Blue & Gold

Here's a really nice article by GT with a youtube interview w/ KD embedded into the article. Nifty! George Thomas on the big OU rivalry.

Niiiiiiiice!

Absolutely!

I was hoping for either Butler or New Mexico until I read this. Okay, now I'm hoping for Iona!

I'm with Skip & going 3,500. Zips games just aren't community events yet. How has the pre-game hype been from the Cleveland tv stations... oh, wait. Nevermind. Go Miami Heat!!! & Go Akron Zips!!!

Hipsher recruited Keith McCloud pretty hard and Keith wanted to be a Zip, but chose BGSU because we already had Ball & Bosley. Unfortunately, McCloud winded up being better than even either of those two (of course, he probably wouldn't have progressed as much as he did had D-Hip been berating him for four years).

I was able to listen. It was a good 20-minutes long and excellent! Coach Bowden is getting the entire area excited for Zips football! Coach Bowden didn't say anything we haven't heard before, but Sam Burquin (sp?) and Joe Palmasano both admitted how excited they are for the future of Akron football!

Bringing the Canton Civic Center into consideration is a good move. It's a hockey arena and seats, what, 5,000? It does have one end chopped off for a stage, IIRC. Of course we'd build something far superior to that poor old lady, but that can give a good visual concerning appropriate scale. We'd need an 8,000 - 10,000-seat facility? So half the size of the Q, but twice-ish the size of the Canton Civic Center. (edit:) With a relatively LOW roof! We need to keep the noise in there! Even the Q is usually pretty quiet (of course the Cavs have a lot to do with that). That's why they NEVER turn that blaring music off! There's ALWAYS either music blaring or an MC screaming. It's IMHO, pretty hokey - needless to say, not a college basketball environment which is more focussed on the band, students and THE GAME!

Finely worded, Skip. It's a bit difficult to put these concerns into words, as I don't know the proper jargon. But talk concerning sideline seating versus corner and baseline seating works well. I also like how you've phrased "open air space." I'll say you coined the phrase and I'm going to use it. this is a MAJOR concern as well. (In fact, all the open air space is probably a bigger factor in KD not wanting a hockey arena than the distance of baseline and corner seating from the court - though the problems do go hand-in-hand.) These are serious issues. Look, I'm for a new arena of any kind. Mainly, I just want OUT of the JAR. I'd be just as excited over a hockey arena as I would be over a basketball arena. However, with a hockey arena I'd be awfully concerned about the place looking empty and being as quiet as church even if we had a crowd of 6,000.

It was a good article. He put a lot of work into that one. I left him a Thank You in the comments section.

Is it just me, or is Harney a better ball handler than Q? Who would you rather have bring the ball up the court, Harney or Q? Who would you rather see drive to the basket, Harney or Q? Who would you rather see take the last shot, Harney or Q? I think I'm with Harney on all three accounts. Q is great, but Harney is even greater!

KD does A LOT that I don't understand. But I'm like you in that I have to remind myself that he's forgotten more about the game of basketball than I'll ever know. Also, it's not just KD, per se. There is an entire coaching staff who have sit-down meetings to formulate strategy. So obviously they're all on the same page? Either that, or KD rules with an iron fist and the assistants just do a good job of biting their lips.

Wouldn't it be nice to see Cameron Black wearing blue and gold and backing up big Zeke?! Man! And he wanted to be a Zip!!!

I wasn't able to catch this week's show and my dvr didn't record it. I thought I had my dvr set to record all future Zips Live shows, but apparently not. I was pretty dissappointed, as I'm really enjoying the show.

7:14. Got it now!

Nothing for me either.

I'm not a huge fan of hockey arenas either, but to be fair, that 35-foot side differential would be divided by two, so that the sideline seating would be pushed back 17.5 feet on each side. Frankly, that doesn't bother me that much. In a hockey arena, it is the baseline and corner seats which are so atrociously far from the action when watching basketball. (Especially since we're not talking 15,000-person crowds as in the NBA & some -definitely not most- major college crowds.) Even in an 8,000-seat hockey arena, that 4,000-person VCU crowd would have appeared awfully sparse and you would have been able to hear a pin drop in there.

Believe it, or not, it was actually George Thomas who scooped that! Way to go, GT!!!

Done! Thanks!!

Good catch! Dumb spell-correct on my iPad. Can I turn that function off?!

If you're willing to do the work, Zach, I enjoy it as well. And with most schools going after the same recruits, we should expect to not get most of the players who we offer. Wonder what an average ratio would be? Maybe a school would land one-out-of-20 players they offer school lies to? It really shines a light on the strategery[sic] of recruiting.

Gorgeous facility!

+1. Less B-Mac, please. (Though, just as I say that, we really might need a great game from Brett vs the BGSU zone.)

Now that's a MLB that I could see blowing plays up behind the LOS!

Yeah, personally, I dislike hockey arenas for basketball. I'm hoping for a national-class basketball arena. Here is another beautiful basketball arena - Southern Cal's Galen Center.