ZachTheZip

Jackson fans put Zips fans to shame. They stand for every big play, know a small set of cheers that they do well, and get loud when they're supposed to. I get the feeling that Egner would have been a bit more highly recruited if the team actually ran plays for him. Right now he's just an accessory on offense. Can't's recruit is a turnover machine. He has a good shooting touch right under the basket and he knows how to use his size as an advantage, kind of like a slimmer Otis Polk.

Jackson is down 30-28 at half time to powerhouse Toledo St. Johns. Egner hit a big three near the end of the half, and he's had a few great blocks. This kid can jump! If he can hit the three with any regualrity, he'll be a huge wing player for Akron. What a dilema for Dambrot. He has to choose between the raw athleticism of Egner, the scoring ability of Greene, and the high-level experience of Euton. Only two will play next season, and that's only if none of the bench players step up.

They may be the #2 defensive team in the country, but they were able to score 36 points on Kansas in one half. It doesn't matter if Akron is the #1 defensive team when we have such a terrible offense.

Hatties café to close. Sad news. If they were just a few hundred feet to the north I think they would have been one of the most popular places for students to hang out.

They're now 11-0 heading into MAC play after beating UCF and Stetson during their trip to Florida for spring break.

Sounds more like a "club" to me?!? They are a club team. But moving up a division is still a big deal. If they can get to D-I eventually, there will be a great foundation in place already if the university decides to make Hockey a varsity sport.

Akron men's hockey is moving up from D-III to D-II next season.

I judge that the defense will be hard to improve. Sometimes you just can't guard a player. I judge that we missed too many layups in close games, settled for too many jump shots with time on the clock, and ran too poor an offense for the defense to mean anything. Teach your players to finish around the rim and to follow their shots and you're dancing, Coach. You don't lose to Eastern Michigan or to Austin Peay or to OU or even to Rhode Island. Your players are so scared that they'll get benched if they don't sprint back to the half court defense after putting up a poorly timed shot that they're not there to get their rebounds and get another chance. They're so focused on not letting the other team score that they look like a CYO team when they have the ball. This isn't fotball. You're team can't get an interception or a fumble and score on defense. It does not win games, it just makes it easier for the offense but if you don't care about offense then it does absolutely no good.

How much, though. Something trivial like $5k per school? Can't's sweet 16 credits are set to expire and unless OU can win their next game it still means a reduction in NCAA money.

He wouldn't have played as a freshman because Dambrot doesn't believe that freshmen can contribute.

Getting verbals already?

I don't care if you give all the effort in the world on defense. If the player you're guarding puts up more points than you do, you're on the bench. Sometimes players get hot and become undefendable, as we've had demonstrated repeatedly the past few weeks. When that happens, you let him have his points and make sure the teammates don't get in on the act too. You also have to figure out a way to outscore him. Just like an offense can go cold, defense can be ineffective. Dambrot must begin to understand that D doesn't always work all the time. It's the same as offense. Sure, D takes effort, but so does a good offense. Effort on offense means finishing your layups, following your shots instead of chucking it up and sprinting back on defense, moving the ball around to find the open man. There's plenty of effort-based things on offense. If a player is defending his heart out but doesn't put in the effort enough to make sure his layup goes in or if he chucks up a prayer with 25 seconds left because he doesn't feel like running a proper offense, is he really giving 100 percent? What good is defense if you don't care enough to score with the opportunities that defense creates?

Nothing wrong with being bitter about a loss...VMD just has to understand that OU winning is good for the conference and therefore good for Zips. Don't we get a piece of that payout if they win a game in the tournament? To play devil's advocate... Ohio winning helps them in recruiting. Better recruiting = better teams. Better teams = tougher for Akron to win the conference. Besides...does anyone really believe Akron or the MAC will gain respect with a win? They'll be viewed as an exception to an otherwise mediocre conference. The way they are playing there "could" be more than one win. And it is incredibly petty to say that winning is bad for US since they would get better recruits and beat us. The entire point is to win, and they are doing it. The beat not only the BEST team in the MAC but also the SECOND BEST team in the MAC. It's petty for me to not want the team that will probably be Akron's biggest competition in the MAC not getting national recognition that would lead to a significant recruiting edge? I'm sorry, I thought this was an AKRON forum with AKRON'S best interests in mind... Name a single recruit of Akron's that OU is also recruiting.

They don't get any of those things beyond a 6-month period. They didn't become a powerhouse after making it to the Elite Eight and they won't become one for winning in the first round of the NCAA. I don't think this does anything for Akron. It doesn't hurt them and it doesn't help them. At best we could say that we were a foul call away from being in their spot.

Remember how we were up on Gonzaga lat year? It's because we had an extremely young team who didn't realize that they were hopelessly outmatched. The same thing is happening to OU. They don't know that they're supposed to be losing. If they start to realize it, they'll go cold and they game will be lost. If they win, that's great. If not, it doesn't matter to us or the MAC because it's just status quo as a one-and-done league. Don't look too much into this game. It would be nice if they won a game or two, but it doesn't mean anything in the long run, just like their past trip to the Elite Eight turned out to not mean anything.

Good luck, mohawk man.

Step 2 is good. Step 1 eliminates at-large bids almost completely. Instead of going to 32, why not 48? If you enforce the winning conference record rule it wouldn't really change who gets in, but it eliminates some of the crappier at-large bids from the BCS conferences.

QB Patrick Coyne OT Anthony Bohan DE Robert Mincey LB Nicholas Grigsby LB Justin March DT Antonio Underwood - committed to OSU Put them all in the list up top, along with Brewton.

Plasma Center shooting. Shut that place down. it is the very definition of urban blight. It draws the worst people in the area to one spot.

Worry about making the sports we have better first. But if we had to add a sport, i would say Men's Hockey and Women's Gymnastics.

One of Dambrot's problems is that he refuses to have any expectation of his freshmen to perform. That HAS to change next season or we're sunk.

So long as we play the MAC West, there is no amount of top teams you can schedule to get a top 20 RPI. Look at Miami. They played the #2 non-conference schedule in the country and thanks to playing the MAC West their SOS finished at 78. Even if they had a bunch of non-conference wins, their SOS would be too low to get in the range that the committee wants. It's impossible to schedule yourself into the tournament individually. You need something else to go along with it, like a strong conference or a "brand name" like Gonzaga or Butler. A string run in the tournament in the past few years, something else. Scheduling alone won't do it.

Can't's ad is the best one. They're playing up graduating 6 seniors to make themselves more attractive.

Facebook event. RSVP if you're going, and invite all your friends.

Check this website out. It's basically craigslist for D-I universities trying to schedule basketball games. Some intriguing schools looking for home-and-home games.