Captain Kangaroo

Yeah it sucks, but Nevada got the same raw deal last season when they played a Zips team that had no business playing a team of Nevada's caliber. And, Nevada drilled us. And this season they're #13 in the nation.What the Zips need to do, is drill Austin Peay. And then continue winning. Like it or not, that's the way it works. Those early season key losses bit us in the @ss today. The success K.e.n.t. has had over the past 8 years helped their cause. If it matters, George Mason was guaranteed a home game, so they had no chance of playing the Zips anyhow. And...what they did last season isn't helping them too much this year...they're mediocre at best.Next year, we get the Nevada-esque respect. "The Fly is Open, Let's Go Peay."Fly Williams couldn't have picked a better school to attend.

I would be shocked if 1% of the Ohio population outside of Akron/Canton knew the Zips played basketball in a facility called the JAR. I would be doubly shocked to see if the JAR's name recognition outside Ohio is even measurable to 0.0001% of the population. Unless you're in Kalamazoo or Ypsalanti.People know CSU's arena as The Convo because that's what it was called for about 15 years. More and more people call it the Wolstein Center. The Convo name will fade in a few more years.Everything about the JAR sucks. The teenie-weenie team shop sucks. The seating sucks. The lobby sucks. The food options suck. We need a new arena or a major renovation. And if someone is willing to foot the bill, they should have the arena named after them and we should swing the wrecking ball asap.

If someone wants to donate a ton of money so we can gut the existing JAR and build a real arena, then I'm all for renaming it. If the JAR stays status quo, so should the name.

Word is Paul Simkovich received a scholarship offer from Miami a couple days ago...and not the RedHawks. So far, he's still coming to Akron...but Miami's going to work on him for a weeks and a half.

Great game by the Zips. If Wood's play is a sign that he's getting back into shape, it's bad news for the rest of the MAC.Great to see Dials hit his open looks. He's played his typical solid D as well.I thought the best sign of the night was "U Got Played By Quade!" Quade was a blast to watch last night.Killed BG on the road. Killed NIU on the road. Destroyed WMU at home. Man, if I'm EMU I'm selling blindfolds at the door for the upcoming Zips game. Only the strong will be able to handle the carnage. Nice crowd. I hoped for about 500 more, but with the game on TV I think we did ok.Hope we don't get dicked by the Bracket Buster selection committee. Although we lost @ OU, we're the best the MAC has to offer at this time (sorry Toledo...I've seen the west and it's pretty sorry). We need a premiere MVC team as an opponent.

The football team took advantage of the ESPN2 game to show some recruits the campus life they might expect to see if the elected to choose U of A.Recruits included Jonathan Hannah, who is also considering NC State and a John Greene, who I don't know much about other than he's also looking at Texas Tech. At the game was 2007 recruit Casey Estrada and 2006 recruit Curtis Brown, who was in that terrible car accident this past summer. There are some concerns about Brown's knee, but overall things look promising for him. Also helping out with the visit were Al-Teric Balaam and Dante Barnes.Observant spectators in the stands pointed out Carlton Jackson and Hakes probably wouldn't mind if Quade decided to don some pads and give WR a try this spring...and maybe Chris McKnight at TE?

FYI - Andrew Johnson was at the Zips/WMU game tonight.

Of the top 80 rushers in the nation last year, he had the lowest yards per carry. He just seems to make bad decisions on cuts, and gets tackled too easily by CB's. He's never a threat to break one. Conversely, he's great inside the 10 yard line. Unless, we got called for holding or an illegal procedure penalty.This was Kennedy's first year as the full time back. He's only a Junior. Maybe he improves in 2007? If he doesn't, it looks like they'll be several backs capable of stepping in. Hopefully one is a "game-breaker."

Its a problem on a lot of message boards. Not much we can do about it at this time, but we're aware it is increasing.

The Master of Photoshop strikes again!

Updates have been "pinned" up top. Below is the link:Click for Up-to-Date Zips Football Recruiting InformationI'll only update the pin above from here on out.

Attention CK. I'm not getting a link to your updated posts. You can use this. Click for Jan 24th UpdateI need to "pin" the updated list up-top. I'll do that @ noon today.

Apparently he doesn't know squat.

Click for Huskie PredictionsImpressive board activity for having such a down season.

If it matters...I hereby confirm that is true.

Update Wednesday the 24th.

