Monday, December 27, 2010

Men's Basketball 2-1 In Las Vegas Classic

Hopefully everybody had/is having a great Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus/Another-Made-Up-Holiday-Because-I'm-Too-Cool-For-Christmas-Or-Hanukkah and is ready for a new year.

We didn't miss much over the break; the women's game tomorrow is cancelled, and the men played three games in the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic, finishing 2-1. The men also play at home on Wednesday against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Here's a short recap of the Las Vegas Classic games. Regular posting will resume after New Years. Thanks to those that are still reading.


- Good game all around. Darryl Roberts led the team with 16 points, Zeke Marshall avoids being called a marshmallow by finally playing his size and grabbing 14 rebounds, and Alex Abreu does his job as well by getting 6 assists.

Stetson (W) 72-56

- Steve McNees shot 4/9 from behind the arc to lead the team with 16 points, Alex Abreu had 7 assists, but nobody stood out in rebounding; Brett McClanahan led with 6.

Miami (FL) (L) 69-61

- Other than the strange blowout loss to Temple earlier this year, the Zips tend to play one of two ways against big-time teams. They either lead at halftime then fall apart in the last 10 minutes, or they fall behind early, then play their butts off only to lose by single digits. The Miami game falls into the latter category. The Zips were down 22-9 early on.

- Brett McKnight woke up for this one. He's only been getting 15-20 minutes so far this year, and got 19 in this game, but shot 8-12 and finished with 20 points.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Roo News 12/19/10

1) Head men's soccer coach Caleb Porter has been wrapped up through 2020 after it was announced Friday. Hear that? It's a sigh of relief.

In a conference known as a stepping stone for coaches, it's a breath of fresh air to see some stinkin' loyalty. To quote Mr. Porter:

"I am loyal to Akron and I want to leave a legacy for Akron Soccer. I am proud of our program and the success we have had. Over the last five years, the friendships I have made and the support we have received from our alumni, fans and the AK-Rowdies brings meaning to what we do. I look forward to building on our tradition of excellence for many years to come."

2) The men's basketball team completed a heck of a comeback to defeat Bethune-Cookman 77-66 in overtime yesterday. Recap time! (Courtesy of ZipsAthletics)


The Great:

- Nikola Cvetinovic. He led the team in points (17, 4/6 from the field, 9/12 free throws), rebounds (11), AND assists (4).

- The bench. This was the first game in which they made a sizeable contribution. Quincy Diggs made 5/6 free throws and knocked down a trey for 8 points, 6 rebounds and an assist. Wait...is that a bird? A plane? No, it's Brett McKnight returning from suspension, getting 6 points, 2 rebounds and a steal!

The Good:

- Brett McClanahan, who played 24 minutes, knocked down 3/6 three-pointers and finished with 10 points, 2 rebounds and an assist.

The Would Be Awful Were It Not For Some Outstanding Category:

- Steve McNees, who only made 1/9 three pointers and 1/12 overall, yet finished with 9 points thanks making 6 free throws, and 6 rebounds, which tied for second on the team.

- Zeke Marshallmallow. Where to begin....first of all, the 7-footer grabbed just 4 rebounds in 26 minutes. He also shot a magnificent 33.333333% (3/9) from the free throw line. However, he DID shoot 5/7 from the floor and ended with 13 points and 2 blocks.

The Awful:

- Alex Abreu. The pass-first point guard played 21 minutes with this statline: 4 points (1/3 shooting, 1/2 free throw), 4 points, 1 rebound, and 2 assists (offset by 2 turnovers).

However:

- The team finished the game. It's a step. After blowing a halftime lead against top-25 Minnesota last week, at least we're seeing some close wins against not-so-top-25 teams.

3) The women's basketball team put a 102-45 hurtin' on the Ursuline College Arrows, improving to 7-4. Sina King grabbed a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds in only 18 minutes. Rachel Tecca led the scoring with 14 points. Every single Zip on the ladies' roster saw playing time.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Roo News 12/13/10

1) The men's soccer team outfought Louisville 1-0 yesterday to bring home Akron's (and the MAC Conference's) first team national title.

The first half was a flurry of Akron passes, as the Zips were outpossessing the Cardinals 61-41 at one point; however, Louisville came out of the first half with more opportunities, and seemingly most of the momentum.

The first 43 minutes of the second half were a different story. Akron continued to dominate possession, but also kept the ball in Lousville's half much longer than the first 45 minutes. The lone goal of the game came from Scott Caldwell off an an Anthony Ampaipatakwong cross in the 79th minute. Caldwell's first shot was blocked, but he quickly found it again and drilled it through the top of the net.

What ensued next was the most bizarre final two minutes of a soccer game I've ever seen. Louisville pushed the ball forward and kept it there, firing shot after cross after cross after shot into the box. At one point, David Meves came off the line to punch a ball but missed it, leaving him out of the goal, but Chad Barson stepped in to deflect the next shot, and then after about 10 more seconds of city-wide heart attack, the ball rolled safely out of bounds.

Needless to say, this win is huge for Akron. This men's soccer program has been building up for years, and after last year's disappointing finals loss in penalty kicks to Virginia, another runner-up finish would have only proven to the naysayers that mid-major programs aren't capable of winning it all. With great head coaches like Caleb Porter and Keith Dambrot, and a (good?) hire of Rob Ianello for football, the Zips athletic program is skyrocketing.

2) In much less exciting news, the men's basketball team was trounced, pummeled, steamrolled, and then curb-stomped for good measure by the Temple Owls. The final score was 82-47. The Zips scored a grand total of 5 points in the final 14:27 of the 1st half, shooting 6/30 in the entirety of the half.

Alex Abreu and Steve McNees each scored 11 to lead the team.

It won't get any easier. The next game is away at Minnesota on Wednesday. Tune into the Big Ten Network at 8:30pm for coverage.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Let's. Go. Zips.

Here it is, folks.

This is what every Zip fan has been anticipating.

Heck, this is what every MAC fan has been anticipating.

The Zips men's soccer team has a chance to bring home the MAC Conference's very first national title. After badly outplaying Michigan to a 2-1 victory, the Zips play Louisville in the NCAA finals today at 4. The game can be seen on ESPN2. Louisville is the only undefeated team left, at 20-0-3.

Interesting stat: The last team to make it to consecutive NCAA finals was Indiana in 2003-2004. Caleb Porter was an assistant coach on those teams.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Cardiac Saturday

First things first, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

Now that that's settled, I'll get to writing a stinkin' post.

The men's soccer team won an absolute thriller over California in the Elite 8 to advance to the College Cup for the second consecutive season. They face Michigan, the team that they beat 7-1 earlier in the season. The game was 3-3 at the end of regulation. Nobody scored in OT. The Zips won 3-2 in PK's thanks to three penalty saves from goalkeeper David Meves. Where's the box score, you say? Why, it's right here!

The NCAA semifinals are Friday, time TBA and the finals are Sunday, time also TBA.

In baksitball news, the men won another thriller over UIC at the Flames' home court. The Zips were down by 13 with 16:24 to go in the game, but came back to win 54-52. Cvetinovic gave the flames a chance by missing two free throws, but Robo Kreps couldn't put in the half court shot to win the game. It's the first come from behind (from the last 5 minutes) win for Akron this year, and it moves them to 4-2.

Thanks for bearing with me, folk (Ha! Singular reader joke!)

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Roo News 12/2/10

Happy LeBron-Returns-To-Cleveland-On-National-Television-And-Every-Cleveland-Fan-Gets-To-Vent-Their-Frustration-But-Hopefully-Nobody-Does-Anything-Stupid-To-Make-The-City-Look-Worse-Than-It-Already-Looks Day, everybody!

I have to make this quick (thank you, Finals Week!), so here we go.

