tbozeglav

honestly... i dont think this arena gets built unless its capable of hosting a multitude of events, including hockey. Theres simply no way unless the University builds it, and I think at this point we can all agree thats not going to happen. Can someone explain to me, though, why making an arena "hockey capable" somehow significantly detracts from the sightlines of a basketball game? Honestly, ive been to basketball events at Quicken Loans Arena (which we all know can host hockey as well) and the seating behind each basket isnt bad AT ALL. In fact, I could honestly say its almost as good as the seating along each sideline. Bear in mind that the section behind one of the baskets would obviously be reserved for students, and at least part of the other would be for the pep band, so youre honestly only concerned about maybe 100 seats behind the basket. Based on what ive personally seen at a few arenas, the seating behind the basket, when the arena is built for multi-purpose, isnt that bad at all. If my intuitions are correct and some of you are thinking there'd be "gaps" behind each basket, I think youre further from the truth than you believe. I don't think ive seen many arenas do that (though ive been wrong before); instead they do what the more "professional" arenas do and have pull-out seating that fills those gaps.

i thought UCSB was supposed to be that.... Hey UCSB is a top 20 team...Michigan is a bottom dweller this yearokay, Ill give you that much. Disappointing, yet again...

i thought UCSB was supposed to be that....

just caught wind of a blatantly missed handball inside the box that would have given us a PK w/ 11min to go. this is just disheartening

Im by no means a bandwagoner, but Im beginning losing hope that this team can pull it together for a championship run. This is a very good team, yes... but the cohesion and team play just isnt there yet. 2012 should be a good year for us, but given how I've seen the team play this year, they're horribly inconsistent and I cant confidently say that we'll be good enough to beat the rest of the field come late November. I still hope we can. It'd be fantastic to see, but my expectations are lowered now for this year. I hope I am wrong...Lets just pull this one out and keep working... go zips!

Doug, you do bring up an interesting point. I believe youre right that the university isnt looking to ADD more to its expenditures than it has to. So in that case, youre right.Does anyone know of any outside groups that might be interested in using the facility if it were capable of hosting as a hockey venue? I personally dont know of any off the top of my head, but this would be a guiding factor towards where the university should design the new arena. If theres little interest in using the facility if it had hockey capabilities, then I agree... build for basketball first and find ways to make the others work.

You and GoZips are SO right -- college fans Soooo love intimacy. Pro basketball fans HATE intimacy! I think the underlying difference between what they're suggesting and what you are suggesting is simply scale. However, I think you are right in that a well-designed multi-purpose facility can be both intimate for basketball games (something about that phrase irks me lol) and useable for uses such as hockey and the like. To exemplify this, simply look at Gund Arena/The "Q". I think thats a great place to watch a basketball game. Hell, even when we play the MAC Championship games there, they block off that 3rd tier of seats and it really makes the place feel smaller and more "intimate", if you will. I think we could scale that down a bit to our realistic numbers (as others have mentioned, somewhere in the 7-10k range) by imitating the Q's lower 2 tiers while retaining an excellent basketball venue and allowing for multi-purpose use.

if I have friends who drive to cleveland, columbus, and even CANT STATE for concerts, you know damn well people from those areas would come here. Hell.... if CAN'T STATE can pull in big names in today's music culture, we should be able to do with the right facility.

Bringing the thread back due to a very coincidental post I found today regarding this very topic. Granted this applies to Hockey and not Soccer, but the principles of the two games are similar enough that the same kind of statistical calculation could be transpired to soccer keepers. The new statistic is DIGR (Defensive Independent Goalie Rating). http://blogs.thescore.com/nhl/2011/10/17/d...ave-percentage/And for how the DIGR rating compares to the standard Save %, click below:http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB1000...share_email_botBased on what I am reading here, this stat really accounts for some of the issues we've pointed out with how to "grade" keepers in a way I believe is best. Also, by comparing the keeper to ALL shots taken against ALL keepers, it gives a truer sense of who's better. In our instance, since during our dominant games our keeper sees few, if any SOGs, this stat would account for the lack thereof. Very interesting stuff here.

