Captain Kangaroo

He's a 6' 3", 185lb WR that caught 62 passes for 1100 yards and 18 touchdowns...in a single season. He currently holds the Connecticut state record for most consecutive games played with a receiving touchdown at 13. He runs a 4.45 forty. I'm pretty excited that a kid like that is coming to UA.I'm not privy to any of his academic information, other that the single sentence written on the recruiting site, so I'll defer to JD's knowledge of the situation and assume the kid has a good chance of being successful with his classwork. JD knows he can't have another 2006 class again. And, the 2007 Zips class was excellent.BTW -- If there were a 6' 3", 185lb kid that ran a 4.45 forty, and had a 3.35 GPA and who wanted to come to UA I'm sure JD would have offered him.

I'll add one more thing --Back...oh...12-or-so years ago, the Beacon did a nice job covering the Zips. Even when the team was bad, the coverage was fair. Both recruiting, and on game days. Then, they made the decision to cut WAY back. I went through the proper channels and wrote the editor. They basically told me "F U, OSU sells papers and that's who we're covering."I figured it wasn't so difficult to contact people at UA and get the stories myself. The lack of discussion regarding Zips athletics (ie. on the radio), lack of print coverage, and the dearth of recruiting information were the main reasons why some of us hackers got together and formed this site. Sitting around bitching about it wasn't getting anything done. The people within the University have been VERY accomodating in providing information. Because of UA's market situation, they value the exposure our blog gives their respective programs. And they like forums that generate fan interest and excitement. The people that run this site are all married, employed and most have kids. This site is a hobby, but one we all take pretty seriously. If I post something on a recruit, you can be assured it was well-researched. I typically never post a source within UA because I don't want to be responsible for screwing up someone's career with a mistake. I'm an engineer, not a journalist. Most of the inside-scoop stuff I write is in the "Word on the street is..." venacular. That has proven to be the best way to handle things in the "blog" format.I'm glad a lot of you enjoy the site and enjoy the information. Like any hobby, it only costs money...but we do it because it is fun & it supports UA.

Because I wrote it.If you elect to believe Scout or Rivals info on UA over mine, that's your call. Or maybe you question it because it isn't in the Beacon? Either way, it's up to you where you choose to obtain your Zips recruiting info.

Rivals Bio -- 2-StarsScout Bio -- 3 Stars

Say I stand behind you and blow a trumpet in your ear for minutes on end. Because I'm a monster Zips fan, does that make it cool? That guy's whistle cuts like a knife though several sections...it is beyond obnoxious. Just because he can create the noise without a physical whistle is irrelevant. And as you stated, it had no effect on K.e.n.t.'s free throw shooting. It only ticked off a few hundred Zips fans near by. If he wants to toot a little here and there...fine. The dude just didn't get it. There is a line between being a fan, and being obscenely obnoxious.And for those of you who weren't there...trust me...stick yourself in a room with a 4-year old who just chugged a 2-liter of Mountain Dew, give him a whistle and a Black Sabbath-size guitar amp + microphone...and you MIGHT get an idea as to the level of incessant, loud, shrill whistling this guy produced.

My thoughts:We got our butts kicked.Say what you want about the K.e.n.t. students, but anyone in Akron would give their left nut to have such student support at a basketball game. If UA had 4 tourney appearances in the last 9 years, we'd have that support too. We're getting there. But with regards to student support at basketball games -- K.e.n.t. is "there."Rowdies did a nice job...except for the idiot that kept whistling when K.e.n.t. was shooting free throws. Someone please put a sock in that dude's mouth next game. Got a free ticket from a K.e.n.t. student prior to the game. 12 straight years I've gotten into that game for free. I just can't put money into the K.e.n.t. coffers if I can avoid it. If you lose a game, you always start thinking, "If I were the coach, I'd have...". If I were coaching last night...and there's good reason I wasn't...McNees wouldn't have seen the floor in the second half. He was absolutely overmatched. He was at 33rpm's, and K.e.n.t. was on 78. It will be interesting to see how he picks up his game in the March 9th rematch. In McNees' place -- "Big Shot" Brett McKnight. No he can't handle the ball, but other than Dials he was the only guy that was able to fill it up. He needed more time on the floor. Chris McKnight brought is "A" game offensively too...I'd have taken 10 minutes more of CM over Quade.Ced -- Who doesn't love Ced? No one. He's one of my top 5 all time Zips. But he's been atrocious lately. He's a great shooter from 19 feet 9 inches, but his shooting percentage drops exponentially for every inch beyond the arc. He needs to get better physically for sure...but he needs to start playing to his strengths too. He forced things last night. He's done that a lot lately. Wood did ok, but Quaintence got the best of him. Wood got the ball 15 feet out WAY too frequently. Rarely did he get it down on the blocks. Credit K.e.n.t.'s help defense. Conyers is usually an enigma offensively, and solid defensively. Last night he was a consistent enigma.Dials was awesome. Tough on D, clutch on offense. Maybe his best overall game as a Zip.As seems to be common in games that get physical...Quade disappears. The up-and-down "track meet" games....there, he goes off. But when teams are banging, he's really at a disadvantage.I thought the refs stunk, but no more than any other MAC game. We lost because K.e.n.t. played awesome defense and hit clutch shots. They wore a very deep Zips team down.Our near comeback at game's end was nice...but hitting shots when the game is essentially over is easy. You see it all the time. We needed to hit those shots with 10 minutes to go in the 2nd half. McNees' foul on Quaintence was nothing big. Quaintence is a jerk. But that jerk owned the paint last night.Kudos to Quade for sticking up for his teammate. The 6' 8" 230 lb Quaintence could have killed the 6' 180 lb McNees. I agree with GP1...it is good to see some passion like that in the rivalry game.Why can't we throw a late-game inbounds pass inbounds? Our late game inbounds pass was "Miami" all over again. The game was already decided, but there appears to be a pattern.I like the MAC this year. OU, K.e.n.t., Akron and Western Michigan are all playing at a very high level. Miami will be in the mix at the end too. Let's get up to 17 wins, and see what the Bracket Buster draw gives us. K.e.n.t. will get a slightly better draw, but...they deserve it.

