Zips Sports Blog

Week 3 Preview: Cincinnati

2011-09-17T14:43:00.002-04:00

It won't be much of a preview this week. For the last few years, the Akron/Cincinnati matchup has been close and exciting. That's not happening today.

It has been anything but a solid start for the Zips this year, who have been outscored 83-3 over the first two weeks.

83-3.

Unfortunately for Akron, Cincinnati has this interesting concept called "offense". Let's compare some of the stat leaders:

Passing:
AKR-Clayton Moore-18/42, 246 YDS, 0 TD, 2 INT
CIN-Zach Collaros-33/53, 364 YDS, 6 TD, 0 INT

Ouch.

Rushing:
AKR-Jawon Chisholm-25 CAR, 89 YDS, 0 TD
CIN-Isaiah Pead-21 CAR, 242 YDS, 3 TD

Wow.

Receiving:
AKR-Marquelo Suel-5 REC, 110 YDS, 0 TD
CIN-D.J. Woods-13 REC, 170 YDS, 1 TD

Today we may see a little more Patrick Nicely, as Moore has just looked miserably uncomfortable in his first two starts. There's a decent chance that the Zips will get some offense going, but this Akron defense (which hasn't had a sack or an interception in its first two games) is going to be slaughtered by the Bearcats.

For masochistic Akron fans like me, the game will be shown on ESPN3 at 3:30pm.

Week 2 Preview: Temple

2011-09-10T11:57:00.003-04:00

Game 2 of the three-game season-opening nightmare is upon us. The Zips open InfoCision Stadium/Summa Field today against the Temple Owls, who blew away Villanova 42-7 last week.

Temple has a potent offense led by the resurgence of junior running back Bernard Pierce. Last week, Pierce carried the ball 20 times for 147 yards and 3 TDs. We're likely to see at least two touchdowns from him today, unless quarterback Mike Gerardi's passing game does what most do against our (lack of) pass coverage. Gerardi was 14-20 for 235 yards and 2 TDs last week.

As for the Zips, it's still impossible to say. Clayton Moore looked miserable under center last week (I know, I know, it was against Ohio State), but he did lead the team in rushing...with 32 yards. After this week, we'll have a little better basis for judgement.

As for Temple's defense, I'd like to believe that our Zips are better offensively than Villanova, but in all likelihood it's probably not by much. We're likely to see a pretty similar scoreline to last week's 42-7 scrubbing of the Wildcats.

For coverage, the game will be aired exclusively on ESPN3. If you're fortunate enough to have an affiliated Internet provider, head over to WatchESPN to see it.

Football Season Preview, Part 1: Offense

2011-08-31T22:04:00.002-04:00

The season is upon us, ladies and gentlemen. In two short days, you will be able to watch your Akron Zips tremble before the might of the Ohio State Buckeyes on national television. Dare I suggest we see the first major upset of the year with this game? A boy can dream, right?

Let's kick this season off with a preview of...

The offense.

It can't possibly get worse than last year, can it? Out of 120 teams, the Zips ranked 108th in passing offense, 101st in rushing offense, and 118th in points scored. Yeesh.

Quarterback:

This year we have a serious quarterback battle on our hands, folks.

1) Patrick Nicely, a junior, and last year's starter. He struggled under Rob Ianello's new pro-style offense, completing only 49.4% of his passes for 1,753 yards, 10 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. See those horrible offensive rankings up above? This guy was a huge part of those. Through the first half of the season, Nicely showed everything but the promise of his freshman year. He rarely threw the ball well downfield, and consistently scrambled straight into a defender. Closer to the end of the year, however, he started to look a little more comfortable.

2) Clayton Moore, a JUCO sophomore, originally signed to Ole Miss. He looked a lot more composed than Nicely in the Spring game, but that's hardly a suitable method of identifying who the better quarterback will be.

3) Zach D'Orazio, a freshman that looked equally impressive in the Spring game.

Running Backs:

We will likely see Broderick Alexander carry the ball early on in the season as the only returning running back. His statistics weren't very pretty in 2009 (59 carries at 3.4 yards per carry) and he missed all of 2010 with an Achilles injury. Freshman Jawon Chisholm will almost certainly see some carries as well this year. He ran 14 times for 124 yards and two touchdowns in the Spring game.

Wide Receivers:

You probably just heard me sigh. Jeremy LaFrance is gone. Jalil Carter is gone. We're left with Antoine Russell (13 REC, 221 YDS, TD), Richard Hall (16 REC, 149 YDS, TD), and a whole bunch of nothing else. Whoever grabs the quarterback spot this year is going to need some serious help.

O-Line:

Jake Anderson and Zac Kasparek return to lead a not-as-terrible-as-every-other-position offensive line. Unfortunately, injuries throughout the Spring have left the rest of the offensive line very thin.

Roo News 8/29/11

2011-08-29T19:49:00.002-04:00

It's that time of year again. The Akron Football Zips take to the field on Saturday to take on the *gulp* #18 Ohio State Buckeyes, and the Zips Sports Blog is back in action.

There are a few changes to the blog this year. For starters, since I've graduated from the University of Akron and can't attend all of the games in person, I will no longer be able to cover soccer or volleyball like I have in the past. The good news is that I can cover football and basketball with a little more detail. You can expect a preview and a recap for each televised game this year, and I will do my best to make it to the non-televised games. Last but not least, I will be double-blogging, writing over at Akron Sports Now. Most of my posts will be duplicated there, but not all of them.

A football season preview will be up within the next couple of days, so stay tuned.

Zips Football Preseason Q&A

2011-07-10T14:38:00.004-04:00

For those that aren't aware, I was recently involved in a preseason Q&A with College Football Zealots. Check out the full article for more in-depth coverage, but here is the Q&A session itself:

In Ron Ianello's first year, Akron went 1-11 last year including an OT loss to Garner-Webb. What are your overall thoughts on Ianello and what does he need to do better this year?

I'll start by saying I was personally against the firing of previous head coach J.D. Brookhart. The man was a mastermind at adapting to situations (many Zips alumni have set records at positions that they didn't start at). He recruited very well, but he didn't recruit very deep; so when star quarterback Chris Jacquemain was dismissed from the team for an unknown repeat violation, All-MAC wide receiver Deryn Bowser broke a leg, and bruiser runningback Joe Tuzze and backup quarterback Matt Rodgers found themselves in similar situations, there was no possibility of adaptation, resulting in a 3-9 record. However, when the vast majority of the fanbase called for Brookhart's head on a platter, the athletic department was forced to do something.

I had originally thought that Rob Ianello was perfect for the team; he was a Top 25 Recruiter, and came from a solid Notre Dame squad. A lot of the horrid record is a result of a Zips squad that Ianello didn't recruit. Jacquemain, Bowser, and Tuzze, who were almost all of Akron's offense at the beginning of the year before had all graduated. On the other hand, the rest of the record is a result of terrible decision making and ridiculous playcalling; the most questionable was Ianello's decision to go with proven-terrible kicker Igor Iveljic as opposed to promising Sophomore T.J. Marchese. Had Iveljic not shanked twoextra points during the Gardner-Webb game, that spirit-breaking loss would never have happened. Another choice was a switch to a pro-style offense as opposed to the spread being run by Brookhart. In order for a pro-style offense to work, a team needs a quarterback that is comfortable in the pocket and a running back that can run straight up the middle to pick up yards. The Zips had neither of these. In order to improve, Ianello is going to need his recruiting class to fit his offense; and it wouldn't hurt to throw away those 3-yard flat routes during a 3rd and 10.

The Zips scored 15.6 points per game last year which placed them 118th out of 120 teams. Who needs to step up this year on the offensive side of the football to help get this fixed?

To say Sophomore Patrick Nicely was disappointing last year would be an understatement. Injuries and experience from the year before kept him in the top spot, but he was clearly uncomfortable passing in the pocket, and didn't show much improvement throughout the year. He ended the season with 10 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. The good news for the Zips is, somebody is going to step up this year, whether or not it is Patrick Nicely. Zach D'Orazio and junior college transfer Clayton Moore both looked solid throughout Spring practices. Newcomer running backs Jawon Chisholm (14 carries for 142 yards and 2 TDs in the Spring Game) and Marvin Staten also looked great throughout the Spring against a solid Zips linebacking corps, and if they too can step up, we'll see some offense in 2011-2012.