1) The men's basketball team defeated the Detroit Titans yesterday, by a final score of 77-69. The Zips jumped to a lead early, the Titans closed the gap before halftime, and then the Zips pulled away again.

Thank you, Horizon League Television, for having a free stream of the game online. Hear that, All MACcess? You can stop charging $49.95 a season for technology that was outdated in 1965.

- The Zips looked a lot more balanced yesterday, with 17 of their 61 shots coming from behind the arc.

- We finally had a big man pull down some rebounds. Nik Cvetinovic grabbed 7 to lead the team.

- This game was the equivalent of playing against a team with 2 red cards in soccer, and the Titans didn't jump on the opportunity. Zeke Marshall had 18 minutes and Mike Bardo had 10, as both were in foul trouble throughout the game and eventually fouled out.

- Cvetinovic led the scoring with 18 (9/15 shooting). Brett McClanahan had 11 (4/10, 3/7 from 3-PT range) and Steve McNees had 10 (2/4 from 3-PT range, 4/6 free throws).

- Alex Abreu put up 8 points with 4 assists in 22 minutes of playing time, including a razzle-dazzle spinning layup.

- Dakotah Euton, Josh Egner and Quincy Diggs all got between 6-10 minutes of playing time, but totaled 5 points, a rebound, a foul, and a turnover between them.

The next game is Saturday at UIC, which should be another good one.

2) The women's basketball team lost to Duquesne yesterday, but have a decent 4-3 record and have two more games at home before the next road game. The next is Saturday against Wright State.

3) Snatching the Saturday spotlight is the men's soccer team, who face #6 California at 4 PM in the Elite 8, also the final home game of the year. The Cal Golden Bears have not trailed in an away game at any point during the year. Luckily, we have the weather (not to mention a 20-1-1 record) on our side. Hopefully this snow sticks around.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Catching Up 11/29/10

What a hectic few days of sports, folks. I've just awoken from my turkey-induced slumber, and holy cow, where do I begin?

Football:
How about football? They did it! Every Akron fan that watched the end of the Zips' 22-14 victory over Buffalo feels like Kevin Garnett right now. Despite the officiating crew's attempts at keeping Buffalo in the game (some ridiculous late-game calls and reviews), the Zips closed it out thanks to a (who else?) Brian Wagner forced fumble.

Super-kudos to the 5,216 loyal fans that were in attendance the day after Thanksgiving.

Patrick Nicely finally looked like an FBS quarterback, completing 13 of his 24 passes for 193 yards and 3 touchdowns, and not a single interception. Each touchdown went to one of Akron's top receivers:

Jeremy LaFrance: 6 REC, 65 YDS, TD
Jalil Carter: 5 REC, 109 YDS, TD
Gary Pride: 1 REC, 15 YDS, TD
Keith Sconiers: 1 REC, 4 YDS

Also, this had to be an emotional game for 6th-year senior Alex Allen, and it showed in yet another impressive rushing game. He was given the ball a worthy 32 times and ran for 120 yards, but didn't reach the end zone. Nate Burney ran 4 times for 24 yards.

And, as always, Zack Campbell!

Zack Campbell: 5 punts, 185 YDS

On the other side of special teams, the Ever Dependable Igor Iveljic earned his nickname with two (count 'em!), TWO missed extra points. The Slightly More Dependable Branko Rogovic took his place and made a 39 yard field goal.

We finished with an FBS-worst 1-11 record, but the play of this team since the shutout at Temple, has been very promising (defense included). Add to that mixture that Rob Ianello is known for great recruiting, that the current players have already had one full offseason with Ianello, and that we have a fairly young team (other than Alex Allen and Jeremy LaFrance, who will be sorely missed), and we may see a 4-6 win team next year. Want evidence? Look at the MAC East Champion Miami Redhawks, whose team last year looked an awful lot like ours...

Men's Soccer:
The MAC Champions advanced to the Elite Eight yesterday, defeating an Indiana Hoosiers squad full of "the rich tradition of IU soccer" 2-1.


Let me just start by saying "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

After last year's horribly disappointing runner-up finish, everybody that follows Akron soccer has been anticipating this year's championship matchup. That's a deadly thing. The team has been beaten by a mediocre Cleveland State team and gave up two very late goals last week against West Virginia. Any one of these tournament matchups has the opportunity to dash our hopes against the brick wall that we call sports, and there are still three games to go for a championship title.

Seeing the win today was like Christmas in...November...

After a hard-fought scoreless first half, Michael Nanchoff put Akron up 1-0 in the 53rd minute. One minute and eight seconds later, Darren Mattocks intercepted Hoosier goalkeeper Luis Soffner's pass and put in his 18th goal of the year.

Indiana pressed hard in the final minutes, scoring in the 82nd, but couldn't get close in the final few.

Here's what I'm wondering: How many incredible seasons is it going to take for people to start talking about Akron's rich soccer tradition?

Men's Basketball:
The team fell to 2-2 after losing 64-51 to Cleveland State, but at least in four games, they have a better record than the football team's whole season; so even if they finish with 2 wins, we'll still be able to say "it could be worse". Isn't optimism GREAT????

Basically, the Zips' hot 3-point shooting fizzled out during the wrong game. Cleveland State is a great team, yet they were held in check for the majority of the game, even though the Zips were led in rebounding by 6'4" Brett McClanahan (7) and 6'0" Darryl Roberts (5).

Some notes (all bad):

- Zeke Marshall played like a Zeke Marshmallow, scoring a team-high 14 points and sending 4 balls screaming for their mommies, but grabbing just 5 rebounds, allowing way too many inside points and dropping seemingly every pass that came his way (5 turnovers in reality).

- Nikola Cvetinovic was grade-A ball hog, putting up shot after shot, even though he was obviously cold. Don't be fooled by his 4 assists. Teams are starting to figure out that nearly every time he gets the ball he's going to spin to the middle for a layup. He finished 1/10 shooting with 6 points and just 3 rebounds in 30 minutes.

- Why is Mike Bardo not playing more? He had 4 rebounds and and a block in just 6 minutes, as well as a SICK follow up shot for his only points. The rebounds show just how much of a presence he is in the paint. He would have come in handy while Cleveland was catching fire in the paint in the second half; Cleveland State's Jeremy Montgomery and Trevon Harmon (who put home a momentum-crushing dunk over Zeke in the final minutes) had their way with Zeke Marshmallow multiple times.

- The bench (other than Bardo) is disappointing at best so far. Quincy Diggs had the most minutes with 10, and finished with 5 points and a rebound. Alex Abreu played 6 minutes and accumulated a foul and a turnover. Josh Egner had 1 block in 5 minutes, and Dakotah Euton bricked three times and had 1 assist in 7 minutes.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Roo News 11/22/10

1) The men's basketball team won a thriller in overtime against Youngstown State on Saturday.

In summation? Two words. Nik Cvetinovic. Oh, and Zeke Marshall. And Brett McClanahan.

Cvetinovic shot 10-12, and 7-9 from the line for a career high 27 points.

Marshall shot 8-16, 6-12 from the line for a career high 22 points, and also pulled down 3 rebounds and sent 3 basketballs screaming for their life.

McClanahan shot 8-13, 3-7 from behind the arc for a career high 22 points, and pulled down 10 rebounds! Remember earlier this year, when I said not to get too hopeful about Brett McClanahan because he's always been streaky? Ignore that. As far as you know, I didn't say it. See? I didn't even link to the post. I could be lying to you for all you know.

McClanahan has developed into one heck of an all-around player. He lives beyond 3-point range, but isn't afraid to drive the lane, and he's become an absolute workhorse on defense. I was watching him midway through the 2nd half. Every time the ball was shot, he was circling around his defender to grab the rebound.

