus 16MAC games for a 31 game regular season.The Zips will face four high mid-major opponents in VCU, URI, Dayton and Winthrop. One high major, Mississippi State, will be an away game.

Looks like an appeal is the next option.Their lawyers obviously knew how to pick a jury. Wonder how many of the jury frequent those rat holes.

I heard that the basketball schedule is almost complete.One game I am keenly interested in is a road game up in Warwick, Rhode Island . The Zips have a home and home series with the URI Rams scheduled. First game is on the road in early January, 2009. The Rams come to Akron in 2010.This game will be the final out of conference "tune up" game for both teams. That's respect.

And this is Will Smith:Are you sure this is Will Smith? Sure looks like Akron men's basketball coach Lamont Paris to me.

I was trying to figure out how Zeke found a girl who is six feet tall. Then I scrolled the picture down and saw that she is standing on one of those plastic milk crates.She's a cutie Zeke. She looking at Zippyland for college?

Snack Toads, best thing you have said in a while. I like it. Is that "Snacky" for short? Or, "Toady"?

I can not find the Zips (or is it Akron) Psyche on YouTubeThat's the two minute intro that was played at home basketball games. Would some one please post it here?Thank you