UAZipster0305

We only kicked off to start one half too...progress.

I didn't think the article was balanced at all. It is a puff piece, and the slant is evident from the title. Tressel has a brand that is popular in Ohio. He also has some valuable leadership and communication skills. I think he would be great at recruiting major donations. JT also has my vote for Athletic Director to replace Wistricill. However, Tressel knows nothing about working with faculty or running a University. He also has no knowledge about research. As an alum, I would be embarrassed to have him as President. To me, it would reinforce the idea that sports are the primary focus at UA and that it is a party school. It would undermine the great academic programs and dramatic increase in research productivity that has occurred during Dr. Proenza's tenure.

Anyone have a link to a site that is streaming tonight's Gold Cup matches for free? Please help a fellow Zip in need!

http://www.collegesoccernews.com/index.php...-preseason-poll

There is no way a school like Akron cuts men's soccer, but what if so many Athletic Departments did that those left were no longer enough to provide competition to one another and didn't attract the top players as a feeder system to MLS as is the case now?

Amen. I would list the ZNO annual beer list as a pretty strong recent tradition. Though not a contributor, I am sure there are many envious fan bases.

As people of the older generation say DiG, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades (and to make a generational update, corn hole ). You could probably make the "close" or "potential" argument for most players in the Summer League...that's why they are there. The box score does not lie, and the competition was not full NBA caliber. Zeke was not offensively productive but played good defense...that's an objective conclusion. He's not yet NBA ready, but still has that potential. With hard work and passion, I hope he gets there.

I didn't comment on the draft or Zeke's play in the Summer League. However, I think it is now clear that Zeke would not currently be an offensive threat in the NBA and this greatly diminishes his prospects. His defense is clearly NBA caliber, but how many NBA players typically only contribute at the defensive end of the court? I can think of three: Ben Wallace, Dikembe Mutombo, and Dennis Rodman. These guys were all game changing / All-Star players based on their defensive merits in the NBA. Fair or not, I don't see Zeke getting a legit shot at the NBA until he dominates in Europe for a couple seasons. Good luck to the Big Guy!

I don't know about the rest of the league, but I think we finish above UMass, Buffalo, and Miami. Though we lost just as many games last year, the improvement was tremendous. I expect that to continue this year and think we will end up with 4-6 wins. As GP1 says, it is the MAC and other teams will try to give away a couple wins every season. A disciplined team like the one Coach Bowden is building will be prepared to seize such opportunities. The table will be turned on the "Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory" mantra that we have all become too accustomed.

Post of the year! I'm sure DiG can even appreciate the mathematical precision and beauty of such a statistic!

UNC played at Cleveland State about 5 years ago for this exact reason. The Convo is a much better venue than the JAR though. I can't ever imagine UNC coming to the JAR.

This whole process is analogous to a super nova... The budgets and programs have been expanding like crazy but will collapse upon themselves and then explode. After the explosion, nothing even resembling the NCAA will be left. We are currently at the end of the expansion before collapse period.

I get it, Dave. Like your reference says, NBA scouts are using it to identify potential sleepers. In other words, identify players that haven't gotten enough attention but perhaps should have. For the major players not identified as sleepers and those identified by this methodology, the question remains: Can player X adjust to the speed and size of the NBA and can he help a team win? The ranking system will in no way influence draft order. With respect to Zeke, he is already an identified NBA prospect, so I don't believe the ranking will either help or hurt him.

No offense, DiG, but I don't think NBA scouts care at all about these ranking schemes. They are much more qualitative: Can player X adjust to the speed and size of the NBA and can he help a team win? That's really all there is to it. I love Zeke and think he's been a great student-athlete for us. However, I'm not sure if he has the passion and intensity to excel in the NBA. I wish him the best regardless of what he chooses to do and where he ends up.

All good points. I too am 100% behind Embick. After Lolla left, I nominated Shaun Docking as the next head coach via an email to LP and the Department of Athletics. I was disappointed to hear he did not get the position in favor of Porter who at the time had only been an excellent player and an assistant coach. I was pleasantly surprised at the results only two years later, but still believe Docking would be an incredible coach for us. Anyone remember how Porter's tenure started?...5-0 beat down loss at the hands of UCSB. I was super worried at that point. So, even if we don't start off the season as well as we'd like, there's still hope.

