Captain Kangaroo

I will be blunt:There is no MAC school stupid enough to hire Hipsher. He was a train wreck at Akron. Everyone knows it. Words to describe his teams include:UnderachievingUnderperformingNepotism-ladenUninspiredSure he left the team better than he found it....that's not too tough when your predecessor hands you a 3-20-whatever squad. I thank Dan Hipsher for Z-E-R-O.No one remembers Bryan Hipsher? The kid couldn't have warmed the bench for Tiffin, yet he was logging major minutes for the Zips. I could go on and on...Gheez....

Didn't Hakes graduate HS a semester early to get a jump on preparing for our QB job? To me, that grades him high on intelligence and leadership.I saw Jacquemain goofing around on the sidelines at the Toledo game. He has some work to do to erase that image from my mind. I couldn't see grading him "good" on leadership at this time.I look forward to seeing all three this spring. I only know bits and bites at this time.

Click for All Star Game

USC Spartan 2006-7 Results

My bad taking so long to add my virtual signature to the letter. Excellent job, ZW. Excellent season, Zips. *signed*CK, wife and son

I hope to have some info within the week. We'll see.

Is a .pdf of the sheet music for the Zips fight song available anywhere? Treble and Base clef? Starting to formulate ideas for 2007 tailgating.... I still say handing out 5 cent kazoos before the home opener and having everyone "buzz along" with the band to the fight song @ halftime would be a fun, audience participation thing. If you did it for the K.e.n.t. game you could have a contest to see who's fans can kazoo the loudest. I'm sure K.e.n.t's band will be there and they'll have 5,000+ fans too.

Figures I will be in Chicago that evening. No "closure" for me. I hope it is well-attended, and I fully expect it will be. It is a great idea.

"South Carolina Upstate?" I thought I had heard them all?! Overall, I like it. How many AK-Roadies will make the trip?

What was the change in apparel sales in 2005/6/to-date (in response to the MAC Championship/MCB and soccer team's success)?The numbers look worse than I would have expected. But what is the price tag for the regional exposure we've received from the MAC tourney two weekends ago. Or the national exposure had we beaten Miami?Like it or not, sports is a great way to expand your school's name across the nation. A well-performing athletic program benefits all our degrees. And, it's fun.

Like I said earlier last week…the BCS has worked its way into basketball. The big schools are tired of sharing their $$ with us "little" guys. ESPN wants Clemson/Mississippi. ESPN doesn't want Akron/Northern Iowa, regardless of whether of not the brand of basketball is better.Utah and Boise State proved they can compete at the highest level in football. Butler/George Mason/K.e.n.t. have done the same in basketball. But they needed to be pretty much flawless to get there. The NCAA will use these select teams as the poster children for how fair the existing systems are. That's laughable. The MAC needs to call a spade a spade and make a big stink. Mack Roades does too. The traditionally black schools made a big stink about always playing in the NCAA Tourney "Play in" game. Next season, I guarantee the SWAC won't be in that game. Or, the tourney will expand to 4 "play in" games. Either way, because they bitched, the system will be fixed to accommodate them. If the NCAA goes to 4 "play in" games, it may help our cause a bit. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

I went back and reviewed the posts. Specifically yours. There was no reference to the Zips. The thread began in that direction, but it turned into a discussion of the OSU game. If you'd like to discuss Thad Matta, OSU or Xavier, please do so in your blog or elsewhere.

I heard JD Brookhart is a leading candidate.

It was interesting to hear "Duke" Vitale call the coaching job by Mike Krezewski "probably the best coaching job of his career." Gotta love Packer and Vitale. Note to everyone: Please take the discussion of the OSU Xavier game to another board. If you want to draw a game tangent to something Zips-related, that's fine. If you want to discuss OSU basketball, there are plenty of other forums to do so. Thanks.

I think you shoudn't quit your day job.

I'm sure Frye's presence made it a topic of discussion in the weight room.

Amen. I will be forever baffled that ANYONE complains about the Zips playing in a professional stadium.

I'm guessing the person who posted that is probably the same retard that started the rumor that the Zips hoops staff declined an NIT bid.There is Z-E-R-O chance the Zips would turn down a game against OSU on a neutral field (or as neutral a field as you're going to find in Ohio).

K.e.n.t will get Waters back and we'll be screwed.

I want to dot the "i" in NIT!!

What would that say to the kids? "When things get tough, quit"?How hypocritical could you be to complain about the selection system, then take a coaching job at a school that promotes excluding teams like the Zips from post season tourneys? The NIT thing needs to be fixed. There's no debate.Other than that, win the damn MAC tourney. K.e.n.t. did it 4 out of 8 seasons. Why can't we? Miami beat us 2-out-of-3 this year. Toledo's beaten us in consecutive games. We cosistently blow big, late leads at The Q. The time keeper can't be blamed for everything. We have improvement of our own to do in the MAC.If Dambrot wants us to be "the next Gonzaga" then he also needs to schedule better and start knocking off some marquee teams. You don't get to be the next Gonzaga by playing Tiffin, Winston-Salem-Marlboro, St. Francis, etc. Anymore, you don't even get mentioned as a "Bubble Team."

The topic discussion was about the Zips schedule and the Austin Peay Bracketbuster, not the NCAA's. Our soft non-conf schedule coupled with our record at the time of the Bracketbuster selection is why we got Austin Peay, and not a upper-tier MVC school (or similar).20+ win A-P wasn't bad either. Just because we thumped them hard at the JAR doesn't mean they suck. We thumped most teams there.The #1 goal of the MAC this offseason should be to get the NIT issue addressed.

We will likely have 6 in the NFL next season. Maybe more?Dwight Smith, Jason Taylor, Chase Blackburn, Charlie Frye, Dominik Hixson and soon to be Andy Alleman. Ryan Myers has hung around the Jets lately and Matt Cherry was on the Raven's IR this year. Luke is a long shot.

I don't believe that is true at all. There is no way anyone at The University of Akron thinks that way. KD is no dummy either. That's why he's saying he "might need to look elsewhere" (paraphrased) in his Rasor interview the other day. He's letting Mack know he doesn't want to be taken for granted. I do the same thing with my boss every so often to keep him on his toes. Everyone does.Last year KD got a raise that put him in the top 4 in MAC coaches salaries. Joplin has beaten him twice in a row. Coles has taken 2 of the last three. Christianson has several championships under his belt. OU was stupid to pay O'Shea what they did, and no MAC school should adjust his salary structure based upon OU's stupidity. In my opinion, KD's salary is where it should be at this time.KD needs to continue the program's progress to get more money. He needs to win at The Q to get more money. Then he can garner top dollar at UA.If I'm Mack Roades, the one thing I do monitarily is get KD whatever bonus he had that was tied to a 2007 NIT berth. I think that would be a good, no-brainer gesture to let KD know his 26-win season was valued.

The Austin Peay game was fine. It showed the separation between the OVC and the MAC.Furthermore, the Zips did themselves no favors by scheduling such a cake walk non-conf schedule, and losing @ home to Nevada.While there are a lot of scape goats to be found in discussing why the Zips aren't in the post-season, there are also a few things the Zips need to look in the mirror and reflect on as well. Scheduling is first and foremost. Closing out tight games is another. Everything isn't Rick Boyages' fault, or the time keeper's fault. The NIT snub is the only thing that is 100% unjust and 100% out of our control.