ZachTheZip

My info on Adams is mostly that he committed to Akron. From what I can gather, he initially played QB but made the switch to WR during his senior season. Look here for a little bit of info/highlights.

Generally, having a recruit that is top-100 at their position is a good get, considering our record the past few years. Going through the recruting services, and adding the players that they have neglected to mark as committed, gives the following (Bold is not listed as committed, italic means no profile): Scout: DeAndre Adams (WR) Logan Cox (S) ** Stephen Ericksen (#30 C) NR David Gaydosz (unranked RB) ** Zach Guiser (#119 S) ** Dominick Hamilton (#34 C) Keontae Hollis (DT) ** Michael Kish (#73 TE) ** Ryan Kortokrax (unranked OT) *** Jerome Lane (#94 OLB) ** Anthony Lauro (unranked WR) ** Deontae Moore (#133 OLB) Tyler Vaughn (DT) ** Tommy Woodson (#82 QB) Rivals: Deandre Adams (WR) Logan Cox (S) NR Stephen Ericksen (unranked C) ** RB David Gaydosz (unranked RB) ** Zach Guiser (unranked DB) ** Dominick Hamilton (unranked OG) *** Keontae Hollis (unranked DT) ** Michael Kish (unranked TE) Ryan Kortokrax (OT) *** Jerome Lane (unranked OLB) ** Anthony Lauro (unranked RB) Deontae Moore (LB) Tyler Vaughn (DT) ** Tommy Woodson (unranked ATH) ESPN: Deandre Adams (WR) NR Logan Cox (unranked S) NR Stephen Ericksen (unranked OC) NR David Gaydosz (unranked RB) ** Zach Guiser (#112 S) *** Dominick Hamilton (#86 OG) NR Keontae Hollis (unranked DT) NR Michael Kish (unranked TE) NR Ryan Kortokrax (unranked OT) ** Jerome Lane (#175 ATH) ** Anthony Lauro (#176 ATH) NR Deontae Moore (unranked OLB) NR Tyler Vaughn (unranked DT) ** Tommy Woodson (#86 ProQB)

Recruiting services rank based on heavily on quantity of recruits. So a team that has oversigned to have 30 3-star recruits will be rated well ahead of a 13-recruit class full of 4 and 5 stars. With our limited scholarships, there's no way we would possibly be rated as high as other MAC teams that can sign 20+ recruits, even if we have higher individual ratings. Also, 247 is missing some of our recruits. Deontae Moore isn't listed as having verballed to us, and Stephen Ericksen (#30 Center in the country on Scout) doesn't even have a profile.

I think that loss had much more to do with Bo Boroski than with cursed uniforms.

We should have a prep-school player or two coming in this year. Stay tuned.

Ignore Rivals. They've been beyond terrible at covering Zips recruiting this year. The best recruiting coverage for Akron this year is a toss-up between ESPN and 247sports. They're on their way to surpassing the traditional Scout and Rivals sites. They're much better at tracking who commits to what school.

Found a name: Jonny DeMoya.

Now that we know how to disrupt their offense, I think the road game will play out differently.

Hearing that we got a commitment from a player out of Puerto Rico. Has anybody else heard anything about this?

In the interest of actually driving between the two places, it's not much longer. There's not a lot of traffic out in the cornfields.

Student attendance over 800. Most for a game not involving Can't State. We'll break that record in seven days.

It's become clear that Akron has only two games on the schedule where they will be completely focused, and both of them are against Ohio. The crowd willed the team to victory tonight. The same thing needs to happen on Wednesday at BG, since I fear the players will be looking ahead. If any Zips fans can make the 2-hour drive (no worse than going from Canton to Cleveland), I hope they go. With any luck, the AK-Rowdies will get a bus and send some loud students there.

I would love to beat ISU, if only to shut up their fans about how they would completely dominate the MAC if they ever got an invite.

What was the official attendance? Anybody know the student attendance, as well?

We're in the position where we are going to get everyone's best shot. We need to realize that.

That was one of those games that certain Zips fans were expecting when they said we would blow a few before the tournament. And without a doubt, previous Zips teams would not have been capable of coming back like that. Buffalo shot like the rim was 10 feet wide in the first half. It was definitely "one of those games", but we pulled it out. Games like that happen from time to time, where a bad team suddenly hits all their shots, no matter how terrible they look. Games like that are flukes, but it is dangerous to be on the receiving end of that.

I guess we just felt like spotting Buffalo about 20 points to keep it fair.

You're better off not seeing it. This is a disgrace.

What makes you say that? Anyway, NIU is terrible at basketball, but EMU is just plain unwatchable. Every game they play is like this. It's like they took what Charlie Coles did, and turned it up to unneccessary levels.

Pretty impressive for just one guy.

Top 8 Home and Away Bracketbuster teams according to ESPN's BPI rankings: Home: (13) Wichita State (43) Belmont (44) Akron (45) St. Mary's (69) Northern Iowa (72) Valparaiso (74) Indiana State (96) Murray State Away: (11) Creighton (60) North Dakota State (71) Illinois State (75) Ohio (78) Stephen F. Austin (97) Detroit (101) Weber State (109) Eastern Kentucky Illinois State would be ideal, if only they had a better W-L record.

If you look at other sports programs, you'll notice that it takes a constant barrage of promotions to get people to come back. A one-off promotion will get people out to a single game, but they won't immediately start comimg back for more games. You need to get them to come out for three or four promotions in a row for games (excepting the "big" games which are a big draw on their own), and that's when they start to make the association between Zips games and having fun.

I had a conversation the other day regarding the placement of the student section and the band. I argued that they should be switched. I believe that the band should be right in the opposing bench's ears. I also think that it would be possible to enforce a designated student section on the north side, by putting up ropes near the student entrance, and between that section and the GA seats, to force them to all sit there. I think it would be much more effective than letting them mix in with the less energetic GA crowd that pressures them to sit down and be quiet. The answer I was given is that the university believes that having the student section near to the opposing bench creates the best home court advantage, and that this is how most schools have their seating arrangements set up. They wanted the entire south side to be students, and the band volunteered to move to allow this to happen, and also to gain more space for their ever-growing trombone section. My counter-argument is that having a large, unified student section where all the students have to sit together would provide a greater advantage in creating an intimidating atmosphere, even if they're not right next to the opposing bench. Besides that, sitting them on the south side makes the seating unenforceable. There's nothing to stop students from sitting in GA. This also allows the band to be right next to the opposing bench, where they can be loud and obnoxious to their hearts' content. Of course, simply putting the students on a side of the arena instead of behind the basket would make more sense than any other option, but that's not being considered.

Better authority than the newspaper?

As far as Kretzer goes, I just wish he would realize that he has the size to drive to the hoop. He can be more than just a 3-point shooter, but he seems content to just sit on the perimeter.