Captain Kangaroo

I dislike the "spoiled" moniker. It is untrue. Spoiled infers you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. That you don't have any concept of adversity. Zips fans are 100% hardscrabble. Even in their men's best basketball season they get punched in the gut by King Hippo. Their football team has won 3 combined games in 3 years. Coach Kest's WNIT appearance doesn't really scratch the surface of reparations required to forget the bulk of what we've endured over the past couple decades.

A remember back in the early 80's a representative of Devry University came to our high school. I asked him about sports at Devry, and he proudly stated "Well, our club soccer team beat Ohio State this year." Almost 30 years later, Ohio State soccer is apparently reliving that horror. May God grant them the strength to survive.

Hipsher was a head coach at Wittenburg, Stetson, and coached the Zips for 9 seasons. He was also a top assistant at Alabama and South Florida. Ianello was never so much as a coordinator in the Lingerie League or Pop Warner. Completely different.

Andrick and Tree would have been like Laimbeer and Mahorn. That would be a bad-ass front line. That said, I was referring to pre-meltdown Andrick. After the "fight," Andrick and Bosley were never the same players. The fire was gone. They gravy-trained their scholarships for the remainder of their eligibility.

In Melo's magical sophmore season he averaged 7.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game. That netted him the 22nd pick in the NBA draft. On a center-starved Celtics team, and while completely healthy, he's scored 2 career NBA points. To his credit, he has had a mediocre season for the Maine Red Claws. Melo is a fatter, slower, BCS version of Zeke.

FYI - event is on the 12th, and is $30 if you didn't get your tix today.

Fab Melo is a complete stiff who hardly played college basketball, and the Celtics took him in the 1st round of the 2012 draft. Athletic 7-footers are still a valued commodity. Doc Rivers loves defense, and Kevin Garnett can't keep playing in the middle at 39 years old. Even with Melo playing on the Celtics developmental team, it wouldn't shock me if the Celtics took Zeke. I'd rather use a second rounder on Zeke than Svrunas Mvalatinonis, or whatever random worthless European is available.

I wonder if Abreau has ever been to Lambeau?

I can't believe that a HS senior would stiff Bowden on signing day, then wait 6 weeks while still holding a Bowden offer in his pocket and then stiff him in favor of Coastal Carolina. Bowden wasn't that desperate. A more likely scenario is either: 1.) Bowden found someone better on signing day and rescinded the Zips scholarship offer 2.) The kid, or influential people chirping in the kid's ear, felt he could do better than the Zips...stiffed Bowden on signing day...and when the phones didn't ring, were left with a sack of beans instead of a D1-A scholarship. I would liked to have seen if his high school game tape would have transferred to D1-A college success. But it's no big loss, if it can even be considered a loss.

Per a recent Elton Alexander column, Bowden cannot comment on these two kids until they are enrolled at UA, which will not happen until the summer.

Shawn Roberts and Doug Schutz wouldn't have stood a chance. Zeke +Tree+2 Bufords and 2 McLaughlins + Marcel Boyce...and I think we would have been competitive.

Since when does Elton count in binary?

I think it will be a good test of Wistercill's AD capabilities to lock up, or lose Kest. Like men's soccer, in the big D1 picture it is chump change to pay a good women's basketball coach. Additionally - UA has been very patient and loyal to Kest. She had some horrific seasons. Is that loyalty repaid? Stay tuned...

CK and son in section 111. I got the call for tix from UA, but it was too late...had to pull the trigger last night on Stub Hub. See everyone there!

Section 111. Me and da kid. Couldn't wait any longer for UA. Stub Hub has plenty of seats. Michigan fans will leave after their game, and I'm sure you can sit anywhere you want at 10pm.

I may or may not be able to get tickets via UA. Anyone with tickets already secured know which arena side or section is Akron's? I don't want to buy in VCU's student section.

I hear Denver is "The Belmont of the West," so maybe OU will struggle?

Forsythe has not been nothing but a liability for several weeks. Zero energy. He needs to pick it up big time. His D has been awful, and his offense - predictable. If he can't give us 8 decent minutes off the bench, he hurts us. And, if Betancourt doesn't have the confidence to hit wide open layups...or to even take the shot...we are in trouble. He needs to keep the defense honest when he penetrates, and take some shots. I don't like a point guard who lacks confidence. Nice job by Harney subbing at the point. McAdams is our best remaining 3 point shooter. If he's open 8 times behind the arc, he should shoot it 8 times. Great second half, Zeke. Tree sets a new standard of excellence with every passing game. Hit your free throws, Zips. Off to watch my first-ever Zips women's basketball game. Whoda' thunk it?

See you at 4:15pm!!

+ =

Shocker. I'd have thought he'd want Akron to win?

While this may not be the optimum thread for this topic, it is close enough - 1.) I received my second Marketing "ZipsLine" email from Tom Wistercill where he writes a paragraph on Alex Abreu. Who writes ANYTHING regarding a player arrest in a Marketing email? You leave that stuff up to the newspapers... 2.) There were a lot of #11 jerseys sold to little kids over the past 6-or-so weeks. Hopefully one of the incoming Freshman takes the number, so the kids can wear their #11 with pride in 2013-14. Or, like my son, ask for black electrical tape to place over a #1 and make it a Tree jersey.

I get where you are coming from, MD. Speaking for myself, the anticipation of Friday's game is definitely not at the level is would have been had we been rolling like we were only 10-or-so days ago. But - I like these Zips. The remaining guys have given nothing but a supreme effort this season. They are still very fun to support. After I get past beer #2 tomorrow afternoon, I will have forgotten about AA...perhaps be joining a different "AA"... and moved into "F K.e.n.t" mode. I've seen how the Celtics have excelled after Rondo's injury. On a different plane, I recall how mid-major Loyola Marymount rallied after Hank Gathers death to provide an improbable, awesome NCAA tourney run. We have the makings of a great story. Hopefully we can execute it. I think Kretzer, Gilliam and McAdams will make up for AA's missing points. All that said - I get the disappointment and anger. You wouldn't be a Zips fan if the whole situation didn't sucker-punch you in the gut to some extent.

I think we'd have beaten them if we had 1 game without AA under our belt prior to playing them. K.e.n.t couldn't have wished for a better scenario than playing us 24 hours after we lost our starting point guard.