GP1

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Good points. I think the bad football performance has an impact on the number of people who go to basketball games. When the local population, who is looking for any excuse under the sun not to attend UofA sporting events sees a horrible football team, they ignore everything else. Soccer is hard to ignore, but they sort of live outside of the norm at UofA. If the football team is good, the momentum will follow into basketball ticket sales. Speaking purely in ticket sales, if we are going to hit the football team for hurting basketball sales, we need to hit the BB program and hold them accountable as well. Winning the MAC isn't enough to sell tickets next year. We know that from history now. KD and his team need to stop losing to every major conference team they play and the likes of CSU/Dayton. Right now, the team is good. If they want to be great, they need to play well from day one until the final buzzer of the season. This nonsense of the team being unimpressive until the end of the season isn't enough if they really want to be looked at as a great program. A great program will sell tickets. What we have now won't. It's not a negative, it is just the way things are around Akron in general.

I don't sense any optimism, yet I know most really want the team to be good. I love the comment about there being no substance. I agree completely. For years, we have convinced ourselves that all we needed was a new practice facility and a new stadium. Well, we got those and now look at the program. The substance has always been missing. What is the substance? Our housing bubble has burst. We built and built and built without knowing what we were going to do after everything was built. There was no substance to our program just like there was no substance to our economy during the housing explosion. We need good players backed up by a good coach. We have had a lot of bad/average and a couple good players, but we haven't had a great player since Dwight Smith. We need substance. My perspective is a little different on Coach I. He is probably a good coach and knows his offense well at least. I don't know him so I can comment on his personality, and I could care less about his personality as long as he can win. The problem with Coach I is the type of offense he wants to put on the field isn't suitable for college football in 2011. I agree with the defense though. We are never going to score enough points to keep up with high scoring offenses and win a lot of games. Anyone watch the Rose Bowl last January? We want to be Wisconsin and the good teams in the MAC play like TCU. We have a philosophical problem and it started with our AD who thought you can field a team like Wisconsin everywhere and win. I'd rather field a team like TCU and REALLY win.

No, no, no, Cap'n, you have it all wrong ... !!!! Tressel's a LYINGweasel. Both of you are wrong. He is a lying, cheating, phony weasel.

News to me? Me too. I guess if being the knife in the back of Dan Hipsher is a better job, then so be it....someone had to put Hip and Zips fans out of their misery, why not KD? After being the knife, then he did have a better job.

Marla gets is wrong. In the MAC, spending on head coaches and assistants does not always translate into success. If it did, Miami wouldn't have been able to turn their football program around in two years with the lowest paid coach in the league. They had a hugely ambitious coach who wanted to get in and get out ASAP. He brought in great talent for the MAC, whipped it into shape and won the league. It had nothing to do with the money Miami spent. Whenever you read an article and it says that the only way to improve something is by throwing money at it, don't believe it. You can throw money at something, but if you put it in all the wrong places, you get nowhere.

Specifically, they are looking for coaches with RECENT success against high major teams, which KD doesn't do. They are looking for RECENT success in the NCAA Tournament, which KD has not produced. KD isn't going to a high major school and if he wants to go and doesn't, it's his own fault.

I may be stepping in it here, but I think we have a better shot of winning, given the current situation, than we did in 2001. If that year is right.?. A few plays go differently that year and we win the game. Score was not as bad as it appeared. I wish we had more juniors and seniors starting for the experience and size factor against tOSU's second level players. Hell, it's a crap shoot. We have no idea how we will be next year, but I remain hopeful.

Please tell me this was tongue in cheek.

But he does coach a team we are playing in the fall. The discussion ties to what players will be on the field this fall for our first game. Who is remaining on their team ties to the lies Tressel tells and is caught telling. You're right, the threads would be posted, but they would be posted on the Smack board. It isn't smack that Tressel is a cheating liar, it's a fact. Since it is a fact, it can be posted in the Football forum.

Seriously, why no responses after 24+ hours? An article on maybe the best player and noboy has anything to say... I pray the level of interest in this program hasn't fallen this far, but I can see how it could.

Fine then, let's have the discussion. What if between now and the fall, that lying sack of crap Tressel resigns and the NCAA probes their asses to the point that half their cheating team is suspended for five games? What if they are so deflated from the off season of lies, cheating and NCAA probes that they are an emotionless wreck this fall? I would think these things help the chances for a Zips victory. What the Athletic Department really needs to do, and they won't do it because they all want a job some day at tOSU, is to print t-shirts for the fall. The shirts would have Head Liar Tressel's photo on it with the words, "Liar, liar pants on fire" below his picture. Why would anyone defend Tressel at this point? Because he is one of them? He is actually one of us because he has a degree from UofA, but we all know a liar when we see one and should call him out for being a liar BECAUSE he is one of us. Why would anyone be sick of hearing about it? I love hearing about it. There is nothing better in life than watching a phony being exposed for being a phony. Jim Tressel is the Milli Vanilli of reported high moral character coaches. How many tOSU fans are now singing the song, "I'm Gonna Miss You" while wearing their favorite sweater vest?

Don't you mean lying, dirtbag cheaters?

The quasi public relations firm of the team we play first next season, The Columbus Dispatch runs a ticker stating the number of days since Michigan last beat the cheating tOSU Buckeyes. I would like to propose we start one of our own. We could call it "Days Since Tressel Last Caught Lying". So far that number is up to three. Will the number get above 20 between now and the fall?

It's not even an Ohio thing. I shook his hand after a game once and my life did not change. There are pathetic, grown men in Ohio who, if given the chance to be close to Tressel, would try to run up and hug him. Yep. I actually know a couple of them. Are you and these other gentlemen planning a surprise ambush on Tressel?

