ZipAnalyst

YES! GP1 COACH KEST, Thanks for correcting me GP1.

The University of Akron Women's basketball program is getting a new beginning.As the father of three daughters, all of who played in high school, and, one of which, walked on at Can't State; I have a special interest in the Zips developing a first-rate women's program. Jodi West appears to have the background and a track record for Zip fans to expect a turnaround.Welcome to Akron, Coach KEST (NOT West) I take it on myself to extend the best wishes of all ZipNation forum members for an aupicious start to the 2006-07 version of the Lady Zips.Let's go to their games and then come to the Akron Zips Basketball forum and discuss the progress that Coach West and her charges are making.

The are major differences between the basketball program and the football program.KD has shown he is a "value added" coach; JD has not (he may in time - he has one more year from me)..The hoopsters win games they should win; not necessarily with the gridiiron folks.The roundballers earned their way to their success last year; the footballers backed into the MACC and lucked out at the end despite being out played nearly the whole game.KD embraces the challenge of high expectations; not so with JD (it could be that he recognizes he does not yet have the talent in place).I love high expectations and so should all Zip fans!

Hubris and arrogance are terms that define GP1. The above quote is a pre-emptive strike at anyone who would critique the coaches. I suspect that GP1 is more than an ex-player. I think he has his hand a coaching at some level and is supersensitive to any who dare criticize a coach.Zips Win! shows how any one of us who holds Brookhart and the coaching staff primarily responsible for the Can't State debacle can deal with the specifics and trace them back to Brookhart et al.The initial posting by GP1 was designed to cut off posters who might want to deal in the details of the game as a way to assess performance (players and coaches) Now - anyone who goes to where the buck stops (Brookhart & Associates) is doing so because they can't proive detail. GP1 demonstrates whipsawing of the first order and deserves the title Sir Sophister.GP1 has the potential to be a productive contributor to our discussion BUT NOT IF he continues his specious ways.

InTheZone I am looking forward to your analysis!As a former player what you have to say takes on an aire of credibility that those who have not played the game can attain. But our perspective deserves attention because most fans have not played the game.Your analysis wiill provide us non former players with more markers with which to evaluate what we are seeing.Thanks in advance for your effort.

This is GP!'s way of making excuses for Brookhart. The buck stops with Brookhart. These are his players for the most part. If they are not good enough - who brought them to Akron? If they are good enough, who didn't properly prepare them?Obviously GP1 sees himself as a confidant of coaches ("a friend who is a coach at another MAC school"). In order to preserve that status he takes on the role of being an apologist. Bottom line is that Brookhart has to become a much better coach in all its aspects.GP1 needs to go to the forum "The good news is ..." and defend his coach."People are going to come into this board and talk about play selection and penalties and everything under the sun. (so says GP1). What are we going to talk about? We are going to talk about the coach who repeatedly tells us that Akron is a good team. Brookhart himself says he has the players to compete with Can't, North Carolina State, and anyone else on the schedule.On September 30th the Zips did not demonstrate being a well-coached team in their focus, execution and game situation awareness. But then there is always the rest of the schedule for Brookhart to show improvement.Maybe next year Brookhart can prove he is a good coach. This year needs to be devoted to improvement. At this point it will be a challenge for Akron to have a winning record as it was last year. Remember, they backed in to the MAC championship game and got lucky on the last play of the game.

There you go implicitly criticizing the coaches - which I think goes all the way to JD (after all the buck does stop with him). Now that is being downright "UnZipian!!!"

ABJ arfticle today (September 29th) focuses on the 12th of 12 (in the MAC) ranking of the Zips kicking game.The kicking maladies are front and center obvious to even the most casual observer.What many may be mssing is the "red zone" problems. These problems cost us the CMU game. The Zips must put more finesse into their "red zone" game. The offensive line is marginally capable of opening holes anywhere on the field and really shuts down in the "red zone."This is an "offensive coordinator" problem. Whoever he is, he is not getting it.

