72 Roo

I hope the Zips do figure it out and make the leap to the top 50. It will take excellent coaching, more financial resources and a committed administration and fanbase. Those things don't happen overnight, but they can happen over time (many years). I hope to see it. Nice post.

I'm an alum too and I applaud your passion. We want the same things for UA. We don't have the resources of a P5 school or a no DI football school and that is unquestioned. Resources can be built over time if you get in the right conference. Case in point, every member in the Big Ten this year will get $37 million from the Big Ten TV package. As a member of the MAC we will get $1.7 M. I agree our situation is not etched in stone, but it only improves incrementally as each coach puts his mark on the progrum, improves it and probably moves on. I don't want him to but that what happens in the MAC. I'm sure you know better and have a solution, so know that you have my complete support as you move the Zips to a higher level. I do not want to attack you. If you took it personally I apologize. I just couldn't pass on calling out your perceptions. Go Zips!

How on earth can you infer this crap from my post. All I said was coaches will move on. Why will they move on? because they made the progrum better. So each coaching regime will move the progrum ahead and that is why other schools want the coach. Like others have tried to say in their posts, if he leaves after 3-4-5 years he has done his job. We will always be inferior to some progrums because we don't have their resources i.e. money. That being said a successful coach will make us better than progrums ahead of us but within reach. If he's successful that's a given. All aspects will get better but we will not equal the big boys. That takes tons of time which I'm in for. Sheesh! Living in reality is a blessing because it clearly identifies where you are and what the next steps for improvement are. That's based on fact, not hope which is a lousy strategy for hope. Calm down and have a beer. In fact have many and I'll buy. Let's move on to arguing about Boals ability to recruit, isn't that new. Oh, it's been beat to death. OK, then how about the place for a new arena, on campus or downtown.

You are not willing to live in reality. We are a stepping stone and always will be if the coach is good. The nature of the beast is to seek and accept bigger and bigger challenges/stages. Look at Dayton. They are way ahead of us in every category for comparison: salary, prestige, facility, rabid fan base, season tickets, attendance, schedule, conference, media exposure, etc. Yet they lose coaches regularly. They don't want to but they do. As much as any coach wants to build his progrum, if he is successful he will be exposed to better opportunities which he will take. Get use to it.

We appreciate your post and at-large well wishes. We don't have to start hating each other until we finally play. Until then I think their is much respect between our progrums. The rivalry could grow to be very fierce which is good for both of us and the conference.

That's pretty creative thinking UAZipper, but I love it. It would immediately put Groce's stamp on the progrum and show he's bought in. It would be a shrewd PR move on his part. All that being said it will not happen in the real world, but it's fun to live in fantasy world for a brief moment.

From what I've been told Williams is waiting for the outcome of the Boals Ability to Recruit Debate before he moves on. He is absolutely paralyzed until that piercing question is answered. As we all know he depends inordinately on ZNO and he wants the full debate completed before making a move. Unfortunately that will mean most of us will die from self-inflicted gunshot wounds rather than see it out. Bye cruel world.

Nice to see a post from you Captain. I was worried that with Keith's announcement you were standing on the edge of a tall building or in deep depression as I haven't seen much reflecting that satirical wit. Welcome back.

B & G.... Ya got me. I fell for it big time. Well done.

I harbor no ill will for KD leaving. I do feel the way he left destroyed the feel-good Akron story he preached and lived ..... until it did not suit him. Like Skip I got to know him but my way was thru away soccer games as he watched Roby. He was impossible not to like and I still feel he is a good person. He handled his leaving the wrong way; he refused to admit he was the biggest factor in this team not going deeper in the NCAA tourney. Forget the arena, attendance, budget, resources. It was there for him to do it and he didn't. That's hard to take. It's easier to leave. KD raised the level of our progrum. The next guy needs to take it further before he too leaves. I've read some great posts about who are next coach should be. But that decision is up to Larry Williams and Matt Wilson. I'm giving them my faith that they will find the best replacement. By then I'll stop feeling bad and start building up the Zips. The JAR will be improved, someday, and a new arena is a target of this new regime. Let 'em do their job. For us the measure of a man, or fanbase, isn't how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get back up.

Thanks for the correction MES102. I forgot about South Florida. Keep the posts coming they are good.

