ZZZips

I attended the NIT game at Northwestern last night. The Nerds of NU had a good student section last night and their entire sports complex is very much off campus. The distance from their campus to the sports complex on Central Street is equivalent to the distance between Rt8 and S. Main street in Akron. http://maps.northwestern.edu/#latlngz=42.062%2C-87.679%2C14

Check out the MAC first team on this trash site. The choice for center is an all-time classic. http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/3376

Haven of Rest does great work but is in an unfortunate location. The north side of University Park has rhe same issues with street drug use, panhandling and minor crimes. It's not the Haven's fault but the problem has spread from Grace Park to cover the entire area north of Market Street.

1. Summa does not own a singe lot within those boundaries. All are owned by the City of Akron except for the former Martin Chevy lot which I believe was purchsed by either the city or UPA. 2. The Haven of Rest is several blocks to the west of those boundaries. 3. UPA has this area targeted for a mix of business, retail and apartment development. No chance of an arena on this spot when the Mayor prefers the Mayflower block on Main St.

Charlie has not looked well the last few weeks. He looked very lathargic when he visited the JAR. He was somewhat more animated when they honored Wally Szczerbiak at the Can't game on Tuesday. He is now in the hospital. He will not coach this weekend in Buffalo http://www.muredhawks.com/sports/m-baskbl/.../022412aab.html

I'm in. If you are going the team is staying at the Tulsa Southern Hills Marriott. The team is chartering a plane to Tulsa.

Picked this off the CMU fan board. "I've been suspicious of the MAC office for some time now. Six Ohio teams, offices located in Ohio. Championship formats for mbask, wbask, baseball always held in Ohio. Let's just admit it. The state of Ohio runs the league and they will always get the breaks. How do we get 3 suspended while OHIO loses one. Did all three of our girls fight with the same OHIO player? I doubt that."

http://www.themorningsun.com/articles/2012...e5648128652.txt

Dave Carducci of the Record-Courier posted this article for tomorrow's (1/11/12) paper. He reports on a new way of assigning officials for B1G and MAC games. http://www.recordpub.com/news/sports_article/5144438

Michael will continue his sports journalism career on January 9th as a full-time reporter in the Akron Beacon Journal Sports Department. He was selected to replace the retiring Tom Gaffney in the department. His primary focus will be on high school sports but I hope they assign some UA stories to Michael, especially about the soccer programs where he has done great work. Expect to continue to see Tom Gaffney around the campus since he will be working part-time as a stringer for the Beacon and other out-of-town papers wanting coverage in the Akron area.

The UA Board of Trustees, the President and the Athletic Director need to revisit their error in declining to serve beer at the Infocision Stadium concession stands. I would also suggest that it is time to add the beverage to all of the unviersity sports venue concession stands. Bowling Green has added the beverage. Cleveland state has sold it at their basketball games. This article below shows the false fears that leads UA to turn down a large revenue stream. http://dailymail.com/Sports/WVUSports/201111300228

In my opinion this trip was a first class efffort by the Athletic Development Office. Erin did a great job organizing. Her efforts, along with Anthony and Katie as hosts on the trip, were appreciated. I heard from several other travelers that they thought that the cost was a bargain. Bus transportation, a restaurant meal, $27 game ticket, free refresments and snacks (including multiple beer choices in unlimited supply) for $65 was a steal in my opinion. The Development Office has been asked if they planned on hosting any future bus trips. If you want to pass on your comments and/or suggestions, post your comments here and also forward them to George Van Horne III at ghvanhorne@uakron.edu

It is a mistake by the MAC Basketball staff. Ricky Stokes told me it was found by the KD when the preliminary conference schedule was produced but they could not reverse the Can't State/AU dates due to a another use of the MACC. I asked if we would get two final season games in the JAR for March 2013 and 2014. He said his type of correction was under consideration.

AP Newswire 2:30pm, 11/1/11..PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A person familiar with the decision says the Big East will invite Boise State, Navy and Air Force for football only and SMU, Houston and Central Florida for all sports.The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the conference was not ready to announce which schools its members had voted Tuesday to extend invitations to in the upcoming days.Commissioner John Marinatto declined to give specifics of the Big East's plan after meeting with the league's presidents at a Philadelphia hotel. He did say he expected the schools to accept.He acknowledged the league is moving west and reiterated that Syracuse, Pittsburgh and West Virginia will not be allowed to leave for their new conferences until July 2014...

