skip-zip

Great game. We actually led in the 3rd Q before VT scores back to back TDs to take a commanding lead. The late TD pass was thrown by Mike Junko. Funny that it happened the week after we got pummelled by Ohio U. And it ended up being a bad season, even with this remarkable defensive effort holding a ranked team to 21 pts. It's one of the best examples i have ever seen of a defensive lineman taking over a game. They had no answer for him. He spent a lot of that game in the VT backfield.

It's still good news to see them lose to a team like RMU. However, they also had some bad losses last year around the time they came and humiliated us in the JAR. It will indeed be interesting to see how we match up against Cooper this time around. We might have to try to get some size on him with Diggs or Gilliam.

Did you miss the Marshall game a few years ago? How do we do that all over again? Would be kinda strange.

Now we need to start getting some points in the polls. Not going to happen this year. Not a chance. Not with 6 losses, even though a few of them were "good" losses. But, I do think we've played a couple of solid games now heading into conference play. Still a good chance to have a decent season. Playing some good OOC teams has hopefully better prepared us for the road ahead.

Wasn't he the guy who won the lottery during his previous stint at UA? He was here the same time T-Bow was with the Zips in 86. Good memory! Yes, he is the same guy. I though it strange that Terry specifically mentioned him as being present during the introductory press conference. I believe Mike came from Middle Tennessee prior to his 1st stint at Akron. This is shaping up to be a staff chock full of guys who are certainly not in it primarily for the money. YOU have a good memory also.

Yeah I agree it is a few steps away from being a good arena. Step 1: Tear it down Step 2: Build a new one So you're saying a university of over 30,000 and city of 200,000 doesn't need a nice arena? I don't buy that. Do you realize how many companies are located in NE Ohio that would put money forward to have their name on the building? and it isn't renovating the JAR at the same time, it's building a new arena and then converting the JAR to a practice facility in the future. This is the sad part of the story. These 30,000 students, and WELL OVER 200,000 residents (if you count the area) are not using the one we have. We don't need to look much further than the last 2 years at the INFO to know that they are not going to show up just for the venue. They have to have an interest in what's taking place inside the arena. And that's not happening. The fans need to push the issue and start showing up.

Great read. Thanks for posting ! It's a good compilation of all of the factors that we keep hearing about. But, I don't think this will put a damper on any of the denial that exists among Big 10 fans.

I want to agree that the students should be on the side. The problem is that we only have so many seats available for the folks who donate money, and we have to give them these perks. Could a compromise be reached whereby we could move students into one or two of the end sections on the side? I hope. I'd like to see students in that section right behind the opposing bench. But, I think part of that is what we give to the opposing teams for family members.

Whether anyone agrees or disagrees, there is a couple of options being looked at right now. One is a series of renovation options that reduce the seating capacity somewhat, and move the upper level seats forward, with a new VIP lounge that would look out towards the court. The alternative is to look towards a new arena if none of the options above are feasible. But I still stick to my original assertions concerning the time frame, which are: I still belive that a new arena, if that become the best alternative, could still possibly be as far as a decade away. And I still believe that the only way to push the issue is to start packing the JAR.

I want to offer my apologies! This team is for real NOW! They beat a TOUGH team by 8 points! I'm surprised Kennishaw State isn't ranked yet with those 3 wins!!! Final Four match-up in March baby! Dude, didn't OU blast Akron twice last year? I had almost forgotten about that. We'll find out in a couple of weeks if that carried over to this year. I'm sure every Zips fan thanked our lucky stars when they got knocked out of the MAC tourney before we would have had to play them.

And there's people here who think that the "we should expect more than a MAC title" viewpoint is pessimistic?? THIS is a pessimistic viewpoint. My response to posts like this will always be the same. Why would we jeopardize our chances at a MAC title by trying to build something bigger? If anything, making us stronger nationally should increase our chances at winning the MAC. The MAC tournament title opportunity will ALWAYS be there, no matter what risks we take to make a greater impact on the national scene.

