joshgozips

Eight days until the early signing period for college basketball begins November 12. Perhaps in the "Eight Days of Christmas", the ZipsNation could come up with eight significant changes that "a certain center from PA" will bring to the Zips next year?

Gotta feel bad for Dante Love...his playing career appears to be over.http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3602536

Ball State - 34Akron - 24

OK, Zips-nationers, there's been plenty of discussion about tomorrow's home opener, but everyone put on your "Carnac The Magnificent" elaborate turbans and look into your crystal footballs. Time to gaze to Saturday, September 13th at about 4:00 (after the clock hits 0:00 in the fourth quarter) at the Rubber Bowl.Who is going to be the victor in the game tomorrow afternoon and what is the score going to be?

As to the "interesting" side note mentioned in the first post on this topic, that the same company - Joe Bosack Graphic Design Company - did the Zips' rebranding a few years back, note this from the press release MAC website:"A four-member subcommittee, chaired by University of Akron Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades, led the process in developing the new logo with The Joe Bosack Graphic Design Company"

Teddy Robb of Northwest High School in Canal Fulton is going to be walking on at UA.

Rumor is that the game at the Q is with some team that wears red and gray in Columbus. Seriously.

So I was down on campus for the Zips baseball season finale (a 4-3 loss at the hands of BGSU) and stopped by the construction site to give you a few updates and pics. The site was actually open at the south end (behind where the Odd Corner once existed) and ANYONE can just walk on in and check out the progress (until they figure out it is open, that is). Anyhow, I took a bunch of pictures and here are a couple that if you cannot get down to UA to check out will excite you like it did me!

http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/18802529.html

If that held up, it would also be nice to see K e n t, Miami and Ohio beat each other up on the other side of the bracket.

Swung by construction/destruction site today and got a couple of pictures to give everyone an update. Enjoy!

Was over at UA's website for the new stadium and they have posted about a 45-second video from yesterday's beginning demolition:http://www.uakron.edu/stadium/fla/demoDay1.phpIt's only a tease...but it IS progress!

Not that it means anything, especially on the eve of the K e n t game, but the Zips have been added to Joe Lunardi's Bracketology on ESPN.com. Akron is slated for a 5/12 match-up against Mississippi in Washington D.C. with the winner facing the (4) Pittsburgh/(13) Davidson winner.Again, it means nothing at this point, still fun to see.http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology

I saw a request for photos of the InfoCision Stadium site as fencing has gone up around part of the construction area. I was on campus on Sunday afternoon for the womens' basketball match-up with Marist and stopped by the site a few minutes before the game. Here is what I can tell you:The fencing borders the Stiles Fieldhouse on the north, Nash Street on the south, Union Street on the west and Spicer on the east.There are four residence halls enclosed by the fencing: Wallaby, Brown, Joey and Wallaroo. There are portions of the fencing where it is open so that vehicles can move in and out.Within the fencing, there are 5-6 18-wheeler trailers stationed.The tanning spa on Exchange is closed and boarded up, along with several residences on Nash.Here are several of the pics that I took. Please let me know if you'd like to see any more of them.

Not to mention that if B. McKnight and Roberts stay in the rotation, that Coach used a legitmate ELEVEN man rotation against A&T. ELEVEN! Not surprising for Coach and good to have such depth with a rough and tumble MAC season where teams need as many healthy, rested bodies as possible.

Here are some numbers as to how the Zips match-up with their two-potential opponents next Wednesday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament - Colgate and South Florida. Happy Thanksgiving, Zips fans!RPI: 12 (Akron)60 (Colgate)22 (USF) 2007 record: 15-3-2 (Akron)9-5-5 (Colgate)12-4-2 (USF)Record: 9-0-2 (home) (Akron)2-3-2 (away) (Colgate)2-3-2 (away) (USF)Goals Scored: 36 (Akron)18 (Colgate)37 (USF)Goals Allowed: 12 (Akron)16 (Colgate)15 (USF) Yellow Cards: 18 (Akron)10 (Colgate)17 (USF)Red Cards: 3 (Akron)1 (Colgate)2 (USF)Leading Scorer: S. Zakuani (6 goals) (Akron) E. Anton (5 goals) (Colgate)B. Anor (7 goals) (USF)Goalkeepers:E. Bush (11 goals allowed, 0.53 GAA) (Akron)D. Cappuccio (14 goals allowed, 0.73 GAA) (Colgate)D. Restrepo (14 goals allowed, 0.83 GAA) (USF)Notable Wins: Akron - Penn St. (#39 RPI), UNC-Greensboro (#50 RPI), OSU (tie) (#4 RPI)Colgate - Patriot League ChampionshipUSF - West Virginia (#15 RPI), St. John's (#40 RPI)

Official word from Coach Brookhart on GoZips.com in his weekly press conference...so much for the mystery of making K-E-N-T prepare for either to start. Of course, they will see both at one point or another.“We are going to start Carlton on Saturday (against Can't State). Chris will get a series in the second quarter. We used the spring and went live because we needed to see how they both would react under fire and after four days they were both out (with injuries). When they came back we tempered it back and didn’t get to see them live. As we went through the fall Chris proved to be the better decision maker. He was steady and called all the plays correctly. We felt comfortable going with him. Carlton came in at Army and did a decent job. Then he came in for the first drive (against Indiana) and did a nice job. I think what we saw during Indiana were the things we weren’t able to evaluate during practice like his ability to improvise and make some things happen. He still needs to take care of the football better and improve his management of the game which I think he will.”

OK Zips gridiron prognosticators...give us all a winner and final score for the game on Saturday night.

As I looked over the future non-conference opponents coming to the Rubber Bowl/InfoCision Stadium, I asked myself - "What caliber team can I see the Zips playing in our new home in the years to come?"Speaking hypothetically that the combination of extremely impressive recruiting continiues and that it translates onto the field, who can you see us luring to the new stadium in the years to come? A particular opponent? Or more generally a particular conference?Just curious about everyone's thoughts!

Dr Z - I picked up a copy of the actual newspaper this morning and in that edition there is actually a good size picture of the rendering we saw a few weeks ago that goes along with the story.

The Ohio State game on September 22 is still listed as TBA for game time the last time that I checked their schedule. Wonder i that will conflct with the Zips/Flushes kickoff and keep people away. But hey - no snow hopefully this time, right?

ESPN.com has started a ranking of where all D-I football programs rank entering the 2007 season based on their win totals from 1997-2006 and began today with 119-101.http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?i...ht&lid=tab1pos2Teams of note from that group...the Golden Flushes (109), Ball State (108), Army (111), Eastern Michigan (116), Temple (118) and Buffalo (119).But no Zips to be found in this first group! :PRest of the ESPN.com revealing of this list as follows:Monday: No. 101 to No. 119Tuesday: No. 76 to No. 100Wednesday: No. 51 to No. 75Thursday: No. 26 to No. 50Friday: No. 1 to No. 25

You all need to check out the post over on GoZips.com. The Athletics Communications staff has a writer following the team around while on their first day in Cleveland. It is pretty interesting, seeing that most of us only see what occurs on the floor.http://www.gozips.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_...0&ATCLID=822817

Maybe I missed this thread somewhere else on the site, but did anyone see that ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi bumped Toledo off his field of 65 and added the Zips:http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketologyIt would be the #13 Seed Zips against #4 Seed Duke in Winston-Salem, N.C.

It is true that part of the contractual obligation of playing in the ESPN BracketBuster event is playing an opponent on the opposing floor the following season and that your conference's officials travel and do the game. Coach Dambrot had nothing to do with his decision - in fact, it really could not even be considered a "decision".