Ill say this...as a 5th year student (thanks to changing majors) and a 4th year rowdie, I can say that the group has lost its luster and its not what it used to be. I used to love cheering with them... now, I don't care. I noticed a shift in attitude when leadership changed over and I havent particularly liked where its gone since. They're just there, doing their thing and don't put forth much effort to get everyone else involved. Hell, even the leaders themselves aren't as authoritative and examples of what the rowdies should be anymore...The organization consists of nearly 2k members. I guarantee the vast majority are members because of the tshirt....

noticed this as well. Not too sure either... I don't know if I would give Darren that distinguishment just yet - still feel there are too many character issues involved with him. Student attendance was garbage for sure. Rowdies are definitely having personnel issues, especially in the area of alienating other students. Them moving to the other goal, while definitely due to whatever-his-name keeper for Hartwick being a total b***h, really killed anything they had going on. Probably done standing with them at this point since theyre doing a terrible job at getting other students involved. Just my $0.02

I wouldnt go so far as to put the "lebron" title on him. Its not like he was a Teal or Darlington caliber player that decided on his own to up and leave the program he had lead to this point with little to no communication with the coaches or athletic department all because he wanted to play with buddies. He left on his own terms, yes, but he did so for the betterment of himself as a player, and did it with class and respect of our program and coaches. When even Porter agrees that it was better for him to leave, you can't really fault him for that. Im happy for him, really, that he's found a new home and likes where he is now. Perhaps at UNC he'll get the chances to shine he had hoped he get here that were taken up by even better players than he.

I mean this in the best way possible, and am seriously trying to drive an intelligent and encompassing discussion of this topic... so don't take it as a personal attack... but... If you are a registered member here, you consider yourself a sports fan, namely of UA, right? I will assume yes because to my knowledge its the only possible answer. That is unless youre from another school here to do whatever it is you do when you visit a rival's fan board, but I digress. Point is, if youre a fan of UA sports, why should i take your argument of cutting scholly's and programs all together seriously? To me, as an objective and evaluative person, I see hypocritical arguments because youre arguing against something youre here to support and discuss. If this discussion was taking place on, say, the comment section of an Ohio.com article, then I wouldnt be saying this because i know most people there arent there to support Akron athletics, but the context of WHERE this discussion is taking place is what inclines me to think this. I mean no direct offense, but its an observation i came upon after thinking about this subject. Some mention dropping to FCS or whatever the next level down is. Thats much more realistic of an opinion, one I could support in a few ways. Football? youre damn sure thats a good idea RIGHT NOW (maybe not in the long term unless this conference shakedown forces us out), but I would give up all support of the university if they took soccer and basketball with them. Those programs deserve I-A status by any and all means possible. Honestly, i believe athletics to be an integral part of collegiate activity in both the entertainment and student life areas, in addition to the growth of the students themselves who participate in the sports WHILE ALSO maintaining full-load class schedules. Those student-athletes that graduate with a degree AND competed regularly are students we should be proud of... not upset their sport cost our school $500,000 a year.

I assume that by D1A you mean FCS, just so we're on the same page. If thats true, my decision probably would have remained close to the same. I will admit my decision was quite a ways back, and although I'm still young, I can't tell you everything that was going through my head as a 18 year old who's looking towards graduation from high school and moving up in the world. However, given the scenario you've presented me in your reply, I would say my decision probably would have remained close to the same. However I wish to add an asterisk to that statement simply because my passion for Zips athletics has grown since I started here and it skews my view on the matter, but I don't think the football program being FCS would have made me less interested. If they were FCS and were consistent competitors in the playoffs, I want to believe that would have been enough for me. Again, hard to say with a high degree of certainty due to the time elapsed since my decision and that my view on Zips athletics has changed dramatically (partially due to ZNO! ) well played, sir You bring up a valid point that I am in the minority. I will admit that and its always evident. However, couldn't that be said of pretty much any university of our size? I ask because I think that type of scenario applies to most if not all D1 collegiate programs and would like to see if someone else could agree to that I will also point out that there will always be people out there who wish to axe off anything athletics because they believe them to be corrupt and a waste of time/money. That's free speech for you, and I respect that... I just think its a bit absurd to believe axing off the entire department serves some kind of institutional advantage.

