Dr Z

It's hard to comment unless we know all the details. I hope this somehow becomes a positive for the team.

Interesting. Sounds pretty much like our site, minus blaming the loss on the refs bad calls and the rationalizing.

Look for my new sign at the JAR on Sunday, WE ARE AVERAGE. Everybody will get pumped when they see it.PS Speaking of average, KD pulled his record to even last night in games the Zips score under 70, he is now 44-44 in those type of games (according to the graphic shown on tv during the BSU game). For the guys that think stats are important.

I would bet that our offensive line plays better in the pro style offense than it did last year in the befuddled spread. If I were an offensive lineman, I would be very excited about the change of scheme. I'm hoping they will make our RB's look good. Boy would it be nice to have Tuzze in this offense.

Your team should always punt, because your lineman are pass blockers and can't get a yard when they need it. I simply lineup in the I with two TE and pound it down your throat with your one on one coverage DBs running toward my RB that just went for three yards up the middle. First down. My ball with the clock running. All your awesome wide receivers sitting on their helmets watching me milk the clock away.

Interesting post. I don't agree with a lot of it, but that's okay. At the very least, we agree about Cowher. I was going to compare him to a current Zips coach in another thread, but decided against it. I'm not sure I'm ready to place full blame on Manning for his int, Reggie run a tired route and might have shown it too soon. DB did a great job of reading the play. Classy job of Manning giving credit where credit is due, unlike O'Donnell in his SB. New Orleans defense didn't play Manning the way I would have, but turns out they didn't have to. NFL is a trendy league so I would hesitate to make broad general statements about offense or defense. If your right today, you'll be wrong soon, if your wrong today, you'll be right soon. I will also shy away from comparing the Zips current situation to two Super Bowl teams. I think that's like comparing the aerodynamics of my paper airplane to that of an F16. I agree with you that it is more exciting for the typical fan to see a team chuck the ball around the field, but I think the Akron program is at a perfect place to install a pro style offense. I can't wait to see the first play action bomb for a td to GP1's favorite WR. I like the fact that we will have a lot of 3rd down and 3's this year as opposed to 3rd and 12 and give the opponents offense less chances with the ball. I have to think the offense will be conservative in early parts of RI's career, but will evolve later. Give it a chance, because you don't have any other choice.

In-depth, informative and enjoyable, thanks Tom!

Here are my notes from yesterday (in no particular order):Most amazing stat I have read on the basketball team this year: Keith Dambrot is 43-44 in games in which his team doesn't score 70 points or more!?!? I had no idea. That stat really surprised me. I'm sure a lot of you knew that, but that was the first time I saw that stat.The team looked like they were ready to play early yesterday. Totally opposite from the KSPU game. It faded in the second half, but at the very least they looked like they were interested in winning a basketball game. We need that intensity throughout the rest of the season if we are going to make a good showing in the tournament. It's up to the coaching staff to make that happen.I had the exact quote in my head ready to type it this morning when KD said it after the game. Steve Mix asked KD about Nic...."he wants to win, we need more guys like him" I hope Nic can figure out how to stay out of foul trouble and start logging more minutes on the floor. Right now he is our best weapon and hardest worker on the team. Yesterday he was driving to the hole, hitting outside shots, working the post, working hard for rebounds, taking charges, he even hit a three. Great job Nic, your play alone makes me want to watch my alma mater play.I wish we had a PG like Randy Davis played yesterday. Man that kid does a lot right. He knows how to get penetration, good passing, knows when to dish, can create his own shot, and can shoot the lights out all over the floor. If we had this kind of player, I think everybody else would fall into place. Can we get one of those next year?I thought Steve Nix was very good yesterday. He is the kind of color guy I like to listen to. Very knowledgeable. Reghi wasn't too bad, but I wish I had a dollar for every time he said "we got a foot of snow here" or "we're going to try to melt the snow with hot play", good gawd, say it once and move on. I watch so many sports in HD now a days, it is really hard to watch a game in SD. The clock at the bottom of the screen was unreadable and a couple of times I was even confused who our players were. I watched the Zags game later in HD and actually enjoyed that game better. Come on MAC, step it up, give me my HD!!!If I were guarding B Mac, I would be in his ear the entire game "step back your open for the three"...okay, great shot at the end of OT, but seriously he should be limited to two attempts a game. If our offense depends on him launching up threes, well you know what. I'll give him credit, he seemed to be working hard on setting screens yesterday, both him and Nic, I think I lost track counting around seven screens yesterday. I meant to count, but forgot. That's my new game while watching Zips games, counting screens.Congrats to Jimmy, pass of the year. Nice heads up pass from the seat of your pants. Now with that said, the team can use a couple full practices of going over the basics of passing the ball. We look like a junior high team passing the ball into the post. Best pass into the post yesterday was Zeke's pass. #4 looks so uncomfortable making passes most of the time it makes me nuts, and can he please stop dribbling the ball up by his eyes. He needs to pick up his play, even Steve Mix made the comment yesterday "#4 is only shooting 27% on 3's in MAC play, that needs to pick up for the Zips to be successful"Happy to see the Zips pull out an OT win on the road, should have never gotten to that, but good teams find a way to prevail and win games like that.AND the Zips went 7-for-8 from the foul line in the final 43 seconds, that is a good sign!

