Valpo Zip

How long will Tecca be out for?

I was wondering if it would be possible to include a forum feature where readers can Like or dislike each other's posts (or give thumbs up or down). This will be an easy way to give feedback and reduce the number of posts saying nothing but +1 or I agree or good post.

Fair enough ZW. We have two different ways of assessing progress. In your opinion: Progress is being able to stock the roster with high major talent. Some of us on the other hand prefer to evaluate the overall team performance rather than looking at individuals on the roster. The team we had 5 years ago with Linhart, Dials, Mcknight, middleton, and Bardo would occasionally beat a great team (Temple, FSU, and Miss. State), get mixed results against average mid-majors, beat some cupcakes, and contend in the MAC. This year, a team with Diggs, Rico, Zeke, walsh, and Tree (clearly superior talent) still does exactly the same thing. This is the basis of the argument saying that we did not progress and that we are getting the same results with superior talent. Next year we will graduate Serb and Nitro (who won XX games over 4 years and went to the tournament 2, hopefully 3 times), the year after that we will graduate Zeke, CG, and Diggs, and so on... And so does every other team in the nation. What am I missing in this argument? We have 18 games left on our schedule for this year's regular season. 16 MAC games, Marshall, and a bracket buster. Standing at 6-6, we will need a record of 14-4 to hit the 20 win mark. I am not as comfortable as you are in saying that we will achieve that. Look, I am sorry if i am coming out as the basketball team hater, that is not the intent. Just like the rest of you, I appreciate and support this program as much as i can. In my opinion, pointing out the issues that can be fixed and must be improved is one of the ways of supporting this program. Happy new year, and here is hoping for a 2012 where the zips achieve the following: 1 - in Soccer 2 - in Basket ball (both regular season and tournament), and win an NCAA game 3 - win 4 games in football.

It is all about your level of expectations. When the zips went to their first NIT tournament and beat temple, every one was happy because that was a great improvement over the years before. Two years later, we win the Mac championship and go to the NCAA, that was another step up the ladder. KD deserves all the credit for moving the zips from the Hipsher era mediocrity to a regular MAC contender. But that's about it. Ever since, the levels of our recruits have been steadily increasing but the level of the team is still the same. Now if you're satisfied with being just a MAC contender and no more, good for you. I am not! When I listen to KD talk about the potential of this program, I believed in it and I am not settling for MAC championship game every year (win or loose). Stating that the program should be better than what it is should not be maddening, it should be applauded. The first step in fixing an issue is admitting it, unless you think that the program is perfect and has no issues whatsoever. Hearing all the excuses is really what is maddening and getting old. I'll list the few excuses that i can remember: 1 - We have lost 3 main contributors to graduation. (Really? isn't that the nature of college sports?) 2 - We need sometime for the team to gel early in the season. (Do our opponents start their seasons in August? Why don't they need time to gel?) 3 - We have injuries/suspensions (isn't that part of sports too?) 4 - Fan support is the problem (give the fans a reason to support your program. Start a year at 8-2, with a couple of quality wins and don't bring 300+ RPI teams to play at home) 5 - The refs hate us (Please) 6 - Who cares about the regular season, The MAC will never get an at large bid anyways. (who said that? did we ever earn one and not get it?) 7 - Good OOC teams are scared to come play in Akron. (We had Nevada, VCU, Dayton, and CSU, who exactly did we beat?)

Coach Bowden was with Joe Dunn and Steve French at half time during the game tonight. For those of you who haven't heard he said that he will have 7-8 coaches hired by Jan 2 (WOW!) to start recruiting and he also said that right now he is also working on the most important recruit for this year, Brian Wagner.

Are you addressing me zipdiehard? If so, I am not saying that the refs were good. The refs were bad and I can remember many missed calls other than the ones you are mentionning. I just think that complaining about the lack of balance in number of fouls and free throws makes us (as a fan base) look silly and whiners. Also complaining about the refs after every close game we lose doesn't go anywhere.

With all due respect, we've been using this excuse for 6 years now. The refs' job is not to keep the fouls and the FTs even. They will call a foul every time they see one.

Ohio, Can't, and Buffalo are all better than Valpo and Duquesne (two teams that we lost two) In the same time, Ohio, Can't, and Buffalo are not better than Miss. State. The outcomes of this season is not about who we play, it is all about how WE play.

It says on the website that a webstream will be available but i can't see it

I liked the show as anything is better than nothing. I still think Joe Dunn can do a little better with the information part. For example, when interviewing Rico, he asked him about how he ended in Akron and Rico said: one of my friends knew Dr. such and such and then Ricky came to see me I know nothing about broadcasting but i think that Joe should have slowed down to say Who Dr. XXX was and that Ricky would be coach Rick McFadden (I am assuming). I was surprised to see McNeese and Bardo in the background eating with the team. Is that a normal thing? are they still in school?

+1right on bro.

Is there any other option? Can you get worse than 0-11 D1-A?

Valpo, Duquesne, and MTSU are not exactly power houses. If we won those games, we would have been right there with Can't. It is not the scheduling that is hurting us, it is the loosing

If we really wanted to earn Winters favor, we would have sent Proenza. We would have shown him we were dead serious. Especially after dissing the guy twice before. 1 - Expecting Proenza to go on a 6 hour round trip drive to only meet someone who MAY be the coach is absolutely preposterous. It will never happen, not even if Nick Saban was considering the job. It never happened before and should not happen in the future. 2 - When you have a job opening, you have multiple applicants, you can only select one. That does NOT mean you're dissing the others. The guy got a scholarship here, had a job here for 10 years, and did not get a job that he was not qualified for. No dissing involved.

