clarkwgriswold

I'll give you that it's potential, but I see Hughes as being more of a valuable and rounded big as he develops. He was actually pretty good early when he played. I think Poke sees a lot less time this past season if Hughes doesn't get hurt as Hughes appeared ahead of him on the depth chart early. Poke is a nice player, maybe my favorite Zip this year. I love the kid's effort, but he's a think power forward and I don't see him ever be more than a 15 to 20 minute a game rebounder and shot blocker where I see Hughes as a 12 or 13 point 8 rebound guy someday.

I agree that the Zips recent history is very good, but this team is losing 3 starters, two of its top reserves (Williams and Dunn Martin) and possibly the best returning big man (Hughes). Not a sunken ship, but not ideal. Stony Brook lost 3 seniors but was otherwise pretty solid and coming off of an NCAA bid.

As I recall, Boals walked into a great situation. Coaching changes usually follow a coach doing well and the new coach walking into something good or they follow a low point in a program that results in the predecessor getting canned. Boals did the first, taking over for a successful coach who had just taken the program to its first NCAA tournament. Oddly, the UA job is really neither of these common situations, but with every kid that transfers out, it gets closer to the latter.

I'm a little damn tired of the "forever a Zip" BS.

Don't get me wrong guys, I'm not saying anyone quit. Just saying the Zips could have played better in that final.

Gee Keith, thanks for quitting on our challenge and taking up theirs. Goodbye riddance.

I will agree Kent earned it, but the Zips helped. First, they had zero fire. Second, I saw no adjustments from the 1st PCCC game at the JAR and the MAC championship game. Most importantly, they took Kwan out of the game and the Zips made no adjustments to try to free him up.

I done been hoodwinked!

I don't know if Boals had anything to do with it, but the Buckeyes primary recruiting coup in the last 25 years was when Mike Conley, Sr. delivered up his kid and Greg Oden to Columbus. Other than that, the Buckeyes recruiting has been hot and cold.

What would be really interesting is PCCC garnishing old Geno's UA salary for their judgment out of the Bradley related litigation.

I heard during the season the the Zips had a "morale" problem. I wasn't sure what that meant then and I'm not sure now, but in hindsight it appears that there may have been some unhappy kids on the team and that maybe the team dynamic wasn't great. I wonder if KD's reference to the "dysfunctional locker room" was in part a reference to that. In any event, all hands on deck for 2017- 2018. Good luck to the kids who decide to stick it out or come here.

Some would call that description generous. I do believe he has improved. He might be good at getting athletes here but he'd need a very good staff to work the details.

Amen. Your post hit as I was writing mine!

Okay, I have a newsbreaking shocker for everyone- THE WORLD, WHETHER IT INVOLVES A COACHING JOB OR JANITORIAL JOB, IS BASED ON MONEY. Rare is the person who passes up more money to do the same job in another place. If somebody walked in and offered me essentially 50% more to do the same job in a better facility on a higher level, I'd take it. I get that KD's comments over the years now look disingenuous. If he wants to blame it on the MAC and a lack of tournament seedings then he's run from a challenge he's always otherwise embraced, which is a bad look and deserves some criticism, but at the end of the day, he took a better paying job just as we all have at some point.

But think of all of those fencing and tiddly winks national championships and All Americans.

Maybe I am misunderstanding your post, but they beat the Zips at BG on February 21st.

We're only one or two genius marketing ploys, like the Taylor Made Jewelry mini-ball toss and Gionino's t-shirt toss, away from turning the Zips athletic financial plight completely around!

Williams better use the time in Arizona at the Final 4 wisely. That's a chance to get with everyone and make some serious strides in finding a new coach. If we're here in another week having these discussions, the Zips are going to be reduced to recruiting the bottom of the barrel and leftovers.

I'll miss Antino if he leaves. I always thought he was underutilized. This could have been his chance to shine in a new system. I always had a gut feeling Utomi would move on at some point. The guy scored nearly 30 a game as a high school senior. Those types of guys generally don't like sitting (or playing defense) much. That's not to imply he's leaving. Just a gut feeling I've had for some time. More important than ever to get a coach now with so many holes to fill. With each day, more kids want to transfer and more recruits get swallowed up by other teams. Remember how we all loved those 4 years kids and disliked how other schools filled their rosters with JUCOs, transfers and laptop stealers? Those days are over. Williams better come back from Arizona with a new coach.

Is UA getting its money's worth? Zips on that list: No. 35 - $284,141 - Akron men's soccer- Jared Embick- premier program No. 32 - $308,042 - Akron women's basketball- Jodi Kest- declining program No. 12 - $567,973 - Akron football- Terry Bowden- sideways program No. 6 - $932,071 - Akron men's basketball- Keith Dambrot- gone These 4 totalled $2,092,227.

I can't begrudge a kid wanting to play with his brother. I'd probably do it if I could. We'd be the shortest, slowest and oldest backcourt in college basketball.

Bitter sweat? LOL.

Wow, Bill Livingston. I associated him with the Nev Chandler/Herb Score/Pete Franklin/Hal Lebovitz era of NEO sports and figured he was either dead or drooling on himself in a nursing home.

Swords are cooler than oars (unless you're PJ Fleck).

Agreed, but up until the last month of the season the consensus was that he was consistently mediocre, was the worst KSU coach in years, and that they'd can him if they could afford to do so. His mediocrity and long tenure is just what you get if you hire a coach who's neither stellar nor awful enough to get canned. I'm really with you on the Senior Night thing.