GoZips

Humpty has a good night. Twenty-four in blow out win over a local rival (Ironton).The big Ray Chambers kid better be on the Zips radar as he posts another double-double. Win Over Ironton

Andrew Parish looms as an excellent defensive monster. Here is a current update.Northmont Has Parish

Elton writes up Nick playing guard in a pinch. Well written and accurate. Thanks Elton.PD Article

Nice find ... !!!

Of all the potential opponents only the following few interest me.DRAKE ... MVC, they are having an outstanding year. We are NOT likely to get them.NIAGARA ... MAAC, another team having a banner year. Not likely to be our opponent. Zips recently destroyed the Purple Eagles in a B/B game.GEORGE MASON ... CAA, living off the fantastic final Four year, smashed on the road by Cant State earlier this seasonWRIGHT STATE ... Horizon League, a real possible opponent, excepting that they wont schedule the Zips normallyVIRGINIA COMMONWEATLH ... CAA, preseason league favorite. A team I would love to play in the B/BINDIANA STATE ... MVC, other than being a Missouri Valley squad, not much to offerSIENA ... MAAC, another pre-season league favorite that is starting to play up to potential. Would be a worthy opponent.WICHITA STATE ... MVC, an Missouri Valley team having a bust down year. Not a dangerous opponent excepting we need MVC games.In my mind's eye none of the other visiting teams offer the Zips either a challenge or the potential of scoring a meaningful win to say nothing of havingto go to their place next year. This would have been a good year for the Zips to be a traveling B/B team.

All I can say at this point is, Lord help us if pairings are made on the basis of the lame RPI.Projected Pairings

heh heh, OUCH...!!!

Hula Z.I.P. you always love swatting me between the nostrils with a rolled up newspaper. This time its my turn. The photo of Jabari pulling one in over his leftshoulder was his second catch of the first quarter. The first pass, the nineteen yarder ending at the one was a slant over the middle. Da Ohio brudda Zip waslaying both his left and his right eyeballs on dis game on dat VERSUS channel (66 on T-W).Both photos are of Jabari. No Carlton Whoever to be found.

Congrats to the AK-Rowdies that made the trip up to Buffalo.Several kudos from Steve French, Joe Dunn and most importantly from coach Dambrot.

Jabari had a nice 19 yard catch and run to the West's one yard line setting up the East squad's first touchdown in the first quarter.

Young Mr. Cvetinovic is having quite the year. Seems he just loves double-doubles, dunks, blocks and playing basketball.Stats, Game Summaries, etc

Marietta finds a way to shutdown Chillicothe's offense and nearly wins.Humpty averaging 19.6 ppg was held to just three in the near loss.Tough night

This kid is sounding better than ever. Now averaging 31 ppg in league play.Friday Night Game

The Big Ten or is it eleven has made a positive step to help alleviate the long slack period between the final regular season game and the BCS bowls.No joke, the last game of the regular season in the future will be played after a one week bye. This reduces the wait time by seven days.I would like to see a clause in NCAA regulations that allows these teams (all of them) hold two scrimmages two weeks prior to the BCS bowl game. Theopponent would be a Div-I school that did not themselves get a bowl bid. Such as this year's Zips. Both schools would be allowed to continue practicesup to and through the scrimmages. The host school such as Ohio State foots the expenses. Say the Zips were selected by OSU to be their scrimmage partner. On two Saturdays in December the teams would meet. These would be scrimmages NOT games. I suppose one could charge admission with the proceeds split EQUALLY.

Just win.That terminates the BS.

I have to laugh.So many of "you people" just have to stick up for the over dog.What the hell did they ever do for you? They tanked three recent opportunities to be national champion. Tanked. Choked. Looked bad. I almost feel sorry for them.Stop defending the Buckeyes. Do it on their board. This is our house. We are Akron. If you are so weak kneed that you have to be a front runner, fine. Just do notwear your Buckeye garb in our house. I would never insult the Buckeyes by wearing Akron gear to one of their games (unless, of course, it was against the Zips).I would have the decency to wear a red sweater, shirt or sweat shirt as a gesture. I do not own any OSU paraphernalia nor should you unless you attended school there.Other wise, you will always be a wanna be loser

Dang, SK, I must have been watching a different game. The Flyers jumped out to a 54-41 half time lead, then tried to give the game away. I would estimate that URI closed to three for several dicey, scary minutes. An excellent three ball by Marcus Johnson (Akron St. V- St. M) gave the Flyers a seven point lead with two minutesremaining. URI did a lot of fouling on the inbound. UD managed to clank a couple of the freebies. Then Jim Barron of URI (coach's son) nailed a trey to make itvery interesting. Fortunately Johnson stepped up and knocked in two free throws. Big mistake was fouling Brian Roberts who promptly put the game away.It was close. And worth the five buck investment to activate CSTV and some Fox sports channels for a month.Yes, SK, the Dayton TV announcers were chuck full of kudos for the Zips. Albeit, they never mentioned us as being the toughest game. I believe we were. After all, we arethe only team to stretch them to double overtime. Plus, it took a bad call to end the Zips night. Wonder if we finally pick up a few votes. This game should not knock URI out of the top twenty-five.