Akron was in the bottom 20 of the Nation for pass defense last year. Who are some newcomers that you think can come in and make an impact on those numbers?

Devonte Morgan and Johnny Robinson, fellow Glenville Tarblooders, are two very promising defensive backs in this year's recruiting class. I don't expect the pass defense to improve much this year, but with a (hopefully) improved offense comes more time of possession and less time the defense spends on the field. If the Zips can start converting some third down plays this year, that alone will improve the pass defense.

Looking at the schedule, what are the most important games this year?

The Zips start the season with three grueling games against Ohio State, Temple, and Cincinnati. Even if all three of those are lost, winning the next three against VMI, Eastern Michigan and FIU would leave them with a 3-3 record and a winning streak to carry them into heavy conference play. The Akron team we saw at the end of last season would do more than hold their own against any of those three teams, so a win in all three isn't much of a stretch for the imagination.

What is the one game on the schedule that the fanbase wants to win the most this year?

Kent State. No question. If you attend a social event on the Akron campus, at some point throughout the night you will hear one person shout the time, and the rest of the room shout back "And Kent State still sucks!" The Battle for the Wagon Wheel is an intense, heated, fairly even rivalry that will make or break a season. Although if you ask some of the Zips fanbase, they'll agree that it would be nice to win a bowl game.

What is your gut feeling on the final record for the 2011 season and what makes the season successful in your eyes?

If the Zips can sweep the three-game streak against VMI, Eastern Michigan and FIU, they can end with a 6-6 record and possibly make a bowl game. If not, they are a 3-9 team. There's no way we'll see another 1-11 season, but the Zips are not yet a contending team under Rob Ianello; there are inexperienced players at every position that are going to be severely tested this year.

LeBronCenter

2011-06-10T20:34:00.005-04:00

Hey everybody, how's it going?

First things first: I apologize for the complete lack of updates this summer. There are two reasons for this; one is that my specialties are Akron football and basketball, and I didn't (don't) know enough about the baseball team to write good articles on them. The other is that I graduated early in May after the busiest and toughest four months of my life, then had to relocate and be ready to start my new job just two weeks later. Now that all of that has been accomplished, and I've acclimated myself, the blogging will resume.

Anyway, for news.

There is none.

Well, none that I'm happy with, anyway. When I originally heard that men's basketball head coach Keith Dambrot would be on Mike & Mike in the Morning earlier today, I was stoked. How often do the Zips get a chance on national television? Unfortunately, it hit me as soon as the program started; he's only on there to talk about LeBron.

ESPN makes me sick. Watching SportsCenter today is like being drilled in the teeth. It all started after the Cavaliers' playoff loss to the Boston Celtics last year. LeBron himself nabbed the first 27 minutes of airtime discussion on SportsCenter the day after, and the trend has continued and possibly increased thanks to the Heat's long playoff run:

via awfulannouncing.com

This so-called sports news program seems to have forgotten a few things. For one, the Stanley Cup is also in progress, a dead-even 2-2 series between two teams that absolutely hate each other. The "highlights" of these games last about 2 minutes each day on SportsCenter.

For another, the USA men's soccer international team trounced Canada in the first game of the Gold Cup earlier in the week. 97% of you reading this right now are wondering what the Gold Cup is. Case in point.

The Gold Cup is a rather large soccer tournament between teams in North and Central America....well, it's a big tournament for all but one country. "Sports"Center gave a whole 15 seconds of airtime to the USA victory, squeezing in the final score during a Top Play.

Back to Dambrot...don't take this the wrong way. I love the guy. He's an incredible basketball coach. There are very few college basketball teams that have the distinction of winning 20 games each of the last six seasons, and even less that can claim five consecutive conference championship appearances.

BUT.

Keith Dambrot, head coach of the University of Akron men's basketball team, went on a national sports talk show, and talked about LeBron. Defended LeBron.

I get it...he was LeBron's basketball coach in high school. I understand that. Head to the Mike & Mike in the Morning homepage to hear the interview if you want, but I can describe it to you here:

Q: What's up with LeBron only scoring 11 points in the fourth quarter through this entire series?

A: Jason Terry's too quick.

Or something like that.

For as well as the basketball team has done in the last few years (including putting up a fight against Gonzaga and Notre Dame in two NCAA tournaments), the head coach just received more airtime in one show talking about LeBron James than he has talking about his very successful mid-major basketball program in five years.

That is legitimately disappointing.

Roo News 4/17/11

2011-04-17T21:48:00.002-04:00

Football:

Playing under a special scoring format, the Akron Zips offense defeated the defense 82-36 yesterday. It was a little more of a blowout than I expected, but the fact the offense outperformed the defense doesn't surprise me at all. The Zips have never had a shutdown defense, generally allowing the opposition to pick up a few first downs before having them punt it away.

All three quarterbacks played very well:

Last year's disappointing starter Patrick Nicely threw 7-11 for 103 yards. Junior college transfer Clayton Moore was 11-14 for 122 yards with a touchdown, and Zach D'Orazio threw 5-8 for 127 yards and a touchdown.

It looks a tad better for Moore (D'Orazio's yardage is a little misleading; one of his five passes was a 77 yard touchdown) than the others, but Nicely's experience is the most important item on his résumé.

I would point out how great it is that the quarterbacks combined completed 23 of 33 passes for 352 yards and two touchdowns, but we all saw how miserable our pass defense was last year.

Here's some better, less misleading statistics:

Jawon Chisholm (who?) was named the offensive MVP...for his 14 carries, 124 yards, and two rushing touchdowns. Last year's rushing defense wasn't nearly as bad as the secondary, and with the worries over the rushing game, this is very good news. On top of Chisholm, freshman Marvin Staten ran 14 times for 50 yards.

On the defensive side, safety L.T. Smith had 10 tackles, and cornerback Bill Alexander had eight. Last year's team leader in the tackling department, Brian Wagner, only had four; a testament to the performance of the offensive line and running backs.

Men's Soccer:

When did Lee Jackson Field become Cub Cadet Field? I completely missed that one.

The men's soccer team tied Xavier 2-2 yesterday in a Spring Exhibition game at....Cub Cadet....Field. That sounds awful. While we're at it, why don't we rename Jacob's Field to Progressive Field?

The Zips goals were scored courtesy of Darren Mattocks and Scott Caldwell. Mattocks ended the day with four shots and three on goal.

I know these are just exhibition games, but the ties are worrying me. With seven new starters, and the results to date in the Spring schedule, I hold no hope of a repeat championship, and I highly doubt that the team will make it back to the College Cup.

Valparaiso is next up on Wednesday, at 7:30pm, at good old Lee....Cadet Field.

Roo News 4/5/11

2011-04-05T12:21:00.003-04:00

Alright, we're back from a hiatus and ready to get back into some Zips sporty goodness, or something like that. I vow to have a new post up every couple of days, so keep checking back.

Men's Basketball:

From Matt Sussman over at Hustle Belt:

As you can see, the loss of Brett McKnight, Darryl Roberts, Steve McNees and Mike Bardo is going to hurt the team in terms of last year's performance. However, based on Keith Dambrot's track record, I highly doubt that the Zips' losses will correspond with those red boxes. This is the most likely lineup for next year (at this point):

C - Zeke Marshall

PF - Nikola Cvetinovic

SF/SG - Brett McClanahan

SF/SG - Quincy Diggs

PG - Alex Abreu

With as much playing time as Diggs and Abreu received, most notably in the MAC and NCAA tournaments, this lineup doesn't worry me one bit, and very well may end up being more effective than this year's. The big worry is the bench. Other than Euton and Egner, nobody on next year's bench will have received more than a miniscule fraction of playing time.

As for transfers Chauncey Gilliam and Brian Walsh, I'm assuming that both will begin on the bench and work their way into one of Dambrot's many starting lineups when the team hits conference play.

Football:

The team has now had 8 Spring practices, and has been working on execution of the 2-minute drill. Here's Offensive Coordinator John Latina's take on it:

Random Oddness: Our Offensive Coordinator's last name means "a female from Latin America" in Spanish.

