West Coast Zip

Craigs List Raleigh has some postings with cheap tix for Sunday...http://raleigh.craigslist.org/tix/

Next 2 days look good down here, so it should give the field a chance to dry out. That's good since Raleigh got pounded with a rainstorm early Wed. morning. Its already been wet for the last few weeks and everything is saturated right now. WakeMed is a top notch facility, too, so they should have things ready to go. Gametime temp looks like it wil be in the upper 30's and falling.Here's the best local weather info...http://www.wral.com/weather/

All Good recommendations. To that I would add:Downtown Raleigh (my recommendation for post game Friday, unless you want to rub it in at UNC): - Flying Saucer Draught Emporium. Amazing beer selection plus the waitresses are dressed, well, barely at all.- Boylan Bridge Brewpub (if its sunny and nice out for the patio). Great view of downtown and good locally brewed beer.- Glenwood South entertainment district. Raleigh is not a big city, so this is as close as it gets to a metro entertainment district feel. - Zely and Ritz - Best Tapas in Raleigh- For anybody bringing the family, check out the NC State Farmers Market (just South of Downtown) or the Museum of Natural History (great for kids or adults actually)Chapel Hill:- Be sure to keep going West on Franklin Street into Carrboro to the Weaver Street market and beyond. Great people watching/local art shops/hippie culture, etc. Also, the Chapel Hill Christmas parade is on Saturday at 10AM. Durham (I actually prefer Durham to Raleigh or CH, but for those new to the area it can take some warming up - not a sparkly clean as the other 2)):- American Tobacco Historic District. Tyler's taproom is an awesome place, and the entire renovated tobacco factory campus is worth a look. - Duke Campus - every bit as gorgeous as UNC - 9th street - Go to Elmo's for breakfast if you're nearby (also an Elmo's in Carrboro)For the drive down or back: - Foothills brewing Co - Downtown Winston Salem. Minutes off highway 52 (shortest route to Raleigh) on 4th st. and maybe the best local brewery in the state. You can also take the opportunity to talk some smack to the Wake Forest fans. - Marietta Brewing Company. 5 min. off I-77 just before you cross the river into WV.I went to UA for my undergrad and am going to UNC for my MBA. My heart is with the Zips, though! Some good people at UNC, but let me be blunt - they do not respect UA. They do not care that you are undefeated. They think you are an over-rated team from an inferior conference. I will like nothing more than the pleasure of wearing my UA Soccer shirt around Chapel Hill!!!! Go Zips!!!!

We were sitting right above the tunnel to the locker rooms. As Akron stormed off the field after the game I saw about 6 or 7 plastic bottles get thrown at the players. I also heard some of the NC St fans yell at one of the guys to stop it. I would basically agree with the comment above, that the NC St fans were pretty classy except for a few a$$es.I definitely should have come over to the zips section. Nice to see you guys representing NE Ohio...

Wow! Did Akron ever kick some a$$ and open some eyes today. I managed to get some tix from some NC State friends and sat in the NC St. alumni section. Truth be told, it pretty much all looked like the NC St. alumni section. Akron's fan contingent was what appeared to be about 150 folks they stuffed in the opposite corner of the end zone. I personally saw exactly 3 other Zip fans up close. That Akron could come into that stadium and shut up the crowd was very impressive. Here are some tidbits...- None of the NC St fans who sat around me knew where Akron was, aside from somewhere in Ohio. A couple of them thought Akron was a Div II school.- Some of the more knowledgeable fans knew that Getsy would be tough and were worried about their secondary even before the game. They seemed to think that NC St would have superior athletes that would make up the difference. - Akron did not look undersized or slow compared to what most would regard as a traditionally stronger DI program. The fans around me couldn't believe how muck UA dominated the offensive and defensive lines, especially in the 1st half.- NC State fans hate their quarterback and their coach. Apparently there's some freshman QB that some of them think should be playing (they were chanting his name). The guys I was with were ready to lynch Chuck Amato. - This is funny - on NC State's 1st possession there was a long incompletion downfield and the fans started cheering. I thought there was a penalty, but when I realized there wasn't I turned to my friend and asked what was up. He said everybody was cheering because they actually tried a downfield pass instead of a screen pass. Like I said, they're not fond of the QB.- Like Akron, NC St's stadium is well away from the campus. Unlike Akron, there's a huge local and student following and the game was packed. I'm sure there are many factors here, but the one that struck me was that there is TONS of tailgating going on all around the stadium. We showed up at 8:30 AM. Everyone was friendly, campus cops gave NO ONE a hard time about drinking. In our group of about 25 people, only about 1/3 were NC St alumni. The rest are casual to loyal fans who just enjoy coming down to the stadium to tailgate and hang out with friends. Akron could learn a lesson here I think. - The tix we got and the empty seats around us were apparently all alums who didn't want to come because they thought the game would be a blowout.- When Kennedy scored at the end, the stadium went crazy in protest. Nobody around us realized the reason there was no review was because of the timeout situation. A couple guys swore there was no TD call (it was quick - only the ref on the left side signalled and on held his hands up for a few seconds and didn't run in like you sometimes see with hands raised). After a couple replays on the jumbotron, all of the people around me agreed it was a TD, even though they were pissed.- I have never been so proud to wear the zips colors as when I walked out of that stadium thru a sea of red. What a great game...

