Blue & Gold

Remember why students come here? I don't think Akron is misguided by focusing on athletics facilities. It is great to think academics is the first reason why most students choose a school, but it's not, a strong athletics program is a huge factor. examples?http://media.www.gonzagabulletin.com/media...t-3303134.shtmlhttp://www.thesportjournal.org/article/imp...ncaa-division-iDo I think that is the way it should be? Not really, but as you can see it helps!Those are some very pertinent links. Thank you! Just goes to show that people naturally want to be associated with a winner. And in our current culture that largely means football and basketball. (Hopefully soccer will continue to gain popularity since we're well positioned for that potential wave!)

I am one of those in favor of scheduling a 1-AA opponent once a year and I also think it'll be nice to (hopefully) blow out an opponent in our first game at the Info. However, you are right - Morgan State isn't a name anyone is going to recognize. If it could have been an Illinois State, Indiana State, YSU, Rhode Island, UMass, Delaware, Delaware State or a team along those lines I think it'd have been more exciting. However, I don't want to complain because I know that this late in the year we were surely handcuffed and limited as to who we could bring in. On the bright side, if we hang tough with Penn State and then blow out Morgan State, that would make our game against Indiana a legitimately important big game!

I just perused channel 3's website and did not see the rendering. Can you post a link to the rendering you saw?

Here is a link to an article in today's ABJ concerning spring drills.ABJ on football spring drillsThe most discouraging quote from Gaffney's article:The biggest disappointment on offense has been at running back, where injuries have slowed Alex Allen (hip), DeVoe Torrence (ankle), Gary Pride (knee), Joe Tuzze (back) and Dale Martin (Achilles tendon). Martin, a highly regarded transfer from Louisville, tore the Achilles on March 12, had surgery on March 16 and will be out four to six months. In practice today, most of the carries were by 5-foot-6 junior Nate Burney and 5-10 freshman Thomas Miller. ''We have been devastated at the tailback position,'' Brookhart said. ''We are really on our sixth tailback. It has been tough.''

Who cares who it's against. When is it?According to Rasor's blog it will be on September 12, the week before Indiana.

Great link! Thank you!

Hey, I never mentioned any model. I have seen well executed and detailed drawings of a proposed11,000 seat arena planned for across the street from Canal Park. As I previously reported; thesedrawings have grown in detail and color since the early ones. Where there is smoke a fire usuallysoon follows.Sorry! I didn't intentionally misquote you. I thought I remembered you mentioning a model. But I also believe I remember you saying that there are two drawings, correct? One of a multi-purpose arena and one of a basketball-specific arena? Can you give us any more information on the drawings that you have seen and where did you see the drawings, if you don't mind me asking. Are the drawings available somewhere online for any old average Joe to see? Or did you get a peak of them in the basketball office, or something?

I did notice that. That made me wonder whether Columbus State doctors their figures because from all the reports I've heard their crowd was lame when we beat them in Columbus. In fact, the story was that our Rowdies outnumbered their students... in Columbus!

Could you give us a recap of the interview?

Is Rhode Island making a return trip to the JAR this year? Temple? Perhaps we could work something out with Xavier; we seem to have a friendly relationship with X? Would Mike Thomas be willing to help us out by getting something going between us and Cincinnati? Would UMass be interested in a few games? Our game with them 2 seasons ago was very competitive.

Yeah, his injury couldn't possibly be a complete tear; has to be more of a rupture. However, I'm now happy to have DeVoe Torrence @ RB instead of LB!

That's what I was thinking.

Ouch. Dale Martin tore his achilles tendon and will be out between 4-to-6 months.GoZips.com on Dale Martin

Look at how beautiful Dayton's soccer stadium area is...U of Dayton soccer stadiumAs an aside, those multi-purpose track/soccer stadiums are not very appealing. The spectators are far too far from the field. Our soccer-only stadium would be much more desirable.

I was curious about the same thing. I would be willing to bet that our administration doesn't really know how big to build the stadium because of the on-going evolution of soccer in the U.S.I am absolutely NO expert, but soccer seems to be a bit of an enigma in the U.S. right now. I'd say for the past 6-8 years I've known more little kids playing youth league soccer as opposed to youth football. So is soccer blowing up in our country, or not? Are all these little kids, some of whom aren't so little anymore, going to be college and MLS soccer fans? Watching the Seattle Sounders game was very impressive - I'll bet there were 40,000 people at that game.Is our country still fragmented when it comes to soccer? Is it more popular in some regions as opposed to other regions?Perhaps a good question for our athletic department's planning would be how many people Indiana averages for their soccer matches? IU may be a good, successful mid-western program by which to gauge our progress? Additionally, IU is probably Caleb Porter's default setting when it comes to measuring the Zips' program.

