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What about getting rid of a team to bring in CSU? Northern Illinois is a hard road trip for all MAC teams that can be very costly for the budget. And that goes without considering the money Northern Illinois has to put out for all of their travels. I understand people not wanting this to happen from a fan standpoint and all, but economically, it could be a possitive. Just trying to bring a new thought to the table.

Thanks LOVETHEZIPS... I just checked out his website and it is neat considering that he was able to do that himself. It looked like he is planning on holding a camp for youngsters as well when he returns in the summer. From knowing Nick walking around campus, that will be a nice camp to attend. He is known for is smarts on and off the court. A great roll model that did things off the court that many people don't know. Including taking trips to Children's Hospital on his own as well as trips with the team. Nick has been an impressive person and player from the time I have been able to see him here at Akron.On another note, for those of you who don't know, his fiancee played soccer here for the Zips. Got to be happy for them.

Well said Skip!!!

I was looking through at a bunch of former UA players and found that Dials was playing in Germany and close to Dru and Romeo. It seems as though he is doing real well. It says that he is playing PG. Not bad for someone who has only played PG for 1 season prior to this, and for those who said that he couldn't do it.For those who would like to know, I was looking for some of his stats online tonight and found this...Through 3 Games (2-1)Avg. 27ppg7apg3rpgShooting 44% from 3-point range63% from 2-point range75% from FTOnly updated through 2 of 3 games here is his rankings in the league...6th in scoring8th in steals per game1st in steals per turnover (has anyone ever heard of that stat?)1st in assists per game1st in assists1st in assists/to ration ---- 13/1 <AMAZING (2nd is 6/1)3rd in 3-Point FG Made5th in FG Made1st in Efficiency Rating1st in Efficiency Rating per game at 28

then why the interest and the replies?

So what are you saying then? Ray, as the strengh and conditioning coach (and good enough to be hired by Wisconsin. Which they obviously do extensive research on these positions at the Big 10 level), didnt finish working out with the team throughout the season? And an assistant coach took over? And you are saying that there isnt bad blood? Ha. No wonder most of our guys were playing on one leg the last half of the season. Maybe that coach should be replaced then. Im just saying from my meaningful conversations from people that are involved with this conversation and some pretty obvious facts like the one that was provided in a previous post, that there is bad blood. Now its nice of you to try to sit there and protect 'your guy', but come on. Facts are facts!

They sure will. I have heard that he is one of the best strength and conditioning coaches around. I sure do hope the best for him. Another person leaving the program that KD hasn't had good relations with. Numbers keep going up in that department.Please explain that last part?Its no secret that players dont like playing for him and that he has gone through 3 trainers and now another strength coach. This all coming from one of his assistants.

They sure will. I have heard that he is one of the best strength and conditioning coaches around. I sure do hope the best for him. Another person leaving the program that KD hasn't had good relations with. Numbers keep going up in that department.

I am guessing that the people who put the banquet on are the ones commenting on the success of the thing. Food.... meatballs out of a spaghettio can, cheap as can be cake, and awful pizza that wasnt even deliverd cut up. very displeased with the night. wasnt worth the price of admision

