Captain Kangaroo

PD's Elton Alexander says Nate broke two fingers on his left (shooting) hand Saturday. He could be done for the season.Conyers will definitely get extended minutes this week. Can McKnight help too? He has a decent outside shot, so I'm thinking he may get some minutes at small forward too?Not what we needed...

well thats pretty much what you are saying here. we needed to play our best players yesterday. the rest shouldnt come at game time, but during the week between games. I agree. We play to win on Monday. If we get the chance to give Conyers, McKnight and even Rybek some decent minutes, great. But, the MAC needs to win OOC games vs. A-10 competition. We can't afford to tank it for any reason. The top-7 play the lion's share of minutes unless it is well in-hand.A game like this has Goddard written all over it. Duquesne plays almost no defense. Goddard could fire at will on offense, and his defense wouldn't really hurt us.

The only thing I will add to this is:In these cases, the kids that are "preferred walk-ons" were thought of pretty highly by the Zips. They aren't simply the Honorable Mention All ICL, D-5, Mineral Ridge, 5' 8" JP Morgan trying out for the team.The WR has a great chance to get a scholarship next season. We just didn't have another scholarship to give to a WR this year.The kid from Bellaire is small, but lightning fast. If he can put on some weight between now and fall 2008 he has a good chance at a scholarship.The kicker is in a great position. Igor's health fails, then he's got a starting job. Beyond that, he may win the job outright this summer. The Zips can't afford to have two scholarship kickers in Feb 2007 (no D1 school can), so he's a walk-on at this time.

Fear...there you go! The winning solution. Rather than ask 5,000 people to take small radios to the game...start the post-game show 5 minutes later. Is it that much to ask? I can't believe Dambrot can't wait 5 minutes for the fans to get to their cars. Play the stupid "I played sports all through college..." commercial while people walk back to their vehicles, not the coach's post game interview.

As the year has progressed, crowds at the JAR have grown. It takes longer and longer to exit the building now-a-days. Conversely, the timing of the post-game interviews seemed to have accellerated? At the A-P game I walked back to my car at the Rt 8 parking deck as fast as humanly possible...and caught only the last 12 seconds of the Dambrot post-game interview. It kinda sucks that the losers who leave the game early are the only ones guaranteed to hear the post-game interviews in their entirety.I sent an email to Hunter and Mack after the game requesting that post-game interviews be delayed 5 additional minutes to allow the fans who attend the games a chance to get back to their vehicles and hear what the coach has to say. As with other suggestions I've forwarded...no reply. I miss Waddell.We'll see if anything was changed. Tonight is the final home game. Hopefully someone keeps the JAR-fans in mind when they arrange the post-game stuff next season.

Brown played 2 seasons, did he not? I think he transferred from WKU in his sophomore year & we had him for 2 full, or at a minimum 2 1/2.Regardless of how long he played, he was the best player in a Zips uniform since Huggins left. A healthy Andy Hipsher may have been better .. but we'll never know that.I agree entirely that you can't be raising banners for 2 years of service, a la Nate Thurmond .. which is why Boyce isn't up there. Maybe he did play 2 years? I swore it was only one.Trip Down Memory Lane - Click

For the sake of argument, who was better over the past 15 years? Give me one big man and one guard. Guards:Jimmal Ball is the only 4-year guard that comes to mind as better than Joyce in the past 15 years. He won nothing, and was not a "leader" by any stretch.Bosley - Quitter. Playing for Hipsher seemed to do that to many...but that's no excuse.Rashon Brown - Better? Yes. But he only played one season.Better Big Men than Travis:Andrick...until he and Hipsher went mano-a-mano, yes. After that he disappeared.Byron Thompson? No. George Phillips? No. Marco Morgan? No. Pete Freeman? No. Futch? No. Weinkein? No. Andy Hipsher? No.Like it or not, Coleman Crawford and Dan Hipsher pretty much killed Zips basketball for two decades. Joyce and Travis are the best we've had in quite some time. If they lead us to a MAC Championship and a win or two in the NCAA's, that's hallowed ground to me. Raise the banner.

I don't think it's too premature. Their careers are 95% done and they'll have about 80 wins under their belt when all is said and done. K.e.n.t retired several of their "Elite 8" player jerseys the year after they graduated.The Cricket was a great player, but I think if he didn't have an OVC championship and an NCAA berth...he may never have risen to the top of the JAR.BTW - The people responsible for retiring numbers 20 years after the fact have no idea how great a player was/wasn't. I spoke to Mike Waddell about McLaughlin's number being retired. In so many words, he attributed the overdue honor to the ZipsNation lobbying on his behalf. That should make everyone here feel whole.If Rome and Dru's jerseys do go up one day, it will likely be due in part to some lobbying from the Zips fans presently in school who remember their play. If their memories are of MAC tourney losses, don't look for #24 or #12 above the court anytime soon. Sweet 16 victories? Then you can expect a raising at some point.

It is time to begin wondering if Dru and Romeo's numbers will hang in the JAR rafters one day. If you asked me today, I would say "no." The two are aguably the best duo to compete side-by-side for the Zips for four consecutive seasons. However, they have no rings. They have one MAC victory in 3 years of "Final 8" MAC tourney competition. This, despite consistently going into the tourney as one of the more highly rated teams. To me, it is a package deal. If Dru and Rome bring a championship to Akron, their jerseys go up in the rafters. If we falter in Cleveland...and they have one or two MAC tourney wins to their collective credit, and zero MAC championships...I can't see their rafter immortality being justified. Romeo Travis and Dru Joyce's legacy is cemented at the high school level. People will talk about their St V teams for decades. However, their college legacy will be defined over the next 3 weeks.

