Valpo Zip

I think that Hipsher can compete or may be even beat Buffalo's Witherspoon for the worst Mac Coach award.

I respectfully disagree with the way SGM is acting as someone who is planted on this board to make sure that no one dares to say anything that is "inappropriate" to be said about the all mighty OSU buckeyes. However, i think that questionning his loyalty to the zips is ridiculous and i also think that calling him with some of the names above is totally unacceptable.

I think that the event tonight was one of the best things ever done by the Athletic Department. The fact that the president of the university and the VP for the board of trustees, in addition to the AD were all there delivered a great message of how much the University cares about this program. I was thinking that it might have been a good idea to bring some recruits to see it. The fan turnout was way beyond expectations, we're talking about around 1000 fans. Kudos to the people who put this event together, the video was very well done too.For those who were not there, i'll try to summarize the event as much as my memory helps:1- The band was playing to entertain the crowds while pizza and pop were served at the upper level.2 - Mack started welcoming every one and thanking the crowds. He mentioned how the season ended badly but everybody kept their chins up and handled the situatution right.3 - Dr. Proenza took over where he read some lines from the NY times about how the committee snubbed us etc... he also complemented KD and the boyz.4 - The VP (i am not sure what his name is) also complemented KD and the team and promissed KD that they are working all they can to make sure that this program gets the respect they deserve from the NCAA/NIT committee.5 - Mack took over again to introduce KD and he called him the best men's basketball coach in the whole nation.6 - KD returned the favour by saying that he is looking forward to finish his career at Akron.7 - Dru and Rome thanked the crowd and Rome particularly asked the community to continue supporting the team after him.

I don't want to see OSU play us in the JAR. I don't want to even play them at the Q. What for ? If we have them at the JAR, more than half the crowd will be theirs in a game that is supposedly a home game for us, NO THANKS.One last thing, SGM, unfortunately, and due to the way the committee looks at us, i totally agree with you when you say that OSU has nothing to win and everything to loose playing us. But then you come back and imply that there is no way OSU will ever loose to us... so what exactly do they have to loose ? how did you manage to combine both these statements in one post ?

Ok i see now. But i guess the announcers said that he is injured and inactive, right ? it is not like he was getting in the game the next minute.

I guess i am missing something...

This event is a must for the team and the coaches. I'll also be there to terminate my ak-rowdies career.Just like the rest of you, i am really concerned about the turnout. A bad fan turnout will be insulting to the team. The only thing we can do is to be there and take friends and create a hype for this event.

KD never had any kid from Michigan on his rosters. I am assuming he doesn't even recruit in Michigan. Jim Christian has always had kids from there, so he must be able to successfully recruit there, same with Joplin... Isn't Toledo in Michigan ? How about Buffalo, is it stiil in Canada ?

Give me a break. Oden was mauled underneath and was off balance, simply trying to foul in what was a complete scuffle underneath the basket. It wasn't intentional, and it would be a true shame for a game between two teams going at it so hard to be decided by a call like that. Bottom line - the Xavier guy hits the 2nd free throw and it's over. And if Xavier doesn't throw a lazy inbounds pass late in the game, it's also over. Xavier had the game and lost the game, not the referees. I agree with you SGM that Oden might have been fouled, the same way some one else might argue that J-wood was fouled. Those two issues are arguable and different officials call different things.However, pushing a player out of bound without any attempt to reach the ball in his hands is an intentional foul. That in fact is the definition of an "intentional" foul. Why that call was not made is because the ref is a chicken and he doesn't want to be known as the coach who ended OSU's run.

Your flagship seems to be sinking... and guess who's hitting it. Another ohio (inferior) school... one of those who according to your post should be bowing down.

Coach Dambrot, we appreciate everything you did for the program and it is showing.Please don't ever say that you might start considering other jobs again.

What ? of course you take it. This is a great chance to show every one that we can play the big guys.

I hear your pain and i understand your frustration. Howver, you have to keep in mind that the main purpose of the scoreboard video is to entertain the fans in the house and get them involved and, if possible, get in the head of the opposing player making the free throw.The best solution to this would be having two different productions, one for the score board and another one for the video stream. It shouldn't be that hard, especially if you say that you guys pay for the service.

