GP1

Or, he saw more money and a team in a better conference at Cincy. The departure of Huggins is looked at by Zips fans as a negative. It was completely positive and inevitable. Positive in that Huggins did all he could with the program. Coleman Crawford was the mistake, not the employment of Faust. Huggins was and still is the best BB coach in school history. If the football program doesn't hire Faust, they don't move to D-IA and Huggins is stuck in the OVC forever. I don't think that was the way he saw his career going. Huggins was/is a great coach and his leaving was going to happen whether or not Faust was hired. IMNHO, the best discussion about Faust/Huggins is, What if Faust isn't hired? UofA never leaves the OVC and I-AA football. Huggins leaves maybe a year later. Either way, Huggins would not be at UofA today. Would the athletic department be better off today? We now have twenty years of evidence behind us. Let's face it, the MAC is a glorified I-AA conference. We would have the best facilities in I-AA and could be a national power. Instead, we have good facilities in a half ass conference....sorry, the worst DI-A football conference. The OVC is still a very good basketball conference. We would be better off right now in the OVC. Now, if the NCAA could just get around to realigning college football, everything would be in order for the Zips.

I guess there are lots of things one can say to market a video.

I really don't blame the people in GA for not standing. It's hard to stand and cheer your team on when you have been painfully crippled by the "comfort level" of the GA benches.

Interesting read. Did Kentucky lose because WVU played great defense, or did they lose because they had an off shoting night? When a team misses their first 20 three point shots, I'd be more likely to say they lost because of an off shooting night and not because the other team played great defense. Maybe if the stat was 4 of 20 three point shots, I might agree defense did it, but 0-20? That's terrible shooting because not EVERY shot could have been contested. Kentucky lost because their offense didn't show up. WVU won because they got an early lead with offense, pressured Kentucky to take low percentage shots and held on to a big lead at the end of the game with a good coach who can manage a lead. A combination of WVU's good offense and Kentucky's bad shooting won the game for WVU. Early success on offense will always make a team's defense look better than it really is because the team behind is forced to scramble and play out of their game plan. This happens in every sport.

I was reading Rasor's blog this morning and one fan commented on his blog about the feel at basketball games. I was shocked to see the reason Huggins left was because of the size and shape of the JAR and not the better opportunity and money at Cincy. That damn JAR gets us everytime. My thoughts on fans down low sitting on their hands while the Zips take a beat down from Can't are as follows. I don't blame them. Give them nothing to cheer for and they won't cheer. They are the people supporting the program by putting their money where their mouth is. If they want to take a crap on their seat after every game, the AD should say, "We'll get someone to clean that up right away."

Unquestionably, UCONN has been the best Big East team in recent years. They are a fast paced, offensive orriented team. Defense is fine if you can score once you get the ball.

One thing JD had going for him his first years was a better coaching staff than what he had at the end. This happened to Owens as well as Faust. Aaron Alford, now at Utah, was on staff early and was an excellent coach. We had a guy who played at KS State who is now at Air Force who was the guy who really understood the 3-3-5 defense JD ran. There were others as well. Owens had two guys early who are on staff now at tOSU. Hell, one thought it would be better to go to Miami before going to tOSU. That should have been a huge red flag to anyone who followed the program closely. Faust had guys who are coaching in the NFL or have coached in the NFL. Mike Woodford is still coaching at Illinois. The DC Faust's second year, Bob Shaw, left to be the DC at WVU and was on staff when they played ND for the national championship. Late in Faust's tenure, there were a bunch of poor assistants. We don't talk much on this board about the importance of assistant coaches, but the inability of Faust, Owen and JD to bring in good assistants late in their stint at UofA hurt as much as anything. It's only natural if you think about it. What young coach wants to be associated with a losing program after the HC has been there a few years and is probably on the ropes? If Coach I has some success early, assistants will leave and he should leave (look what happened to JD when he didn't leave). If he doesn't have success early, assistants will leave and it will be hard to get quality assistants because the buzzards will be circling.

Thanks for the link. The MAC should be thinking about contraction and not expansion. Getting back to one of the points I have been making about college football. BCS schools need their own division. It's laughable that teams "upgrading" to D-IA are considered to be a the same level as BCS schools. It's such a farce I can't believe people even take it seriously. If the NCAA would realign the divisions and create one more, I think it would be better for everyone because schools could better compete at their ability level and they wouldn't need to have schools "upgrading" into a level where they can't perform well at the highest level. On the surface, this looks like a good rule, but under the surface, it really does nothing to improve college football. Someone must have really been hungover that day at the NCAA convention.

Akron does not now, nor have we ever had the ability to compete at the BCS level. Same goes for the entire conference. If the goal in the next four seasons is to be a BCS level team/conference, the goal is not going to be met. I'd settle for the league being entertaining. I'd settle for my laugh-o-meter not going off when watching MAC games. JD left enough talent to win in the MAC. I saw the dreaded "build" word in an article not long ago. I hope we are not in for another four-five years of "building". I've had all of the building I can take. I know how much the "building process" excites some of you. If you are one of those people, sorry if you feel insulted. One last thing and I hope this doesn't insult anyone as well. AA gets hurt and misses games. If history is any indication of the future, he will miss a lot of games next year as well. I just don't know how motivated/interested a guy would be going into his sixth year of college. In my sixth year of college, I was in my second year of graduate school and had a Masters Degree at the end of the year. My interests were vastly different than an undergraduates. I just don't know what AA is trying to get out of this. I certainly hope he would have graduated by now.

