Districtballer

Jeff Goodman at CBSSports has an article with KD here. It's a bit of a bigger deal than the Bleacher Report. Congrats on the national coverage! http://eye-on-college-basketball.blogs.cbs...283066/33217228 He's certainly got the coach-speak down. If Mississippi State comes around to being the top 40 team they were predicted to be, I think this very much counts as a marquee win in the event that you need an at-large bid.

Ha our fans will get a kick out of that one. Shaka wins CAA coach of the year award if we pull that off. Drexel is going to be a b*tch to play. Really tough squad. I'd love to see Akron and Drexel go at it in the Bracketbuster if the pairings work out that way. Having watched you all last night it would be a TREMENDOUS game.

....and congratulations to the coach and his staff for being in a position where you get asked for interviews by a girl who looks like that My thoughts EXACTLY. The only thing that would have made that better would be Erin Andrews. Pomeroy's rankings are anything but bogus. They are consistently regarded as one of the top statistical models in the country and are used by a ton of division 1 coaches as an ancillary tool in scouting. It shouldn't be surprising that MSU fell so far because they didn't play very well last night. If they play better games their ranking will undoubtedly go up. It is still extremely early in the season and so 1 game can and does have a tremendous effect on the statistical model and can skew results at this point. Much like the RPI, it only becomes valid by perhaps the end of the OOC schedule when enough games have been played to account and mitigate the effects of outliers. It's not some conspiracy theory to keep mid-majors down as some would like to believe. Not to mention they still use data from last season for teams who have yet to play a game (which is almost everyone in college basketball right now). In fact everyone above Akron except Texas A&M and Arizona haven't even played yet. I'd expect Akron's ranking to go up as teams that are over-ranked due to last season fall back the more games are played. I believe us to be one of those teams. There are a good several in that category ranked above the Zips right now.

Don't blame you for remembering such a post and I can understand how that would color your interpretation of my 'approach'. First off that was almost 4 years ago and in the context of a fairly testy period when neither of our teams were familiar with each other. It was the first Bracketbuster matchup and we were hoping for a high-tier game to help us with an at-large possibility and Akron was a little bit disappointing for most of our fans given the fact that you guys were having a bit of a down season with Jeremiah Wood out with an injury at the time of the selection and on top of that on the road at a place that historically was tough to get a win in and Wood coming back just in time for the game. It was a nightmare for our at-large hopes. Your fans knew nothing about us and vice versa from our fans. I read many posts on here likening us to Austin Peay and the like. I'm sure I posted things to that effect, but it certainly wasn't to come here and 'proclaim' it as you say. There was a decent level of back and forth between GoZips who first came to our boards before Bracketbuster selection time campaigning for a VCU-Akron and took exception when our fans weren't thrilled with Akron being our opponent. I can totally understand that as no fan wants to hear another team discount their own. He then proceeded to lecture us about Akron and about how it was likely we wouldn't win any of our games against you guys. Basically talking trash to us on our own site. So my initial posts are coming with that context in mind. I was invited here with this post: http://boards.caazone.com/showthread.php?6...2409#post762409You can look at how I came onto this board initially with my first posts here: http://zipsnation.org/forums//index.php?s=...ost&p=55435 I was in fact very civil given the goading I got from GoZips on our boards until being flamed by some fans here who were ignorant about VCU. It is interesting reading these comments in hindsight. Calling my approach passive/aggressive is laughable now reading some of GoZips comments in this thread. Ignorance makes for fine comedy after the fact. It seems that most of your fans didn't think the RPI was a valid measure of a team's quality and while we were in the 50-60 range, we got paired with you guys I believe 20ish spots lower and then had to go to your place. When our fans grumbled, a lot of your fans couldn't see our point of view and just took it to be arrogance. Of course unfamiliarity with us also caused some disrespect from your end, and probably still does for a lot of you guys. I would be naive if I said the same isn't true for a number of VCU fans. Suffice to say it was a lot more complex than me coming here to proclaim one thing or another. In the days since our initial displeasure, I have done my best to represent our fan base and team in as respectful a manner as possible. I can understand how posts from nearly 4 years ago might color your perception, but I'd hope you can take the 4 years of posts following that initial contact as proof enough that I have no ill will towards Akron, especially now in light of Shaka sharing in some of the Zips' heritage. There's nothing to be gained from a discussion of the 'level' of a program at this point. All I will say is this year Akron looks to be quite good, regardless of whatever 'level' they may be classified at by those who don't know any better. We will have our hands full this year. Past achievements or perception will do nothing to change that.