Steve Mix called out #4 today more than once for bad plays. A win will tend to hide bad games.

I agree with 90 percent of what Mike writes. I love his coverage and his passion for the Zips. What writer do you guys agree with 100 percent of the time? It irritates me when somebody writes a couple things that somebody doesn't agree with and he is totally wrong. I love livingin a country where you can speak your mind. Not too long ago we had a writer for the Zipsthat was a Penguins fan, worst dribble I have ever read, totally useless. Mike does a goodjob. I think he should use this little "riff" with KD too his advantage. Coach is too honest and emotional in his interviews. Don't get me wrong, as a fan I love it. But if I were a coach, I would handle interviews more business like. I think the reporter has the coach right where he wants him.I won't even comment on the screwball from Portage County. Not worth it.

No, I don't. I'd be interested to hear what any winning coach has to say about the value of stats vs. the value of anecdotal stories.

You know what Belichick says stats are for. I don't have a problem with the amount of three pointers they take. BUT, two times in the Miami gameour PG brings the ball down and waits for all four players to start running a play and hoists up a threewithout making one pass. Both times he missed. I like to see us work (pass/screen) to get open threes.Both times he was not taken out of the game, so I figured this was okay with coach.

Howard told the Canton Repository recently that he needed B averages in four of his five classes to be able to join the Zips for fall practice.Hoover coach Don Hertler Jr. said Wednesday morning that Howard's status won't be known until June 1, when Howard's final transcript is available.It could go longer than that. The NCAA allows an athlete to enroll in one summer class to apply to his GPA.''He's taking the ACT at least one more time,'' Hertler said. ''He's got to have a great second semester. We'll have to wait and see how he finishes.''If Howard's last-gasp academic push fails and he's declared a Proposition 48, he could attend UA this fall but would have to pay his own way and not participate in football. Or he could attend a junior college or a prep school like Fork Union Military Academy, which would open the door for the Tressels of the world to go after him. That would happen next year in the case of a prep school, or in two years after Howard graduated from junior college.''We've done our research on the young man, we've checked him out,'' Ianello said. ''Part of the process is to do a thorough academic evaluation, visit with their counselor, talk to them in terms of academics. Young men all over the country still have work to do to get into college. I'm sure our class is no different.''The full story can be found here.

Oh no, KD got mad after the Eastern game too! He thinks the team has room for improvement? "I was mad after the game....We may not win the MAC Tournament....Is it the best team we've ever had? Probably not. Does it have room for improvement? Yes." Keith Dambrot Feb 3rd 2010

Pictures are worth a thousand...you know the saying. My favorite is when they slow it down and zoom in on NB-See tv to see if the nose of the ball touches the ground. That never gets old to me, going back and forth, back and forth... Here is an image taken from the six photos above of each players arms, is the true frosh out working these guys in the weight room?

I posed the question in a previous post about what type of offense we ran. I never really got an in depth answer from any ZN member. The coaching staff was gracious enough to give me a complete answer. The staff also wanted me to express how thought out they are on the offensive end of the floor. Hard to argue after a 90 point performance.Coach Dambrot runs a combination of different offenses. First he runs a fast break similar to NC which tries to get the ball inside. From there on ball reversal we screen down and the get into baseline runner, with our 4/5 men on blocks and a player running off their screens. If the backside post helps we flush hi for a hi/lo look. We can sprint into on ball screens and either pick and pop or pick and roll. We run a lot of quick hitters always looking to get the ball inside and then play out of the post. Depending on what the defense does will determine which cut we run. We have set plays to isolate individuals in the post, sets designed to shoot the 3 and sets designed to drive the ball. We can run a set that is motion offense, we can spread the floor and use the ball screen to create total defensive rotations. We run a lot of different things to utilize our personnel. Hope this gives you a quick overview of our offense.

Nice photos by Phil Masturzo on Beacon Journal website.

From the press conference today, When asked if anyone has left the program: "No."

Quotes from today's press conference from MR's blog"In our offense, we like to throw the ball to the tight end""We really felt like we'd need a fullback in this class to do some of the things we want to do with a two-back offense."A lot of ZN posters are getting what they want.

Agreed, I hope it shows up here eventually.

Darn it! Who recruited all these "nice, but not spectacular" players anyways?I think the complete question should be: Sorry, I'm not good at rationalizing.

I can't take this woman, but for those of you that can, this aired awhile back, you might enjoy.

KSPU signed 7 DLs

Post game radio. Tune in.

Darn it! Who recruited all these "nice, but not spectacular" players anyways?