GP1

Please point to a post on this thread where this is the case.

All I know is this. It Tressel doesn't get an NFL job, it's all ESPN's fault.

I can only think of one other reason, other than the money. BTW, Grobe was stealing over a million a year from WF. That's reason enough, but since this is a discussion board.... The reason you take a job like Wake is to challenge yourself by competing at a higher level. It's the same reason the coach left Wisconsin and went to Arkansas. Does a coach want to hide in the MAC or challenge himself? The ACC is better than the MAC. It's not a great football league, but still better than the MAC. Not only is the ACC better, but additions like Syracuse, Pitt and the smattering of Notre Dame games makes it even more attractive if you are looking at the competition aspect of the job. Syracuse and Pitt are turning out to be pretty good teams and ND is what it is. I actually admire coaches for taking this kind of risk to see what they are made out of. If he gets fired from WF, he can take his $1 million buy out or whatever it is and go be a head coach at another MAClike school or a high level assistant at another BCS school. Luke Fickel makes over $600K a year at tosu. I'm sure a guy with head coaching experience could do about the same AND have the satisfaction of knowing he competed as a head coach at a high level. The WF job secures a very high paying job for this guy for the next 10-15 years...the kind of money nobody ever has to worry about their retirement.

Nice, sincere post and I think it comes from the right place. Thanks for posting it. My opinion of KD is not as down as yours, but certainly not as glowing as is posted on this board. I think KD is a DII coach with DII ideas who has surrounded himself with people mostly having smaller ideas and experience. We saw a real DI coach last night in Frank Martin coach circles around KD and he isn't exactly John Wooden. That doesn't make KD a bad MAC coach though. Those ideas can win in the MAC and that is what he has done. For most fans and more importantly the powers that be in the Administration, that is sufficient to justify being the highest paid coach in the Athletic Department and to have a contracted extended out 10 years. The former is deserved, the second is idiocy. I see the helter skelter substitutions the same as you. Many on this board see it as a method of "figuring out his rotation for MAC season" and I see it frequently as grasping at straws and directionless. For example, why at the first stoppage of play are three substitutes brought into the game last night? Three tells me the wrong guys started the game. Why is Diggs not starting and being brought off the bench?...Is he our Kevin McHale?...Good grief, start the freaking guy because he is at least working hard when he is in and has some ability. If your opinion is the same as mine, you will continue to feel unsatisfied as Akron marches through a horrible conference and easily ends up in at least the MAC Championship. There is a very good chance that despite what you saw the last couple of games, Akron will be in the NCAA Tournament this year. You will find some enjoyment in it, but in the back of your mind, you know what lies behind the facade of 20 win seasons. At the end of the day, the reality on the ground is this. We have an idiot for an AD who could never be trusted to hire a basketball coach if KD left so he keeps throwing years of contract extensions at KD, who nobody would want outside of Akron, to make it look like he is doing something. People like me trust KD more with the basketball program than the AD, so we back KD because of the disaster that would follow.

"tuning out"? Maybe. I used the word "dismissive" for a reason. Some of them are almost openly defiant at this point the the worst cases are those with the biggest leadership roles. Teams rot from within and this needs to stop regardless of what we call it.

I always talk on the football forum about confidence and momentum. The Zips need a boost of both quickly. Their confidence has to be at a low point after losing to a below average SEC team two games in a row and getting destroyed in one of them. There is also zero momentum at this point. Will Coppin State give them enough momentum to provide a boost going into the marshall game and then the mac? Hard to tell. Marshall will be in interesting game. Marshall has beaten nobody and will be playing SC tomorrow before coming to Akron. Akron and Marshall are a lot alike and this game could be a teal telltale for the rest of the season.

