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A few things about the game part:1) Yes, I thought UVA was very bigger and physical compared to most teams we played this year. I thought a couple of their guys were very close to getting booted.2) Were those the best refs in the country?? At least two of our yellow card fouls were TOTAL flops by UVA players that weren't even hit. Come on.The penalty kicks:1) That's amazing to see a 3-2 score on 5 penalty kicks. 2) What's hard to take is that we missed the goal completely on 2 of our 3 misses.

Again, as I said it another thread. Wouldn't it be nice if a couple of guys like Getsy and Biggs would come with the coach like we had happen last time we changed coaches?

I'd love to get a big suprise, like we did when JD took over, and get late QB and RB transfers like Getsy and Biggs. What a jackpot that ended up being for us.

I don't think Cincinnati has to worry about getting the Suckeyes leftovers right now. They'll do just fine. But yes, I would guess that we would dominate the MAC if we put together recruiting classes similar that were similar to those of the #3 team in the country. This subject of Ohio Recruiting has seemed to come up every time we've hired a new coach during our D-1A era. And unless I've missed something over the last 30 years, don't we already get a good amount of our players from Ohio and W. PA? Why does it seem like some new coup when someone says that they are going to recruit that area?But personally, I don't care where our players come from. If we have opportunities to get players that will help us win, and they are from Florida, Oklahoma, California, etc.......I couldn't care less.

Not singling you out here skip .. lots of people calling this out .. and you're just the most recent.When exactly did it become a BAD thing to NETWORK? Why is it a bad thing to leverage everything you have in your arsenal to find the person you think is the best for the situation? Do people really think that TW only interviewed people with whom he'd work previously??!! Really? The guy used everything at his disposal to find the one that he thought was the best fit for the situation. It might have included networking.One other thing I think that hasn't been brought up yet: I'm happy they got this done before the next domino fell in the coaching carousel. Whether it be Kansas filling their job, or ND hiring one .. the longer the Zips waited, the harder it was going to be to attract a top flight candidate to this job. Say Kelly goes to ND .. Butch Jones goes to Kansas or Cincinnati .. more and more mid-level jobs are going to open up .. and it may have been more difficult to get a guy like Ianello in here. So thanks for that Tom.It's a new day. B) B) Go Zips!Good point. I actually think there are a number of positives when hiring someone you already know, including the idea that their previous relationship probably helped us land this guy. I'm only a little concerned about the other side of the coin....that possibly he was looked at in too-positive of a light because of the former connection.

I certainly understand the concern over lack of HC experience. I think you can be good at working with and developing certain groups of players, and finding players....but not be the type of person who can manage a coaching staff, and lead a program.And I see the Wisconsin connection as well, which also rubs me the wrong way a little bit. I sure hope we've made a good decision.

If an arena can truly be ADDED to the Knight complex, it's not such a bad idea. In fact, maybe the best downtown-area idea I've heard so far. But, I'd still rather have it on campus, and be OUR arena, if that can possibly be done.

Not unless we scheduled better, and quit losing our "measuring stick" games.We WOULD have a better chance of winning more than 1 game in the NIT, however.I hear that.I hope we haven't forgotten that 26 wins didn't get us into the top 96 tournament spots just a few years ago. So, I wouldn't count on anything just because the tourney field is 30 teams larger unless we upgrade our SOS, and stop having poor performances that stick out like a sore thumb (Austin Peay, UAPB) when the selection committee looks over our resume.

I think this would have been a great idea when they built it. A combined arena/convention center. I don't think that building is even high enough to be an arena. Wouldn't they have to pretty much rebuild it?

I'm hoping for extreme cold, heavy winds, and snow. Anything to give us an advantage. Some of those kids down south have probably never had to play in those conditions.

Maybe Graham. I think he's possibly as solid of a cover guy as Reggie Corner was, and Reggie did well. Andre could be helped by his kick return ability, but I find his chances a lot slimmer. Beyond that, I think anyone else would be fortunate to be picked up as a free agent after the draft. In my opinion, if Jabari Arthur didn't get drafted, even a healthy Bowser was a loooooooong shot. I sure hope Alex Allen is coming back here.

A fascinating part of the story:"So Ostergren, like other Akron backups, approaches each practice with a game-like zest.'It’s intense, and it’s passionate, ... We want to win as much as possible, whether it’s in a game or practice. Because there’s so much talent ... when we split up in teams and scrimmage, our second team is pretty much as good as most teams that we play.'"If that's true, than we SHOULD win it all. If only soccer got more attention. Don't expect to see Cleveland TV coverage, even if we do win the title.

