akzipper

Selfishly I wish the Erie Bayhawks still existed. They were the Cavs affiliate before the Charge existed and folded a few years back. After all their NBA teams decided to have their G-League teams closer. I'd love to see Enrique play in my own town.

I want the Cavs to draft Freeman so bad. Even if it means tearing up the G-League with Bates until they are both ready to make the jump.

The Cavs tried to build with bigs who can rebound and finish around the rim. It works fine in the regular season, but come playoffs they will never make it past the second round. When the other team is draining 3's, you can't compete.

Those ugly blue seats have been around for what 20-30 years at least? It's time for an upgrade regardless all student sections should be bleachers anyway.

I really miss the seats behind the baskets. I know that it was pointless to have 4 rows or whatever, but if they could find a way to pack the ends or an entire sideline that would really go a long way. Another bonus is that it could be converted to bleachers because students will be standing most of the game anyway. Then fill the rest of the arena with chairbacks.

True. I'm sure in like 50 years the arena will collapse in on itself forcing UA to actually do something to fix it.

My point was that a new arena will never happen. So fans need to create an atmosphere that transcends an outdated, small facility. That's the only way to improve the gameday experience for players and want them to be part of the Zips basketball program.

That's the current state of college sports regardless of where a player calls home. It's getting rarer and rarer for athletes to stick around for 4 years at the same school. If they succeed in year 1, they'll jump to a bigger school. If they struggle they might jump for more playing time. We just have to take it one season at a time and hope for the best. I think fans need to understand how important we are to building a culture as well. To say the crowds at the JAR have been disappointing is an understatement. Nobody wants to join a program that draws a few thousand a game. The arena problem is the elephant in the room, but that's not getting fixed. Improving the gameday atmosphere starts with fans and students showing up, being loud and giving this team a real home court advantage. It shouldn't matter who the visiting opponent is. People need to pack the JAR regardless.

...and all the WVU transfers coming in. It's too late for them to back out right? right?

Stacked?

So in a rebuilding year the Zips added two transfers from WVU, one from NC, one from OSU and another from Cornell. While also bringing in the top high school basketball player in the state of West Virginia? I'm so ready for this.

A lot of times a school's athletic logos become so iconic that the academic side takes it over and uses it as well. Texas, Miami (FL), Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Ohio State are all good examples. George Mason feels like the complete opposite. An academic logo that's being used by sports teams. It's not a bad logo, but it's a bad sports logo. Having said that, their pre-2004 logo was even worse and their 2004-2024 logo wasn't anything special either. So chances are their fanbase won't really care.

I have no problem with schools switching to simplistic monogram logos. Most of the biggest schools in the country are known for their iconic logos. Michigan, NotreDame, Ohio State, etc. The real problem is in the execution. Vanderbilt and UA did a great job. Western is blah and George Mason is terrible.

Bingo. I also worked two jobs while I was at UA and both were internships that paid practically nothing. I got some course credits and great experience, but everything I did was basically helping UA for free. I still had a full slate of classes and graduated with over $100,000 worth of debt that I am still paying off almost 15 years later. Not only do athletes get all the perks you mentioned. But I know the UA football and basketball players got their pick of just about any girl on campus. They are celebrities and lived like it.

Using the moneyball approach in college sports is even more proof that it's no different than Major League Baseball. The only difference is that every athlete is on a one-year contract and is free to jump onto the Yankees or Dodgers whenever they want. Our only hope is that we can gather enough 7-9 hitters, back of the rotation or AAA guys from those teams to compete. I was against paying players for this exact reason. I always felt like getting a full ride, 6-figure scholarship should be enough payment. If athletes wanted to get paid they should have given them those funds in cash and let them use it as they'd like. But now we have a free-for-all with no "salary" cap.

I'd love to see more photos and/or videos of this. Aside from a few progress updates of the practice court, I feel like it hasn't been publicized very much. Does anyone know if work isn't completed yet?

I really hope he can be a big scoring threat for us. Similar to guys like LCJ or Castanada. We need a legit guard who can put up big points if we want any chance to make a run in the tournament. Even with Freeman last season, I think not getting enough offense from our guards held us back.

This tweet is so hilarious to me. Their entire team basically transferred. Yet they brought in one guy, who barely did anything for St. Louis, and are going to the tournament? What?

Good point. I was expecting the program to go into a rebuild period, but this could definitely give us a huge boost. In the world of college athletics all we can really do is take it one season at a time anyway.

Looks they're both listed as juniors. So I'd assume we'd only get one season out of them?

BYU got knocked out in the first round by a mediocre A10 team. Their coach gets a 5-year deal from a school that also got knocked out in the first round? Can't say I'd be excited if I were a Kentucky fan.

I honestly didn't realize anyone cared enough about Kent to attack him. My only guess would be it had to be people who lost money betting on the game.

"In Northeast Ohio..." They bailed a long time ago for the sunshine and bright lights of LA. I definitely think he'll be the highest drafted athlete ever who only selected because of who his father is. But as long as he doesn't end up playing for the Suckeyes or god forbid the Dukes I'm happy.

The only people suggesting it are randoms on Twitter. Some radio idiots in Pittsburgh are acting like it's a guarantee he ends up with Duq, but they are delusional. Saying Bronny will play for Dru and Lebron is going to pump millions and millions into the program. Lebron is going to pay his own son to play for them? How does that even make sense? If he ends up there that just means he isn't good enough for a big conference. These are the same morons who said they'd make it to the Elite 8. They haven't followed the Dukes for decades. But now all of a sudden they act like it's a national powerhouse.

I'll never forget the Eastern Michigan TV crew pumping up the White Out vs the Zips last season. You know, all hundred people that were in the seats wore white.