GP1

Any college athlete receiving a scholarship is getting paid. The question isn't about paying the players to play. It is about them being able to earn money outside of a scholarship from places other than the university they attend. They should be able to have a job or earn money of some kind. It's a free country.

I don't think I want to watch players play who have such little talent the value is measured in zero. People watch minor league baseball,go watch the future pros in the minors. Minor league baseball players get paid to play. Some rather well.

Going to Zips baseball games always brings back good college memories for me. There was nothing better than sitting outside on one of the first nice Saturday afternoons in the spring and watching a game or two.

Isn't Wake still looking for a coach? I would think Shaka would be better fitted for that job than the pressure cooker of Knoxville. And he could be neighbors with the Great GP-1. Hmmmmmm Wake fired their coach after last season. They had trouble getting a decent person to apply for what they had. Coach Smart would have been the smart choice if he was available.

I say the odds are 50/50 that by the time he is finished, the program will be worse off than when he took over. How many games? Four minimum. One win? Ready......aim......F-I-R-E.

I work in the construction industry..... The E. Europeans are much better at it than us though. I really give them credit.

We all know about the Eastern European strippers working these days. I don't blame him. There are plenty of organized crime families to get a job with in E. Europe these days. Maybe he could run a small gambling ring and then move his way up to a mid level manager in whatever family he joins. If he does, I say best of luck. Would it really hurt to say one more year though? I think he should stay. There are always openings in organized crime.

I hope you are right. He needs to average a lot more points per game than what he did this season. The highest ppg total was 11.7. That is unacceptable and someone needs to produce more points on a nightly basis. Abreu is actually the best pick pocket on the team. He had more steals than anyone and averaged more steals per minutes played (0.063) than Nik (0.040)or Q (0.046).

Respectfully, there is nothing wrong with our current schedule that a couple of wins against some of the major programs and wins against teams like CSU and Dayton wouldn't cure. The rest of this post isn't directed to you Can't State sucks. We need to develop one great player who can get us over the hump against these teams. "But GP1, we are a defensive team, we can't have a great player and play good defense at the same time. KD runs a TEAM game, not a game for selfish THUGS. I'm a closed minded fool and I can't see it another way." Thank you for your comment closed minded fool. You are a proud moron and on some level I can respect a person's pride in their trade. Tell that to Michael Jordan. He was once the Defensive MVP of the league and was league leader in steals three times. Is anyone so stupid as to think we can't have a great offensive player who can also play defense? Keep in mind that in basketball, the guys who play defense also play offense. Want to improve the program? Improve the players. Get one go to guy.

It's a long way from losing to Gardner-Webb to winning a championship. I'm not sure RI knows how to get there. Moving the gearshift from reverse to forward would be a good start.

Or, you run into a team that plays poorly on offense for a couple games straight. The way ND played last friday, Akron could have won if they could have scored. Akrons great defense didn't beat a poor offense.

Or, seed 1 vs 16, 2 vs 15, 3 vs 13 and 4 vs 12. From what I see, there isn't much difference between the teams that get seeded anywhere between 5 and 11. Go back to 64 teams. The selection committee should at that point take the next 40 teams they feel deserve to be in the tournament and pick the names with a lottery. Seven teams won't make it, but that could be part of the suspense. The Tournament Lotter Show would be much better than what they have on now. More suspense would be better and the selection of the teams would be in a more fair manner than what takes place now.

Milliken isn't the problem. Everyone plays a team like that every year. Year in and year out, the Zips lose to teams like Dayton, CSU, Minnesota, Temple and Miami. These programs aren't exactly hitting the cover off of the ball. We need to win games like these on a regular basis if people are going to take the Zips seriously. Until then, we are going to have to settle for winning the MAC as much as possible and going one and done in the NCAA.