Good post. We KNOW, and the players KNOW that this is a guy who has won in the SEC, the absolute highest level of the highest division of college football. There's an INSTANT trust that the guy knows what he's doing. We all bought into his rah-rah speech last night because we all know that he knows what he's doing. Other's will do the same, including donors, fringe fans, area businesses, etc. And these things will add to our ability to win. I expected him to be a Gerry Faust with a higher level of success under his belt, and I think last night is an indication of that. So, for those who weren't here in 1985, fasten your seat belts. This is going to be an exciting ride. And hopefully a ride that won't end anytime soon.

I don't have to respect the point of view if it's pessimistic and foolish, which I think this is. Go Zips! Please explain what is foolish? What I have posted are facts. Skip Zip added points that I hadn't brought up, and he is 100% correct about the raised expectations. Some people call it pessimism, others call it realistic. I'm happy for you that you are content with winning a few MAC titles and losing in the 1st round pf the tourney. Exactly.

Stop making sense spicy one. It can't be tolerated by many here. My statement was ridiculous? Let's see.. losses over the past few years: VCU (3 times), Dayton (3 times), CSU (2 times), RI (2 times),Temple (-35), NC state (-21), Pitt (-21), Minne, Miami, FL, Texas A&M and this year WV (-21), and freaking Middle Tenn by 24. I think these few examples show my point is far from ridiculous. The pessimist in me could also use your example to say that KD has lost more MAC championships than he has won. Like I said, I love having KD as our coach, especially your point about how he runs the program, but we have to start consisently beating even other mid majors before even being in the national conversation. And if we did that and didn't win the national championship, then you'd be upset. Some people are never happy. A well-run mid major program that wins the vast majority of their games, including advancing to the conference championship for a record number of years isn't enough? Come on. You have to respect the point of view from someone who says that we are not progressing. Because it's very valid. We won 26 games 5 years ago, and have not reached that point since, and have struggled at times to even reach 20 wins. Winning 20 games is great. But, I'm sure most of us just want to see us get to the next level, and it's not happening, and that can be frustrating to fans that have raised their expectations since that 2006 season.

It looks like Nitro left his man to double Burgess and that was the ballgame. If he had stuck with his guy, Burgess would have had to force up a shot over Zeke. Look again. Burgess was being guarded by Nik, not Zeke. And it looks like Diggs and Brett simply just got caught in a bad miscommunication on a switch. Zeke was over on the left side guarding his man. I don't know. I hate to look at one play, but I wish that maybe we had played this like we played the last few seconds of the Ken+ game in Cleveland last year. Put Zeke right under the basket, and make sure that the only way they could beat us was with a jump shot from 15 ft. or more.

I found a few things that stuck out at me, from watching the game, and also reading the stats. 1) I rarely talk about officiating, so I'll do that first. It was unbelievably HORRIBLE. How does a team score 70+ points and win when they are only shooting 39% from the field? There's only one way, with officials that send you to the line all night long, and keep the other team away. The refs had a huge impact on this game. 2) Great defensive effort from Zeke in changing so many shots. But, some things on the offensive end continue to puzzle me. How does he play 37 minutes, at 7 foot tall, within a few feet of the basket, but only make 2 field goals? And how does he play 37 minutes at that size, that close to the basket, and only pull down 3 rebounds? You would think that he could double or triple those numbers, nightly, just by chance. 3) The 20 turnovers were unacceptable. What really hurts is that it seemed like so many of them were just stupid passes, and not a result of VCUs defense. 4) I would have thought that Treadwell would have played much more. This was a rough game suited for his abilities. He could have been much more of a factor. 5) I can't believe so many people are screaming about Nik bringing the ball up the floor. It was a great idea considering that Nik is a good ball handler for his size/position, and was being guarded by a big man who was tremendously challenged in being able to knock the ball away from a dribbler. I think it worked quite well.

