GJGood

During the postgame last night I heard Coach D mention that the team was going to Puerto Rico for a tournament next season. Somehow I missed it when this information first became available if it was prior to this. I believe this tournament is an actual tournament and not a schedule determined event like the 'classic' the Zips played in to open this season. Coach also mentioned there will be three high majors there. Do we know who those schools will be yet? Also, I was wondering if we tried to get into this tournament because we will have two Puerto Rican natives on the roster next season? I don't remember this coach doing it before but I always liked coaches scheduling away games close to the hometowns of the seniors on their roster. While I realize AA will only be a junior next year we did play at both Marshall and WVU this year and it is Nitro's senior season. Just a thought. What else do we know about the Zips upcoming schedules? I know KD eluded to the fact that the return for this year's BracketBuster probably wouldn't be next season because we have the return with Creighton from last year's Bracketbuster next season. I guess I don't understand why we can't or don't have both next season. Who would you guys like to see the Zips play in future years? I am all about diversity in opponents so I'd like to see us play teams from various parts of the country and that play different styles of basketball. I would, however, prefer that nobody we play has as deep of a rotation of players as we do. I think the ability to be 'fresh' at the end of the game when your opponent cannot be is a huge advantage no matter who the opponent may be.

I was just thinking the same thing about everything possibly pointing toward Davidson. If I had my pick I'd want the trip to Las Cruces to play New Mexico State since I think there is no way we get Murray State after St. Mary's win last night at BYU. I now think it will be either Davidson, Iona, or South Dakota State with an outside shot at NMSU.

When is the Creighton rematch anyway? I know it normally would have been in the early part of this season. Do we play the BlueJays next year? If so we could for all intents and puposes have three Bracketbusters games next season (with return games and next year's game), that should help with the RPI numers in 2012-13. As far as this year's opponent goes, I love the list of potential opponents. When I graduated high school I had 5 schools at the top of my list to attend. In addition to Akron two others on my list were Murray State and New Mexico State. I have a feeling we'll get one of the Dakotas for some reason though. I'm OK with those two also. Wherever we go I hope we can somehow turn it into some type of a way to get our name out there to recruits in that area. This program is getting to the point where it can recruit more nationally, even if it can't do so against the "power conferences" yet it can certainly recruit with most mid-majors anywhere.

Overconfidence and taking an opponent for granted are characteristics usually found in young, inexperienced teams. I fear that the team may come out extremely flat tonight. I am actually expecting to see McClanahan and Cvetinovic to step up a bit tonight. For some reason, though, this game scares me.

The game last night was a huge win but the team needs to put whatever sense f euphoria they may have behind them. It is a quick turnaround and we travel to Muncie and what may be the toughest place to play in the entire MAC West. The game Tuesday night is HUGE, and I fear we will be in full letdown mode since we are coming off such an emotional and impressive win. This game ould have a huge say in who wins the regular season league title and who gets the auto NIT bid should they not get an NCAA berth. It is also a must win for the Zips if they harbor any hopes at all for garnering an at-large berth to the field of 68. I don't think the at-large thing is likely but of we were to go something like 14-2 in the MAC and barely lose the title game, then who knows? I just want this team fired up and hitting on all cylinders Tuesday night. Its time to put Saturday night behind us and have this team show us what they are truly capable of doing in terms of a "body of work" GO ZIPS!

If a program has success and the coach leaving is seen as a "move up" then continuity is often key to the program the coach is leaving staying successful. Let's just hope if we lose Bowden or any other coach because of him being successful that a high ranking individual on the coaching staff would remain as the new head guy. I'm not sure how that would or could play out down the road for Akron but if we have success I'd like to have continuity as well instead of having to 'reinvent' something.

This game has all the makings of a "trap" game being between Ohio and that team to the east on the Zips schedule. Couple that with the fact that this game is on the road and Buffalo is a very good and experienced MAC team and this will be a very tough test for an inexperienced team. I badly want Akron to win this game, but I am not sure how focused this young team will be given the recent ego boost delivered by beating OU and the distraction of what lies ahead this weekend.

So, Akron would be Missouri State's top choice? That is interesting. As things are right now I'd like to see us play somebody like 13-5 South Dakota State, They have a win at Washington and nearly took out Georgia earlier in the season as well. I see a lot of similarities between where the two teams are with respect to national perception right now. Both have a power conference win but have dropped a few non-league games to some pretty decent mid-major programs. The Jackrabbits also figure to be in contention in the Summit League all season long.

I agree on Nicely. I thought he actually looked like a much better and much more comfortable QB the few times he was in more of a shotgun/ multiple spread receiver alignment. Not saying he is going to be a great QB if he plays under TB, just that this new style of offense will probably suit him better than any other system he has seen with the Zips.

I agree, I'd like to see us get in on some of those UCF recruits. However, I do think Florida prep talent has more of a spotlight on it than any other state. When looking for that diamond in the rough from the south I'd hope we wouldn't have geographic tunnel vision. I think there is a lot of talent that doesn't get as well picked over in places like Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama (gotta have great connections there now) too. I really want to see our program have its "meat and potatoes" in Ohio (not just NE Ohio) but also recruit on a more national level than it ever has before too. I'd really like to see us make some enroads in some areas where there are only a very limited number of FBS schools around but still high quality prep players.

