Blue & Gold

When the Akron Aeros were having their name the team contest, I submitted the name "Zeppelins." I thought it'd be a great name, and both the Zips & the baseball team would have nicknames that started w/ "Z." How unique would that be? A-Z.

I think that Columbus State and Texas are the only two schools who actually make $ off their athletic programs (i.e., football). Every other school in the country loses $. But I'm supposing that every school in the nation, OSU & Texas as well, essentially consider athletics an advertising expense.

Great post. Thanks for the maturity, civility and intelligence in your disagreement. I'm not a big internet chat room kinda guy (this is the only internet sight I am active on, well, now that I think about it, I do occasionally post on Rasor's blog @ Ohio.com) But, in my limited experience, I get the vibe that, when online, it seems to be taken for granted that if you disagree with someone you are supposed to be combative about it. So, cool, you really made some good points!

I can't get anything. Any updates?

What is his talking about Akron doing for the city? I'd have his back if I though he had a meaningful impact on the City, but he doesn't. Making people feel good is not meaningful. -"Making people feel good is not meaningful." I do see what you mean, GP1, but I don't agree with the above quote. "Making people feel good," is basically all that sports do & all they have to offer people: develop a sense of community. Not much more, not much less. But that is powerful. LeBron is definitely starting to define that Akron is an entity unto itself. (Perhaps, sadly, emotionally weaning the baby away from mamma, so-to-speak, is a pertinent illustration?) Painful, but necessary for growth/identity/self-esteem. I think that, psychologically, this is a very healthy and long overdue step for our community (a lot of people don't like the idea right now, but that's okay - I once heard a humorous quote that went something along the lines: "Don't worry about others stealing your ideas; if your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats." How many babies like being weened from mamma? Not many, but it's healthy.) The whole "consequences of an idea" phenomena. Of course, it could take a generation (or more) to see the tangible results of our community actually taking pride in our community, and not finding our identity in the city to the north. That's potentially worth more than we could quantify. And to have the most famous athlete on planet earth doing this is worth more than even our university's fine advertisements which air on Superbowl Sunday. But I do agree that I wish LeBron would do even more. But let's not forget that he already does quite a bit - the bike-a-thon, all the playgrounds he's built around the city, getting our b-ball program Nike uni's & LBJ shoes, conducting interviews in and around the city, attending quite a few basketball games every year & occasional football games, accepting his MVP's @ St.V/M & @ the JAR, name-dropping "Akron" into the nation's conscious at just about every conceivable opportunity, hosting the LBJ Skills Camp & the King James AAU tourney @ UA - honestly, that's doing quite a bit (he is the Chosen One, but he's not God Lol) and the impact of these things shouldn't be discounted. But sure, I wish he'd do more too! I wish he'd throw his weight around and get Nike to build us a new basketball arena, get Nike to sponsor all of our athletic programs, do interviews wearing Zips gear & open a restaurant/sportsbar downtown! Of course, he's got 10 years of pro ball left, so we'll see what else he does. The negative reaction to The Decision maaaaay end up actually working in our favor: he may feel more pressure now to do even more to prove his loyalty to his hometown - which he seems on a mission to do. I don't know LBJ personally, but I have been following him since his freshman year in high school, and though LeBron tries to act so "cool", I'm quite certain that he's actually a very sensitive, sentimental kind of person. I think it's extremely important right now that Akron makes it known that we've got his back and haven't turned on him in favor of the city up north. Millions of dollars and consistent blips on the radar of the nation's conscious could depend on it. Until either our football or basketball teams make consistent national noise, LBJ's the best (and, frankly, only) pub we've got. LeBron is a huge ambassador of the city of Akron. That is significant.

Does anyone know how our future baseball stands & the future concessions area are all going to fit into this space. After the football scrimmage last week I went over & took a look @ the new stands it sure doesn't look like there is room enough for new baseball stands, restrooms & a concession area.

I wish we saw a lot more of JT around here.

LeBron goes out of his way to pimp Akron at almost every opportunity that arises. It's really quite unbelievable that the most famous athlete in the world won't stop talking about the city of Akron. But whatever, I'll take it. LeBron took the reporter to the top of InfoCision? A reporter from GQ?! To show him UA?! To a long-suffering Akronite & UA fan that's simply surreal. I looked online and GQ has monthly sales of almost 825,000 magazines in the states and another 120,000 mags in Britain. Go LeBron! Akron's got your back! Go Zips! Go UA! Go Akron!

