Captain Kangaroo

"The next big thing""Do you think you'll visit EMU? Yeah, when Akron plays them."

He's allegedly awesome. Hopefully we can fend off the poachers for the next 6 weeks!

Per The Rasor Blog Jermaine Robinson, a highly rated recruit from Milford Academy, is rumored to have committed to UA. I can confirm - it is true.

Fleming on the move?

I think we're saying that recruiting is like a 401k. No, you don't want to tie your retirement to 100% high-risk stocks. But a balanced portfolio may include one or two aggressive funds. We're talking about one recruit. One scholarship. Not a paradigm shift in the philosophy of the program. And this scholarship COULD be earmarked for an outstanding athlete that MAY be a JUCO. Or a kid that did something semi-stupid when he was 18. Or didn't take his studies seriously enough when he was 14-17. Taking an "educated risk" on a single student athlete is a smart move if you've done your homework (as a coach) and that kid can elevate your program's level of play.Question - Is there a single Browns fan who refuses to cheer for Josh Cribbs because he was convicted of "possession of drugs with intent to distribute" 5 years ago? Or rejected renewal of their season tickets once he was signed? I guarantee you The University of Akron will never be known as "a bunch of ring-stealing pirates" (is there an ounce of hyperbole there?). East Carolina, maybe. But not Akron. It won't happen. Your attendance and board participation are ensured for the foreseeable future.

Captain, captain, captain. Now you and I both loved these players, and we know that it was not any lack of character, talent or desire that prevented them from winning the MAC. It was the lack of proper teaching and coaching strategy. I think Keith Dambrot would love to have players of this caliber on his roster. Well, Hollingsworth, I barely remember the name and never saw play, but hey, hey, hey Tarver, Bosley and Ball -- those guys could play on any MAC team and make it better.Hollingsworth was awesome in year #1, and a cancer in year #2. Hence he was kicked off the team and drew my ire.Tarver was a ball hog who couldn't play defense to save his life. Since I'm getting older and mellower, maybe I can attribute some of his shortcomings to being strapped to the anchor of the SS Hipsher. Maybe if he played for Dambrot he would have been a different career. Bosley had 2 great years. Then, after The Thrilla in Manilla - Hipsher vs. Andrick, he quit. I'm still waiting for a check from the University with a full refund for my season tickets that year. They stole my money.Ball - I've never listed him negatively. He was a class act.

CSU is winning without Zeke. I want to win too.I'm as into "Zeke Mania" as the next guy, but the MAC is there for the taking in 2008-9. Our talent is as good as anyone. It would be heartening for Nate Linhart to come out and say "I look forward to coming to games as an alumni next season and watching Zeke, but I want a ring on my finger when I do it. Zeke ain't gonna help me get that ring. It's up to me and the McKnights to get our act together and start hitting our stride.""Wait til next season" rings hollow for us older Zips fans. I wanna win now! Help me Nate!! Stop it with the 1-8 shooting and put us on your back! Beat VCU and get on a roll!

I don't think the Beacon has much effect of recruiting. Maybe if we were a Division 3 school that only recruited locally (I'm sure Terry Pluto's bust will one day appear in the Mount Union Hall of Fame). Relationships, facilities, curriculum, etc dwarf the impact of the local paper in D1 recruiting.The Beacon's biggest impact, IMO, is the image it conveys the general public. If the Beacon ignores UA, and beats the drum for OSU, like it or not that has a huge effect on people showing up on Zips game days. If the paper ignores you, and there's no local television coverage, and no local sports talk (except for Frenchy's 1 hour Monday extravaganza) no one knows what the hell's going on. Out of sight out of mind.And I'm not saying the Beacon needs to be a shill for UA. Having a local media that cares keeps people honest and on their toes.As far as TV coverage -- Akron people are Cleveland and Columbus wannabees. I think if the Columbus local news were broadcast in Akron it would get HUGE ratings. Unfortunately I don't think there's much interest in Akron news. You bring up an interesting idea in "stealing" a major network from Cleveland. If we got a "real" local TV station that was run like a first-class organization (not running infomercials and Gabby Hayes flics 24/7), MAYBE it could generate a following.

Sorry for the confusion. He's now a UA verbal.

Timely follow up to the hot "Elton Alexander" thread of the last few days.CSU and Waters got their "head turning/attention-getting/tourney-impressing" Top 20 OOC win. Big one for the Vikings.

I hear their trainer's uncle's cousin received an Associate's Degree from UA, so it is ok.Is Jeff Penno's "The Art of the Bank Shot" far behind?

