2016 Awards Banquet

[GoZips]

Banquet  hashtag &EatWell

A large overflow crowd enjoyed the festivities celebrating the highly successful 2015-16

men's basketball season.

 

Coach Dambrot asked that anyone who thinks they can get OOC games to help the

Zips schedule as it is even tougher after this season's success. Here is your chance.

Coach mentioned that every effort was made to schedule a game with Houston. A game

to be played in Houston for Antino and the other two Houston players to play at home.

Coach Sampson turned us down. He wants no part of playing Akron. Chicken livers.

 

The tournament in Savanna will feature two home games for the Zips and two in Savanna. 

Also, the UTEP tournament will include the Zips playing UTEP. An away game is scheduled

with Creighton. Home game with Marshall is planned. Was pointed out that Akron is so

"poisonous" that several high majors will not play the Zips at their place for the going

rate of "buy" games. Ah, and you think scheduling is easy. Please contact Steve McNeese

for additional details.

 

Coach talked at length about next season and the four incoming freshman. Craig Eubanks

and Jimond Ivey expected to contribute. Micheal Hughes is the lynch pin and expected to

play along side of Isaiah "Big Dog" Johnson.

 

Other attendees can elaborate on these and other topics.

 

The food was excellent. Piggie here gobbled up lots of desert.

 

 

 

[zippyman23]

Coming off a year in the Top 50 RPI, where the committee chairman once again stressed the importance of Top 50 wins, it's somehow tougher to schedule? Come on now. We can actually sell that these other teams have something to gain by playing us. It would be one thing if we were a 100+ RPI team, but a home loss to a Top 50 team isn't "poison" to a teams resume.

[GoZips]

BTW, Ty Dalton the player mentioned in the recruiting forum will walk on. Per Coach.

[Sportsjunkie330]

Perhaps someone should have followed up with KD after he said that and asked .... "Coach, please tell everyone exactly which games Akron has EVER won against a top high major that has made them so poisonous?"

[ZachTheZip]

If Houston's your example of trying to schedule a top team, I can tell you what the problem is already. Their RPI was 87 and they were a first round NIT loser. Of course they wouldn't want to play Akron. They are the kind of team that's in a very similar position to us. We need to play Power conference teams that have the kind of money to throw around where they can afford to buy a home game against a top-50 RPI mid-major.

[wadszip]

2 hours ago, ZachTheZip said:

If Houston's your example of trying to schedule a top team, I can tell you what the problem is already. Their RPI was 87 and they were a first round NIT loser. Of course they wouldn't want to play Akron. They are the kind of team that's in a very similar position to us. We need to play Power conference teams that have the kind of money to throw around where they can afford to buy a home game against a top-50 RPI mid-major.

I agree.

 

Ok, Houston turned down Akron. Move on to the next. Texas A&M (90 something miles away) is out there if you want to give Antino and the other Houston guys a "home game." Did Akron approach Texas A&M (a legit top 50 program)? I know KD doesn't want to play Shaka Smart, but Texas is also within driving distance from Houston. I'm sure if KD got over the not wanting to go up against his good friend, I'm guessing Shaka would do KD a solid if Akron was striking out left and right trying to get a game in the state of Texas. It's not like KD and Shaka are recruiting the same players. 

 

I've said this one before, and I'll continue to bring it up. Has Akron tried to get something together with Louisville? Play a game (2016) in Cleveland and then make a return (if Louisville wants one) in 2017. Why Louisville? For one, Rick Pitino has recruited the Cleveland/Akron area hard in recent years ... Zach Price (St. Edward), Terry Rozier (Shaker Heights), Trey Lewis (Garfield Heights, grad transfer from CSU) ... and 5-star freshman V.J. King (SVSM) is going to be a freshman (and potential one-and-done) this coming season. While King left SVSM to go to a school in Virginia, he grew up most of his life in the Akron area and most of his immediate family is from the Cleveland/Akron area. A game in Cleveland would be a homecoming for King, and King is the type of player Pitino, I'd imagine, would be open to granting a "homecoming". Plus, Louisville is recruiting 2017 (Cleveland) East Tech PG Markell Johnson hard (Johnson has Louisville in his top 5). A game in Cleveland could give Pitino a chance to just happen to "bump" into Johnson. 