Here is what I think after seeing the game last night. To get this out of the way tough, I'll say this....from the coach on down, the last couple of games have been an embarrassment for the program. The Zips lost to a team with way too many underclassmen for a program like Akron to lose to. SC will get smashed when SEC play starts, and the SEC isn't even a very good basketball conference. There is little good to say about any of them at this point. Group 1 Some on the team are rowing the boat as hard as they can. Diggs and big Pat come to mind when I think of the guys rowing as hard as they can. The problem with this group is they are "pressing" along with the rest of the team and it is leading to missed shots, turnovers and a slew of other negative outcomes. Once the negative outcomes accumulate, this group become frustrated and it leads to worse outcomes. The good thing about this group is, no matter how bad it gets, they continue to row. Group 2 The second group contains guys like Deji and Johnson. They are rowing hard as they can and work up a Hell of sweat doing so, but their oars aren't quite touching the water. The first group understands this may happen and doesn't worry too much about them as they are part of the nature of basketball. Group 1 will welcome a stray oar touching the water from this group throughout the race. Group 3 This group contains guys like Evans and Tree. Group 1 is counting on them to have their oars in the water and rowing at their pace and in the same direction. Group 1 also needs help carrying Group 2. The problem with Group 3 is they are not rowing at all time so the boat slows. This group even has fits of rowing in the wrong direction. Worse, when someone reminds them they aren't rowing in the same direction, they row even less. The less they row, the less they row. Their bad attitude spreads like a case of the clap from sailors visiting the same Philippine whorehouse during shore leave. The one thing the Zips really need to work on is their half court offense. SC played a very good half court set yesterday with guys well spread out and getting quality shots. Akron's players are spaced too close together and if a team plays good defense against them, with 20 seconds left on the shot clock they are all between the foul line and center court. It's an absolutely horrid offense that may work in the MAC and build up a facade that makes fans comfortable, but it is far from great and a huge opportunity for improvement. Coaching. KD looked like a guy who went to his tiny bag of tricks and tried to pull something out differently against SC. Frank Martin looked like a guy who actually watched film of the game in HI and developed a game plan to not just win, but to beat Akron worse than they did in HI and make a statement on national television. Sorry to upset some, but there is a world of difference between a coach like Martin and KD. When Martin coaches his players, there is complete attention to what he is saying and you could see it frequently throughout the game. Martin's players look like a group who knows Martin has gone deep in to the NCAAs at a Kansas State of all places and believes in him. When KD talks to his players, especially some of the "stars", they are sometimes dismissive of him. It's horrible body language and sends and even worse message to the young players. After several years, players get tired of the same message delivered by the same guy; however, they have to show leadership and not show to the younger guys they are tired of the same message delivered by the same guy. Leadership is more than just how you play. Leadership is how you play, how you carry yourself, how you treat others including the coach, your compliance with instruction, how you react to adversity, etc. If I was KD, I would have some closed door discussions with some of my "stars" and convey this exact message individually.

If UofA can do it without the Mayor's influence AND it can pay for itself, or at least come close to paying for itself, do it. If not, don't do it.

I'll post review tomorrow after I calm down. That was horrible. Having beer in Carolina Ale House and SCs call ACH is having a beer and god time a couple of tables over.

Big day today! Will the Zips play better than on Christmas or will they continue to slouch along? I guess the real question is, do they have to do anything different to beat USC other than playing harder/the way they are capable? I think if they play they way they are capable, they win.

But, I trust KD to beat up on cupcakes and make the punch drinkers feel better......

I agree. I'm also not down on KD and I just think he needs to challenge himself and the program a little more. If not, stagnation follows closely behind and that's the worst place to be.

A bizarre use of numbers to say the least. Weigand, McFadden, Thomas and McNees are on court coaches and spend their time directly impacting game day decisions. Coach Peters retirement will not impact game decisions in the least or the coaching of the players. His retirement will represent a zero percent change in on court coaches. Our long term assistants have zero years experience coaching D1 basketball other than at Akron. McNees is too young and has never played or worked for anyone other than Dambrot. Thomas has the most time at a higher level of basketball. It's hard for me to imagine that after 9+ years each, Weigand and McFadden offer a fresh perspective on anything. McNees is too young and has no experience with anyone to provide a fresh perspective. Thomas is an unknown to me, but he would probably provide the freshest experience. I find it impossible to believe that a mastermind of a coach like KD couldn't use of all of his vast experience and know-how to replace a couple of assistance that may have been around too long. At some point, KD can't continue to challenge the character of his own players every time things don't go well. At some point, he has to look elsewhere.

