Captain Kangaroo

Peter is simply too much for Zeke and Bardo...advantage URIMeg and Humpty - Toss upDarrel Roberts takes Stewie to schoolChris outweighs B McKnight, but B's quickness wins-outConyers shows Brian what dogged defense is all aboutLois is way hotter than any Zips cheerleader.Zips 69 - URI 68Dambrot gets his first win over a Top 37 team.

I'm sure Roy Williams would trade rosters in a heartbeat.

Greatness is not required in the MAC. It may take us some time to improve our program to being great, but winning the MAC East should not be out of the question next year. The talent is there....the league is horrible.How long did it take Turner Gill to "build" Buffalo?

If Shaq can fix his free throw, there's no reason our big guys can't hahaShaq fixed his free throws???Steve McNees is a big guy???

If he ended up playing his senior season for another school, can I still vote for him?

I don't know...We got two guys (Hixon and Blackburn) who got Super Bowl rings and STARTED for the Super Bowl Champs the following year.Hard to beat that at Akron.The Steelers had 3 MAC players win a ring with them, Harrison, Batch, and Leftwich. One of those being the Defensive player of the year, Now thats hard to beat. How do you leave Ben off your list?Um...he went to Miami, Dr. Z!

The four letter network is reporting the MAC has now lost 11 consecutive bowl games, dating back to the 2006 season. The last MAC team to win a bowl game was Central Michigan in the 2006 Motor City Bowl (31-14 over Middle Tennessee). The MAC doesn't exactly play powerhouses in these bowls either.I don't know the Big Ten's record but it can't be worse.It is an absolute crime that some of the great early-2000's MAC teams got totally shut-out of bowls, while the tripe that the MAC parades around today @ 7-5 gets a bowl berth.After 5 wins in 2009, K.e.n.t. fan was all excited about his bowl chances. Bowl chances for what...to get smoked by 58 point against UCLA? If K.e.n.t. EVER goes bowling, the apocolypse is upon us. The Football Zips need to get their act together quick. A crappy OU team won 9 games this year. That's embarassing the the MAC, not a positive.

Gaffney does a nice job describing Ianello's life since the hiring.

Some thoughts from that season -The Zips played as an Independent. Being a basketball Independent at that time, much like today, is an impossible situation. You have no Conference Championship to play for...absolutely no chance at an NCAA bid...you needed to fight and scrape to schedule every game played after January 1st, because every other school in the nation went into their own Conference schedule at that time and had no desire to schedule an Independent game. Especially on the road.I remember those two games against Pitt. I attended both. Unbelievable wars. Losing by 2-points and 4-points to those Top 15 teams was impressive. We went toe-to-toe with some greats...Sean Miller, Jerome Lane, Demetrious Gore, Charles Smith...lots of big names on those Pitt rosters.

I gave my son a Minnesota Vikings watch for Christmas. I set the time...he looked at it... and said "Hey Dad, it's 12:53...and K.E.N.T. STATE STILL SUX!"Merry Christmas Everyone! Thanks to all of you for making ZipsNation stupid, frustrating, informative, fun and great in 2009!CK

Murray State and MTSU actually won NCAA tourney games in the late 80's. Can a MAC school from the last 5 years say that? The OVC was a tough conference in the 80's. Tougher than today's MAC for certain.