trimmy, im not really sure where you were going with that, so pardon me if I am misinterpreting what you've said. i fail to see how the elimination of athletics would result in a wash for higher student life quality and better student involvement in campus activities. To me, as a current student, if the football, basketball, and soccer teams were to all disappear, my life as a student would become even more boring than it already is. Those few hours I spend with my friends at those events are what make the countless hours I spend in the classroom worth it. I get to be loud, support my team and university, and let out my frustration on the other team. There is yet another aspect to this you must consider... What about the grad students who are sports medicine, management, etc? The athletics department is really their "internship" and gets their foot into the door to a career in some facet of athletics. Given how much of an integral part of society sports has become and the number of personnel needed to completely operate any level of professional sports, shutting down all athletics at our universities save for the ones that actually turn a profit deprives those students of an opportunity to gain further experience in knowledge in the field they chose as their career. Is that fair to them? Absolutely not! As an aside about your last comment, the only reason OSU buys wins in september is because the NCAA lets them and they exploit it to the max. Do you honestly think beating up the little kids on the block is what they REALLY want? Ask any coach... if you want to be the best, you have to play the best. Coach Porter should be a good example of the application of that notion, and look where that's gotten us! I wouldnt have chosen akron as my place of learning had i known that there werent ANY athletics.... and thats a fact.

What i always seem to dislike about these discussions is what athletics provide as part of the complete package of student life. If your university is all classroom and books, few students will be interested because it sounds BORING. Universities are a business and if the consumer isn't interested in your product because its bland, they won't buy it. Its the university's job to provide the best possible student life atmosphere to entice students to register here and pay to get their higher education. thats just me.

To be honest, i thought attendance last night was pretty good considering the weather conditions. It wasn't packed, to say the least, but it was still a respectable showing in cold, wet weather conditions.

hasily made and totally randomly organized review of the Zips Win over PSU: The weather dictated the game more than anything. The slick, wet conditions made it difficult for our guys to make the quick cuts we usually are able to make when in full control of the ball PSU on the other hand did not seem to have much of an issue with the ball throughout the match, mainly because theyre bigger and not as nimble as our guys. In these instances, quick, nimble, and finess players seem to suffer due to lack of traction and less ability to control the ball. This was yet another very biased game by the refereeing crew today. I could be wrong (havent seen the foul differential yet), but it seemed PSU was getting pretty soft fouls. However, I will say it was hard for me to see if in those instances PSU got ball before contact. Either way, not very impressed by the refereeing today. Meves... come on, I give you praises last week and this is how you perform? How many times did he kick it out of bounds tonight? 5? I didnt keep track. Point is, those errors on his part could have been costly. I understand, it was wet and hard to really get a good whack at the ball, but come on... put the ball more midfield if youre having issues keeping it in bounds PSU did a good job today of disrupting our passing and getting in the lanes. It was VERY evident they studied the UCSB game because I saw much of the same play as when we faced UCSB. Andrw (PSU's goalie), should have gotten carded there at the end when he kept moving the ball up when the ref wasn't looking. That was total bull if you ask me Speaking of bull, did anyone else see the EXTREMELY delayed reaction to PSU's guy there at the end to stop the clock? I swear i could have counted to 5-6 between the contact and when he finally went to his knees. What a total joke and unsportsmanlike thing to do, if you ask me. Maybe I am wrong, so feel free to chime in there. Getting back to the actual game... either one of 2 things was happening today: 1) We were AGAIN passing too much inside the box and not trying to take shots, or 2) PSU was doing a fantastic job of defending in that final 3rd. It just seemed as though every time we would press the ball inside the box we'd lose it because of passing. Where's the attack? Great to see Luke get back into the game today. Made some good moves and looked pretty solid out there. Wonder what it was that kept him from playing? VERY disappointed to see PSU control the ball as much as they did post-red card. I had flashes of 2010 against OSU when they got a red card about the same time into the 2nd half when that happened. It seemed as though we werent able to posses and control the ball like we should when they're a man down. To those who still think the Zips played a lackluster game, WEATHER IS THE GREAT EQUALIZER On the side... what was the red card for? I didn't get a chance to see what it was.

