Z.I.P.

Maryland @ Virginia is televised on Fox Prime Ticket on the West Coast today (4 PM PT/1 HST, so I can't watch ). It's strange how that network is suddenly broadcasting college games -- they had one last weekend also. It may be picked up by some other Fox regional nets.

The team has added some more high-flyers to their roster in signing the top three finishers from the 2011 College Slam Dunk Contest: • Jacob “Hops” Tucker of Illinois College, the Slam Dunk Champion. At a mere 5-10, the Carlyle, Ill., native sports a 50-inch vertical leap, and his YouTube video of dunks that has seen well over four million views helped him get invited to the Slam Dunk Contest. Anybody seen that? Never heard of Iliinois College -- wonder what state it's in.

This game was an opportunity to play on national TV, in a game that the college soccer world paid attention to. Could Caleb have told the NSCAA, "Thanks, but no thanks". Sure, he could have, but that would have burned a bridge that's important to cultivate. I think he will think hard about this sort of scheduling situation in the future -- our program is at a point where we have a lot of credibility in the community, but it's still hard to say "no thanks" to the chance for national exposure for the program. In a way, I'm impressed with the level of criticism from our own fans -- it shows just how high the bar has been set. Just DO realize as Bisbee said, the season's barely half-way over. I think, if we take care of business, we still have a good chance, especially if our W Coast opponents finish strong (though they can beat up on each other) to get a top-4 seed come November. And even if they don't -- that doesn't mean they will have to play on the road, since there are upsets and the games are played at the highest seed -- unless the NCAA doesn't like your field! I was thinking, remember how we "won the Big-10 title" with our OOC performance in past years? This season we were competing for the Big WEST title! Are we in second place now?

Considering what we know thus far about the head coach, to go back to Nicely at this point would be an admission of failure on the part of the coach -- something very unlikely to occur, to say the least. I won't be surprised if he brings in another JC QB for next year.

Did I ever tell you how I spent seven of the best hours of my life standing with the University of Virginia hockey club players at the U2 concert at Aloha Stadium?

From 17.4 to 7.3 PPG transition from junior to senior season. He musta been starting his career early. Another red star for Dan Hipsher.

Wow! That's the school that shares the parking lot with the Los Olivos Grocery, the stop-off for picnic supplies on the way to wine drinking! It's a very small school from appearances. Now I know what kind of "boarding" takes place there. I think most of the soccer players are from Ghana. Coincidental trivia (Sorry -- non-soccer related!): About three miles away -- believe it or not, across the street from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch is another high school. In 1948 a former Akron Central HS, and Can't State basketball star hired an agency to find him a basketball coaching job. They sent him to that school, which was just starting up, and he spent several years coaching HS ball there, but went further afield, and essentially invented the modern method of scouting college basketball teams. He created in his house in Santa Barbara, a coaches guide to every Div 1 college team in the nation, for which he was paid well, and he was able to hire a small army of scouts across the nation. Because of his acumen at scouting teams and basketball prospects -- especially centers, he was hired in the 1960s as an assistant coach and scout by the Los Angeles Lakers. He would go on to coach for the Lakers for over 40 years, coaching every center between Wilt Chamberlain and the guy the've got now. His name is Bill Bertka, and I had the pleasure of meeting him in Hawaii, in 1994 when he was scouting the North Carolina-Michigan game. I knew who he was, because he wore a T-shirt for the Akron Awnings semi-pro football team from the 1930s-40s. My dad and uncle played for the Awnings. True story!

Link defaults to America East Conf. How do you update?

I'm in most agreement with Tank on this one. Let's not commiserate, let's get to work -- because if we don't shore up the shape of our defense and passing, things could get worse. On another thread, Teal Bunbury talked about how Caleb's style was to have ten guys playing defense -- that strategy broke down in SB County last night. At the half, Caleb complained about play being "too open", that his team didn't hold the ball at midfield. I think that was Coach Vom Steeg's strategy -- to hurry up the Zips in passing more quickly than they wanted. These were too very good college teams, who played a very exciting game for the spectators. As I said earlier, UCSB has some excellent players, but they are VERY inconsistent. Their post-season is not assured by this win. Now a Q: Is David Mayer still on this team?? He and Quinn looked so good early on. I miss David's confidence and on-ball skill.

