Blue & Gold

Henry has verballed to VCU according to sources. Well that sucks. Just behind Remy Abell, Pierri-a Henry was the player I was most excited about possibly landing. Growing up in the Michael Jordan era, I love tall, athletic shooting guards - something we've not had in a very long time. VCU's really got something going on down there.

I agree. Gilliam's got great size & in reading his bio, looks like he'd be a very good pick up. Gilliam's UMBC Bio Zach's initial post stated that Gilliam took an official visit to Akron. Players enrolled in one college can take "official" visits to other colleges? That strikes me as odd.

Wow, how do you find this stuff, Zach? Anyway, if I remember correctly, the Zips were very high on Bryant in high school. He played @ the same prep school as Nik. In fact, I believe the Zips staff stumbled upon Nik while scouting one of Bryant's games. They offered him coming out of high school.

Honestly. It would have been nice to see Coach Brown dress up for this. I suppose the sloppiness of the others is excusable as they didn't know LeBron was going to ask them to come up on to the stage with him. But Coach Brown knew he'd be on stage w/ the other well dressed gentlemen & looks like a bum. Oh, well. Unfortunate faux pas. Coach Brown seems like a really friendly, humble guy.

This is probably the dumbest thread I've ever seen on ZipsNation. To have the hometown, 2-time NBA MVP hold his press conference on our campus is absolutely great. There is no other side to this. As far as being "humble?" WTF? Is LeBron aware that he's the best player to ever lace up Nikes? Hell yes. And not only is he from Akron, but held the presser in the JAR?! Lord have mercy on us all.

So how did it go? I was unable to attend.

But he is the Chosen One.

Right. What he's doing is fantastic. He's going out of his way to support UA. UA was mentioned at least twice on TNT during last night's playoff game. It'd be a lot easier for LBJ to just hold the press conference @ the Cavs training facility during today's run-through. God definitely broke the mold after He made 'Bron. He's truly one-of-a-kind.

Attending? They're employed by the sports marketing department. Hahaha!!! Now that was a good one!

Whoops! I'll bet iCoach's heart sank as soon as he realized what he'd done. I've actually done that myself. I was writing a text about someone (nothing too juicy) and accidentally sent it to that person instead of the intended recipient. It's easy to do. You're thinking about a certain person and, oops. Bit by multi-tasking. I'm actually rather disappointed about this one, though. I was excited to see what Lemon could do as a pass rush DE.

Awesome news, Jake! Thanks for the scoop! I really want to believe this, but is the construction of a new grandstand complete w/ facilities & pressbox physically possible between now and September?

Lol. Good one. I vote Jones. More multi-dimensional.

Just to get back to the AAU circuit point in here. Seems Akron 2011 recruit Nick Harney lit it up at the King James Classic, knocking out the home King James Shooting Stars (and Mr. Everything Jakaar Sampson) with a 21 point performance over the weekend for the Ohio Basketball Club. I wish the Beacon had given this tourney more coverage. Players you'd not want to miss, when & where to see them, box scores, tourney champion, etc., etc.

I love how I'm the only one who seems to do any research on these kids. This is about the only free article I can find about Justice's AAU exploits. In his return to AAU ball after a month off because of tendonitis he scores 18 in upset win for AAU team CBIZ over powerhouse All-Ohio Red (you remember them, the AAU team that features high-major recruits like Jared Sullinger, J.D. Weatherspoon, Adriean Payne, Stevie Taylor, Trey Burke and Traevon Jackson) at last years Bill Hensley's Memorial Run-n-Slam.<br /><a href="http://www.jjhuddle.com/news/articles/2009/5/5/justices-return-helps-fuel-team-cbiz-at-the-bill-hensley-memorial-run-n-slam" target="_blank">http://www.jjhuddle.com/news/articles/2009...rial-run-n-slam I guess we shouldn't let little things like facts get in the way of blind hatred though. Eaaaasy there, cowboy. "Blind hatred"?! Blind? Ok, I'll give you that. Lol. But "hatred?" Dude, way too harsh.

Well, I Googled Brock & got a little info. One scouting service says he's the best shooter in the state regardless of division. One OU Bobcat fan who saw him play said he has good hops as well. He is a natural scorer, so that's good - we do need a player who just wants to put the ball in the hole. One scouting service says he needs to work on his D. KD'll fix that. Another service said he is absolutely great shooting coming off screens (which we never do). I guess he's deadly if given time to square up. That's what worries me because it seems like often the small school deadeye just has to rush his shot too much to shoot well @ the D-1 college level. One OU fan observed his game reminded him of Bailey from Indiana a number of years back. Miami, OU & Can't were all after him, so he seems like a good MAC get! He was also apparently receiving a lot of mail from Notre Dame. Welcome aboard Brock! Glad you're here! Welcome to the family! And if you're reading this, stop now and never come back! We're just a bunch of fans who don't really know what we're talking about! Lol. Go Zips!

Hey, I know absolutely nothing about this dude. But I can say I'm not at all excited about this one. I don't want Podunk's top scorer (we've had this type of player before and none have panned out - McClanahan.) I want a player who's torn up the AAU circuit. I wanna see Remy Abell in the blue and gold!