I'm no CSU fan, that's for sure. They're only a couple steps back from Can't. But I also felt they should have gotten more air time for their beat down of Wake. However, I was thrilled to see the Siena upset of Columbus State (which CBS showed instead, right?) Yesterday I believe CSU, Xavier and Dayton were all playing at the same time. I wasn't able to watch, but I believe CBS carried the CSU game against Arizona.

Thanks for the stories! That sure is a week you'll never forget!

Here is the link to O Sports' (a division of Osborne Engineering) Akron Arena project. It's gorgeous.Akron ArenaAdditionally, it is adjacent to the Mayflower building - a building just begging to be used by the U for dormitories. If we'd turn the Mayflower into dorm space that would give us a nice presence downtown going (N-to-S) the Polsky Building, the Mayflower dorms, the Arena Office/Retail Atrium and finally the Akron Arena. (As we've mentioned before, nothing but GOOOOOOD for downtown would come of UA transforming the Mayflower into dormitory space.)Edit: follow the link above, then to the left of that page click "indoor" and then below that click "akron arena."

So now that CSU made the 2nd round and UA left in the first, anyone think Waters will be open to renewing the rivalry games?He had better be. I really enjoy these NE Ohio rivalries - YSU, CSU (potentially) and, of course Can't State. Fans can make the drives and there is a lot of regional bragging rights on the line. Unfortunately, I can't believe Waters didn't want to play Akron this year! We were supposed to be waaaay down and everyone figured CSU was going to be good - I believe they were picked by the media to win the Horizon League. So if Waters was afraid to play us this year, I don't have high hopes for next year. CSU is losing their two best players (Cedric Jackson and J'nathan Bullock) so I'll bet Waters runs away and hides from us. He most definitely fears the Roo!

Excellent! Hopefully Tom Hagan's employer will grace us with another leaked aerial photograph of the stadium once the east grand stand is complete. This will really give us a complete idea of the scale of the stadium!

Zeke is one of the most talented players in the country. He should be placed in the starting lineup the second he walks into the first practice. It is his job to lose.I absolutely disagree. Look, noone is talking about redshirting Zeke or anything like that. But this team is built on 5 guys on the floor playing as one. No one player on this team is bigger than the rest of the team and that attitude shouldn't change just for Zeke. Now if Zeke comes in in Fall practice and earns the starting spot more power too him. But for now our starting lineup is Humpty, Roberts, Conyers/B.McKnight, C.McKnight and Cvetinovic. From what I understand of Zeke and his mindset and work ethic he shouldn't have any problem with this.I don't think we disagree. My point is he gets the starting spot at the first practice. If he is not up to the task or if he is simply out played by someone else, then someone else gets it. Either way, he has to earn it.I'm really excited about the potential of Cvetinovic. He's big, skilled, aggressive and passionate. I think he'll really afford us the luxury of bringing Zeke along slowly. It may take Zeke a year to hit his stride.

Boston Zip, I'm glad you started this thread. I was going to start an arena thread but wanted to wait till the season was over. I don't have deep pockets, so I can't put a whole lot of money where my mouth is, but personally, I'm really hoping we DO NOT simply renovate the JAR. Both the university and city need a first-class basketball arena. The city has the perfect spot for a new arena directly across Main Street from Canal Park.Go Zips mentioned a couple weeks ago that he had actually seen two models of possible new arenas. One model was of a multi-purpose NBA-style arena (basketball & ice arena) and the other was a basketball-specific arena (though we could also, of course, hold concerts in the facility, just not ice shows.)IMHO we should aim for a top-notch basketball-specific arena, ala Pitt's Peterson Events Center, USC's Galen Center, Virginia's John Paul Jones Arena or Miami Fla's BankUnited Center. The sight-lines for basketball are MUCH better in these arenas than in the more generic NBA-style arenas.Go Zips, are you still out there? Where did you see these models? Give us some info on the subject! Thanks in advance!

Here is my prediction for next year's starting rotation:PG - HumptySG - RobertsSF - B-MacPF - C-MacC - Cvetinovic10-DeepPG - StewardSG - McClanahanSF - ConyersPF - Parrish (AP looks like Amare Stoudamire's little brother.)C - Zeeeeeeke2 More ContributorsG - McNeesG - Sullivan (I'm anxious to see what he brings to the team. Positive: he flat-out lit it up in high school. Negative: he's another 5-10 G)If Zeke works hard, I predict he will move into the starting lineup halfway through the year, like Cventinovic did this season. That would give us the luxury of bringing either C-Mac or Cvetinovic off the bench. However, I don't think KD will move C-Mac out of the starting lineup, him being a senior and we needing a senior leader on the floor.I don't want to be negative in any way, but Jimmy C. is the only weak link in the 10-deep. He just needs to play good defense when he's in the game. The SF should be a recruiting priority for us this season.

Thank you, Nate! You're a class act. Thank you team for a terrific season where we watched you grow and jell before our very eyes! You guys played your hearts out and we're all fantastically proud of you! Can't wait for next year!!!Go Zips!

GREAT ARTICLE!! Thanks for the find and link!