Blue & Gold

I hope any newbies had fun & were made to feel like part of the group.

This is exactly where I'm at in my thinking, Keener. Of course I'm for anything that maximizes the UofA. I don't care what it is. But I don't hate the MAC. I think we'd find ourselves in a nice position if we'd come to dominate this conference - much like what Boise does/used to do in the WAC. I have a handful of rivalries that I really enjoy: Buffalo, K.e.nt, Ohio, Miami. Plus budding rivalries with Toledo & WMU. But I've been an Akron fan for so long that my thinking may really be clouded. If Joe Akron isn't at all interested in those rivalries, no matter how much I may enjoy them, then okay, let's get out of the MAC. But presently, I'm not too hip with joining C-USA. As presently constituted, I don't think C-USA is much better than the MAC - just extremely spread out.

We are our own worst enemy. Teams don't beat us, we beat ourselves. However, sadly, we've shown we can do that with the best of them this year. For just one game, we could lose to anyone. Especially in the East. And now both WMU & Toledo seem to really be stepping up their respective games. My ranking of teams which worry me: 1) Buffalo (Western should have beaten them last night! McCray is an absolute beast. I love Reggie Witherspoon. Buffalo's legit.) 2) K.e.nt State 3) Western Michigan (They're healthy & Stainbrook is underrated. Right now Flenard Whitfield is playing like a MAC POTY candidate.) 4) Ohio And a distant fifth... 5) Toledo (Though I think we got their very best A+ game and we played like dirt. And still won. Comfortably.) 6) Miami (They've fallen off the face of the earth. But I'm still stinging from Penno's prayer.)

+1. Would you fellas attribute that mostly to our more up-tempo, above-the-rim style of play? -We play the same teams. -We play in the same crappy JAR. -We still get no coverage from Cleveland tv media. -The Akron Beacon Journal has done a nice job increasing their coverage of the Zips. But they've been pretty good for a couple years now. It's got to be the more exciting style of play, no?

And why, O why, can't they remember to turn the volume back on coming out of time outs? Such a basic task.

Unfortunately, I also had to witness that.

It does. I'm missing large chunks of the game. I did get to see Abreu's 3, so that was nice.

Got it! Hey, why not wait till the very last second?

No live internet feed. Naturally. Who would have expected anything more?

Due to my youth basketball league, I cannot make the NIU game. But please don't plan around me. If it's before the Miami game I could make it.

Hmm, very astute observation, Quick.

It's closed. No (too few) patrons. The city turned the beautiful structure into a middle school specializing in math & science. Whatever. Middle school students don't really specialize in math & science, no offense to any advanced middle schoolers out there . Hopefully the UofA will acquire the building one day. I'm sure the U could better utilize that very significant structure.

Amen. Unimaginably, the way he's playing right now is a down-right detriment to the team. The only way we make any noise in the NCAA is if he gets his head out of his can. Keep that big can near the paint, Nic.

I'd also be interested. I'd like to take the opportunity to shake his hand and thank him for thr good job he's done thus far. (And I'm with you, g-mann, in being less than thrilled when he was named Zips beat writer. But GT, I'm happy to say, has definitely proven me wrong!)

Amen. Good man.

Oooh, nice! Getting JT involved could be huge.

Oooh, NIU beat Miami 62-59!

Two arenas you should check out are both on tv tonight. At 9:00 on ESPN2, Virginia Tech plays at Miami-FL. Miami's new Bank United Center is a beautiful, new 8,000-seat facility. At 11:00 p.m., again on ESPN2, St. Mary's plays at Gonzaga. KD has specifically mentioned Gonzaga's McCarthy Athletic Center as an arena he really likes. It's perhaps a bit undersized, at only 6,000 seats, but it's obviously still worth checking out.

And his resulting 3 was straight as an arrow, it just rimmed out. Steve Mix even called it good while it was still in the air. Good shot. Great series by AA.

Happy Birthday, Yaznasty!

KD still rides Nic & McClanahan in crunch time. He obviously doesn't want to make an issue of their struggles. KD's said in the past (concerning free throw shooting) that sometimes the worst thing you can do is talk about a situation. So he doesn't point out free throw struggles, he just has the team practice them during the natural course of practice. He doesn't want it to get into their heads that, "Man, I'm no good at free throws!" This must be what he's doing with Nic & B-Mac. Neither of them are helping the team at all right now. Hopefully KD's strategy works & they keep their confidence up & snap out of their respective funks. (Nic, IMHO, needs a bit of coaching & needs to be told to get his 6'8" 240 lbs. down in the paint.) If they don't snap out of it, KD will probaby severly limit their PT (especially B-Mac's) during the MAC Tourney. Maybe even sooner (OU, K.e.nt & Buffalo) if KD is serious about winning the MAC East & getting the #1 seed.

Great developments. You're very familiar with what's going on! Thanks for the insight! As for the part of your quote which I put in bold, tiered entrance is also a new development, no? And the UA has been pushing for that for quite a while now, right?

STO's Steve Mix also stated last night that he didn't think OU was a very good road team. It kinda surprises me because John Groce seems like such a fiery competitor.

What does "STEM" mean? Is it part of the Akron Public Schools?

Sounds great. What's going on with the old Inventure Place property? It's a charter school now, right? That's an architecturally significant property that UA could really do something extraordinary with.