Blue & Gold

Quincy had an outstanding game, leading the Zips w/ 18 points on 6-for-6 shooting! And I love the way he pushes the ball up the court. I had about had it with our walking the ball up the court the past 4 years. Having said that, defense will probably be the deciding factor tonight. We simply must contain Justin Greene, Rodriguez Sherman & Michael Porrini. If any other flush beats us, so be it.

Someone else mentioned this earlier & elsewhere, but the MAC is doing itself NO favors by showing bias against a 4-star 7-footer coming into the league.

And Can't State still sucks! Justin Greene really struggles against Zeke. Zeke absolutely must be able to stay on the floor tonight. Porrini also had a monster game last night against Ball SUck. If we can 1) keep Zeke on the floor to frustrate Greene & 2) contain both Porrini & Rodriguez Sherman we'll win the game.

Skillet rocks!

Thanks for keeping tabs on recruiting, Zach. Both RB LaKeith Walls & OLB K.e.n.t. Kern look like very intriguing prospects, who haven't been offered by every Top 20 team in the nation - exactly the sort of player iCoach should be looking at. Walls, a RB @ 6'4" & 200 lbs. reminds me of former Zips recruit & Massillon product Christian Morgan. Morgan was listed @ 6'4" & 215. Walls will most likely add @ least 10 pounds to his frame between his junior & senior seasons. (I know, I know, Morgan never amounted to much. None-the-less, he was truly a physical specimen.)

This has been my thought all season long, though I've never mentioned it due to the fact everyone absolutely loves when Zeke blocks a shot. But I don't care if he ever blocks another shot ever again. I don't like it when Zeke leaves his feet & swats @ shots. I also don't like to see him lean in at all. I'd prefer to simply see him plant his feet and extend his 7'6" arms straight up in the air and just alter every shot taken.

Reminds me of VCU the other night. Didn't see VCU. Even when Miami was coming back, I had total confidence the Zips would win. Being down 28-10 or whatever the halftime score was is extremely difficult to come back from. It's like being down 1-0 at half of a soccer game...the mountain of point is too hard to close the gap on. In the CAA finals the other night VCU was down as many as many as 18 in the second half before cutting it to 1 with about 4 minutes to play. They never regained the lead and lost by 5. Great comeback, but there was nothing left in the tank. Miami really did look to be almost completely out of gas during that final OT. You can chalk their missed free throws up to rubbery legs.

Just a tad.

Since I'm the winner, whats my prize Bob Barker? I also was able to purchase two lower-level half-court seats. It was GREAT! I had a blast. I'm thinking about splurging for two lower-level season tickets next year.

If the news conference includes Tressel, then it's doubtful he's being let go, right?

It does sound like there is more to the story. When I heard OSU players were trading memorabilia for tats, that just didn't sound right. First of all, tats don't cost that much, secondly, a tat doesn't seem to be an even trade for memorabilia, and thirdly, an OSU player could easily get a tat done for free. I'm guessing they traded memorabilia for tats and a ton of cash. Then you have to ask, does the owner of a tat parlor make a ton of cash? Probably not. The parlor is probably a front for some other unlawful business; typical pay-in-cash, no receipts business. Shady. The US Attorney probably stumbled upon the memorabilia while investigating this money-laundering establishement.

That would be great! And, yes, Death Penalty to Columbus State football!!!

Good point. We won't get blue chippers here, but can KD coach the type of player to get to the sweet 16 like Waters did in '01 with Ken+ with no blue chippers? I want to stand in the ESPN Zone in Times Square and watch my team play in a sweet 16 game instead of watching Ken+ play with every NY fan there rooting for Ken+. I've never been so jealous of a Ken+ team in my life. If KD is the guy to do that great. How long should I wait?.... Is it wrong to want that? So to answer the original post, not satisfied, not complacent. GP1's analogy of Coach Cowher is a good one. I have had the same thoughts even though it's not apples to apples. I've always said that, as a Zips fan, I could die happy if our basketball team got to the Sweet 16 and our football program garnered a Top 25 ranking (25, 24, 23-ish). Of course, it would be great if those weren't one-time occurrences.

You noticed the same trend I observed.

Wow!!! That NewsChannel 5 story was 1 minute, 45 seconds in length!!! Coming out of Cleveland that is absolutely unprecedented news coverage for anything Akron-related!!!

I looked through this entire section and I don't see a single person really complaining. I think all of the comments have been fair and reasonable. The questions Big Zip started this section with were fair and could be asked at any point the last couple of seasons. Patience? This is his 7th season. He's the highest paid coach in the Athletic Department. Nobody thinks he should be let go. That sounds like we are being patient. With the exception of a small non-blinded minority, this board is a little too apologetic for the underperformance of the program as of late. This is Division I college basketball, not Walsh (although you wouldn't know that from our schedule). This is how people talk about programs at this level. Speaking of Walsh, they have an excellent young coach in Jeff Young. No pun intended, Zipmeister.

