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Captain. Thanks for your thoughts as well. This is some really good banter going on between some of us older folks.It's good to compare the eras. I certainly hope that you and Zip81 are right, and that we'll eventually be on to something more special this time around as well.

Zip 81....Thanks for bringing back some old memories !!I'm sorry to see that you had to endure the entire Rupert era. Luckily, I was able to get a couple of years of the Huggins era before I graduated. Honestly, I am probably more disappointed in the way the Rubber Bowl crowds have digressed over the last 10-15 years than the basketball attendance. Although, I went to plenty of games during the Crawford and Hipsher years where very few people were there. Add in the Lee Owens era, and were talking about quite a few lean years for both football and basketball.Heck, I hope you are right. I really would like to see us relive, or surpass, the fan support we had in the 80's. I'm just not seeing some of the same signs of improvement that I was seeing during the first couple of years of the Huggins era. And boy, once Dru and Romeo are gone, I wonder if that will have a negative impact on the local community showing up. I sure as heck hope we didn't peak this year. You're right. If we do continue to get pathetic crowds like K E N T, even after stringing several winning seasons together, I'll be throwing up the white flag as well.And I agree

Zip81..I'm guessing by your '81 that you have been around this program since at least the 80's, much like myself. And you have brought up some factors that I agree SHOULD be leading to better fan response in this era (as opposed to the Huggins era), such as playing more recognizable teams, and being further into our history as a D-1. But, look at a few comparisons from our first couple of years of success back then, and compare them to our first couple of years of success now.......1) During our runs towards OVC Championships in 86 and 87, we as students knew that we needed to come to some games ABOUT AN HOUR EARLY just to get a seat. Do you see that happening now?2) At our last regular season home game following the 85-86 season, we were playing Austin Peay (yes, the same Austin Peay), not Bowling Green (a more recongnizable school), and the place was packed. And there was no 2 for 1 ticket giveaway, no marque senior class being honored, and no LeBron clings being given away. 3) During the 86-87 season, the school gave the entire section of bleachers on the West side (yes, they were still bleachers at the time) to the students. And as I said, many times it was filled long before the game. I recall people sitting in the aisles, and on the track during big games. 4) Huggins, and many others in Akron were publicly talking about what they were going to do about the overflow crowds, how they were going to go about turning people away, and questioning why they had outgrown JAR Arena (which had only been used for 5 years) so fast. 5) In 87, we were scheduled to play a ranked Pitt team at home, and the game had to be moved to the Richfield Coliseum because we knew that the JAR could never hold the demand for tickets. And that was also a December game, after the school semester was over. Did you see that kind of demand when ranked Nevada came to town this year? If you are trying to make the point that fans are going to respond better to our current run of success, there's simply no indication of that so far. But I sure hope it changes, and I can tell these stories all over again about the current era of Akron basketball.

One other thing seems pretty certain now too. Toledo has likely now secured the #1 spot with their overtime road win at Western Michigan.

If we don't want the same thing to happen, someone might want to look at the Huggins era from 1984-1989, in which we won consistently, and had several post-season appearances, and see if our attendance continued to climb during that period.I was still a student during the first couple of those years, and attended quite a few games after I graduated. And, my recollection is that the crowds were the largest around the 85-86 period. But before we do that....how about we wait and see if "a bunch of winning seasons, and NCAA tournament appearances" really happens. I think I'd worry about that first.

trimmy...I see you are saying the same thing too.I'm really liking our chances in that #4 spot.

Zipsbandman..you are correct. I've been saying that for weeks. The #4 seed puts us in a pretty good position. It probably gives us a quarterfinal matchup against Ohio, and a semifinal matchup against Toledo. Thus, we would get a Can't/Akron game for the MAC Championship.If we go in as either the #2 or #3, we probably play Can't in the semifinal. Unless, of course, we beat Can't to end the season on the road. Then, Can't might slip to the #4 spot.So many possibilities still out there.The only thing we know is that Toledo, Can't, Akron, and Miami will be the top 4 seeds.

Quickzips...I think it all depends on how the game is going. If we can get out on top early, and things are looking good, your first scenario is a possibility. Speaking of Duquesne...I was wondering if someone can answer a question for me.At the last few homes games (although it might have been happening all season long) I've been noticing a kid with long hair, gym shoes, and baggy jeans standing at mid-court watching the warmups with coach Lamont Paris. He looks pretty stylish. Is that Steve McNees? Not to cut on him or anything (I grew up on a farm myself), but I can certainly tell that he's a country boy from Pennsylvania. Doesn't Dambrot have a dress code for the redshirt/injured players sitting on the bench? Not that I care. All I care about is that he can play, and wanted to get out of his commitment to Duquesne because he knew he could do better than that.

With all due respect to my fellow Northeast Ohio sports fans, this article once again proves what many of us have known for decades.There are a lot of fair-weather sports fans in NE Ohio.Can't wasn't expected to win this year, so the people haven't been showing up. To the contrary, Akron was a favorite this year, so our crowds have grown. Next year, if we have a drop off, and Can't continues to grow with their young freshman and sophomore talent, don't be surprised if they start getting the crowds again, and we struggle. Oh...did I mention?.....

