Captain Kangaroo

Go Zips! You can do ok with an Akron education?

The Zips seem to really be focused right now...as focused as I've ever seen a Dambrot-coached team in late-February. I would love to know what the hell was said to get this crew to start playing "Akron Basketball?" And who said it. An absolutely amazing 4-week turnaround. Tonight should be a can't-miss war! See you there!

Is there a promotion to "Jam the JAR?" It appears to me the main promotion is - If you aren't going to use your tickets, please give them to someone else. Should be good for 5.4k attendance. How will Campus Police handle the onslaught of cars? Parking will be a nightmare.

I can quantify - High-Level Winning* + Good Marketing = Major Attendance Increase High-Level Winning + Bad Marketing = Minor Attendance Increase Mediocre Winning** + Good Marketing = Minor Attendance Increase Losing + Good Marketing = Minor Attendance Decrease Losing + Bad marketing = Appreciable Attendance Decrease*** * High-level winning = Marquee/BCS win(s), and an NCAA Tourney win. Or, any eye-catching, "story book" type season. ** Mediocre winning = Winning record, no marquee wins, and an "other" tourney appearance *** Appreciable decrease is assumed to follow a decent season. Multiple bad seasons will yield a flat-line, bottom rung attendance. See UA football. Note: Effects are additive. If you follow up a great season with a bad one, you lose the public. If you back up a good season with a good/great season, you build. You cannot plant a garden on Monday and pick fruit on Thursday. It takes time to go from 2k to 5k...to 7k, etc. CSU planted the seeds. You can see the plants sprouting. What has UA planted lately?

But the house would be PACKED every night, I guarantee it! I'd go. Right now I'm not renewing. Ianello has yet to show me any evidence he knows what he is doing or that he can coach. He was hired to do that, wasn't he? I really struggle with that issue. I love my Zips...love the stadium...love football Saturdays...love the tailgating...but I hate the vibe of the football program right now...not just the losing, but the whole all-encompassing vibe. Wistersil jerking me around with his 5k Donor lot thing still irks me. I hate that my AD was so stupid. I hate that the golf outing was cancelled...and if they bring it back this season, I'll probably skip it. I hate that good people are abandoning the Zips in year #3 of a brand new stadium. But they're being driven away. I can't blame them. There's no excuse for Saturday's in Akron not being an absolute Party...and instead there's about 39 of us who kept the place from looking like a complete morgue last season. I feel if I stay away, I'm quitting on UA. And that's not fair to the players. So I'll be there again this fall. But my heart's not in it like it has been in the past. I've endured 1-win seasons before. I can deal with them. But getting s&%t on during a 1-win season...that sucks.

I included the past 3 seasons. Going 7 seasons deep, pre-Gary Waters at CSU, and circa Mike Thomas @ UA isn't too relevant in 2011. The trend certainly shows CSU is dramatically increasing, while UA has flat-lined. Keep in mind CSU had bought a couple "marquee" games over the past few seasons (preceeding 2010-11) that made their attendance look better than it really was...they'd probably be below 2k without those games. See this informative column from the PD printed a couple weeks ago. Look at the creative stuff the CSU AD is trying in order to get people to pay attention to the Vikings. Our AD? He apparently spends his day scrounging ZipsNation for his Marketing ideas.

But the house would be PACKED every night, I guarantee it!

Compare it to their last few years and tell me the trend. Compare ours to the past few years, and tell me the trend.

Hawkins odds are as long a Charlie Coles-coached triple overtime game. Group all the MAC West coaches as Field Horses at 20-1. Witherspoon still has a legit chance.

CSU's attendance is on the rise. They drew 8k+ for a recent home game. CSU is getting a lot of media love both nationally and locally. The 2010-11 Zips would kill to have CSU's media situation. And arena. For 2010-11 there's no doubt - CSU is the top mid-major basketball team in NE Ohio. But CSU could lose their tourney, and the Zips could dance in 2011. Very good chance it could happen.

Dambrot has turned a defenseless, offenseless, star-free team into a MAC championship contender. What took him so long to get this crew to play defense? Who cares...he kept preaching and preaching and finally converted the masses. The Zips are definitely a team where the whole has become greater than the sum of the parts. The Zips beat #2 COTY candidate Charlie Coles Wednesday night, and Coach Dambrot gets a well-deserved post-season accolade. Coles has done an amazing job despite some serious injuries. If he knocks off the Zips for the 2nd time, he'll be the 1st octogenarian to win the MAC COTY that I'm aware of? K.e.n.t's coach? No chance. OU's? No chance. Ball State's? No chance. Wednesday night @ the JAR decides it.

