jupitertoo

Thanks B&G! This summarizes the recent iCoach video and then some. Certainly a better start to fall camp than down in Huntington, W.V., where 10 of 29 signees didn't show up and have been dropped from the roster.

I knew a guy from Wooster and he used to correct people all the time by saying, "And what is a tree made out of? Wooood?" What grows on the tree? Foooood... As a side note to the Marshall story, a longtime ABJ news staffer and 1960s-era Thundering Herd football player told me that one of the reasons Akron was ignored for MAC membership for so many years was a well-intentioned offer by Akron AD Gordon Larson to have the Zips fill in for Marshall against Ohio the week after the tragedy. Larson said something like, "Ohio now has an open date and we are willing to travel to Athens to show them that we have a quality program." Many in the MAC saw that as untoward. Rather than play a game, Ohio had sort of a cool ceremony in which the team came out on the field in suits and ties, lined up for a ceremonial kickoff and then picked up the football and knelt in prayer. Several thousand attended the "game." One of the Marshall players killed in the crash was a Cuyahoga Falls resident. For some reason, the high school never honored him with a plaque or other memorial. Another Falls player was dropped from the travel roster at the last minute and is an executive at Goodyear.

The MAC is proof positive that a bunch of decent size, respected universities cannot stretch their budgets to accommodate both D1 football and high-profile basketball. As a result, our programs are not especially strong in either sport. We have finite resources, but so do schools like Dayton, Xavier, Gonzaga, et al. The difference is that those other schools aren't channeling 7-8 million each year into football. As a result, they have larger recruiting budgets and all of the momentum that comes with consistent NCAA appearances. I love college football, but understand that it's keeping our b-ball programs from reaching their potential. Before Danny Nee left Ohio University in the mid to late 1980s (after having won two titles and making it to the NCAA two or three times), he told the school's president that he could make OU a consistent top 20 basketball school if they downgraded football to 1-AA. They refused and he left for Nebraska. The same decision faces every MAC school, and no one has had the guts to do it yet. I'd say Akron is now the furthest from making that decision due to the investment in Infocision.

They weren't ready to play last night. In fact, they were terrible the first 5-7 minutes of the game. The players found it within themselves to play better after that. Let me get this straight. You're saying Akron won in spite of their coach last night?

The players on the floor were the difference. Zeke didn't foul out. Akron was a better team last Friday then Can't right up until Zeke fouled out. They were the better team on the floor last night and they won. Akron is a better team than Can't and if Zeke doesn't foul out last Friday, they go 3-0 against them this season. Akron is the better team. While Zeke played a great game, the difference was your coach. He had the team ready to play every game and they showed an incredible toughness that mirrors his own. Congratulations - now go win a couple of games in the Dance.

No reason to argue, but you must be taking the wrong route through Marietta. I've timed both routes (50 vs. Marietta/Lower Salem) because I make the trip so often. The way through Marietta is 12 minutes faster, almost to the second.

Urichsville isn't exactly in Athens' backyard. Interesting to discover another native of Tuscarawas County on the board. three... If you get off 77 in Marietta rather than taking the suggested (strange) 10-mile leg through W. Va., you can make it from UA campus to OU in 2:40. I've done it 100 times minimum over the past 25 years.

His explanation in his post game press conference seemed legit: He said he wanted the team to dwell on what it's like to be on the short end of a 25-point loss rather than think about running off the court and to the bus as quickly as possible. He's clearly wanting to instill anger in them in case they face OU again in the tournament.

His entire post game press conference is on bobcatattack.com.

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. OU actually has 8 losses at home. All-time record.

The original CBS Sports story said the donation was "the largest in school history and MAC basketball history." In the basketball scheme of things, I wouldn't say "that's not much." Don't know how they justify that claim. As an example, one donor provided $8 million in 1968 to fund OU's Convocation Center, which is almost exclusively a basketball facility. I have a feeling there have been single donors who have provided more money in multiple gifts to one sport.

This isn't as big as you might think. InfoCision (I'm sure) put up more for naming rights to your football stadium and the Stiles family probably put up $5 million to name the fieldhouse. The most interesting fact is that $8 million is the largest gift ever to BGSU. That's not much in the broad scheme of things.

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. We pressured and double-teamed a lot in the 2nd half. OU picked us apart. I wouldn't read too much into one game. OU played well, but they have not shown the ability to play with any consistency thus far. Very thin in the front court until next year. Even very good teams come out flat from time to time. If this Ohio team were to play Akron in a 10-game series, Akron would still win 7. In my mind, the jury is still out on John Groce - he's certainly a good recruiter and should have a much better team next year, but I'm not sold on his ability to coach up a team its full potential. Dambrot is much better than that in my mind.

Hey Jupiter, Is anything more known about Coleman & Kellogg (older)? Are they with the team at all? Gone for good? Coleman is definitely gone. It looked like he was reconsidering, but he became enamored with his prospects (cough, cough) for riches as a music artist. Kellogg (older) is a puzzle. There's some speculation that he saw he wasn't going to get the paying time he had imagined and just decided to end his career. The younger Kellogg seems to be a nice player. Just needs the game to slow down for him a bit. DJ Cooper is even better this year, from what I've seen. He'll need to be especially good in the early portion of the schedule until some of his young teammates get some experience. Overall, I don't see the Bobcats as a championship caliber team this year. The next two years could be very special, though.

