Captain Kangaroo

Ummm...I'll skip it.

Kid's asleep, and I can't sleep...so I'll add this:A few years ago you saw a big change in college athletics with the advent of the BCS. Because of the media, and the power of the big conferences, no one really raised a big stink that there was a division going on at the D1-A level. In hindsight, as of today, you can see the BCS was only Phase 1 of a 2-part plan.I can live with the Zips not getting in the NCAA's. Syracuse had 10 wins in the Big East and didn't make it. Drexel had a monster schedule and beat Villanova, Creighton and Syracuse on the road on the way to a 23-win season, and didn't make it. Someone always gets screwed in the NCAA's. But the NIT?!When the NIT field was reduced to 32 teams this season, no one raised a stink. Hey, 40 teams was a bit much, right? But no one looked at the new commitee in-charge of selecting those 32 teams. Did anyone see CM Newton talk about how he and his old, retired buddy Dean Smith had a ball selecting the teams? Teams from the MAC have no chance when the old money "BCS" (you can now officially use this term for basketball) execs are running the show. The NIT was all about money from the start. But usually the better mid-majors (you can now officially use this term too) only got screwed by having to play their games on the road. Mid-majors that had a great season, yet got passed over by the NCAA's, still had some opportunity to prove their worth. How could this happen? While I've been critical of the Zips scheduling this season, the schedule had nothing to do with this snub. If you look at the NIT brackets, it is very clear: If you are a "BCS" school, and you are over .500, you're in the post-season. Fill your arenas and generate some money for the NCAA. Do you think that CM Newton gives a crap about Akron? That's it's kids, real flesh-and-blood college kids, tirelessly practiced from October through March chasing a dream of post-season play? And who met evey known criteria to do so? Do you think he knows where Akron is? Can he pronounce Akron? The answer to all of the above is "no."What can we do about this? This season, probably nothing. If Charlie Coles was honest in his assessment that "It is a crime if Akron isn't in the NCAA's" then I want to see Miami players with a black armband during their game vs. Oregon. I want Coles to wear one too. Ditto the Toledo players and Stan Joplin. I don't want them to do this for Akron. I want them to do this for the MAC. It will happen to one of them one day if a big, big stink isn't raised. And Miami and Toledo are the only teams with a stage to do so.Say this holds as-is...same story next season. How does a MAC school recruit against ANYONE? Forget about stealing a recruit from the Big East here and there...I'm talking about beating the Duquesne's and Wright States of the world. It is obvious to the NCAA's that the MAC is no better than the MAAC, or SWAC, or any of the other bottom-feeder conferences that the Zips would smoke their champs by 20 points in their own building.The decision by the NCAA/NIT committee has serious ramifications for the MAC conference. Rick Chryst needs to do something, and do it quick. No stammering, no spinning, no BS. If he wants to keep his job, he'd better earn his money over the next several days. Mack Roades needs to do the same. Unlike Chryst, this isn't Mack's fault. But it is the supreme bitch slap to a 25,000 student University that's paying him good money, and the future of our basketball program is at stake. Who'd have thunk 0.6 seconds could affect the future of Akron athletics this much? If the Zips had won, Miami and K.e.n.t. could have raised a minor stink about their exclusion, but there would have been some plausible rationale to explain it. The Zips exclusion brings things front and center. Hello "BCS" basketball. Hello "Mid-major." Good bye to my blind love for collegiate athletics.

My son wants a bedtime story, so I'll probaly post something tomorrow. I'm really at a loss. Here is what I posted in another thread. I really don't know how to react...it's unprecedented....I love college athletics. It is probably my single-most non-family related thing in the world. For me, the college athletics that I've loved for about 35 years took a horrible and unexpected for the worse today. I'm appalled. How anyone can take a post season opportunity away from this Akron Zips team is unfathomable. Rick Chryst should be fired tomorrow. How can this happen...how...

I love college athletics. It is probably my single-most non-family related thing in the world. For me, the college athletics that I've loved for about 35 years took a horrible and unexpected for the worse today. I'm appalled. How anyone can take a post season opportunity away from this Akron Zips team is unfathomable. Rick Chryst should be fired tomorrow. How can this happen...how...

I disagree. But, I will say one thing we can agree on - If we continue to lose these games, the JAR will never, ever fill up.