 

On the Akron end, the biggest ally the school has is the guy who fills Quicken Loans arena 50 times a year (LeBron). KD obviously has a close relationship with LeBron, and LeBron has a close (and now a financial stake) in the University of Akron. I'd imagine if you get LeBron involved (and Louisville would definitely benefit off being apart of something that has LeBron's name attached to it) there is, IMO, a possibility of something coming together if properly pitched/marketed.

 

How many people do you think would attend Akron-Louisville at the Q? I'm saying at least 15,000. Akron would bring 5,000; Louisville has a huge national following and I think would be well-represented; and Louisville is a brand that would get a large number of unaffiliated local college basketball fans buzzing. 15,000 should make that type of game financially feasible, as long as Akron doesn't expect it to be a "home" game for its bottom line. Hell, even if Louisville is the "home team" and gets whatever gate share that is out there, it's still a win for Akron, just getting a program like Louisvillle to come and play in NEO is a win regardless. And Akron has given up home gates (see the Vegas tourney this year against Santa Barbara and Iona) for less. Even if you aren't making money off of this type of game, the fact that you could potentially play the No. 1 brand in all of college basketball (if you believe the WSJ's recent valuations) in your backyard is every reason in the world to try to make it a possibility. And Akron could sweeten the pot, and make up money on the back end, by saying it will take half the amount Louisville usually pays an opponent to come to the Yum Center the following year. 

 

Basically, what you would have:

Akron: Overall, still makes money off a 2017 game in Louisville, even if going down there is at a discount and not getting a share of the gate in Cleveland. And you get a premier team to come to your backyard. And since Akron has given up gates for less recently (see last year's Vegas tournament), just being able to get two games against a program like Louisville is a huge win from a marketing standpoint (and imagine if Akron actually wins one of the games?). Let's just say Akron gets $50,000 off of two games against Louisville (one being as close of a home game as you can ever come close to getting), is that worth losing two home games against Arkansas Pine-Bluff?

 

Louisville: Could actually make some money (though not nearly as much as a true home game) on a neutral game in Cleveland if it acts as the "home" team. But could make up some of those losses if Akron comes down next year and "only" demands $50,000 (I think Louisville averages about $100,000 for visiting teams). Louisville's main incentive would be giving up one true home gate to get the chance to play a game in an area that it has heavily emphasized in recruiting recently (remember Louisville, to go along with the names above, also had a commitment from 2016 Garfield Heights guard Frankie Hughes, but had to part with him due to the NCAA situation they are in). 

 

Dan Gilbert (Quicken Loans Arena): Let's say Louisville gets 100 percent of the ticket sales (throwing out 15,000 at $20 a pop for $300,000), still potentially money to be made for Dan Gilbert if he takes all the concessions. I'm guessing concessions would net at least another $300,000. Maybe that isn't worth it in a vacuum for Gilbert (who would have to pay workers and other costs of having the venue open for a day), but the guy is a multi-billionaire, so even if it happens to be a $100,000 loss, that isn't a big deal, especially since Akron could have the ace in the hole of making something like this happen. LeBron (with no financial stake) could easily approach Gilbert and say, look I've made you a billion dollars, eat this $100,000 or $200,000, if that would be what is holding a game like this up.

 

This is pretty basic, and I guess a blueprint for what KD and UA could use to at least reach out to Louisville. Who knows, maybe Louisville won't be interested. If that's the case, oh well. At least you tried (and trying to get two games against Louisville >>>>> trying to get one game against Houston). 

 

BTW, I'm sure somebody will bring up the potential NCAA sanctions against Louisville. I'll eat crow on this if I'm wrong, but nothing is going to happen to slow that train down (they make too much money). Louisville already gave up the tourney this year (a year they legitimately had a chance at a national title) and have self-imposed two scholarship reductions (one this year which cost them Frankie Hughes) and one in 2017. That will be enough to satisfy the NCAA. With the talent they have already and coming in (led by Akron's V.J. King), those sanctions will merely be a speed bump for that program.