Roo News 3/29/11

2011-03-29T10:07:00.002-04:00

Football:

The team has now been through four practices, and play their Spring game on April 16th. According to head coach Rob Ianello, the coaching staff is being smart about how hard they work the limited number of both offensive and defensive linemen.

Men's Soccer:

Now 3-1 in their Spring exhibition schedule, the Zips took down Michigan and Oakland, both 1-0 victories. The goals were scored by Chad Barson and a new transfer from Loyola-Chicago, Kayvon Afsarifard. I am only slightly worried that the only goals came from defensive players, as teams are not nearly as aggressive in exhibition play.

The "new Zips", with 7 new starters, play a home exhibition against Maryland on Saturday at 2pm.

Roo News 3/17/11

2011-03-17T14:54:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the delay, folks. Research project and blogging logistics...you know, the usual.

1) You've heard about it by now, but the Zips won the MAC Championship game and have advanced to the NCAA tournament, the only team from the MAC to do so. They've been seeded #15 and play the #2 seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish tomorrow at 1:30pm on TBS. It's going to be a long shot, obviously, but as Kevin Garnett would say...

One of those moments that almost make you like the guy, until you remember he's a complete and total idiot on the basketball court.

2) It's amazing what a single 9-block game will do for a guy. Zeke Marshall went from being a completely overrated pickup for Akron, to a "major talent", who Akron "hit it big" with. Now, looking at this as a huge Akron fan, I'm kind of pumped; but from an unbiased perspective, I'm not so sure he's a major talent at this point. In two years, yes, and I absolutely can't wait to see it. But when a 7-footer averages just 3.9 rebounds a game....

3) Here's a neat read on the Zips men's soccer picks in the MLS SuperDraft. I was really surprised to see Ampaipatakwong go so low, but I really hope the system fits him at San Jose.

No Title Can Describe That Game

2011-03-11T10:18:00.002-05:00

Keith Dambrot and the Akron Zips deserve an accolade for yesterday's 82-75 double OT victory in the MAC Quarterfinals. Nothing was going the Zips' way.

Akron started the game with incredible defense, leading 26-10 halfway through. Miami shot a lousy 4-22 in the first half, setting a new MAC tournament record for fewest points scored in the first half. The Zips started the second half with the same intensity, quickly increasing the lead to 20 points. That was when the Redhawks began to pick it up, shooting 15-27 the rest of the game. With over 8 minutes left to play, Nikola Cvetinovic fouled out by lightly breathing on Julian Mavunga, the MAC's version of an NBA superstar. Zeke Marshall also had 4 fouls at this time.

Speaking of the Marshmallow, give him some serious credit for the way he played yesterday's game. Dambrot was forced to play him with Cvetinovic out so early on. He played with tremendous poise, avoiding the fifth foul until 1:20 remained on the clock.

Now before I get to the end of the game and the two overtimes, I need to point out exactly how bad MAC officials are. There were plenty of horrendous calls throughout the game, but the worst of those all went towards Miami and LeBron Mavunga. Or maybe Julian Wade. Amar'e Stoudevunga? (By the way, he shot 19 free throws in this game).

1) Mavunga, under the hoop, shouldered Mike Bardo so hard it dislodged him from his position. The result? Two free throws for Mavunga.

2) Brett McKnight, standing behind Mavunga as he shot a layup, reached up and pulled the ball out of his hands. The ball rolled back to him. The only way this could have happened is if McKnight had made contact with the top of the ball. Mavunga's hands, obviously, were on each side. The result? Two free throws for Mavunga.

3) In the second overtime, McKnight stole the ball from a Redhawk player underneath the Akron basket. He immediately went for the layup. Miami's Quinten Rollins slammed his arm down in the middle of McKnight's arms hard enough to send the 6'7" power forward careening to the ground, nearly head-first. The slap was nowhere close to the ball. Intentional foul, right? That's two free throws AND possession to Akron, right? Nope. That's a normal foul. That kind of stuff is normal. Happens every day.

Now that I've vented my frustration for basketball officiating as a whole...

After a back and forth first overtime, the Zips found themselves down 75-74 in the second with 3:21 to play. After Mavunga bricked two free throws, Alex Abreu was left wide open for a three, which he promptly drained. After two more Miami misses, and two more Miami missed free throws, Brett McClanahan sealed the deal with another 3-pointer, putting the Zips up 80-75 with :32 left.

McClanahan finished with a team-leading 20 points, a team-leading 9 rebounds, an assist and a steal. I am so glad we have this guy next year.

Brett McKnight also had an incredible game, with 16 points, 6 rebounds, an assist and 2 steals. He finished the double-overtime game with only 2 fouls. I am not glad we don't have this guy next year.

Cvetinovic ended with 10 points and 7 rebounds. I'd have loved to see his stats if he hadn't fouled out 18 minutes before the game's end.

The Zips play Western Michigan at 7pm tonight on STO. I'm a little worried about the fatigue level through the rest of this tournament, but the good news is Cvetinovic and Marshall are better-rested than the rest of the Zips, thanks to fouling out early.

Watch out, Western Michigan. Akron is a heckuva lot better than a 6 seed.

MAC Quarterfinals

2011-03-10T11:17:00.002-05:00

Alright, this is getting hectic. Here's a quick recap/preview of Tuesday's/today's MAC First Round/Quarterfinal game.

I said that the Zips would defeat Eastern Michigan if they had a passing game. The Zips had a passing game. They won. Alex Abreu led the team with 5 assists, and it was a very well-played team game all-around. Four Zips players were between the 10-13 point range. Zeke Marshall grabbed 9 rebounds to lead the team in that department, along with 3 blocks.

Also of note, the appearance of Steve McNees in Tuesday's game placed him at the top of the list in career games played, with 137 (he ties Chris McKnight).

With that win, the Zips advance to the quarterfinals, in a televised 2:30pm match with Miami (Ohio). Akron lost on Miami's home court earlier this season, but made up for it with a 17-point beatdown at the JAR just a couple of weeks ago.

The good news is, Keith Dambrot is a tournament master with the Zips. Not only are the Zips 3-0 in opening round games under Dambrot, but 13-5 overall. Their record in the MAC tournament without him under the helm? A measly 1-7. However, that tournament mastery seems to end with the title game, as the Zips have dropped 3 of 4 MAC championships.

Tune in to STO in just a couple of hours. Or set your DVR. It's gonna be a good one.

The MAC Tournament Begins

2011-03-08T08:03:00.002-05:00

Akron has grabbed the No. 6 seed in the conference tournament, earning a home first round game against 9-21 Eastern Michigan. If the Zips win, they advance to the second round (hosted in Quicken Loans Arena) to play the Miami (Ohio) Redhawks.

When these two teams met in the season, the Eagles took a 60-56 victory. Nik Cvetinovic grabbed a monstrous 16 rebounds, but the Zips were out-assisted 17-7 (very typical). If Akron can actually get a passing game going, this game will be a no-brainer.

The game is at 7pm, untelevised, so head out to the JAR for a good game.

Thus The Winning Streak Ends

2011-03-02T10:29:00.002-05:00

The men's basketball team did a marvelous job of stopping Nick Kellogg and Tommy Freeman from three-point range yesterday, holding them to 0-4 and 1-6, respectively. However, they forgot all about D.J. Cooper, who went off for 8-13 shooting (7-10 from beyond the arc) to lead the game with 25 points. Oh, and he also had 9 assists.

I guess I forgot the mention that the Zips lost 80-55 TO THE BOBCATS! What is it about these guys? They're 17-13 yet they've managed to steamroll us through both games this year, not to mention taking the MAC Championship out of our hands the previous season.

Alex Abreu led the Zips with 11 points off of 4-6 shooting (3-3 from 3-pt range). Unfortunately he forgot how to pass the ball...0 assists, 5 turnovers.

Brett McKnight followed with 10 points, from 4-9 shooting (2-6 from 3-pt range). No other Zips scored more than 8.

Zeke Marshall had a decent 8 points off of 3-5 shooting, and also sent 3 balls into the stands to set the school block record in a single season. Congratulations, Zeke. Now get some rebounds.