The Zips have a dire kicking deficiency. It was a factor in the CMU game. It could be the difference between winning and losing on Saturday. I think Brookhard understands this and has worked overtime this week to solve this problem.Do you agree or disagree? Why?

in the ABJ report on the game today.It is JD's job and that of the entire coaching staff to get the team to consistency. In each of the games this year we saw spots of excellence but not enough consistency.The Zip defense has shown the most consistency while the offense spurts and sputters. Both need improvement but mostly the offense. The kicking game is non-existent and therefore consistency is a pipe dream.Achieving consistency is the next step in the maturation of the Zips football program. The game against the flushes is the time to bring it all together. If the Zips play four quarters of consistently good football it will not matter that Can't State has improved much from last year. Talent-wise they are behind the Zip program.One more note: If the Zips play consistenly well they will win most if not all the remaining games. An Akron team that plays the 2006 season ant 12 wins (including the MACC and a bowl game), 2 losses will be a gate draw in 2007 if not for the ramining home games this year.Fans will brave bad weather to see a good team! So there is stil hope that attendance will pick up in 2006. The question is: can the Zips achieve consistency?,

Aah, Mr. Branch Rickey. One of my all time favorites. A man who had the foresight and courage to bring Jackie Robinson to the major leagues.GP1 does choose good sources, however, in his first contribution to this discussion he cherry picked the "design" quote. He redeemed himself by giving the entire quote which serves to support GP1's point while not invalidating mine."Luck is a fact." But I am quick to affirm GP1's point (if I may paraphrase) that luck most often happens to those who prepare themselves and, of course, the converse of that.My expression to my students is "putting one's self in a position to succeed." However, notwithstanding being throughly prepared, people (teams) get underservedly lucky while sometimes the unprepared get rewarded with fortuity.My take on JD so far is that there is not enough evidence that he has generated a well prepared team that just falls into having fortunate things happen to them. Over time that may happen and there is some evidence that it is happening (NCST may be a point of evidence but Central Michigan militates the other direction). Akron had every incentive to defeat CMU (losing a 17 point lead last year, building for a good crowd at the North Texas game tomorrow, et cetera) and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory (I think we were good enough [talent wise] to win the CMU game). My question is did the coach get in the way? I know GP1 will not like the question but I pose it anyway.Why would you try a pass like the one returned 100 yards when you could have tried something much safer. A fourteen point turnaround is difficult to overcome. Taking that kind of risk is not putting oneself in a position to succeed. An interception is one thing, bringing it back for a 100 yard touchdown is somethng else.Also, we passed the ball down field only to get bogged down in trying to run the ball in. Obviously, the coach forgot the narrowest of margins in scoring at NCST. The point being that Akron's offensive line is not exactly blowing people off the line of scrimmage. A part of point of putting oneself in a position to succeed in squaring up with what you do well and going with "whom brung you to the dance" in the first place. And when you do pass, why would it be on fourth down and to a tight end other than Kasparek who Getsy has much more of a history with.I like JD Brookhart but I am not ready to cannonize him. He has some growing to do as a coach and I am sure he would be the first person to say so.

.Good for JD. Certainly! Bad for Akron? Not necessarily. The Zips backed into the MAC Championship game in 2005 and got lucky in the game itself. Under Brookhart the Zips have been inconsistent. Remember Central Michigan, Army and Ball State last year.The Zips got help from other teams. It was not Brookhart's motivational and quality skill inculcation coaching that got them into the championship. If I were selecting a coach for the Hurricanes, Brookhart would be last on the list if on the list at all. He still has much to prove. Many of the ZipNation folks are premature in thei accolades they are hurling JD's way. Their exhuberance is happening because the Akron program has been pathetic since the Dennison era.As a long time Zip fan I hope JD pans out as being extraordinary. If he does, Akron will lose him. But the program will then be of such a quality that high quality replacements will be drawn to the program.

.Get familiar with this guy. He will be a hand full for Getzy & Company. Who will be guarding him? A double team all day?

J.D. Brookhart and the Zips are going national. Click here to see Frederick, MD News-Post column by AP Writer Ralph D. Russo.

Buckzip has it right. It is okay to listen to French if you understand he is a fan first and foremost. Sort of reminds me of Bob Wylie who did Zips basketball years ago. Colorful and passionate but the listener did not always know what was going on a given play. It took sorting out later in the broadcast or reading about it in the print media if it was deemed important enough to make it to print.

A terrific post.I read the pieces and find them incredible in terms of what Amato has to say.With all the advantages NCST has over the Akron program (facilities-wise) he cries over MAC schools having the "advantage" of giving "non-qualifiers" a second chance. Another advantage that Akron has over NCST is this: Akron's Brookhart is a quality coach, NCST's Amato is not. The Wolfpack fans know this and are in the process of running him out of town.We ZipNationers want to keep our coach in town!

Actually this will be a repeat of the Akron/Northern Illinois scenario last year.This the first of two games with the second being for the MAC championship. Akron wins this one 49 to 42.Akron wins the MAC 28 to 21.