You can see w/InfoCision, that better facilities make a world of difference to Joe Akron. I saw friends at multiple football games this season whom I NEVER could get to come to the Rubber Bowl. Upgrading the OOC schedule is one thing, but as I and QZ stated...at some point you need to begin winning those marquee games. This is KD's 6th season. He's taken us from the Hipsher years, to 20-wins, to 20-wins and some NIT appearances, to 20-wins + a MAC Championship + an NCAA appearance...to <insert 2010 result here>.The team's progress has been excellent...but...we have whiffed on every opportunity to get on a roll and catch Joe Akron's eye. Against BCS, Top 20-level teams we've lost every time. By double-digits. We never prove to Joe Akron that we can come close to competing against such programs. And that is a hallmark of the "upper-mid major." I think CSU beat 3 ranked teams last season? We've beaten none in the history of our program. Against marquee Bracketbuster opponents, we've lost every time. If you really want attendance to increase, you need to do something special. Not only do you not lay an egg on opening day vs. Austin Peay to follow up your NCAA berth, you go down to Florida and win that tournement. You beat NC State. You finish December with a 12-1 record. That's when people start talking Zips around the water cooler. and making plans to check the team out.Akron Basketball Guy will always attend games and appreciate the work of the Team. But that is proven to account for 3,300 fans. If UA wants to fill up the remaining 40% of the seats, they need to get on a real, attention-grabbing roll. And, quit whining about the Nevada attendance and using it as a crutch.K.e.n.t. had a great 10-year run. The went from a .500 program to an Elite 8 program. Over that time their attendance went from 2.5k per game, to 5.5k sell-outs...from 75% empty student sections to SRO student sections at both ends of the court.K.e.n.t. did it. Look no further. Become a "high mid-major" and it will happen at UA too. Keep taking a step forward and a step back, and it won't.And for the love of God, quit the stupid feud between UA and CSU. Get them back on the schedule. This is my challenge to you, Tom Winstrcill. If you want a sell-out at the JAR, find a way to get the CSU/UA series restarted.

Is football the albatross, or are non-revenue producing sports the albatrosses?Football for the most funds itself. So I would say non-revenue sports. But I'm sure your question was rhetorical. Some would actually criticize Title IX. 85 scholarships for male athletes (football) must be equaled by 85 scholarships for female athletes. Now in a school where they can fund all of those scholarships through generous alumni donors no big deal, but for the most part schools are similar to us. Scholarships for 2009 alone total $6.7 million. Z-Fund contributions to date are roughly $600 thousand.But we also have to remember that sports in general were not designed to be "money makers" it was to create a well rounded student and scholarships for sports were designed to open the door to the university for individuals who were academically capable but had no other means to attend. The real problem is ESPN Hey...ESPN is the only reason we'll have TWO solid OOC opponents coming to the JAR this year!ESPNU is evil.

Guy named Jakubick was pretty good in the D-1 era.I refuse to acknowledge he even attended UA until he quits wearing UNC gear to the Zips Golf Outing.

He's an enigma. His weight could swing 40lbs over a given season. 245...then 205. He dropped a high percentage of balls tossed his way.I am surprised he still wants to play ball. We'll see if he sticks it out over summer camp.

Marcel Boyce, Eric McLaughlin and Anthony Buford - The three best D-1 players to wear a UA uniform to date.I don't think Boyce will get a number in the rafters because he only played 2 seasons. Buford left UA to play his final season as Nick VanExcel's side-kick shooting guard on Cincinnati's Final Four team. Eric McLaughlin was better than Brown (whom I liked), and did it for 4 full seasons instead of 1 1/2.Although this thread is about "aught" Zips, I'm curious what other Zips fans who have attended games from the 80's through today would think of the Linhart/Brown/Wood/Best-Ever statement.

Latina ArticleHails from the same town as Steve McNees. And Mark Mangino.

In fairness, I've never heard of Kyle Fazekas. Nick, on the other hand was a great player. I probably should have went with Marcelus Kemp. Cooler 1st name anyhow...