So anyway, with just a few seconds left on the clock, Akron had outshot Youngstown State by 14% and three players had a career high in points, so naturally the Zips were down by 3 thanks to 56% free throw shooting. After two missed shots on the last possession, Zeke Marshall ripped the ball out of a Penguin player's hand for the rebound and swung it out to McClanahan, who promptly sunk the game-tying three. Overtime. Then Akron pulled away.

This game was tied 18 times; probably the most exciting Zips basketball game I've ever seen. So naturally I wasn't in attendance, but watching it on the hideous creation that is Zips Zone.


2) The women's basketball team dropped Niagara 77-58 yesterday afternoon. Rachel Tecca once again led the team in scoring with 20, as did Kara Murphy. The Zips were only up 64-58 late in the game, but scored 13 straight points to close out.

3) The men's soccer team advances to the round of 16 after beating West Virginia 3-2 yesterday. After leading 3-0 80 minutes in, and dominating in shots 15-2, the Zips got a little complacent, allowing four shots from the Mountaineers, two of which translated into late goals. Darren Mattocks scored his 16th and 17th goals of the season. The other was put in from 18 yards by Scott Caldwell, his 3rd of the season.

The next opponent for the Zips is Indiana, who dropped Tulsa 5-0 in the second round.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Stats Roundup 11/20/10

As I was sitting here wondering what I could possibly blog about during this Akron sports lull (I didn't forget to recap the football game, I chose not to recap it after Jeremy LaFrance fumbled the winning ball late in the game), it came to my attention that I have rarely blogged about overall statistics. So here we go, the first Stats Roundup:

Football:

Before I cover any individual statistics, I'd like to point this out:

2010 Overall FBS Rankings:
Passing Yards-111th
Rushing Yards-102nd
Points For-117th
Points Againts-111th

And that, folks, is why we are 0-11. I'm not ready to throw in the towel with Rob Ianello (although I still believe that firing J.D. Brookhart was an awful, awful idea). I think that a coach should be able to bring in at least three recruiting classes before he is evaluated for a firing, but holy cow, this could be a long three years of Akron football.

Passing:
Patrick Nicely-153/312 (49.0%), 1560 YDS, 7 TD, 13 INT, 90.1 RAT
Matt Rodgers-7/11 (63.6%), 95 YDS, 2 TD, INT, 178.0 RAT

While Patrick Nicely has been solidifying his spot as the worst starting quarterback in the FBS, Matt Rodgers has mysteriously suffered a number of "injuries", the latest being listed under "concussion" on Thursday. Say what?

It's obvious that Ianello is in love with Nicely, which may explain why he took him out of his comfort zone (shotgun offense) to allow him to utterly fail in the pro-style offense. Well, no. It doesn't. The good news is, Nicely's only a sophomore; so that for the next two years, he can continue to utterly fail in the pro-style offense. A new generation of Akron football, folks!

Rushing:
Alex Allen-154 CAR, 771 YDS, 5.0 AVG, 8 TD
Nate Burney-105 CAR, 443 YDS, 4.2 AVG

The rushing attack has leaned on Alex Allen more and more throughout the season, which is great, as he himself has just 1 less touchdown than our ENTIRE PASSING GAME. Man, do I miss the days of Chris Jacquemain and Dennis Kennedy.

Receiving:
Jeremy LaFrance-37 REC, 469 YDS, 12.7 AVG, 5 TD
Jalil Carter-25 REC, 303 YDS, 12.1 AVG, TD
Antoine Russell-13 REC, 221 YDS, 17.0 AVG, TD
Gary Pride-21 REC, 167 YDS, 8.0 AVG
Richard Hall-16 REC, 149 YDS, 9.3 AVG, TD
Alex Allen-17 REC, 115 YDS, 6.8 AVG
Keith Sconiers-8 REC, 71 YDS, 8.9 AVG
Austin Bailey-7 REC, 51 YDS, 7.3 AVG, TD
Nate Burney-7 REC, 33 YDS, 4.7 AVG

The receiving corps has been injury-plagued this year, but are improving as the weeks go by (especially former defensive back Jalil Carter and Gary Pride). The bad news is, LaFrance and Carter are seniors, and Pride is a junior. This leaves freshmen Antoine Russell, whose 17.0 AVG is a bit misleading thanks to a 56 yard reception, and Keith Sconiers, alongside sophomore Anthony Meriwether, who has been suffering from an achilles injury. Meriwether, you may remember, had his redshirt burned last year as a running back. The good news is, we have a coach that is infamous for successful position-switching...oh, that's right. We fired him.

Kicking:
The Ever Dependable Igor Iveljic-17/19 XP, 9/14 FG
Branko Rogovic-1/1 XP

Thank goodness these guys are both seniors. I don't know how many more botched extra points and shanked short field goals I can take. At least Rogovic has done a decent job with kickoff duty this year. Interesting stat for The Ever Dependable Igor Iveljic...he's 5/7 from 40-49 yards; while he has gone 2/5 from 30-39 yards. Say what?

The next game is against the 2-8 Buffalo Bulls, who play the 1-9 Eastern Michigan Eagles today. We have no reason not to win this game. Buffalo will have a short week of practice before coming to Akron for a Friday game, and we will have had a week and then some to warm up (and rest some injuries) for this one. I'd be ecstatic to see Matt Rodgers get the start, even though that's some serious wishful thinking. I was critical of him to begin the year, but he's proven in the games he's been in this year that he's the better quarterback. Patrick Nicely has 0-12 written all over him.

In basketball news:
If, like me, you were wondering why Brett McKnight didn't make an appearance in the loss to Dayton, it's because he's been indefinitely suspended for a "violation of university policy". According to the article, he had also been suspended for 30 days in the preseason, which may explain why he didn't play in the exhibition and his lackluster performance against Millikin.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Close Game = Akron Loss

After treating us to an hour of the Cavaliers' post-game show last night, FSN finally switched over to the Akron/Dayton men's basketball game. Just in time for the halftime show. And after what seemed like four days later, I got to watch some basketball.

Summary:
After a first half explosion from Chris Wright, the Zips trailed 42-31 at halftime, pulled back to 54-54 thanks to some ridiculous three point shooting, then did what every Dambrot-coached Zips basketball team has done in the last few years in a close game; tired out and allowed their opponents to walk away with a victory. This one happened to be a 76-68 victory.

There is absolutely no reason that the Flyers should have walked away with that win. They're a great team, don't get me wrong. But Akron was leading midway through the second half with 7'0" Zeke Marshall and 6'10" Mike Bardo on the bench with foul trouble, thanks to over 50% three-point shooting. With around 5 minutes left, Marshall reentered the game. Done deal, right? Surely McNees and McClanahan would stop shooting NBA-length threes. Surely they'd realize that hot streaks end. Surely they'd start giving the ball to Cvetinovic and Marshall, letting them get their work done on the inside.

Nope.

The Zips shot a ghastly 22-60 overall. Of course, that may have been largely due to their 14-36 three-point shooting. They were also dominated in every facet by the Dayton offense, who led in rebounding 42-27 and shot 30-56 overall. On top of this "Please don't touch me!" defense, the bench looked awful. For the love of Pete, folks, Nikola Cvetinovic led our team in assists with 7. How many did starting point guard Steve McNees have? 0. Not one. And he was 4-13 shooting. And he was 4-12 from three-point range. I feel like this blog is turning into College Basketbawful.

The good news is, it's a long season. The bad news is, this Zips team looks like the last few Dambrot-coached teams; playing to the level of their opponent, hanging in a close game, then failing miserably in the last two minutes. The rest of the good news is, Dambrot-coached teams translate end-of-game regular season failure into end-of-game tournament success. The rest of the bad news is, the streak of three-point shooting we saw yesterday won't happen every game. It probably won't happen in half of the games. If Zeke Marshall, Dakotah Euton and Mike Bardo can't establish a low-post presence, we're going to be in trouble.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Dayton > Millikin

The men's basketball team has a huge away matchup tonight with the Dayton Flyers. If you live in the Cincinnati or Dayton areas, tune in to FSN Ohio at 9 see your Flyers lose. If you live in the Cleveland, Akron, Toledo or Columbus area, the coverage of Akron/Dayton will pick up right after the Cavs/76ers.

