Captain Kangaroo

Everything stated in UAM's post is dead-nuts on. That's the template for making the JAR a classy hell hole that no opponent wants to visit. Yes, a "classy hell hole!"I selected the quote above amongst the others because I think too many fans sit around waiting for the University to give them signs...give them cheers...give them handouts...essentially put the "fun" on an organized platter for them to participate. That has to change. The fans need to be more creative on their own...more vocal on their own...more entusiastic on their own. The stuff the University Marketing Group and the team have given Zips fans in 2005-6 has been awesome. Stunning. A level to which the University has never witnessed. However, if it is going to be take to "another level," it will likely come from the grass-roots level. The fans. It is up to all of us to pimp the Zips and rock the JAR. Not just UAM...or the cheerleaders...or the Beacon.Wear your Zips shirts to work on game daysWear your Zips gear when you travel out of statePimp the Zippy's kid's club at your kid's day care/school ($20.00 gets you free admission to all Zips sporting events for a full year + a tee shirt? How unbelieveable a deal is that?)Hell, there's a million ways to help out. I hope everyone on this board pisses off the blue hairs next to them when we play OU and Can't. Next season there will be a huge demand for tickets. If some old fogeys don't want to get with the program, there will be plenty of new blood to take their place.Beat Nevada!!!

Tonight's game vs. Nevada is the most meaningful Zips hoops game in 17 years (NIT vs. Ohio State).Also: If the Zips sell out their games with OU and Can't...which will happen...it will help our chances of landing a home game in the NIT should we stumble late in the MAC tourney.

Would it matter?

Hey, Matt Futch has a long-lost twin!!

Bulger 1302 (1 yr)132 Annadale (2 yrs)Sumner St (1 summer)519 Brown St (3 years)526 Gage St (1 yr, post graduation)Katheryn Place got a bad rap. It was a great, civil party for many years. I still maintain the tailgating area @ the Rubber Bowl should be named "Katheryn Place!"

Amen, brother.

To the cadence of "O-VER-RAY-TED":On Fears quitting: "WHERE'S YOUR POINT GUARD?" (clap, clap, clapclapclap)"JUST LIKE FOOT-BALL" (clap, clap, clapclapclap) - That one never gets old."EXTEND HIS CON-TRACT (clap, clap, clapclapclap) - Point to O'Shea when doing this cheer once we're up 20 points.Stuff like that would be sweet.

Sorry for the late reply. I was out of town.No, there are no Akron players following Lolla to Louisville.

I'll drop this note here since "Pinky" diverted the other thread:I was able to contact someone at the University regarding existing "verballed" and committed soccer recruits.Our new coach (Caleb...I guess it is time we get used to the name) is meeting with the verballed soccer recruits this week. Last week was a dead period. Our committals have not signed elsewhere and wanted to meet their potential new coach. Hopefully they stay with the program. If they choose to go elsewhere the general feeling is we are as good if not better off due to the contacts Caleb has nationally and abroad. More will be known in a week or two.

Hot Pink Steve supplied me with a link to Miami players in the pros. Actually pretty interesting:Click for Red Hawk Hockey Pros

Pink Steve: Who have you beaten by 20? You guys barely put up 20 points in a half, let alone beat someone by 20. It typically takes Miami double overtime to hit 40 points! Enjoy another 18 win season in the post-Wally era. He's the Lee Owens of MAC hoops.

Hey, Pink Steve. What the hell are you talking about?

Two More CommitmentsJanuary 26, 2006 UConn football coach Randy Edsall added to his defensive and special teams this week when defensive end Lindsey Witten and kicker/punter Desi Cullen made oral commitments. Witten, 6 feet 5, 210 pounds, out of Glenville High School in Cleveland had committed to Toledo in early October but backed out to go with UConn. Witten joins Shawn Lemon of Waldorf, Md., as defensive ends to commit to UConn. *********************************************************************************************************************Update: Lemon rebuffed the Huskies in favor of the Zips on signing day!Hey Rockette....it is pretty obvious...Big East schools are stealing recruits from Toledo while Akron is stealing recruits from Big East schools. Sucks to be you...which I sure is the reason you hang around the Akron board so frequently. I would too if I were in your shoes.

I was able to contact someone at the University regarding existing "verballed" and committed soccer recruits.Our new coach (Caleb...I guess it is time we get used to the name) is meeting with the verballed soccer recruits this week. Last week was a dead period. Our committals have not signed elsewhere and wanted to meet their potential new coach. Hopefully they stay with the program. If they choose to go elsewhere the general feeling is we are as good if not better off due to the contacts Caleb has nationally and abroad. More will be known in a week or two.