Shaun Docking is a top flight coach. True, he might not have all of the accolades that you selectively mentioned, but he does have everything else... All-Americans MLS players Scholar Athlete of the Year Academic All-Americans Regular league championships Regular NCAA Tournament victories Top-25 rankings US Youth Soccer Regional Coach Member of Missouri Athletic Club's Hermann Trophy Award Committee Member of NSCAA National Ranking Committee He's an Akron alum! And his program continues to grow stronger These things are miraculous at a school like Coastal Carolina especially considering it's in the backyard of some major soccer programs...Duke, UNC, Wake Forest, Clemson, NC State, and the University of South Carolina! Just this past year, CC beat Wake Forest (on the road in the NCAA Tournament) and South Carolina (away) and tied UNC (neutral) and OSU (away). What would Akron soccer be if throughout its history, Ohio State, Pitt, Cincinnati, or Michigan had strong programs? Embick is our coach, and I want to see him succeed. However, to belittle Shaun Docking's resume' as a means of supporting Embick is simply ignoring the real facts and hand picking ones of convenience based on the only things Docking hasn't achieved. This kind of stuff might be worthy of Faux News, but here at ZNO, we're better than that. I might remind you too that Embick's resume' isn't even in the same universe as Docking's. Embick is our coach only because of continuity from what Porter started and Embick's potential that likely comes with Porter's endorsement.

Where did you get this information? Link? I'd love to see pictures and a map. On the original campus master plan, tennis facilities were supposed to be in the parking lot area behind the field house and across from the Greek village/row. If there is that much of a commitment from the administration for tennis, would a men's team be reinstated after the facilities are built?

I'll give it a try... I said on this board in the first half of the away Ohio game that when a team is red hot with their shooting we just have to wait for them to cool off and hope that we are close enough to close the score. If that doesn't happen, we accept the defeat and shake the opponents hand and get them next time. Unfortunately, in the NCAA Tournament, there is no next time. This was the main factor in last night's game. VCU was red hot with the shooting all night. In turn, the shooting opened up the floor for drives to the basket by VCU's fast and athletic perimeter players. Even with Akron at full strength and any perceived coaching discrepancy evened out, VCU wins that game by 15+ simply based on shooting. We saw how Ohio completely collapsed when their shooting went cold. If that had happened to VCU last night, they still would have won due to us not being at full strength. We were essentially down 4 players (Diggs, Abreu, Walsh, and Forsythe) and didn't have an experienced ball handler on the roster. I think VCU fans would admit that with even rosters and a normal shooting night, this game likely would have been competitive into the closing minutes. Last night was a perfect storm for embarassment due to circumstance and none of it has anything to do with KD or the players. This was one of the strongest overall seasons in program history that was defined at both the beginning and end by unfortunate circumstances and poor judgement (Abreu). Some of you have mentioned how badly this loss hurts in terms of the negative national exposure and your pride among colleagues and peers. I'd venture to say that where it will hurt the most is with selection committees in the future. It will take a much stronger resume to get an at-large or the same seeding. In that circle, ours will be viewed as a temporarily tarnished brand whether that is warranted or not. We still won 26 games (tied for most in program history), had a 19 game win streak (among the best in the country), got votes in both polls for consecutive weeks, were #24 in the coaches' poll for a week, won the MACC and were MAC regular season champions, had the MAC Coach of the Year and MAC Defensive Player of the Year, and were competitive for an NCAA at-large bid with a week remaining in the regular season. After starting the season 1-3 with a loss to Coastal Carolina, I didn't expect any of these things. Thanks to the seniors (Zeke, Walsh, and Chauncey) for extending the excellence of this program and being exemplary student-athletes. Good luck with all you do in the future. Onward and upward! Go Zips!

Nate Silver was unbelievably accurate with the presidential election. Let's see if he's just as good with the NCAA Tournament. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/03..._r=1nytmm Knock yourself out with this, DiG!

I'm optimistic, but if we lose this game, the FT stripe is where it happens. Lots of free points being left there.

We have already beat everyone in the MAC at least once this year.

If iCoach happened during the Rubber Bowl era, then me too. However, ditching the football program will not happen because of the Big Dialer and the fieldhouse.

Given the outcome, I'm as proud as ever of the record I left. Objective and analytical even at halftime. Heading into overtime without Zeke I wasn't nearly as confident though.

And honestly, the OOC wasn't that bad...9-4...good wins against MTSU and NDSU...at full-strength, CCU and OSU would have been wins too. We beat Big 10 PSU who beat #4 Michigan tonight. The losses on the road to Detroit and Creighton were not bad either.