 

I continue to bring up Louisville because that is the most realistic school that could come to Cleveland ... though maybe Kansas is also an option because they have 5-star sophomore Carlton Bragg (Cleveland VASJ), but Kansas hasn't traditionally recruited Cleveland/Akron like Louisville. But overall, Akron could, IMO, get ONE game AT any marquee program if it wants. But that would mean taking a discount (like I alluded to above) to make it happen.

 

For example, I'm sure Akron could go up to North Carolina and say, we'll play you at the Dean Dome for $50,000. North Carolina would take that, since they, like Louisville, probably average $100,000 paydays to mid-majors to come in. UNC doesn't care about a potential home loss to Akron (it's not like that would affect their overall tourney chances). They would look at it as:

 

We can pay Radford (just a vague example) for $100,000, or we can pay Akron $50,000. Yeah, we'll go with Akron.

 

I think all this talk about "nobody" wanting to play Akron is bogus. Of course UNC is going to pick Radford over Akron if the money is equal. Those marquee programs are selling out either way and "Radford" is the much easier win. But if Akron comes in at half the cost, yeah, UNC is going to listen. True, that means Akron is kind of whoring itself to get that kind of game, but that comes with the territory of being a successful mid-major who still needs those kinds of games (gaining even $50,000 at UNC>losing out on a home game against North Carolina A&T). I think Akron "missing" out on those types of games is them thinking they deserve Radford type money to go there, even though (and this is a good thing) they aren't a "Radford" type program.

 

 

[K92]

Awfully long winded there, Wadz.  The rebuttal is so simple, though.

 

Everyone in America is scared to death to play the Zips and scheduling is not near as easy as you think.

 

There, I said it.  Hopefully that will save the usual suspects from coming back to do it.

[zippy5]

You forgot to add that Coach's door is open and is happy to hear suggestions

[LZIp]

Amazes me how all of the apologists' conveniently ignored this:

On 2/16/2016 at 11:15 AM, kreed5120 said:

So on the 1350 am postgame show they had Dambrot on and they were talking about the elite 21+ win company the Zips are in. One of the broadcasters jokingly asked when we are going to see one of those other 21+ win club teams on their schedule. Dambrot said those other teams would happily schedule Akron and would pay them a lot of money to do so. This debunks a few peoples myths that these teams are too scared to schedule Akron.

 

My question is why not schedule one of these cash grab games a year? I'd give Akron a fighting chance vs. OSU in Columbus this year. A loss and they would need to likely rely on a MAC tourney win to get in just like every other year. A win and their resume actually might get a 2nd look come selection time.

 

On 2/16/2016 at 1:22 PM, kreed5120 said:

 

It could be, but the way he said it made me think he was scoffing at the notion of playing a cash grab game. He emphasized those guys won't come here which makes me believe he wants a home and home which at some point we have to accept just isn't going to happen against programs of that caliber.

 

 

[skip-zip]

23 hours ago, zippyman23 said:

Coming off a year in the Top 50 RPI, where the committee chairman once again stressed the importance of Top 50 wins, it's somehow tougher to schedule? Come on now. We can actually sell that these other teams have something to gain by playing us. It would be one thing if we were a 100+ RPI team, but a home loss to a Top 50 team isn't "poison" to a teams resume.

 

I've often felt that we were not pursuing those games enough.  But please don't fool yourself into thinking that any of these programs have something to gain.  A loss at home against Akron would be a devastating blow to a Top program.  I wouldn't call it "poison", but we're a threat and a risk because we're basically still a disregarded (yet successful) program.  And most of them get plenty of opportunities for Top-50 wins during the conference schedules.  

[Captain Kangaroo]

I wonder if, when someone from Akron called Hunter Yurachek at Houston to ask him "Could you do me a solid and schedule the Zips in basketball?" he replied: "Remember when I was Interim AD and you guys chose Tome Wistercill over me? I do...and F U."

