ZippyforPresident

Upper reserved seats (individual seats with chair backs and arm rests) are only $15 per seat if you hate riding the pine ($10). Those upper reserved seats offer a really good view too. In my opinion the JAR is a pretty good place to watch basketball. There aren't that many places left that put you that close to the action anymore (BGSU's Anderson used to be GREAT for getting close to the action). In my opinion there is nothing else like it when there is a big crowd with that sort of energy @ the JAR. You can absolutely feel the energy coursing through you when the team gets on a run and the crowd gets going. If you want to go to a terrible arena, go check out K-S-U's MAC Center. The entire upper level is an obstructed view of any scoreboard in the arena and the view of the court is a thin space between the large beam running across the roof and some mouth breathing Can't State a-hole in front of you (I can post pictures). The JAR is a palace compared to that place. Really, be grateful. Also, in addition to the VCU game, don't forget about the Detroit game. That game should be awesome. Detroit is receiving a lot of press about being the next team to unseat Butler on their way to the top of the Horizon with Ray McCallum Jr. and Eli Holman. The Titans also stole Juwan Howard Jr. away from Western Michigan (although he has to sit out this year). Hopefully you will enjoy coming to more games. Come for the team, not the arena!

I wonder if it would be possible to put a roof on the stadium and convert it to a first class arena?

Nice way to break it down, QZ. I'd say your analysis is pretty spot on. Knowing that the Zips always seem to start kind of slow out of the gate some of those 2k sports classic games could prove to be quite a battle. But at least Marshall is at the end of the OOC slate, so the team should be a little more cohesive at that point. Hopefully the Canadian trip pays dividends and the team comes out firing on all cylinders right from the start. Having the extra game experience and practice time makes me feel a little better about facing Miss. State that early in the season.

If there's room maybe coach Dambrot will let him walk on.

The most exiting part of that statement is, outside of Zeke, I can't be entirely sure of which other player you mean.

I have not been impressed with Zeke thus far as a Zip. He clearly is not close to being anything that resembles a basketball player. That said, he is still 7 foot tall, athletic as hell, can run, defend and block shots. Some NBA team is going to think they can develop him enough offensively that he can be a defender. You bring up his stats in the MAC, that is really irrelevent. John Edwards barely played at Can't State and had a short NBA career. Why? Because he was 7 foot tall. People will gamble and make sure he has no game before they never give him a chance. Zeke is a guaranteed first round pick if he comes out after his senior year. Book it. You beat me to it. If John Edwards can play in the league Zeke can easily do it. He's twice as talented and athletic as Edwards was. Zeke actually has a really good shooting touch for a big guy. If he continues to develop his stroke and post moves there's no limit to what he's capable of doing. He has an incredibly high ceiling as do many players on this year's roster. We saw some of how dominant Zeke can be on both sides of the ball in his games against Can't State both at the JAR and in the Championship and I think we will get to see a lot more of that in the future. I'm really excited for the upcoming season.

"Tough." A metaphor for Akron Basketball possibly?

For some reason this all makes me think back to JD kicking Jacquemain off the team in '09, even if it cost us merely a few games and not some rigged profit bowl. On one hand we have JD kicking his senior quarterback off the team for less than getting in trouble with the law, merely a violation of team rules, even if that specific act handicapped the team and probably cost JD his job. On the other hand we have Jimmy Trestle fostering an environment for his senior quarterback to violate NCAA rules and sweeping the rest of his unlawful acts under the rug, not to mention the violations of so many others on his team to save his job and his image. A bastard is bad enough, but jimmy trestle is a self righteous bastard, and there's nothing worse than that. The "Senator?" Are you kidding me? Your corruption would make former cuyahoga county auditor Frank Russo blush... At least JD had the testicular fortitude to actually enforce the rules... UA > osu and JD > Jimmy P.S. Last team from an Ohio school to win a national championship trophy? If you're not too scared maybe you can come up and kiss it some time osu. Akron actually won honestly and through hard work. Something columbus knows nothing about. But we wouldn't expect you to anyway.

Can't State Miscalculates Graduation List Hahahaha... K S U = F A I L (and Z4P embarrasses himself with a typo in the topic's title... )

Chisolm was definitely the most notable player of the spring game. Hopefully he proves to be an exciting back. The scrimmage was pretty run heavy, but the secondary was still the most notable area for improvement. Those guys need all the help they can get. I surely hope a great deal of focus is spent there when practices resume. They made the 3 QBs look a lot better than they really are. Otherwise, I had fun and good luck to the team in their 2011 campaign!

Ugghhhh...I am sick and tired of playing Penn State! Play a different Big 10(12) school so I can travel to a new stadium. Play Minnesota, Mich St, Northwestern, Illinois, Iowa, somebody please! No more Indiana, PSU or Ohio State, blah. I would rather play Pitt over any Big Ten school. I would like to see a WVU 2 for 1. Now that's what I'm talking about!

Somebody write him a letter for a donation to the program. Hell, gimme his mailing address and I'll do it.

Bullseye. Your douche radar was on and perfectly tuned.