So lets compare "urban" and "suburban" players then... everyone knows that Dials is a "suburban" kid. Heck, I think his neck stays red year around. But you are talking about a kid that comes back from an ACL injury in 3 months. That is unheard of in this present day. Not only does he play, he was our 2nd leading scorer and atop many other categories. (for those who care about numbers). And at a DI level. Comes in and backs Dru up at the point, which has been stated that he has never played before. and he does it on one leg. So you mean to tell me that the "urban" Wood is tougher when he couldnt come back from an ACL in 10 or 11 months to participate in the following season, which was a NIT year and the first ever postseason win for this program? Now that is 1 or 2 months extra past the "traditional 9 month" rehab period. But he did have a, and quote me on this, "minor" surgury during the year. ( and yes that was a minor surgury. even NBA players on contract come back within 2 weeks for that surgury. cmon, get real). and the reality after all that is that wood only played when he had the ball. he had no grit on the court. he gave up many baskets on D, especially the Can't games, but not limited to just those 3. So I guess toughness only comes when you play the part of the game that gets your name in the papers right? haha. If that is the attitude we have been having as a program, it is no wonder that we have only had 2 postseason wins in our history. but I hope this poor @$$ post doesnt reflect the attitude of the whole program/city. I havent seen it in all my years here, but I could of had blinders over my eyes for the past some 35 odd years. Maybe since the "urban" player is so much tougher than anyone else that he only leads the team 16 times (out of 35 games) in rebounds while playing almost 30min a game. This might be the dumbest post ever on this site, or just plain ever. So now on a topic that is suppose to be about these seniors you bring up "urban" and "suburban" players? That is the most idiotic thing I have ever seen/read. Ya know, I bet Romeo was tough too right? haha. he fell everytime he was touched. but he was "urban". ya know, Dru was tough as nails though. Ill give that too ya. He was one of the toughest guys to play in this program (how do they say that now-a-days? 4real). but he was "urban" so we got 2 guys that are "tough" and 2 that arent "tough". 3 "urban" and 1 "suburban". huh, ya know, maybe we should recruit all guards. ya thats right. 2 "tough" guards to 2 "non-tough" post players. There is an idea KD. go get 6' and under recruits. <<<<<<<< that makes just about as much, if not more, scense than your reasoning. And the sad thing about this is, Ive been in Akron my whole life... city from head to toe... and this still makes no scense to me, at all... I hate to even take note (or bring attention) to such a dumb comment, but it needed to be confronted. all i have to say is look at what game we won and what game we lost... now tell me who is the only one that takes over a game... enough said... Spoken like a guy who hasn't seen this team play much this year .. by your own admission.Nate is a lock down defender. Simply put, probably the best on ball defender in the conference. Take a look at the averages of some of the guys he defended this year, and then compare to their games against the zips.l Start with the kids at Temple, Wyoming, UIC and UMass .. every one of them came in to the games against the Zips with guady numbers, and put up well short of their averages .. well short.Nate takes guys out of the game. And he'll do it again next year.At the beginning of the year it was Nate, Dials, and Conyers that were our defenders guarding the opponents best players... but at the end, it was Linhart. I think a lot of that had to do with he became less of an offensive threat so all of his legs could be geared towards D. (i am guessing). but your are right, he was our best on-ball defender and perhaps the league. and we are going to need that out of him, and conyers (if he ever gets out of the dog house) next year if we are going to be any good. and before judging on the productivity of Nate by #s like so many on here do, he played GREAT floor games nearly every night. so just because there wasnt 20s under the points column for Nate, he played just as well as anyone else. and without him we wouldnt have been as good as we were. the point ZipWatcher was making (i think), was that we are going to need more productivity from him in the scoring column next year. I think that is correct. As the only guy back with much expierience, he is going to be a "go to" guy... along with C.McKnight and B.McKnight. I look for KD to bring back the old offense he ran his first year at the helm. he had Rome, Wood, and Peterson working down low with 2 guards keeping their space up top. To me this is a simular lineup. versitile, quick, and strong. our weak spot, in my mind is going to be the guards. i think it depends on steward. i really dont know what he is going to bring to the table (sat out because of injury this season), but he seemed to bring in some promise. hopefully he was able to sit back and learn from our 2 veteran guards this season. but with that said, i think we will struggle to make another 20 win season. i hope i am wrong, but i dont see it with a very young team and, i hope, a stronger schedule. --------------------------------------------------------But on the the original reason i got on this topic.... Thank you seniors (if you even read this garbage) for all you have done for this program. When it seemed as if we were going to take a step back from a 26 win season, you showed heart and actually took us a step forward to having an even more success. So to the 5 fan favorite seniors, I give my final thank you and best of luck to your future endevors.

there are 5 seniors on this team and i would put money on all of them starting tomorrow.

Unless you meant "NIU" your board credibility took a real hit with that statement. I'm a MAC fan. I've seen much worse. Did the refs make us shoot 28%? No. Can you please list the "disturbing" moves? Other than keeping Dials on the floor a little too long, he coached a good game. He can't put the ball in the hoop. At some point the players on the court need to make plays, and that didn't happen frequently enough last Saturday.Put down your Drain-o, put down the poison Kool Aid, and relax for a week.KD is a horrible 'game' coach. he subs more like he was on a schedule instead of having any feel for the game from the sidelines. dials needs to be on the floor, he is the only one with a brain and motivation out there. he does more instructing than playing at times. the warrrior is the glue to the team. and wood needs to play in spurts more. he is effective when he is rested and not tired. play him till he shows fatigue, then sit him for 30 sec or something and get him back in. he is our only post presence. yes that loss was embarrassing. we sit on here talking about post-season play and all that junk, and we lose to a semi depleated vcu squad. wood coming back is no excuse, it was a miniscus injury. its not that serious or difficult to come back from. they had guys out. and it was on our floor on national tv. it was an embarrassment, not because they are a bad program, but because with the team they brought to play they wouldnt finish in the middle of the mac.and just to be clear on the goaltend play, it was no goaltend. i finally got to review it on my DVR yesterday, and it was a great play. but that is how it happens sometimes.