I'm not sure how this conversation got turned into whether or not KD should continue. He should. Winthrop is a school near me and you can look at their program history with and without Gregg Marshall in this link. It's a common story and could easily happen to Akron. Akron can go to another level with KD, but some things have to change or the program will stagnate in its current form. My wife works for a brilliant guy who always says, "Nothing good happens from people being completely comfortable." I think the program has gotten too comfortable for those who run it. I think it has gotten too comfortable for those playing it as well and the lax effort we are seeing may be part of it. KD has a ten year contract and probably feels a high level of comfort. His assistants seem to have a permanent place on the bench along with him and I don't think this is good for them or KD. KD is the leader of an organization and should challenge himself to improve that organization in a way that may not make him comfortable. Changing out some assistants (something I recommended a couple of years ago) would initiate that change for them and for KD. A couple of them have been around entirely too long for a school like Akron. This change would not make KD a different person, it would get his thought process rolling in a different way that I'm sure he is comfortable with right now. He's more than able to handle it, he just has to allow himself to do it. What would be wrong if at the end of the season, he sat down with a couple of assistants and said, "Why in the heck are you still here? You're not doing yourself any favors." At that point, the assistants start to look for another job. If nobody wants them, why would we want them and shouldn't we get rid of them at that point? If someone wants them, good for them and good for us...a change would be good for everyone all the way down to the player level. I think the players just need to hear some different voices deliver instruction and freshen things up a little. Same head coach with his message being delivered a little differently would be a good thing.

I'm not shocked. Most fans would be surprised at how little real closeness there is between players on an 85 man roster. Most guys have 5-6 people they would consider close friends and the rest are just guys on the team. I would go as far as to say many guys are closer with more guys from their team after they graduate than when they played. Football is such a shallow connection in reality and after school, former players get to know a lot more about each other personally once that football layer is removed. Think about how better the relationship between MC and Will Allen could be now that more is know about each other on a personal level.

I'm with you. Coaches talk about "coaching toughness". Any guy who has to be coached into toughness isn't tough. Wood was a tough guy before Akron and he was a tough guy after Akron. He worked hard and produced. That's enough for me.

I don't take bowls too seriously because they are exhibition games, but the MAC teams aren't playing that bad. Pitt is a good program and Utah State has had a really good season and played some big programs close...they just aren't on TV much in the east so people don't know about them

I never do.

There is a school near my place called Winthrop University and they had a ton of success with Gregg Marshall at the helm. Zero since him. Could happen to Akron.

Columbia is one of those towns that people drive through on their way to somewhere else and don't know much about. For good reason, because it isn't set up to be a destination. I'm going to assume a 4:00 start means most people might want to go to a bar and then out to eat after the game, or not. This post is going to be a Terry Pluto type rambling in most ways. Things To Do Before the Game Wild Wing Cafe is a chain around the Carolinas. Similar to BW3. Lots of TVs and beers to pass a couple of hours before the game. This one is at The Vista, which is an entertainment area very close to downtown Columbia and USC, which is in the city. In fact, USC is very much like UofA in terms of where it is in relation to a city. I'll probably go here before the game. Carolina Ale House is nice with a good upstairs that on a nice day they open the doors and has a rooftop bar. Not as good as Wild Wing Cafe, but not bad either. Personally, I like WWC better. Could Be Done Before or After The Game Mellow Mushroom is a pizza place scattered throughout the Carolinas. Personally, I really like their pizza, but I have not been to this one so I don't know if they have a lot of TVs or not. Most have a good beer selection. Mrs. GP1, the luckiest woman in the world, and I go to the one in Winston-Salem after Wake games sometimes. If you aren't into the bar scene and just want a good salad for lunch or a nice place, but not too nice, for dinner, California Dreaming is a good place. You might recognize it from North Myrtle Beach or at the south end of Myrtle Beach. Personally, I only get the salads because I'm not a fan of the rest of their food. The salads are great if you want one. They make their own dressings and salad does not mean health food at this place. Things To Do After The Game (In addition to the above.) I absolutely love Blue Marlin. If you like fish, you will here as well. If a sauce is offered, get the Charleston Sauce. The Firecracker Shrimp appetizer is great. The shrimp are breaded and fried then served with very thin slices of a type of pepper. There is a Greek place at the Vista and I can't find it on the internet. Great food. For the college age fans.... Five Points Personally, I'm going to dinner at Terra in West Columbia after the game. It may sound far from the game, but it is only across the river a couple of miles from the arena. My wife and I met the owner/chef at Cypress one night in Charleston and promised him the next time we stayed in Columbia we would go to his place. I'm a man of my word. He was really in to the Charcuterie at Cypress and does his own at his place. Doing your own Charcuterie is very popular in the Carolinas. Let's just say Cypress has an appetizer called "Spreadable Salami".... Outside of the Box Maurice's BBQ is a great BBQ. Go with the mustard based BBQ sauce and some hash and rice. If your goal is to have a heart attack by the New Year, Lizards Thicket is your place. Places To Stay Marriott uptown is close to campus and Vista. I think it is the hotel for the Gamecocks, but it is big enough for two teams. This Courtyard is an easy 200-300 yard walk to the arena. You can also walk to the Vista from here but I'd recommend a cheap cab ride. I'm staying at Springhill Suites. Enjoy if you are going. If you stick with places around The Vista, you will be able to find something you like.

