Blue & Gold

Pomeroy thinks UIC will only win one more game the rest of the year, yet we're only favored by 2 points?! Not terribly flattering.

Brett McKnight's status

A good point made in this article concerns our excitement about the cold Akron weather being a distinct advantage against the Cal Bears. However, Darren Mattocks - our true freshman leading scorer from Jamaica - isn't too thrilled about the weather conditions himself. I hope he's in top form! ABJ Story

Dysfunctional is a good description. It's confusing and flat-out just doesn't make sense how we could have, no... SHOULD have beaten the MAC champs?! We're probably the worst team in all of D-1A football, get absolutely rolled by NIU, yet... whatever, it does no good to try and understand it. Again, the MAC is so pathetic it's just begging for a mediocre school to dominate the conference and garner illegitimate Top 25 rankings. Come on, iCoach! Make us that illegitimate Top 25 team!

"Match" - game "Header" - hitting the ball with your head "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLL!!!!!!" - score

We really must have been. We got absolutely blasted by NIU but really should have beaten Miami. Goodness, the MAC is there for the taking. As we all know, it really doesn't take a whole lot to win in this conference. NIU was undefeated in conference play, and had that Top 25 ranking which I so covet. Come on, iCoach! Work your recruiting magic!

330 > 216 Here's a tweet from Dru Joice on last night's beat down: "it ain't nothin but drunk people in the stands tryna entertain themselves with erroneous cheers #sad" Here's a couple from Willie: "Understand!! He could go for easy 50 tonight... Nall... Nall... But I a SAY... NALL... He aint gon do tht... You happy NOW Cleveland!!! Lol" "SWENSONS won B!TCH#S, KINGJAMES won B!TCH#S, #AKRON is the SH!T B!TCH#S!!" "ya boy bout to have the Q quiet as hell tonight haha < Mouse in the House Lol" And from Romeo: "I wish I cud b sittin at tha Cavs game w/ [Willie]... I'm sure I'd b dying laughing>wouldve been nice"

It's a challenge, but I'll give it a shot 1. How many downs will Ryan Bain play this year? 2. Will the next hoops arena be built downtown or on-campus? 3. When will the Zips finally win by 14 so that Zipmeister can start up his long-desired gambling web site? 4. What's going to happen if the MAC only has 5 soccer playing members left???? 5. Can we fix the blasted audio on these ZTV reports already? 6. Will we begin the 2011 gridiron campaign in the infamous "Bottom 10"? 7. Hey, what's with the band taking up all of the seats on the lower portion of the JAR? 8. Did you hear LeBron is refusing to urinate or defecate in the Q during his 1st game back, instead preferring to "hold it" until his armada makes its way to the Summit County line? 9. When will Zips and Buckeyes ever learn to "just get along"? 10. When is the NCAA going to enforce the attendance clause on us and send us back to 1-AA??

1. Akron 2. Toledo 3. Ohio 4. Buffalo 5. Temple 6. Northern Illinois 7. UMass 8. Army 9. Navy 10. ECU 11. Marshall 12. Western Kentucky Rather decent conference.

Yes. But one good thing about the MAC is that it provides the potential opportunity for a very mediocre, even below-average, FBS football team to go undefeated in conference & garner a Top 25 ranking. If we're ever going to dominate a conference, the MAC provides the best opportunity to do so.

Well, that throws a massive wrench in things. The rumors were there, but i thought it was just fanciful thinking because the logistics are much too complicated. I expect the MWC will invite more teams on a reactionary basis in the near future. This is a ridiculous development. Texas Christian in the Big East?! The BCS should revoke the Big East's BCS status. They're simply not worthy. lol you realize they are ranked #3? not to mention, who would their bid go to? The MWC who lost utah, tcu and byu? I meant that the Big East is a lousy BCS football conference, not that TCU is a lousy football school. I just think it's an extremely strange geographical fit to have TCU join the Big East & reveals how desperate the Big East is for relevance/strength in football.

Well, that throws a massive wrench in things. The rumors were there, but i thought it was just fanciful thinking because the logistics are much too complicated. I expect the MWC will invite more teams on a reactionary basis in the near future. This is a ridiculous development. Texas Christian in the Big East?! The BCS should revoke the Big East's BCS status. They're simply not worthy.

Thank you, GameChanger! Should be a tough game.

This is the guy the Zips needed: Local product. Dropped 42 on Can't last night. Wasn't pursued by the Zips?! C.J. McCollum Needed

Sadly, this truism is my main source of optimism.

We're not losers anymore! Well... at least we're not total losers anymore! 1-11

Great post. Very real problem. We have to compete with the Cavs, so, while an NBA game is oftentimes more akin to a Harlem Globetrotters game than real basketball, the environment is certainly entertaining as-all-get-out from tip-off to final horn. You can tell our Athletics Department puts about 5-minutes of work into the gameday experience planning. I like all of your ideas, and I know it most likely took you 30-seconds to list your ideas off the top of your head. Sadly, like I recently posted in reply to another thought, it is painfully clear that posters on ZN.O put much more time, passion and thought into solving these problems than our paid UA Athletics Staff do.

