GP1

Thanks for the link.Two things. First, Cartwright was the President (I think) at Can't State when they eliminated hockey.Second, this public discussion is a recruiting disaster for BG football and could negatively impact the program for years. They just poured a ton of money into their stadium/practice area.

The Akron vs. Memphis MCB is on ESPN Classic right now!

Yeah, that guy went to multiple boards braggin up his son and saying how interested he was in the school.What a DBThere was something odd about it..... It's interesting how many people on this board bought into it. The kid was one of five players in his senior class to sign a D-1A scholarship and he had the least talent. Odds were he was not a D-1A player and it proved out to be true. When coaches take over programs, they have very frank discussions with players about their athletic ability and whether or not they fit into the future of the program. I'm sure many discussions like that went on at Syracuse as well as other schools around the country.

If inside LB is his position, he should do very well at the D-III level. A 5' 10" ILB at the D-I level is not good for the Zips.

I guess Trey Fairchild's dad will have to find another board now to promote his son.

My oh my there are some really stupid comments degrading this coach for leaving. Some of you are acting like bunch of school girls who got dumped by a boyfriend. I would expect more adult behavior.I'm sorry I didn't post sooner about how good I feel about Zeke's maturity and his handling this situation. From his mom's post, we see a kid who understands this is a business and a job for those working in the business. It's funny that an 18 year old kid understands that, but for whatever reason, there are some adults unable to understand it. Some wax romantically about how in the past college sports weren't a business. That's all crap. It is now and has always been about making money....so much so that years ago, the NCAA had to pass rules agains revoking a scholarship because of poor performance. Let's not kid ourselves about what we go to watch. It is a business centered around the performance of young adults between the ages of 18 and 23.

I don't want a guy like this because he is not smart enough to graduate college. Anyone with half a brain knows UofA is a second rate school in a THIRD rate conference. I agree, we don't need guys like that.

1-AA teams are the scrimmages. All the NCAA did by going to 12 games is add a week so BCS teams can scrimmage small schools. We should be doing the same thing.

Hats off to this coach. A person with ambition like this is exactly the type of coach we want at UofA. He did everything the right way and has EARNED this chance to move to a larger conference, more money, better long term opportunity, etc.

Your paranoia about anything that might be said about the BB program is amazing. It's almost as if you have a man crush on the guys. The topic is about how the photo looks, not the entire game. The truth of the photo is this. Steve looks silly in the air. Everyone has looked silly before. He is a good player who was caught at the wrong time. Another truth is there are three Zips following the play. Someone who didn't see the game could say they were loafing. We know they weren't, but that is what the picture shows.

Who are we kidding here? Wouldn't it just be easier to say that he looks like he has never played against a player with that type of ability before. The guy is gliding by him to make a dunk and he looks like he is bouncing on a trampoline at a childs birthday party. This photo spells nothing but B-A-D for the Zips program. There are three other guys in the photo loafing down the court to get a good look at the dunk.

Palo Alto, CA or Akron, OH. HmmmmmmPAC 10 or MAC HmmmmmmIf the kid is indeed good enough to play in the PAC 10, more power to him.

If I can get jalapenos with my nachos @ Infocision I will consider the University's planning to have been a major success.Doors on the bathroom stalls would be a nice tradition to start.....

trial by fire baby.it's hard not to resent the process when you are going through it, but nothing makes a winner better than truely testing your meddle down to the core.Good post GP1. I agree 100.000001%There is the outside chance he could wither under pressure, but in order for him to become his ultimate destiny, he cannot be coddled. Patience is not about waiting... and patience is not about the lack of wanting. Patience is about the knowing without the fearing.Thanks.I don't think it will happen, but wouldn't it be nice to know early if he will wither under pressure? A kid that withers his freshman year will almost always wither. I think this kid is going to be really good next year. It's not like he hasn't been put in pressure situations. AAU is very competitive and he does well at that level. The MAC is horrible. He has a lot of talent already. He is coming to the most talented team in Zips history. Put all of that together and I don't think it is unreasonable to expect big things out of him next year. The kid should have some confidence coming in to work with as well and I hope he expects big things out of himself.I expect performance next year, not building........

All interesting comments. Zeke is one of the best HS BB players in the country. He needs to be on the court as much as possible next year and in the starting rotation. His type of potential is not developed on the bench. It is developed in games. The kid has the tools and he needs to be put in a position to use them as much and as early as possible. He may learn some tough lessons early, but tough lessons are usually the best lessons.I expect big things out of this kid immediately. Let's not start laying the ground work for him not meeting expectations next year. Have faith. This kid is good and he is coming to a bad conference. I smell good things.

VA Tech was furious at the turnout that game and I can assure everyone they will never come back to Akron.

