Captain Kangaroo

In the Bosley/Ball era...I think it was 1998...we were a prohibitive favorite to beat Buffalo @ Buffalo. We had something like an 18-point lead with 5 minutes remaining. Buffalo started draining a bunch of 3's and we lost. Hipsher exploded in the post-game interview. I recall lots of profanity. He sternly "called out" several of the starters for their poor efforts. That set the table for the player "revolt" and the subsequent slow, painful decay of the Hipsher era. Whenever we play at Buffalo I think of that game. I'll give anyone $20.00 for the .wav file of Hipsher's post game interview that day!

Hey, respect your elders!!! BTW - College students during the mid-80's thought those songs sucked.

Pencil me in for Ray's Place too. If it is packed...The Loft.

Okafor OK with the Zips

I discussed this very topic with someone over the weekend. Some people in Akron seem to want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to be "big time," but don't want the things that inevitably come with being "big time."I listen to 1530 in Cincinnati on my way home from work. The people down there are absolutely ruthless. Many vocally hate Mike Thomas. The bitch incessantly about UC athletics. The radio show can run for hours with fans venting about UC athletics. Beyond that, every UC move is on TV. Every mistake is on ESPN. Everything is up-front.Many in Akron want to be like UC athletically. However, they still want Zips athletic discussions handled like a small town high school. "Pleasantville" only exists in movies. If Nick Dials has a bad game, the worst he gets is a couple people grousing on ZipsNation. It isn't on the radio. It isn't on the news. If he had a bad game as a UC or Pitt player for example, their school message boards would be B-R-U-T-A-L. Check out Notre Dame or Ohio State boards after a loss. ZipsNation is Mayberry North Carolina compared to the venom those boards produce. Zips fans are allowed to get frustrated too, even if we have no local TV, no Coach's call in show, mediocre newpaper coverage, virtually no games on national TV, no mention in local sports talk, and on and on...God bless the Zips fans! Never stop caring!!

Stop posting facts. That's cheating!

Pittsburgh Tribune Review column:Click Me

I was a student from 84-89. Other than the Cleveland state game, I never had to wait an hour to get in the JAR. Crowds in that era were typical of what we saw at the JAR the past two months. 4k to 5k. I don't understand your point? We packed the house for the BG game. I don't think the 2-for-1 deal had anything to do with it. We would have had 5k+ regardless of the ticket promotion. I went to a lot of games back then. There was only one game packed with people in the aisles and on the track. That was Cleveland State. The reason that happened was 2-fold:1.) CSU was coming off their Sweet 16 run and got a TON of press in Northeast Ohio.2.) CSU is local and brought a few thousand of their own fans.Such a game was prevented from ever occuring again due to Fire Marshalls limiting the JAR capacity to 5,500 after that game. All that talk occurred AFTER the '86 Zips made the NCAAs.You will hear the same things from the existing coach, mayor, papers, administration etc if the Zips make it to the NCAA's this year. Reasons for that are:1.) The Pitt game came the year following the Zips '86 NCAA appearance. There was a big buzz due to that. The Nevada came came on the heels of our NIT appearance. BIG difference.2.) Pitt is a recognizeable name to NE Ohio fans. Nevada is comparatively unknown, even though they are a Top-10 team.3.) Pitt had Jerome Lane. Lots of Akron people wanted to see the "favorite son" in action. A couple thousand. If the Zips had made the NCAA's last season, then the attendance comparison of '86 to '07 would be valid. We are still a year shy of being able to compare the eras. Mark this thread and re-visit it next season. I think you'll have all the proof you need that Zips fans of 2007-8 will support a winnner as well as, and probably better than in '86.

He is built kinda like Nick Myers was. His body is ready for MAC play.

I'll start a post-game thread with a couple off the wall thoughts:Prior to the game, "hoopla" questioned why everyone was down on Rybek and didn't think he was capable of stepping up in Nate's absence. What a great call. I watch the Zips pretty closely and I never saw it coming. Hoopla's post goes down as my "Observation of the Week."There were those who said we should rest the starters and take a break in this "meaningless" game. One very large reason this game was NOT meaningless is the benifit to Pittsburgh area recruiting. If you look at the Zips most-recent 2008 recruit lists, several "focal" names are from Pittsburgh. McNees and Sweich are two recent commits from the area. The revitalied Duquesne is a prime competitor to the Zips for the services of Pittburgh's better players. The sound beating administered by the Zips will be covered very well in Pittsburgh's two local papers and Akron Basketball will subsequently get some very nice "ink." Beyond that, it negates arguments that the A-10 is somehow superior to the MAC's elite. The MAC needs these kind of wins.Tonight's win was big for the MAC, big for Zips recruiting and a much-needed confidence boost for a team looking to notch a road win vs. a quality opponent.Great job to all involved!

Thanks for posting that one. I wouldn't have been able to watch the game otherwise.

I agree. The Rowdies came in loud and clear on the webcast. Excellent, excellent job.I will be very honest...I didn't think the Rowdies would have a chance to stand up against the O-zone in Cleveland next week. To me, the OU fans have always been the standard-bearers for student support in the MAC. I now believe our AK-Rowdies are ready to run with the big dogs.

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.