While I don't have a marinade recipe (I usually just go with a feel), I would suggest any recipe that has olive oil, lime juice and hot pepper as a gauge. Add some sugar or honey, garlic powder and salt to Johnny's three ingredients above, and you are in good shape. If you have no lime, go with a vinegar. My hot pepper choice is Sriracha. Holy Cow! The proof that globalization has gone too far is when the secret of Sriracha sauce reaches the natives of McDonald Ohio. Please don't tell me you pour it in your pho!

Before the season I predicted that the key games for Akron would be vs Temple and Fla Int'l. If they could win those two -- they would have a chance at a .500 or better season. Well, we saw what happened in the opener. And FIU looks to be almost as good a team as the Owls. Akron must score 20+ to beat the spread. Not likely. Nor is a three win season. Even we lukewarm fans are losing any interest we had.

The PD article says he's a senior. The 6-3 senior completed 28 of 44 passes for 469 yards and three touchdowns, and had 84 yards rushing with two TDs rushing. Let's hope SMU and Hawaii don't find him first.

Yeah, I seem to have bad luck at the HDC. None of our guys started. At least Blair started the 2nd half and played that full 45 minutes. I didn't even get to say "hi" to any of our guys. They never hung around afterward at all. The crowd was very sparse as you noticed on tv. Edit: I did wander over to Hermosa Beach on Monday morning and walk around the area where I believe Zarek and Heath Pearce share an apt. Zarek probably doesn't realize he gave away his address with that photo of their view that he posted on twitter. Google street view is an amazing thing (especially when the street doesn't cover a long distance). Nice area, nice beach (HOT girls playing volleyball, if I'm allowed to mention that on ZN.o ), good restaurants with sidewalk seating. Not sure what Chivas' weekend (and training) schedule is -- If he has time, it wouldn't surprise me to see 'Z' show up in Isla Vista. You might be interested in visiting with Big Mike and the Locos at Giovanni's pizza before the match. I hope at least a handful of W Coast Zips can make it. I hear there's a terrible cold spell blowing in with rain. Colder than the Cup weekend. Yikes!

We abosultely need to win this game... but even then our RPI will take a hit as it might knock UCSB out of the top 25. RPI is always graded all the way out to the last team... but beating top 25 teams have more impact than the next 25. Right now our RPI looks to be pretty weak. Winning out will help that... but we still need to be concerned about UNC, Creighton, New Mexico... and some 1 or 2 loss teams ranked below us. We need to see some teams step it up... Like Fullerton, Northridge, New Mexico, Cal Poly, Tulsa and Ohio State. You need some teams to step it up? New Mexico is undefeated and top ten in some polls. Fullerton has one loss. Tulsa, Northridge and OSU just aren't very good. CSU-Northridge has now won three straight, including a victory over Fullerton last weekend. They're in first place in the Big West Conf.

I would hope this is an isolated case. If the lady received her diploma then I understand where she is coming from. That alone does not necessarily absolve her of payment though. However, if there was a computer problem at the time that didn't identify lack of payment properly, there could be a lot more out there and maybe that is what this firm is thinking. Go to trial and win...set legal precedent that money is due regardless of whether diploma was received in mail or not...then go after a lot of other people...get out of court settlements and rake in the money. A big firm has better things to do than go after a woman for $1,500 ($500 billing) unless they think there could be more to this. Why would the University legal office allow this to move forward? Is everyone sure they had all of their bills paid when they graduated? Just read this -- sheesh! Can't see how it's possible to graduate or even attend classes without paying tuition. But I graduated before the invention of the credit card.

