Captain Kangaroo

Even the Zips?

Kent is terrible. If we lose to them, we lost to a lesser team.

Maybe because, other than the Sun Belt Challenge, Miami may be the only decent opponent we see until March.

On behalf of the fans who enjoy a couple beers and some wings before a Saturday night home game, I say “nay” to standardizing on Saturday afternoon games.

To be fair, Dambrot kinda fell right on the Zips lap too. Former MAC HC, turned insurance salesman, turned HS coach, turned Hipsher assistant at the tail end of Thunder Dan's tenure. Just as everyone with half a brain knew Groce was the exact coach we needed after Dambrot left (I too, limit any hosannahs for Larry Williams)...those same half-brained people could see the Hipsher assistant we lucked into was going to ultimately be the Zips BB HC. Better lucky than good, they say...

I wouldn't say "probably". "Worst case, we could be Buffalo 2025" is the way I see it. Zips basketball has a long, successful history predating my 58 years on the planet. Had Dambrot bolted for greener pastures in 2009 I assume we'd have found a solid replacement. Hell, if Larry Williams could find one, anyone can.

Pounded a 15-3 St Bonaventure squad by 18 today. Dru and the Dukes are rolling.

What a shame that a couple guys who realize Stan Heath sucks can’t make a buck off their observations.

JD working his home state.

Dru and the Dukes continued their ascent to the top of the A-10, besting a 13-3 George Washington team 73-65 on Wednesday night.

I remember when it opened they had a dress code. You had to wear a shirt with a collar. Unheard-of for a campus bar. My friends and I got turned away at the grand opening, and went straight to the Townhouse. Dress code rules were lifted after the first weekend, and then it was like any other campus bar. 😀

I don't know that there's a "lazy way" to promote Zips Athletics? "Lazy" is what we typically see...which is nothing. Could they do more? Sure...promote it as Zippy's Hoppy Hour™. Add $2 pretzels or hot dogs to the fare. $2 off the Hoppin' Frog beers. Lather, rinse and repeat it for every 6 pm post-work game and it will become "a thing" if it's run right*. The Bourbon Tasting was a completely different animal. It was something like $80 for four, 1 oz pours. Joe Akron doesn't show up for $20 shots of bourbon...Joe and Flo run with the $2 Bud Light crowd. * It will not become "a thing" if - the beer is warm the beer runs out by 5:20 pm the beer lines are 40 people deep and customers wait 30 minutes in line for a crappy Bud Light I'll probably knock off work and hour early and go to The Score (is that place any better this year?) or Europe Gyro. I don't think I'll get to the JAR in time for any cheap beer. But Joe and Flo will...and if UA runs the event right, they might bring a couple friends to the next game.

Lyles exhibited the most amazing growth I've ever seen in a single game. He went from being Ben Simmons Jr. in the first half...afraid to shoot anywhere within 2 feet of the hoop...even when completely unguarded...to slicing to the rim and deftly spinning in lay up after lay up off the glass in the 2nd half. 😀 Groce's decision to sit Okonkwo in the 2nd half and run with Lyles and Marvin was a gamechanger.

Guthrie leaves and UA Athletics Marketing begins to flourish? Is this the first signs of growth since Charles' Arby's-inspired revelation?

He lost me when he says “…the Zips are shooting 11.3 3’s per game, up from 8 3’s per game last season.”

Coaches are running a 120+ person organization. To get paid 6 or 7 figures to do this is fair compensation.

When Flo Akron is bundled up on the couch with a glass of wine on a January Tuesday night binge-watching House Hunters, she's also nearly impossible to displace.

How much are they going to pay a kid like Norton? 10k? 5k? Is that worth uprooting yourself, making your family fly across the country or drive 10 hours every weekend to see you play Florida Atlantic or UAB? Are they transferring just for the prestige of getting paid something? I wonder how many portal kids are happy after their transfer, versus those who are delusional, and regret not "dancing with the girl that brung them"? I'll bet it's well over 50% at the G5 level. In the end you've been to 4 different schools, made no lifelong friends...just been a football mercenary, have no real university to call your own...got $12,230 total dollars in NIL money after taxes...and after their eligibility has expired still need another 21 credits to get a general studies degree. Steve Spurrier used to say - "The hardest thing about recruiting is convincing a kid that has no business going to college to come to yours." Now you just need to wave a couple bucks at them and they're yours.

I don't want him back. He completely checked out of the Toledo game, and we won without him. I trust we will get a winner or two out of the portal. Brookhart knows WR talent. Norton's Toledo stat line:

The game is indoors.

I hope you're right, but I'm skeptical. Sans last week's sparsely attended Tuesday night tilt the Zips have been out-of-sight-out-of-Ohio since early December. I fear they've slipped off Joe Akron's radar and the JAR will be 35% capacity. Friday night will be a little different...I predict 50% capacity. Regardless, two of the eight walk up tickets sold will be to GA fans who will be sitting in my reserved seats when I arrive.

Like a young Stan Heath?😂

After starting the season 0-6 Dru seems to have righted the ship, winning 7 of his last 10. The Dukes presently sit at 7-9, good for 3rd place in the A-10.

I wish all Zips opponents were as disinterested in playing defense as EMU.

Who forgot to sew the Michigan on Eastern’s jerseys?