ZachTheZip

The Zips have some talent on the roster. A surprising amount to someone who doesn't follow them closely. But that talent is mis-managed constantly. It doesn't take much to be competitive in the MAC for baseball. I would go so far as to say that it doesn't take anything more than some guys who played in high school and a coach who knows how to use them in the right situations. You won't be at Can't State's level, but you would be middle of the pack and at least get into the conference tournament.

Don't know too much else about Foldesy except that he goes to St. Ignatius.

You're right. I got the positions mixed up while typing. I wonder how much he has grown over the last year.

Never noticed ESPN's write-up back then. They have him rated as an 87, and the #68 PF in the country. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball...181/nick-harney Not too bad.

It's possible. I know for sure that the soccer teams and softball use the locker rooms in the North Endzone facility, and some other sports do, also, so it would make sense for them to use the one in the football stadium just like it will make sense for the basketball teams and volleyball to use the one going in the renovated JAR. meanwhile the music students still have piss poor practice rooms. oh well at least we have ANOTHER weight room. The music students could probably use a weight room too. Dr Proenza, get on it!

It's possible. I know for sure that the soccer teams and softball use the locker rooms in the North Endzone facility, and some other sports do, also, so it would make sense for them to use the one in the football stadium just like it will make sense for the basketball teams and volleyball to use the one going in the renovated JAR.

We're 15-36 (6-19) with 2 games to go, both at Can't. Last year we were 21-34 (3-24) in the MAC. In 2009 we were 19-33 (12-15). 2008 was 25-24 (8-13). I think it's time we got a new coach. Bangston is just awful. Even worse, he's a former Can't State athlete. If I were a bigger conspiracy theorist, I would say he's deliberately hurting our program for Can't's benefit. But would be giving a Can't grad way too much credit.

Anybody going to the Diamond Classic tonight at Canal Park? It would be nice to pick up a win against Can't State even if it doesn't count as a conference game.

I was walking around campus today and saw that the Townhouses on Grant street are being demolished. Probably in preparation for the new mega-dorm project. I didn't expect it to happen so soon. I thought it would start next year.

A cheap shot of a joke, perhaps? Or something with more substance...

Seems like a good idea. Go to the game and hop across the street from the parking deck for a burger before or after. For the people who don't like tailgating (what the heck is wrong with them?!).

If they held a dedication ceremony, it must have just been completed.

UA holds dedication ceremony for Strength and Conditioning center within the football stadium. Thank you, Suarez family! Just a month ago, there was only one strength and conditioning facility on campus, in the Stile field house. it was shared by all the athletes in all the sports. Now there will be one in the JAR for Mens and Women's Basketball and Volleyball and one in Infocision Stadium for the football team. I see this helping quite a bit by allowing our athletes to work out more often instead of scheduling around a dozen other teams.

Article on Gabe Genovesi "I cannot say enough about coach Porter and the UA men's soccer team for allowing me the opportunity to be a part of the team and for also supporting me in the UA men's track program," wrote Genovesi, whose father is legendary Milwaukee Wave player Michael King. "I also cannot say enough about coach (Dennis) Mitchell and coach (Lee) LaBadie of the UA track program in allowing me the opportunity to run."

Yes. And conference games count more because of the feedback they create. You also play more conference games than non-conference games, so the winning percentages of your fellow conference teams is mroe important than the winning percentages of your non-conference opponents. So if the MAC played a weaker OOC schedule but consequently came away with more wins, the RPI of every team in the conference would improve. The MAC commish mentioned in the article that teams should be scheduling according to how good they are projected to be. No MAC team is projected to be in the top 25, so no MAC team should play a top 25 OOC schedule. It also works the other way, where the terrible teams out west should tone it down and focus on getting wins instead of hoping that a killer schedule will mask their poor record. That would boost the better teams' RPIs and raise the conference overall.

Michael Beaven comes through with an update, including a quote from coach Porter on the departures.