I would be infuriated if we ever agreed to play a 1-AA on the road. And if that's what Y-town wants in order to strike a deal on a series of games with us, I sure hope we never have any leadership that agrees to do this.

I didn't stick up for him last year because I thought he deserved more time. I stuck up for him because I thought some things happened at certain junctures during the season that made me believe that we were heading in an "improving" direction. That's obviously not the case anymore, and I'll be surprised if he stays.

Good thoughts from you as well. I'll look forward to the discussions again. And lets hope we see some growth from ALL of our players this year.ok, first of all, there is no way mcnees should ever play the point. he has horrible mechanics when it comes to ball handling. his dribble is to far away from his body and bounces near his shoulders. Also, he looks terrified when dribbling against a bigger, more athletic defender. Hence the turnovers. If you know anything about this league, it is a guard dominated league and mcnees should be no where running the point. he had 10 less turnovers than a true freshman, and he was a junior last season. Id expect those high turnovers with a true freshman starting at guard. 2nd, the PG position needs a player that can slash to the basket and pop it out to the wing for and open shot. We have that with roberts and humpty. Like i said before mcnees' dribble is way too far from his body and to high to slash to the hole. mcnees should be coming off the bench and standing outside hitting the 3 consistantly but except for 2 games last year we havent seen it.I'm not at all starting a campaign for Steve to be a 30 min. p/game PG. And I don't want to get into a technical debate over his dribbling method. But the bottom line is...IT WORKED for us. The numbers tell the story too. The Roberts/McNees combo dealt out 19 assists vs. 7 turnovers during those last couple of games in Cleveland, and against a very good Gonzaga team...certainly one of the best teams we played against all year, and our most challening stretch of consecutive games. That's pretty darn efficient. And Steve alone was 9 and 4 during that period. Not the greatest, but pretty darn effective. Will that trend continue this year? Who knows. Zip Watcher...nice additional comments. It's nice when we can agree on something from time to time

And according to preseason rankings, Syracuse is going to be one of the top 30 or so teams in the country.It's getting this kind of publicity, and it was only an exhibition. Can you imagine if that was a regular season game?

Interesting. I guess it tells us the questions that will be answered this year...1) Are we as bad as we played the last few weeks of the regular season?2) Or...are we as good as we played on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Cleveland?3) How much did Nate mean to that team?4) How much have the other guys improved in the off season?

Ummm...the team that plays the best will win. But, nice attempt to try to light a fire under the students. I love it.

If we get a #13 (typical for a MAC champ), then that assumes that Butler would be a #4....and that's not gonna happen. And I would truly root against that. We can't be letting Horizon teams get high seeds.

Good thoughts from you as well. I'll look forward to the discussions again. And lets hope we see some growth from ALL of our players this year.

This is all I can really take issue with. McNees and Roberts, on their best days are combo guards. Neither is a great ballhandler or distributor. Though Humpty struggled with some Freshman mistakes last year, he's shown enough of an ability to "run the show" that he should absolutely have the ball in his hand at crunch time. Do I need to bring up the Toledo game again? Without his performance shooting and distributing, in crunch time, we don't even make it out of the first round. McNees is what he is. He's a streaky shooter who can light a team up from the outside if he gets hot, but if he's not he really doesn't offer much. Roberts offers a little more in terms of his FT shooting and is a little better at creating his own shot, but he's not a floor general. He's really an off guard in the sense of the word and the only time I want the ball in his hands at crunch time is on a catch and shoot or if we are trying to draw fouls and ice the game with his FT shooting. Humpty is a lot more than just a sparkplug off the bench for us. The only other player who has shown the ability to give us his ballhandling, distributing, shooting, slashing, scoring from the PG spot is maybe Ronnie Steward and he's always hurt. I want Humpty on the floor with the ball in his hands at the end of the game. He's our most dangerous player in those situations. He proved it in High School. He proved it a couple times last year and, given the opportunity he will prove it again this year.Are you referring to his first successful 3-pointer in something like his last 24 attempts?The biggest problem I have is with his carelessness with the ball, and I hope he grows and cleans that up. But, Roberts and McNees were starting to see the crucial late-game minutes in the 2nd half of the season, and I think it paid dividends for us.This argument would carry a lot more weight if you weren't arguing that McNees should be the one taking those shots instead of Humpty. McNees is the definition of a streaky shooter. Heck he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn the majority of last season. He heated up in the MAC tournament, but that was really about it. And really, outside of his streaky three point shooting, he doesn't offer us much. Last year he only took 47 shots that WEREN'T three's (compare that to Humpty who took 134 non-three point attempts and unlike McNees actually has a better shooting percentage when he isn't taking 3's) He's been known to make careless mistakes with the ball the same way Humpty has (68 turnovers in 21.5 minutes played last season to Humpty's 78 in 22.5 minutes played) and, unlike Humpty he's not really able to penetrate to the hoop and create his own shot (see 47 non-3 point shots to 134). If anyone, Steve should be playing that "sparkplug" off the bench role. When he does get hot it's a role that really fits him. Don't get me wrong, I like McNees. When he's hot from beyond that 3 point line he's probably the most exciting player on our team and he can single handedly win a game for you. I just don't think he's who a guy who we want to put the game in his hands when it is on the line (forgot to mention his puzzling 62.5 Free Throw percentage).I'm not making that argument at all. In fact, Steve has dissappointed me as a shooter as well. I thought we'd truly see more of what we saw in that Miami game at home two years ago, and it never happened. I'm simply supporting the idea that our guys performed well in crucial parts of games when Keith started going to the Roberts/McNees combo. Maybe it's a combination of them making good decisions, Roberts' free throw shooting, Steve's hustle, etc. I'll be interested to see if we go to that combo again this year in similar situations.