No it won't. The winner will be the team that went on the best run at the end of the year. MLB, NHL and NBA use best of series to crown champions. These types of playoff systems crown the best teams because they reward sustained excellence against another team before moving on the next round. More often than not, the NCAA tournament is won by the team on the best run at the end of the year and not the best team throughout the season.

Want to make the regular season meaningful? Eliminate conference tournaments and make the regular season champion the champion of the league with an automatic bid. Leagues with two divisions? Divisional champions play best of 3 or 5 (you decide) during the week the tournaments were to be played. One division league? First and second place play best of whatever for the championship. No team with a sub .500 conference record can get into the NCAA. Reduce the field to 48. I don't know why the illusion in our society is that we need to make everything bigger to make it better. NCAA playoffs, NFL playoffs, the NCAA tournament, the governnment, MLB playoffs, the obscene length of movies, etc. It just doesn't make sense to me.

I've never toured Akron's dining facilities, but I haven't heard of a school that doesn't have all-you-can-eat cafeterias. Is UA an exception? no, but at Rob's, al you can eat = all you can sh*t. That's just because the toilets in the dorms are free.

What if the other team played terrible defense and you still couldn't make shots?

At least we're not latching onto "Conventional Wisdom" and have points to back up our assertions. I'll take the informed position any day of the week. It used to be conventional wisdom that the universe revolved around the Earth. It used to be conventional wisdom that the sun revolved around the Earth. It used to be conventional wisdom that the Earth was flat. It used to be conventional wisdom that fighting wars standing shoulder to shoulder in an open field was a good way to fight a war. It used to be conventional wisdom that trench warfare was how a war should be fought. It used to be conventional wisdom that underhanded foul shots were the best way to make the shot. It is conventional wisdom among the religious right that dinosaurs and humans lived on the Earth together 6,000 years ago. It is conventional wisdom that defense wins championships. Kind of makes me want to run the other direction considering what great ideas past conventional wisdom held It's not 1950 anymore.

The team that made clutch shots late in games?

Whenever WVU needed something to happen, they had a left handed guard who drove to the basket and made layup after layup (I forget his number...21?). WVUs center made a three point shot late in the second half. When WVU needed points, they got them from their offense and won the game. BTW, why isn't anyone talking about what a great coach former UofA coach Huggins is? Forget that he dresses like a Sopranos character, the guy can flat out coach. Why isn't anyone talking about KY's star player missing relatively open shots late in the game? KY got some good looks at the basket and missed. WVU's defense didn't cause it, the inability of KY's players caused it throughout the game. You guys can throw whatever stat you want up about WVUs defense Saturday, it paled in comparison to how their offense played.

Of course it is a losing battle. To challenge the assertion of The Great GP1 is to challenge the greatness of The Great GP1. The greatness is already established so the assertion must be correct.

Dear zippy5, Thank you for your response, and like so many on this board, your general obsession with whatever I post. Here is what I saw this weekend. Duke getting and putting back one OFFENSIVE rebound after another late in the game to pressure Baylor into a position where they had to take bad shots. Offense won. WVU made one critical shot after another late in the games Saturday while on OFFENSE and Kentucky had to take low percentage shots late to try to recover. KY also decided to foul with three minutes to go in the game. WVU made lots of foul shots (foul shots are offensive) and kept KY at bay. Offense won. Butler's defense took a crap late in their game and they had to recover with OFFENSE. Offense won. Offense is more important than defense in big games. It puts pressure on teams to score at a high rate and lots of teams can't do that. Sincerely, The Great GP1

On some level I agree. If the coaches treat the kids like crap, they will not get respect.....unless. The one thing that makes being treated like crap OK is winning or making millions playing in the NFL. Since this is not the NFL, let's focus on the winning. If the new staff wins, players will eat a lot of crap for the results. If they don't win, it will be no different than how that fat slob at Notre Dame treated his players in his disaterous career there.....that is where these guys come from, yes. If you are an a-hole and you win, you are considered to be driven and tough motivator. If you an a-hole and you lose, you are just an a-hole. Charlie Weis turned out to be just another run of the mill a-hole. Let's hope Coach I didn't bring that part of the ND program with him. Secondly, telling Wackerly he had no chance to play is showing a kid respect. Sometimes, there is a difference between being honest/respectful and being nice. Faust told a lot of Dennison players the same thing and he was right to do so. I give some props to Coach I for showing a kid this level of honesty early in spring. My guess is as spring moves forward, things will change slightly.

I was sold on PN as well last year. He also needs a little better accuracy. I know we don't know what we have right now, but we do know the MAC stinks. We also know one really good QB in the MAC can make or break a team. I think we have that one really good QB. The Great GP1 remains bullish on this football team.

Was the football season a flop? Flop would be a good word. Disaster would probably be too strong. Was basketball season a flop? I don't think they met expectations, but the also weren't a flop.

Please check your typing. Its Designated Great One, not Ones. Please correct this in all future posts.

In a world of uncertainty, there is too much on the line for schools to throw a game.

This line made me remember something. Do some of you remember when college basketball went to a three point line and in ACC league play, the line was less than 20 feet from the basket. I don't know why moving the line further away from the basket is always a good thing. Why not make it shorter and increase scoring and chances for teams to get back into games late? To me, that is more interesting than watching teams miss one three point shot after another.

Isn't the real question, Tom or Thomas? Here is the roster for the OU dance team. He is only a sophomore so we have two more years to debate this important issue.