The team we had 5 years ago with Linhart, Dials, Mcknight, middleton, and Bardo would occasionally beat a great team (Temple, FSU, and Miss. State), get mixed results against average mid-majors, beat some cupcakes, and contend in the MAC. This year, a team with Diggs, Rico, Zeke, walsh, and Tree (clearly superior talent) still does exactly the same thing. This is the basis of the argument saying that we did not progress and that we are getting the same results with superior talent. Next year we will graduate Serb and Nitro (who won XX games over 4 years and went to the tournament 2, hopefully 3 times), the year after that we will graduate Zeke, CG, and Diggs, and so on... And so does every other team in the nation. What am I missing in this argument? We have 18 games left on our schedule for this year's regular season. 16 MAC games, Marshall, and a bracket buster. Standing at 6-6, we will need a record of 14-4 to hit the 20 win mark. I am not as comfortable as you are in saying that we will achieve that. Look, I am sorry if i am coming out as the basketball team hater, that is not the intent. Just like the rest of you, I appreciate and support this program as much as i can. In my opinion, pointing out the issues that can be fixed and must be improved is one of the ways of supporting this program. Happy new year, and here is hoping for a 2012 where the zips achieve the following: 1 - in Soccer 2 - in Basket ball (both regular season and tournament), and win an NCAA game 3 - win 4 games in football. As far as 20 win seasons go, MAC tournament game wins and national postseason tournament wins also count toward the total. When looking at it that way a 20 win season isn't all that improbable as strictly having to win 14 of the next 18. What could end up hurting the consecutive 20 win streak however is the new MAC tourney format. If Akron was to get the double bye then that means less potential wins. It would be ironic if the streak ended and we had 19 wins but didn't play a MAC quarterfinal game. .... Hoping for much, much more than that.

Really a shame that this game didn't at least make an ESPN3 telecast, it is worthy of a more national audience than just steaming on the conference site.

I am pleased to hear that Coach Bowden wants to have players not only from Northeast Ohio but from all of Ohio, Western PA, and maybe over to Detroit to be his "meat and potatoes". He also said he may get some gazelles from south Florida. While I like this as a general philosophy, I hope Coach Bowden and his new staff will also realize there are some speedy players in that "meat and potatoes" area as well. I also hope that everyone involved will realize that many of the truly high impact MAC players are "under the radar" guys before getting to their college years. I hope this staff is able to recognize the underutilized talent at big time or highly successful high school programs as well as able to find those high talent guys at high school programs that do not always get the noteriety or are just so small that they are sometimes forgotten. I believe there is a good amount of high school talent that falls through the cracks at the smaller high schools as well as at the bigger schools that don't have a long-standing winning tradition.

How about Jason Taylor as an advisor or position coach since he will be available now? He is a good speaker and motivator as well and his name and reputation certainly would do nothing but help recruiting.

I noticed on the new Dambrot show that the game at Marshall was listed as 12:00pm on Jan 1, however every other schedule I have seen for either school indicates 4:00 that day. Anybody have any insight as to if there was a time change here or if the show's graphic was just incorrect?

Most sports fans probably don't even know that Wayne State even exists. So, he's a step above that. While it may be true that Mr. Thomas does not know what division Wayne State or even the University of North Alabama is in (even though he should be sure to know before speaking publicly about those places), I am much more concerned that he doesn't seem to know the difference between the three Michigan schools in the MAC. How can you be a beat writer for a MAC team and not know who the other MAC schools are?

I used to love college volleyball before they went to rally scoring. Now the matches seem quicker and less interesting to me. That being said I will always be a Zips fan, just think the changes in rules over the years have made it harder for me to maintain a high level of interest. Anybody else miss the days of 'side out' volleyball?

I agree to a certain extent on the FCS head coaches. I mentioned Coen at Lehigh because it is a clear step up from Lehigh to any MAC school, even Akron. I mentioned Ash at Montana State simply because he knows how to recruit and has some strong western PA connections. A move to Akron in addition to being a "step up" to FBS (I don't know how close the pay scales are, I had assumed the Akron job would be higher) would also bring him much closer to "home". It may very well be that if either of these guys were contacted they'd have no interest, but I'd still like to know that we contacted some FCS head coaches that have attained some level of success.

For what its worth, I do think it will turn out that Akron just hired a pretty good baseball coach. I don't know exactly how much of a hand TW had in that search. Of course that hiring pales in comparison to that of one of the "money programs" at the university.

Good point, I don't know for certain who is being looked at, but all the names I hear bantered about are guys who appear to not be interested in the job or guys who are only position coaches. I'd like to see a guy with head coaching experience, preferably at least at the FCS level. If we can't get a head coach from somewhere then we need to at least get a coordinator (not a position coach) from a FBS school. I'd love to hear names like Rob Ash from Montana State or Andy Coen of Lehigh or someone with similar credentials start being mentioned in connection with this search.

Seriously, why aren't we looking at ANY FCS head coaches? There are certainly some out there who have had some success and would be interested.

I just hope we are also looking at successful head coaches at the FCS (1-AA) level. If somebody from those ranks is a finalist and Winters, Johnson, or anyone else beats them out in the interview process than so be it but FCS HC's should be being considered as much as D-2 HCs or any coordinator or position coach that has never held a head coaching job. I just can't believe more FCS head coach names are not being mentioned.

This leads to another question... if Winters was hired to be the guy at UA, does his whole staff come with him or do one or more of his assistants stay at Wayne State to lead that program? If the latter is the case, then new coaches possibly with FBS experience and regional recruiting ties could also be on the new staff.

Next Saturday 11am ESPN2, Zips fans may want to check it out. Wayne State vs. Delta State or Pittsburg State (KS) from Florence, AL

Probably right on Winters at least being one of the primary candidates, but lets not forget the FCS level is in its quaterfinals this weekend too. It could be possible that we are looking at somebody still playing at that level too. I, for one, would certainly be glad to hear it if we were.