Nice try. Tenured professor. Not communications. (One of the sciences.) And as for attendance in the tower, from my walk up and down the hallways of two levels last night, I'd say 75 max.

If the Zips are as good as you predict they will be, they might run away with the East this year. I saw Ohio play Oakland earlier this week and the Bobcats have a ton of work to do to get back to a level even close to where they were at the end of last season. They have serious holes to fill/roles to define. A talented but very, very young team. Could be a rough first month of MAC play.

I counted the house last night from a faculty box in the tower. At the middle of the first quarter, there were 1,027 people in the stands.

Losing control of a team that has won six straight games? Hmmm. Read the reports on this incident and you will learn that Courtside is a pizza place that serves beer. Boo was inside when the bouncer started to beat up his brother (not an OU student) outside. Boo went outside to pull the bouncer off his brother and was sucker punched by a bouncer who came from across the street. Hardly a case of an "out of control" team. BTW, take a look at the comparative graduation rates of Solich and Akron's previous regime and you will see that Frankie is doing just fine. He's a great coach.

+100000000000000 If I'm not mistaken, it was the AD who said the cupboard was full, not Ianello.

Nicely is the least of our problems. He's a better QB than Rodgers. But the guy has no OL, and no WR's. Because he's apt to run, Rodgers may be a better QB for our present situation. I'd like to have seen him get a shot. But I'm under no illusions that changing a QB is anything but, to quote ZipsWin!, "rearranging chairs on the Titanic." Not sure you'd say Nicely is a better QB if you had been in Athens. Go to ohiobobcats.com and watch the recap videos. There were three or four cases where he just panicked under pressure. BTW, major, very aggressive heckling of iCoach by a few Akron fans throughout the game.

I agree. Alleman's comments were very insightful. I like how he noted that "Coaches often fall in love with potential as opposed to production." I had never heard that before, but it makes a lot of sense. I also liked hearing his opinion on Rogers, "I think Matt Rogers can be a successful MAC quarterback." He doesn't think Rogers is the next coming of Joe Montana, but he believes Rogers can offer consistency, and that is really what the team needs right now. He was also very gracious with Nicely, reminding listeners that in a stronger program, Nicely would merely be a redshirt freshman QB still learning from the sideline. I really like the job he's doing. You can tell he can't be as blunt as he would probably like, but he's still honest and you can tell he has a passion for the Zips. Good stuff. Agree. How long do you think Steve and Joe will put up with him though? Anyone ever count the number of times Joe Dunn begins a sentence with, "I'll tell you what?" At least 40 times per game. And Frenchy responds to Dunn with "There's no doubt about it" one out of every three times. If it were a drinking game you'd end up with alcohol poisoning.

Looked like a benching to me. Nicely made a couple of decisions that clearly infuriated the coaching staff. One, early in Q1, was to throw the ball away, backwards, as he was being sacked on the 15 yard line. Obvious fumble that Akron luckily recovered, but at a loss of 8 yards. The second was an intentional grounding after leaving the pocket. He was yanked immediately after that call.

Isn't Men's Soccer playing Buffalo tomorrow? D.I.G. brings up a good point about rooting against Ianello. Regardless of the situation, I could never root against the Zips. But at some point, an iCoached team needs to pick up a W to soothe the diehards, even if just for a week. The longer we have to wait, the more unlikely it will seem to us that a turn-around ochestrated by him will ever occur. Enough specualtion. Go Zips!!! Beat the Kitties!!! Why ... yes indeed they do. Looked at the WMU schedule to double-check and still had it wrong by a week. Thanks JZ. Same score ... Bulls 0 Zips 5. I have been an OU fan since the late 1970s, and throughout the 80s and 90s experienced some truly horrendous football. Nevertheless, I usually made it to games and usually had some level of optimism that my team could "put it all together" and win the contest. In that spirit, and because it's supposed to be a beautiful autumn day, with the leaves reaching their peak in southern Ohio, I encourage you to take a very fun and pretty road trip to see your team. You can undoubtedly find someone to sell you their extra tickets for $5 or $10 outside the stadium. There is excellent tailgating there. The downtown bars and restaurants are prodigious. Since it's homecoming, the Marching 110 will be parading all over the place. Hate OU or not (and I know many of you hate the school), go support your team and have a helluva good time outdoors on a Saturday afternoon. It's only a game...and you never know, the Zips could surprise you and ruin my weekend. 2.75 hour drive each way...well worth the trip, regardless of your team's performance to date.

Stop the madness, there is only one thing that OU really cares about http://news.lalate.com/2009/07/27/princeto...y-schools-2010/ Steve Coleman is back on the team. Apparently someone spoke sense to him.

Please explain this comment, considering that neither Akron nor Temple leads the conference in attendance. In the case of Akron, the athletics budget is only in the middle of the pack for MAC teams. From a football perspective, CMU has had the best overall program by far. Toledo also has been consistently stronger than either Akron or Temple. And while Akron now has a nice, modern f-ball facility, the b-ball arena is mediocre at best. Based on these criteria, why does Akron "deserve" a move to another conference more than a majority of the other MAC programs, especially the ones that outspend and outdraw it? Not trying to flame here. Just asking for a rationale for your statement.