this team had no excuses not to win the tournament just like last years team. wood is back from a "non serious" injury. a miniscus (sp?) is a 2 week injury at worst. dials and ced are now healthy. no excuses anymore for the zips. it is time to play. the mckights have been horrible the last couple of games. they need to pick it up. and nate has to be more consistant. those are the cold hard facts. everyone is trying to make excuses for this team when there should be none. put the success on the 3 seniors backs. let them make plays. i believe that if you do that we will win. and every other player needs to fill a role. i think that we are better than Can't. and that is the way they play. they have their top 2 or 3 guys make plays and everyone fill a role. i think that philosophy will work for this team as well. we have the talent.

do i think KD is a great coach? NO... but i do think that he is the best that has been here a UA. plain and simple.he has had great players here. the top 6 last year can be mentioned among the best that has ever played here. they had 5 1000 pt. scorers on that team. and still couldnt win the MAC tourny. with that kind of talent in this league, that has to be a givin with that kind of talent. he may know xs and os, but the players are not responding (this is another way to look at it). so in turn, i dont think he is a great coach. just an explanation for my conclusion. but he is the coach for UA. he is from here, went to school here, and is a part of the city. but we will only be a mediocre team from here on out without improvements to the university, its buildings, and other staff. in my guesstimation, if you improve those things, it would help the team, but still wouldnt affect the coaching ablility of KD. just the winning % by attracting talent.

skip-zip is right. we are suffering injurys to our top 3 players. put them in order how you want (which each can be considerd our best and so on), but they are def. our best 3 without question. dials runs the show and is unequivically our leader and the ultimate warrior and winner; not to mention playing hurt at a position that he has never played before, wood is our only inside offensive presence and just coming off surgury, and ced is battling an injury that requires surgury at the end of the season. and not only are these our 3 best, but they are also playing with the youngest team that ive ever seen. then with wood out, they had to change the teams style of play. a style of play that has been intact since KD took over 4 or 5 years ago. then wood came back and we had to change again. that is not easy. especially for a injured team with tons of young bucks. this is a very good team and i encourage everyone to stay behind them as they close out the year. this is a very good team.

1) make a bunny please. we didnt shoot the ball well from the outside at all, but we def didnt shoot the ball in the paint any better, if not worse. and we got a little more than a little production from wood tonight, and nothing by the mcknight family. they have to play better than that with wood, like they would at times while wood was out. if they are going to keep giving up wide open buckets then play small with 4 guards, where you get better offensive and defensive production. our guards has proven that they guard the post as well as any big man we have. and it will create spacing and mismatches on the other end for us. 2 and 3) i see that there is a lot of doubt on the shot by dials at the end. but if you taped the game you will see that he was open off a double ball screen. the big man helping was layed back. as our best shooter in that position of the game i think you shoot the ball. 10 sec. on the clock would be less if he would have taken it to the basket and not to mention into the fly swatters they had out all game long. he didnt make it, that is the fact. it wasnt a bad shot, he just didnt make it. .... so if he did take it to the basket, we can figure on about 4 seconds on the clock after the ft by vcu after a possible quick foul by the zips. so we are going to run what play to get the ball up the floor in 4 sec. against a trapping team like that? or i am guessing we can throw it deep like milum did to i am guessing wood in the corner? that deep ball has worked well for us the past few years hasnt it? dials makes that shot all the time, he just didnt this time. it didnt lose us the game in the big picture. how about no def boards or wide open 3s? or transition d that hasnt been in the vocabulary of this team yet this year. or missed bunnies. or the horrific start to both halfs. i could go on and on it seems. the fact is we palyed horrible the whole game and in that situation i believe the right play was made. obviously that was the philosophy of the coaches if that double ball screen play was called. and dials is the one to hit the game winner earlier in the year. so let it go. just because the shot didnt go it does not mean that it wasnt the right play or shot. 4) i think this team is right back in the same boat as it was at the beginning of the year. the sr class is going to have to carry the load and we are going to have to ride them through the MAC tourny. the underclassmen were showing promissing results in the middle section of the season, but they have fell off the map a little bit and have looked scared out there. but i think that is a good position for us to be in. with our guys showing signs of improvements health wise, i think that this team will peak at the right time. we just need to find the right mix of guys to play smart basketball out there. sometimes it isnt your best players that win ball games, but your best group of 5. and i think we have a pretty good 5, but no one behind them. hopefully we can get a dependable 6 or 7 man rotation for the tourny.

It should be a great game. I dont expect the zips to take this one easy to get ready to play for the MAC seeding. They have a whole week after sat. to get ready for the 3 game stretch. It will be interesting to see how the zips handle the uptempo play by VCU and how much Wood is a factor (not only with his knee, but with running in the style of play that is predicted). Lets pack the house for ESPN2!