If JD is making the progress he says he is, winning this game will be the proof of the puddng.Last year the Zips were ahead 17-0 when the wheels came off. But losing that lead and losing to a less than good Army team and the goofed up last play call at Ball State combined to be a big wake up call to the Zips and Brookhart. And the Zips have awakened and appear to be spiking upward!Progress this year will be evidenced by beating the CMUs, Buffalos and Bowling Greens comfortably. To get consistent national notice the Zips will have to the creme-de-la-creme of the MAC.The Central Michigan game will be an indicator of whether or not the Zips are on their way to establishing themselves as the class of the MAC

I remember Crouch hurting us last year with personal file penalties. Maybe we found out today that we have an alternative for him as starter and he will be a backup for the remainder of his senior season. If that happens, he has brought it on himself. What a downer after putting 4 years in and especially when the team is on the brink of being a big winner.I agree that we can discuss problems in the midst of our celebration. Maybe we will be heard and in this way contribute to having future occasions to celebrate.

ESPN is pushing this story but not the ABJ ONLINE.

Hope he coaches this way when Akron plays CMU. Captain is most likely referring to a weird formation where (if I recall correctly) it was the center and the quarterbace (in shotgun) by themselves 10 or 15 yards in from the sideline and the rest of the team more or less in the center of the field. BC played it perfectly. The quaterback got pressured even though there was only one defender rushing and threw an interception.Up to that point CMU was moving the ball very effectively in their normal set and it looked to me that there was a reasonable chance they were going to score and force overtime.Apparently, the coach couldn't stand success and he comes up with the weird formation and bingo - end of the game for CMU.CMU's quarterback, other than the interception, looked good to me and gives Akron something to think about when we play. One note on the PSU game. I was very unimpressed with Tate (Zips #5), anyone else have a comment on his play?

This is one of several measures of whether or not Brookhart is a value added coach.Every team has games that appear to be a sure win on paper or the topic described "landmind game.". What happens is that this presumptiousness is bought into by the team. There is no way human beings can avoid falling into this trap. Being overconfident is part and parcel of being human. But early identification and remedial action by astute, aware leadership (the cosch) can be the antidote to survive the inevitable snares.Effective coaches refuse to let their teams lose games because players went into the game not properly focused. If the team survives"landmind" games on a consistent basis then you have a coach that is a leader and a big time winner.Is Brookhart going to be this kind of coach?

Coach Dambrot confirms my point about James' impact on Zip Basketball from a recruiting standpoint (in an ESPN piece referred to in another ZipsNation post): "Our players have all pretty much played with LeBron or tried to guard him," Dambrot said. "He's kind of adopted us. He's so huge right now. It's amazing how we can get in the door [of recruits] with that connection. It's not all that different than with what [John] Stockton's done with Gonzaga."In less than 5 years Akron will be Gonzaga +

LaBron James was never ticketed to attend Akron University or any other college for that matter. We all know that. If college was in the cards for him, I would not have been surprised if he picked Akron because of the Dambrot connection.Being the class act he is, he has not forgotten his friends Dambrot, Travis and Joyce.Another post on Akron's 6'9" man (Sweich) proves my point about LaBron. LaBron did not look the prospect in the eye and say "go to Akron." He just talked about Dambrot's qualities. Dambrot is a coach that sells himself. LaBron knows this as well as if not better than anyone.We know about Sweich. Who else will be coming to Akron because LaBron speaks well of Dambrot and do so in a highly creditble fashion?As well a football has done and will continue to do, Zips basketball has an even brighter future - especially when a person of LaBron's stature speaks well of the head coach!

"STATE COLLEGE, Pa; Sept. 2, 2000 -- A veteran, poised and prepared Toledo team defeated Penn State 24-6 on Saturday before a stunned audience of 94296 ... "This from a google listing in response to a googling "Toledo beats Penn State."Will history repeat on September 4, 2006 with another MAC team beating the Nittany Lions? Or, are the Zips and their fans planning on being sacrificial lambs?Took a weekend trip to my hometown Gettysburg, PA (passing by Beaver Stadium as a backdrop as I headed south on 220) All my Gettysburg kin are Penn State fans. They had questions aplenty. It is clear to me that they think PSU will smoke the Zips on the arm of their quarterback.My response: "The Zips have a pretty good q-back of their own and the defense is getting better and better. Don't be surprised if the Nittany Lions get Toledoed by the Zips." Will I have to eat my words?