How do you think the immediate and long-term future of the program looks now that Coach Wyshner has gone? Is there a firm foundation & a winning culture now, or was he not here long enough to leave a strong program behind? Who's the new coach? Do you know him/her? What is your initial impression?

I know what you're talking about. I knew a couple junior high students that knew about Akron's soccer team, but that was only because they play soccer themselves. Youth league soccer has been HUGE in this country for years now, but it still hasn't taken off on a general, pop-level yet. But considering how huge youth league soccer is in this country I can't help but believe (hope?) that it is still only a matter of time. I have no delusions of college futbol ever being another college basketball, let alone college football, but I do honestly feel it could one day easily rival college baseball as the #3 college sport. I suppose It would either be futbol or hockey.

Tearing down and paving (or gravelling) for parking FOR NOW would be great. At some point (within the next 2-3 years), develop it with the RIGHT kind of establishment. It would be a great spot for another tailgate lot. It would also be a great spot for a basketball arena, assuming we can acquire the surrounding properties as well. Not disagreeing with you at all, but is there space to squeeze an arena between the side streets in that area? Sorry, I don't, off hand, know the names of the 2 side streets that run into Exchange Street "surrounding" that spot (one that runs alongside Route 8, one that runs right next to the Skyway). Seems that it might be a bit tight there, but I would have to look at it again. Come September 4th, maybe I can better answer my own question as I assess the spot on gameday! Actually, there is more space there than you may realize - I know I was surprised. One day a while ago I was wasting time on either Google Earth or MapQuest & was looking @ other areanas to see if they'd fit on that lot. Just about any arena does fit. Trying to remember off hand, I know I looked @ Pitt's Peterson Events Center, Providence's Dunkin' Donuts Center, the Hartford Civic Center (where UConn plays some of their games), Toledo's new downtown arena, St. Louis University's Chaifetz Arena, USC's Galen Center, the Grand Rapids VanAndel Arena and even a few others and they all fit perfectly onto that lot between the Info & the road adgacent to Rt. 8.

I agree. Any and all TV is good. The more the better. It makes Zips football even more of an event. I do wish, however, that we had some of the away games televised. Oh, well. It's a start!

IMHO any TV coverage is good. It gives the perception to the community that a Zips game is an event; a big deal. But I do wish they'd give priority to televising our AWAY games as opposed to televising the home contests which I'll be attending anyhow.

UA should host a "State of UA Athletics" banquet. Open to any and all Zips fans. It'd be a good fund raiser. I'd attend. I'd just like to hear a yearly summary from the Director of Athletics of where we've been and, most importantly, where we are going and what our plan is to get there. Goals, philosophies, perceived weaknesses, perceived strengths. No pressure; just real honest and personal with true Zips supporters who all have the Zips' well-being in mind. By the way, I love my new soccer jersey! Barnes & Noble has a very nice selection of Zips gear and I very much look forward to perusing the new Info Team Shop! Go Zips!

I talked to the owner in July and was told that a new pub was opening in the Valley in August. Anyone know if she happened for sure? When the Aeros aren't in town its hard to find the best beer in Akron. The Valley location (the old Rax/Scorchers) was the last location I've heard from the Verich's as well (about the same time frame as you). I do know they've been focusing on getting the brewery on Selle St up and running. This may have delayed any new pub from opening? They have a Facebook page, but the information kind of trickles in. This disappoints me. I'm all about seeing the downtown develop; I don't care much about the valley. It's cool, and all, but a downtown is the face of a city.

I know alot of Cuse fans are staying north of Akron in Macedonia next to I-271. I've driven through the area and looks pretty nice. Any good late night restaurants around Macedonia that will still serve around 11pm? BTW, so where is "The Valley"? anyone have a street intersection? I googled it and it looked to be pretty far out in the suburbs. Macedonia? There's no way to get to campus from there without driving through major construction. Route 8 is still the fastest way, but you have to go through the Boston Heights speed trap. Macedonia is mostly chain restaurants and strip malls. It's about the most generic suburb that you'll ever see, unless you head off into the national park. As far as the Valley goes, it's still in Akron, but barely. We're used to having to drive to get places. Nothing's really centrally located in Akron, everything is spread out all over so we don't really think about it. It's where most of the complaints come from when people out of town complain that there's nothing to do, because they don't know where to go and wrongly assume that all the good stuff is concentrated downtown like in other cities. Appreciate all your inputs...but my small caraven group is driving over Friday night...getting in late around 11pm...most are getting up early to hit the HOF in Canton then to the tailgate. A couple of us not going are getting last minute tailgate supplies for 100. Then we are tailgating early afternoon, watching the game, be back to the hotel around 11pm...get up Sunday and drive home. Macedonia will work for us...others in my tailgate might find some of your other places to stay very useful...thanks. Keep it coming...BTW, Brubaker's looks awesome. Not sure I have time but would like to have a beer there. I see the downtown location is a short walk to Lot 34...hmmmm maybe a post game meetup there. One very small complaint about Brubaker's is that they don't have a deep fryer, so no french fries! One HUGE complaint about Brubaker's is that they sometimes have an inflatable Brutus Buckeye right outside their front door - right in OUR DOWNTOWN!!! Rat bastards.