Punting candidate: USC is recruiting former Arizona State punter Greg Woidneck as a walk-on to join the team next season. Woidneck transferred from Arizona State to Mt. San Antonio Community College before last season and averaged 39.5 yards per punt. He is also being recruited by Akron. USC would like Woidneck, who attended Brea-Olinda High School, to join current walk-on Taylor Odegard and compete for the starting job.

Another quiet, methodical beatdown by the Zips.Linhart returned to form. You could tell once he made that big steal in the first half his face lit up...it was like a light switch was turned on and his confidence returned.Preston was OUTSTANDING in Futch's absense. No qualms with Joe Dunn's accolades tonight. Big Country deserved everything he got.I liked Rob's postgame comment regarding the loss to K-ent: "We got over it on Monday...man, that Monday practice was brutal!"Whoa, has Rybek lost it or what? I wish he had gotten a little more PT at game's end to get his confidence up. His three's are barely drawing iron.The "airball" chant whenever Snider touched the ball seemed to work? He was uncharacteristically terrible from the field. AK-Rowdies continue to impress.Matt Newhouse has a career as a game show host in his future. Commentary is great during the promos!The AK-Rowdie won 52 cases of pop??!! Holy Hell...he'll have "Marshall teeth!" Every dentist in the audience cringed! BTW: Anyone remember the pop give-a-aways 6 or so years ago. You had to make something like 7 shots in a row to win a freaking 6-pack! I didn't think Romeo played all that great, but he filled up the stat sheet...so I'll shut up.Quade can be a frustrating guy to watch sometimes, but we need him to improve and contribute in the low post at some point. The 19 minutes he got tonight hopefully helps make him a bit more game-ready. He played some useful minutes this evening.I wish K-ent defended like WMU did tonight. We picked WMU apart. Again, it was methodical. We're up 6...then look up at the scoreboard and all of the sudden we're up 18??!!I was disappointed to hear KD's post game commentary regarding the attendance. Obviously he reads this board. I am sure everyone on this board is tired of my Beacon rants, but I feel compelled to say the following:1.) EVERYONE on this board realizes the importance of the Beacon Journal's support with regards to Zips attendance. Myself included. Many here are frustrated with the lack of quality coverage, but no one denies it's importance and potential.2.) NO ONE on this board puts the blame for the Zips poor attendance solely on The Beacon. But to deny is is a contributor is taking all of us for fools. 3.) EVERYONE on this board realizes the Zips are playing some unbelieveable basketball this season. Some are frustrated that we're 0-3 vs K-ent recently, but KD - you should be happy about that...it shows people care about the rivalry, dammit!4.) We will sell out the OU and Can't games. That means in two weeks this whole attendance issue will be nul and void. Bank on that. 5.) If we proceed to the MAC finals at The Q, like we expect, you will see at least 10,000 Akron fans packing the joint. The final nail in the coffin regarding attendance will be dealt.6.) Next season, with the new recruits, plus Wood and Conyers, we will be much improved. We should also have the backing of a great season with a post-season NCAA/NIT appearance to legitimize the program's arrival. Next year the expectations and the sellouts will come. Bank on it.KD - Keep plugging away. I know it is frustrating. You have 17 wins in early February and it appears no one cares. Ride it out two more weeks. You will be drawing fans like flies to Portage County. You are sooo close. Finish strong and there will be a Motor City Bowl-esque love affair with Zips basketball within a couple weeks. Bank on it.Tom Gaffney - There's your answer.

Just watch out for their coaches after the game. :blink: That picture NEVER gets old! BTW: He's now an assistant at K-ent. Now THAT's a coaching resume'.When a Miami coach is arrested for punching a Marshall fan in the face, is that the text book definition of a "win-win" or what?

I enjoy the Rasor stuff as much as the next guy. I'd love to see him as the Zips beat writer one day because he knows, and prints the information Zips fans want to know. He also has critical opinions on things more substantial than attendance. However, giving him space to write Zips info on Ohio.com is the television equivalent of the Zips getting "exposure" on ESPN360.