Akron needs better players and we need to do a better job of developing players when they get here. Steve M was a four year letterwinner and averaged less than nine points per game his senior season. McKnight at < 11 points per game during a senior season? Guys don't get much better here during their soph-senior seasons. We need a guy like BYU has, a mid major program, who can fill up the rim. A go to guy....we don't have one. Jimmer F. is averaging 23+ points per game. We don't have a single guy who even comes that close. Can't had that guy when Gates was in school. Zeke needs to be that guy. He should be scoring more than 14 points per game in the MAC and he didn't. Next year, he should average at least 15 points per game. A guy like Zeke should end his career with 2,000 points and that isn't going to happen. I know what everyone is going to say....we are a defensive team.... it's a team game. That's all well and good, but there needs to be a go to guy the team can count on and can fill up the score card. Good defense can win the MAC because as long as you don't shoot yourself in the foot, you can win a lot of games because every MAC team is dying to blow every big game they are in. This topic is about getting to the next level. What I think a lot of you don't realize is basketball is not the same as football. Different players play on offense and defense in football. In basketball, the same guys play defense and offense. At some point, the good defense needs to turn into offense. If Akron was going to take the next step Friday, that needed to happen. They played good defense, ND was asking them to win the game, and they couldn't get anyone to throw the ball into the basket. Quincy had a quite eleven and Steve M had his usually unimpressive 8 points. If the game was really on the line, who was go to guy who would take the final shot. I can't think of a single guy I would want with the ball in his hands....a BYU fan couldn't say the same thing. Team game? Fine. Find a guy though who can fill up the rim. Want to get to the next level? Fill up the rim and find a go to guy to do that.

Article on the ongoing tOSU sham.

What else needs to go on? He broke one of the rules you really cannot break then lied to his boss and caused his boss to lie to his boss. Six guys who shouldn't have been on the field were and tOSU had a BCS run making them a ton of money. It disrupts what integrity there is remaining in college athletics. This ongoing sham tOSU is putting on extending the suspension from two to five games is laughable.

Tressel now has five games. How this guy still has a job I have no idea.

Here we go again.

I don't think I want to watch players play who have such little talent the value is measured in zero.

I almost used unexpected, but the unexpected is what made it interesting for me.

Novelty act? They were a freakshow. They wore plungers on their heads.

"Interesting" is the word I would select. Most Zips basketball seasons sort of progress down a very predictable. They normally clean up on a weak OOC schedule, lose some games to "BCS" level programs, clean up on weak MAC teams, win their share against MAC teams equal to them and then lose the MAC Championship. This season was completely different in some bad ways and some very good ways, which makes it an interesting season. They struggled in November losing to Dayton and CSU. I can accept Dayton, but not CSU. We should have a better program than that at this point. They almost lost to YSU in November. The start of the season did not look good. December gave us a turnaround against mid major OOC teams, but the usual loses to major programs. The MAC schedule was not the usual Zips performance as well. Losing to NIU and EMU was inexcusable and were games just a couple of years ago we would have never lost. However, the Zips went on an impressive late season run then lost their last two to OU and Can't. OU was an embarrassment giving the Zips a late season loss we are not used to watching. I though Akron was a better team than Can't and if Zeke doesn't foul out, the win that game. The Zips regular season was different than what we are used to watching so it was interesting. The Zips winning the MAC Tournament is unexpected because we lose so many times so it was fun and interesting. Interesting is not a bad word. Why? For the first time in a while, this unpredictable, interesting season has made me interested in the future. Unpredictablility makes things fun. The same old, same old was not impressing me. I'm not as impressed as I could be, but I am interested. What is your ONE word?

It shouldn't be up to the ncaa to say whether or not a guy can juggle all of the above. If they want to work, they should be free to do so.

I think more than anything, Zeke needs to work on his attitude. You CANNOT get so upset over every little disappointment during a game. It bleeds over to the next play and the next free throw and.......................... Good post. I think Zeke could be great, but we didn't see it yesterday. You mentioned endurance. The times I saw the Zips this season, they seemed to tire in the second half. Some better conditioning next season is needed. I wouldn't read too much into what someone looks like during a game as a gauge for how they think about things. He took more shots than anyone and that is a sign of confidence. The biggest disappointment for me is ND was trying to hand the game to the Zips yesterday and they didn't take it. If ND plays like they did yesterday Sunday, they will lose. If the Zips play up to their potential yesterday, they win. We could have and should have won.

Maybe depraved in lieu of deprived. I don't know your life would be much different if there was a smaller tournament field.