A 12 year year old using his Mom's computer can write for Bleacher Report. There are good writers there but also alot of uniformed or agenda ladened idiots writing articles there too. I agree. Bleacher Report is like a gossip column for dudes. Everyday they crank out article-after-article, most of which are crappola, just for the sake of entertaining bored readers. Absolutely nothing on Bleacher Report can't be taken seriously at all.

One thing to keep in mind when visiting Akron is that our downtown is long (north-to-south) but not wide at all (east-to-west). It's actually kind of goofy. (This is due to it's gradual evolution along the old Ohio & Erie Canal.) The stadium is on Exchange Street, which is on the southern end of downtown. If you patronize south-side establishments (Brubaker's Pub, Jimmy John's, Bricco, 69 Taps, Rubber City Grill), it's about a 5-10-minute walk from the stadium to the intersection of Main & Exchange. If you patronize a centrally-located establishment (Barley House, Lockview, the new Wing Warehouse in Canal Park) it's about a 15-minute walk to the stadium going through the central part of campus. However, you will definitely want to drive if you want to hit any eateries on the north-end of downtown (Crave, 3 Point, Diamond Grill - I humbly disagree w/ GP1 in that it's overrated. It's an Akron icon. There's a running argument over the best steakhouse in Ohio, the feud is between Akron's Diamond Grill & some steakhouse in Dayton, who's name escapes me) or the Northside District (Luigi's, Northside, Veggiteranean - Akron rocker Chrissy Hynde's - of The Pretenders - vegan eatery.) I'm not a tailgater, so my gameday typically played out like this. We'd park in the Barley House parking garage, centrally located in downtown. I'd much rather patronize the old OBC, but I'm still waiting on them to re-open (fingers crossed) somewhere downtown. The Barley House (though they think they're in Columbus) has good food, a great selection of beer & a great college gameday atmosphere. The girls I'd have w/ me call it a "man-bar." After the Barley House we'd walk up University Avenue through the central part of campus, south and through Gate 2 into the Info. We'd then proceed to watch the Zips lose a football game. After the game, since we went to a "man-bar" prior to the game, we'd go to one of the more trendy, lady-friendly establishments for dinner. If we'd go to Bricco, we'd simply make the 5-10-minute walk down Exchange. If we'd hit Crave or Veggiteranean, then we'd most definitely drive.

Just bought my jersey this evening. It's sweet. #6. Probably going to wear it to the football scrimmage tomorrow a.m. We'll be fine, IMHO, if the new Info Team Shop simply carries the selection of Zips wear available in the Barnes & Noble bookstore in the Student Union. I thought the selection was great. I noticed a lot of cool Under Armor Zips gear.

I am such a complete dork that I can't stop daydreaming about this potential 2011-12 lineup: G Alex Abreau 5-9 G Brian Walsh 6-4 G Chauncey Gilliam 6-5 G Quincy Diggs 6-6 F Demetrius Treadwell 6-7 F Nick Harney 6-7 F Josh Egner 6-7 F Dakotah Euton 6-8 F/C Nik Cvetinovic 6-8 C Zeke Marshall 7-1 Going with gczip22's idea of not pigeon-holing players into 1's, 2's, 3's etc., because most of these guys (all?) are rather decent ball-handlers, and instead going with two line-ups consisting of 1) Guard, Wing, Wing, Post, Post and 2) Guard, Guard, Wing, Wing, Post, the two line-ups could look like: Line-up 1: G Alex Abreu 5-9 W Chauncey Gilliam 6-5 W Demetrius Treadwell 6-7 P Dakotah Euton 6-8 P Zeke Marshall 7-1 or Line-up 2: G Brian Walsh 6-4 G Quincy Diggs 6-6 W Demetrius Treadwell 6-7 W Nick Harney 6-7 P Zeke Marshall 7-1 Good grief, my post has absolutely no new point to make!!! I just love looking at that!!!