Speaking of which, Brett McKnight and Quincy Diggs led the team in rebounding yesterday with...3 rebounds each...and facepalms ensue. The team as a whole was outrebounded 40-21. That's just embarassing.

Just in case I haven't done a well-enough job of describing exactly how bad this game was, here's a line from GoZips.com recap:

The Zips would begin to crawl back into the game after trailing 54-24 with 15:38 to go. Akron used a 7-0 run over the next three-plus minutes to cut the OU advantage to 54-31 with 12:20 on the second-half clock. The Zips would not reduce the lead any further.

The next Zips game is Friday against Kent State. It will be televised nationally on ESPN2 at 7pm. Tune in to watch KSUck.

Roo News, 3/1/11

2011-03-01T10:53:00.002-05:00

1) The full football schedule has been released, although since the non-conference schedule was already out, there aren't any real surprises.

Sat, Sept. 3 @Ohio State

Sat, Sept. 10 Temple

Sat, Sept. 17 @Cincinnati

Sat, Sept. 24 VMI

Sat, Oct. 1 @Eastern Michigan

Sat, Oct. 8 FIU

Sat, Oct. 22 Ohio

Sat, Oct. 29 Central Michigan

Thu, Nov. 3 @Miami (Ohio) ESPNU

Sat, Nov. 12 Kent State

Sat, Nov. 19 @Buffalo

Fri, Nov. 25 @Western Michigan ESPNU

Other than the quick Thursday away game (after a home game just a few days before) the schedule looks great. The team will almost certainly start 0-3 (although it's always a close game with Cincinnati), but if Ianello can keep them focused after those three games, what should be easy wins against VMI, Eastern Michigan and FIU follow. A 3-3 Akron Zips team at that point is a very realistic possibility. After that it's a matter of taking control of the home games against Ohio, Central Michigan and Kent State. Three wins there (or during the three late away games) would make us bowl eligible for the first time since 2005.

Also, why is this the year that the only televised games are away games? For three years I've gotten into games for free for being a student, and almost all of the televised games have been home games. Now they switch? Criminal.

2) For the second time this season, Nikola Cvetinovic was named the MAC East Player of the Week. He's been marvelous lately, shooting 66.7% from the floor and an incredible (compared to the last two years) 88.2% from the free throw line (15-17).

3) Speaking of the men's basketball team, they take their 7-game win streak to Ohio today at 7pm. This is going to be a great game, so it's a real disappointment that it's not being televised. The Horizon League televises its games for free online. Hear that, MAC? Probably not.

The key to this game will lie in the matchup between Alex Abreu and Ohio's D.J. Cooper. These two are both flashy point guards, and last time Cooper completely outplayed Abreu, dishing out a ridiculous 15 assists.

As much trouble as the Bobcats generally give us, our three-point defense has improved tremendously from the last matchup, when Nick Kellogg and Tommy Freeman together shot 11-17 from beyond the arc.

4) The women's basketball team also has a big game, coming tomorrow at home against Kent State. Even though KSUcks, their women's basketball team currently stands at 19-8. Kara Murphy, the Zips' only senior, will be honored at halftime.

Charlie Coles Is Hilarious

2011-02-24T10:53:00.005-05:00

In yesterday's post, I said the keys to the game against Miami (Ohio) would be defending the three-pointer and keeping Julian Mavunga out of the paint. The Redhawks were held to 5-23 (21.7%) shooting from beyond the arc. Julian Mavunga scored just 14 points, only getting to the line 6 times (in comparison with 15 the last time these two teams met).

The Zips won 72-55. And they look like the Zips that we've seen for the last few years.

Nik Cvetinovic once again gets my game MVP award. 21 points, from 8-11

shooting (5-6 from the line), 9 rebounds, 3 assists (and 3 turnovers), and just 2 personal fouls in 30 minutes.

Brett McKnight was a bit shaky in the post, but finished with 15 points on 6-12 shooting and 6 rebounds.

Alex Abreu's stats don't look too flashy (8 points, 3-4 shooting, 3 assists), but he single-handedly brought the Zips into this game. Akron missed 10 out of their first 13 shots and just looked groggy until Abreu sank two three-pointers.

Brett McClanahan had a bad day, shooting 0-4 and not grabbing a single rebound. Quincy Diggs started rough, but made a clutch steal near the end that kept the momentum in Akron's favor.

Lastly, Miami head coach Charlie Coles is flippin' awesome. I think I'm in love with that old codger.

Not only are the Redhawks a well-coached, well-disciplined team, but even in the midst of losing badly near the end of last night's game, Coles was fist-pumping and joking around with the AK Rowdies during a "Charlie!" chant.

The next men's basketball game is home Saturday against Buffalo at 7pm. Seniors Brett McKnight, Darryl Roberts, Steve McNees and Mike Bardo will be recognized.

Jam The JAR

2011-02-23T10:36:00.002-05:00

The Zips are returning for two home games this week at the perfect time; riding a 5-game win streak. The first game is tonight at 7pm against Miami (Ohio).

There are still plenty of tickets available, so come watch the Zips fight for a first round bye in the MAC tournament. The first matchup between these two teams resulted in an 84-76 loss, but this is a completely different Akron team. The key will be defending the 3-point shot and keeping Julian Mavunga out of the paint. He shot 15 free throws in the last go-'round.

Creighton's Been BracketBusted

2011-02-20T18:30:00.002-05:00

The Zips capitalized on a poor-shooting game from Creighton to grab a 76-67 victory yesterday, in ESPNU's BracketBuster shindig. That makes 5 wins in a row for a team that was rather inconsistent just a few weeks ago.

Brett McKnight stepped up in a big way, shooting 9-13 for 21 points and a steal. Strangely enough, that did not come with a single rebound.

Nik Cvetinovic has been the team MVP this year in my book. He's not always there offensively (in terms of percentage), but his defensive effort and intensity never go away. He finished yesterday 7-14 for 19 points, with 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. He was also 5-6 from the free throw line, an area he struggled greatly in last year.

Another solid game from Alex Abreu: 2-4 shooting, 5-7 from the line, for 9 points, 3 assists and 2 steals, all in just 14 minutes.

And then there's Zeke Marshallow....that's probably enough said, but just in case you don't believe me: 1-6 shooting, 2 points, 3 rebounds (HE'S 7'0"!!!!), an assist, a block, and a steal. And 5 personal fouls. In 13 minutes. Holy cow.

The Zips are at home Wednesday against Miami (OH).

Zips Defeat Ball State. Twice.

2011-02-13T09:43:00.003-05:00

Men's Basketball:

The Zips have looked like a good team for the first time this year recently, and reinforced it yesterday with a 75-60 victory over Ball State. Five Akron players scored at least 10 points and Mike Bardo stepped up in Zeke Marshall's absence, who was in foul trouble for most of the game. Only playing 12 minutes didn't stop Marshall from setting the new Akron sophomore block record, now with 60 on the season.

Steve McNees led the team in scoring with 16 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. He also scored the first points off of an aggressive drive, which really set the tempo for the rest of the game.

Nikola Cvetinovic played another excellent defensive game, grabbing 8 rebounds, but also put up 13 points and nabbed 2 assists.

Brett McKnight played another game with less than 20 minutes, but scored 12 points on 3-6 shooting (3-5 from 3-point range) and grabbed 3 rebounds.

Alex Abreu was only 2-7 shooting, but played an aggressive game and ended at 7-8 from the line, with 11 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists.

Ball State was a one-man show. Jarrod Jones scored 19 points off of 9-14 shooting and grabbed 8 rebounds. They had 14 turnover's to Akron's 8.

Women's Basketball:

My DVR decided to record a grand total of 0 minutes of this game, instead of 3 hours, and I'm still feeling a bit salty about it. Not only did the lady Zips grab a 78-65 victory over Ball State, but Taylor Ruper set a new Zips record for three-pointers in a single game with 8. She shot 8-10 from beyond the arc, and 9-13 total to finish with 26 points, tying her career high.

Zips Basketball Saturday

2011-02-12T14:38:00.003-05:00

For those that don't know (because I haven't posted it...d'oh!) there's a Zips doubleheader going on today. Both the women's and men's basketball teams will be playing Ball State at home. Both games are being televised on SportsTime Ohio; the women at 5 and the men at 7:30.