The news of KD leaving stunned me, primarily because I had bought into the KD story: Akron boy, Akron mom, Akron grad, Akron success story. I wanted him to stay and be our coach for years. But after taking some time there are a few thoughts I want to share. KD's decision was emotional not logical. He was going to leave when he realized he had his best team and he couldn't get 'em to the NCAAT. So blame everyone but yourself. The irony is that the greatest single factor in getting this team to the NCAAT was KD himself. At the end of the season his team was not prepared. He did not coach what to do if Big Dog is shut down, or what to do if the 3's aren't going in, or how to stop a hot dribble penetrator like Walker, or how to switch to a zone, or how to play with discipline, or how to shoot FT's (a lacking hallmark of his teams) or how to make good decisions under pressure. All those things he controlled yet didn't coach them up. So who is the problem here? It wasn't a lack of talent, it was how he used it and therefore he controlled the team's destiny. A new venue won't change that. He could have had a better job than DU like Dayton, but he was emotional. He took the first train out. At Duquesne the job will be just as hard as at Akron and his chance for an NCAAT legacy is doubtful. That being said he had to leave because he lost the team and the lockerroom. These players stop playing for him. It was displayed in their lack of discipline, their fundamental errors of jumping up in the air and then deciding to pass, their lackadaisical turnovers, their on again off again defense. They were often out-hustled by lesser talent and KD was out-coached at the end of the season by Miami, BG, Kent, and UTA. When they won it was because they had more talent, not heart or effort. This episode proves to me that Akron is what it is... a mid-major in a lousy conference that will be a stepping stone program. That takes some of the romance and hope out of the story for me. I always wanted to believe that we could catch fire and grow to be a Gonzaga over time. Without fundamental change will never happen. The biggest change of all, to me, is getting the students to attend/pack the games. When that happens the games become an event, then publicity, fans, donors and facilities follow. Finally, as we look for a new coach let's cut the crap about us being so financially strapped. Wilson will balance the budget in two years. From there we can grow and not look back. Our credit rating will improve and programs will expand. Give him time. If you made it this far thanks for reading. "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Still am and always will be a Zip.

Skip, I love your posts. You have more than enough sanity to balance out the rest of us. Next year may not be great for us, but it also won't be horrible. We do need someone to step it up next season. For my money that is big Mike, but only towards the end of the season. The loss of Josh will not affect us. He could only shoot the 3. His D was nonexistent. He could not dribble and his decision-making was flawed. With quickness being an issue he needs to be at a lower profile program. I wish him well and will always consider him a Zip. I am impressed with all the posts praising his character. Keith needs to go back to fundamentals and instill discipline in his teams. That will gain us more wins than any new player we could recruit.

Conference leading fan base?????? Spare me.

Kent still sucks.

Make that two. Let's celebrate his life! Tiffany, you and your family are in our prayers. Zips are always marathon friends.

I, too, knew Fred a little but knew of Fred a lot. Let's just say he had his ways, but they were always rooted in a deep and abiding love of the Zips. If there is anything that our ZNO crowd is going to do to remember him count me in. Could we make a donation to the Z-Fund in his name to go to the basketball progrum? Just a thought.

I agree with Skip in that the ESPN contract lets ESPN do whatever they want to fill time slots and offer viewers some entertainment. All in exchange for a lot of money that the MAC isn't accustomed to. It's only when you look at the long term effects of this contract do you see that it ultimately will not help grow the conference. On the contrary, it cements the MAC as a starving, non-competitive conference that will do anything to get on TV. When viewers tune in they see bad weather, empty stadiums, no excitement and coaches who are auditioning for better jobs. The money is not worth it. Akron vs Kent Tuesday of Thanksgiving week makes me sick. If Kent can get 20,000 at their place we can get 25,000 with good weather mid season. The fact that this happened only tells me that fans, players, alumni, and rivalries don't really matter. Money does and only ESPN wins.

Damn right. No one wants to play Kent and OU in November. There goes our attendance. The MAC cannot get any worse .... or can they? They are inept.

This team is one of the most disappointing editions we have seen in a long time. Miami illustrates the point. The biggest frustration that I have is that they are not a disciplined squad. We can talk about all the issues, but I believe they all boil down to discipline. That's something that is developed in practice and shown in games. You can't show what you don't have. That's on Keith, whom I love and want as our coach. He needs to adopt some changes. I like the comment about Geno Auriemma's coaching style. The commentator said "he does not practice until the players get it right, he practices until the players can't get it wrong." That's far from our team.

I heard from a senior administrator that baseball will never come back. He cited costs of operation more so than scholarships and coaches salaries. He said the university was not willing to put money into the practice and game facilities needed to run class operation in baseball. He also cited the effect adding baseball would have on the Title IX relationship of men's sports expenditures to women's sports expenditures. In other words, not having baseball makes the ratios look better. They must be comparable. I think we should have seen this coming when the owner of the Rubber Ducks offered to let the Zips use his stadium for most home games provided the university sink a half million dollars in locker rooms and offices needed to accommodate game day activities. The AD declined. Too bad.

Agreed. He made his social media farewell all about others and not himself. That's rare with today's pro athlete's self-centered world view. I wish him well.

I couldn't agree with this proposal more. It can save college soccer because it is in miserable state right now. It will be better for the athletes physically, academically and developmentally. It could also turn the sport into a revenue stream and help produce better American players. A poll of Division I coaches showed overwhelming support for the Fall/Spring season. We all know the NCAA has done virtually nothing to market its post season tournament. With the finals in the spring all universities could be potential playoff sites and excitement for the tourney could be built over months not the last week of the season as it is now. This would be much like Ball is done now. Because this makes way too much sense and there is no money upfront look for the NCAA to do nothing intelligent.

Thanks for putting this together CK. Ya gotta love these cartoons. Big Dog should watch them for motivation if not just top laugh his ass off. Come Friday night let's bury the PCCC Flushes.

Skip, You are a genius. I couldn't agree more , but I am from an age when I sat with the Bleacher Bums............ and had a ball.