Bob Dyer is a complete dill weed and literally everyone knows it. I suspect Bob knows it too. On the other hand, Bob actually may be such a dill weed that he in fact doesn't know it. He proved it yet again with this morning's article. Hey Bob, why don't you send your resume to the Cleveland Plain Dealer? Bob demonstrates the identity & image problem Akron has had for years (and probably will continue to have as long as the TV market is so 100% Cleveland-centric. And when I say 100%, that is not an exageration.) This is a deep, complex, communal problem that is surely not an easy fix. I'm just glad that, for a start, LeBron is standing up and telling the world (sadly, many Akronites included) that Akron is not Cleveland and Cleveland is not Akron. We in Akron have our own set of balls, thank you very much. I've hated the region thinking of Akron as Cleveland's "red-headed step child" since before I knew who LeBron James was. I'm so glad that LeBron feels the same way that I do (and as many on the ZipsNation board do.) We've been complaining for years how the Akron Beacon Journal should really be called the Cleveland Beacon Journal or the Columbus Beacon Journal. Bob Dyer and almost the entire editorial staff are Cleveland/Columbus whores. Oh, what I'd give for an Akron newspaper that honestly wanted to be Akron's paper. (Even the name of the ABJ's website is telling. The Cleveland Plain Dealer's website? Cleveland.com. The Canton Repository's website? Cantonrep.com. The Akron Beacon Journal's website? OHIO.com. RAT BASTARDS.) As we all know, this has been a point of continual and pointed exasperation. Hey, The King feels the same way. I'm so glad Bron-Bron's out of Cleveland so they can't get any more pub or glory claiming our homeboy as their own. Sink back into the murky waters of Lake Erie and irrelevance, Cleveland! On a national scale nobody cares anything about you anymore! Haha! Rock on Akron! Rock on UA! Rock on Zips! Rock on LeBron! Rock on anybody & anything AKRON!

Will Harney and Treadwell be able to practice with the team this season?

I think you worry way too much about something that's - A.) A huge positive B.) Going to work itself out anyhow We had Dru Joyce as our only PG for 4 years. It worked out fine. I'm sure we will get someone to spell Abreu. Be it an existing player, or a TBD newcomer. Of the bigs you've listed above, one or more will not pan out for one reason or another. If by some miracle they all survive the next calendar year @ UA, it is a much bigger blessing than a curse. You can kick some serious ass in the MAC, and beyond the MAC (OOC), if you have depth with your bigs. We need someone to spell Zeke for maybe 10 minutes per game over the next 3 seasons. That can easily be accomplished by an athletic 6' 8" guy. Especially in MAC play. Could Zeke or Abreu suffer some season-ending injuries, or academics, and expose a lack of depth? Sure. But it's - A.) statistically unlikely (in the last 6 seasons, who have we lost to severe injury or academics...Wood and Steward?) B.) irrelevant, because we probably aren't doing any damage with back up PG's or C's anyhow. It's just our bad luck if something catastrophic occurs. Smurf-ball is a thing of the past. KD has potentially formed the best roster I've seen at UA since the McLaughlin/Boyce/Buford/Roberts era of the mid-80's. Love it. Though I wasn't around Zips athletics back in the mid 80s, I agree w/ the rest of this post. I'm excited about the size & athleticism KD's assembled. Taking the liberty of moving Brian Walsh to PG, look at this lineup come 2011-12: 1G Alex Abreu 5-9 175 1G Brian Walsh 6-4 205 2G Chauncey Gilliam 6-5 235 2G Quincy Diggs 6-6 195 3F Demetrius Treadwell 6-7 ??? 3F Nick Harney 6-7 215 4F Josh Egner 6-7 200 4F Dakotah Euton 6-8 230 C Nik Cvetinovic 6-8 230 C Zeke Marshall 7-1 225 A potential starting 5 could well look like: PG 6-4 Brian Walsh 2G 6-6 Quincy Diggs 3F 6-7 Demetrius Treadwell 4F 6-8 Dakotah Euton C 7-1 Zeke Marshall Dang, that's all NBA height right there. Way to go KD!

Good research, fellas. Props go out to gczip22!

One of my all-time favorite Zips! Where'd you run into Spiderman Ball?