Also, time for a rare Cavaliers sidenote. Go. Cavs. Holy cow, that was a great game yesterday. I sincerely hope LeBron was watching that game. Very few teams in the NBA (and definitely not the Miami Heat) are able to draw 20,000 people a night on a 20+ game losing streak. Some of the best fans in the league are in Cleveland. Enjoy your time in South Beach, LeBron. I'm sure it's worth it.

Roo News 2/3/11

2011-02-03T11:32:00.003-05:00

1) The men's basketball team lost yesterday's game at Eastern Michigan 60-56. It was a poor shooting night for both squads, with the Eagles shooting 40.8% and the Zips just 30.6%.

Eastern Michigan's Brandon Bowdry was the easy MVP of the game, shooting 9-15 for 25 points and 12 rebounds.

Nik Cvetinovic had a monster night on the boards, pulling in 16 total (10 offensive!). He also had 13 points. Zeke Marshall led the Zips in scoring with 15, to go with 7 boards.

The Zips travel to Toledo on Saturday.

2) The women's basketball squad dropped another conference game to Toledo, falling to 2-7 in conference play. Rachel Tecca had yet another double-double (her 10th of the season...so does that make it a double-double-double?). To be fair, the Rockets are leading the MAC at the moment. The lady Zips next head to 9-13 (3-6) Northern Illinois for a 4pm Saturday matchup.

3) The football team signed 23 total players to the squad. It breaks down to:

5 offensive linemen

4 defensive backs

4 defensive linemen

3 running backs

3 quarterbacks

2 linebackers

1 wide receiver

1 kicker

And a partridge in a pear tree. What does this all mean? Well, we at least know we have some depth at quarterback now. Maybe having his job threatened will help make Patrick Nicely a better passer. Probably not.

The large number of linemen and running backs is also a great thing. The linemen because our offensive line was so horrid last year, the running backs because, well...we don't have any good ones now that Alex Allen is gone.

The 1 wide receiver worries me. We were really stretched last year halfway through the season.

We'll see if Rob Ianello lives up to his reputation as a top-25 recruiter. Heck, dare we hope to win 2 games this season?

You can see a more detailed summary and player profiles for this year's recruiting class here.

Defensive Domination on National TV

2011-01-31T12:56:00.002-05:00

After six MAC games, the Zips had the worst three-point defense in the conference. Yesterday evening, Central Michigan was held to 29.4% from beyond the arc; and hey, whaddaya know! We won 63-43!

So let's get down to it. All in all, the Zips played phenomenal basketball. They took their time on the offensive end (which is always when they're at their best) and let Alex Abreu run the show when he was on the floor. One of the strongest points of this year's team is that almost everybody on the team can sprint the floor on defense, and handle the ball well on offense.

The Great:

- Zeke Marshall. His rebounding wasn't great (only 3), but he stayed out of foul trouble and shot 5-5 from the floor and 6-8 from the line to lead the team with 16 points.

- Nikola Cvetinovic, the reason Zeke Marshall only grabbed three rebounds. The Serbian Wonder pulled in 10 rebounds along with 8 points.

- Mike Bardo; a season-high 6 rebounds in 12 minutes. I like this guy. Pure hustle when he's on the court.

The Good:

- Steve McNees. He finished with 9 points, all from threes (go figure) and led the team with 4 assists.

- Alex Abreu. He's just fun to watch. He's also going to be pretty darn good in the next few years. He finished with 6 points (2-6, 1-3 from three-point range) and 3 assists.

- Quincy Diggs played the sixth-man role perfectly, shooting 3-4 for 8 points and 4 rebounds. Unfortunately he also had 4 turnovers.

The Not So Good, But We Won So I Can't Really Call It Awful:

- Brett McKnight. I don't know what happened to him. He finished this game 1-4, 2 points, 1 rebound, a steal, and 3 fouls. I wouldn't think that missing 7 games would affect a senior this badly, especially the former Sixth Man of the Year in the MAC, but other than one 21 point game this year, he's been out of it.

That's all folks! No televised games for a while, but the Zips travel to Eastern Michigan this Wednesday for a 7pm matchup.

Roo News 1/28/11

2011-01-28T13:10:00.004-05:00

1) The 2011 non-conference football schedule has been released. Here are the first four games of next season:

Sat, Sept. 3: @ Ohio State

Sat, Sept. 10: FIU

Sat, Sept. 17: at Cincinnati

Sat, Sept. 24: VMI

I like this. We all knew that first tune-up away game against a Big Ten team was coming. Cincinnati is a great team as well, but one that we generally play well against. That will probably be a 5-15 point loss. In terms of the home games, the rare Sun Belt/MAC matchup against FIU should be a good home opener, and as long as the FCS match against VMI doesn't turn out like last year's soul-crushing overtime loss to Gardner-Webb, we may see a 2-2 Zips team going into conference play.

2) The men's basketball team has another televised game on Sunday, so if you're not willing to pay the $15 to watch it live, tune in to ESPNU at 6pm.

3) Did anybody else watch the Knicks beat the Heat last night? Aaah, that's just good for the heart.

It's a Bird! It's a Donkey! No, It's a MAC Official!

2011-01-27T10:49:00.003-05:00

Another incredibly disappointing televised loss for the men's basketball team yesterday. I'll just cut to the chase. The final score was 83-74. Northern Illinois shot 44.4% while the Zips shot 41.8%. But the Zips connected on 5 more three-pointers than the Huskies, while winning that percentage battle by 8.4%. So why was the score this bad with stats like that, you ask?

It could have been due to the Huskies outrebounding the Zips 43-34.

It wasn't.

It may have been because of the following statistics:

Akron was 6-12 in free throw shooting for the game. NIU's Xavier Silas was 16-20. NIU as a team shot 29-40.

Read that again. Yep. Silas had 8 more free throws than the entire Zips team. The rest of the Huskies had an additional 20.

The announcers immediately chalked it up to the lack of aggressive play from Akron. I agree...that some of it was due to a lot of jump shooting from the Zips.

Folks, it may look bad on paper; it looked a lot worse on television. At the end of the game, five Akron players had 4 fouls, including Alex Abreu, who totaled 14 minutes on the court.

Whatever the issue, the Zips are now 2-4 in the MAC and need to get themselves going. Bad officiating happens (*cough cough* every game in the MAC *cough*). It's part of the game. The Zips need to play better than the refs if they want to make it to the tournament this year.

Roo News 1/21/11

2011-01-21T14:47:00.004-05:00

1) The men's basketball team has been doing their usual MAC-play tanking, losing their last two to Buffalo and Miami (OH). They're now 10-8 (1-3 MAC) and play 8-10 (3-1 MAC) Bowling Green Saturday. The game will be on SportsTime Ohio at 7:30pm, so tune in. So far this year, the Zips have been controlling the ball incredibly well, forcing an average of around 4 turnovers more than they give away; however, the rebounding hasn't been pretty. Unless Zeke Marshmallow steps up again, it will more of the same story against Bowling Green.

2) The lady Zips have also been losing their in-conference games and are now 8-9 (1-4 MAC). They also play Saturday, also on SportsTime Ohio, at 5pm against 12-7 (3-2 MAC) Eastern Michigan. Anybody that has a ticket for the men's game gets into the women's game for free. So go. Or face the wrath of Zippy.

A Day of Zero Wins

2011-01-13T10:38:00.003-05:00

Ugh....

The Zips had won 6 of their last 7, and 4 straight home games; so it's only natural that the first game in this stretch I attended had a quite hideous result.

Ugh....

This was the worst Zips basketball game I have ever seen. In so many ways. Zeke Marshall once again countered a wonderful game with another one of his worst performances. The effort of the team in general was nowhere to be found for the first part of the first half. The officiating....oh, boy, the officiating....had the crowd leaning over the barrier, screaming at the referees just 7 minutes into the game; and it never got better. Steve McNees exchanged rather obscene words with an idiot AK Rowdie sitting one row ahead of me. The coaches and assistants (the coaches and assistants!) got into some sort of scrum just after the final whistle that involved athletic director Tom Wistrcill having to hold some people back. Nik Cvetinovic and Ohio forward DeVaughn Washington nearly attacked each other during above-mentioned scrum.

