Blue & Gold

Euton, and not Green?

I know a couple of posters on ZN have seen Gilliam & Walsh in action. Can you describe their games? What could we expect from them next year? I'm even more curious about the mysterious Treadwell & Harney. Has anyone on ZN ever seen one of these two even step a foot on a basketball court? If so, please describe their games, respective styles, strengths, etc. What can we expect from these guys next year?

The last month has made me very excited for next season. Most excited I've been since the Ball & Bosley days. I was thinking the same. Well, I was also very excited during the Romeo/Dru days as well, but more so in the sense of where I felt they and KD were taking the program. Should be some easy marketing next fall. I'll give out a freebee. Market Zeke heavy. Horizontal ads should have waste to head shot of Z with both arms spread across page palming basketballs. YES! Vertical ads should have Zeke swatting some poor soul, possibly Hansbrough. Yes! Or Rodriguez Sherman. Huge downtown or campus banner on a building of Zeke with arms crossed taken from ground up angle. Nice! Don't be afraid to market the Canton area. Amen! Start preparing today. We won't.

Wow, how unfortunate that they've got Western Michigan playing Buffalo. That seems very strange.

Absolutely! Between now and then it's going to be fun speculating on a starting 5, a 10-deep roster, player positions (we've got some versatile athletes on next year's squad) player rotations, redshirt options, eligibility & transfer rumors, etc. I could see a starting five of: PG - Rico 2G - McClanahan 3F - Quincy 4F - Nik (keeping my fingers crossed!) 5C - GameChanger With a second five consisting of: PG - Walsh W - Gilliam W - Harney F - Treadwell F - Egner Battling for PT: Euton. *BUT, if Nik takes his talents to Serbia, then Euton will be an extremely important piece to the puzzle, as he'll be our only true big besides GameChanger. [edit] Oh, and it's also going to be fun watching next year's regular season as KD & the staff tinker to find good player combinations & the players also learn to play as a unit. It might be another rocky regular season next year, but the upside to this group of athletes is literally unlike any that I can ever remember the Zips having.

the color guy was ok...the play by play guy...spero dedes should be fired.....he's i think is the play by play guy for the padres & is the #7 NFL on CBS team....and rightfully so.....the color guy, bob wentzel FINALLY said akron beat Can't after of course akron beat iona repeatedly...how do you not prepare accordingly? The professional effort was embarrassingly poor.

I think that most of us are secretly crossing our fingers and hoping that Green transfers out. From what I've heard he probably isn't going to be much of a contributor at this level. And I think he knows it. He could transfer down a division and be a star. It'd be more fun for him - and open up a scholly for one of the non-qualifiers.

+1. And may I add, "PLEEEEEEEASE!!!!!!!!"

From the ABJ: Charlie Sheen filled out a bracket on the Dan Patrick Show and picked Akron to win it all.

The commercial is great. It may not appeal to most of us on this board, but it's not intended to. It's intended to appeal to Can't's target market - naive high school kids who are just becoming wise enough to resist the urge to pick their noses in public. Seeing a "hip" musician writing music for Hollywood does precisely that, even if we, being older and wiser, realize that that has almost absolutely nothing to do with the education he received at Can't. Just like delivering pizza has absolutely nothing to do with the education received at Can't. Or wait, maybe it does...

Please see the statistics on the two bottom seeds. Those games are a waste of time and money for those who buy tickets. I don't know if it would make the tournament less exciting. If a team was required to win their conference to get in like Akron is, we would still be in and just as excited. It would not detract from the non "BCS" conference tournaments, but it would make the big conference tournaments much more exciting. Want to expand the tournament? Make the conference tournaments mean something by requiring teams to win them to get in the NCAA. Why have another week of games in the NCAA Tournament when the conference tournaments could serve as that week? It actually becomes the "everyone in" scenario people want. There are a lot of ways to skin the cat, expanding and "growing" the Tournament isn't the way to do it. This would be an incredibly exciting scenario! Only the respective conference tournament winners are invited to the tourney. Fantastic! Unfortunately, that will likely never happen.

Great idea B&G....I just left a little note too. Again, the media gauges interest by the number of comments left after articles. This is a way for us to let the ABJ know to keep the Zips coverage coming!!! I agree. I always try to leave at least a little something for any Zips' article, even if it's just a "Go Zips!"

If you glance quickly at a snail, you might not think it's moving. But come back a few hours later and you'll find it's slowly crawled right out of sight. The national sports media's opinion of teams and conferences moves at a snail's pace. An opening round CBI/CIT victory produces about the same effect as quickly glancing at a snail. It will take many victories by many MAC teams over time to slowly change the national sports media's opinion on the MAC. But if the day ever comes that they do start talking about how the MAC has improved, they will mention many of the big regular season OOC and tournament victories as proof to back up their claim that the MAC has improved. It's a 3-phase process: 1. Start winning. 2. Continue winning. 3. Become recognized as a consistent winner. Phase 2 can't happen without phase 1, and phase 3 can't happen without phases 1 and 2. Good point. Most Columbus State fans I know (and I know far too many of them) deep down desire to see Michigan get their football program right again. The OSU-Michigan rivalry is really dying & Big 10 football has basically turned into a 1-team conference. The Columbus State fans, though they "hate" Michigan (for, you know, whatever reason. Because they're supposed to, I guess.) wish Michigan would get their act together for the sake of the entire conference - which pretty much anymore just gets chuckles & rolled eyes by the national media.

