Puerto Rico recap

[MDZip]

I would have liked to have posted this earlier, I spent a little longer down in the Carribbean after the tournament was over, but I thought since it will still be a little while until the next Zips basketball game, maybe this would be a good time to post it. First, I wanted to say if you have the opportunity to take a trip like this, you should try to do it. It matters a little how good the Zips are, but mostly its just fun to be around your favorite team and root for them in a very close setting. With the configuration of the JAR it isn't often you can sit right behind the Zips bench. I have to give Akron and George Van Horne and Anthony (I forgot his last name but a good guy) a lot of credit for setting it all up and making sure that everyone who came down felt appreciated for doing so. Really felt like a Zips family. There were about 30-40 that made the trip, which was at least as many that made the trip from every other fan base except maybe North Carolina State who seemed like they were everywhere.

The games were terrific, it was a great deal of fun rooting on the Zips in every game (we even converted a few Tenneesee fans who were sitting with us) in the first game. Having the Abreu and Betancourt fans at the Penn State game was great too. Puerto Rico has a lot to do even when not at the games (was a little scary to hear that Hector Camacho was shot in the face in Bayamon right after we left but we had no problems anywhere at any time). Staying at the hotel with the teams in San Juan was fun too, I never felt so short in my life as when the UMass team got on the elevator with me, but at least I was taller than one of their point guards. ). The team dinner was outstanding, got to chat with Steve French and had dinner with Brian Walsh's parents (really nice people and told me that Akron still suffers in some circles from the old perception of the ugly urban campus and that Brian wasn't really interested until they got him on campus. We need to keep letting people know it is not the old "Hilltop High"), in addition to meeting a few Zips. It was a lot of fun talking to Zips fans that I had never met and getting to know some of them as well.

Its worth making the trip - I know some other ZN.O posters have done some other trips (the Zips can't come back to this one for four years) and I'd highly encourage it, I knew almost no one at the beginning of the trip, now I have some more Zips friends. You also put some human faces on this stuff, the disappoinment and then triumph of Chauncey, the terrific play and joy of it from Zeke, the happiness from Nick and Tree getting to play again. And then something I didn't expect. I happened to ride up in the elevator alone with the Penn State coach after the game. I gave him my condolences for a tough game and asked how his point guard was. He said not good, it was his achilles and we are in deep, deep trouble now. Really felt bad for him, you could see he was worried about his team, his season and maybe his job. Happy as I was for the Zips, that never comes for free.

As a final note, before the Penn State game, I did the only thing a true Akron fan should be doing before a big game on Puerto Rico, I went Zip-lining. Puerto Rico has the highest and second longest line in the world (called the Beast where you go strapped in by your back so it feels like you are flying). It's at a park called Toro Verde and I hightly recommend that should you be there any time soon. The trip was one I will remember a long time, it would have only been slightly better had the Zips won it all, but I am very enthusiastic for the rest of the season. I still think an at-large is not out of the question.

[Z.I.P.]

Alright, I can vouch from personal experience that MDZip is a valuable travelling companion on road trips. I do hope that his boss didn't call to remind him of missed deadlines on this occasion. I don't suppose you managed to find any wine tasting rooms in the Caribbean -- I imagine that rum tasting could be at least as lucrative and enjoyable on such an excursion for both the entrepreneur and the connoisseur.

In just slightly more serious mode, it appears that it has fallen on George and each sports program to put such trips together, as no other entity on campus (Hello -- Alumni Office??) any longer shows interest. My trip a few years ago to watch the team in Berkeley was made much more enjoyable due to the actions of the basketball office then, who were more than happy to provide me front row seats. I hope I can be there the next time the Zips are on the West Coast, or even in the middle of the Pacific. Hello, Keith? There are like six slots open for the 2013 Diamond Head Classic!

[johnnyzip84]

Thanks for the recap, MDZip! Thanks for representing the Zips well. Your encounter with the PSU coach brings home the stark reality of the life of a big-time college coach.

I will take your advice to heart in future years!