Blue & Gold

I recall reading on a post about a possible agreement between the MAC, Missouri Valley Conference and CAA (Colonial Athletic Association - home of George Mason) agreeing to work together to schedule games and perhaps spark some new rivalries among the upper-mid-major programs. I thought this was a good idea, since The Valley and CAA most likely are in the same spot as MAC schools and have a difficult time getting the "Majors" to play them - let alone come to their arenas. Has anyone heard anything new on this subject?By the way, I'll list the teams in both The Valley and CAA. I think there is a lot of potential for very interesting matchups here (well, I guess anyone's better than Mount Union or Baldwin Wallace!)Missouri Valley Conference:BradleyCreightonDrakeEvansvilleIllinois StateIndiana StateMissouri StateNorthern IowaSouthern IllinoisWitchita StateColonial Athletic Association:U of DelawareDrexelGeorge MasonHofstraJames MadisonUNC WilmingtonNortheasternOld DominionTowsonVirginia CommonwealthWilliam and MaryWhat's The Nation think? Who would you guys like to see come to the JAR? Go Zips!

Yeah, Raymar's one of the best high school players I've ever seen. I remember watching Buchtel's Doylan Robinson back when he got a lot of hype and I think Raymar's quite a bit better than Doylan was.But he was offered by both Michigan State and UConn - long shot that we could have landed him.

Great find scottditzen!!!I, the Computer Illiterate One, am going to try to post a hyperlink for all of you to check this construction out! This is Case Western U's new football stadium/dorm project.This is gorgeous! A project with this flavor - done on a D-1 scale - would be revolutionary!!! Could you IMAGINE [Zen ] walking down a 30-yard red-brick alley, w/ 5-storied red-brick dorms on each side, just to get to the beautiful new stadium gates?! How cool!!!Case Western Univeristy

Could you elaborate on this a bit more? Who is doing the presenting? Who is doing the "wooing?" There must be architectural renderings, no?

He's just joking. Can't is currently running an advertisment campaign that uses the slogan, "Imagine..." But if you're not presently living in NE Ohio you most likely wouldn't be aware of their campaign.

Questions:Are we recruiting both Ricky and Lance Jeter at this point? Which player do you think would benefit the program more?Is Ricky academically eligible?Would we ask Ricky to walk on for a year, while giving the available scholarship to Jeter?-Ricky is an outstanding athlete - he even started hitting 3's toward the end of the year. He carried McKinley on his back during both the Cincinnati North College Hill and the Toledo St. John's games (Morgan was in foul trouble in each.)

Great post Zipsbandman!!! Thanks for the great link w/ visuals!I agree w/ Zen, we need a steeper slope w/ our stadium seating. It's lousy to have your view continually blocked by the people seated in front of you. For some reason, many stadiums make this critical mistake and architects don't seem to learn from their mistakes. The seating at Jacob's Fiels is great! Steep enough so as your view is seldom obstructed.UCF's stadium is going to be nice... for them. But I'm hoping we are more creative and revolutionary with our chance!!!Firstly, I'll bet we incorporate many more loges into our design.Also, if residence hall(s) are incorporated into the design of our structure, it would afford the opportunity for interesting architectural angles, ala, Camden Yards. UCF's structure is basically your common, repetitious "bowl-style" football stadium. Typical of characterless football stadiums - they, as of yet, haven't seen the retro-architectural light as opposed to their baseball counterparts. After being in the Rubber Bowl for so many years, anything I see looks great in comparison. But aside from the sandstone and wrought-iron fencing, there does not seem to be a whole lot about UCF's design to make it a unique or imaginitive project. Hopefully we can do better.Our new stadium has been a looooong time coming! Baltimore's Camden Yards project was visionary and set a new standard for baseball stadium design. For us, now is not the time to settle for what's been done in the past. Now is our time to go ALL OUT and become the Camden Yards of football!!! Go Zips! p.s.I still think we should incorporate a red brick "Big Ben" style clock tower into our design. Akron's got many beautiful old clock towers around town - but none in the downtown/U district. This would be a great throwback element that would make this stadium project uniquely "Akron."

Huh?

No coverage whatsoever. I'm hoping the current shakeup w/ the BJ forces them to focus on AKRON and become AKRON's hometown paper. Right now it is the Cleveland Plain Dealer Light.

I don't get ONN where I live (Hartville) so I was not able to see the game. An article I found online said McKnight had 18 points & 7 boards to pace Lancaster. So that sounded good. But, what, is he just too laid back, or what?

ABSOLUTELY!!! Keep the 'mo' going with a stadium announcement!!! That would create a buzz from now till September - when we win the MAC again!!!