Ugh....

Oh yeah, did I mention the Zips lost to the 7-8 Ohio Bobcats 79-70 thanks to some horrible play, horrible effort, and horrible officiating?

The Great:

- The point guard matchup between Alex Abreu and middle-schooler-lookalike D.J. Cooper. Both made some serious eye-opening plays. The advantage on the night went to Cooper, who had just three turnovers. Abreu had seven, at least five of which bounced off the hands of his fellow Zips, including some behind-the-back brilliance to Zeke Marshmallow.

The Good:

- Ugh....

The Facepalm-causing Awful:

- Everybody's shooting. Let's see, 5-13, 3-9, 2-8, 2-7, 4-10...the Zips shot a tremendous 28.6% in the first half, following up with 41.5% in the second. Compare this to a Bobcat game percentage of 52.9%.

- Zeke Marshmallow's hands. Oh, and Mike Bardo's hands...and Quincy Diggs's...

- The aforementioned idiot AK Rowdie.

- Defense. Bobcats Nick Kellogg and Tommy Freeman shot 6-9 and 5-8 from beyond the arc, respectively.

- Probably anything else you can think of.

In slightly less disappointing news, the women's basketball team also lost yesterday, to the 15-1 Bowling Green Falcons. It's slightly less disappointing because there was effort involved. Four Zips finished in double digits, but nobody could handle Bowling Green's Lauren Prochaska, who shot 11-16 and finished with 28 points.

The men next travel to Buffalo for a 2pm Sunday game and the women return home for a 2pm Saturday matchup against the 9-7 Miami Redhawks.

Zip > Flash

2011-01-10T22:08:00.003-05:00

1) Zeke Marshmallow no more! Why, oh why couldn't I have been at this game? The Zips men's basketball team pulled off a truly clutch 65-62 win over Kent State (KSUcks!).

The Great:

- Zeke Marshall and his late 8-0 scoring run to lead the Zips to the victory. He finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks.

- Brett McKnight's shooting. He was only 5/10 from the field, but 2/3 from beyond the arc and 7/9 from the line to end with 19 points.

The Mediocre:

- Everybody else aside from the three mentioned below.

The Come On, Man:

- The shooting of Steve McNees, Brett McClanahan and Nikola Cvetinovic, who combined to shoot 4/8 from the line, 3/13 from downtown, and 5/23 overall.

The next men's game is home on Wednesday against Ohio at 7pm. The Bobcats always put up a heck of a fight. I'll be there, dorkily keeping stats on the roster.

The women also won their game Saturday, downing the lady Bobcats 54-45. Rachel Tecca led the team with 19 points off of 8/18 shooting. Kara Murphy shot 6/13 for 13 points, and Taylor Ruper knocked in three treys for 9 points overall. The lady Zips face a challenge on the road against 13-1 Bowling Green on Wednesday.

Roo News 1/8/11

2011-01-08T11:00:00.001-05:00

1) My moving is all done. Classes are starting again. Zips Sports Blog is back up and running. Oh yeah.

2) The men's basketball team has been rambling through the non-conference schedule while I've been gone. Of the last 6 games, the only loss has come to Miami (FL). The Zips now are 9-5. Their five losses have come to aforementioned Miami, #20 Minnesota, Temple, Cleveland State, and Dayton. If I (or anybody) had to pick the five games on the schedule that I would rather have the team lose, there's no doubt that those five would come to mind. Every single one of them is a tournament-quality team.

3) The women's basketball team is 7-6. They dropped their MAC opener to Buffalo, but take on 4-10 Ohio at noon today. The game can be seen on SportsTime Ohio.

4) The big game is today; so naturally I am going to miss it thanks to a poorly-timed soccer game. The men's team takes on Kent State at home later today at 7pm (Also on SportsTime Ohio). Kent State has a good team this year, similar to the team that drubbed us twice last year. Also, Dambrot doesn't do well against the Golden Flashes; his all-time record against them is 5-9. Look for tomorrow's celebratory recap.

Men's Basketball 2-1 In Las Vegas Classic

2010-12-27T13:46:00.002-05:00

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.

UALR (W) 75-61

- 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.

Roo News 12/19/10

2010-12-19T17:12:00.003-05:00

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.

Roo News 12/13/10

2010-12-13T01:22:00.003-05:00

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.

Let's. Go. Zips.

2010-12-12T09:22:00.003-05:00

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.

Cardiac Saturday

2010-12-06T00:22:00.002-05:00

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!)

Roo News 12/2/10

2010-12-02T13:43:00.000-05:00

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.

Catching Up 11/29/10

2010-11-29T02:36:00.005-05:00

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.

Roo News 11/22/10

2010-11-22T12:55:00.008-05:00

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.

Stats Roundup 11/20/10

2010-11-20T10:24:00.007-05:00

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.

Close Game = Akron Loss

2010-11-17T11:59:00.004-05:00

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.

Dayton > Millikin

2010-11-16T18:53:00.005-05:00

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.

Catching Up 11/15/10

2010-11-15T10:32:00.005-05:00

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.

Roo News 11/12/10

2010-11-12T11:19:00.007-05:00

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.

Catching Up 11/8/10

2010-11-08T13:19:00.006-05:00

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.

Exhibition Games Are Hard To Recap...

2010-11-05T20:18:00.005-04:00

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.

Roo News 11/3/10

2010-11-03T23:00:00.001-04:00

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.

Catching Up 10/31/10

2010-10-31T23:00:00.000-04:00

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.

Roo News 10/28/10

2010-10-28T14:30:00.005-04:00

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.

Catching Up 10/26/10

2010-10-26T16:42:00.007-04:00

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.

Four sets to Central Michigan:

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

What in the world, Rob Ianello?

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.

Roo News 10/21/10

2010-10-21T20:22:00.005-04:00

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.

Roo News 10/17/10

2010-10-17T16:32:00.008-04:00

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).

Men's Soccer Wins Again

2010-10-14T13:43:00.003-04:00

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.

Catching Up 10/10/10

2010-10-10T14:56:00.007-04:00

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:

Ha. Yeah...

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.

Catching Up 10/4/10

2010-10-04T22:03:00.005-04:00

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.

0-5...

2010-10-03T16:28:00.003-04:00

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.

No NCAA Record

2010-09-30T20:22:00.004-04:00

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.

Better...

2010-09-26T11:48:00.009-04:00

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.

Roo News 9/25/10

2010-09-25T11:48:00.005-04:00

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.

Roo News 9/20/10

2010-09-20T19:01:00.006-04:00

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.

Roo News 9/18/10

2010-09-18T17:47:00.007-04:00

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.

Roo News 9/12/10

2010-09-12T20:45:00.003-04:00

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?

It's Going To Be a Long Year...

2010-09-11T22:04:00.003-04:00

I saw that coming. In the first quarter, with the Zips up 14-3, I saw that coming. The crowd had an aura of overconfidence from the first snap, and before we knew it, The Ever Dependable Igor had shanked the game-winner and overtime began. It wasn't until that point that the crowd even got into the game (not that there was a sizable crowd to begin with).

For those just tuning into this day of disaster, the Akron Zips football squad lost to FCS team Gardner-Webb 38-37 today, in overtime. The planets just didn't align for the Zips today. First, miscommunication between head coach Rob Ianello and his captains resulted in the Zips kicking off at the beginning of both halves. Yep. You read that right. Near the end of the game, a series of questionable officiating prevented a Gardner-Webb turnover, and also allowed the Runnin' Bulldogs bench to explode onto the field after a touchdown without having 15 yards tacked on for excessive celebration. Also, a Bulldogs defensive back pulled one of the simplest stalling tactics ("My helmet is broken!") during a late Akron drive (allowing the defense to get some extra rest), which the refs stood by and allowed to happen, waiting patiently for him to "fix his helmet" before starting the play clock.

Overtime began, and the Zips did what any FBS team should be able to do, which is drive the 25 yards for an easy touchdown. Enter The Ever Dependable Igor Iveljic. Granted, the blocked extra point that ensued isn't entirely his fault, but after missing the 34 yard game-winner, it's easy to be upset with the guy.