I called the ticket office to find out if my season tickets had been mailed. The staff told me that the tickets arrived late last week. They are not mailing the tickets before the exhibition game. If you want the tickets before the John Carrolll game, you can go to the tickets office at Infocision Stadium during regular hours this week. The staff said they will have all of the season tickets packages at the John Carroll game. The ticket office will mail any remaining ticket pachages not picked up at the JC game. John Carroll tickets are included in the season ticket price.

+1No matter how big of a shafting it was, we still should have wooped Michigan. The crappy field conditions didn't help but STILL shouldn't have been close. Maybe we need to train regularly on a wet field....both of our losses were on games played on wet fields Maybe we should decline TV games, both of our losses were in games played on TV!

What time? And I'm assuming it's open to the public? The Barberton Public Shools are doing the team a favor because the JAR is not available to MBB on Friday evening. I do not think they are expecting anyone except the Zips team to attend. They are hosting a football home game at 7pm. As for Saturday, The Zips are not having an event like many major programs have for the first practice. If you were invited to attend, you were provided access information. The JAR is not as accessible on weekends as it is on weekdays when the entire facility is in use. I have no idea if the exterior doors will be unlocked for visitors during any of the weekend practices.

Serb resolved his student visa problems yesterday. He now has the correct papers to stay in the USA while working on a second bachelors degree and using his last year of eligibility on the basketball court.

Nick was a volunteer coach for Miami last season. He never intended on staying more than one year. He has been looking for full time work (business or coaching) and decided to help his career growth and resume by being a volunteer coach. Nick approached Keith Dambrot this summer and Keith agreed to take hm on and mentor him this season. He receives no pay or benefits. He is moving his family (wife Kathy and two children) back to the Akron area in the next month. Kathy, who was a scholarship soccer player for the Zips and graduated with a BS in Nursing will start a new job with a major hospital system in the Akron area next month. Nick seems very comfortable to be coming back to Akron. I think it is great he is spending his time helping his alma mater and former coach. Welcome back Nick and Kathy!

Hilltopper has it corrrect. If you want to use a great private course venue then you have no choice but to have a Monday event. This outing has significantly increased participation since moving from a public course to Silver Lake CC (2009) and Portage CC (2010). The afternoon flight was added due to the morning flight being sold out and more golfers wanting to participate. If you have any questions you can call or email Amanda Aller in the Men's Basketball Office. Her phone number is 330-972-7781 and her email address is ama38@uakron.edu.

I heard about this change from KD while in Montreal last weekend. There are both pros and cons as has been pointed out in the previous posts. This was not a league office decision. League decisions such as this follow a bottom up protocol for approving the changes. The coaches mull over the options and if they have a majority decision it is fowarded to the MAC Council of AD's. The council then vote on acceptance or can reject the idea and send it back to the coaches for further review. Most of us did not like the past format of division leaders getting the top seed and bye's in each bracket. This option also has some negatives (most notably the ability for two strong teams in a very weak divsion to get to the semi-finals wthout playing a game on a neutral floor). This format does make it harder to run the table if you are not seeded with a bye, but KD does not view it with disfavor.

Last season's practice jerseys. Some new players are wearing last year's seniors numbers.

From the McGill vs Zips stats sheet ZIP's numbers: FG% 34-61 55.7% 3FG 5-12 41.7% FT% 12-25 48% Most minutes: Justice 22, Egner 21, Green 21, Marshal 20, Abreu 17 All UA players scored except for Petersen Redmen out rebounded the Zips 31-29 They don't track assists. Turnovers: Zips 12, Redmen 26 Not surprising based upon the starting lineup and the constant lineup changes due to the heat, the Zips bench outscored the starters 50-35. Attendance: McGill 170, Akron 7

Mike moves up to Illinois from Cincinnati. http://es.pn/rba4ck

Seems like their AD can play both sides of the game. Interesting comparing this suit to the Ford/Bradley litigation.