Blue & Gold

Wonder if the timing of the announcement concerning the fact we are ready & willing to put pretty big $$$ into our existing basketball facility (and not wait on voter approval for a new arena) is an indication of us trying to make a move?

http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/university-of-akron-to-renovate-rhodes-arena-instead-of-waiting-for-replacement-1.552824

I have to ref little kids ball once in a while. By little kids I mean basically non-competitive 3rd-6th grade. I HATE it. I understand what is meant by the referee "anticipating" the call. Sometimes it's next to impossible to see what just happened with the naked eye. Add to that the fact that half the crowd is upset with you, along with one of the two coaches being pissed at you, no matter which call you make & talk about an unenjoyable experience. Good grief. I have no idea why anyone would want to be a basketball referee.

Joshua Williams scored 28 last night as St.V/M beat nationally ranked St. Benedict's (NJ). http://www.ohio.com/sports/high-school/high-school-basketball-st-vincent-st-mary-63-st-benedict-s-n-j-57-irish-feel-free-to-stun-highly-ranked-gray-bees-1.551680

Liked seeing Gladden get the start. He needs a shot of confidence. He had a good game tonight against an athletically inferior opponent. Hopefully it carries over.

Anyone know what kind of offense would best suite Jacob Harrison, that stud 4**** QB from Dayton we have coming in after next season?

I'm on my phone & can't post the link, but per Marla Ridenour on Ohio.com, Tree is no longer enrolled at UA.

And I have to keep reminding myself the dude's only 19! Crazy.

7-0?! 89-61 win last night?! Good grief, we're a legit power

In comparing a true freshman Robotham to my two other all-time favorite PG's Dru Joyce & Jimmal Ball, I say Robotham is even better than both of those guys. Dru Joyce could launch a 3 from 8-feet behind the arc. Robotham (presently) doesn't have the insane range Joyce did, but he's really got a great 3-point shot which defenders have to respect. But unlike Joyce, Robotham is a much more dangerous threat to put the ball on the floor & drive to the hoop - something Dru never did a lot of. Jimmal Ball is one of the handful of most explosive players I've ever seen play (LeBron, Antonio Daniels & Bonzi Wells). I believe Jimmal was an Honorable Mention All-MAC as a true freshman. I was expecting Jimmal to be 1st-Team All-MAC for the next 3 seasons, but Jimmal never made First Team all-conference. After his first season through the conference, defenders learned to just take a step back off of Jimmal to take away the dribble-drive and make him shoot the ball & Jimmal's outside shot was always pretty inconsistent. Can't take a step back off of Noah or he'll light you up.

I love Zippy. But I much prefer the "Z" logo to the A-Roo logo. I don't care much for the A-Roo. The "Z" is, as the kids say, sick! I used to love the old-school Zippy who was running/hopping & making "#1" with his finger. Don't know what ever happened to that classic logo.

I'll admit I was one who thought Kwan should have been redshirted last season & then when Tree was indefinitely suspended from the team this year, I definitely thought we were gonna go down in flames. I don't believe I've ever seen a player make a bigger jump from one season to the next. Maybe Jimmy Conyers. In another thread I called Kwan's development breathtaking & said I couldn't believe my eyes. I like how another poster said it's "almost too good to be true." It really is. Also, does anyone remember a Zips team that played so well together as a team? They're really playing some beautiful team basketball right now that's a joy to watch. Robotham's the revelation. But I primarily attribute this to Pat Forsythe. The guards get the ball to Pat (who is a bigger scoring threat that Big Zeke was) but if nothing's there he doesn't generally force up a bad shot & passes the ball back out (much more quickly than Tree ever did).

You're probably right. I guess the point I was trying to make was that I don't attend a huge, mega-church. We simply have two guys who volunteer their time (not much time, either) & run a successful internet stream. You'd expect a D-1 university to be on the cutting edge of technology. It's shameful, really.

Could it possibly have to do with the number of fans attempting to access the video stream? Lack of bandwidth, or something? I'm NO techie. I just know our church streams it's services online without a hitch, but we typically only have between 10-15 people attempt to view the stream at any one time.

Looking at the box score, I see BJ Gladden didn't play last night. Anyone know the reason for that? I was hoping he'd get some quality game minutes against the cupcakes; he's still gotta get his D-1 legs underneath him.

Thaaaaaaank you.

This is an appropriate way to describe Kwan's development. I still can't believe my eyes when i watch him play. During one of the brief instances when my video feed was actually working last night, I heard Joe Dunn comment that if Kwan keeps developing, the NBA is a real possibility. Steve French agreed. Kwan's still only 19 years old, for crying out loud!

Video was simply unwatchable and froze up permanently for me with about 18 minutes to go in the second half. Aggravating, and embarrassing. Surfed over to 1350 am to just listen to Steve & Joe and they were already in postgame wrap-up.

Well would you look at that - Eastern Michigan coming in at #20 with a 6-0 record?! Good for them.

I like this quote from Dambrot on Antino: “[Antino] is a great kid, but he is erratic emotionally, which causes him to have erratic play,” Dambrot said. “But there is nobody in America that if he is right can keep him in front of (him) because he can shoot the 3-ball, he can shoot the pull-up and he can drive it and handle the ball well. He is just not all the way there yet. ..." http://www.ohio.com/sports/zips/ncaa-men-s-basketball-akron-coach-keith-dambrot-seeks-more-consistent-play-from-zips-1.545892

Hope Big Dog & BJ get a lot of PT.

It worked fine on my MacBook Air. Good game. Bryant was on fire from behind the arc. Robotham the real deal once again. Liked seeing Robo (freshman), Tino (freshman), Big Dog (soph.), Kwan (soph.) & Deji (senior) finish out the game. Another solid game from Pat. He's legit.

Go Zips! (It feels good to say that after yet another football debacle.)

Lame effort all around. Did the coaches and players mail that one in? How is that possible when there was so much at stake? *Sigh*... Whatever. Tired of Pohl's sissified throwing motion & non-leadership. It's between Kincade & Chapman next year. It would help if one, oh, just one, of our WR's was capable of getting separation. We stink.

I was a little hesitant to get excited about Noah because, whether it's accurate or not, I have the impression that most highly coveted recruits sign during the early signing period. So I was a little skeptical. (Also, a number of years ago we signed a rather highly touted recruit from out west - Colorado's all-time leading scorer if I remember correctly. Brian something? He ended up just simply not being able to play at this level. So that also tempered my enthusiasm.) Anyway, now that I see Noah's game I cannot believe we signed him. He is absolutely legit. I can't believe Power 5 conference teams weren't climbing all over each other trying to sign him. I mentioned in another thread: best freshman I've seen play for the Zips since Jimmal Ball. Jeremiah Wood was awfully good too. Okay... one of the three best freshmen I've seen play for Akron. His court presence is like having a 5th-year senior out there. Just unbelievable.