 

Hunter is too nice of a guy to say that...but not too nice of a guy to think it. I'm sure doing UA Athletics favors is not on the top of his daily to-do list.

 

Regarding Louisville - Scheduling a major program to play the Zips at The Q would be a big "splash" promotion for the program. You might say its "Thinking Bigger." But it would require a lot of work, and I think it's just easier for UA to get a home game with Bethune-Cookman and call it a day. And let's be honest...Louisville would kill us.

 

At this point I think we need appreciate being - The Best Ohio College Basketball Program Not Named Dayton, Xavier, Cincinnati or Ohio State™. That's not so bad. There's 8 other D1 programs that would kill for that title.

[Captain Kangaroo]

16 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

 

I've often felt that we were not pursuing those games enough.  But please don't fool yourself into thinking that any of these programs have something to gain.  A loss at home against Akron would be a devastating blow to a Top program.  I wouldn't call it "poison", but we're a threat and a risk because we're basically still a disregarded (yet successful) program.  And most of them get plenty of opportunities for Top-50 wins during the conference schedules.  

I saw when Northern Iowa beat the Tar Heels earlier this year it pretty much ruined UNC's storied program.

[kreed5120]

10 hours ago, wadszip said:

 Dan Gilbert (Quicken Loans Arena): Let's say Louisville gets 100 percent of the ticket sales (throwing out 15,000 at $20 a pop for $300,000), still potentially money to be made for Dan Gilbert if he takes all the concessions. I'm guessing concessions would net at least another $300,000. Maybe that isn't worth it in a vacuum for Gilbert (who would have to pay workers and other costs of having the venue open for a day), but the guy is a multi-billionaire, so even if it happens to be a $100,000 loss, that isn't a big deal, especially since Akron could have the ace in the hole of making something like this happen. LeBron (with no financial stake) could easily approach Gilbert and say, look I've made you a billion dollars, eat this $100,000 or $200,000, if that would be what is holding a game like this up.

 

I agree with everything that you said, but I think you left out 1 key component. Gilbert is heavily invested in downtown Cleveland. If he breaks even on renting the Q, he is coming out way ahead by attracting 15k people downtown. Many of these people will hit up the Casino, Tower City, or one of his many other downtown businesses.

Edited April 11, 2016 by kreed5120

[skip-zip]

1 hour ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

I saw when Northern Iowa beat the Tar Heels earlier this year it pretty much ruined UNC's storied program.

 

Of course.  I'm sure all of Tar Heel Nation viewed it as a "good loss", as some people are suggesting.  

 

I never said it would ruin a program.  Read again.  

 

Let me take that one step further.  You're a die-hard NC fan and you wake up the next morning after a home loss to Northern Iowa.  How do you feel? I assure you that your reaction would not be "no biggie...they are a good team".

Edited April 11, 2016 by skip-zip

[ace]

20 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

 

Of course.  I'm sure all of Tar Heel Nation viewed it as a "good loss", as some people are suggesting.  

 

I never said it would ruin a program.  Read again.  

 

Let me take that one step further.  You're a die-hard NC fan and you wake up the next morning after a home loss to Northern Iowa.  How do you feel? I assure you that your reaction would not be "no biggie...they are a good team".

They lost at UNI. It was a promise game for some of their players (Marcus Paige is from iowa), so that certainly wasnt a buy game or anything.

[kreed5120]

I hear UCLA pulled down their 11 banners after losing to Monmouth *sarcasm*

 

Kentucky losing to Robert Morris in the NIT was followed up by them being runner-up in tourney then making the final 4 the year after. It's safe to say a loss to a team like Akron wouldn't be devastating whatsoever to any top program. This season alone OSU lost at home to a Sun Belt team that has made 1 NCAA tournament appearance in program history. Nobody talked about that loss specifically. Just that OSU had a down year.

Edited April 11, 2016 by kreed5120

[skip-zip]

13 minutes ago, ace said:

They lost at UNI. It was a promise game for some of their players (Marcus Paige is from iowa), so that certainly wasnt a buy game or anything.