It's the MAC, we KNOW life ain't easy, just like much of our student body. We're a working class kind of school, with a coach that embodies that toughness. Akron is tough as hell, both our team and our city. To be honest I think Ken t has better athletes than notre dame has anyway. We've got some really good ballers on this team and one hell of a coaching staff. If the new guys have half the potential that they're allegedly supposed to have, we could really have some fun next year as long as they absorb the knowledge the coaching staff has for them. Youth, talent, and experience.... This is the conundrum of college basketball.. We all know Ken t is going to be good next year and I'm looking forward to this league being as competitive as it has been in a long time. The MAC is going to get its two bids back in the near future and we all know which teams are responsible for that, although Ohio is going to have a lot of talent next year too. 3 teams have a great shot: Ohio, Ken t, and Akron. And not necessarily in that order. Hell, here's to getting 3 bids. I wish we could keep playing because I'm already looking forward to next year.

We had this one... And I agree with all that you've said QZ. I really believed we could have made a sweet sixteen run, because we are more athletic than Notre Dame U and we beat Florida State U in 08'. But I am very optimistic for October, we have a lot of good pieces in place. I really just want to say thanks to the team for fighting all year like they did. Hell, I remember praying we would beat Toledo after that dagger to EMU but we fought back and had a good shot at doing some major damage this season. We have a great program that this community needs to be proud of and that is something worth getting excited about. Keith Dambrot is a GREAT coach and as long as he's on our side we're going to have a program to be proud of. We played really good defense, just as a true Akron basketball team does but just went cold offensively. I think we beat ourselves, the effort was there, the defense was there, but we just couldn't get our WIDE open looks and bunnies to fall. We lost it for ourselves, Notre Dame didn't really have anything to do with beating us. Hell, we even shot 17 more shots than they did. This was truly a game we should have won. And when an impartial reporter for CBS writes that the referees swallowed their whistles you know the house has the cards stacked against you. Notre Dame U was what we knew they were, a bunch of prissy little rich boys who whine a lot and get by on the name on the front of their jerseys. But let this be a wake up call. Akron basketball is coming back next year and they're coming back twice as determined and twice as strong. We're on the doorstep and on the verge of breaking it down for the nation to see. Today Akron soccer, tomorrow Akron basketball. In the future, all of my extra money will be going to Akron basketball. We're gonna get this thing done.

I've seen this commercial a few times too. It is pretty good and it's pretty hard to knock Mark Mothersbaugh because DEVO is very awesome. Although, Can't was a far more interesting, politically motivated and artistically flourishing place when he and the other members of DEVO went there. Sadly these days that school is mostly dead airspace, both politically and artistically speaking. Akron has a far more flourishing art scene these days... Which isn't all that bad for a school of scientists, engineers, and lawyers.. The underground music scene isn't too shabby either...

Q: How are notre lame cheerleaders like bowling balls? A: They get fingered, thrown in a gutter, and come back for more... P.S. Rudy was a little sissy... GO ZIPS!!

I know. We got absolutely no credit for beating the bottom 4 West teams...especially when we could only beat 2 of them. Hahaha. Yes, actually beating all of those teams certainly wouldn't have hurt.

The UA Intramural Legend beat me to this one. The only way we could even sniff the CIT (which probably only me and the custodial staff at the JAR would even care about) is if we take it to the championship game and lose in some sort of closely contested overtime debacle. 22 wins would still have to be worth something, even if the bottom 4 MAC West teams continue to drag our conference, sos, and livelihood into the abyss...

That zone sucks. It collapses to ball side so much that often two perimeter players are wide open Fortunately, there is no DJ Cooper on EMU. No wonder OU toasted us twice. You just can not leave shooters that open; ever. That was the big thing that I noticed too, not only in the EMU game, but in all of the games that the Zips have played poorly in. When the defense is bad they seem to really over pursue on the ball side and that Cooper kid has really been able to exploit both our late rotations in man to man and over pursuit in zone. In my opinion the big key in this tournament for Akron is going to be not getting out of position and biting on ball fakes, preventing late rotations when going man, and not over pursuing on the ball side when in the 2-3 or 1-1-3 zone that they typically change to. I think perhaps a big reason the zone has been successful for this team is because it forces them to not over pursue and get caught out of position on defense. This is why we got killed on the dribble drive against Can't in my opinion (because guys were late on their assignments in the man defense. Can't would just weave for a favorable match up or to get an angle on someone at the top of the key and drive when they thought they had a good chance to get to the rack). In a nutshell, just don't over pursue and hold your ground and you should be fine. During the 7 game winning streak I noticed players out of good defensive position very seldom. They were pressuring and in your face when they went man and had very few soft spots in their zone. If we play stout defense I have all the confidence in the world that our offense has enough firepower to get us to the championship. If I had any advice for the team for the rest of the tournament it would be to make sure to communicate and trust your teammates on defense. Just my .01 cents... Go Zips!

I just hope Zippy is ready to go that early...

I want to throw down against ohio u and Can't state u again as soon as possible. Bring it. All we have to do is get on a nice little 10 game winning streak to end the season...

You're welcome.

Big, big, BiG win! This game can springboard us right into a first round bye in the tourney if the Zips can keep taking care of business like they did tonight, especially with the next three at home. Keep up the focus, confidence, and intensity!

I agree that Diggs has a decent stroke, but it seems like his 3 point opportunities should be more limited to when he's wide open and the shot is totally uncontested. The stop and pop long range stuff is better off left to Roberts, McNees and McClanahan. I'd like to see more of an isolation set up for Diggs and see if he can't take some guys one on one slashing to the hoop. He'd have a much better chance at finishing around the rim at 6' 6" than Abreu at 5' 9". I mean, if he does have some of that guard skill set why not set some plays up for him at the top and see what happens? Worse case scenario he drives too deep and dishes to Zeke who dunks it . Looking forward to Saturday. Preparing for the worst but hoping for the best with all that I have.