+1 I said before this season began that I was already more excited about next year. This year we're still a relatively un-athletic team. True, when we have Zeke, Quincy & AA on the floor we are more athletic than we've been since the Romeo Travis days. But not until next year will we be able to put additional athletes on the floor to supplement those three. Next year we'll most likely be the most athletic team in the MAC. Whether or not our athletes will be able to put the ball in the hoop remains to be seen. But the very real change in KD's philosophy (I appreciate his open-mindedness & seeming flexibility) has me very excited. This year I'm just cheering for this team to do the best that they can. I think if we're honest with ourselves we'd admit that, even if we do run the MACC table this week & make the NCAA tourney, unless we collectively go into unconscious-hot mode, we're going to get mauled by a team with athletes who can pressure our guards into poor 3-point shooting.

Well, you guys were absolutely correct. Though, of course, we want to win every game and we wanted to beat Ohio and we wanted to beat K.e.n.t, man, our side of the bracket is a much easier road to the championship game. Buffalo, K.e.n.t & Ohio are all on the opposite side of the bracket. If all goes well, our toughest opponents should be Miami and WMU. I'd much prefer to play those two than any of the previously mentioned three. If we just play our game we should definitely be playing in yet another MAC Championship game.

While watching the replay, the female ESPN commentator said there was no foul there. If I remember correctly, Zeke didn't even make contact with the Can't State player, let alone enough contact to warrant a foul call. And, in all honesty, that was the turning point in the game. Greene really struggles against Zeke, but not while Zeke's on the bench.

I did slightly edit my post. Instead of calling GT a "loser" (I shouldn't have done that) I referred to him as a person with a "loser-complex/mentality". But my re-post didn't post. I may have been banned from posting on the Varsity Letters blog? Jeez. I was literally one of the only people who ever commented about anything on that blog.

He removed my post. I thought he might. I'm glad I copied and pasted it to this thread. I may slightly edit and re-post it again.

good for him for showing some school pride. who cares? he's an alumni showing support for his school. +1 That was pretty cool of him. I'm glad he's so passionate. Great rivalry.

I actually think they gave up versus OU. It looked like they were looking to high-tail it out of the Convo even before halftime. (Perhaps KD sensed that as well and thus, as GP1 pointed out, called those late time-outs so the team couldn't just run off into the locker room?) I'm afraid that if the going gets tough @ Can't they may do the same. Can't is an athletic team who can pressure our guards and guard the 3-point line, generally not a good combo for us. Our team really seems to be composed of a bunch of friendly, upstanding guys that the community (not to mention their parents) can & should be proud of. However, they've really got to be able to flip a little bad-ass-switch once the game starts. So get angry, Zips! Get mean! Get aggressive! Look to abuse somebody out there! Beat that hippie-school down! Go Zips!

That guy truly is an ass, and perfectly illustrates the very real and deep image/self-image problem Akron has. Get over there and leave a reply to let him know we have higher aspirations for our city and university than he does. I just added a reply. I'll paste it here (the quote is from one of George Thomas' earlier replies): "The reality is I have a better chance of gaining super powers than the University of Akron football program does of becoming any type of national football power." This is exactly the loser mentality that universities such as Boise State, Hawaii, TCU, Utah, Brigham Young, Eastern Carolina, UCF and any other non-traditional power very likely also had to overcome. It's just sad that a loser like this has a voice at our local paper. This wrongful, damaging, and self-loathing perspective – that the Akron area and it's university are hopeless losers – has now been shown to be the underlying presupposition from which his articles will all spring. This comment betrays a very serious and troubling disposition against the University of Akron. Our city desperately, and may I repeat, desperately, needs less people like George Thomas and more people like Caleb Porter; people who firmly believe that Akron can excel and that the Akron area can cultivate and experience success. Please do the Akron area a favor, George, and move away… again. Go Akron! Go Zips!

This link is to the Ohio.com Varsity Letters blog, where the ABJ keeps tabs on potential scholarship recipients. This response, from ABJ sports columnist George M. Thomas, regarding two Buchtel football players, perfectly illustrates the very real trouble Akron has in both being taken seriously and in taking ourselves seriously. Akron has a deep inferiority complex. Linky What disheartens me most is that this is coming from an ABJ reporter. I know, I know, I'm showing my age when I'm concerned about the printed media, but, in the past, the printed media has been very influential in shaping a regions self-identity. It is very troubling when our city's own chosen voices don't believe in us. Our city needs more Caleb Porters.