No one here is saying that the Zips have reached excellence... and Akron would have considered to catch a break if they received an NCAA at large bid. But the NIT bid wouldn't have been considered a break at all. We are not begging the committee to favour us and give us a bid above people with better RPI or more wins... we deserve the NIT bid and we earned it. Not catching a break and being screwed are two different things.

Nice signature image balki Sad but nice.

Bardo definitely has the built of a great bball player, i am not sure about the skills though.I remember last year, KD saying something like: "When you're in the MAC, you can't recruit big kids with skills, you have to teach them the skills"... Now the good thing about Swiech is that he does have the skills. No matter how big you are, you can't average 25 points if you don't have skills. Did Swiech have any big school offers ? other MAC offers ? this is the first time we could land some one who is ranked 29th in the nation in his position... what brought him to Akron ?

When the NCAA becomes an inter state championship where 50 teams representing 50 states are competing, then i will definitely cheer for the team representing the state of ohio... until then, i have no reason what so ever to cheer for a team that represents another university that is located in another city. In fact, reading ignorant posts like yours make me even cheer against them.

Conyers will eventually play at Guard as soon as Rybak is developed as a solid SF (which doesn't seem too far).Both Nick and Cedrick are seniors next year, the next recruiting class should contain 2 guards.

That is a great idea... they can have a 20 minutes intrasquad game, blue against gold.Then we can have autographs and stuff. One thing is that if we can't fill up the JAR, this would be embarrassing.

Hey Msopher, Thanks for the comforting words, although i do not agree with you that most of the MAC fans are feeling with us. Go to the NCAAbbs forum and see the MAC fans beating us when we're down.However, you have some good points that would make sense in an ideal world but not in this world. I'll take them one by one: Miami went to the sweet 16 in the late 1990's and Can't state went to the elite 8 in the early 2000's what did we get the following years ? only the automatic bids. You know that the MAC only received the automatic bids to both tournaments this year right ? if the committees had the choice, Miami and Toledo wouldn't even be there (the seeding also should tell you something). We are not going to beat these teams if we don't play them. They won't play us at home on a game to game basis. They won't play us on a 2-1 either and i am not talking about top 25 teams. Even NIT material they still feel that they are too good to play us 2-1 and we all know what a big advantage homecourt is.Now this is not our first snub, football 2 years ago, Charlie frye's senior year... Men's Soccer ranked #1 most of the season and being seeded 9th in the tournament.And now that... The rest of the mac hates us, the commish won't stand for us... why are we in this league ? just to pay our dues ?

Hey Steve, Nice to have you around. I had the chance to meet you at Duquesne and i was very impressed. Looking forward to see you on the hardwood.

Off course there is no NCAA or NIT basketball any more. In fact hearing those acronyms make me Moreover, hearing the other acronym (MAC) reminds me of

One of the readers at Ohio.com, in a comment to one of the articles is stating that Akron might be left out as a favour to the MAC and its commissioner.What he says is the following:Akron has a good chance to go deep in the NIT tournament and play some televised games. Every time Akron is playing, the game producers/callers will say how Akron really belongs in the NCAA and they lost it in a 0.6 seconds and the stop watch thing in the MAC final with all the bad publicity associated with that... Now that Akron is staying home, the whole issue will be burried in peace and everyone will be happy except the few Akron fans.Since i cannot find any reasonnable explanation as why we were left out, I will take any speculation as a legitimate possible explanation.

I...I believe...I believe that...I believe that we...I believe that we got F#c$d...I believe that we got F#c$d...I believe that we got F#c$d...I believe that we got F#c$d...

This system is so messed up.AP and Toledo are there but not us.Being in the MAC is like shooting yourself in the foot.Besides, our so called conference teams are enjoying our misery at the NCAABBS board. Why do we play in this trashy conference where we are not wanted.And that ESPNU clown goes: how can akron not be an NCAA team, they should be in the NCAA but we won't even have them in the NIT.WTF ?