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Excellent! Any chance of some additional locker room snipets?

MAC Champs! I've waited several days to let those words sink in after experiencing some real down days after hearing about AA, attending Senior night and watching KS hang on against the Zips then heading up to Cleveland for the KS rematch. What a roller coaster ride that was. I'm still not sure how the seniors and quite frankly, the team & coaches recovered from the shock of AA's actions. KD has consistently said how tough these young men are but until recent events, I didn't realize how mentally strong they all are! Impressive is, I believe, an understatement. Down by 7 or 9 in the first half against OU, down 3 at the half seemed like a lead. Then the complete defensive shut down of OU in the second half resulting in a MAC Championship is something Zips Nation should relish and never forget. From despair to EXHILARATION in 10 days. Congratulations to the Team & Coach KD & Staff! That was way beyond playing and coaching! Enjoy the Dance! Go Zips!

Headed to Auburn Hills....anyone have advice as to when the rush hour in Detroit begins coming in from the south? Is it better to blow through Detroit before 3 or wait, as I want to, until after 6pm?

Nice Story: Walsh Article re: Xavier

I pray that somehow this story isn't as bad as it sounds tonight. This team has been through a lot this year. This is another opportunity to demonstrate that adversity makes you stronger. Walsh has been gutting it out the last 3 games on one leg so look for Melo to get the start and several guys to alternate at the point. There is some strong character on this team and look for them to draw together tomorrow which will be even more emotional than originally anticipated. Go Zips!

I'll add myself to the list of people jealous of the game night atmosphere the Zips dealt with last night. Simply put, OU has the best intro and game enviroment in the MAC. Thankfully, the Zips continue to provide us with evidence that this current group of players are some of the most determined and tough minded men Akron has had the opprotunity to watch and root for. Talk about looking into the face of adversity and simply walking back onto the court and taking games away from their opponents. Lets hope these Zips can continue to overcome injury, adversity and the temptation to listen to us fans instead of concentrating on this years biggest game....the next one. STAY FOCUSED....Go Zips beat Buffalo!

8000 for capacity. St. Louis design with the following changes. No media table across from benches, steeper bowl than shown in St Louis photo's(think Maryland's student endzone seating); this produces a larger volume of seats closer to the floor. Floor/court should be significantly below street/ground level. Walk into the concourse and down to all seats. The private boxes and media accomodations would be up one level from the street entrances/concourse. No decks or tiers. If expansion is a possibility, then end zone decks/tiers similar to Pittsburgh's former hockey/bball facility (Civic Arena) could be planned for and built if sellouts become the norm. Has a study or survey been performed which indicates how many suites could be sold? Interior design elements: huge Z at center court, TV quality floor lighting with very dim lighting of seats during game. State of the art, suspended "jumbo tron" for lack of a better description. Permanent chairback seating for all seats. Movable seating at floor level in order for court/floor expansion for practice and some concert type events. Team facilities: State of the art locker, weight/conditioning and training rooms. A barebones practice gym. All basketball offices (volleyball?) as well as athletic administrative and study table offices. Depending on facilities location, inclusion of a cafeteria, banquet rooms, etc (like Xavier) could be designed in to help justify this project and to also provide additional student services. If built in a retail zone, a chain restaurant type venue would be a plus to assist in debt reduction. The exterior would match that of the new football facility and new dorms/private housing being built on and next to campus. With the Zips impressive recruiting over the last couple of years, just imagine where KD could take the program with a new impressive facility.

It's an early evening game time start....Zips Nation needs to show up in Buffalo. The players have repeatedly said that their supportive crowd has made a difference and Saturday night will be a challenge. After the winning in a crazy, loud, emotional Convo in front of 10,000+ fanatics it would be easy to get lulled to sleep by this game. Student/fan bus planned? Get to Buffalo Go Zips!

2 more headed to Athens for a Zip win!

It's never to late to do or say the right thing so: Great job, team, students, fans, band, marketing department dance & cheer teams. I hope the last two home games will be sold out and that the students & team will be in rare form. Seems some fans need to learn how to twirl the towel....my only complaint about Friday night!

B, get healthy soon. We need you.

Can we assume they like a half court or walk it up style of play based upon those statistics?

Great crowd for the BGSU game...loved the players pictures in the student section. The game time atmosphere is getting to be where we'd all hoped it would be and that's providing the Zips with a better home court advantage. Great job by all! UA has an opprotunity to showcase ourselves Friday night; SELL IT OUT and keep the streak going by beating NDSU.

I truly hope the JAR will be jammed for the remaining home games this season; every little bit helps to keep winning and I think the players would love to know their fellow students are supporting them. I was pretty surprised to see only 10% of the student body resides "on campus"; that's an unbelieveably low number isn't it? Come on UA students jam the jar.

to the powers that be, please take note of the location OU's band....directly across from the visitors bench. Where it should be. Please move the band back to our opponents end.

Unnecessary and premature speculation......let's blow out Buffalo then address the next opponent. It's less exciting but this approach makes each game to be played the most important one on the schedule. I believe the team has developed this attitude and it should eliminate looking ahead of themselves. Get it done one at a time.

