The Whatchamacallit Invitational

[Z.I.P.]

I am still dumbfounded by what happened in the Zip in Paradise's Thanksgiving weekend sports schedule.There I was on Saturday morning, sitting in the broad luxury of the end zone seating at the University of Hawai'i Stan Sheriff Center Arena, waiting for the start of the first of four women's college basketball games in the Rainbow Wahine Invitational. I had to open my morning Honoolulu Advertiser to check the exact schedule of games. But when my eyes locked on the sports page my jaw dropped into my lap at what I viewed!The morning Advertiser gave scores from something called the "O'ahu Classic", at li'l old McKinley High School Gym, and one of the scores from the previous day's competition was Utah defeating Akron. AKRON??? How could this happen? No one sent the Zip in Paradise THAT memo. And the only word in the newspaper was the score from the day before -- not a word about the schedule for that or any upcoming day's games. So, obviously, unlike past years, the Lady Zips did not receive their complementary blue and gold leis on arrival at Honolulu International Airport. How sad, that this group of Zip student athletes were neglected by both the alumni base AND the tournament committee (committee of 1.5)Ends up, I wasn't the only one who was bereft of info on this event -- and that is indeed the understatement of the century, for this tournament was the ultimate in Fly-By-Nite college basketball.I literally RAN out of the Sheriff Center and rushed (safely and slowly -- as holiday shoppers clogged all arteries) to McKinley HS, only to find the parking lot taken over by shoppers from the city's official craft fair event. I parked severla blocks away and walked back to the gym, only to find the doors locked. As I was leaving a pair of coaches from Eastern Washington University walked up, and I asked when the tournament started. In an hour they said. Another half hour later the doors opened, and I asked the only person who looked remotely like a tournament official (he was wearing a T-Shirt with "Malike Sports" emblazoned) when Akron was playing. He told me he had to go and find out, as there was no schedule printed or posted. He returned several minutes later, only to tell me that Akron did not play on Saturday at all -- that they were scheduled to play on Sunday. I asked who their opponent would be, but he was unable to tell me. His remark was the most telling thing I heard all weekend, "It's my sister who's running the tournament, I'm just helping out while I'm on vacation".Well, apparently the Lady Zips got what they were looking for -- a very good competition including two NCAA tournament teams in Nebraska and sweet-16 finalist Marist (they didn't play the Red Foxes) -- in front of what may have been a total audience of several. I guarantee there was a total of ONE local basketball fan in attendance. Yes! I was there! As it ended up, even the tournament name (O'ahu Classic" was different from what appeared on GoZips.com (Hoop and Hollar Classic or something like that). Good luck to Jody and the Lady Zips. Hope you had a good time and PLEASE Come back again for your lei greeting!

[mcperp]

Z.I.P., hmm...sounds like you could sponsor next year's tournament at a sweet outdoor public park court next to the ocean along with $59 guarantees to the teams. You just need an exotic-sounding tournament name to lure unsuspecting....er, I mean women's hoop teams out there. How bout' The Susan B. Anthony Memorial Basketball Tournament - (guarantees paid in obsolete susan b anthony $1 coins)....or "The Title IX Rumble in the Surf" - (all 12 people in attendance receive a gently used copy of the historic title IX legislation - forward by 112 Men's wrestling teams axed to pay for title IX)...or the more bluntly entitled "The Scamin' Hawaiian Hoop Dreams Classic" - it's actually a Motel 6 parking lot with a rusty hoop attached to a "vacancy" sign.

[Z.I.P.]

Z.I.P., hmm...sounds like you could sponsor next year's tournament at a sweet outdoor public park court next to the ocean along with $59 guarantees to the teams. You just need an exotic-sounding tournament name to lure unsuspecting....er, I mean women's hoop teams out there. How bout' The Susan B. Anthony Memorial Basketball Tournament - (guarantees paid in obsolete susan b anthony $1 coins)....or "The Title IX Rumble in the Surf" - (all 12 people in attendance receive a gently used copy of the historic title IX legislation - forward by 112 Men's wrestling teams axed to pay for title IX)...or the more bluntly entitled "The Scamin' Hawaiian Hoop Dreams Classic" - it's actually a Motel 6 parking lot with a rusty hoop attached to a "vacancy" sign.

Hey, I just wanted to post some follow-up to what I said yesterday while in a hurry to get off the computer.Although my only experience wth this year's Wahine Zip BB team came in their blow-out loss to Nebraska -- last year's 4th-place team in the #1 or 2 conference in the nation -- I was impressed with the individual play and athleticism of the players Jody Kest has brought on board to lead Akron to respectability in MAC women's basketball. Rianna Miller, the tallest player on the squad at 6-3 may also be the most athletic player on Akron's team, and looked like she could have played and excelled for either team in that game. The guard play, while showing its inexperience in battle, indicated some great one-on-one talent that will be needed for the team to compete in the conference this year and in future seasons. Akron was unprepared to deal with Nebraska's full-court pressure. Down 20-18 with about 4 mins to play in the half, they gave up too many open threes by a hot shooting Cornhusker offense and went into the locker down 34-20. Sadly, the second half began with the same NU blitz and before you could say "Some backcourt help, please!, Nebraska had doubled the score to 40-20 and kept up the pressure and turnovers most of the second half. The coach of my local high school girl's team has a team rule that only one particular player is allowed to dribble across the half-court line, and it appeared that Akron had a similar rule, as only the guards handled the ball in the backcourt, and the taller gals offered little assistance, and only once did UA try to throw over the pressure -- Miller being unable to run down a fly pattern.Akron is a team with enough talent to compete fairly well in the mostly mediocre MAC, so I would look for them to threaten the .500 mark on the season this year, both overall and in the league. Of course I'm the one who says that about women's soccer each year also, and they've yet to approach the even mark in MAC play. Hopefully ZipAlum, (I think that's the handle) can jump in here with some advise and critique of the Lady Zippers. p.s.: The Malika Sports people -- its a 25 y.o.-looking gal on hand running the event locally in HI and the women's coach from NW Missouri State organizing team entrants from his office -- are promising a men's D-1 tournament next year. I don't know if I would encourage Keith to look into this or not. I keep saying Akron belongs in the Maui Invitational, but at least they should shoot for the Rainbow Classic -- where Bubba and the BobKitties will be in a few weeks. Rumor is Akron men will be back in Puerto Rico in '08.