Definitely sounds like a winner! Any inside word as to whether he's close to signing?

In another 2 years, if the program keeps on progressing as it has over the last 2 years, every MAC game will be considered a 'cup cake' game!

We're planning on making the 'Fear the Roo' one of our permanent tag-lines, right? I wouldn't want to see it disappear w/ the passing of this current athletic year. It's now a mainstay, right?

I doubt it. He was offered by West Virginia before he committed to us.

A scrimmage for only the juniors? How's that work & what's the point?

Yeah, you guys are right. Jeremiah Wood is only 6'6" but plays bigger than anyone we put out on the court this year. Having said that, the thrust of my question is regarding the recruitment of another shooting guard. What you guys are saying is, "It doesn't matter how 'tall' our big men are, as long as we have big men." So I suppose you are implicitly agreeing that we need a big man as opposed to another guard?

Wow! I've thought Pitt was one of the better teams in all of college basketball all year now, but watching how they man handled Can't was shocking!Is the ANYONE out there who NOW does not believe we should be looking for a 6'10" junior college center/power forward?We might be able to win the MAC next year w/ Romeo (6'7"), Jeremiah Wood (6'6"), and TRUE FRESHMEN Mike Bardo (6'9") and Chris McKnight (6'7"), BUT DON'T WE WANT MORE THAN THAT?!?!?!?!Shouldn't we be thinking Sweet 16 run next year?!?!The MAC is fun, but don't we aspire to be a nationally dominant mid-major?We are currently looking at 6'3" stud shooting guard Lance Jeter from Pittsburgh. But I didn't think we needed another shooting guard before watching that slaughter last night! I SURE DON'T THINK WE NEED ONE NOW!!! We need a JC BIG MAN!!!What's The Nation think???

I've got a friend studying computer graphics design @ the U and he does absolutely amazing work! It would be interesting to see what the arts department would come up with!And I love the old-gold throwback b-ball uni's!!! I'm hoping we go with a gold (as opposed to white) motif next season!!!

I'll admit, I was pulling for Can't last night! I had them in the Sweet 16 of my bracket. (I also had NEVADA in the Final Four - my bracket's dead.) I'm always for MAC schools when they play out of conference. I was also pulling for Miami in the NIT (that pains me as much as rooting for Can't.) But man, we need a solid showing from ALL of the MAC next year!!!!!!! I heard the MAC was 1 - 10 against MVC schools?!?! Not acceptable!!! They had a great year, but we should be beating down on MVC schools!!!!!Go MAC!Go Zips!

Is the official merch store in the JAR? Or is it the student bookstore on Exchange? Or the student bookstore in the Polsky building?We should most definitely build a huge freakin' Zips Team Shop in the new stadium.

Alright, let me toss this out to The Nation & see what you guys think...After about 2 years, I'm getting the feeling that unless you're a diehard Zips fan (like myself), people generally think the "Capital 'A' w/ Kangaroo head" logo is rather dumb (the logo we have on the sides of our football helmets.) I work with jr. high & high school kids & have had quite a few of them look at that logo, being unfamiliar w/ the UA program, and ask what it is & then just reply, "Oh. That's dumb." I've literally had about 5 of them ask, "Is that a donkey head?"So... what if we would go with that extremely cool "Z" on the sides of our helmets instead of the A-Kangaroo head. The same "Z" we have centered beneath the neck of our jerseys and on the sides of the JAR floor? Would that be "cooler"? Like I said before - I'll bet we all like the A-Kangaroo head, but we're all die hard Zips fans who may be a bit blinded by our bias. I'm basing my suggestion on what I've heard from people not familiar w/ the Zips program - people we should be trying to win over! We'll be fans regardless, but maybe we should be thinking about casual observers?So, what's the nation think? Would that "Z" logo look cool on the sides of our helmets? Or no?

Are you f*cking kidding me? First off, Mount Union is D3, not 1-AA. Any D3 school would get absolutely ass raped by any D1, 1-AA, or D2 school. If Akron played Mount Union, first of all, it would be unsafe for the Mount Union players because it's an entirely different kind of player and skill level. Secondly, it'd be 56-0 or worse by halftime. 1-AA schools can sometimes compete with a 1-A school. But Mount Union would not come close to Ashland, much less Akron. Ha ha! Yeah, I'm no Vince Lombardi, but anyone who knows anything about football realizes that the entire Mount Union football team would be in Alliance Community Hospital by the end of the 1st quarter!

Gold uni's? Game's as good as over. We win.

Man, I love those gold uniforms! We'd BETTER be wearing them tonight!!! We should sign a deal w/ Nike for gold uni's to go along w/ our new $200 million downtown Nike/Lebron James Arena!