That's pretty much hyperbole.If the Zips were K.e.n.t, and K.e.n.t. were the Zips...and you were a K.e.n.t. student...you'd have been dancing your ass off on The Q court under a sea of confetti last March and you know it. If you didn't, I guarantee the other 99.99999 percent of the students would have no problem with the celebration.The whole arrest thing makes for fun banter and easy Photoshop gags, but until we get a ring, that's all we'll have.Dambrot's on record as stating the K.e.n.t. program's success is what he aspires to emulate. If he can be a little envious of their success, why can't I? Note: The intention of Alexander's column was to speculate what UA needs to do to rise above our NIT rut. One option is the JUCO/transfer route. It could very well be that Alexander doesn't realize the Zips have indeed already found their way out of that rut with the most-recent recruiting classes. Getting the #8 center in the nation is, to me, a rut-buster extraordinaire. If Humpty isn't Newcomer of the Year, I'll riot. And we're redshirting guys like Parrish, Sullivan and McClannahan, who would start for 1/2 the MAC teams today.I see both sides. I want a ring. That's that.

Classic

I get the PD. Pluto's all over Mount Union recently. Shocker.

Does anyone miss David Lee Morgan?

No one is pushing a panic button. Simple fact are being stated - The Zips haven't won a MAC championship in basketball. K.e.n.t. has a sack full over the past decade. If you want to debate that fact, have at it.The Zips have not won and OOC basketball games that capture the NCAA selection committees fancy, nor "Joe Akron's" fancy. If you want to debate that fact, have at it.That is all that's been said. It strikes me as odd that Coach Dambrot can come out after a game and say (after the Pitt game) "Anyone who's happy with a 20-point loss is a loser." But if a Zips fan says "Man, that 20-point loss sucked." That guy -1.) Wants the coach fired2.) Doesn't appreciate what we have as a basketball program3.) <insert irrelevant Zips football analogy here>Just stop it with all the hyper-sensitivity over the minorest critique of anything Dambrot does. Everyone loves the guy and he's doing a great job. But if K.e.n.t. goes to the NCAA's again this season, and we sit at home, Zips fans have a right to be disappointed. It isn't wrong for fans to want, or expect the same things the Zips coaching staff does.

So he's going to leave Humpty, Nik, Zeke...all that he's built over the last few years to take a job for $110,000 more at another slightly-better-paying mid-major? Or is UCLA going to open it's wallet for a guy who's never been to the Big Dance? It doesn't work that way.A thread involving Keith Dambrot leaving UA anytime in the near future is groundless. The Huggins analogy holds absolutely no water. The only way Dambrot leaves is if some Athletic Department clown makes a bigger f-up than telling the NCAA that the soccer fields will be unplayable a week down the road. Then again...maybe it is possible...

The Zips received a commitment today from TE Adam Steiner, GlenOak 6-2 211 Sr. He'll be groomed as a long snapper.

"Soft" Verbal to Miami was indeed very soft...He is a Zip Commit.

Defensive POTY

6' and 180 lbs. 4.4 40.He's from the same high school as Ryan Bain and Dale Martin (and Rich Reliford, for you old timers ). Bollingbrook is a nice school to be making recruiting inroads. They pump out a lot of D1 talent.Scout bioRivals bio

Gary Waters' @ K.e.n.tIn his 5 years @ K.e.n.t. - 2 NCAA appearances (1 win) and an NIT Quarterfinal appearance. In basketball poker, that beats 2 NIT's. And the K.e.n.t. Elite 8 team of the "6th" season was entirely his. Like KD, he's responsible for making basketball relevant at a school where it was forgotten for over a decade. Hell - he's taken CSU to the NIT, and they'd been dormant since Reagan's second term.Believe me, I dig Dambrot as much as anyone. The the future looks even better for KD's 2nd five years than the 1st five. But -- It still remains to be proven that KD can get over the hump and:1.) Win a MAC championship2.) Win a "marquee" OOC game (defined as a regular season win(s) that give the Zips justification to get an at-large NCAA tourney bid)K.e.n.t. is our biggest rival, and they have championship banners out the ying yang. I'm 42 years old and I haven't seen a UA NCAA tourney appearance since I was 19. That's a long time.Sticking to the point of the thread - Alexander MAY be correct that bringing in an upper-tier talent with mid-tier "baggage" may be what's necessary for the Zips to get over the hump. Alexander MAY be wrong, because there are a slew of mid-major teams that have had recent success in the NCAA tourney with cohesive teams of 4th and 5th year seniors. The Horizon League and Missouri Valley are great examples. I've read worse from Alexander. IMO however, although K.e.n.t. has been successful with transfers (please, not Tarver, Hollingsworthless or Bosley), there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Compare K.e.n.t.s' success over the past 5 years with the Zips. If you like championships, you'd go with K.e.n.t.

Selects Zips Rather than Wait for Pitt

It's time the Zips recruited an "at risk" player?Funny that he mentions Bosley, Tarver and Hollingsworthless. How many championships, NIT wins and NCAA appearances did those guys garner? Z-E-R-O.