Shocking Stat:
Alex Abreu's 8 assists last week were the most in a single game by an Akron player in almost three years. Dru Joyce had 10 in January of 2007. I read all summer long that Abreu was a talented point guard, and if he continues to improve his passing game we could see a very, very good Akron Zips basketball team in the next couple of years. One of the main issues with the team in the last couple years has been the lack of ability to distribute the ball in clutch situations. Last year's close home losses to Austin Peay and Rhode Island immediately spring to mind.

Look for a very intense game tonight. Both teams are very scrappy, underrated teams looking to impress a local televised audience.

In other news, the women's basketball team lost 69-54 to IPFW yesterday. Sophomore Rachel Tecca looked very impressive, playing 30 minutes while putting up 21 points on 10-17 shooting, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Unfortunately, nobody else on the team scored more than 7. Tecca's 4 assists were also a team high. The lady Zips have another road game tomorrow against IUPUI.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Catching Up 11/15/10

Men's Soccer:
Won their fourth consecutive (eighth overall) MAC Championship via a dominating 3-1 win over Buffalo Friday night, and a 4-0 trouncing of Western Michigan Sunday afternoon. I don't have time to put up details, so here are some highlights, from ZipsAthletics:

Buffalo (MAC Semifinals):

Western Michigan (MAC Championship):

Men's Basketball:
Absolutely shut down Millikin in the season opener, to nobody's surprise. The 89-41 victory (48-9 at the half) makes Akron 1-0, but doesn't necessarily prepare them for a tough away matchup with Dayton on Tuesday, which will be televised on FSN. Again, sorry for the lack of a recap (I love doing basketball recaps), but here are the highlights:


Volleyball:
Lost their final game of the season to Ball State in four sets. Yuck. After starting the season 3-4, the lady Zips won 10 in a row, 5 of those coming in conference play, only to lose the next 6, then win only 2 of the last 5 to end with a lackluster record of 15-13 (7-9 MAC). The good news is, they still have a chance in the MAC tournament, playing 10th seed Buffalo on Tuesday.

Football:
This bye week prevented us from seeing another disastrous football loss, but the whole nation will be able to see that on Wednesday (if anybody outside of Ohio is insane enough to turn to ESPNU at 6pm for the game against Miami). I will be at the game, but I don't expect us to put up more than 10-17 points. The recap should be fun, though.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Roo News 11/12/10

1) The volleyball team lost a thriller to Buffalo yesterday, falling in five sets after leading 2-1 after three. The Zips seemed a bit too confident midway through the fourth set after taking an 11-6 lead, lost focus, and never recovered, despite some seriously intense timeout discussions from head coach Ron Arenz. This loss drops the lady Zips to 15-12 (7-8 MAC). They close out the regular at Ball State tomorrow.



2) The MAC men's soccer tournament begins today. The Zips have the #1 seed, and match up against the #4 seed Buffalo Bulls at 5 o'clock. When the two teams met in the regular season, it wasn't pretty. The Zips won 4-0, and outshot the Bulls 22-2. You can find the box score by clicking on the previous link, or by looking under the word "domination" in your local dictionary. GoZips.com has a nice preview here.

3) Elsewhere in soccer, former Akron standout and current Kansas City Wizard Teal Bunbury will join fellow MLS forwards Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls) and Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake) on the United Stated national roster for the upcoming match against South Africa. He is the first Akron Zip to ever be selected for the national team.

4) The men's basketball team opens their season today at the JAR. After the Zips' 111-48 beatdown of John Carroll, fellow Division III program Millikin is going to need a lot to go their way (like Zeke Marshall suddenly shrinking 5 inches) for a win. It's also $1 Hot Dog and Pepsi night, so if you live in the area, are reading this blog, and haven't bought a ticket, buy one before I question your sanity.

The results should look very similar to the exhibition game against John Carroll, as the Zips once again hold a tremendous size and speed advantage. I'm curious to see how Keith Dambrot is going to handle the playing time of Alex Abreu and Quincy Diggs. I'm also wondering how much he plans on playing 6'10" center Mike Bardo this year. Bardo didn't get a lot of minutes last year thanks to some nagging injuries, but if he can hold those off, his size will help tremendously.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Catching Up 11/8/10

Men's Soccer:
The 16-1-1 #2 men's soccer team (man, that's disappointing to say) needed Michael Nanchoff's 80th minute penalty kick to defeat Hartwick (the 2-14-1 Hartwick Hawks!) 2-1 on Saturday. I'm not sure what's going on with the soccer team, but this is not the same team that scored a touchdown against Michigan. Hartwick is 2-14-1. And the Zips only outshot them 12-9.

The MAC tournament begins Friday, and Akron (obviously) has the #1 seed. We'll be playing Buffalo at 5pm. If the team becomes complacent like they seem to have been lately, we could see some serious trouble.

Volleyball:
The lady Zips won a 5-set scare over Kent State, but fell in four sets to Ohio the next day, falling to 15-11 (7-7 MAC), one game behind Ohio. MAC East play ends on Thursday, with a home matchup against 16-14 (4-10 MAC) Buffalo.

Football:
What. The. Heck. This year couldn't get worse. In fact, the team name "Zips" fits very well with that number in the win column. If you haven't seen, the Zips lost in double overtime 37-30 to Ball State on Saturday. This was our best chance to avoid a winless season, and pretty much fully explains how this entire season has gone.

But here's the best part: Do you want to know why the game went into overtime? The Ever Dependable Igor Iveljic. That's right. He missed an extra point.

On the bright side, this above-average offensive showing allows me to stop posting Zack Campbell's stats every week. But just for fun:

Zack Campbell-8 punts, 277 YDS

Alex Allen had a heck of a game, carrying the ball 25 times for 165 yards, but all of the touchdowns went to Patrick "Throws-the-ball-not-so" Nicely and the receiving corps.

Jalil Carter-6 REC, 69 YDS, TD
Alex Allen-5 REC, 29 YDS
Jeremy LaFrance-3 REC, 46 YDS, 2 TD
Anthony Meriweather-2 REC, 17 YDS
Richard Hall-2 REC, 17 YDS, TD

Patrick Nicely negated his best game of the year by throwing three interceptions. Wow, that guy has been awful this year.

Also on the bright side, the team gets to close out the season with two televised home games against Miami (OH) (5-4) and Buffalo (2-7).

UPDATE: Added a poll to the side bar. Let's see what you guys think.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Exhibition Games Are Hard To Recap...

The men's basketball team looked great yesterday in their exhibition matchup against Division III John Carroll, winning by a score of 111-48...but that's mostly because they were playing Division III John Carroll.

The Blue Streaks actually had the lead early on (8-5) before Akron ran away with it.


Looked Great:

- Nikola Cvetinovic, who put up 19 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal in just 16 minutes of play. He also shot 9-12 from the line, which is a breath of fresh air after he shot 50.6% from the line last year.

- Steve McNees, who took 7 shots in his 23 minutes of play, all from beyond the arc, and made 5 of them. Add to that his 5 rebounds and 9 assists.

- Zeke Marshall, and his role on the team. Statistically, he played 25 minutes, scored 14 points on 6-7 shooting, pulled down 5 rebounds, and had 3 blocks and an assist. The fact that he only got 5 rebounds looks worrying at first glance. And here's an interesting tidbit: After John Carroll started a full court press, the Zips ran a play with Zeke as the anchor, at midcourt. McNees, or whoever was at the point, would just heave it up to Zeke, who would seemingly jump 40 feet in the air, pull it down, and calmly hand it back to the point guard at half-court.