New offer: C Tony Matteo TE Blake Thomas verbals to Ohio State

Remember, RPI and SOS are purely math-based and not opinion-based. Time to check out the statistical facts at statsheet.com : Miami's RPI absolutely did not drag down the MAC's overall SOS but pulled it up as Miami finished the season with the 3rd highest RPI in the MAC behind only Can't and UA, as well as the #1 SOS in the MAC. The SOS of the 9 lower-ranked MAC teams (75% of the 12-team conference) all benefitted from playing Miami with its higher RPI. And 4 of those 9 lower-ranked MAC teams had better overall won-lost records than Miami but worse RPI because they played weaker non-conference opponents than Miami did. The RPI is a simple formula. It is based upon three factors. 25% your win/loss record, 50% your opponents' win/loss records, and 25% your opponent's opponents' win/loss record. It is not based directly upon your opponent's RPI rank. Miami had a good RPI, yes. But they had a poor win/loss record, which affects both the second and third factors of the RPI in conference, since not only do you play them, but a minimum of 15 of your opponents play them as well. So their record affects each team's RPI more than a non-conference game would since a non-conference game primarily affects only the second factor. Thus the best way to improve a conference's RPI across the board is to have conference opponents with good records, since it creates a kind of feedback loop in the third factor while directly affecting the second factor. I hate to keep coming back to Miami, but they are the best example of this. If they played our OOC schedule and got to 23 wins like we did and kept their RPI the same as it was, it would have a positive effect on all the MAC teams' RPIs. They're a good team, but they schedule in a way that it hurts their record, which comes back to haunt us and everyone else. Because now your RPI reflects not only their record, but also all your other conference teams' opponents' records.

Sorry. I have to tell you you're wrong. According to Real Time RPI, despite having several more losses than us, Miami had an almost identical RPI. Why? Because they had a 55 SOS vs. our 180 SOS. I know this is yet another attempt by someone on this board to try to prove that a strong SOS doesn't make a difference, but the facts in Miami's case sure show otherwise. And if they scheduled more home games and got a few more wins from it instead of destroying their winning percentage, they would have had an even higher RPI. You mean....like Akron did? The difference in RPI between the two of us was 0.0015 Your original post is just bizarre. Miami's scheduling did not drag down the conference RPI. Would you rather have an RPI of 130 with 23 wins or an RPI of 130 with 16 wins and a losing record? And Miami's record did hurt the MAC. It gave the other teams in the conference one or two games against a team with a mediocre record instead of a good one. The feedback drags down the entire conference's SOS and the effect is greater than an OOC game because the conference is more tightly linked mathematically.

One way to increase your SOS is to have your conference opponents have a better record.

Sorry. I have to tell you you're wrong. According to Real Time RPI, despite having several more losses than us, Miami had an almost identical RPI. Why? Because they had a 55 SOS vs. our 180 SOS. I know this is yet another attempt by someone on this board to try to prove that a strong SOS doesn't make a difference, but the facts in Miami's case sure show otherwise. And if they scheduled more home games and got a few more wins from it instead of destroying their winning percentage, they would have had an even higher RPI.

The roster is much more balanced now. I don't think we'll see any more than one or two players coming in, and I wouldn't count on even that.

Losing Speas hits the hardest. You could pretty much pencil him in as a starter for next season. Genovesi still gets to contribute to an excellent MAC championship squad for Track. Can't blame him for wanting to focus on a single sport. Navarette probably had a language barrier he couldn't overcome. Tulloch was beat out of his position. I don't know much about Diaz or Ontiveros. If you look at the positions, we lost four forwards and two mids. So the logjam at forward is no longer an issue.

According to Michael Beaven, Ben Speas and Martin Ontiveros have left the team. This is on top of Tulloch, Genovesi, Diaz. Jr. and Diego Navarrete having already left. I did like this quote: "Zips coach Caleb Porter was unavailable for comment. He is out of the country on a recruiting trip." He had better be out recruiting! At this rate we won't be able to put 11 players on the field.

Seems like we'll be getting a good portion of the money. I like forcing teams to play 15 home games a year. You can't win by going on the road 20 times in a 30 game schedule. Hopefully this discourages teams like Miami and the West from scheduling over their heads, and thus dragging down the conference RPI with poor winning percentages.