Nevada: 3,302Dayon: 4,059and the Dayton game was about 65-35 split in favor of Zips fans. Dayton travels well in-state.i cant believe Nevada was only 3300...it seemed like it was a bigger crowd. I can tell you that there were plenty more students at games back then.1.) Survey the first 1000 people you meet at the JAR and as them where Nevada is ranked today. The Joe Akron, Nevada basketball is about as noteworthy as Akron basketball is in Nevada. Either way 998 or of 1000 say "I have no freaking clue."2.) Ask them if the names Ramon Sessions or Kyle Fazekas ring any sort of bell. Those names are as familiar to Joe Akron as Romeo Travis and Jeramiah Wood are to Joe LasVegas.3.) How was the Beacon's coverage of the Zips during that era?4.) Was the game held during winter break? How close to Christmas?5.) What kind of a noteworthy roll were the Zips on at that point? (ie. coming off some major wins...championships...undefeated...etc)?The fact of the matter is - the Zips drew 3,300 to see Nevada play the Zips. That's 60% of capacity, during break, three days before Christmas when they had accomplished nothing of note prior to merit more than a 60% attendance mark.I don't care if Nevada was ranked #21 or whatever they were at that time. It was Nevada. And unless the Zips are undefeated going into that game, with a #32-ish or better ranking themselves, and the game is promoted as a "Clash of the Titans," it is going to draw 3.300. The Zips took a big step forward last season with the NCAA appearance. But they laid a big fat egg with the Austin Peay home loss, and failed to win either head-turning games such as NC State or Texas A&M. Thus, to Joe Akron, it is "The same old Zips."The Zips need to reel off 10+ wins in a row to get people excited. Then, when we play a high mid-major in the Bracket Buster, we need to win that game. Not lose like VCU (both times) or Nevada (both times).There is a small margin for error with Joe Akron. If the Zips continue to take one step forward, and one step back, home attendance will never improve. Regardless of the opponent.And a final note - Per Elton Alexander in today's PD - THE Ohio State University is drawing 11,000 fans per game to Value City Arena thusfar in 2009. That is pretty much 60% of capacity. State's flagship school...Big 10 conference...beautiful arena...major city population...60,000 students...60% capacity.People need to quit whining about attendance. 3,300 people raced home after work, got their kids fed, put on their Akron gear, raced down Route 8 or up Route 77, in the middle of winter, to support Zips basketball. And we get chided.

RUN FOR COVER...MOUNT SAINT CONYERS HAS ERUPTED!!Great game by the Zips tonight. Obviously Conyers, but both McKnight brothers played strong games as well. UIC's guards out-quicked us numerous times...they hit their three's and free throws...and we still won by double digits. UIC is a "MAC-level" team. St Francis would lose to them 10-out-of-10 times.Fun game to watch. Thank you Zips!

So how many Notre Dame coaches is that? 4?LatinaYoungIanelloMendoza (strength and conditioning)Grimes (GA)Powlus (?)5 and a Grad assistant (assuming Powlus actually took the job).Powlus took the job

Is this going to be an All-Italian coaching staff? Might give a hint as to what will be grillin' at the Lot #9 tailgate next season. Game #1 - Latina Cucina - A medley of latin-based dishesGame #2 - Egg Foo Young - Has there ever been an egg foo yung competition at a tailgate party?Game #3 - Portabello Ianello - Too bad I hate mushrooms...I might need to sit this one out. Maybe I'll just make Ianello Jell-O?Game #4 - Mendoza con Arroz-a - How many different uses of rice can we get cooking in lot #9?Game #5 - Grease-n-Grimes - Who can make a dish containing the most bacon?Game #6 - Kung Powlus Chicken - Two Asian-based tailgate themes in a single season?!Ok. I'm set.

Writer doesn't like exclusion of this Hurricane

Greensboro's been a decent team in the not so distant past, right? And I agree with the Malone game following a week hiatus due to finals. Like it's been mentioned, the other mid majors are mid-to-upper level mid-majors. St. Francis is the only team that "sucks." It does happen that Greensboro, UIC, and Valpo are having bad years. Makes the sched look worse than it is.On a side note, did anyone else notice Sunday in the JAR that someone on staff was on the ball when programming the abbreviation for the visitor on the center court scoreboard? St. Francis probably should be abbreviated "STFU," but was smartly listed as "SFU." :D I think a few Zips, including BMac, may have been saying the former to #40 on a few occasions.The program that might be the biggest underachiever of late has to be Ball St. With their facilities and hoops tradition, there is no reason that they should be as bad as they've been.Eastern Michigan is right up there. They went from Boykins/Head/Dials to...#321 in the nation.

A odd note from the epic St Francis game -- Elton Alexander attended it...but didn't write a column? The PD used a wire report.He did write one for the K.e.n.t. game held later that day.