Nate is a real streaky player. But he does play well on the Defensive end most of the time. He did not tonight. Hayes, who he was guarding until the end (which was Bramos), was lighting him up early. But I think that he has answerd all of the questions that a lot of us was having with him in the beginning of the year. He will be back to his ole self this season, just as long as he doesnt break another thumb. just got back from my trip to oxford. what a huge win for the zippers. we showed a lot of poise and seemed to execute real well. we have been starting to play in the new 'guard' style offense pretty well lately. it will be interesting to see how this benifits us or hurts us (as we transition back to playing through the block) as the year ends.and i cant go without mentioning that the rowdies were great tonight. not only was this the best/biggest road win, but it was the rowdies best/biggest performance on the road as well. great job and very cool.

without jeremiah? haha. he is by far our worst post defender. i believe that it will be up to the dials/linhart combo the rest of the year. but i wouldnt be afraid to put conyers in there for this game against miami on pollitz. he did a fine job on him as well at our place.

i agree with the 15-20 min mark vs. vcu. guys n gals, it is a miniscus (sp?) injury. it is a 2 week injury at tops these days. and most often less. not only would it be good for him to get game min, but good for the team. our style has changed a little bit without him in the lineup and it will allow us to adjust back in time for the MAC tourny.

quade played good in sperts. when we made our runs he was a factor. when we were playing even or got behind, he was awful. he needs to be more consistant for us to be any good.

So put him in at like 4 minute spurts. Let him stand 25 feet back and fire it up. He will hit 3 out of 5 a quick nine points take him out and bring him back in at the end of teh half. It would be awesome. I know that you guys are halfway joking about this, but that isnt how basketball works. Do you not think that other teams will catch on to THE ONLY THING THAT GODDARD CAN DO? Not to mention that he is the biggest liability on D that we have. He gives up more than he puts in. I know that fans would get 'a kick' out of it, but that sure isnt winning basketball. Now, I am not against putting him for about 5 min a game if we continue to be depleated. And it seems as though that we are not going to be healthy with Wood out, Ced with a half leg and back, and Dials with what I heard a muscle injury in his hip. But when you put Goddard in you have to have someone out there to give him direction. And the last home game was a good example of that. He was lost out there except when he was shooting the ball. The only way that he could be as effective is if we have leadership out there that can get him in the right spots and to help him along.What are you talking about? Lost out there? Even in Dambrot's interview he said Goddard can play defense so not sure where you got that? He only needs 5 minutes like you said on the floor, maybe 1st quarter, and 2nd quarter to get some points (he actually can do more than shoot the three, but never gets the chance), from what I hear, he is part of the rotation. If you saw Dambrot's quotes, he has said B McKnight has hit a wall..... we will find out tonite I guess, heck we need some help! 5 minutes wont kill us, and I still say that you can throw some others in too, Carroll maybe?I know from the play that we see from him when he gets in. like tonight. he gets killed on D. and it didnt seem as though as he was part of the rotation tonight. fact is, 5 min max is what he can wish for. enough goddard talk.

mcnees and dials are our best backcourt. let them work together most on the min. and dials will be able to teach/help mcnees for the future. i think we can plan for the future without giving up on this year totally. after all, the new season starts soon..... MAC tourny. everything is 0-0 at that point.

wow is all i have to say. that was the most pathetic effort that i have ever seen from the zips. dials is the only one that showed any fight. linhart did at times. mcknight did early but faded. the offense has to go around dials while he is at the 2 spot. i agree with some of you there. get the ball in his hands at the 2 spot. with the hip flexor muscle injury, i believe the same as the fr. pt guard that is sitting out this year, he is playing the best and the hardest. i hope the youngsters learn from the 'suffering' he has put in this team. my knock on him tonight is that he was trying to help everyone else on D tonight and forgot about his man a couple of times. if people cant gurad their man then it is better to give a 2 than a 3. with the potential of a blocked shot or something. ps. went to scorchers tonight, what a nice atmosphere.

So put him in at like 4 minute spurts. Let him stand 25 feet back and fire it up. He will hit 3 out of 5 a quick nine points take him out and bring him back in at the end of teh half. It would be awesome. I know that you guys are halfway joking about this, but that isnt how basketball works. Do you not think that other teams will catch on to THE ONLY THING THAT GODDARD CAN DO? Not to mention that he is the biggest liability on D that we have. He gives up more than he puts in. I know that fans would get 'a kick' out of it, but that sure isnt winning basketball. Now, I am not against putting him for about 5 min a game if we continue to be depleated. And it seems as though that we are not going to be healthy with Wood out, Ced with a half leg and back, and Dials with what I heard a muscle injury in his hip. But when you put Goddard in you have to have someone out there to give him direction. And the last home game was a good example of that. He was lost out there except when he was shooting the ball. The only way that he could be as effective is if we have leadership out there that can get him in the right spots and to help him along.