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When did we play Louisville? I must have had too much alcohol this year.

3 yards? It was first and goal at the ONE in Michigan. It was 3 yards away when we lost 2 yards on a 1st down run.

As I've stated since very early in the season, he seems to be the guy they trust to run the show. So, his 30 min. of play would seem to indicate that they are moving full steam ahead with this "investment". I hope it pays off. He's certainly not the first point guard in recent years to cast doubt in the minds of the fans early in his Akron tenure.

Gotcha. I thought it was really harsh if he was talking about TB.

Wow. Let me say this...... At times, I've felt like Bowden may have lost some "sharpness" by being away from coaching in the big time for so long. But, I think he still rates very high on the "knows what he's doing" meter. He certainly has not had the success he's had, over and over again, with different teams in different leagues, by lacking in coaching or decision making ability.

Amen. Ya gotta play the games when you can get them.

I had this discussion about SOS with a friend, who is a typical, brainwashed OSWho Football Honk. He always tries to make the case that the Suckeyes football team is penalized in the national championship picture because of the weakness of their conference, just like Akron in soccer. But, there is one HUGE difference that I point out all the time. During the OOC part of the schedule, Akron goes out and VOLUNTARILY SCHEDULES top-notch competition. And we do it year in, and year out. Take the 2010 Caleb Porter led Zips, for example. We go on the road and open the season against Wake Forest and North Carolina, and win both games. We played top competition, and beat them. There was no longer a doubt about where Akron stood, as opposed to if we had been running the table with some selected easy wins, and then feasted on our weak conference opponents to post the best record possible. We weren't waiting for teams from other stronger conferences to lose, so that some sports writers could automatically move us up in the polls by way of default. We should be rewarded in a big way for taking matters into our own hands and proving our worth, and it's not happening. It's a complete mystery to me.

Absolutely. I just thought it was a very notable event for discussion. However, I would ask you to point out the "good" UMass games this season.

So, what impresses you the most about their 5-6 record? The narrow win over a horrible WMU team the week before they played UMass? The other "impressive" victories over Miami or New Hampshire (narrowly) perhaps? That covers 4 of their wins right there. But, define it however you want. Regardless, they crushed UMass 37-0, and the comment was meant to address whether UMass could be considered formidable competition for Akron (per the thread). It wasn't meant to start a debate over the quality of CMUs season.

When assessing the "are the teams we beat that bad" theory, as it states in the title of the thread, I can't help but to notice that a very mediocre Central Michigan team destroyed UMass over the weekend.

Nooo. Even you? Come on. You're the only one we can really count on here to do those kinds of things. I've spent a good part of my career writing sales copy, so I know "just a little bit" about this stuff. And I've decided to officially go with "Nearly Every".

You would be correct. My "Zips Emotion" sometimes tends to make me look for a higher word on the scale, to emphasize a point. Would "almost every" be OK with you? That would technically be somewhere between "most" and "every"

Dave, Dave, Dave. I love every Zips victory. Mississippi State was especially high on my list. I think it's fair to say "EVERY" when we're talking about possibly a few notable victories out of dozens of opportunities to score big OOC wins.

Who can forget "The Great One"

It's all about perception We never know what's going to happen, and coaches change their minds all the time. But on paper, right now, TB will be here for at least 5 more years.

I knew it would come, I just didn't expect it until sometime next year. Schools love to do this. It's a way to claim that "we have long term stability" when recruiting players.

I've said this before, but relying on the defense to win two games that could possibly help turn the program around is astounding, when you consider 2012. I'll reserve my "is it us, or the poor competition" comments until I see at least one more game. But, I really do feel like we have some players out there, and I do think we're getting better.

Greedy? Compare being AT practice, even undressed, to where we stood at this time yesterday.

That's the best news we could have received at this point.

Oh Dave, I obviously forgot about his "job title". Reality Check: He's banned from working with college athletes, for good reason.

Ahh. I remember the play. I was watching the game with 3 other people, and we all noticed it. I just didn't recall that it was the point where he got pulled from the game, and I didn't realize until yesterday that he didn't play at all after that. But, it's surely no surprise to anyone that Dambrot gets pretty ticked about that kind of stuff. And rightfully so. But again, we don't know if this was the start of the situation or not.

Sure. Someone who's done enough to get banned from relating to college athletes for 5 years would be the ideal choice to turn this situation around.

Dave, I pulled out these two items from your post. On the first one, you couldn't be more right. And that's coming from someone with an athletic background, and a background in the behavior sciences. It's no secret that Dambrot, or any other coach, doesn't always utilize methods that mesh well with every player on their team. On your second point, we can't be so sure that his passion is so strong right now. But I am sure hopeful that this all gets resolved. My concern is that he has nearly two full years left in the program, and if there are issues now, and if any of them have been ongoing in any way, the likelihood that they can find a long term solution that lasts that long may not be possible.

Fans do indeed need to rally in situations like this. If you recall, people really showed some extra energy and enthusiasm last year during the Ken+ game at Rhodes, right after the Abreu situation, and carried that into the MAC Tourney. I hope it happens again. Not only for the Treadwell situation, but because we've just lost two games. This team needs a huge lift from us.