Looked Good:

- Brett McClanahan. He shot 5-11 overall, 5-9 from downtown. Four of those 3's came consecutively. Most likely, he will be just as streaky this year as he has been in the past, but as long as those streaks happen when it counts, he can be a huge boost to morale.

- Dakotah Euton. He was the only incoming player that didn't look shaky (see below). He ended with 6 points on 3-5 shooting, with 5 rebounds. One of those shots was a ridiculous three pointer that ended up somewhere in downtown Columbus. Other than that shot, however, he looked solid.

- The Zeke Marshall/Mike Bardo combo. Bardo only played 11 minutes, but pulled down 7 rebounds, with a block and a steal. He also had three points on 1-3 shooting. Having 7'0" Marshall and 6'10" Bardo on the floor at the same time will work wonders if the perimeter players play some good defense.

Looked Shaky:
- The incoming players (minus Dakotah Euton). Alex Abreu and Quincy Diggs look promising, but both just looked jittery yesterday. Abreu ended with 10 points on 3-7 shooting, and had 4 assists and 5 steals. There were times he looked like a wizard with the ball, but there were also moments when he didn't look for the pass at all. Those didn't end well. Diggs had 6 points on 3-5 shooting, with 4 rebounds in 17 minutes.

Other Notes:

- Josh Egner looked good statistically (10 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks in just 4 minutes), but also had a turnover and 3 personal fouls.

- Brett McKnight didn't play, but if he improves at all from last season, our frontcourt is going to be scary this year.

- I'd like to see some more play from Kyle Peterson. He only scored 2 points and 2 assists in 5 minutes yesterday, but this is largely because Egner took most of his shots in that period of time. Peterson is definitely better than a 2-minutes a season player.

- Want to know exactly how small John Carroll was? The Zips outrebounded them 62-35.

The Zips play another Division III team (Millikin) on Saturday, only this one will put a number on the standings. The game is at the JAR, and there are $1 Hot Dogs and Pepsi Products while supplies last. The $10 general admission ticket is well worth the price.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Roo News 11/3/10

1) Notes from head football coach Rob Ianello's weekly press conference:

- Feels like we learned a lot from the Temple game last week. Thinks that we were better on defense, offense, and special teams...Ianello says the darndest things sometimes...

- Has been impressed by the team's effort during practice this week.

- We had a field goal blocked, an early touchdown overturned, and a lot of close failed conversions. If those had been turned around, we may have seen a game.

- Jalil Carter sat out last week for a personal reason, but it wasn't disciplinary and he'll be back this week.

- Broderick Alexander is improving and should be ready for Spring practice. He will stay at running back.

- Ball State is better than their standing would indicate, and in some ways, face a similar story as us this year.

- There was a humorous moment when a reporter asked Ianello if he has talked to Director of Athletics Tom Wistrcill lately and what those talks were about (to paraphrase, will you be fired any time soon?). Ianello responded with "pardon me?" and then something along the lines of "we talk every day...about the future of the program" (to paraphrase, are you freakin' kidding me?).

2) The men's basketball team faces John Carroll tomorrow for an exhibition game. I wish I had the time to write up a nice big basketball preview, but you can read a nice preview from GoZips.com here.

3) The #1 men's soccer team defeated Michigan State 1-0 earlier today in convincing fashion, leading 14-3 in shots, and 5-1 in shots on goal. The lone goal of the game came from Darren Mattocks, his 12th of the year. The Zips move to 15-1-1 and end their regular season at Hartwick on Saturday.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Catching Up 10/31/10

This weekend was the most disappointing weekend of the year. Quick note of warning: Anger and severe sarcasm may be detected below.

Men's Soccer:
It happened. The #1 University of Akron men's soccer team was upset 2-1 by 8-9-0 Cleveland State on Saturday, despite leading in shots (12-6) and shots on goal (6-2). At 14-1-1, all this really means is that the Zips may lose the #1 seed in the tournament. The home unbeaten streak continues, and as long as we see the Zips team that outscored the #2, 3, and 4 teams in the country 9-0 show up in the NCAA tournament, the championship is definitely still attainable.

Volleyball:
The volleyball team dropped in four sets to Miami, but fought to a five-set win over Bowling Green the next day. After a magnificent start to the season, the team has sunk to 14-10 this season, just 6-6 in MAC play. They return to James A. Rhodes Arena this weekend for matchups against 10-17 (3-9 MAC) Kent State and 15-10 (7-5 MAC) Ohio.

Women's Soccer:
After extending their unbeaten streak to 5 games by defeating Ohio 1-0 to close out the regular season, the lady Zips dropped to Miami 2-0 in the first round of the MAC tournament. This ended their season with a 7-11-1 record. The women's soccer team is still a work-in-progress, and can improve on this semi-successful season by working more on controlling possession. I'd like to see Caleb Porter's "Death by 1000 passes" motto start to rub off on the women's soccer team.

Football:
This is getting annoying to blog about, but Akron's 30-0 defeat at the hands of the Temple Owls is a little better than last week's 56-10 drubbing from Western Michigan.

For once, the Zips defense looked like a defense. The score at the end of the half was 6-0. Unfortunately, Temple has a heck of a defense, and Patrick Nicely was pretty awful once again (15-26, 134 YDS, INT). Alex Allen (10 CAR, 30 YDS) and Nate Burney (7 CAR, 14 YDS) couldn't get much going, either. Zack Campbell was once again my MVP with 10 punts for 383 yards.

Quote from head coach Rob Ianello, from GoZips.com.

"We are establishing a foundation for how we are going to do things, and we are establishing a foundation for a program and we are going to get this thing pointed in the right direction, we just need to keep working towards improvement."

Ianello has literally stated nine different variations of that quote this year, one after each loss. Tune in next weekend for the tenth variation, unless the Zips can pull off their best chance for a not-winless season against Ball State.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Roo News 10/28/10

1) The men's soccer team squeaked out a 1-0 victory over #9 Creighton yesterday. The Zips home unbeaten streak is now 34 games, and this was Creighton's first regular season road loss since 2006. The atmosphere at the game was tense, as the Blue Jays outplayed Akron for the majority of the first half. The second half swung the way of the home team, and a 63rd minute goal from Darlington Nagbe, his 6th of the year, sealed the deal. Darren Mattocks had an off game, but still looked incredible.


2) Some notes from Rob Ianello's weekly press conference:

- This week's game against Temple is going to be a "heck of a challenge for us". Pretty obvious.

- He has a lot of respect for Al Golden and what he's done with Temple. Sounds like Al Golden is who Rob Ianello wants to be when he grows up.

- We haven't played our best game yet.

- He hasn't really looked at the attendance figures (last week's was just above 10,000, not even a third of capacity) because it's not his responsibility, he's responsible for the product on the field. We call this blame-passing where I'm from.

- Our program has had significant improvements made, but those are all behind closed doors and haven't made it to the scoreboard yet.

- Rodgers, LaFrance, and Ladrach are out, Holmes is questionable.

- Freshman quarterback Dylan Potts had his redshirt burned last week because Rodgers is out, and he wants to get Potts some game experience. This is good. Nicely has been ghastly this year (dead last in the nation in passer rating) and Rodgers will be a senior next year.

3) At 0-8, the football team is officially (statistically and according to ESPN's Bottom 10) the worst team in the nation, and currently shares the winless title with only the New Mexico Lobos.

4) The women's basketball team has been projected to finish fourth in the MAC East this year, after an all time best record of 18-14 (11-5 MAC) last year.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Catching Up 10/26/10

Thanks to Family Weekend here at the University of Akron, we were all treated to a magnificent slew of athletic events resulting in a horribly delayed, why-the-heck-did-this-guy-take-this-long-to-update-this-blog, Catching Up post. Here we go.