If you think UAM will use the pathetic feedback of the bitter clowns that respond to this plea, you're nuts. Here...I save everyone some time:WIN. WIN SOMETHING. DON'T HOLD ON TO A PIECE OF SHIT COACH LIKE HIPSHER OR CRAWFORD FOR A COLLECTIVE 15 YEARS. WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP. WIN SOMETHING.We've sucked for 15 years. Totally sucked ass. Sucked to the point of embarassment. During this time our 7-mile away rival has 7 consecutive 20+ win seasons and a sack full of championships. We have 16 wins in February and Tom Gaffney wonders "Why are there only 3,000 fans at a game?" Dork.The only reason that column was written was to justify their shitty coverage. "Why don't we cover games? Because no one cares. See...look...only 3,000 in the area care.""The Beacon taking a controversial stand?" Give me an f-ing break. Where were they when Lee Owens was stinking up the Rubber Bowl? No where. In fact they openly lamented the Zips attempts to improve the football program by ditching Acme and firing Owens. I remember when Crawford was fired. Pluto wrote an article titled "Underdog"...a sappy story about what a swell guy our 3-24 coach was. He never once called for the guy's head.Dennis Helsel was a total buffoon. Did anyone in the Beacon take the time to publicize his numerous blunders? No. Pluto wrote his annual "Come see the Zips 'cause the work so hard...get floor burns...blah blah blah" column a month ago. That would have had some credibility, except for the fact that he wrote the same damn column 4 years earlier. In that game, Hipsher's Zips lost to EMU at home. EMU won 3 TOTAL games that season. The Zips played like total crap that night. I rode a canoe back home that night from the river of pee that had poured down Bryan Hipsher's leg as he bricked 2 free throws to lose the game by one. Pluto had numerous chances to rip Hipsher for this game, and in general his his self-destructing teams...to rip him for playing his D-III son in a D-1 conference. Instead he recommended the community come out and support Hipsher's garbage. Lauding the BJ for ripping on the Zips 3K attendance is laughable. They've had legit resons to question a lot of goings-on in the University's athletic department over the past 15 years and they've placed their head in the sand. Why: Because it suits their purpose. If the teams are bad, they don't have to spend the $$ to cover it. The BJ is flat broke.I read the Beacon last week. They didn't even send a reporter to the Signing Day Press Conference. If Morgan was there, he only wrote notes off the press release. Zero insight. Zero opinions. This, for the #1 ranked class in the conference...for the MAC Champions? Then you have the usual errors like Jabari being a senior and the pic where Rybek is listed as a Buffalo defender... and Linhart is listed as Rybek.Gaffney condecendingly talks of "the small number of Zips fans that disagree..." F him. If he wants to take a real stand, tell him to get the balls to stand up to Larry Pantages for once and tell him their lack of coverage and constant screw ups not only hurt attendance, but prolonged the job tenure of some absolutely terrible coaches. Zip AD's in the past were gutless enough to let shitty coaches hang arounf because it could be done "under the radar." Low stress...just hand out extensions and let thigs roll on.F The Beacon. Their motives for articles like Gaffney's are very tran$parent.

Any time we get a chance to prove ourselves vs. a high-caliber team we need to do so. Playing Nevada is a great opportunity.Furthermore, getting Nevada to come to the JAR next season is awesome. That would not be possible without the Bracket Buster.Akron and Can't have little room to bitch as of 2/8/06 anyhow. Can't has 7 losses, and just got waxed by Toledo. Akron had their chance to shine and came up short against Can't. No one to blame but ourselves.Next season we'll have a home Bracket Buster against a top-level team + Nevada. That is a great home schedule.

My theory:When you have a college team that has wavered between pathetic and mediocre for 18 years, people simply don't go "bananas" overnight. We're 16-5 in February, not 31-2 in March.If the Zips make it to the finals at "The Q" everyone will be shocked to see 10k-12k Zips fans packing the arena. Those fans will come to the JAR the following season. For now we simply have to live with the nominal increases we've seen thusfar. 12k sound crazy? In mid-October, how much weed would you have been accused of smoking if you predicted the Zips would bring 15,000 fans to a road game of ANY sort? Bales and bales of the stuff. The Zips fans are there...waiting...BTW: The TV game vs OU and the Can't rematch will put our attendance in the MAC upper-half by season's end.

I can't see where you're coming from?Toledo's football recruiting classes were ranked a lot closer to Buffalo than Akron's was to K-ent? Buffalo and Toledo's hoops programs seem to suck equally as bad now-a-days. I thereby contend you are more athletically aligned with Buffalo.Now go watch the Zips game tape and learn how to beat NIU in football (Note: We did it twice, so you have a lot of tape to view).

I think you are on the right track with this observation. Bubba leaving hurt a bit. It has given Middleton a chance to shine, but it cost a some depth.Bubba's departure would hardly have been felt if Peterson were healthy. He's not.Wood's loss really has hurt our interior toughness.Conyers was banked upon to be the guy to open up some spacing and create. Wood, Bubba, Conyers and Peterson are three guys we banked on to get serious minutes this year. Instead we're getting about 10 minutes combined....all from DP...and that's on a "good" day.That said, we have 16 wins, and 20 looks like a mortal lock. We play hard and smart every night and have some great weapons. I love our chances at home, and I love our chances on a neutral court. Thus I think we stand as good a chance as anyone to win the MACC in Cleveland.If we are to stand a chance of winning an NCAA/NIT tourney game, Linhart is going to have to get out of his "funk" and get his confidence back. And, Romeo is going to have to bang underneath and not hang out at the 3-point line.

The Zips have about as much in common with Can't as Toledo does with Buffalo. Can you make a relevant point?

AK-Rowdies are Gods. That was legendary. I'm in awe...simply in awe.