Don't mean to come across that way. I really was VERY impressed with you guys. You will make a lot of noise playing the way you did tonight. I don't think there are many mid-major squads that can boast the type of athletes and depth 1-10 that you guys have. I really like this squad and as I said a few posts back, it looks like the best Akron squad I've seen since we started playing you in 2008. I think this is a team that can definitely make the Sweet 16 with the right match-ups. GoZips was right on after watching this team play.

This is a great post. I think a lot of the preseason prognostications were based on Sidney turning the corner. It's clear he still hasn't yet. Anyone with half a brain could see the type of ridiculous potential that had Sidney rated as the a top 5 prospect in the country tonight in limited flashes. If he does turn the corner, this team is sure-fire top 40 and will be a great win for the Zips. I also fully agree with the last statement. Good teams know how to target weaknesses and exploit them. Akron was masterful tonight. VERY impressive. You guys have to be in the conversation among some of the elite mids this year.

I think Mississippi State as of right now is not a top-40 team. That was clear as soon as Eastern Kentucky (a 15-16 team last year) played them to a 10-point game. I have no reason to sugar-coat or exaggerate what I saw out there. Akron looked exceptional out there and I'm not taking anything away from the impressive showing tonight by the Zips. I do think Mississippi State will be exposed this year though as a pretender as they have been for the last couple of years. Just last year Florida Atlantic and Troy out of the Sun Belt beat Mississippi State at their place as well. Rider out of the MAAC beat them at their place the year before that. Most coaches would have their players flogged for the 'defense' that the Bulldogs played tonight. I credit a lot of the Zips execution in their offensive sets for that, but it was still putrid besides that. Most objective basketball viewers would tell you that Mississippi State did not look like a good basketball team at all tonight. Those same viewers would also tell you that Akron looked like a very good one. Akron impressed me a lot. Mississippi State was disappointing. That doesn't take away from Akron. I'll tell you right now I don't expect to beat Akron this year. You guys need to pack the JAR and support this squad.

I would take that blunder any day of the week. The guy is a freaking monster.No doubt for most mids he's a game changer. Given his accolades and hype coming out of high school though, he's been a massive disappointment. He's got all the natural talent in the world. Has to be infuriating for their fans. Time to up expectations in Akron folks, this team is very legitimate in the national conversation. Mama Marshall, your boy looked like A MAN out there tonight! You should be very proud.

I agree with the poster who said Mississippi State didn't look like a great team to be honest as an unbiased viewer. Even considering that though, I really like the makeup of your squad. MSU is very one-dimensional outside of Dee Bost although Rodney Hood showed some nice flashes as a freshman. Renardo Sidney looked pretty out-of-shape and the reports about him being a recruiting blunder with lots of talent but a staggering lack of work ethic was very apparent tonight. I figured when they beat EKU by 10 that they were a bit over-hyped, but you guys REALLY exposed them today. All that aside, you guys still did what a good team is supposed to do, you put them away and there was never any doubt who the superior team was. Mississippi State's mediocrity in no way mitigates what was an extremely impressive performance from Akron. Forget the major, mid-major classifications here. There were just 2 basketball teams competing here period, and Akron was easily the better one. Zeke was the best big man in the game and Quincy Diggs was probably the most impressive perimeter player. Forget the preseason rankings, the better team one this game and it wasn't even really up for dispute from what I saw. Congrats once again. The MAC has officially been put on notice.

A couple more like this and the Vegas lines will change....If EVER there was a Zips team with a shot for some wins in the Madness, this is the one. We have more athletes than we know what to do with.Congratulations Zips fans! I have no qualms about saying that this was the best Akron team I've seen since our two teams have been playing each other. Easily. You have a very nice stable of athletes and the execution tonight was 2nd to none. I am certain now more than ever that keeping it close with you guys at your place will be nothing short of a significant victory for our squad. I am very impressed with what I saw and I think you guys have a very good shot at making some serious noise this year. Zeke has really come along from the soft, tentative kid I saw as a freshman. At times he looked like he owned the post and he definitely showed the aggressiveness and mean streak that most great post players need to have. Again congratulations, that was a heck of an impressive win.

Good luck guys, this guy will be cheering (read: scouting) you guys tonight on ESPNU! No, but really, grab a BCS scalp for us mids tonight!

Valpo gave 'Zona a pretty good game last night, so they might be better than 163.Marshall is way better than 103. That's a squad that will be giving Memphis all it can handle in C-USA. They're definitely better than VCU right now.