''Defense is still about gap scheme. It is still about having bodies to plug holes no matter how you line up,'' Brookhart said. ''A lot of teams have used it with success. West Virginia and Tulsa have.''Above is a quote from JD about the defense they will use next year from the article in the ABJ. Here is the problem with the logic.1. Yes, defense is about covering gaps properly. The problem is when the players are too small to cover the gaps they are asked to cover, they lose battles with the offense because they are too small.2. A lot of teams have had success with it. Two teams do not constitute "a lot" in my book. In fact, hardly anyone uses the defense which should tell all of us something. WVU loses more big games than they win. I could really care less about what Tulsa does. I also know this....of those "a lot of teams" having success with the 3-3-5, we are not one of them.Unless this is a smoke screen, the Zips are in trouble next year unless they are going to have an offense that can score tons of points week in and week out. They have too much depth on the DL and LB not to use those as many of those players as possible on every play.Thanks to the ABJ and their reporter for doing a story on this issue. It is a major issue facing the Zips.

I agree about the Friday games. I will also continue to argue that nationally televised games during the week (other than Thrs. Night ESPN) has been bad for the conference. The more the average fan sees the MAC, the less they like watching it. College football is made for Saturdays. We now have a beautiful new stadium. Play the darn games in the afternoon (noon is best), so people can go to a game on a nice luke warm fall afternoon with their family, walk around campus, visit local restaurants and enjoy some football. Enough with the night games already.......

There can be parallels between UC and UofA, but not equal proportions.I just want UofA to be the best it can be with what it has. I just want to be us.

It's hard to learn anything on scout team.Exactly. It's a world of difference between playing on the scout team in practice when you know there's no way you'll even dress for a game the whole season to suddenly trying to compete with the starters.All true. In addition, coaches don't spend a lot of time in practice trying to "coach" red shirts. Their coaching time is spent preparing the players who will play in the game that week. The job of a red shirt on scout team is basically to show up for practice, read a card with the other teams play on it and run that play for the defense.Now, if the Zips would just get their butts in gear and make a bowl game, the coaches could spend an additional month preparing red shirts and non starters for the next season. We really need to at least make one of the MAC bowl games this year.

It's hard to learn anything on scout team.

yeah what happens when we lose to them the start our home season, won't that be embarrassing? That would destroy the whole season in terms of fan support.Let me be the first to say: I hope we don't lose to them. Let me be the first to say: We will NOT lose to them. CJ 7 will have 4 turnovers and the Zips coast to a 45+ point victory.

I like this schedule. My only two points of concern are:1. Three road games in a row is difficult for any team.2. Central Michigan on the road....again.Akron will be 1-1 after the first two with a chance to beat a bad Big 10 team in the third game. I'm not scared to play Syracuse on the road next year. I feel good about this schedule. Now the players need to step up their game and start winning.

I think that is a pretty good observation. The one thing that I would add is that sometimes a "good" coach gets a great player and that is what helps him win the big one. Cowher never won the big one w/o Ben. Will Zeke be KD's Ben? I hope so.Keep in mind that Cowher did lose an AFC Championship game Ben's first year, and they lost badly. Blasting Bettis into the line for he entire first quarter hoping to win a low scoring game did nothing. Offense scoring in bunches wins championships. Cowher finally realized it after 15 years and now I think it has only taken KD 5 years to realize what it took Cowher 15 to realize. Actually, this is proof that a degree from UofA is more valuable than a degree from NC State. As far as talent, you are correct. Good players make coaches good. Akron has a lot of good players on the team right now and they are good. Surprise!!!!! KD is somehow a genious with a great plan for the future all of the sudden. He had Lebron Freaking James at St. V and he became a great coach. Hell, I could have won coaching St. V with the greatest BB player on the planet. The best thing KD is doing right now is getting good players to come to Akron. If he keeps it up, my prediction is he will continue to be a genious. If he doesn't, he will just be another mid major coach. I hope he is on a recruiting trip today. "You don't win with X's and O's, you win with Jimmies and Joes."

Interesting last few posts.Sports are a funny. A few plays go the right way for you here or there and the coach is a genious. When they don't go your way, the coach is average and the program can't get over the hump. It kind of proves what I always say about coaches. There are few great coaches. There are few terrible coaches. Most are somewhere in the good category because they all go to the same seminars and learn the same things and have made coaching their career.I think KD is a good coach. I don't think he is a great coach or some great visionary that saw the path to success at Akron (Akron has been good in the past before he got here, let's not kid ourselves). I think the last two games of the year were an eye opener for him as he realized offense wins big games and defense beats average to bad teams. Trust me, I watched Bill Cowher do it for years with the Steelers. He won a lot of games with defense and a good running game in low scoring games, but couldn't get over the hump in the big games until he had an offense that could score a lot of points in big games. Not only did he have the offense, but he took the chains off of the offense and let them score. To KD's credit, he did that in the Championship game. Hats off. The Zips went on a roll at the end of the year which is the sign of a good team. Was there some luck? Of course, but you need luck also if you want to win a championship. Luck, however you want to define it, is nothing to be ashamed of. The Zips had the perfect storm this year.....a little luck, some hard working players, experience in the championship game, Buffalo forgot how to play basketball and a good coach. I don't think winning tournament games is as much of an indicator of a program's current state as what they do during the regular season. The Zips played well this season with a very young team. This team has been good for a few years now, they just weren't able to get over the hump. All I ask out of the Zips basketball team is 20 wins a year and a strong showing in the Tournament with a championship sprinkled here or there. The past few years they have satisfied what I want. If you remain good year after year, championships will follow.