Captain Kangaroo

That's almost as good as Dennis Helsel shouting out to the Rubber Bowl faithful "This is the greatest win in Syracuse history!" Or Tom Wistercill exclaiming "The cupboard is not bare!"

In what I feel is an ingenious game day promotion, I have learned there will be an honorary team captain for 2012 game between the 3-9 Chippewas and the 1-11 Zips. Flip that coin, and then ride off into the sunset my friend....

You'd be happier with free Great Lakes Dortmunder than Milwaukee's Best...but free beer is free beer. You can't complain. It certainly does go against the intent of the give-away to provide free tickets to a game 5 hours away against Mount Pleasant's Best. And just a head's up - If you attend any MAC road football game and hang around the gate asking "anyone have an extra ticket?", it takes about 13 seconds before someone puts a freebie in your hand. All MAC road games are free.

I would think Zeke will learn a few things from Pat too.

Must have thought CMU was playing Rob Ianello 8 times?

“Our president wants one day to see Akron right there with other big city institutions,” said Bowden. “I’d just like to see us win a conference game.”

Our biggest problem as the season wore on was lack of point guard depth. After Abreu, there was no real PG to run the offense. Some bad decisions during crunch time of the OU and Northwestern games also hurt. But it is time to forget the past and move forward....

We were already a few scholarships over our allotment. At best we're even now, but I'm pretty sure TB is banking on some further roster attrition as camp progresses.

If we are at .500, with seniors Zeke, Diggs, Gilliam, Walsh (TBD)...with Tree and Abreu...Betancourt...potentially a 6' 11" transfer from WVa...Harney...if we can't win big-time in 2012-13....we just wasted a lot of money on a 10 year contract. This is the best assembly of basketball talent the Zips have ever fielded. No excuses.

Do you think injuries and suspensions affected our start last season?

If a tree falls at MAC Media Day, is anyone there to hear it? The best possible thing to happen to this event is the participation of Terry Bowden - A nationally known media-savvy pro.

I answered your incessant "Nicely Love Affair" topic in-detail a while ago. I'm not repeating myself. My post above had nothing to do with Nicely. Zero. Give it up.

The aptly-named "Ole Miss" was the worst QB to start 12 football games in the history of UA football. Once a Coach with a clue watched 4 minutes of a spring practice, he knew what he had to do. I wish him well. But he was a terrible QB. Hence being 3rd string, behind a RS Freshman and a 5th-year 1-AA player who's thrown only slightly more game day passes than me.

His departure seems like one of those instances where Moore is less.

I will explain "Bardo 2.0" as succinctly as possible -- Bardo was very valuable in practice, and he was a 6' 9" wide body that beat on Zeke heavily during practices. Mike also gave us a 6' 9" body to lessen the effects of losing Zeke for fouls or simply giving him a breather. We missed that last season. "2.0" (instead of 1.1) is because Forsythe is a bigger body (than Mike), with seemingly better offensive skills. But he will still be essentially a 7-foot freshman. If he can give us a little more in 2012-13, in minutes and points than senior Bardo gave us 2 seasons ago, and toughen Zeke up during practices, we should all be pretty happy. Obviously we'd expect the numbers to continuously improve over his following 3 seasons, and his career numbers to exceed Mike's by a fair amount. I do not see Forsythe averaging 14 points, 12 rebounds and 25 minutes for 2012-13. Half of that would be huge.

In the next installment, Coach shows the players the money they can save by clothes shopping at Gabriel Brothers.

I went to the Zips/Vols game back in 1989. Carl Pickens had both offensive and defensive TDs and Chuck Webb had a couple hundred yards rushing. Derek Alston had over 100 yards rushing for the Zips. In-between the 30's we moved the ball fine all day...but that's where it stopped. Going off a fading memory, I think UA was up 9-7 at one point,, and lost 52-9. Absolutely awesome place to watch a football game. Great game-day environment. I hope I can attend in September, but the kid's fall sports schedule looks to be a conflict.

He contributed early...against the softest part of WVA's schedule. The equivalent of the Zips' John Carroll, NC A&T, etc. gauntlet. Forsythe hasn't played meaningful basketball minutes since high school. He's transferring into an entirely new program and system. He's not going to set the world on fire when he arrives. He'll have moments when he teases you...but as far as being a consistent 20m/g contributor, odds are it won't happen until 2013-14 at the earliest. I certainly could be wrong...but him setting the world on fire on a deep, veteran team like the 2012-13 Zips would be unprecedented.

Anyone remember how raw Zeke was in his first year? Forsythe is essentially a 1st year player. A 7-footer too, which means he'll have some early growing pains. The likely scenario is: Zeke will get roughly 25 minutes, and Forsythe gets somewhere between 10 - 15 minutes. KD will play Mad Scientist on occasion, playing both simultaneously. But Forsythe is not going to regularly take many, if any of Cventinovic's vacant minutes. Hopefully Forsythe is Bardo 2.0 this season, pushing Zeke in practice, giving energy off the bench, and hopefully adding a little more offensive punch than we've come to expect from a Zeke-sub. And when Zeke gets in foul trouble, it should be much less of a drop off at the 5 spot than replacing Zeke with Egner or even Tree.

Blake Justice is the most maligned player never to play for the Zips.

Zeke's broken into the Top 10 worldwide in Guitar Hero?!

I wonder if he's developed his right hand? In his high school videos he exclusively uses his left hand, even when he's 1 ft away from the hoop on the right side.

If he's relegated to pounding on Zeke in practices for 2012-13, it will also be beneficial.

I have never heard "I want to move closer to home" being an acceptable NCAA excuse to play immediately after a transfer. Unless there was a dying parent or similar severe hardship involved, I would assume he'll be in slacks and a sweater, next to the Igloo cooler on the Zips bench this winter.

Yeah ..... one 23 year old stole from his teammates to buy heroin. The 18 year old used a stolen credit card to buy chicken wings. Eerily similar.