Bottom Line: No way Bowden would see Ken+ as a destination, like he sees Akron. Can't's facilities suck, and so does everything about Ken+. If he was named Ken+'s coach yesterday, they would have been thrilled. They can't get someone like that, so they're pissed.

Since we've been talking so much about coaches lately, I'll say something again that I've mentioned in other threads. I don't think it's a coincidence that coaches end up where they end up. The college coaching fraternity is a tight one. The good ones get plenty of opportunities to move forward. Others seem to move backwards and never return. And in this case, it seems like a good fit.

I'm sure Faust's schedule would be wide open on that day. He is the one who brought JT to Akron. They shouldn't spend much time worrying about if LO can make it or not. The Ring of Honor Day they did for JT was great. When he makes the Hall of Fame, they should do something for him the first home game of that fall. I don't know what to do as he is already in the Ring of Honor, but they can figure something out. Good post. I don't know what else we could possibly do since he has already been honored with the whole on-field ceremony, etc. And I think this was great that we did this at the height of his career, when he was a at his Defensive MVP years. And, thanks for saving me the time to remind everyone that he was one of Gerry's boys. If I remember correctly, he was only wtih Lee his last year here.

I actually don't anticipate a "hostile" crowd. People are going to be very excited and happy that night, with the addition of the introduction of a marquis hire as our football coach.

I don't want to ruin your party, because you make a few good points. But, I just want to make sure you know something. Those College Cup points from last year were because of the soccer national championship. We don't have any this year, and likely won't unless something unforseen happens on a national scale in another sport.

Why should you expect an apology ? That's funny but keep on waiting. We'll bring food and water as you age. It's actually more funny because what he said happened never actually occurred as I explained later on in the thread. As for being favored, I highly doubt that we would be at your place. Perhaps on a neutral court, but definitely not at your house. Are you aware yet that this is also going to be some sort of Terry Bowden night? Tickets were selling well already, but now it mighit be an extremely excited crowd and a possible sellout. This timing is bad for you guys, but if you are hoping for a crazy atmosphere, this is probably going to be the case.

Like I said, there wouldn't even be a discussion about D-II football on this board if it wasn't for the fact that some people were pushing their agenda for Winters as coach. Agree. Interesting. Then any discussion regarding Bowden's time at UNA, his schemes, his approach, his tendencies, his staff (some of whom will no doubt find themselves in Akron), must be irrelevant. I'll try to remember that. I'm talking about discussions that are related to the greatness of D-II football. And the same standard applies, whether it's in reference to Bowden or Winters. I support the hiring of Bowden, but I won't attempt to justify his hiring by trying to falsely raise the stature of D-II football. And if you look at the magnitude of Bowden's accomplishments in the SEC, it does indeed make his D-II experience pretty irrelevant in comparison.

Like I said, there wouldn't even be a discussion about D-II football on this board if it wasn't for the fact that some people were pushing their agenda for Winters as coach.

Tells us all we need to know about you. Akron lost to freakin' Gardner-Webb. And you think the national runners-up couldn't have knocked off a 1-11 team that had stopped playing for its coach? That tells us all we need to know about YOU, my deluded friend. The difference between Div. II (WSU) and I-AA (GW) is pretty huge. I wonder what Jim Tressell would have to say about this, based on the 1994 YSU/UNA clash. Yes, that's right, YSU won the 1-AA championship in 1994 with a 14-0-1 record and struggled mightily with the D-II North Alabama Lions. Hey, look who YSU beat by a combined 96-24 in the three weeks after the UNA game? And look who YSU beat 28-14 in the I-AA championship. If you'd like to keep spewing your "if I've never experienced something, then of course it's never happened", provincial ignorance, nobody can stop you. And Chaminade once beat #1 Virginia in basketball in the 80s. It happens, but he wasn't saying that it never happens. Rare examples to the contrary don't make the difference between their respective divisions any less significant.