To be brutally honest...the MAC hasn't deserved 2 teams very often.K.e.n.t was a pretty weak champ last season. Toledo was our tourney runner up, and they didn't even get an NIT bid. The Zips and Miami were NIT material.It has been several years since the MAC has had a legit beef with not getting two teams to the Big Dance. This year the strongest teams are Toledo, OU, Akron and MAYBE K.e.n.t. All of the a.m. schools have lost their key early-season games...those needed to turn heads on the selection committee. Any of the above teams could probably afford to lose 1 or two more games MAX the remainder of the way out to have a beef with an NCAA snub. And of those one or two losses, one would not be the bracket buster game. Our league's strongest teams need to pull through on BracketBuster weekend to get some respect.

Click for NIU Message BoardClick for NIU Site

Again updated.

I wonder if he is coming as an RB? Seems like his best position is CB?Edit: Just noticed he apparently selected the Zips due to a desire to play RB. Seems like we will have a solid stable of RB's for 2007?Scout Bio

I don't think you can use the Nevada game as a reference. It was held during Christmas break. And, we were coming off a very mediocre start to the season. WMU is a nationally televised game. We are on a roll. The students will show up big-time Saturday, and as long as the team meets expectations, the crowds will continue to grow. As predicted, the K.e.n.t game got the bandwagon in first gear.Bracketbuster will be a sell out...if the team continues to perform.

Agreed.............see Bob Huggins. And losing is the best way to empty it....see Coleman Crawford and Dan Hipsher.

I missed the first half, so I can only comment on the 20 game-minutes I witnessed:* On the board, the debate over the north and south end student sections reminds me of the Dr. Seuss - Sneeches story. * I thought the student crowd for a Sunday afternoon event was pretty good. Those who attended were pretty vocal. The lower section had a good quantity of yellow shirts. That said, no one should be satisfied with that turnout. Those in-power should be working on ways to jack up the attendance as we speak (or type).* In the end, the attendance will be up markedly over last season...barring an inconceivable collapse by the team. OU remains on the home schedule. That's 5k. And, the WMU game on ESPN2 this Saturday will be a near sellout. Add the bracket-buster game to the list and you've got 14,000 to 15,000 combined for three of the remaining games. That will be four home games with crowds in the 5,000 area. Dambrot should be happy with that, I would hope? * Dials probably played on of his best halves of basketball in a Zips uniform Sunday. His defense kept us in the game when nothing else seemed to be clicking.* Buffalo is a solid team...but one we should beat. They always play hard for their coach and will be a tough draw for anyone in the tourney. That said...we're better than them. * Joyce is getting back into some bad habits. Missing FT's is obvious. But he's also starting to do that isolation dribble dribble dribble thing at center court again. In that situation, because he's been shooting so poorly from 3-point land, the defense knows he's going to drive to the hoop. They all saw the Miami tape. They seem to be "baiting" Dru to drive, and then taking the charge/flop once he's committed. Dru needs to get his 3-ball back. The fact that he's struggling from there seems to be affecting his overall game.* Prior to MAC play, Joyce was at 41% and Dials at 35% from 3-point land. In MAC play, Joyce is at 21% and Dials is at 22%. Both are missing some wide open looks.* Conversely, in non-MAC/MAC 3's.: Middleton is 44%/50% and Linhart is 48%/47% * Middleton's game is fun to watch. Offensively, he's hitting on all cylinders and he's draining his FT's.* Wood has been very quiet. Except for his FT's, which are hitting the rim with a fairly large BANG.* Travis is plugging along. Buffalo's inside game is a tough match up for him at 6'6". * Linhart played a tough game. Some big boards and tough defense.* Idibi looks like such a goofball, but he's a solid player and speaks something like 7 languages?Let's not stub our toe this Wednesday at NIU and we'll have a packed house for our national TV game vs. WMU. Coaches don't like to get ahead of themselves, but I will. Following WMU we play a terrible EMU squad. Then a bad BSU squad...then a bad CMU squad. We should be 18-4 going into our game vs. Toledo on Feb 10th. That's not too shabby. Beat Toledo, and you'll be able to scalp your OU ticket outside the JAR for double the face value Feb 13th. Beat OU and the bracketbuster game will be the hottest ticket in town. The team hold the fate of a packed JAR in their hands.

Two comments:1.) Isn't the team photo you speak of from the WOMEN's NIT team of 8 years ago?2.) I am fairly certain the banners were removed, and the corner coach's pics installed, under the previous regime.