This is all I can really take issue with. McNees and Roberts, on their best days are combo guards. Neither is a great ballhandler or distributor. Though Humpty struggled with some Freshman mistakes last year, he's shown enough of an ability to "run the show" that he should absolutely have the ball in his hand at crunch time. Do I need to bring up the Toledo game again? Without his performance shooting and distributing, in crunch time, we don't even make it out of the first round. McNees is what he is. He's a streaky shooter who can light a team up from the outside if he gets hot, but if he's not he really doesn't offer much. Roberts offers a little more in terms of his FT shooting and is a little better at creating his own shot, but he's not a floor general. He's really an off guard in the sense of the word and the only time I want the ball in his hands at crunch time is on a catch and shoot or if we are trying to draw fouls and ice the game with his FT shooting. Humpty is a lot more than just a sparkplug off the bench for us. The only other player who has shown the ability to give us his ballhandling, distributing, shooting, slashing, scoring from the PG spot is maybe Ronnie Steward and he's always hurt. I want Humpty on the floor with the ball in his hands at the end of the game. He's our most dangerous player in those situations. He proved it in High School. He proved it a couple times last year and, given the opportunity he will prove it again this year.Are you referring to his first successful 3-pointer in something like his last 24 attempts?The biggest problem I have is with his carelessness with the ball, and I hope he grows and cleans that up. But, Roberts and McNees were starting to see the crucial late-game minutes in the 2nd half of the season, and I think it paid dividends for us.

My thoughts....1) Absolutely agree that winning NCAA tourney games is, without a doubt, the best way to get national attention.2) I'm not absolutely sure what to expect this year. Yes, high expectations. But, for a team that wandered into the MAC tourney as the #5 seed, with recent losses to a horrible Valpo team, and BG and Can't (minus Singletary), we have to at least be reasonable about the fact that we overachieved.3) Losing an all-the-intangibles guy like Nate will have some effect.4) Having a ton of experienced guys will certainly help.5) Zeke is what he is, a young kid who may, or may not, be an immediate impact. But as I have said previously, just his presence in the game changes how opponents will attack us. And that's never a bad thing. 6) Our shooting in the MAC tourney, and the Gonzaga game (for 30 min) carried us. 7) I've said this before....I like Humpty as an offensive spark plug, but like McNees and Roberts running the show when the game is on the line, as we saw so many times in the 2nd part of the season. And I really believe that had a lot to do with our semi and championship game performances.8) We should be the best team in the MAC this year. And I hope we become good enough to win an NCAA tourney game. 9) As always, I wish we'd do something to put ourselves in position to get an at-large should things not work out. Two of the best teams we've ever had did not get to the NCAA tourney. We can't continue to let that happen.

It's true. And just think, we were a home quadruple overtime win against Buffalo away from turning our fortunes in another direction just a few games ago. It seems so long ago now.

What if, indeed. Why did our AD shop him out to Cinci? Let's fire our winningest football coach while simultaneously offering up our winningest basketball coach (at the time), and replace them with Gerry Faust and Coleman Crawford. Brilliant!Faust was hired as football coach to guide our transition to 1-A in 1985, several years before Huggins left to take the job at Cincy.