I think our current unis are LBJ unis. And, like you said, our shoes are "LBJ-Akron" basketball shoes, but not all of the guys have to wear them if they prefer another Nike shoe. At least I think that's the agreement. (But I do think they're supposed to wear a Nike shoe of some sort. No more adidas. I could be wrong.) Momma Zeke probably knows.

+1 She could be a ditzy blonde around me all day!

Great article. I just left Marla a complimentary comment. I love how she quoted Momma Zeke!!! Also, I do appreciate how she drew a comparison between Zeke and Anthony Ampaipatakwong (sp?) - saying Anthony was Caleb Porter's first nationally-recognized recruit and how Marshall was KD's. Others followed Anthony shortly thereafter. I'm glad the ABJ has a sportswriter who believes that Akron can take this program to the next level. (Unlike George Thomas who thinks he has a better chance of gaining superpowers than Zips football has of gaining national recognition. Geez, talk about a presuppositional bias against a program you cover? Strange. Very strange indeed.) Go Zips! We believe in AKRON!!!

I'm afraid I'm busy this Sunday night from 5-9 p.m. So, in case we do happen to pull the upset this Friday vs the Fighting Irish, has Sunday's 3rd Round Akron/ND winner -vs- Texas A&M/FSU winner gametime been announced or posted anywhere?

Yes! I think that everyone on the Earth now knows that Akron and Can't are exactly fourteen miles apart. I thought the team that did last weekend's ESPN game were much better. Kara Lawson really did her homework. Would like to hear her do more games. Geno Auriemma teaches 'em right. But, hey at least it wasn't Chones and Reghi, JC don'know what town he's even in man. I didn't! I actually heard it was 7. What is that fourteen? A round trip. LOL, no one stays in Can't. If you drive the schools are about 13ish-14ish miles apart (per mapquest). However, "as a crow flies," so-to-speak, it's only about half that.

Of course I hope you are right, but I also saw that commercial and I think it said UConn. Figures. UConn, yeah, there's a stretch, eh?

Only if they win. which Buffalo did. Buffalo's tough. MAC Freshman of the Year & absolute beast Javon McCrea, though only having one foul, still only played 20 minutes & only scored 6 points. Hmm.

I have absolutely no idea what this means.

GoZips.com MAC Championship video. Very well done! Will definitely get you fired up!

I'm probably showing my age, but I think we'd all agree that twitter is kind of weird. But, it can also be interesting. Here are tweets from Dru Joyce, Romeo Travis, LeBron James & (mostly) from our very own Graduate Assistant Willie McGee before, during and after the Akron game. (i'm going to edit a few of these -only slightly- for grammar and content.) Willie: "Woke up feelin like its a great day to win a championship!!" Willie: "Woke up to greatness" Dru: "The Zips 5 MAC Conference championship games in a row... I got dance fever over here so I know we going to win tonight..." Willie: "You buy a ohio lottery ticket u get in the Akron vs Can't st. game free 6pm" Romeo: "Knock a b*tch out pick a b*tch up. Knock the b*tch out again y'all" Dru: "congrats on MAC POY but that's where it stops.. Tonight the Zips tryin on they dancing shoes" Romeo: "Akron win RT. Can't vs. Akron tonightttttt!!!! [near the start of the game] Willie: "I would ran thru they line... but I'm @$$hole like tht when come to competition... Willie: "LET'S GO!!!!!!!!!!" Willie: "They winnin the battle of the 50/50 balls.. and we've missed a lot opportunities.. we should be up 10!!!! Hmmmm" Willie: "Serb.. why u always helpin people up!!! :/" Willie: "6... it should be 12!! Take what I can get!! Let's get stops!! Willie: "Maaan this our game to win if we want it!!! They tryin give to use!!" [i think he meant "They're trying to give the game to us?"] Willie: "On the ball screen... get them moving!! Go Bret side!! Get the footer in space!! Willie: "Yessir D-Rob Willie: "Let's go Brett!!!" Willie: "Let's go dancing!!!!!!!!!" Dru: "Yesssssier.... Breakout the dancing shoes Akron Zips tourney bound.. LeBron: "Wanna say congratulations to Coach D and Akron U for winning the MAC championship and punching their clocks to the big dance!! LeBron: "Coach D gets the best out of his players every year!! great coach" Dru: "Wanna say congratulations to Coach D and Akron U for winning the MAC..." Willie: "This is why we do what we do" [posts pictures]: Willie's picture #1 Willie's picture #2 Willie: "Yesssssir!!!" [posts another pic]: Willie's picture #3 LeBron: "He the only GA I know that can tweet during the game lol (Haaaaaaa!!!! He's amazing for that)" LeBron: "Yesssssir!!! (we see u homie!! Yes sir)" [LeBron re-posts Willie's picture#3]: LeBron's tweet picture Willie: "Thanks Fam!!" Willie: "Yessir Akron zips baby!!!!!!!!!!" Willie: "On some OG sh!t... i'd like to Thank the players that paved the way for this tradition to get started at UA... Romeo Travis and Dru Joyce They have their hands all over this trophy!!!!" Willie: "No disrespect to Matt Futch, his finger prints are all over this trophy as well. I know he will do great next year. My bad fam" Willie: "Thanks fam!! congrats! 330 all day! Y'all put on for the city tonight!!!" Romeo: "MAC champs. Go Zips!!!!!!"

The Canton Repository has 12 nice pictures from Saturday's game. Canton Rep

How much taller will he be? Do you have any projections for height and weight gains between his high school senior year and college freshman year yet? Most high school boys do. Especially if they spend time in the weight room.