The best way to do that is to win a championship and we blew it last year...and we blew it again this year. Both seasons there were HUGE opportunities to generate a bandwagon of biblical proportions...and we had big leads late....and we were the better team...and we blew it.At the beginning of this season the crowds at the JAR were low. The crappy schedule contributed...but so did the Toledo loss from 2006. Not the physical loss, but the loss of not participating in the Finals vs. K.e.n.t. To win last night would have been HUGE for the program. People would have been beating down the door for 2007-8 season tickets. Now the city of Akron's focus shift to Greg Oden and the Buckeye's tourney run. The Zips will be relegated to page D11 for however long our NIT run lasts.I wish I had a nickel for every time I've typed the phrase "A huge opportunity lost" in a basketball-related post. The Miami game last night was the biggest loss of them all.

Speaking of Dambrot's "legacy" after the season strikes me as pretty odd. Dambrot's here for the next several years...it's way to early to discuss it.The legacy of Joyce and Travis is now ready for discussion. Good careers, the team steadily improved as their careers progressed...but no NCAA's. To me, that means no jersies in the rafters. If they do go up one day, I'll politely clap. It isn't like it would be Bryan Hipsher and David Kalb being immortalized...but I'll disagree with the decision. Yesterday's loss to Miami also makes the raising of the MAC East banner title to the rafters a "hollow" ceremony. Does the basketball team get big championship rings for that one? If so, I bet most players put it permanently in a drawer or have already thrown it in lake Erie.We stand about a 10% chance of an NCAA bid and a 99% chance of an NIT bid.NIT Fever...catch it.

Yay...football season is here! Yes, the spring game is the week of the 15th, not the 22nd as someone previously posted.

I just got home and poured the biggest glass of Bushmills I physically could.Screw the grousing over the clock. Make our FT and we're in the NCAA's. We didn't take care of business.Congrats to Miami. Another MAC tourney dagger, like Jose' Davis, Brandon Hunter, Anthony Stacey, Keith McCloud...Thank God Hixson made that catch, otherwise I'd kill myself tonight.If I type much more I'll probably say something I'll regret. Later.

* Wood - Stellar! It's amazing how his game has kicked into high gear over the past couple weeks. He's always looking to push the ball after a rebound. His passing has been a thing of beauty. He's rebounding like Chaimberlain, but shooting free throws like Stockton. Teams triple-team him and he finds the open man. He never takes a shot outside his abilities (no 3's). He's flat out doing-it-all at this time. And if you listen to his post-game interviews, you can't help but like him. * Dials - Clutch performance. Again. He and Wood seem to have synchronized their game elevation? Both are absolutely pouring it on down the home stretch. Dials is hitiing the big shots that give the Zips the 6th man advantage...he's setting the crowd on fire!* Travis was solid. How clutch was his FT shooting in the 1st half? 6-6? From a guy that routinely drops a 3-6? He wanted to win this K.e.n.t. game in the worst way. I don't think any K.e.n.t player wanted it as bad as Travis.* Joyce is in a rough stretch. His FT shooting was terrible for most of the game. But he seemed to get on-track at game's end. The FT's that were drawing hard iron began snapping the bottom of the twine. He also seemed to hone-in on the 3-line late in the game. I hope the Dru Joyce of the last 8 minutes of last night's game shows up for 35 minutes tonight.* SLOW DOWN, CED!! Ced was flying around like the tazmainian devil for the better part of the first half and rushing everything. Keep Ced away from the Red Bull before game time! Clutch plays in the 2nd hald by Ced.* The game drew over 13k, besting the old semi attendance record by 3,000+ fans. The more frequently the Zips reach these kind of games, the more times that record will fall in the future. The bandwagon is rolling and may not stop for several years.*3-0 vs a 20-win K.e.n.t team. That's awesome.Hey, no use dwelling on this one much longer. Great game by the Zips. Biggest win in 20 years for the men's basketball team. They have the opportunity to one-up themselves again tonight. Miami is playing the best basketball in the MAC along with Akron right now. It's going to be a war.

I was checking out the Rasor Blog this morning and saw what I thought was an excellent, concise overview of the Zips players and what they need to do for the Zips to bring home a championship this weekend. Even down to Steve McNees and Bardo. The only comments I thought were suspect were:Regarding Dru Joyce: “Stay out of foul trouble and make your free throws. Outside of those two flaws, you are the perfect point guard.”I like Dru, but I think I’d add a few more attributes to him if I were designing “The Perfect Point Guard.”Regarding Nick Dials: “Although nobody is saying it, you were the reason Akron beat Can't State on Sunday.”I think someone said he won us a MAC title Sunday night? Man…I just can’t figure out who is was? :DNice column by Mike.