Let's get to the statistics:

Rob Ianello and I had similar thoughts for an offensive strategy. The Zips came out gunning early, and it opened up the running game well. Alex Allen (20 CAR, 110 YDS, 3 TD) and Nate Burney (17 CAR, 119 YDS) both looked incredible today. I can only hope that they can keep this kind of play up for conference games. Today's game was the first time two Akron backs have rushed for over 100 yards in a single game since 2002.

Nicely was 14-21 for 165 yards, with a touchdown and an interception. He looked a lot calmer than last week, hanging around in the pocket much longer when under pressure.

Once again, Jeremy LaFrance dominated the receiving crew:

AKR-Jeremy LaFrance: 7 REC, 88 YDS, TD

AKR-Everybody Else: 7 REC, 77 YDS

The Ever Dependable Igor was 1/2 on field goals and 4/5 on extra points. His 48 yarder sailed through, but as mentioned, the 34 yard game-winner didn't. I like Igor Iveljic, don't get me wrong. He's certainly capable of making long-distance field goals, but his late-game attempts haven't been pretty. Part of me wants to see T.J. Marchese out there for a game.

Zack Campbell had another great game in terms of punting (3 punts, 103 yards).

Away games at Indiana and Kentucky are next. Oh, boy...

Football Preview, Week 2

2010-09-10T15:24:00.004-04:00

The Zips are at home tomorrow for a beat-down game against the Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs of the Big South Conference.

The Zips have never played Gardner-Webb in football, but the Bulldogs are 0-2 all-time against MAC opponents (losses to Ohio and Buffalo). Gardner-Webb is currently 1-0 on the season after a 28-14 victory over the Brevard College Tornados last week. Freshman running back Juanne Blount ran for 134 yards in just 18 attempts against the Tornados, but it is highly doubtful he will have that much success against Brian Wagner and the rest of the Zips rush defense. Also of note is senior linebacker Jeffery Williams, who was a 2008 FCS All-American, but was injury-plagued in 2009. He recorded 18 tackles last week and was named FCS National Defensive Player of the Week.

The game shouldn't be too hard for the Zips, but after being held to 166 total yards against Syracuse, anything can happen.

This is what I want to see more of on Saturday: Receivers catching the ball. Patrick Nicely threw the ball like a champ last week. Sure, he was only 12-35 for 111 yards, but I didn't see any of those 23 incompletions come close to a defender. In one drive in the third quarter, Nicely hit three different receivers straight in the hands; all three receivers dropped the ball. If Nicely and the receivers have some success early on Saturday, Nate Burney and Alex Allen are going to have a much easier time running the ball.

Roo News 9/8/10

2010-09-08T23:02:00.005-04:00

Thank goodness for the lack of sports this week. Time for some soccer catch-up.

1) Boom. Statement. The men's soccer team dominated Wake Forest on Sunday, 2-0. The Demon Deacons were held to four shots total. Not one of those was on goal. Darren Mattocks and Darlington Nagbe scored for the Zips. This game also drew a record regular season crowd in Wake Forest's Stadium. Here's the box score.

This means that the Zips defeated #4 North Carolina and #3 Wake Forest by a combined score of 5-0. Also, with this win, the Zips are 47-0-0 when leading after the first half under Caleb Porter.

2) Darlington Nagbe received both MAC Player of the Week and NSCAA National Player of the Week honors after his performance in the games against North Carolina and Wake Forest.

3) The women's soccer team fell 3-0 to Ohio State, evening their record to 2-2-0. They have five more away games before the double header with the men on October 1st.

New Generation of Football?

2010-09-07T12:49:00.005-04:00

Sorry for the delayed posting. I took a day off to clear my head from the catastrophe that was the opening football game, and the University's wonderful on-campus connectivity prevented me from doing anything useful yesterday. So here's the news:

Ouch. Alright, J.D., we're sorry we fired you. Can you come back now? No hard feelings, right? Saturday's shellacking was painful in every sense of the word.

What looked good:

Jeremy LaFrance (7 grabs for 75 yards) and Brian Wagner (who had an interception for 37 yards while the Zips were still in the game).

What didn't:

Everything else. Here are some stats:

Passing

AKR-Patrick Nicely: 12-35 (12 of 35!!!!), 111 YDS

SYR-Ryan Nassib: 17-27, 229 YDS, 2 TD, 1 INT

Rushing

AKR-Nate Burney: 12 CAR, 38 YDS

AKR-Alex Allen: 7 CAR, 21 YDS

SYR-Delone Carter: 26 CAR, 91 YDS, TD

SYR-Ryan Nassib: 9 CAR, 58 YDS

SYR-Antwon Bailey: 9 CAR, 55 YDS

Receiving

AKR-Jeremy LaFrance: 7 REC, 75 YDS

AKR-Everybody Else: 5 REC, 36 YDS

SYR-Team: 17 REC, 229 YDS, 2 TD

The playcalling on the part of the Zips was awful from the opening kickoff. Nate Burney, a much smaller and quicker back than Alex Allen, was running up the middle. Nicely threw flat after flat after flat, each resulting in two or three yards.

How did that work out? Just look at Akron's first five drives:

1. 3 plays, 9 yards, punt

2. 3 plays, 2 yards, punt

3. 5 plays, 20 yards, punt

4. 5 plays, 24 yards, punt

5. 3 plays, 0 yards, punt

But wait, there's more. After a 40 yard field goal from Igor Iveljic (gasp!), the Zips came out fired up for the second half (ha!) for these two epic drives.

1. 3 plays, -11 yards, punt

2. 3 plays, 2 yards, punt

Then, after putting together a 6+ minute drive encompassing 57 yards, Igor's next field goal was blocked and returned for a touchdown. The Zips punted two more times in the third quarter before having a grand total of two drives in the fourth. The first resulted in yet another punt, and the second was an 8 play, 33 yard drive that resulted in a turnover on downs and the end of the game. At least Zack Campbell got some exercise (10 punts, 383 yards).

One more awful stat before I go scream at a random passer-by. Akron didn't turn the ball over once. Syracuse threw one interception and lost two fumbles. The Zips had a +3 turnover ratio and lost by 26!

It looks like Ianello's new system is going to take some getting used to. The game against Gardner-Webb on Saturday is a breath of fresh air (maybe).

Roo News 9/4/10

2010-09-04T12:11:00.009-04:00

1) Hear that, NCAA? Yeah, that's the Akron Zips men's soccer team showing you why they're #1 in the nation. The men shut out North Carolina 3-0 in Chapel Hill yesterday. Eric Stevenson, Kitchen Perry, and Darlington Nagbe each scored a goal. This opening day win is the fourth in a row for the Zips. Each of those wins came against a nationally ranked opponent. Caleb Porter must be pretty ecstatic, right? The men's road unbeaten streak increased to 17 with this victory. As always, GoZips.com has the box score. This is an impressive win, but a trip to #3 Wake Forest is next.

2) The women's soccer team netted (pun intended) themselves another impressive victory yesterday over Canisius, 3-0. Leigh Cullen's hat trick is only the third in team history. Remember that Katie Wise had a hat trick against Illinois State in the team's only other game this year. The women absolutely dominated the entire game, holding Canisius to just four shots. Cullen's second shot was incredible, from about 30 yards out, hitting the upper right corner. I happened to be standing to the left of Canisius's goal when the shot happened. I still don't know where it came from. Cullen is a little bit happier than Porter was. The box score is here, and pictures from the game are below:

3) The Zips football season kicks off at 6pm today at InfoCision Stadium against the Syracuse Orange. The Zips have lost their last two season openers, which came at Penn State last year, and Wisconsin in 2008. The game is available on ESPN3, if you're lucky enough to have a service provider that carries it.