Swiech definitely passed the look test. His play didn't live up to it when we played (2 pts, 1 board in 21 minutes), but I can see how he was 2nd-team all-conference in his league. He's a big strong guy for a D2 squad at 6'9, 260. Coach Bill Brown (Swiech's coach) led a Global Sports Academy group of players to Europe this summer to travel and play against teams over there and VCU's Darius Theus and Troy Daniels were members of that group. Brown mentioned that Swiech would have also joined them but he was taking a test to get his pilot's license which he did get. I thought it was interesting that you mentioned the air-traffic controller goal, and thought you might like to know that he is flying high nowadays.

More Swiech!

He's the most credible statistician in college basketball. Valiant effort though Dave in Green... 'huge VCU advantage' made me chuckle. No one's taking it easy against your sweet 16 caliber squad.

That same link shows us as losing our game to you, so clearly underdogs you are not. On a neutral court, I agree we're probably favored (with no games having been played yet) but this is at your house. As far as playing down the team as 'inexperienced' nothing to play down when you have 9 sophomores and freshmen and 1 senior. We're probably recruiting players who are more game-ready, but there is no substitute for experience and playing in hostile environments on the road is something every player has to get used to at the college level, talented or not. I have no doubt it will be a good game. If you watch the VCURamNation highlights, Burgess mentions that Shaka Smart basically begged them to beat Coach Brown's team in the post-game presser and mentioned it will be the same for Coach Dambrot. He doesn't like going up against his mentors, but when he does he wants to beat 'em.

No problem. Swiech wasn't effective at all but the team was scrappy and fought very hard. The first half was one of the ugliest I've seen in a while. Replacing 62% of our scoring showed last night in the first-half. I'm hopeful we'll be better when Haley, Houston, and Briante Weber are cleared to play hopefully before our first game next week.

Here's the video from our message board at VCURamNation. There are a couple of more Swiech shots in this one. http://www.vcuramnation.com/2011/11/video-...u-pennsylvania/Just scroll down for the story and video.

VCU beat Cal (Pa.) in our exhibition opener tonight 71-48 before a crowd of 6,675. Our starting center DJ Haley did not play today and neither did 6th man Briante Weber. One of our freshmen, Treveon Graham led us in scoring with 16 points. There were 5 players in double-figures. Sophomore Juvonte Reddic picked up a double-double in Haley's absence with 13 points and 11 rebounds going up against Steve Swiech. Sweich had 2 points on a pair of free throws late in the game and 1 rebound in 21 minutes of play. The first half was very ugly with both teams seeming to struggle and VCU's young players seeming to really have a case of the jitters. It was 21-19 VCU at the half with VCU shooting 19% from the field. VCU came out of the locker room having made some adjustments and had a 50-point 2nd half. They missed their first 11 3-pointers and then went on to hit 7 of their next 10. They forced 24 turnovers (including 18 steals) and scored 32 points off of them . It was a tale of 2 halves. We definitely have some work to do but there are some very nice talented pieces to work with.Swiech is in black going up for the tip-off. He's also in the video clip below (#42).

Ken Pomeroy is easily considered one of the top statisticians in college basketball and he recently released his preseason rankings and predictions for each team based on his statistical models. For what it's worth he has Akron ranked 95 nationally and going 18-12 overall, 10-6 in conference and beating VCU 69-67 this year. http://kenpom.com/team.php?team=AkronLooks like it will be a great game and I will be ecstatic if we can play with composure at the JAR and keep it close.

Here are the video highlights from our open practice this past Sunday. There is a presser at the end with Coach Smart sharing his thoughts on our team. We have 9 underclassmen on this squad but we're excited with the level of athleticism and talent on the squad. Inexperience will be an issue early, but we're hopeful this squad can make some noise this year. http://www.vcuramnation.com/2011/10/video-open-practice/Once you click on the link, just scroll down to the video.We also had a closed scrimmage at Virginia Tech. Apparently we beat them pretty soundly and one of our players (Troy Daniels, #30) hit 9 threes on the way to 33 points. This was gleaned off of social media as the coaches aren't allowed to discuss it. Doesn't mean much since Tech is supposed to be young and not great this year, but nice to hear.