It is for a lot of reasons the BCS teams want it as it is. Instead of a BCS team playing one other BCS level team and three cupcakes at the beginning of the year to fill their pockets, they would actually have to compete against top level competition every week. Look at the winners of the SEC, PAC10 and Big 12....does anyone really think they would want to play one another the first three games of the following season? Close to home, does tOSU want to play USC, Navy, Can't and OU? Or do they want to play Alabama, USC and Texas the first three games of the season. They want the cupcakes because it gives them three practice games played at home before conference games. Is it fun to go to bowl games? Yes, we almost never go so I almost forget how fun it is. The bowls could remain in place for the non-top 40 teams if it makes the fans feel good. From the looks of the stands in MAC bowl games, I don't think people are too excited about the games we go to anyhow. Nobody goes. Is it fun to play Big Ten teams every year? No, it is a complete waste of time serving only to pad the pockets of the schools and giving MAC schools 1-3 starts to seasons. If the NCAA is interested in competition in lieu of money, the Top 40 conference makes sense. Are upsets fun? Yes, too bad they are few and far between and getting worse. I would love to see the mid-majors simply ban together for one or two seasons and refuse to play the BCS schools non-conference. Force them to play each other. Then I'd assume we'd have more unbeaten mid-majors as well as less unbeaten BCS schools. This would probably force the pollsters to include more mid-majors in the Top 25. Also, if a program like the one you propose were instituted, I'd hope it was an open system and not set-in-stone, so to speak. Some kind of point system where the bottom handful of teams from the BCS-40 (?) and the top handful of teams from the Non-BCS-40 would switch out. This would give programs the opportunity to better themselves, i.e., no caste system. Would the model of your proposed system allow for that? Doesn't the european soccer circuit do something like this? Each team has to have a certain # of points to be in the "major leagues"? Z.I.P.? If the system would be open/fluid, I think I'd be for it. However, if the system were a caste system, I think I'd be against it. This is simply because I wouldn't be half as interested in Zip football if we were currently an FCS school. There's just something about trying to compete @ the highest level. I'd much rather be in the FBS Top 25 than be FCS national champ.

It's halftime & Howard has only gotten a couple of carries - whenever Tyson Gulley wants a breather. Tyson is obviously the man on the North squad & Tyson may not even make the Top 10 list of RB's from Akron in the past 10 years. So hey Erick, good riddance & don't let the screen door hit you! Lol.

Well, I'm watching the Ohio North-South All-Star football game and it appears Tyson Gulley beat out Howrd for the starting) spot for the North. Idk, maybe Howard will get a bit of PT later in the game. Btw, Dylan Potts made the first tackle of the game.

I also like having YSU on the schedule. I really enjoy the NE Ohio rivalries.

Lol. Maybe he'll be a star with the Canton Legends! Lol.

I wasn't able to make the banquet. More info from the 'Nation, please!

Like you said, surprise, surprise. Whatever. Anyhow, I'm just a hair less excited about Gorgio Bowers than I was about Howard. On film, Gorgio looks quite a bit more explosive than Howard anyway. Howard was your typical north-south guy. Gorgio is a slab of muscle but can also juke a bit & run away from D-1 players. I'm not so confident about Howard's breakaway speed; just by watching film I think it may have been exagerated if it was listed @ 4.5. Plus Gorgio can stay academically eligible too! Lol.

I was thinking the same. Also, there may be some leftover Big East teams to join this group.

Naturally, there are going to be both positives and negatives to both the MAC & C-USA. Positives: MAC: natural geographic rivalries, established rivalries, easy road trips to away games. C-USA: stronger conference, slightly more name recognition. Negatives: MAC: lousy conference, waaaaaay over-saturated w/ Ohio schools. C-USA: no (few?) natural geographic rivals, forget about road trips to away games; airline tickets required for the most part. Just two thoughts. 1. I have no illusions of UA ever competing for a national championship in football. I don't think anyone does. But I do think UA could be an occassional Top 25 program. That's my dream & what I hope for and if I live to see that day I can die a happy Zips' fan. Thus, I would much, much rather be an occassional Top 25 FBS program than an occassional FCS national champion. And I do think an occassional Top 25 ranking is a realistic goal. 2. I feel that presently we should simply focus on the MAC. Dominate the crappy conference we are in. Become the Boise State of the MAC. If we do that, then we can possibly cross a bridge or two if the opportunity arises. First things first. We were in the dark ages w/ the Rubber Bowl. Lee Owens had to work with the very worst facilities in all of D-1 football. Think about that for a bit. Let that sink in. We had the very worst facilities in all of D-1 football. The facilities JD had at his disposal were getting much, much better. Now Coach I has some of the finest facilities in all of college football (outside of the Top 15-20 BCS schools.) I think we're finally in a realistic position to begin dominating MAC football. By the way's: 1. I do enjoy our rivalries w/ K.e.n.t. & Ohio (...and Miami... to a lesser degree). If we chose to do so, we could maintain those rivalries even w/ a move to another conference. 2. I think we should get real friendly w/ Toledo, Buffalo & Temple, as we are all similar universities and make for good rivals and all fit the profile of the "Big East-type" of urban institutions. P.s. I also agree with the sentiment of enough with the dead horse comments. This is a freaking Zips sports talk board & there's only a limited number of topics to throw around.