If anyone is going to Akron vs. USC V2.0 and would like some food and drink recommendations, just say so and I'll make it happen.

Don't tease us like a stripper with tassel accentuated pasties over her nipples. Who was it?

You could set this post to "The 12 Days of Christmas".

I saw this for the first time last night. I didn't walk away from the film with the notion that there was some sort of great connection between Tressel and mc other than both being from the Youngstown area, even though Tressel grew up in a Cleveland suburb. Seems that connection is blown out of proportion and has always been blown out of proportion. For whatever reason, they try to paint mc as a sympathetic character during his time in Columbus. In my opinion, osu running away from him was the best thing they could have done and it had nothing to do with his wanting to be one and done. Bringing in Jim Brown only makes matters worse and I think the film overstates Browns importance in the minds of Ohioans. mc was hated by the assistants on the osu coaching staff because he was the ahole in Columbus he was with the Broncos. Not everyone can be helped and he was one of those cases at the time. His presence would have been more harm than good for tosu. mc did his time and is trying to make the best of his life. The NFL didn't work out and maybe it might never have worked out for a long time given his lack of speed. He was fast against Big Ten players, but that doesn't compare to what goes on each Sunday. Prison is theoretically designed to do many things. Mostly is punishes people and since most people are going to get out at some point, that is terrible for society. On some level for mc, it functioned as it is ideally supposed to function, rehabilitation. By "on some level" I mean, he was thrown in a cell and rehabilitated himself with little help from anyone. Long term, he will be fine and may be a better person. It is what we should hope for for everyone.

Respectfully disagree. College basketball is much different than college football. The bottom feeders in "BCS" conferences are not in the same league as high level mid major teams. SC is a horrible college basketball team. Akron considers itself a high level mid major and we should be disgusted with the performance against SC yesterday. Akron played a completely emotionless and heartless games over the last two. Little difference between the first half and second half. In the first half of both ISU and SC, the Zips scored 31 points. In the second half against ISU and SC, the scored 29 and 28 points respectively. There is no "close" in this team. They operate like robots going trough the motions and it needs to stop. The players need to perform better and the coach needs to coach better. KD isn't setting the team up for success right now by getting guys in the game and running plays that will make them successful. However, when the players have a collective case of Cantplayharditis, it makes the coaching part a lot more difficult. For those of you who are unaware of the medical condition called Cantplayharditis, it initially presents itself with a soreness in the throat causing the gag reflex to be activated. For those of you who think all national exposure is great for a program, you are about to get more on Saturday, ESPNU. It could be our third nationally televised game in seven day. Great exposure, right? I would bet a lot of people were watching yesterday as it was one of only two basketball games televised in North America. If we lay an egg again on Saturday, all of North America will have gotten to see the Zips lose three games in a row and two against a horrible team. Am I supposed to love that exposure? I have tickets for the game Saturday. They sure as Hell had better play better than that disaster we saw yesterday.