 

Right, but since the matchup was brought up, I still used it as a example of a Top Team losing to a mid-major.  If it was at home during a "bought" game, there'd be some pretty angry people fans out there.  Those who suggest that this would be no big deal are nuts. 

 

There isn't a top program in the country that would view Akron as a "good loss".  Nobody. 

Edited April 11, 2016 by skip-zip

[Captain Kangaroo]

30 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

Let me take that one step further.  You're a die-hard NC fan and you wake up the next morning after a home loss to Northern Iowa.  How do you feel? I assure you that your reaction would not be "no biggie...they are a good team".

To an educated UNC fan, it would be "no biggie."

 

Losses to teams like VCU, Saint Mary's, Wichita State and Northern Iowa are now considered "no biggie" because those programs have risen above the din of mid-major status and become "majors" (not "high majors", but "majors", where "majors" is defined as having a realistic chance at an at-large if you lose your conference tourney).

 

The Zips still reside in the mid-major abyss. Slightly worse than Valpo or Middle Tennessee... slightly better than Detroit or Southern Illinois. maybe the same as someone like Oakland.

[clarkwgriswold]

On a completely unrelated topic, the newest E:60 on EPSN tomorrow night will be about our old Zip fan favorite Bobby Hurley.

[skip-zip]

8 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

This season alone OSU lost at home to a Sun Belt team that has made 1 NCAA tournament appearance in program history. Nobody talked about that loss specifically.

 

I wish you could have listened in on some of the phone conversations I had with friends and relatives who live in Cowlumbus after that embarrassing loss to Texas-Arlington. 

 

But, here's a great clip that shows the reaction of the Suckeye fans after that game.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recap?gameId=400817525

[kreed5120]

Buffalo won the MAC tournament last year and had a host of challenging OOC opponents this season. OU managed to schedule Oklahoma, Memphis, UMass, and St. Bonaventure the year after they made the sweet 16 and were returning DJ Cooper. Why are big names programs scared of Akron, but not other MAC programs? Something smells fishy.

[skip-zip]

4 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

Buffalo won the MAC tournament last year and had a host of challenging OOC opponents this season. OU managed to schedule Oklahoma, Memphis, UMass, and St. Bonaventure the year after they made the sweet 16 and were returning DJ Cooper. Why are big names programs scared of Akron, but not other MAC programs? Something smells fishy.

 

There has indeed been some reluctance to schedule a good amount of those games, and I don't agree with that.  But there are other things going on too.  I wish I could direct you to some of the people who tried to schedule the Suckeyes ever since the NIT in 1989. 

[kreed5120]

9 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

 

I wish you could have listened in on some of the phone conversations I had with friends and relatives who live in Cowlumbus after that embarrassing loss to Texas-Arlington. 

 

But, here's a great clip that shows the reaction of the Suckeye fans after that game.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recap?gameId=400817525

 

Yeah, it would be no different than my face after I found out we lost to NIU in the regular season. Fans got over it. 5 years from now the only people that will remember it are the Texas-Arlington fans.

[kreed5120]

3 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

 

There has indeed been some reluctance to schedule a good amount of those games, and I don't agree with that.  But there are other things going on too.  I wish I could direct you to some of the people who tried to schedule the Suckeyes ever since the NIT in 1989. 

 

I'm not disputing that there aren't some teams out there that won't play us, but I feel it's overblown. If we made enough calls, some big name program would bite on facing a recognizable program that consistently finishes in or around the top 100 every year. It's a numbers game. If I had my eye on 1 girl at the bar then went up to her to get her number and was rejected, that doesn't mean that no attractive girl in the bar would be willing to go on a date with me. It means I should try my luck with another.

[skip-zip]

9 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

 

Yeah, it would be no different than my face after I found out we lost to NIU in the regular season. Fans got over it. 5 years from now the only people that will remember it are the Texas-Arlington fans.

 

Actually, I am not even sure if that game is a good example of the types of games we are talking about here.

 

I'm sure when they scheduled that game, they did it to add to their long list of "cupcake games" that they book every year, and they got quite a pleasant surprise.  They surely didn't schedule that to have a semi-competitive contest against a formidable mid-major.