Zip roo, we live in the same world. These numbers seem outrageous to me. However, it is not my money and I have to believe that the CBS board members are doing what's in the best interest of their company. I don't know what Les Moonves does exactly or how much profit he generated so I'll let those who know make those decisions.

It is called supply and demand. Companies and universities have tried and evolved over the years, if the university didn't think that LP was worth what he was making, they wouldn't have renewed his contracts and added his bonuses. If anyone can, or knows someone who can do the same job for less, I am sure the board of trustees will be happy to listen. Otherwise...yeah I don't want to say something inappropriate

CK, regardless of the hire that was made then, would you have been supportive of TW hiring a 6-5 D-II coach with no postseason appearance in 2009?

Had Nik not come back for his senior year, we would have been forced to play Josh for extended periods of time especially with Tree being a big question mark early in the year. Now that Nik is back and Tree is beasting (if he can stay out of trouble), Josh's minutes are being very limited. He is however still needed to give Zeke a breather, even with his limited offense, he remains a big athletic body who can run like a deer.

The football negativity is pilling over isn't it?

Man so much activity in the last 12 hours on this board. Too bad it's all negative. When the going is bad, every one is looking for a scapegoat and TW is looking like the best option, right? We may all agree that hiring Ianello was a stupid move but that's it. That is TW's only mistake. Yes it is a bad one, not close to being comparable to shooting 45 kids, but it was a SINGLE bad decision. Driving to Detroit to offer a candidate a job shows dedication and respect to that candidate. There is nothing wrong with that. If the offer was really bad (which i doubt), and if PW had sincere intentions towards his alma matter, he could have countered with his own offer, but he didn't. He led the AD to wasting 2-3 weeks of very valuable time and then simply walked away. Can anyone explain that? If he turned the offer down to get back at TW for not giving him the job 2 years ago then, I am glad he did because we don't want some one with that childish mentality and immature personality coaching and teaching our young men. Rob Ianello aside, How many of you really blame TW for not giving PW the job 2 years ago? 2 days ago with all the success he achieved in the last two years, people were still questioning his GLIAC losing record and his DII background, and his overall 7 years record. Can any one really blame TW for not giving him the job 2 years ago? when his records were much worse and without any post season appearances? Also before some of you write that no body wants to work for this "buffoon", remember that Porter, KD, Kest, and other successful coaches are happy to work for this buffoon and some of them were re-signed by him. Let's keep things in perspective. The guy made a mistake, a big mistake, 2 years ago and he is trying to fix it. He fired his "buddy" and he offered the job to the "right" guy. PW turning down the job, the global warming, pearl harbor, and 9/11 are not all TW faults. And by the way, using youtube and twitter is a positive thing, for which TW should get credit, not the other way around. Derogatory attempts of calling him twitter Tom or youtube Tom are simply silly. Oh and those of you asking for Proenza's head... I don't know what to tell you

He's a defensive end. Right, thanks JZ84

Did you count Hassan Hazime among the returning DTs? Or is he more of a LB?

You can pass the shame to whoever you want but when it comes to fan support, the athletic department and especially this basketball program has no one to blame but themselves. If you build a team that can't win till March you'll get a fan base that doesn't give a damn till March.

Way to think big! Instead of trying to position ourselves for an at-large bid in case we don't win the mac, NO! our approach should be to win only when it matters

While everyone is interested in talking about the lack of leadership and the refs and the team chemistry and all that, allow me to address real issues that can and should be addressed immediately. 1 - I work with an OAC basketball team and i attend their practices. In one drill, a true freshman guard took a step before he started dribbling. The coach blew the whistle stopped the drill and embarrassed the poor kid for like 90 seconds. The drill was cancelled and for the next 20 minutes the whole team practiced catching the ball and dribbling in different scenarios without traveling. No one on that team ever traveled after that, not in practice, and definitely not in a game. Can you count how many times have our guards traveled with the ball in this season? not only the guards serb also does that frequently. I have to believe that they do that in practice as well. The only explanation i can think of is that our coaches don't see it in practice and let the players get away with it. 2 - At the end of each practice, the routine is for each player (at my OAC team) to shoot 5 FT in a row and go home. if you miss one, you reset your counter and you keep shooting until you hit 5 in a row. The first week a few players spend an hour after practice to get their 5 in a row. Now, that does not seem to be an issue anymore. Do the zips practice FT shooting at all? 3 - Who is coaching our big guys? after the departure of Jeff Boals, who teaches the big guys how to box out? how to move their feet on offense and how to defend the back door plays? Who ever that guy is must be fired right now. We can't box out, we can't defend the paint and our bigs finished the game with a near 20% FG% (5/24) Serb: 4-15 Zeke: 1-4 Egner: 0-5 20% is unacceptable from behind the arc and we're talking about our bigs shooting 20%. I know that some people on this board consider it a taboo to criticize KD, I am sorry, i can't direct our poor performance anywhere but towards him. This team is not prepared the right way. They still may get better and win the MAC in march but that does not mean that they should not be ready to play in December.