"They don't pack much of a whallop."

oh man im gonna have a field day with this tonight....we all gotta start chanting "Eric Thomas, Eric Thomas"I would think a chant like that would reflect pretty poorly on UA. I hope no one does it. The dude raped a chick. That's not funny.I would rather hear a chant of "RICH-ARD SIM-MONS" whenever that goofy-looking guy gets the ball. That's funny, and clever.

Click for the New 25

I have heard the same...everyone expects Jimmy to be playing 4 full years at UA. Too soon to say for Roberts, but it speaks well for him that he's worked to be eligible this season. Since KD puts such a strong emphasis on graduation, I would be surprised if Roberts doesn't play the full 4 years too.

I would DEFINITELY want to see another wide receiver or two.

BWAA HAAA HAAAAAAA!!

Then someone should tell The University of Wisconsin, because their site shows us playing the Badgers in 7 months.It was obvious to me a couple years ago that Akron had scheduled 13 games for 2008 and one of them wasn't Hawaii. If you check old threads on this site you will see that I pointed this out, and asked if anyone knew what was going on. Got no satisfactory answer from you guys so I went to a very high AU authority who told me the MAC office was going to line up a replacement for us on the UW schedule. Do you see UW on our schedule?I don't. And you cerainly may be correct. But you can't blame anyone here for thinking it isn't out of the realm of possibility that Wisconsin might have their web page more updated than UA's?

Gold, Silver and Bronze go to BillCro69!!

Humpty Nets 31 and Chillicothe Knocks off #1 Dunbar

Separated at BirthWhat ever happened to Balki anyhow?

That's a GREAT idea! It would be so cool if teams that got screwed by the NIT in the past declined invites and joined the new tourney.F CM Newton and his cronies.

Then someone should tell The University of Wisconsin, because their site shows us playing the Badgers in 7 months.

Gotta Beat K.e.n.t.

Hazime is a grey shirt from last year's class, so he will count against this year's scholarship count. He's a B-I-G dude. He's on campus and will participate this spring.We had 18 recruits visiting this weekend, so more verbals should follow soon.

He's slimmed down!

Thanks guys, can't believe some of you guys didn't get that one.Read it in a rush @ lunch. I'm an idiot (but most of you already knew that).

Click for Bird Droppings

I'm relatively shocked to see so may critical critical posts after such a blow-out win. BG beat OU and Cincinnati...and we blew them out of the gym! Maybe Dambrot was right when he half-jokingly stated in the post-game show "I think our fans are getting a little spoiled."It wasn't all that long ago that Anthony Stacy was burying us at the JAR...Keith McCloud was ripping our hearts out, and Antonio Daniels was tossing down LeBron-esque dunks on defenseless Zips. I, for one, am digging this Zips team BIG-TIME. And I'm especially digging the payback for all those beatdowns I endured over the past two decades.Bardo is fine. I though he had a nice game last night. I'd take Bardo over that fat, lazy Otis Spunkemeyer that repeatedly got out-hustled last night.As bad as Dials was shooting, is as good as he was in distributing the ball. He made some awesome passes last night.Quade got some confidence against the stay-puff marshmallow men that manned BG's paint. How did these softies beat OU? Oh, I forgot...Bubba.Roberts gets better every game. He can both drive the lane, and hit the 3. We'll see what kind of nerve he has on Wednesday.Brett McKnight hoisted 10 shots last night! I like his confidence, and I like how he banged inside. I wonder if KD tries to play him a bit more vs. K.e.n.t.? He could be an "X-factor."Awesome game (again) by the Zips. My only worry is with Cedrick, who really seems to be a shell of his healthy self. Hopefully, after the K.e.n.t. game, the youngsters can give him a breather and let him heal for the stretch run.