I was wearing my Atlas football/soccer jersey at the CSU-Northridge game, and Uncle "Tank" from the soccer thread mentioned that he had seen it in the FIFA (12?) video game. "Lubricantes de Akron" is the shirt sponsor of the Guadalajara-based club in Mexico's Primera Division. Found it on e-bay last winter for $20. Pretty cool. edit: Here's what the long-sleeve version looks like. Mine doesn't have the Coca-Cola or Corona on the back, but it does have the Skyy vodka on the sleeve.

I probably overreacted, but I feel like there's too much discussion of this subject. I wish that I would never have added to it in the other thread. We have a very successful team with a great coach at the helm...be happy. EDIT: I love our team for all they do and the pride that they bring to Akron. I'm lucky that in a few hours I'll be sitting in the front row at the Home Depot Center...hopefully seeing Ben Zemanski, Zarek Valentin, and Blair Gavin in action (if all are healthy and get into the game). In a few days, I'll be back at Harder Stadium to see the defending National Champions back at the site where they won it all. It's all positive. GO ZIPS! Whoops! Sad to say that only Blair saw action -- in the second half of the draw with Philly Union. I left the house with about ten minutes to play, as Chivas was playing so poorly -- assuming they had no chance of scoring. What happened?? Anyway, Zarek was suspended, apparently got a red card the previous game. And Ben was not used. Robin Foster seems to have a totally different lineup each game. Zip_ME87 -- was the crowd at HDC as small as it looked on TV? The side cross from the cameras had maybe 3-4 thousand tops.

Ha, yeah I watched that game and noticed the same thing. I even mentioned it to lilroodude who was also watching the game. I have to give it to Perry though, despite his mistakes, he has had a heck of a year. He hasn't been really flashy but he has had a huge impact for DC. When he was brought in, I think Ben Olsen would have liked to try him out at D-Mid, where I believe he will shine the best (like he did at Akron) but personnel issues forced him to play exclusively at center back. Then when DC's starting right back suffered a season-ending injury, a new center back was brought in and Perry was forced to play wide. Then last week, due to several injuries and a suspension, Perry was put back in the middle against Columbus, where he had not played in a while with a new defensive partner. He is currently leading DC in minutes played, the only games he didn't play were those he missed for international duty, and the only game he didn't start was the one right after he came back from playing with the U-20s (I think). All of this in his rookie season. Thanks for that update, Yaz. I have only seen DCU a couple times this season, and didn't know PK was atop the team's minutes played chart. Wow! BTW -- I think Perry played mostly RB for the US U-17 teams for a couple years.

Actually Cap'n, some of the best baseball quotes come from politics! Can you believe, she wasn't talking about his son?

UCSB is a pretty wildly inconsistent team. When they are "on", they're capable of beating anyone in the nation -- particularly in the Locos' Den. I'm looking forward to it -- hope the team doesn't arrive like Wednesday morning or p.m. That would be a bad sign.

Luke Holmes Left Man City for Bury Football Club. Scroll down through the faces... Later, he would learn to Bury OsWho.

How about Hawaii? The only way Dambrot will return to the islands is if he's forced! He must have been with Hipsher at the Denny's in Waikiki when he got bad service and swore never to return! I think GoZips might have been there too, unless he was dining on lau lau on Kapahulu Blvd..

Cool Vid... Too bad UCSB lost to Riverside... messes up our RPI chances. BUT, they play top-10 Irvine this weekend -- and whould win.

Even worse! I love collegiate athletics, but the NCAA is the most corrupt organization in our society. Let me get this straight. Quinn can transfer from another D1 NCAA program without penalty, but Holmes suffers suspension for transferring from an NAIA program? Why the discrepancy? And why is ND barred from tourney? Jacob M's comment is what happened. Nothing to do about transferring. Agreed -- the NCAA may have a load of rules we don't and cannot understand, but the NAIA's problem is the opposite -- they have no rules to make mention of. Kind of what you would call a "GP-1 Paradise".

Isn't this the place where the Michigan dentist moved his pro team to play a few yrs ago, when he found out the Canton CC was booked? I think DiG does his figure skating practice there in the mornings.