The issue I believe that stems from what would be considered a "quality" shot is how one quantifies a quality shot. A difficult SOG to one person may be less to someone else, so some kind of objective system of categorizing shots would be needed. Then youd have to take into account whether the keeper was in position or not to properly defend the SOG, if they had already blocked the shot once and the second shot was coming off a rebound, etc... Could it be done? sure; with enough time and video resources, some basic statistic of rating a keeper's performance could be developed. Just needs more work...

good post. lots of info I wasnt aware of until now. Only complaint is that it spent all that time presenting the data but little, if any, time explaining how it correlates to Meves' performance and why or why not Meves is a good keeper. Id like to see what someone thinks of his performance so far given the data in that post. also interesting to see that ZNO is a rare breed of forums for collegiate soccer. thought given the history of other programs out there, thered be more of an online following.

hey, I was thinkin about going out and "purchasing" some Penn State jerseys this week... anybody else in on this "group buy"?

holy cow did this get out of hand. you guys are fighting over numbers. theyre all there for you to see, draw your own conclusions about them, not attack someone else because they may have presented the data in the wrong way. we're still drawing a larger crowd this year than we did last year, and thats fact.

Quick, hastily made review of the game: Early on our passing seemed to be a bit rough. Saw some nice passing only to watch a pass go out of bounds because we didnt play it well. As some have mentioned, some of the first touches were rather hard and resulted in the ball bouncing further away from us than desired. Conversely, as the game wore on things normalized and I saw the akron possession-style play like we have come to expect. It was very refreshing and helped maximize the chances we had. To go along with the above point, I felt we executed very well with our possessions to neutralize the height and strength advantages NIU had over us. Even then, I saw our guys executing well-played headers on NIU. Very well done IMO. I felt we were much more patient with the game today in comparison to Wednesday. Granted on Wednesday UCSB was pressuring us non-stop to disrupt our play, I still felt NIU was attempting to do the same and we countered very well with clean, direct, and accurate passing. Meves... I had some doubts about him after Wednesday. Tonight, I feel much better about him. Even though our back line stepped their game up immensely and damn near prevented any of NIUs players from making any good shots at our goal, Meves made some damn good plays tonight. His save in the final 3 minutes of the game was about the best you could have asked and to see him get slammed into our net and get right back up (well, not RIGHT back up since he did get rung pretty good) was great to see of him. NIU played us rough... I am surprised there weren't any more cards... there were a few slide tackles by their guys that seemed questionable... thats all I got. I might be a bit wrong so feel free to let me know... just my thoughts on the game. Great win against a quality team. Just getting back into our stride... RANDOM THOUGHT: Props to NIU's coach for coming over to the Rowdies and shaking hands and being a good sport with us. I specifically recall him saying "Man, I havent heard anyone insulting me or my wife yet, what's going on here?!", which was hilarious. Glad to see there are coaches who appreciate what we do, even though it can be sometimes borderline... or over it haha. Unlike a coach from a certain school in cow town...

the stream would be better if they turned up the volume on frenchie's play-by-play.... i have to keep my speakers at 100% to hear anything...

Pretty much. If I recall, Coleman Commons calls for the extension of the same kind of greenspace design towards the REC to be mimicked where the tennis courts are, along with some other greenspace additions (what i believe theyre working on right now) this is what the design calls for, though modified slightly to accomodate for the changes already made to the soccer stadium (moved north and west a bit - walk between practice field is gone) but generally still the same.