Captain Kangaroo

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.

High Expectations

PD Column

Good Luck Mike!

I just wrote what I believe. If it follows what you or GP1 said, then you're probably in the right.

A couple times during the season JD mentioned his back-to-back dismal recruiting classes of 2005 and 2006, and discussions he had with Mack. He alluded to Mack agreeing to his plan to right the ship and get things back on track. If you look around the country, the popular thing to do is can a sub .500 coach after 5 years, especially after three consecutive sub .500 seasons. Especially if you are the young, up-and-coming, looking-for-the-next-job-UA-is-just-a-stepping-stone AD. Especially if the aforementioned coach wasn't your hire.Like the decision to keep JD, or not, you have to appreciate Mack sticking by him. It pretty much defies every possible precedent. We'll find out next season if he made the right call. I'm on record as saying he did. If I'm wrong, InTheZone will let me know.

Ohio State doesn't recruit, they select. The 6' 5" 285 lb DL with the 2.65GPA, or the 6'5", 285 lb DL with the 3.02GPA? Hmmm...which should we take....?Non BCS schools are forced to take risks that an Ohio State doesn't need to. It is a totally different ballgame.To further expand on the point -- Some -clown like Chuck Amato can blast UA for taking non-qualifiers, but schools like NC State do the SAME thing. In their case, the at-risk kid goes to prep school for a season. Same kid, they just get him a year later.To even FURTHER expand on the point -- A friend of mine works in collegiate education. He formerly assisted in recruiting at a mid-major school. One day he was walking a highly touted recruit and his mom around the mid-major campus. The mom said: "We were at <BCS School> last week. They said they would give <son> a personal tutor for each class. What can <Mid-major U> do?"Knowing <Mid-major U> did not have the resources to give the kid such a ridiculous amount of attention, the recruiter said "Here at Mid-major U we teach kids to be self-sufficient. We assist them, but we focus on giving them the tools and direction to stand on their own two feet. When <son> graduates from school, he won't have a tutor at his place of employment. We will prepare your son for the real world."The kid signed with the BCS school the next day.This is basically what GP1 mentioned. UA wasn't set up to handle some of the recruits JD signed 3-4 years ago. At a BCS school, a surprisingly large number of those kids would have, by some miracle, found a way to stay eligible.

Found one. See initial post for the link.

Rivals BoardEdit: Found an active Dayton board: UDpride.com

Cracked ribs suck. It hurts just to breathe, and don't even THINK about sneezing. Hopefully it is something less severe.

"Hard words from a hard man."

Jacquemain couldn't hold Butchie or Charlie's jock strap. He's better than Gromek, Gill, Fahler or any of the other Owens QB's, if that's worth anything? I don't think it is.JD has made his share of recruiting mistakes at the QB position. Luke won us a championship, but having him for only 2 seasons was a risk. We could have gone for a "stud" HS QB and had him for 3+ season to build upon. With Luke in the fold, we couldn't recruit a decent QB for two seasons. No HS kid wanted to sit for multiple seasons with no chance to start.JD miscalculated on Carlton Jackson.JD has a serviceable QB in Jacquemain, but he's been a 4+ year project to achieve "serviceable" status. On his best days "he manages the game." On his worst days, he loses the game. You don't win in the MAC with that type of QB. You win 5 or 6 games.

I think the basketball team has done a nice job of beating the teams they should beat over the past 4 years. They've just struggled to get over the hump and beat the teams they shouldn't (ranked opponents like Pitt, Creighton, Nevada, Dayton, etc). And, to win a championship. Beating Eastern Michigan or Urbana? No problem.

Umm... yes because it would mean that he recruited a capable player that was actually eligible.Some of these defenses of JD are getting ridiculous.I feel the same way about the "pro-Owens" guys that make up mythical graduation rates on Owens' behalf. Like anyone with 30 free seconds can't look up how Lee's classes really ended up.Note: 2001 was one of Lee's later classes (7th). Not his 2nd or 3rd.Thankfully for Lee, the NCAA scholarship penalties for not being on track for graduation weren't instituted until he left.

K.e.n.t. vs. Kansas @ 9pm on ESPNU.K.e.n.t. looks to be having the best OOC performance of the MAC programs thusfar.