Only easy way to watch the URI at Dayton game was to buy Time-Warner's sports package for $5/mo. Enabled CSTV channel.Dayton took it to URI in the first half. Flyers led 54-41 at the break. Flyers tried to die in the second. But, managed to squeeze out a win, 92-83.Zips got several props. The Flyers announcers thought we laid into them pretty good. Certainly as good as any other "name" team they faced.Its nice to be a "rough cutomer". Keep it up Zippys.

And, I am not referring to the one on top of his head. He does not have one. Actually, Elton is a nice looking middle aged man. Polite, too. Nice person.When Coach Keith Dambrot spoke up about "thinking bigger than the MAC" he was expressing the view of many coaches not just Zips coaches. There is a wholesale attempt taking place to raise the MAC in both football and basketball. To do this takes some amount of time. None of the coaches have a pocketful of pixie dust.To raise the level of talent and competition takes time. Several years at the very least to improve the talent level and also the competition level. Let us take each separately. First the talent level.The MAC as a general rule recruits two star athletes. This is true in both football and basketball. The occasional three star talent is a celebrated find. This post will address only men's basketball. As one poster noted, and I have on a number of occasions in the past, a recruit's talent varied between two and four stars. If a playeris non-committed and rated as a three star player his stock will rise or fall on what school he selects. Thus, Joe Hotdog, a solid three star caliber recruit gets demoted to the two star level if he selects any MAC school. His stock rises to four star if he signs with a Big Ten school. To remain at a three star level he would need to sign with a school in a "three star" conference such as the A-10 or the MVC or WAC. That is just how it works.Three MAC coaches stand out as top level recruiting and floor coaches. They are, Jim Christian at Cant, Charlie Coles at Miami and Akron's Keith Dambrot. These coaches win consistently with talent not a great deal better than the rest of the conference. On the next tier you find O'Shea at Ohio and Joplin at Toledo. There isa major drop off for the rest of the conference. True, a couple of newer coaches are still in their early stages, so let us not be harsh evaluating them.The three top coaches produce consistent winners. They are almost always in the hunt at the end. They constantly look to find the separation that identifies their team as a cut above. Some of this is done by seeking the best possible talent. Dambrot develops his talent straight out of high school. Character is an importantattribute to him. Christian and Coles frequently use JUCO players. Christian has a history of finding and playing kids that are not squeaky clean cut. Coles, like Dambrot, pretty much insists on quality character. Additionally, all three are passionate students of the game. Each has his own philosophy of tactics. Each is willing to adapt and to fit his style to the talent he finds. These are excellent coaches. Dambrot and Christian could move up to the next level if they so desire. Coach Coles is older and has had two heart attacks. Heis the most admired of the three. He is not likely to leave Miami until he retires. Retire, Charlie, we all love you and want you to enjoy a long life fishing.Talent. How do you get a three or even a four star kid to come play in the MAC. A lot of it is dumb luck. The kid maybe a local and his Dad went to a MAC school. Some of it is hustle and hard work. Some of it is growing a project kid. Most project kids never develop into all stars. What the coaches look for is the tweener kid or the kid who feel through the cracks. Several years ago under Bob Huggins a "tweener" named Marcel Boyce, a JUCO, was signed. Marcel gave the Zips two years of an incredible play. Those of you who remember him have to smile at what Marcel brought to the table.Marcel is an excellent player to talk about the "luck" factor. We see some of the bad luck in recent years. Darryl Roberts fails to graduate high school on time. Ronnie Steward tears up his hip in practice. Jeremiah Wood blows out his ACL. Marcel is the biggest luck or bad luck player in Zips history.At the end of his senior campaign, the Zips drew third ranked Michigan (the one seed) in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Akron came the closest of any sixteen seed in NCAA tournament history to upset a one seed. The Zips lost by four points 68-64. Marcel scored twenty-two. Marcel was deathly ill with the flu at the time. He had to retire to the locker room several times during the game. At best, Marcel was fifty percent of himself. The Zips were ever so close to pulling it off. The other big bugaboo is out of conference scheduling. Tricky business known to blow up in a coach's face. Things to consider include: is the team young and needs seasoning and time to learn to play together; how important is a return game; is getting clobbered or even putting up a good loss on the road worth it; if you havea veteran team can you get the big fish to let you in his house? Fortunately in college basketball scheduling is rarely more than two years in advance. For Akron most of this year's games were fresh contracts or finishing a home and home series.While some MAC coaches find it a badge of honor to go on the road in early season and get their kids noses bloodied, other coaches prefer to ease into the schedule keeping loses to a minimum. Not much proof that getting beat up by a Kansas works. Ask Charlie Coles if it helped preparing for the Akron game.On the other hand, a gradual upgrade in the schedule seems to develop the players. Coach Gregory thought that Dayton was Akron's Louisville or Cincinnati. Perhaps it was. We know that the Zips were prepared and responded well. The other day the local ABJ beat writer laid an unfounded slam on the Zips. Tom Gaffeny wrote that the Zips are good enough to get into close games with quality opponents, but not good enough to win. I disagree. The grit and the talent is there. It just has to come together. This community has to believe they are "BIG" time in order to be big time. We can believe.Years ago the Zips were considered an excellent college division school. Few in the community wanted more out of the kids. There were bitter fights among board members over sports. A politically correct female was given the job of university president as part of deliberately holding the university back. More recently a mild mannered, non-sports background provost was tabbed to run the university.God bless him. He double crossed the bastards. Doctor Porenza wants this university to step above the MAC. And, under his leadership, I believe it will.