Men's Soccer:
The men clinched the MAC title with a 2-1 victory over Western Michigan Saturday night. The game wasn't nearly as close as the score would suggest, as the Broncos crammed 10 players in their half of the field in order to attempt a draw or a lucky 1-goal win. The Zips outshot Western Michigan 13-3; but after the dominating 7-1 win over Michigan earlier in the week, the performance of the team can only be described as disappointing. Highlights are below.


Volleyball:
Two disappointing losses this weekend.



and five sets to Eastern Michigan. The losses drop the team to 13-9 (5-5 in MAC), but they still sit at the top of the weak MAC East.

Women's Soccer:
The weekend featured a tough but exciting double OT 2-1 win over Kent State (KSUcks!) and a 3-0 beatdown of Buffalo. After the UA football-esque start to the season, the lady Zips are now 6-10-1 (4-5-1 in MAC) and have clinched a spot in the MAC tournament with these two latest victories. Overall, the team is playing better defensively, but still looks sloppy on offense.

Football:
It is my obligation as a blogger to write about the football team, so I will; but this is getting tiring. Not only do I look dumb for predicting 6 wins this season, but the embarrassment is gradually getting worse week by week. At 0-4, after a close game with Indiana, there was hope that things would change once MAC play began. Last week, at 0-7, we became the first team in the FBS to become bowl ineligible; and last but not least, this Saturday against 2-4 Western Michigan...

You see? I can hardly even bring myself to say it. Suffice it to say we lost pretty handily. As in, 56-10 handily. As in, our only touchdown came on a 57 yard fumble recovery from Brian Wagner handily. As in, Patrick Nicely decided to toss the ball to a waiting defender in the endzone for 6 points rather than take a safety for 2 points handily.

Yuck.

The effort from the secondary on Saturday was nonexistent. Western Michigan's freshman QB Alex Carter was 17-24 for 372 yards and 5 touchdowns. What about Patrick Nicely? Well, he was an impressive 12-24 for 120 yards and an interception. I should also probably mention that one of those passes went for 56 yards. Without that pass, Nicely was 11-23 for 64 yards and an interception.

In case you haven't been following along, here is the Nicely/Rodgers comparison at this point in the season:

Patrick Nicely-103/244, 1048 YDS, 3 TD, 9 INT, 86.4 RAT
Matt Rodgers-7/11, 95 YDS, 2 TD, INT, 178.0 RAT


As always, I am including the performance of this year's MVP of the team:
Zack Campbell-6 punts, 233 YDS

At 0-8 (0-4 in MAC), the Zips are easily in the bottom 5 of the nation and easily the worst in the MAC.

Next week is an away game at 6-2 Temple.

Yep.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Roo News 10/21/10

1) Sorry for taking so long with this update. Am I the only one that's still having midterms 2/3 of the way through the semester? Please tell me I'm not alone....

2) Michigan has a new Ohio opponent. Kofi Sarkodie's hat trick led the Zips men's soccer team to a 7-1 victory over Michigan on Tuesday. I'll pause for a second to let that sink in...

That's right. 7-1. The first Akron goals came in the 10th and 18th minutes, both from Sarkodie. Michigan made it close with a 32nd minute goal off of a free kick. That lasted two minutes. The Zips scored in the 35th, 55th, 77th, 80th, and 89th minutes.

A frustrated Michigan team just got downright dirty in the second half, registering two yellows and two horribly flagrant slide tackles that resulted in red cards. They also had one yellow in the first half.


3) Some notes from Zips football coach Rob Ianello during his weekly press conference this week:

- The coaching staff does not plan on burning any redshirts for the remainder of the season.

- After being reminded of the team's awful pass defense, and that this Saturday's opponent Western Michigan is a pass-heavy team, Ianello said he believes that the Broncos will come out and run.

- Gary Pride is having issues with his ankle, further limiting Nicely's receiving options.

- The biggest issue for our young wide receivers is adjusting to no longer being one of the best on the team.

- Wants us to start doing the things that good football teams do (d'oh!). Said that if we execute well this week, we'll (cough) start taking steps in a positive direction. A single win would be nice...

- Is confident that things will be much better the second time around due to familiarity. Personally, I'm still not sure that firing Brookhart was a good idea, but at least it was done quickly so that the players could get used to Ianello's offseason system.

4) SportsTime Ohio comes through again, saving all the fans of the MAC schools from only seeing their teams on television once a year. A total of 34 basketball games (men's and women's) will be shown on STO during the 2010-2011 season. Another 13 will be nationally televised on ESPN.

For the Zips, three women's games will be shown, all home games:
01/08/11: Ohio @ Akron, 12pm
01/22/11: Eastern Michigan @ Akron, 5pm
02/12/11: Ball State @ Akron, 5pm

Seven men's games will be shown on STO, and one on ESPNU (denoted below):
11/24/10: Cleveland State @ Akron, 7pm
01/08/11: Kent State @ Akron, 7pm
01/16/11: Akron @ Buffalo, 2pm
01/22/11: Bowling Green @ Akron, 7:30pm
01/26/11: Akron @ Northern Illinois, 7:30pm
01/30/11: Central Michigan @ Akron, 6pm, ESPNU
02/09/11: Western Michigan @ Akron, 7:30pm
02/12/11: Ball State @ Akron, 7:30pm

The MAC quarterfinals and semifinals will also be shown on STO, while the championship will once again air on ESPN2. You can see the full listing here.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Roo News 10/17/10

1) I'll just get this over with. The football team lost 38-10 yesterday to Ohio. This makes them 0-7, 0-3 in the MAC. The game was never close (24-0 at one point); and once again, Akron's statline is horrible. Let's start with rushing.

Rushing:
Nate Burney-12 CAR, 32 YDS
Alex Allen-7 CAR, 29 YDS
Patrick Nicely-3 CAR, 43 YDS
Matt Rodgers-1 CAR, 5 YDS

The big question here is, why is Alex Allen only carrying the ball 7 times? I'm not saying Burney's a bad running back. He should definitely be getting some carries; but Alex Allen has proven himself to be the better (or at least more useful) back at this point.

Receiving:
Richard Hall-4 REC, 48 YDS
Alex Allen-4 REC, 25 YDS
Antoine Russell-3 REC, 54 YDS
Gary Pride-3 REC, 14 YDS
Jalil Carter-2 REC, 25 YDS
Nate Burney-2 REC, 18 YDS
Austin Bailey-2 REC, 13 YDS
Anthony Meriwether-1 REC, 9 YDS

I like this. With Jeremy LaFrance beat up, it's good to see that we have some people stepping up.

Passing:
Patrick Nicely-16/29, 159 YDS, 2 INT
Matt Rodgers-5/5, 47 YDS, TD

I would never have guessed that Nicely would have the kind of season that he's having. I think it's time for a quarterback change. At 0-7, Ianello doesn't have to worry about position consistency now. I was one of the first to jump on the Nicely bandwagon, but this is the second time that Rodgers has come in (we had 3 points on both occasions) and led a nice drive for a touchdown. He's earned his chance.

And now for the running "punter is better than the rest of the team" joke:

Punting:
Zack Campbell-5 punts, 187 YDS

Here's an awful interview from Ianello:

We didn't play well on offense. I don't think we played well on defense, and we didn't play very well on special teams. I didn't see anything we did well out here today. It's my job to motivate the team. It's my job to get the team ready to play, and it didn't appear to me today that we were ready to play, for whatever reason. I don't know whether it was a hangover from last week (rivalry game at Kent State) or not. I would hate to think that.

Coach, your team hasn't been ready to play for six straight games and you're ticked when they don't show up for a seventh? It's time to stop trying to win this season and start thinking about not starting 0-7 next season.