I'd propose 6000 seats, seat back seats with bleachers on 3 sides of the court for student seating (see Univ of Pgh). This would help create seating where students might be able to create the atmosphere lacking in the JAR. It would also allow more "floor" space for practice options (shooting machines/stations) This number of seats might create a scenerio where more season tickets could be sold if the Zips continue to improve their hoops program as appears to be the case now. Too big a capacity would make tickets easy to come by and lessen the possibility of sellouts, hence fewer season tickets. I'd suggest putting a UA dining hall in this facility with some decent sized banquet rooms and a booster lounge as well. I'd rather see on campus than off campus but I'll leave that to more knowledgable Master Planners. Quality rather than quantity.

Some things I think I think: Gamechanger44 is right....the players and their families are hoping MORE STUDENTS COME and SUPPORT THEIR TEAM The players want an enviroment that is as loud as Can't was; it's great fun playing in and being part of such an enviroment. They are doing their best to win every game and WANT YOUR SUPPORT...come and have some fun for 2 hours Move the UA band back to the VISITOR end of the court. It's called a home court advantage for a reason. Bands are extremely loud and they can disrupt teams communication during timeouts. Every other university in America understands this concept; can we please make this happen? MOVE the media table to track level and have MORE STUDENTS down on the floor right behind the 1st row booster chairs. I know the scorekeepers and game officials must be between the two team benches but not radio & TV. Come on UA make more student seating available on the floor. TO THE UA STUDENTS WHO TRAVELED TO Can't AND MADE THEIR PRESENCE KNOWN & HEARD: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, !!!! EXCELLENT JOB!!! Your support can/did energize the players

I agree in rooting for other MAC teams to do well, particularily in the OCC. As of right now, the MAC is stubbing it's toe again in the OCC and I think that unless the Zips beat Creighton Sunday and Detroit next Sunday, it will come down to having to win the MAC tourney to go dancing. OU's schedule is too weak, IMO, to garner support for a two team appearance at this years dance. The NCAA choosing to punish the players as opposed to the administration over the eligibilty paperwork was inexplicable to me. The two losses to CC and Oklahoma State would have been win's with a full roster but that's in the past. Opprotunity awaits in Omaha and Detroit. Let's go Zips!

Creighton put together another impressive performance in their rivals facility in front of a full house (13,000+). They are an impressive group of players, especially DMac. I'm sure the Zips coaching staff has a plan to slow this kid who can shoot 3's or post you up. It will be interesting to see if a rotation of Tree, Kretzer and Zeke can slow him down as far as scoring. Keep him around 14 points and don't let someone else go off will be key. It appears they play 7 with 5 getting heavy minutes; our depth should do the Zips well, especially if they avoid foul trouble. Zips have got to rebound as a team and limit 2nd chance points to give themselves a shot at taking this strong Creighton down.

Thanks for the head's up. Glad to see some local articles on the Zips; GT is right about the rebounding in the MTSU game. The article on BWalsh was nice. The previous games vs Oklahoma State, UNC-Ashville & PSU I thought our rebounding was fairly good but vs MTSU we were lacking. With that said, it was encouraging to see multiple Zips on the floor every time there was a loose ball.

GameChanger44 stated it seems the students and general Akron community are interested in the opponent as opposed to Akron's team. I believe that hits the nail on the head. Back in the day, at another university, our team was middle of the pack, however, we students saw the games as entertainment and a release from studying. The games were a place to go, blow off steam, laugh with your friends and root for the guys representing us. Sometimes our guys won, sometimes they lost but we sure had a blast attending, making noise, making some new friends and relaxing. It was actually fun being part of something bigger than ourselves....6-7,000 students having fun and supporting our team. From what I've observed, it seems Akron students think of UA as "A" school, not "THEIR" school. The JAR's design and decisions related to where the students will sit don't help but if this discussion is accurate it's the lack of student community/spirit/pride that's at the heart of this issue.

Creighton will have 16,500 fans to assist their team in creating a home court advantage. The Zips will need to play solid at both ends of the court and I fully expect them to. This is a difficult test considering the distance traveled, the rabid support and the quality of the opponent. Great measuring stick...

Seriously? Chokes? The beauty of sports is that fans get to second guess decisions made by coaches, players and refs. Questioning a decision is one thing but using choke as a reason is ridiculous. I tend to agree the Zips inbounds plays and final seconds option of having AA (currently) improvise when the clock goes under 10 seconds needs some improving but choking? I'd prefer to see the Zips run their most succesful set play of the current game or run a shooter off of 3 screens like MTSU did at the games' conclusion. Let's agree that KD is a fine coach; especially on the defensive side of the ball. I will agree with you 100% that it's time for other options to be considered after several end of half/game scenerio's ended up without a good look.

What an entertaining, nail biting, joyus game for the Zips yesterday. The players played well against a strong, disciplined, talented and competitive MTSU team; a win that has reinforced what the hardcore fans of the Zips believe about this year's Zips; Talented, Deep, Competitive and maybe developing the mental toughness to win against very good teams. If you attended yesterday, thanks for making the JAR as loud as I've heard it. Once or twice the officials had to blow their whistles numerous times to stop play as the players could not hear the initial whistles....great job fans, band, dancers and cheerleaders. The players made it a point to gather with students on the floor for an "I believe" celebration; nice to see. HOWEVER, why was the band relocated to the Zips end of the court? One of the advantages of playing at home is the ability of the home team to actually have no difficulty hearing during timeouts/breaks in play. Is it necessary to state that one of the homecourt factors is to make it difficult for the visting team to hear their coach during timeouts? Is this a politically correct decision? Relocating the band to the Zips bench end now makes it more difficult for the AKRON TEAM to hear. ?????