Can someone explain how making more empty seats helps? Even if there are two seats taken up per band member (which there aren't) there are still tons of empty seats. Heck, the whole drumline came and stood by the band for the first half and the other side was still 75% empty. The only time it was/will be an issue every year is high school band day and the Can't came when half the people down below are sitting down and/or texting the whole time instead of cheering. It will help by encouraging the upper levels to actually make noise. What is the purpose of having the band? Is it just to have more students cheering for the team? If that's the case you can just disband and let the members show up as normal students. The purpose of the band is to get the crowd pumped up. Right now they are either next to or playing directly at the people who need fired up the least. So what if the seats you vacate remain empty? I would have the upper bowl be rocking and a sparse but fired up student section than have the crowd be as boring as it is now. Or maybe you could listen to my suggestion of moving the students and filling up the end sections with reserved tickets. Then you solve both problems, the upper crowd is fired up by the band and the end seats aren't empty while also unifying the students into one force much louder than they can be currently. For the record, I love this idea. If all the ROWDIES had part of the reserved seats behind the opposing team's bench, and then maybe the South side remains as it is, with ROWDIES and then the band where we usually are. This still has students in two spots but its two adjacent spots that are essentially right next to each other. Also, I think (I could be mistaken) that it is just common practice for pep bands to be situated on the floor. In most areans though I don't think the sections behind the baskets are only four rows. Anyway like I said I like your new seating idea, I just don't know if any of the decision makers would actually be down for that. I like what this thread has turned into. Very creative brainstorming. Sadly, posters on ZN.O obviously put way more time, thought and passion into solving these problems than do the paid professionals in our UA Athletics Dept.

Yeah, because then a hundred more students would show up and there would be no empty seats.... Let's use some common sense. Hey, btw, the UA drumline performance @ halftime was GREAT!!!

Wow! Congrats on that one - he's an outstanding ball player!

Alden was also named to the more prestigious All-Beacon Journal Team, comprising players selected from Summit, Stark, Portage, Medina & Wayne counties (St.V/M's DB Doran Grant was named ABJ POTY): Quote: Alden Hill Marlington, junior 6-2, 220, RB Set the single-season school records with 1,756 yards rushing and 28 touchdowns alongside fellow junior 1,000 yard rusher Dymonte Thomas. Averaged almost nine yards per carry to help the Dukes post a 10-0 regular season record and reach the Division III state playoffs. Named the Associated Press Division III Northeast Inland District Offensive Player of the Year. iCoach better be all over that Marlington-Buchtel game.

Good post. In a few preseason threads I mentioned that I was already more excited about NEXT year than I am about this year - I didn't think we were going to be very good this year. However, our game against Dayton made me think we might have a surprising year THIS YEAR. I'm back to looking forward to next year. I just have my fingers crossed that the two non-qualifiers qualify!!! And you mentioned Norris Cole. That guys great! Did CSU recruit him out of high school? Were we all over that guy's jock trying to get him to come to Akron?! Their guards got into the lane almost anytime they wanted to last night. That's athleticism. We couldn't stop their penetration - AND they could hit from the outside. Once again, as has been a recurring theme since Romeo graduated, we got out-athleted. Oh, and CSU used their athletes to play great defense. We didn't get many easy looks all night long. We'd pass & pass & pass & pass & launch a contested 3. Sometimes we'd hit. They'd run on the inbounds play & make a layup. Not a good formula to get the crowd into the game.

And on the other hand, this is a good point too. If the soccer Rowdies (or perhaps they're merely students) would come to the JAR the place would be packed and jumping. It's absolutely pathetic if it requires a #1 national ranking to get students out to an athletic event. I understand not wanting to set foot in the Info right now, but the basketball game last night was one of the nation's premier mid-major match ups of the entire season! Why weren't more people there?

I loved that cheer. I was very disappointed when no one heeded the Rowdies call. But don't give up. Keep on keeping on. The team needs you to! (I was in upper GA & I stood up ) There is a culture issue here. I took a friend to the game last night, and walking from the parking deck to the JAR he noted, "Pretty somber crowd for a basketball game." He noticed that the crowd of people we were walking with weren't even talking much amongst themselves, let alone shouting "ZI - PS!" or something... anything. I don't know what to think about that - and frankly, I was a bit enlightened when my friend made the outsider's observation - being an "insider," I had taken the quiet walk for granted. Maybe something strange is up with UA athletics? And did anyone notice the "Sweetheart of the Night," that Zippy picked out? God bless her many times over, but she must have been 75 years old - sitting in lower reserved. Those sorts of people aren't going to rival the Cameron Crazies anytime soon. For the first time I'm thinking we just need to renovate the JAR - lower the capacity a bit by getting rid of the bleachers & move the upper sections forward by removing the track. If the JAR is that quiet during a game, could you imagine how the limited noise we presently have would absolutely dissipate in a real arena?