GP1

Luck? Isn't there a saying that goes something like this, "If it wasn't for bad luck, he would have had no luck at all."

What if he never figures it out?

A step in the wrong direction. However, it is one of many wrong steps since that liberal George HW Bush was elected in 1988. Bill Clinton made the Bush presidents look Marxist. George W. Bush drove the country to the edge of the cliff and Obama is going to drive the country over the cliff. Even Paul Krugman had a difficult time in the NY Times this morning trying to explain how the country is going to get out of trouble. He seems to be all in with healthcare reform being a huge money saver but really has no further solutions. After WWII, the country inflated it's way out of debt, but there was enormous growth so the debt became less of a percet of GDP. Inflation today would require increasing interest rates, which would decrease growth and actually make paying down the debt more expensive...couple that with a president who is in favor of anti-growth policies (higher taxes and more regulation) and protecting government employees at all costs, we have huge problems. Krugman seems to believe we will not become the next Greece, but there are few examples of countries who got out of financial problems by inflating their way out of them. The last couple of years are just the start of what is going to be a long recovery for the USA. The country just doesn't have the stomach to make difficult decisions. Required reading by everyone on this board should be: "End the Fed" by Ron Paul.

You guys are old.

I'm with another school. Further prediction will be he will play one year there and then be out of college football completely. At which point he will not be picking up garbage, but he will be sweeping floors.

QBs not panning out is the story of the MAC. Any team with a decent QB has a great shot of at least winning their division. I think the real point is there aren't that many good QBs out there. If Nicely starts four years, wins not a single MAC Championship and has a career losing record, he will be on the same level as Frye. If he wins one MAC Championship, I'll take it and we can say he was at least as good as Getsy. If he wins two, best QB in school history. The advantage Nicely has is the league is worse now than I can remember. He doesn't have to have the talent of the others to be successful. We joke about the guy from CMU, but CK is right in that the guy has limited talent and any NFL team that takes him is making a mistake. As long as this league is as horrible as it is, I still remain bullish. My only concern is a pro style offense in college football. "But GP1, Alabama won the National Championship with a pro offense." They sure did...against a Colt McCoyless Texas team. Texas almost pulled that game out with a freshman with a pile of crap in his pants by running the spread offense. Cincy, FL, tOSU, Oregon, Boise State, TCU, etc all now run a type of spread offense and we are not. I'm not saying we can't win, I'm just saying I have a concern.

All they need to do is dip into their bottomless pit of money and build them. Then everything will be just fine.

To where? Are you saying we could be the next Seton Hall or Providence of the Big East? Wow, that sounds great. There is something basketball fans need to understand. The mid west is a football area. Basketball is something that takes place between football season and spring football. The football team pays the price for keeping the Athletic Department (yes, that means the basketball team) in business. The football team pays the price for paying KDs bloated salary, which I'm sure is not covered by the overflow crowds packing the JAR to watch them play the crappy schedule they play. The football team makes it so the basketball team can continue to dodge every decent team out there in order to continue their "building process". My guess is this "building process" will continue well into the next decade with little change. Take away the football team and everything else wilts. Good night.

When I was at the basketball golf outing, during the Q & A session a guy asked KD (a set up, "softball" question of the year, with added $40million dollar exaggeration) -- "How do you feel about the football program getting a $100million dollar stadium, when you are playing in an old arena. And all you've done is win 20 games year-in-year-out, and you're coming off an NCAA Tourney berth?" Dambrot's reply is irrelevant. To me, what is relevant, is the basketball vs. football mentality that the guy exuded. The fact that he's baiting KD to bash the Zips football program was beyond shameful. Memo to "Basketball Guy": * The football team is the only program that can draw 30,000 people to a game. Basketball's best draw is 5,500. * The football team is the only program that can net $700,000 by playing an away game at Penn State * The football team sacrifices it's coach's record by playing a lot of essentially unwinnable BCS-level road games, to get cash for the Zips Athletic Department. * The Zips football program played in a total dump of a stadium for the past 25 years * Most importantly - Infocision Stadium is Zips Basketball Guy's only ticket out of this God-forsaken MAC Conference. Without it, you're watching home-home series with the Eastern Michigan's of the world for the rest of your life. This post isn't a rant against Zip_ME87, who is my buddy. But his post brought to the surface a complaint that's always bugged me. Basketball guy needs to quit directing his anger at Zips football, and find another scapegoat...villain...whatever you want to call it...for the basketball program's shortcomings. It is proven that a 20-win, MAC Champion Zips men's hoops team will draw, on-average, 3,000 fans. That ain't football's fault. Blame Dambrot, who considered this season a "rebuilding year" even though he only lost 1 player from an NCAA Tourney qualifier, and brought in a highly-touted 7-footer to replace him on the roster. Blame the soft schedule, that excited absolutely no one. Blame the lack of eye-catching wins over marquee teams (Florida State was long, long ago) Blame the team that won 24 games, yet got waxed by pretty much every decent team they competed against. Blame our lethargic approach to home games (remember when we NEVER lost at the JAR?) Blame the lack of a "star," must-see player. Blame the JAR team shop, who doesn't sell Zips Basketball replica jerseys (we wouldn't want little kids wearing such things to games, or around town, would we?) Blame the $3.00 hotdogs and understaffed concession lines (even with our weak crowds) Blame the lethargic blue hairs that seem to prefer staying home and watching "The Golden Girls" reruns to watching Zips hoops Blame the University for never successfully formulating, and following through with, a plan to get students to the games Blame the tragedy that is The Tommy Evans Lounge (what did poor Tommy ever do to get his name associated with it...whatever it was, it must have been really awful) Blame Marketing for lack of interesting promotions (boy, weren't halftimes a hoot this season?) Dambrot promised a brutal off-season for his returning players, in an attempt to toughen them up for 2010-11. It will be interesting to see if Winstrcill matches that change-of-approach with the other aspects of the basketball program such as Marketing and Promotions. There is a laundry list of basketball-related things proven to coma-tize Joe Akron. I don't want to see them again. If I do see them again, don't blame the football program. And as a final note of clarification - I attended 7 football games this year, and 20+ basketball games. And 7 soccer matches. Between season tickets and donations, UA is into my pocket for about $3,000 this past athletics season. I love Dambrot. I also love Zips football, and tailgating. If we want to fill seats, we needs to work together, not point fingers. Big changes are needed. No one should be happy with a 1/2 empty JAR. Amen. Take away football and the Athletic Department dies. Basketball could make more money if they played more money games.