Well....a few things obviously need to start happening tonight, especially in light of the Nate Linhart situation.Dambrot needs to call on his bench, and as a result..... 1) McKnight needs to mature a little bit faster than we anticipated.2) Conyers needs to start showing some of the ability that we recruited him for.3) Quade Millum needs to show that he is indeed the improved player that we think he's become this year. 4) Rybak can pass out the towels at time-outs.The 3-Guard lineup with Travis and Wood will not hold up over the next two weeks if this doesn't happen.

If last year is any indication, I am concerned that the players are seeing that we are expected to do well this year. I've said it before, and I will say it again. I believe that the reason our season went south last year was because of two factors:1) We were favorites to win the MAC in preseason polls.You aren't going to sneak up on anyone when that happens. 2) We beat NC StateThat's right. Beating NC State made these guys think they were much better than they were, and likely led to some "big heads" that ruined the work ethic of some players during the rest of the year.

Here's my thoughts...I don't think we've gotten dramatically better during the course of the season. At least not on a consistent basis. But I wouldn't base our progress on the way we played Saturday night since it was an emotional senior night, and we probably were looking past that game a bit.We've played good enough to win on the road in conference play, but we aren't doing the little things at the end of the game.I'd be pleasantly surprised if we can win all three of these road games coming up.I hope I'm wrong, but it seems that Can't is playing better than us right now. And Miami and Toledo seem very ready for the MAC Tournament as well.Will Nate Linhart's injury hurt us? A little bit.

You know what ticks me off about this article? They refer to Akron and Missouri Southern State both as SMALL SCHOOLS.Missouri Southern State is Division IIAkron is I-AI can see them referring to us as a small school, if they are comparing us to Ohio State or something. But, when they are looking at us beside a Division II school, and call both of us small schools, it kinda irritates me.

Wow. Not a player I am very fond of because I think he underproduces. But, he's experienced, and he hustles out there. The biggest problem is that it leaves us with one less option. Look for us to start 3 guards, and have a little bit less depth from here on out.

Ya, I'm really questioning the scheduling too. The conference games were, by far, the most important.But since we can't change that, I think Dambrot may be thinking that this is a nice stretch to prepare them for tournament play. And remember, after the Sunday game against Can't, we won't play again until Thursday night. And these guys are young, they should be able to get enough rest in those 4 days.

My guess if that they got a little blurb about the Can't Game, and their position in the standings, and probably never really looked at the standings themselves.Really.....if you want to look at it correctly.....Akron has the lead in the MAC East by way of them being tied with Can't, but being ahead if you consider the head-to-head tie breaker.

Well. Before anyone notices, please let me exclude Cedrick Middleton from the group of reserves that aren't showing the potential to be major future contributors.

Folks....I think things will be getting better in the future.Let me share some insight. I was a student 25 years ago. Back then, there was only a few thousand students living on campus, and many of them left on the weekends. Beyond that, a few thousand more lived off campus, and many of them left on weekends too. There wasn't much to do after Friday night on exchange street to make people want to stay on campus.This is changing. That new student rec. center is helping. The emergence of a major bar and restaurant district on main street is helping. And maybe most of all, the new dorms and condos, and the proposed new commercial district on exchange street will help.I don't think it has as much to do with wins and losses as some people might think. We won all year (as we did in the mid-80's) and the crowds were still dissappointing. We need to continue to make this transition from "I go to school here because it's convenient" to "I feel like I belong on this campus, and want to be on this campus, and take pride in being a part of this school". As this happens, more and more Akron Students will become Akron Fans.

The MAC refs have been making bad calls, both ways, all year. With the exception of the Austin Peay game, we haven't really had dramatically lopsided officiating (those were OVC refs). They are just bad, period. I even saw several calls tonight that they got wrong, both ways.In terms of MAC teams, we do have some decent depth when it comes to your 6-9 players. But what scares me for the future is that none of them appear to be major contributors. They are pretty much minute-fillers.Goddard cannot do enough to contribute quality minutes when you consider his liabilities.Let's face reality. We don't play with enough consistency, home or away.

FearTheRoo....you couldn't be more right.We only have 7 road wins all year, and besides Oral Roberts, I wouldn't classify any of them as "good wins".BinghamtonOral RobertsNiagaraYoungstown StateBowling GreenNorthern IllinoisEastern MichiganNot an impressive list.

uakronkid. I'm sure they appreciate your support. They've just been down for so long. Those meager crowds...it's been like that for many, many years. It's going to take time...alot of time.

Here's one more scenario.....Can't losses to Ohio today, and they are in serious danger of not winning 20 games. This would signal the end of their dominance in the MAC East, and possibly hurt their recruiting, and start a battle for future control of the MAC East.

Zips fan....you bring up a very good point.Which begs the question.....would we rather assure ourselves of no worse than the #4 spot, and a first round bye? Or.....keep ourselves in contention for the #1 seed, and a MAC East title?That's pretty much the options when you look at a Can't victory today as opposed to an Ohio victory.

Totally Agree. The way Steve French and Keith Dambrot interact with each other is not only informative, but is sometimes very humorous. I always find myself rushing to the car as well to try to get there to hear the interview. They are a great vehicle for building excitement among the fans, and the biggest fans are the ones at the games.

What's somewhat surprising to me is that Chase Blackburn is even playing in the NFL.I think most of us regarded him as a very solid MAC football player, but I don't think many of us anticipated what we've seen from him in the NFL.If he does indeed win a starting job, that would be great. I'm sure he's had to work very hard to get it. And remember....every ex-Zip that plays in the NFL means more free publicity for the U of A.