Hilltopper

Lets hope he is a diamond in the rough.

Nice post ZW, us die hard fans can get a little too worked up now and again. Sometimes is just better to wait a little after such a disappointment like the URI game, before we rip the program. Win or lose, the sun will rise tomorrow and I will still be a Zips fan for life.

I know i'm new to the whole akron experience, but i am really getting ill with all the negativity on this site. I for one am extremely excited about the upcoming season. I think RI has done a great job putting his staff together and can not wait to see the talent that he will bring into the program.What did I say that was negative? That a guy who was second team all conference would need to work on his game and therefore is a "Project", is not negative, its the truth. It seems obvious that at this point he is not a finished product. Kids his size who can play at a high level in highschool usually end up at bigger programs. When I see a thread about a possible recruit who is ready to play at a high level right out of highschool, then I will be impressed. It looks like this guy was a JD recruit anyhow. I am looking forward to next year also. I am also looking for RI to bring more to the table in terms of talent.

Sounds like a project to me. At 6'8' and 265lbs he would be SEC material if he could play.

The only names that would make a difference to Joe fan would be the likes of Ohio State, North Carolina, Kentucky, Louisville, etc...

We lost because B McKnight was awful and we threw the ball away too often. There was about a 3 minute stretch in the 2nd half where we threw it away around 4 times in a row. It was like last year when he was like a blackhole, the ball went into him and no matter what he was going to shoot. Brett needs to let the game come to him and not force things.

The only way Nicely doesn't return as the starter, is if he transfers out.

I guess by some people's reasoning, Chase Blackburn is a jerk also.

Elton's story was much better written, Gaffney seems like he is setting the Zips up for a loss. How come the ABJ thinks its bad to be a cheerleader for the hometown guys?

$$$$$

Poll: What do you really think about Jamarcus RussellSee for your self!

Looks like things are heating up on the URI board. Now we're worried about Akron. What has this program turned into?

We Was Robbed Those Damn MAC Refs

Poor horse!

I've had the pleasure of getting to know Bridget, who is a friend of my daughter. She is a great kid, with good parents. Her dad was one of my daughters favorite teachers.

Gary Waters didn't even need to pull back the curtain at the convo last week. Attendance: 5105Thanks ZW. OSU is having trouble filling 50% of the seats at their home arena this season. There is no advantage to Zips for playing games at the Q, except for the MAC tournament.

This is an ATM game for UNCG. The game is being played at Greensboro Coliseum which seats 20,000. My guess is 18,000 of those fans will be rooting for WF. I'm sure UofA could get a home game like this if they were willing to play it in Cleveland.Name the team that would draw 20k to the Q in a matchup with the Zips.

Umm....Valpo's 7 footer is a redshirt and didn't even travel with the team.OK, Their center fouled out.

What the heck was up with the radio broadcast yesterday? When I got back to my car, Fenchy was interviewing KD using a cell phone, passing it back and forth. We have to do better than that!

Seeing Zeke steal the ball and drive the length of the court for the layup and one was sweet. No sense in burning him out with too many minutes before conference play is a smart move by KD. Valpo's 7 footer fouled out with 15 min left in the game. Another solid performance by the Zips.

I've been sick the past few days and have had lots of time on my hands. I decided to take a look at a few of our opponents message boards and here is what someone on Bobcat Attack reported after attending the UIC vs Zips game.http://www.bobcatattack.com/messageboard/t...&PID=205084 You can read the rest.ps; Check out the thread about the Rowdies "Stealing" their chants.

Some thoughts from that season -The Zips played as an Independent. Being a basketball Independent at that time, much like today, is an impossible situation. You have no Conference Championship to play for...absolutely no chance at an NCAA bid...you needed to fight and scrape to schedule every game played after January 1st, because every other school in the nation went into their own Conference schedule at that time and had no desire to schedule an Independent game. Especially on the road.I remember those two games against Pitt. I attended both. Unbelievable wars. Losing by 2-points and 4-points to those Top 15 teams was impressive. We went toe-to-toe with some greats...Sean Miller, Jerome Lane, Demetrious Gore, Charles Smith...lots of big names on those Pitt rosters.Yep...that Independent scheduling was tough. However, myself and most of the people I know still believe that this '88 team's biggest downfall was the two losses to Western Illinois. That was a tough hurdle to get over when trying to impress the NCAA tourney committee. Once again, no matter what your record, "bad losses" will do you in. I still wonder if the strong turnout for that game against #3 Pitt in Richfield indicates that possibly a game today against a Top 10 team at the Q would be a good draw. Or...was it the fact that Richfield was so close to Akron. Who knows. But, I do know a lot of people throughout NE Ohio who went to that game, and would not otherwise go to an Akron basketball game.Skip, I think some of it can be attributed to the fact that we were finally winning at the D-1 level. Bob Ruperts teams were not so good, but when Huggins arrived and the opening of the JAR, the people of Akron started to take notice. You didn't have hundreds of games available to watch on TV like today and the internet was unknown to the average fan. If you wanted to see NCAA basketball your options were limited to a few games a week on TV. Huggins was also a very flamboyant coach(Still is) and part of going to game was the guessing what he might do next. I lost count of how many times he removed his suit coat and flung it into the stands. It was rumored that he kept a roll of quarters in one pocket so that the coat would fly farther. When Muse decided that we needed to go bigtime in football as an independant it was the kiss of death for the BB program. After Huggins left, we were treated to really awful basketball during the C Crawford era. His idea of basketball was summed up in the "Defense 65" promotion. All you had to look forward to was a free taco if we held our opponent under 65 points.

Here is the schedule for 87-88, the first year after we left the OVC. 1987-88 (21-7)Coach: Bob HugginsN30 Ashland W 69-52D4 Rice+ W 74-67D5 Western Illinois+ L 73-77D7 Robert Morris W 74-61D9 Ohio W 76-69D12 at Can't State L 74-92D21 (3) Pittsburgh^ L 63-67D30 Bethune Cookman W 85-51J2 North Carolina A&T W 63-57J6 at Cleveland State L 73-80J9 at Youngstown St. W 80-61J11 at Middle Tenn. L 78-82J18 Middle Tennessee W 76-72J20 Otterbein W 109-54J23 at Northern Illinois W 75-68J25 at Chicago State W 61-56J28 Kenyon W 75-53J30 Brooklyn College W 96-57F3 at N. Carolina A&T L 70-92F6 Youngstown State W 90-59F10 at Wright State W 88-81F13 at Brooklyn College W 97-70F15 Florida International W 103-58F17 Wright State (ot) W 89-82F20 Chicago State W 78-58F24 at Western Illinois L 71-76F27 Morehead State W 90-67M5 at Western Mich. W 79-74

If he did, they might want to check the envelope for Anthrax!