Got to love Ellen. He is the queen of deliberate slight.Posting an article today using two week old data that is no longer relevant. i.e. SOS of 304. Hockey puck. The Zips SOS (a worthless measure to be sure) iscurrently in the 250 range. Not that it matters. The truth is always the first casualty when you slander some one.Run your eyes up an RPI chart starting at the position of lowly Akron. You will find several recent opponents that Akron defeated. Way up near the very top is ateam that needed two overtimes and the help of the officials to squeak out a two point victory at home. Ahem. The Deadhawks hold a lofty RPI and a sore assfrom the butt kicking they recently endured at the hands of the low life Zips.But, Ellen, to be sure, is a master at bias. He needs to be in order to appear to be an earnst while journalist or is that urinalist?There is no cover for distorting facts. Use them or keep quiet. Inventing your own to suit your will is yellow urinalism. Touche'

Alex is averaging 24.7 PPG thus far into his senior year. So says the Star Beacon.Stat Attack

I love your comments. Times have indeed changed. A few years ago I felt like a lone voice speaking up against Mega State U. Now I see a lot of company for all theright reasons.Times have changed. Forty years ago there was a huge separation between the Zips and Ohio State. Akron in no way could compete against Ohio State. Not so anymore. Watch the whiners start bleating that OSU must "improve" its out of conference schedule. BS. Look in that conference and find the real reason that OSU didnot measure up in the last two bowl games.Ohio State scheduled Akron seven or eight years ago. It was a wise move. By all appearances the Zips were improving to a point that they could give the Buckeyesa good game to help sharpen OSU for its conference schedule. That is exactly what happened. Had the Zips had a reasonably decent offensive scheme and a somewhat experienced QB it could have been a horrible day for the Buckeyes. As it was, the Zips put a scare into the Buckeyes. Plus, the Zips uncovered severalweaknesses of the Buckeyes. The reward? Drop Akron from the future schedule so OSU can schedule "better" opponents. What a crock.We have gone from an era where secondary schools could not hope to compete to an era where OSU must abandon playing in state opponents because there is anever increasing likelihood that Akron, Miami, Toledo, BGSU will upset the over loved Buckeyes. God forbid.You think that the arrogance is nearly intolerable now? Let the Suckeyes wiggle out of playing MAC schools. The pseudo fans will bleat all the more.I find it delightful that several of my non-Zip fan friends were pulling for LSU. Why? Because they are also fed up with the arrogance and over dog attitude of thesequasi-fans.I finally had the courage to be rude the other evening. There in front of me coming out of the JAR was a stuffed sausage man with his ten to twelve year old son alldecked out in colorful, leather Suckeye jackets, tee shirts and ball caps. I was rude. I looked the man in the eyes and said my mind. "Please do not wear that gearin this house. It is out of place and disses Akron." He simply stared back dumbly. Frankly, I do not care if they never attend another Zip game. Wearing OSU colors at Akron is rude.

I believe that Akron women's basketball will become a quite entertaining and productive NCAA sport.Jody Kest in just her second year has the team headed in the right direction. When coach Kest arrived there was a grand total of one division one caliber player.It takes time and good sales to get division one level recruits. A minimum of four to five years to field a division one type team. Thus far, coach Kest has recruitednothing but division one players. The current freshmen are mid-major talent. You need to watch them play to appreciate the improvements.It has been reported that next year's incoming class is her best yet. Coach Kest is now able to get taller players that previously shunned the Zips.Proof is measured not only in wins, but also reducution in turnovers, better rebounding, better shooting percentages, more assists, closer scores in loses, betterOOC competition, etc., etc.Give coach Kest and her staff a chance and your support.

One thing to remember. Liberalism always generates the exact opposite of its stated intent. Fingerhut is a Liberal. And, in my eyes, a fool

Six-seven Reggie Keely a junior at Bedford, OH HS was an honored guest at the Zips vs. Deadhawks squabble.Only thing I found on Reggie thus far is that he is listed as an under classman honorable mention in the Sporting News basketball yearbook.