2) Buffalo didn't stand a chance. Darren Mattocks' hat trick yesterday allowed the Zips men's soccer team to cruise to a 4-0 victory. The Zips outshot the Bulls 22-2. Neither of Buffalo's two shots were close. Oh yeah, also, Buffalo didn't have a single corner kick. After this specimen of domination, the Zips are 4-0 at home, outscoring opponents 15-0. The other Zips goal (and the first goal, coming in the 21st minute) came from Michael Nanchoff, who now has four on the season. Mattocks has 10. Here are the highlights:


Akron is now 11-0-1.

3) The volleyball team fell to 13-7 (5-3) after dropping in three sets to Western Michigan. Next up are two home matches against Central Michigan (7-11, 1-5 in MAC) and Eastern Michigan (17-6, 4-2 in MAC).

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Men's Soccer Wins Again

Penn State put up a fight, but the #1 Akron Zips men's soccer team pulled out a 2-1 victory in double overtime yesterday. This game was the closest we have seen this year in terms of shots (17-15 Akron), shots on goal (6-4 Akron), and corner kicks (9-4 Penn State). Penn State's only goal came in the 6th minute, right before Darlington Nagbe fired back with his fourth goal of the season just one minute and four seconds later.

How's that for a comeback?

Michael Nanchoff scored the game winning penalty in the second OT after Darlington Nagbe was taken out in the box. It was his third goal of the year. Also, news flash: Coach Porter finally shows some emotion!


Did you see the hint of a cocky smirk when he answered? Who knew he had it in him?

This win moves the Zips to 10-0-1 (man, that Ohio State tie just sticks in the craw, doesn't it?) and are now 57-0-1 under Coach Porter when scoring two goals in a match (man, that Ohio State tie just stick in the craw, doesn't it?)

The men's soccer team also has the lone sporting event of the weekend when they play visiting Buffalo (5-6-1) Saturday night at 7:30.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Catching Up 10/10/10

Another busy week for me, another attempt to catch readers up on everything that happened this last week.

Men's Soccer:
After defeating Northern Illinois 1-0 earlier this week, the #1 men's soccer team now stands at 9-0-1 (3-0-0 in MAC). Goalkeeper David Meves and Hermann candidate midfielder Anthony Ampaipatakwong are a bit beaten up at the moment, but the reserves are filling in superbly. Backup keeper Anthony Ponikvar stepped into the game against NIU to record 5 saves in 40 minutes, keeping the Huskies without a goal. Next up is a game at Penn State.

Volleyball:
The volleyball team crushed Buffalo in three sets, but fell in five to Toledo yesterday. They are still 13-5 (5-1 in MAC). A tough road trip to 17-2 (3-1) Northern Illinois and 12-5 (3-1) Western Michigan is next.

Women's Soccer:
At least with their 3-10-0 (1-5-0) record, they have one more win than Kent State and Buffalo combined. The lady Zips are continuing with their poor offensive play, much of which is caused by poor control of the ball. They looked great in the 1-0 loss to Northern Illinois on Friday, but gave up two goals early against Western Michigan earlier today before falling 3-1. Next up are away matches against Bowling Green and Miami.

Football:


The defense was spectacular against Kent State yesterday. Two of Kent State's touchdowns came from Akron turnovers. The worst part about the game was that Akron had a lot of chances to win it in the fourth quarter; and as has been the case this year, the offense was fired up enough to punch out the following drives in the final quarter:

3 plays, 7 yards, fumble
5 plays, 7 yards, punt
3 plays, 4 yards, fumble
2 plays, 15 yards, interception
1 play, 0 yards, interception

The bad: See above, and Patrick Nicely (16-33, 133 YDS, 3 INT)

The decent: Alex Allen (14 CAR, 51 YDS, TD) and Jeremy LaFrance (6 REC, 75 YDS)

The great: Zack Campbell (7 punts, 321 YDS)

On the bright side, they still have a chance to become bowl eligible.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Catching Up 10/4/10

The last few blog entries have been a bit chaotic, so it's time to check on the status of all the major Zips sports, from best to worst.

Men's Soccer:
What's not to love about Caleb Porter and the men's soccer team? They sit at 7-0-1, #1 in the country, and have outscored the #2, #3, and #4 teams in the nation 9-0, with only the matchup against #2 Tulsa at Lee Jackson Field. The only danger for a while is the away matchup against Northern Illinois this Saturday. The Huskies are a physical team that always put up a good fight.

Volleyball:
After winning nine games in a row, they now sit at 12-4 (4-0 in MAC play). The Zips face a tough away matchup against 13-7 (1-3) Buffalo before returning home to play 5-9 (0-4) Toledo.

Women's Soccer:
The preseason favorites of the MAC East Conference are now 3-8-0 (1-3-0 in the MAC), with two home games (Northern Illinois and Western Michigan) this weekend.

Football:
They're 0-5, and in the bottom 10 of everybody's mind. The football team is an absolute laughingstock thus far, and Rob Ianello is urging for patience from the fans. I, for one, am not sure how he sees improvement in giving up six straight touchdown drives in multiple games this year; and with Patrick Nicely throwing 127 yards a game, they aren't going anywhere soon.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

0-5...

50-14.

Northern Illinois is a great team this year. But 50-14? I am bewildered. I have no idea where to begin. I suppose I'll start with this:

Northern Illinois-Rushing: 228 YDS
Akron-Total Offense: 257 YDS

The biggest cheer in the stadium came during a replay of Domenik Hixon's game-winning TD catch from the MAC Championship 5 years ago.

The offense was terrible. The defense was terrible. The only good thing during that game yesterday was the soft pretzel I bought at halftime. Oh, and:

Zack Campbell-7 Punts, 255 YDS
Alex Allen-14 CAR, 99 YDS, 2 TD

The only two Akron touchdowns came from a muffed punt on the 11 yard line (capped by a 1 yard run from Allen), and a drive consisting of three runs from Allen (74, 0, 1). Here are the rest of the drives:

6 plays, 16 yards, punt
3 plays, 6 yards, punt
7 plays, 26 yards, punt
3 plays, 8 yards, punt
1 play, 0 yards, interception
6 plays, 41 yards, missed field goal
3 plays, 3 yards, punt
7 plays, 7 yards, punt
7 plays, 37 yards, punt
5 plays, 18 yards, interception

But we have soccer.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

No NCAA Record

Despite leading in shots (25-16), shots on target (11-8), and corner kicks (8-1), the men's soccer team drew with Ohio State 2-2 yesterday, failing to set the NCAA record for consecutive shutouts. The Zips instead share the record of 11 consecutive shutouts with Furman and Virginia.

The Buckeyes scored in the 30th minute to ruin the record, but Michael Nanchoff tied it at 1-1 with a penalty kick after Darlington Nagbe was taken out in the box. Darren Mattocks scored his fourth of the year in the 68th, which would have been the game winner if not for a crazy Buckeyes goal with 89:57 on the clock. Yeah...three seconds left in the game (no extra time in college).


An interesting stat: Ohio State was called offsides 8 times.

The Zips return to MAC play tomorrow at 5:30 against the Florida Atlantic Owls, who have yet to win on the road this year. The women's team then follows at 8:00 against Ball State. Fans attending the men's game can stay to watch the women for free.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Better...

As expected, the Zips football squad lost to Indiana yesterday. Also as expected, the margin of victory was less than three touchdowns. Not as expected, we very well could have won that game. The final score was 35-20, but had Jeremy LaFrance not dropped a pass in the endzone on a 4th and 1 play, the game would have been 35-27 with 6 minutes left. 'Twas not to be. Dropped passes are killing the passing game this year.

The defense looked more like I had predicted before the season began. The veteran D-Line and linebacking corps held Indiana to just 84 rushing yards, but the secondary gave up 342 yards and four touchdowns through the air.

Patrick Nicely looked a little better, throwing over 50% (15-27) for 175 yards and 2 touchdowns. I'm glad Ianello stuck with Nicely. I still think he'll be great for the next two years if he can figure out how to be a pocket passer.

