ZipAlumn

The only thing I disagree with is that the talent level in the MAC this year is "horrible". I think the talent is thin (i.e. Ohio U., Can't, Miami) but Toledo has a very athletic team and I don't think that they are horrible. Granted there is a large gap in talent between the top teams and teams like Buffalo and Bowling Green, but there are more that enough good teams that can give Akron trouble. While you have to give credit to Jim Christian for bring that team along the way he has this year. They will be at the peak of their game whent he MAC tournament is here, and Toledo scares me. Overall I am very happy with the way KD recruits and coaches. The Zips play as a TEAM and that is not something that can be said about all the teams in the MAC. Akron may not have the best athletes, but they do have very good athletes that play together and KD doesn't allow anyone to get a "big head".

I can understand KD wanting to schedule Home and Home. What I don't understand is why other good mid majors don't want to schedule us. They need to schedule good teams to get decent RPI and Strength of Schedule numbers. Every team out there can't just be scheduling home games. What am I missing? Can someone please enlighten me.

I really don't think that is the problem. Almost every coach I every knew determined the type of play he got from the bench. If someone gets in the game and starts launching threes he probably will hear about it and not get in again if that type of play continues. There is a big dropoff in talent/experience/ability/whatever after the first seven (or maybe nine, if your generous) and I think that this scares KD for some reason. I really think that he believes these guys could lose a twenty point lead in five minutes. But that's just my opinion.

After 30+ years in Transportation/Distribution getting from Canton to the JAR was easy. The Zips were fantastic. The crowd was decent when you consider the weather. The only problem I saw was the Conyers, McKnight, and Rybak seemed lost while they were in the game. Our bench killed their bench for the limited time they played. Would like to see KD empty the bench a little earlier in a blowout like this. If we play like this at the Q we will definately be

I agree with the point that any team can beat us if we are not ready. But that can be said about any team in the MAC (see Can't vs Western Michigan). However the University of Akron is one of the top teams in the MAC. I do respectfully disagree with the comment that " ... We need to be able to beat 3 consecutive fired-up MAC opponents, away from friendly JAR Arena, in the MAC tournament...until we do that we're nuthin special." I think the Zips ARE something special this year.

All of yesterday's game were "Coaches Against Cancer" games and the coaches wore their team's tennis shoes as a promotional fund raiser. I don't know how effective that was, but that is the reasson why KD had "tennies" on ... did you check out Stan Joplin's feet?

The MAC is a conference that does not allow any team to take another lightly, especially when on the road. However the uneven and inconsistent officiating throughout the conference makes it even harder to win on the road, and sometimes even at home. I watched OU and Northern Illinois and the officials at the end of the game seemed physically unable to blow the whistle on OU. Northern won despite that. I didn't see the Toledo vs Akron ame, and I know that Frenchy is biased in favor of Akron, but damn we couldn't catch a break the last eight minutes ..........

Here is hoping that the Lady Zips get some payback for the men's loss yesterday.

In my opinion in the past two years Akron has had two major losses that hurts us ... both to Toledo. Last year's MAC Semi-Final and tonight. This one I feel will hurt us when the time comes for the drawings in the MAC tournament. And both of these losses should have been wins ... the Zips lost both in the final minutes by not playing like they had the first thirty minutes.

Today Bubba's long range field goals reminded me of his defense .... non existant

I am not as worried about OU as I am Toledo, Can't, and Miami. From what I see OU is very athletic, but not team orientated. The play defense, but it's very bad defence. The received quite a few "homer calls" at the Convo today, but still lost to a team with well over 20 turnovers. After all is said and done OU is not that good but ....

It looks like both the men's and women's Soccer teams have done an excellent job in recruiting for this coming season. Hopefully this will continue to improve the Women's Soccer Team and help bring the Men's Soccer Team back to prominence.

Don't keep me in suspense ..... did the U. of A. cancel classes Monday? I am guessing not. What about Tuesday? I need to know because I have to pick up six more tickets for the Braketbuster game and I don't want to drive 40 miles and find the JAR closed.

Kudos to the Lady Zips ......... great job so far this year.

Still using Firefox and working just fine at 3:30 PM. This is the link - http://gozips.com/

I am using Mozilla Firefox and don't have that problem ................

From what I have seen, they have misunderstood everything about marketing. It has been a very humerous week of advertisements in the Beacon Journal. Wednesday they ran the ad for kids get in free for jersey night. Thursday that adjusted the ad with a disclaimer that says if "seats are available" and today they ran the same ad as Wednesday. The humor comes from Thursday. The ad states the start of the Women's game is at 7 PM (on page three). On page six there is short article of the time change for the Women's game to 6:30 PM. Of course the ad in today's paper still has game time for the women at 7 PM.Is anyone else tired of the current adminstrations hiring of individuals who are "cutting their teeth" at our expense? Pick up a Basketball media guide and check out who these people are and what experience they have, it is appalling. And the congregation said "AMEN"! If we are in effect training these people to "cut their teeth" and become professional marketing people, we should hire University of Akron graduates and train them.

I sent Dean Haritos an e-mail expressing my "disappointment" and this is a portion of his reply (after he got through extolling the vitues of the Engineering Dept.):"Our new student coordinator has been working very hard to organize outreach programs and had the best of intentions when she contacted the Akron Beacon Journal to do a story. She is now aware that she should notify a faculty team advisor and the public relations office when media contact is made.This has been a learning experience for her. In the past, our Challenge X students have worn Challenge X T-shirts or other UA apparel when participating in a media story, and we will continue to encourage the students to do so for all future media contacts. Technically, we cannot insist that they wear UA apparel, but this has never been a problem. This last incident was just an oversight by the students, who were wearing warm and comfortable clothing while they were working on the car."I don't know if I am satisfied with his reply, but he did promptly reply to my e-mail.

I never met Lee Owens but I do know that every high school coach that I do know (about a dozen) has nothing but good to say about him. They all think he got a raw deal from Akron.

I like it ..............................

I don't like this matchup for the same reason Austin Peay probably doesn't like it. The team that wins gets no lift because of the other's RPI. And the team that loses, well that's even worse. Both teams are in conferences that will only send the conference winner to "The Big Dance", and this matchup does absolutely nothing to change that situation. So much for the purpose of the "Bracketbuster".Also I remember the days of the Ohio Valley Conference ... and it wasn't all that bad as a conference.

Everyone should let Dean George Haritos ... haritos@uakron.edu ... and the advisor Iqbal Husain ... ihusain@uakron.edu ... how they feel about those pictures. Obviousily the College of Engineering students prefer the education they get at Akron over what they would receive in Columbus. They should let the news media know that.

It runs in my mind that the lower seats on the team side were much more full last year. The Akron - Can't game was the first time that I noticed how empty they were. Did something change in the way the tickets were marketed and sold? In 2005-06 and 2004-05 I was able to score some seats from a sponsor (Sky Bank) and those seats were opposite the team benches. I don't think that the seats should be available if nobody shows up becasue someone spent big bucks for them. However it is pitiful that someone spends big bucks for the seats and never show up.

And the congregation said "AMEN"!

This is just a thought, and I may be completely off base with this idea. When I was an undergraduate, a friend of mine actually ran the university's radio station , it was located in a closet in the dorms. Major companies give grants and contract all the time to universities to do research, or create computer programs, or to do polling data. Why can't the University of Akron approach the Marketing Dept. in our Business School and have the students or graduate students handle our sports marketing. I am sure they are smart enough and are very much aware of what's going on around campus. They couldn't do any worse than what we have got now, and probably at a much less cost. I know that I hired an intern in transportation from the University and she worked out very well for me.