clarkwgriswold

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.

The resurrection of the football program at East has been a great story. That program was really struggling until Haynes came in. Due to his hard work, kids started staying at East instead of going elsewhere, started getting decent coaching and the coaching staff started having an impact in the school halls.

To summarize the article, Infocision stadium=

Fair enough, but you're over-interpreting my post. My point is that the diehard Dambrot detractors fail to recognize that the change they yearn for could result in a downturn just as easily as it could result in an upswing. Nothing more. Given the success we've had, I'm not in favor of taking that leap. I'd never propose hanging onto a mediocre coach in fear of what might follow, but that's not the Zips situation. Certainly, there's room for improvement in certain areas. If you look at my posts, I'm as critical as any at times, but I'm urging restraint for those who'd like to take quick action.

For every Mark Few there are two Dan Hipsher and Coleman Crawfords.

As I recall, Zeke Marshall was the MAC Defensive POY twice, the MAC Tournament MVP, and on the All- MAC more than once. Saying he wasn't an impact player is revisionist history. As for UA not getting Akron kids, sometimes that has to do with the kid. I'm not excusing every loss of a kid, but sometimes they want to go away.

Unfortunately, bigger community leaders than Sam and George have gotten behind the idea of a new arena to no avail. 3 years ago a levy was pitched to fund a downtown arena along with improvements to the 911 and dispatch system in Summit County. The public response was so negative that county leaders dumped the arena plan. I'd love to see a downtown arena for the Zips and other events. Canal Park has been great for downtown and an arena would build on that success. Unfortunately, the citizens are not likely to support it, leaving it on the University to foot the bill, a university presently in a financial mess. As such, I'm not holding my breath and I'm resigned to just hoping for improvements to the JAR.

I do think this was a down year for the MAC. Some would call it parity. Looked like mediocrity to me. The Zips were the average girl in the ugly girl parade.

P5 coaches tend to say things like that after they've missed the tournament. I think it does make some sense. It certainly shows the team at its best.

Sure will. Just stumbled across this article but I'll keep an eye out.

I agree that UTA played great, but the Zips had some role in that. Turnovers, lack of energy, silly mistakes.... UTA was good, but they are not Gonzaga or Creighton on their best day. In the end, I think maybe we got what some expected in the Houston game- a down and unmotivated Zips squad.

Interesting article from Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com on UA's sports budget. It isn't basketball specific, but has some interesting highlights, the least surprising being the financial bind caused by the football stadium. It also notes KD's retention bonus. http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2017/03/university_of_akron_sports_sti.html#incart_m-rpt-1

Josh has not rounded into the all around player I had hoped for. Having seen him in high school, I never expected him to be an athletic D1 guard, but I also did not expect him to essentially be a specialist (3 point shooter). When the threes aren't falling, he's a specialist without a specialty. I was encouraged to see him go to the hole more towards the end of the season, but I'm going to have to see more after the season we just saw from him.

Thank goodness Tuesday night football is just around the corner.

To quote the great philosopher and former NFL coach Dennis Green. "they are who we thought they were..." The UTA game, like some others in the last month, exposed the Zips' weaknesses that were there all season but that we were happy to ignore as long as they were peeling Radford and squeaking by Ball State and mounting wins as the season played out. The only encouraging thing that developed in the last month is the growth of Jimond Ivey. While the rest of the team often looked like deer in the headlights, the kid showed some fire and aggression, something this squad could use in boatloads. On to next season.

They may get the ACC invite we've been waiting on after this ass kicking.