Check out the receiving stats:

Gary Pride: 4 REC, 54 YDS
Jalil Carter: 3 REC, 34 YDS
Jeremy LaFrance: 2 REC, 46 YDS, 2 TD
Rhyne Ladrach: 2 REC, 13 YDS
Alex Allen: 1 REC, 19 YDS
Antoine Russell: 1 REC, 7 YDS
Austin Bailey: 1 REC, 3 YDS
Nate Burney: 1 REC, -1 YD

Teams are figuring out that shutting down Jeremy LaFrance shuts down the passing game, so it's nice to see Gary Pride and Jalil Carter stepping up (just a little bit). Just imagine if LaFrance had made that catch with 6 minutes left in the game...3 REC, 80 YDS, 3 TD...ah, what could have been. But wait, there's more!

Rushing:
Alex Allen: 13 CAR, 80 YDS
Nate Burney: 9 CAR, 62 YDS
Gary Pride: 3 CAR, 16 YDS
Patrick Nicely: 5 CAR, 2 YDS

I can finally stop talking about the golden days with Dennis Kennedy! We may actually have a running game here, folks! We'll see what happens when MAC play begins next week, but averaging 6 yards a carry against a Big Ten team (albeit a pretty bad Big Ten team) is a good sign.

Zack Campbell had another great day punting (3 punts, 109 yards) and The Ever Dependable Igor (the stats are right here in front of my face, but I'm still having trouble believing this) made both of his field goal attempts, from 45 and 29 yards.

You can't hear them, but here are Ianello's post-game thoughts:


The Zips return home next Saturday to begin conference play against Northern Illinois. I'll preview that game on Friday.

In overshadowed Zips news, the volleyball team annihilated Miami (Ohio) yesterday, winning 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-12). This win makes nine straight, and the 10-4 record is the first time Akron volleyball has started this well since 2002.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Roo News 9/25/10

1) I'm not going to bother with a big football preview this week. I haven't given up on the Zips' chances, though. The last two games against Indiana have been reasonably close (38-21 in 2009 and 41-24 in 2007). Heck, Western Kentucky put up a fight against the Hoosiers last week. On top of that, the last time the Zips were 0-3, they won 6 of the next 7. On the other hand, the Zips haven't won on the road since 2008. The game's at 7 o'clock on the Big Ten Network.

2) But we have soccer! That motto is going to stick even more after the men's soccer team embarrassed #2 Tulsa 4-0 yesterday. All three of Akron's Hermann candidates scored, along with Perry Kitchen. The Zips have now downed...no, shutout...no, outscored 9-0 the #2, #3, and #4 teams in the nation. How's that for a team? The Zips now have a streak of 11 straight games with a shutout, tied for the longest in NCAA history.

The game was 2-0 within the first 13 minutes, and Tulsa never got on track. The Golden Hurricane (what exactly does their mascot look like?) were outshot 20-8, only one of their shots came near David Meves, and the Zips hit the crossbar three times. They hit the crossbar three times! This game could have been 7-0! Tulsa is the #2 team in the country! Anyway...Caleb Porter?


The Zips have a chance to set a new NCAA record for a shutout streak at Ohio State on Wednesday.

3) For every incredible win the men's soccer team pulls off, the women's soccer team gets annihilated. I did not see this coming. They were bulldozed by Central Michigan 3-0 in their MAC opener. The Zips are now 2-6-0 and have dropped to fifth in the MAC East. They travel to Ypsilanti on Sunday to face Eastern Michigan before returning to Akron on Friday for a doubleheader with the men.

4) The volleyball team improved to 9-4 after crushing Bowling Green yesterday. I was able to see the first set before I hiked over to the soccer game, which turned out to be the most exciting. The sets were 27-25, 25-23, and 25-16, all in favor of the Zips. They have another game today against Miami (Ohio) at 7.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Roo News 9/20/10

1) While I expected the football team to lose to Kentucky this weekend, I didn't expect them to lose it this badly. The final score was 47-10. It's no surprise that Kentucky put up 47, but I'm still in disbelief that we were held to 3 points until there was a minute left in the game. The Zips used to have an offense...

This will be short.

KY-Total Rushing-290 YDS
AKR-Total Yards-172 YDS

That just about sums it up. Patrick Nicely was 4/19 for 57 yards. Matt Rodgers came in at the end of the game to throw the Zips' only touchdown. He was 2/5 for 48 yards. Does this mean Rodgers is the better quarterback? I still don't think so; but he is probably the better quarterback for Ianello's new pro-style system. Nicely has played out of the shotgun since high school. He's a very good shotgun quarterback, which we all saw last year. It's very tough to take a shotgun-oriented QB and turn him into a pocket passer.

The game against Gardner-Webb showed that the Zips can get it done on offense, but only if Alex Allen and Nate Burney have early success. The receivers (other than LaFrance) on this year's team really aren't capable of making plays. Nicely (or Rodgers) needs some help.

And I'm still not sure what's going on with the defense. They looked great early on in the game, when it was 6-3 Kentucky midway through the 2nd quarter. Then the Wildcats scored six consecutive touchdowns. Here are the rest of the stats.

2) The #1 men's soccer team defeated Cincinnati 1-0 yesterday, moving to 5-0-0 on the season. Akron dominated for a large portion of the game (no surprise there), outshooting Cincinnati 12-4. The Bearcats also had 19 fouls to Akron's 6. The lone goal of the game came off of an Ampaipatakwong free kick.

For those with Fox Soccer, tune in Friday night for the game against Tulsa. It's going to be a good one.

3) The women's soccer team dropped to 2-5-0 after losing to Long Beach State 4-1.

4) The volleyball team defeated both Connecticut and Cornell on Saturday, sweeping the Colgate Invitational. The sweep puts their record at 8-4, second in the MAC East.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Roo News 9/18/10

If you're wondering why there was no football preview for this week, it's because I'm still in disbelief over last week's loss to Gardner-freaking-Webb.

In actuality, my professors have flogged me with work this week, and I was sick yesterday night, which is when I normally would have posted the preview. On to the news.

1) The football team is away at Kentucky today, with the kickoff beginning about an hour after this post. Akron is 0-4 all-time against SEC teams, this being the first meeting with the Wildcats. The good news about this season is that the last time the Zips started off 0-2 (2004), they lost a third before finishing the season 6-5. Something smells like hope...

2) The men's soccer team won their first game in the new Lee Jackson Field last night over Cal State Northridge. The game sold out (4,200) and marked the second-largest crowd in the history of Lee Jackson Field. The final score (3-0), was also the score at the end of the first half, which is when I left the game because I wasn't feeling well. The Zips outshot Northridge 10-0 in the first half. Perry Kitchen, Darlington Nagbe, and Chad Barson scored for the Zips. Caleb Porter's typically nonchalant thoughts on the game are below, and here is the box score.


3) The women's soccer team dropped to a 2-4 record after a 2-0 loss to UC Davis in the first match of the UNLV Rebel Classic.

4) The volleyball team defeated Colgate in five sets to improve to 6-4.

5) Kofi Sarkodie received MAC Male Scholar-Athlete of the Week honors for the second week in a row.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Roo News 9/12/10

1) The men's soccer team defeated Bowling Green 2-0 yesterday. Kofi Sarkodie and Darren Mattocks scored the goals. Even though Akron led the Falcons in shots 16-1 at the half, the game was scoreless until the 64th minute. Here's the box score. Anybody else looking forward to the College Cup this year?

2) This video of Ianello's post-game conference answers a few questions about yesterday's game. While I think J.D. should have been given another chance, after all the injuries last year, Ianello's top 25 recruiting ability will probably pay off in two or three years.

3) Gardner-Webb was 5-5 on touchdowns inside the red zone yesterday. This red zone defense is going really hurt us in the next two games.

4) Poll: Does the football team make it to three wins this year?