I agree. I absolutely LOVE Saturday night games...BW-3's for 2-hours beforehand, and then the game. But if I didn't have season tix, and was just Joe Akron, it would be a different story. Sitting on those wooden bleachers for 2 hours watching mediocre basketball is really a tough sell to the wife on a Saturday night. Obviously the solutions to solving hoops attendance problems run a lot deeper, but the JAR seating, concessions, amenities, etc. is a big contributing factor for anyone looking for a fun Saturday night out. The JAR is a cracker box, and it won't change any time soon. Could the JAR sell out? Sure. It still does for K.e.n.t games, and it did for LeBron's St V crew. But that's when there's a serious Buzz in the community. My Buzz from spending 2 hours at BW-3's only goes so far to help the Zips.

Were there really so few people there? If so, shame on Akron. The Blue Jays are a name program and the game should have been close to sold out. For the last decade+ the Zips have played 3rd fiddle to K.e.n.t. State and Ohio State in NE Ohio hoops. The Zips have maintained a consistent level for the past 7 years, and K.e.n.t. has now regressed to our level. We've now slipped 1/2 a spot, to "3rd-and-1/2 fiddle," below CSU and Ohio State and tied with K.e.n.t. It is tough the Zips, tied for 3rd NE Ohio Fiddle, to draw more than 2,800 for Creighton. There simply isn't the interest or incentive. Especially if all you do to market the event is place a poorly ripped-off .jpg flyer on your web site promoting a whopping 20% off tickets. You reap what you sew, Marketing-wise. You are who you are, basketball-wise. 2,800 is exactly what should have been expected. If Marketing really pushed the event, and the hoops team hadn't experience such a bad Jan/Feb stretch, and the game was televised...then you approach a sell-out.

Cochran going to Youngstown State - did he get the boot or did he quit??? Interesting. He was a Girard kid who played for YSU, so Youngstown is his home. But Akron is 50 minutes from Youngstown...so there's no "I wanted to move back home for family reasons" excuse. Who knows...who cares.... I am excited to have "The Johnnyzips84 Impostor" as out new S & C Coach!

Looks like Mike Cochran got the boot after only 1 season on the job?

*Pssst*...don't tell anyone....but if he sent out that video, no one would take him, and he'd still be a Zip. Sorry, I didn't mean to include your message when I quoted Rootforoo44. Do you not agree that he is the best all around player on this years team? Nik is playing awesome. If he leaves UA early it will be a crime. And if it is a crime, someome from K.e.n.t. basketball was involved.

*Pssst*...don't tell anyone....but if he sent out that video, no one would take him, and he'd still be a Zip.

Hopefully it was an .avi of his dunk attempt against BG.

I think if we played them you would see that we don't. If OU beat Georgetown last season, why is Akron beating Ohio State impossible? It happens all the time in the tourney.

Someone had to stop the stupidity.

So we lost a Junior that never saw the field. We lost a Freshman to The Cavity Fillers of the IUPUI Intamural League (IUPUI hasn't had a football team since 1965). We lost Nolan Plate, who was as key to the Zips success as: Who cares.

Douche Dislikes Bracket Buster.

Plate, Heiss and Vidmar - No one cares. Greenwood is a disappointing loss.

Miami's home basketball crowds are only slightly larger than EMU's home football crowds. Seems like the Miami AD is against fans in general?

Unbelievable that someone rips me off so blatantly. All it would have taken was a simple PM or post stating "Thanks for the idea" and everything would be fine. I hope the classless lackey that took credit for this as their own work enjoys ZN.O. I used to provide Marketing ideas to the Thomas administration. Many were used, and they always had the class to say "thanks." I miss classy people. They're a thing of the past. Given the Captain's sarcastic history, I can't tell if this is serious or not. I'm serious. People who take credit for other people's work or ideas make me sick. Just a pet peeve of mine. I'm sure there are a lot of people who are cool with it. Since the Thomas Administration left, ZN.O has always had a Rex Ryan/Foot type relationship. ZN.O is UA Athletics' big juicy foot. They won't ever admit they love a big smelly foot, but reality shows they're addicted to 'em.