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You don't see the LeBron signs anymore because of the idiots who would have vandalized them. The same idiots who, by their behavior, have created yet another round of embarrassing national publicity for Cleveland.

Who knows what would happen. But my basic thought right now is that we've simply lost some of our talent in recent years. A few years ago, we just had better players than we have right now. We can't find those couple of guys who can carry the team that we had a few years ago. We've been on a slight decline over the last couple of seasons, and we just haven't realized it because we still managed to find a way to get to the MAC title game again. This year in particular, KD is our greatest asset. We need to get as much out of what we have as we possibly can.

That's what they get for firing a perfectly good coach in Stan Joplin. Or for recruiting point shavers. Oh yeah, and I thought everyone on here thought OU was the best team in the conference? What happened to that, and how "great" they are? I'm not so sure that I'd launch a "I told you OU wasn't good" debate when they just beat the crap out of us. I was one of the people who said that they may just be a bad matchup for us. But, they probably still find it comical that Akron fans would cut on them considering our recent performances against them.

I don't understand why something like that happened. I'm not a Jets, Browns, or Steelers fan, but as a Zips fan, I was rooting for the Jets because of JT. I agree "Good Luck To Jason Taylor" would have been very appropriate at a Zips game. Especially since he was an Akron basketball player too.

This is interesting. I'd like to see them expand on this a bit. Maybe go with 2nd and 3rd favorites, and put a point value on them. As you indicated, I think the fact that there is no distinction between pro and college soccer affects this number a little bit. But, I am not surprised at all that 4% would say that soccer is their favorite sport. I am a bit surprised that college basketball is so low. But as I said above, I think you'd find that it would have rated pretty high with many sports fans as one of their favorite sports, even if it wasn't the top one. It would have to. There's a reason why it's on TV so much.

I have to give it to JD, in a slight edge over Gerry.

The leader of our city scored some major points with me this week. 1) A key to the city for our deserving soccer team. 2) National Championship signs at the city limits? I didn't expect that. I'll look forward to it. 3) Did anyone else hear about what he said about LeBron to that reporter? Beautiful !! Maybe some people will finally figure out that he's not from Cleveland.

I look at it this way. If we lose, the best we can do is go 3-2 against the MAC East at HOME. Can you do that and still win the East? I don't know, but it at least requires pulling off some big road upsets along the way. It likely means that we'll at least have to win at OU, and probably at Ken+ too, which has always been tough for us. If someone would have told me that we'd beat Ken+ to start the season, but have ourselves in a hole 2 weeks later, I could not have imagined such a scenario.

Without a doubt, the tough one was losing the home game. Going 1-3 with one of the losses at home would definitely leave us with a pretty decent hole to dig out of.

"Featured" would have been nice. It only got the customary 10 second mention at the end of the sports segment along with recent Indian's free agency activity, and a minor league hockey update. They reported the crowd at 1,000 people. I thought there could have possibly been a few more than that.

This is a pretty fair assessment. I've said all along that I don't like our chances when Nik and McClanahan are trying to carry the load, and you've mentioned some of the reasons why here. I think we'll be a better team this year if the burden find it's way back to guys like McNees and McKnight. And I also believe we could be better with Egner and Diggs taking more of McClanahan and Nik's minutes.

One game, look at our overall records and the teams we've each beat and lost to. OU has lost to some terrible teams, I would say the only bad team we've lost to besides Buffalo is Ohio University. We may not have killed the teams we were supposed to kill but at least won. We just haven't upset anyone yet. You could argue that Can't, Miami, and Akron are all better than OU, and the argument is pretty good save for one fluke win that the Bobcats have over us. Are you dillusional? We got worked in that game against OU. We had no answer for Kellogg or their PG. I agree with you Trimmy. When you get manhandled by someone, like OU did to us, you can't call that a "fluke". But with that said, it's the MAC. Every team is going to show their weaknesses during the course of the season. OU may just be a bad matchup for us, but a favorable matchup for someone else. And I won't look forward to the trip to Athens this year. But, we'll win our share of games, and so will several others. You just hope to be one of the teams in the mix the last week of the season. The Buffalo loss certainly isn't encouraging. When it counted, they made plays and we didn't.

Like I've said, it will probably be another year where a few teams are within a game or two of each other going into the last couple of weeks, and whoever has the right things fall their way will win the league. Lets just hope we are one of those teams that is in that group at the end of February, and I think we will be.

Zach brings up something that I don't believe has been discussed much here, which is Zeke's impact on potential TV games in the future. I don't think it's there right now. Not with 10/5 type of numbers. But, what could happen if he gets to the point of scoring 25 a game? We've seen in the past that kids from the "smaller" D-1 schools that become dominant can gain a tremendous amount of interest from the basketball world, and these bracketbuster games would certainly be opportunities for the college basketball tv decision-makers to put a player on tv that is getting some attention.

I'm with you on the campus changes, facilities, and coaching hires as additions to the normal football and basketball discussions. But, realistically, how many people would tune in for discussions about things like tennis, exhibition soccer, and indoor track? I don't think even the largest schools in the country could keep people awake with that kind of content.

I'm not a soccer fan, but I am a Zips Sports fan, and I have to admit that I expected a little more too. I hope you soccer nuts get a little more of what you may be wanting next Tuesday....I really do. And I hope enough people show up to make it worth having. But, I have had several discussions on this topic with people over the last several days, and I keep hearing the same thing...."We all enjoyed winning a national title in something, but It's Soccer we're talking about here".

Ok...Zipswatcher's reply was funny. But I agree with you 100%. I've always been bothered by a lot of the music they play during pregame for the same reason. They certainly play this type of music because it's "cool". But asking that to change because of the lyrics, and not wanting our kids to hear it, is a perfectly legitimate complaint. I don't think making a few changes would lessen the experience in any way.

I don't want them yelled at either. Yelling is for practice. I'm more interested in whether or not a different strategy was deployed. GP..I couldn't tell you what we may have tried to do differently between the two halves. They just did a great job of finding space in our defense, and set some great screens to bounce some guys out to the perimeter for open looks. I don't know the last time I saw an Akron game where the opponent had so many open shots. They were even able to find the open guys in the paint in a lot of situations. Their ability to identify the places to attack time and time again was amazing to me. They were all on the same page, for sure. And very unselfish. Teams shoot those kind of percentages when few shots are seriously challenged. I agree with Captain. If defense is the premium of this team, then guys like Egner and Diggs could really help get after some of those shooters if they spent a few more minutes a game on the floor.

I had to read that twice to see if that was really what I saw. About the only thing he did right tonight was make free throws. He had 2 baskets and 7 turnovers. He played horribly, and so did several others. But, I don't think anything broke my heart as much as seeing that Zeke was so bad. I had hoped the Ken+ game was a big step forward for him. Even Cooper put a layup over him. The soccer recognition couldn't even save the evening.

I was wondering the same thing. It's supposed to be nasty tomorrow. I'll be there either way, but I sure hope people come out even with subpar weather conditions. I'll never forget the OU game. That was Bubba's first return to Akron. If I remember correctly, the game was sold out, or nearly sold out, but it looked like only about 1,000 people made it. I remember not even being able to pull into my driveway when I got home. One of the worst snow storms I ever remember hitting Akron.

I really think more than anything else, I'd like to still have that big, grass field right next to the stadium. The tailgating atmosphere has really changes with all of the activities spread out in isolated pockets around campus.

My only thought is that we don't even have the talent right now to execute a much simpler offensive scheme.

Is that true? Sagarin has their SOS rank as #19. I'm shocked if that's the lowest ever.

Yep. And I hope you're right. Only time will tell.

I couldn't resist.