I don't pretend to know the "shell game" that goes on with scholarships. I'm sure greyshirting comes into play. I can say that, by some means, we have 4 left to give. And that two of them will likely happen within the month.

That pretty much says it all. Someone posted that this Miami loss was actually a blessing in disguise because it will make the team hungrier for the tourney. I couldn't disagree more. Great players...great teams shine in crunch time. In the past we've all seen Ben Reed's 3 at The Gund, Brandon Hunter's shot, Keith McCloud's jumper, Anthony Stacey's buzzer-beater, Jose' Davis' cold-blooded daggers...all those shots went against us in MAC tourney play and knocked us out. All were made by big-time players. We don't have a player like that. In tight games we're pretty defendable. And, we can't shoot free throws. The trend in our 2006-7 road losses is undeniable.I hope Dambrot and his staff work on getting good looks at the end of the half and end of the game. That's the biggest chink in our armor. Free throws...we aren't going to get any better. We are what we are.That said, we still have a good a shot as anyone in Cleveland.

Click here for tiebreaker informationIf Can't beats us and we have the same record, it then goes to winning percentage against ranked conference opponents. Since noone in the MAC is ranked, it goes to a coin flip. It's great to know that MAC East Champs could be decided by a friggin coin!At least I think that's what this says. The second option is confusing. Per Steve French last night, if we were to tie with K.e.n.t, the tiebreaker is the highest ranked team beaten. Since K.e.n.t beat Toledo (#1 ranked in the west) and we lost to Toledo, we would lose-out.

Nice effort...but nice gets you the NIT. Another loss on the road to a decent team. Still haven't had a good road win since Oral Roberts in early December.

Wood has been shooting his FT's ok recently. At least he made 1.Fouling Penno means we are going to need a 3 to tie and go to a 2nd OT.

I really really want to see us win a big game like this on the road.

I'm glad you aren't our coach

I'd say 99.9% chance that that would be an affirmitive. The only question was "three pointer or a drive?"

F#$cki9ng idiots. Why the hell are they playing commercials I'd rather hear the "echo" feed of the game!!! Who's the idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!!GOD DAMMIT

Seemed like a good time to bring back and oldie but a goodie.

The Zips has commitments from 3 "preferred walk-ons."Brigham VanEtten is a 6' 3" 210 lb WR. The Zips had maxed-out on WR scholarships. VanEtten and his parents loved the Akron program and decided to sit out a year and wait for something to open up. He's got great size, and is an exceptional student. Click for BioJason Kaiser is a 6" 1" 175 burner from Bellaire. He ran a 4.29 40 at the Zips camp this summer. He'll need a year to build up his strength, then...look out.Zach Campbell was the punter/kicker for Cantom McKinley in 2006. He will compete with Igor for the starting kicker job this summer, and is a solid fall-back if Igor's back-related heath issues continue.Click for PicOther Notes:Derron Smith, an LB listed in last year's recruiting class, did not enroll at Akron this spring. He's presently at a prep school. Probably 40/60 odds he'll ever see the field in a Zips uniform.The Zips have four remaining scholarships to give. Look for two of them to be awarded within the next month. The awardees will be "impact" student athletes. One will be visiting campus next weekend. No names at this time.The other two scholarships will likely be held until the summer.

Miami fans have vowed to storm the court if their team takes a shot with 8 or more seconds remaining on the shot clock. I don't think it has ever happened. Final score:Zips 41Miami 25

Click for ClucksThey're treating this as a pretty big game. Good to see.

Who cares? Here it is anyway...

Click for "The Brick"Once he plays, I want credit for the nickname.

I argee with Rasor that it's puzzling to see any hand-wringing over Dambrot's recruiting.Next year's class is awesome. Steward answers our PG vacancy. McKnight is one of the top players in Ohio and Sweich is probably the premier big-man recruit in the MAC next year. I saw him at the game Saturday...he's no Matt Seibert. He's a wide body who will be ready to contribute immediately. In the Hipsher era, guys like McNees and Bardo would be expected to play major minutes. Dambrot's recruiting depth allows us to redshirt these guys. Milum has progressed nicely. I'm guessing Bardo will follow a similar timetable. Middleton was a late pick up after Allen Hanson backed out of his commitment. Pretty nice guy to have as a fall-back...he's Vinnie "Microwave" Johnson, instant offense coming off the bench.McKnight will be like Travis. I really look forward to seeing him during his sophomore trip through the MAC. Dials is a solid player and a key to our defense.Joyce was a walk on that only Damrot...out of the 300-some D1 coaches in the United States...saw fit to bring in and untimately put on scholarship. He'll leave Akron as the school's all-time assist leader.Conyers - Who knows? I've heard too many good things about him to give up just yet. He had to take a year off with no practice. I'm hopeful a summer of ball with the team and a tour through the MAC will lead to bigger contributions next season.Linhart - He's a solid MAC player. Solid defender and decent shot. He gets sloppy with his passing, but overall, his best basketball is ahead of him.Rybek - Seems like Dambrot missed on him. When trying to project what a 17 year old kid is going to do once he's 21 or 22, you gotta miss once in a while. He's hardly the poster child for bad recruiting. Hell...he'd have been the star recruit in a couple of Hipsher's classes.Dambrot's recruiting is fine. Better than fine, it's boarderline great. My question isn't recruiting, it's whether or not he/we can win big games. Not Austin Peay at home, but Toledo in the MAC title game. Or any team at "The Q." That's the only thing he's got left to prove. Until then, the Zips are Peyton Manning, circa 1998-Jan 2007.