I'm not sure he has many other options other than loyalty. He could probably pick up a gig like Bradley or something like that, but there is no difference between Bradley and Akron. He wouldn't be taken as seriously at a school like Bradly as he is at Akron for a lot of reasons. KD has is great at Akron and isn't going anywhere. His team wins. Even when they don't win, not many people are paying attention. There are a number of people who, for whatever reason, are fascinated by him coaching LBJ in high school. The CMU issue wouldn't be ignored at another school. He makes a ton of money for a MAC coach, especially an Akron coach. If KD left Akron, he would be subject to the meat grinder that is college coaching. He isn't going to do that. Being King at Akron is a lot better than risking becoming a joker at another school. Some of you can yell at me now claiming I pick on KD. I'm not. I think my analysis is fair and is the kind of thing that would be written in the media if Akron had a decent media with decent writer instead of the Terry Pluto knock offs.

I agree. I can't believe there is any difference between Bradley and Can't. DI coaches and corporate executives are very similar. Both take jobs, stay a year or two and leave never having to live their mistakes. Maybe Ford doesn't see a bright future for the Flashes....I hope he is right.

Ratings were up because people had choices. Before, the choice was to watch a lot of terrible games while hoping the network switched to the good games. Given that option, a lot of people turned off their TV.

Not really. The dynamic of the tournament would just change. There could still be mid majors making the finals, just in a different way.

Duh. Who would have ever guessed that's the way to win basketball games and championships? You read this board as much as the next person. Reading this board, one would think playing defense is the only way to win. If you notice from my post, scoring points comes before defense and mistakes. A lot of points can cover up mistakes and a bad defense night.

I saw the post game interview this morning. Coach Stevens is just being nice. He was by far the better coach yesterday. Saying Donovan out coached comes out a lot better than saying, "I bitch slapped Donovan."

Best football post in a long time. Nice work!

Good post. I think we would be much better of PN7 was beat out of his starting job. Your inaccuracy comment is the best. A QB must be able to throw the ball on target all the time...not most of the time or a part of the time. Good post on downfield throws as well. A pro style offense requires throws down field. Sometimes he was good, other times he wasn't. He isn't good at it enough to give me confidence. After two years, a player tends to be what he is. I saw enough of him last year to make me feel we could do better and need to look elsewhere.

Every year we hear about a guy who is a great scorer playing at Akron. I guess Blake Justice is the next rumor. Ususally, this is more rumor than fact. I'll believe it and applaud it when I see it. To say we have knockdown shooters just isn't the case. Please take a minute, go on GoZips.com, and look at how bad our guards shoot. Steve M. was a four year letterman rumored to be a great outside shooter when he came to Akron. After four seasons, he averged eight points per game and his FG % is terrible. A four year letterman should be averaging 12-15 points per game at point guard. I hate to pick on Steve because there are others just as guilty, but the facts are the facts.

We like to talk a lot on this board about how we become a high level mid major. A team like Butler. I've been going on about how important it is for Akron to develop a go to guy in order to become like Butler. Let's look at last night's game as an example of how offense is critical in a big game. First, let me say this. Florida was the worst coached team that played yesterday, by far. Poor clock management, poor shot selection, rushing offensive trips down the floor and committing bad fouls on defense. It was like watching a MAC team play with the endless whistles. Billy Donovan has no control over his team and the young coach at Butler has complete control over his team. Butler played their game. They come from a league where good shooters are not the norm so they maul the other team inside and wait for the inevitable bad shooting night on the part of the other team. Sound like a league we all know? Last night was the perfect scenario for Butler. Our first round game last week played out the same way. What was the difference between us and Butler? A guy like Shelvin Mack. He scored 27 points last night which is around 9 more than his season average. He was their go to guy. Butler has two guys who average more points per game combined than our top three scorers combined. The floor looks so open when Butler plays because they have guys who can score so you have to defend the entire floor instead of mauling and fouling inside all night. Want Zeke and Nik to score more? Develop and outside shooter. Want to watch more entertaining basketball games without the whistle blowing every 25-30 seconds? Develop an outside shooter. Want to see offensive sets that actually look like an offense (our 1-2 pass, fire up a poor shot half court offense needs to change)? Get a shooter. "But GP1, we are a defensive team and that's how you win championships! Butler is a defensive team and look at them." Wrong, let's look at them in a second. First, the way to win a championship in the MAC is to score points, play good defense and don't make a lot of mistakes. Eventually, the other team will beat themselves. We are good at that. We played just well enough against Can't to allow us to watch them lose the game shooting 47% from the foul line. That isn't a smack at the team, it's reality and it shows KD knows how to win MAC games. It's the winning against high level mid majors and major conference teams where we have a problem. Let's go back to Butler last night and see whether or not defense won the game for them. Butler and Florida averaged 1.5 points per minute during regulation. I'm not interested in buying tickets to games like that. Florida turned on the offense in OT and averaged 2.2 points per minute so Butler was in fact putting on a worse defensive performance at crunch time. What did Butler do when their defense let them down? Did they fall apart? Hell no, they averaged 2.8 points per minute in OT. This is what the Zips need to be able to do. I don't think it is possible for Akron to play better defense. I giggle at those who think we need to play better perimeter defense. I understand their frustration, but why should they? Most MAC schools don't have guys who can throw the ball into the ocean if they were standing next to it. I believe KD and the rest of the coaches in the MAC know this so they play the maul inside game and turn everything into a foul shooting festival. I agree 100% with our defensive strategy. We should play exactly the type of defense we do and find an outside shooter who is actally able to make shots and isn't a guy who is rumored to be an outside shooter. Where oh where is our Shelvin Mack or Matt Howard......... or both?