Captain Kangaroo

Moving Van to the Middle American Conference

For the 98th time - Josh McNeil got arrested days after he was offered. He is NOT coming to Akron. Mansfield, maybe. Akron, NO. Tupta and Lockett are preferred walk-on's at this time. You will not see anything about them until they receive a scholarship. Bowden was not publicly allowed to comment on them yesterday.

Article on Commitments and "Flipping"

You can't redshirt until you are enrolled at a college.

While there is truth to the statement that player commitments come and go through signing day...it is absolutely untrue that that's an excuse for the local paper not covering Akron Zips Football Recruiting. Personally - I don't care whether the abj covers Zips recruiting. Those who participate in this forum do an excellent job of keeping everyone here up-to-date. But - the lack of coverage is yet another slice of the pie in "Reasons Why the Zips Local Following is So Weak." There as an Arizona Republic Editor years ago who stated "WE tell the people of Arizona what to think." I see it every day in this forum...many people don't believe something unless they see it in the PD or abj. Those people are dying off, but it still holds some truth. Enthusiastic coverage of the Zips would get the public excited, and sell some papers (or e-subscriptions). Michael Holley did a great job covering the Zips in his short tenure as an ABJ Zips beat writer roughly 20 years ago. Man was he enthusiastic...even if he could care less about the team. George would do himself a favor if he went into the bowels of the ABJ basement, dusted off some microfiche and saw how Holley wrote. I've already written too much. Out.

David Lee Morgan's shoes are tough to fill, but he's done an admirable job trying.

I read some of those Tweets and just cringe...

I would be surprised if that is true, considering his arrest a couple weeks ago.

Zero.

We played Ball State on a Tuesday night in January. Getting 3000+ to show up on a school night, under that scenario, is fine. No one should be grousing. I couldn't make the game. My youth basketball team was assigned a practice slot on Tuesday night, and I got screwed. I'm sure many others had similar issues...many do during the week. Those of you with an attendance fetish - Deal with it. Peters was an awesome guy. My son had a relationship with him through the summer basketball camps. I wish he could have attended, but it didn't work out. He touched hundreds of kids through that program. It's a crime he's gone at 60. To those of you with a <insert whiny voice> "Why don't the absent season ticket holders give their seats away?" fetish - FU. Try to give away tickets to see Ball State on a Tuesday night in January. Tell me how it works out.

Because we're all #Teamohio

Brad Stevens passed the torch to Greg Marshall as my #1. Mike Krzyzewski is over-exposed, over-hyped...but there are a million coaches out there who have great talent and lose. Duke is in the mix every year. And if you look at the NBA, Duke players aren't all that prevalent and mostly 2nd-tier guys like J J Reddick and Trajon Langdon. He's not winning the way Pitino does. I like Sean Miller too.

He wasn't the first, and he won't be the last to utter this phrase:

I was told Bryce Jones is a straight-up transfer, and not a grad transfer. So he'll need to sit out 2015.

Pay Rob Ianello a crap load of money. Will he be anything but a complete jerkwad loser? Spending money stupidly is easy...that's why casinos make bazillions of dollars. Spend a crap load of money smartly, and see what happens. Unfortunately the people capable of that trait are far more rare than the wallet-emptying dummies. The primary complaint of the people with an actual Marketing acumen on this board is - losing is an excuse to be a lazy marketer. Two years ago, UA's "Think Bigger" was a great Marketing campaign for the basketball team. Unfortunately, the team did a lousy job of backing it up. That's the only "keeper" I've seen in almost a decade. The "Fear the Roo" campaign caught on for two reasons: 1.) Because UA football, basketball and soccer were faring well simultaneously. The iron was hot. 2.) Because the copycat idea, borrowed from Maryland's "Fear the Turtle" campaign, was marketed balls-to-the-wall! A decade ago, a guy named Mike Waddell came on campus and marketed his ass off. The AK-Rowdies sprang up. New logos. Great alumni/fan events. New team colors. He even got 100 AK-Rowdies to dress up in K.e.n.t. Stark shirts and infiltrate the K.e.n.t. student section at the MACC Center. He got Mike Rasor to blog about the Zips 24/7. There was a fun marketing campaign "Frye for Heisman." The Zips were in your face everywhere possible. And in the big scope of D1-A college athletics, we were only "better than average" on the field/court. The older people on this board have seen great Marketing effort at UA. And seen great ideas. And seen how it can lift UA's image and fan morale. And after seeing that, you get pissed at half-assed, lazy "whaaa whaaa whaaa we aren't winning" Marketing "efforts." I look forward to sharing some beers with you in 2015, Jrship35. I have 3 or 4 other people I'll invite to help us put a hurtin' on a case of Great Lakes Beer and we'll solve all of UA's problems. And as a side note: It is freaking awesome that GP1 is gone, and people can once again bring up Charlie Frye and Mike Waddell without The Grate One ruining the thread.

I hope that person has the acumen to sift through the mindless know-nothings and pluck out the few gems. The better way to do it would have been to PM those who seem to care most about tailgating. And who know the most about it. Of the Top 10 UA Tailgaters, I don't think half have weighed-in in this thread. And they shouldn't.

We're young, and we don't have a go-to scorer. If Tree were baggage-free, the road is where we really needed him. Ibitayo needs more minutes. Kretzer's injury is a concern. He's had head injuries in the past. Big Dog's hand must still be hindering his production. We need someone to help Forsythe today, not tomorrow (to quote Bowden). Hope we aren't talking about Dog as one of the "Conyers Award Winner's" one day. 2014-15 Conyers Award Winner - Nyles Evans

You'd think that "getting the ball through the hoop" stat is overrated, but I'm starting to believe it might actually have a measurable effect on the game's outcome?

I was told he was a Zips commit after that date. Keep in mind the following: 1.) I'm only as good as my source. And I wouldn't put my name next to something if my source wasn't solid. I promise I follow Akron recruiting better than Ralf Schmidlap at Rivals. 2.) Many kids flip over the next couple weeks. If Walker ended up at MTSU no one should be shocked. I recall seeing one of Brookhart's Signing Day film presentations where he blew past a slide of Eugene Jarvis. Jarvis backed out of his UA commitment on Signing Day and signed with K.e.n.t.

Without D'Orazio, we're in need of a possession receiver.

Welcome to the world of following Zips recruiting. I do my best to stay on top of things. If I post something, I researched it personally. If a commit was listed on a web site with an Akron reference, I will always include it. But sometimes I can obtain information faster than the local or Internet media. They can use me as their source.

Here is the best list I can muster as of today. Please remember that everything is subject to change up until signing day. RB Donnell AlexanderQB Tra'Von ChapmanDL Rodney CoeDB Larry HopeDL Jamal MarcusDB AJ ConeyMitchell Hlay Bryce Jones Vernon Walker Travonte Junius Brock Boxen Darryl Monroe Kvon Wilson Mike Means Chris Bivins Tyler Shipman Jayson Williams Jan Johnson Jaquavis Dixon Joe Tupta

Shhhh...don't tell anyone....but those 70 schools have been separated from MAC schools for decades. Double shhhhh....don't tell anyone....but no MAC school will need to spend 10 million dollars to keep pace with schools in the Power 5. Triple shhhh...don't tell anyone...but Akron football will survive just fine regardless of any Power 5 stipends.

Already hates K.e.n.t? I wish we had 23 more in the class just like him. Where do I get my TUPTA jersey? #TEAMOHIOAKRON

Wonder if McAdams would be interested in a year of football after his hoops career is over?