Expenditure-wise, we're probably already pretty close to Butler? On an unrelated side note - I wonder if mid-major coaches are happy that Butler has proven a mid-major can make it to the Finals...or pissed because all mid-major fans are going to hold them to a higher standard? Should mid major fans hold their schools to a higher standard? Yes. Now the only question is, What is the standard? I think the Zips can do better than what they did this season. I hate to define it because there are so many variables that go into a good program, but I'll know it when I see it. What Butler has done is what makes it so difficult to have their success as a mid major. Butler has done everything PERFECT. It's hard to be perfect. If you are Duke, you don't have to be perfect. A mistake here or ther and you still have a thriving program. A couple of mistakes at a mid major and problems can become crushing. There is a old Russian saying: "Perfection is the enemy of just good enough." Are the Zips stuck in a situation where they win 20 games a year, do well in the MAC and get into a post season tournament so few people get overly upset? It isn't until you see perfection that you realized just good enough may not be good enough.

It depends on the definition of good. There is no doubt you have accurately described Huggy's professional personality. I really don't know the guy personally so nobody should comment. Here is the point. Most of us on this on this board have no idea how difficult it is to grow up in the type of situation many college basketball players grow up in. Most on this board would probably piss their pants daily in high school if you had to grow up in those circumstances. Many of those kids have a tough crust about them that we will never understand. The only thing many of them understand is intimidation and they don't respect anyone who they don't believe is as tough as they are. Huggins was/is as tough as any kid he has ever coached. He has proven over the course of a very successful career, at schools that are not exactly in the top echilon, that kids respond to him being a hardass. Just like Bob Knight, kids know what they are getting into when they sign the offer letter. WVU never won the Big East until Huggins came along. UofA was a very good team and won the OVC with Huggins...a trip to the NIT as well. Cincy was a more than solid program under Huggins. None of these schools are exactly hotbeds of college basketball and Huggins has won at all three and took two to the Final Four. Once schools like UNC, Duke, UCONN, AZ, etc. get done picking the cream of the crop, guys like Huggins are left with what is remaining. Right or wrong, Huggins is a great coach.

If the kangaroo made a mess on the field, it could be cleaned up with a "Kangarooper Scooper".

Did someone say something about ramblings?

This list is like a plumber's crack. It's something you know about, you just don't want to see.

Good post. The same defense that showed up all year for WVU showed up last night. Last night is what happens when a good offensive team shows up against a good defensive team. Somehow the offense will rise to the top and win the game. Duke hit one early shot after another and WVU was put under pressure to perform offensively and they couldn't. It happens in every sport.

It could be, but it won't be. The Butler/MSU game was a disgrace to college basketball. Both teams played good defense, but let's be honest about what really went on. It's been a long time since I've seen such a bad shooting performance by two teams in a single game, let alone one with such meaning. There were plenty of open shots missed. It's too bad a statistic documenting missed open shots isn't kept because there were a boat load. The Laugh-O-Meter even came out a couple of times. Duke makes one big shot after another and is going to destroy Butler Monday night. So much for defense winning championships. If it did, Duke wouldn't have destroyed that vaunted defense WVU deployed.

I'm probably much smarter than I think I am. I agree that Dennison would not have won at the 1-A level. In the 1980s, Dennison's coaching ideas were already becoming ideas of the past. The guy ran the ball 52 times in a single game. That was thinking well in the past. Maybe that worked at the 1-AA level, but it wasn't going to work at 1-A. College football was changing rapidly and Dennison wasn't a change type of guy. Unfortunately, many on this board still think it would work. The problem with Faust was his thinking wasn't far from Dennison's. Faust saw first hand how offenses like Miami's were deadly at the college level and he never made a move in that direction. Faust was laughed off the field his last game at ND against a deadly Miami offense. It should have turned some bulb on in his head, but it didn't. We ran a very unsophisticated offense Faust's first few years here that consisted of a split backfield, running off tackle and the most sophisticated passing play was a two man combination route to one side of the field....not exactly the pro style offenses many schools were moving toward. Faust tinkered around with some Mickey Mouse offenses later in his tenure, but he never embraced the pro style like the really successful programs were. I'm not sure of the timeline between when Dennison was fired and when Faust was hired, but Faust's book paints a slightly different picture. UofA made a lot of mistakes when it moved the football team to 1-A. In reality, nobody at the school really understood what it would take to make the transition other than Faust and Huggins. In many ways, we still suffer from that ignorance today. That ignorance alone would have driven Huggins away from UofA. He knew what to do and was the only one who did...frustration would have driven him away. Leaving UofA was the best thing Huggins could have ever done for his career.

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.