It still hurts to be getting less respect than schools like Belmont and Harvard...and of course, Ken+. But if it's true that we haven't appeared on this poll in two years, I guess that's some indication that some people feel as if we might be better than we've been the last 2 seasons.I don't think you understand quite how good those teams are. That's not disrespect to Akron. When you look at the big picture Akron had a great run in the MAAC tournament but still got a #15 seed which reflects how the selection committee viewed the overall season. Belmont won 30 games last year and returns 4 starters from that squad. They are as legit a mid-major team as there is in the country. Tommy Amaker is building a powerhouse in the Ivy over there and has nabbed some 4-star guys as late. They are both legitimate threats to make deep post-season runs this season. That doesn't mean that Akron can't have a great season and prove the prognosticators wrong, but no one outside of an Akron fan is going to put Akron above either of those two squads right now. I personally think both would take VCU to the woodshed at this point of the season.I'm not doubting that they are both respectable teams. I guess most of my reaction was just a result of my disappointment that the best MAC teams would not be as highly regarded as the best teams in lame conferences like the Atlantic Sun and Ivy League.I can understand that, but don't complain when BCS teams give Akron no respect because they play in the 'lowly' MAC. That's exactly the type of mentality that us mid-majors fight all the time. Ironic that we do exactly the same based on nothing more than a conference label that we perceive to be lower than our own. Belmont would take a whole bunch of BCS squads to school this year, Atlantic Sun or not. They very nearly knocked off Duke in 2008. Ric Byrd has a helluva program out there. Case in point Western Kentucky plays in one of the worst basketball conferences in the Sun Belt but has been one of the most successful mid-majors in college basketball over it's history, all in that conference. I get the whole surface-level disappointment, but if we researched other mids like we wish major schools would us when they dismiss us, we wouldn't be as quick to judge. It is interesting that the MAC has seemingly fallen a bit as far as national perception. I remember the days when Can't State went to the Elite 8 and putting out NBAers like Chris Kaman at Central Michigan. Hopefully Akron can restore some of the MAC's honor with what seems to be a resurgent program this year.

It still hurts to be getting less respect than schools like Belmont and Harvard...and of course, Ken+. But if it's true that we haven't appeared on this poll in two years, I guess that's some indication that some people feel as if we might be better than we've been the last 2 seasons.I don't think you understand quite how good those teams are. That's not disrespect to Akron. When you look at the big picture Akron had a great run in the MAAC tournament but still got a #15 seed which reflects how the selection committee viewed the overall season. Belmont won 30 games last year and returns 4 starters from that squad. They are as legit a mid-major team as there is in the country. Tommy Amaker is building a powerhouse in the Ivy over there and has nabbed some 4-star guys as late. They are both legitimate threats to make deep post-season runs this season. That doesn't mean that Akron can't have a great season and prove the prognosticators wrong, but no one outside of an Akron fan is going to put Akron above either of those two squads right now. I personally think both would take VCU to the woodshed at this point of the season.

The Vulcans are a team to follow early on. not just because of Sweich, but because they play two of our opponents in the pre-season. It will be interesting to compare this game to how they do against VCU.Nice to see that we'll be playing a decent squad. I'll let you know how Swiech looks when they come in. He scored 8 points and 4 rebounds on 4-8 shooting in 27 minutes before fouling out last night. Here's the box score from the game: http://www.muredhawks.com/sports/m-baskbl/...012/103111.htmlAnother fun fact. Cal U's leading scorer Quentin Harding hails from none other than McKeesport, Pa. and went to McKeesport just like Zips front-liner Zeke Marshall. It stands to reason that they must have been teammates in high school.A couple of Akron connections on this squad!

Thanks Hip Zip! Agreed on Shaka really panning out despite some rough stretches last year. He was playing strict man-to-man and we were getting destroyed and actually lost 4 of our last 5 regular season games. His assistants were urging him to mix it up with zone and he didn't really adopt those recommendations. Once we got into the CAA tournament, Shaka started taking that advice and we were a completely different team after that. He readily admits all those things in hindsight. It just goes to show he's a work in progress as a young coach, but he's certainly special and we're glad to have him!In addition to the coaching adjustments, we got some really nice 3-point shooting and an increased sense of urgency and leadership from seniors who didn't want the season to end. That resulted in a pretty special post-season after what was a pretty mediocre regular season. It really makes what we accomplished all the more remarkable in hindsight. He's already a very good recruiter and has brought in some studs. I can't wait to see how he takes advantage of the Final Four as we're only going to reap the benefits in 2013 as we already wrapped up the 2012 class in the spring. Everyone coming into the JAR this year with the exception of senior Bradford Burgess and walk-on David Hinton was recruited by Shaka Smart, so you'll get to see the kind of players he's recruited for yourselves. I agree this will be a great game between 2 squads that are rebuilding to a degree, but have a lot of talent. There's a lot to be said for the residue of success that a program carries and how that helps teams transitioning to a new core of players. I called this a loss for us 2 years ago, but I'm hopeful we can make it competitive. The JAR is a tough place to play and we are young, but a lot of these guys have played with a lot higher stakes on the line in some pretty intimidating venues against some pretty good opponents. As fans, it should be awesome. I'm sure both coaches are going to be graying a little bit come game time though.