I don't see why they moved these games to Cleveland. Unless they don't care about attendance. Other than some real hard core MAC people, no one is going to forfeit their entire Wednesday to watch the bottom of the MAC duke it out.

I agree too. I'm not going...I like the between game atmosphere of the all the bars arounf the Q between games to miss it Thursday...and Friday and Saturday just don't work out...but I'm glad the University is doing something like this regardless. I'm sure it will be well attended. I hope they have juice boxes for GP1.

The first AK-Rowdy to spot me at the Lizard or Boneyard gets a free beer! I'll also buy the first Rowdy I see a beer (that might be easier) I urge the remainder of the ZipsNation to do likewise tomorrow!!

Jesus Christ, if we had every wannabe student and fan architect chiming in with their two cents it would be the biggest cluster f*&k ever.Per the newscast, the people chosen to design and build the thing have excellent, proven track records in this field. The thing will be awesome.

I didn't think Livingston's column was all that bad, but you make some good points.The PD printed an excellent 8-page special on the MAC tourney today. If your local news stand still had a copy, it is well worth the 50 cents.

The MAC isn't exactly the ACC. Get past the top 5 teams and there's a huge drop off. If K.e.n.t can win the MAC with regularity, there's no reason we can't. If I had to watch Binghamton-level basketball for a full season I'd kill myself. And that says a lot coming from someone who sat through Coleman Crawford and Hipsher.

That's great! Thanks for posting it!

The MAC tourney was held at the Seagate Center in Toledo prior to moving to Cleveland...and it didn't do much good for the Rockets. I don't think they've won the MAC in hoops in about 26 years.F Wright State in the Skull.

We got food and some great, cheap beers at the Boneyard last year. It's right next to the Lizard. Not a long walk if the Lizard is too packed. I like at least checking out the Lizard because it is typically packed with MAC fans. It is a great atmosphere...and the beer selection is awesome too.

What a great guy. That's a shame.

Annadale? Looks like I may be keeping that tradition alive, of course now it's cheap beer from the drive through......close enough. I lived on 132 Annadale. I can remember that...but not my wife's birthday. What's up with that?

I remember walking home from class and stopping at some on-campus convenient store and buying an dusty old 6-pack of Hudephol Gold to drink on my Annadale Avenue house while watching the game. I think that store is now an Alpha Phi Alpha frat house? We gave Tarpley, Gary Grant, Antoine Joubert and Co all they could handle.

High school.Ok...I can throw one more bit of info out...he's from Canada

My student years at Akron U (ok, just wanted to piss some of you off )...The University of Akron...were 1984-1989. I swear to God is doesn't seem that long aso...but it obviously was. Thus for me, Zips "history" began in 1984. I really have no connection to the apparently great teams of the 60's and 70's. I was raised in the Youngstown area, so I didn't know squat about the Akron area until I began looking at colleges. Most will contend that I still know little about Akron...but that's another topic for another day.I envy the exuberance of the Rowdies is supporting the Zips. Fortunately for most, they were too young to fully experience the pain of Akron's past MAC tourney failures. For those of us who've had tickets the past 15 of so seasons, well...it's still tough to forget the past.Elton Alexander wrote a short column detailing some of Akron and Toledo's past MAC tourney disappointments. It is a good read if only for a quick historical perspective on what a lot of us long-time fans have experienced. It doesn't do justice the the pain of the losses...it doesn't even mention the Keith McCloud shot...or Brandon Hunter shot...or Anthony Stacey...or all the other shots that have killed us in the past. But it does give a little perspective.In many respects, it isn't fair to this Zips team to bring up past failures. J Wood made it a point in a recent interview to say "We don't care what happened in the past. This is a new team and a new attitude." But people should care about the past because it gives you a good understanding of why fans feel and react the way they do. With one win on Saturday this Zips team can erase almost two decades of pain endured by many "older" Zips fans. They can also give the younger fans an unbelievable experience. I vividly recall being in the JAR with 6,000+ other fans chanting "LOSE SOME WEIGHT" to Middle Tennesee's portly Kerry Hammonds while he shot his FT's at the end of the OVC championship that gave the Zips their first and only NCAA appearance. I was a Rowdy-esque 19 years old at the time. It's one of the best memories of my college years. For the Rowdies of today, I hope you get to experience it too. When you're an AK-Oldie, you can write a post and tell all the young whippersnappers how awesome things were "back in the day." Here's hoping Thursday/Friday/Saturday is what we've all been waitng for...regardless of whether it's been 1 year or 20!