Wow - I am impressed. That is a huge win. 2nd half comeback on the road as the underdog??!!! Sweet redemption after the Toledo game....

Doesn't Temple play some kind of match-up zone defense? You always hear about teams having trouble that haven't played them, kind of like Syracuse or WVU. Well, the 'revamped' NIT seeding system is all based on numbers - members rank teams individially in a succession of ballots until the seeds are established. Looks like there's no discussion at all in a 'committee' format like the NCAA tourney. I guess what that tells you is nobody had much repect for Akron's 22 wins when it came to ranking them against the other eligible teams. This is the kind of comparison the pundits are always analyzing - a mid major with a very good record, but relative weak schedule, against a major conf. school with a bad record (17-14) but tough opponents all year. I'd love to see Akron come out pissed off and take it to them. Realistically, though, this is a very tough matchup on Temple's home court.

Got to see Nevada annihilate Fresno St. yesterday. Third time I've seen them this year, including the UA game. That is a damned good team - probably a five or six seed if they win their tourney. What initially looked like a very bad loss for Akron is now looking like they just ran into a buzzsaw. It was a real landmine game - with the Wolfpack falling out of the top 25 for a few weeks after hitting a lull. Akron caught them just as they were hitting stride, and now they've won like 11 in a row. If Fazekas doesn't leave for the draft, they will likely be a top 25 team when they come to the JAR next year. If Akron is as improved as everyone expects, it should be an interesting game, and a chance to exact some revenge...

Wow, an awesome second half! 51 points! Way to defend the home court! And a serious confidence boost heading into the MAC tourney.

Have to say I like the fierce Akron loyalty. That you can even have the argument about competing for recruits with OSU shows how far Akron has come (reduction in NCAA scholarships in mid 90's changed things a lot). Still, I have to look at the bigger picture when it comes to rooting for OSU. OSU has been the national identity for college sports in Ohio for my entire lifetime. You couldn't turn on the TV on a Saturday afternoon in the Fall without OSU being on. Its kind of like a fraternity that you're born into - by the time you're old enough to know better, you're already a fan. I have never considered OSU to be really a rival to Akron. Who knows, though, FB and BB programs are headed in a very positive direction right now. University has dumped a bunch of money into campus and sports facility upgrades (can't believe when I first visted you could still drive right down the middle of campus!) A lot of the pieces seem to be coming together - good coaches, new facilities, consistent programs. Definitely seems like a much more attractive situation for blue chip athletes than probably any other time in Akron's history.To be honest, after living out of the state for so long now, and having to deal with stupid fans who couldn't find Ohio on a map let alone Akron, I tend to root for MAC teams in general against any other conferences. More publicity for the conference means more for Akron. Doesn't do them much good to be the best team in a conference nobody respects.

Not too bad of a game to get the Zips some national exposure. I'm always interested to see how the ESPN game analysts and studio analysts treat the mid-major teams. The game analysts were about what I would've expected. Beat the Lebron/StV StM storyline into the ground, average knowledge of Akron's team, and they clearly had based their opinion of OU on last season's run and their pre-season hype. These guys really struggle when they don't have one or two marquee players to hype. They really wanted the game to be all about Romeo and Leon Williams. The studio analysts were even worse. One guy couldn't even say the name of the school right! 'Ack-rawn'. It was disappointing to hear the color guy straight up say that the MAC has no shot at an at large bid in addition to the conference champ, as if its a foregone conclusion. Especially when they were talking during the early game about the Missouri Valley Conference possibly having 5 deserving teams! If Akron and Can't both make the MAC finals, I think the loser of that game has a legitimate right for serious consideration of an at-large.