clarkwgriswold

I don't begrudge KD. He served UA admirably. Good luck. On to holding our breath with his successor.

Josh is just the first of the transfers now... With our facilities and budget, we're not a step up from Stony Brook right now.

Here comes the hire of someone you've barely heard of, from a small school on a streak. They're going to search for an up and comer.

There not going to pay enough to get Groce..

I'd hate to miss out on playing Northern Illinois.

Cheater Calipari makes $8 million plus bonuses. That's a start.

I'm so damn old I remember when King Rice was the top ranked high school guard in the country.

He'll figure it out when he doesn't see KD on the sidelines for the first game next year (on his TV). The ABJ article on KD leaving will be from wire reports.

I can't put a finger on it, but I'm not getting a good feeling about this. Let's hope it's gas.

Hmmmmmmm, we may have a winner!

I quoted this on here before, but in the words of Dennis Green, "They are who we thought they were." We knew their shortcomings but as long as they were winning, we were gleefully happy to look the other way and enjoy the run. When those weaknesses came to the fore in the last month of the season, they stung us like newly discovered flaws as we'd become so accustomed to overlooking them. There were many positives on the season. The emergence of Utomi and the growth of Ivey stand out. Big Dog carried over from his strong junior season to be the most dominant big man in the MAC. Kwan grew up as a player and may have been the team's MVP in the first half. Poke was a pleasant surprise, giving the Zips valuable minutes and energy despite playing out of position. Martin Dunn gave us depth at guard we didn't expect. Also, the kids were good citizens with no arrests or other embarrassing incidents. There were also negatives. Josh Williams had a difficult time getting on track. Aron Jackson regressed and nearly disappeared as a contributor. For spells, Noah posed too little of an offensive threat. Big Dog's free throw shooting was often atrocious. They continued to get beat repeatedly off of the dribble. Kwan's early season magic dried up late. All in all, it was a positive season. I hated losing 2 out of three to PCCC and that's my primary disappointment in the season. Looking back, I cant attribute the team's failures to any lack of effort. KD and the staff got as much out of the team as could be expected. Next year's team will be much more of a challenge as adjustments will have to be made for the talent.

Big Mike is the key to the Zips season. Poke can be a contributor, but he doesn't have the body to bang for extended periods. Even if Big Mike comes through, they still don't have a strong 4. I guess it's Utomi's job, but he's really more of a 3 and will never carry much of the rebounding load you hope for from a 4. A resurgence from Aron Jackson would be nice, but I don't think we can count on it after he regressed this season. I hope we see a more up tempo offense and some pressure defense, maybe even an occasional zone (gasp!) to mix things up. As a part of pushing the ball more, I'd love to see the ball in Antino's hands more.

Jordan Davis. Assuming he qualifies and has stuck around. I wasn't aware his game had regressed. We'll need all hands on deck from our bigs.

Only Josh knows why Josh is transferring. He may want to play with his brother. He may not like his spot on the depth chart. He may not like the Zips offensive scheme. He may hate the weather. Who knows other than Josh. Whatever reason it is from the multitude of possible reasons, that's the present nature of college basketball. All I know is that he volunteered at a youth basketball camp run by a friend, was great to everyone involved and the kids loved him. At the end of the day, he represented the Zips well and I wish him luck. As for the ZIps, if they were going to lose someone, I guess it's best that it was a guard due to their depth. Hopefully, as someone else mentioned, a big shows up in his place and with the McKinley kid can help bolster our thin group of bigs.

I think the Dru Joyce previously referenced in another thread is the former ZIp Dru Joyce, not the current SVSM coach. The current SVSM coach might attract some talent, but his in game decision making, or lack thereof, is mind numbing at times. If KD leaves, I don't think I'd be too excited about anyone on the present staff. I have nothing but a gut feeling it is McNees's job someday, but he's not ready yet.

A retention bonus this year brought Dambrot's overall compensation and benefits to $932,071, up from $626,414 last year.

Agreed. And when it wasn't working he'd make me want to jump off of the top of the JAR.

There have been plenty of Zips who transferred that I was happy to say good riddance to, but Josh isn't one of them. I've been as critical of Josh at times on here, but at the end of the day the kid played hard and was a good citizen. Good luck to him.

Hipsher was...just okay...then he lost the team.

Hmmmm. I was just starting to consider who we might lose. Is it a loss? Yes. Huge loss? Nope.

With the nature of the NIT teams, you could just throw all of their names into hats by region and pull them out in pairs to match them up for games.

Corporate Akron has jumped ship too. The Acme Zip game used to draw huge crowds to the Rubber Bowl. The only way to put butts in the seats is to win. Not 6-5 or 7-4 "bowl eligible" winning for a season, but consistent winning over time. Recruitment of local talent helps and they're doing a better job with that, but that's still ancillary to playing entertaining quality football.

Should I plan for them to be 6-2, 4-4 or 2-6? History tells me to pick option B or C. I may be a fair weather fan (and I'm not there on Saturdays to tailgate), but I'm probably not headed to Infocision on a Tuesday night in February for a 2-6 team.

True. My complaint is directed at the MAC and their relative lack of strength with the networks, not the University, the issue of the Tuesday night games. Also, I think it's expecetd with the other sports as it has gone on for so long and you need weeknight games to come up with a 30 game schedule.

The other option is to do what Georgetown does and set your priorities. Georgetown opts to (attempt to) play top notch D-1 basketball (despite having one of D-1's most inept coaches) while they participate in the Patriot League for sports like football. Don't get me wrong, I love the stadium, but mediocre .500 football to empty seats makes it a financial albatross. From what I understand, it is relatively pricey to rent too, which keeps it empty. At this juncture, there's no downsizing so.............GO ZIPS! Dominate Tuesday nights baby.