Football Outlook, Part 4

2010-09-03T20:37:00.003-04:00

Quarterbacks:

Alright, let's compare:

2009 Passing Stats:

Patrick Nicely-120/222 (54%), 1349 YDS, 6 TD, 6 INT, 108.6 RAT

Matt Rodgers-39/69 (56%), 405 YDS, 1 TD, 6 INT, 93.2 RAT

Chris Jacquemain-26/44 (59%), 320 YDS, 4 TD, INT, 145.6 RAT

Jared Wackerly-4/5 (80%), 36 YDS, 0 TD, 0 INT, 140.5 RAT

Alex Allen-1/1 (100%), 80 YDS, 1 TD, 0 INT, 1102.0 RAT

Those of us that had to sit through the miserable season last year are still ticked at Jacquemain for getting dismissed from the team. Bypass the could-have-been, however, and you'll be thankful. Nicely's experience from last year may pay off. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that he would win the quarterback battle for this year. I did not like the way that Rodgers played last season; constantly looking to run, forcing horrible throws into the endzone, and rushing headlong into trios of defenders. Regardless, I love this quote from Nicely:

"[Rodgers] is a good quarterback," Nicely began. "I'm not saying anything bad about him. But this is my job."

I have a feeling that Nicely, just a sophomore, will soon look like a Charlie Frye, Luke Getsy, or what Chris Jacquemain should have been.

Overall:

Many are predicting the Zips to finish 6th or last in the MAC East. I disagree. I think we'll see a 6 win season in 2010, and as Nicely improves, an 8 or 9 win season in 2011. Wishful thinking? Probably. I predicted 6 wins in 2009. This time around, however, our starting quarterback (probably) won't be dismissed from the team just two games into the season.

Football Outlook, Part 3

2010-09-02T23:20:00.003-04:00

Running Back:

Here's an interesting stat from last year. Seven players rushed for more than 100 yards, and nobody of them ran the ball more than 59 times. The key to the running game this year will be health. We have two solid running backs in Alex Allen (who was granted a sixth year of eligibility) and Dale Martin.

Linebacker:

Another strong point for the defense. Brian Wagner, who led the team in tackles last year as a freshman, will be alongside seniors Mike Thomas and Sean Fobbs.

Special Teams:

Sophomore T.J. Marchese has looked good in practice this year. Even though Igor Iveljic and Branko Rogovic return to this year's squad, my bet is on Marchese getting both kickoff and field goal privileges...at least until he becomes as unbelievably inconsistent as Iveljic and Rogovic. Zack Campbell will probably be punting again this year.

Men's Basketball Schedule

2010-09-02T13:43:00.003-04:00

The men's basketball schedule was revealed a few days ago. The team has a lot of opportunities to prove themselves this year. You can see the schedule here. A few interesting notes:

-The home opener will be against Divison III Millikin. Exciting.

-The final home game is February 26th against Buffalo.

-March 5th is the final regular season game, once again against Kent State.

-The non-conference schedule features away games against Dayton, Temple, Minnesota, and Miami (Fla.). All of those teams could be top 25.

-Home games against in-state teams Youngstown State and Cleveland State on the 20th and 24th of November.

I don't think there's a chance that we win less than 18 regular season games, but with such a tough non-conference away schedule, the team may be struggling by the time conference play begins.

Football Outlook, Part 2

2010-09-01T22:50:00.004-04:00

Wide Receivers:

Hear that sound? That's me grunting in pain. Jeremy LaFrance is the only returning starter in the receiving corps for the 2010 season. The wide receiver position is in such bad shape that Ianello and his staff are making a J.D. Brookhart-like change, switching Jalil Carter from the safety position...and he's expected to start right away. Also at wide receiver is sophomore Nadir Brown, and senior Kyle Weber will most likely appear at tight end.

Defensive Line:

Almondo Sewell and James Harvey once again anchor the very strong defensive line this year. If Hasan Hazime, who tied for first in sacks with 3 last year as a sophomore, has improved, we may have some very strong rush defense.

Football Outlook, Part 1

2010-08-31T22:54:00.004-04:00

The football team opens up the season at home Saturday with a 6 o'clock matchup against Syracuse. I sat down to preview the game, but realized I really haven't looked at this year's team yet. Rather than spew all of the information out and try to piece together everything that I'm thinking in one night, I am going to cover two positions each day (one offensive position and one defensive position), leading up to Saturday's game.

Today I am taking a look at the offensive line and defensive backs.

Offensive Line:

Three starters return, including tackles Corey Woods (senior) and Jake Anderson (junior). Paul Sekinger is expected to take over at Center, and Zac Kasparek (who saw playing time last season) will most likely be taking over the opening guard slot. Overall, the line doesn't look to be in bad shape. Both Kasparek and Sekinger are juniors, so experience is not an issue.

Secondary:

This is a sore spot for the defense this year. Manly Waller, who had three interceptions last year, is the only returning starter. The rest of the expected starters (Diamond Weaver at cornerback, Dough Richardson and Kevin Davis at safety) are all seniors, but with a new defensive scheme and a new coaching staff, opposing offenses are probably looking forward to playing us.

Roo News 8/29/10

2010-08-29T22:08:00.003-04:00

1) The volleyball team defeated Howard and lost to West Virginia in the final day of the WVU Classic. You can see the box scores here.

2) Despite outshooting Morehead State today, the women's soccer team lost 3-1 to the Eagles. Early goals (in the 3rd and 11th minutes) were too much for the Zips to overcome, despite aggressive play in the second half. Morehead State's 1-3-0 record is just salt in the wound. The women play their third straight home game to open the season against Canisius on Friday. GoZips.com has the box score.

3) If you didn't like the last bit of news, you definitely won't like this: The men's soccer team (gasp!) lost their exhibition game against South Florida yesterday. The Zips absolutely dominated the game, but couldn't capitalize on their abundant opportunities (14-7 in shots, 11-5 in shots on goal). Let's hope that this was the one fluke of the year and be glad it happened in the exhibition season. The men have away games against North Carolina and Wake Forest (both top 10 teams) this upcoming week.

Roo News 8/26/10

2010-08-26T20:21:00.007-04:00

Lots of news tonight. It's been a while since the last update. That's what the start of a semester will do to you.

1) The University of Akron has inked a contract with SportsTime Ohio. Nine UA sporting events will be aired on STO this year. You can read more about it here.

2) The men's soccer team looked great in their exhibition yesterday against VCU. After a strange own goal after a David Meves slip during the 2nd minute, the Zips outshot VCU 12-2 to win 3-1.

Here are some pictures I took while at the game:

3) Anthony Ampaipatakwong, Darlington Nagbe, Kofi Sarkodie, and Zarek Valentin were all named Preseason All-Americans by Soccer America. The only other schools with multiple selections had no more than two players named to the team.

4) The women's basketball schedule has been released. Check out the full list here.

5) Patrick Nicely has been named the starter for this year's football squad. This comes as no surprise to any of us that were able to watch both Nicely and Matt Rodgers' play last year. For those who didn't, here's the story. After Chris Jacquemain was dismissed from the team, backup Rodgers filled in for a few games, only to throw one touchdown and a boatload of interceptions. After running straight into a few Ohio defenders and suffering a season ending injury, Nicely (a freshman) finished the year. He threw for over 1,300 yards and six touchdowns to a badly damaged receiving corps.

On the other hand, if Matt Rodgers has learned to throw the ball away instead of rushing headlong into a defensive firing squad, he will be a good backup if Nicely doesn't work out.

6) If you have been a fan of Zips football for the last ten years or so, check out this article from Professional Hustlers, which details where alumni are currently located (from Jason Taylor to Jabari Arthur).

Roo News 8/21/10

2010-08-21T23:53:00.001-04:00

Just some soccer news tonight. The women's team won impressively against Illinois State, 3-0, all the goals coming from Katie Wise, and all in a three-minute span (starting at the 81st minute). If the team isn't great this year, at least it looks like Wise will be.

Kofi Sarkodie also scored a couple of goals in the men's intra-squad scrimmage today, one coming from a penalty. Michael Nanchoff, McKauly Tulloch, and Darren Mattocks also scored. The men have an exhibition game against VCU on Wednesday.

Professional side-note: The Indians were tied 2-2 against Detroit today until they blew it once again and lost 5-2. If I had a nickel...

Catching Up

2010-08-19T11:47:00.000-04:00

This summer, we saw the Cleveland Indians fail miserably, we saw LeBron abandon the Cleveland Cavaliers, and we're still seeing numerous NBA superstars attempting to team up (most notably Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony). It's easy to stop paying attention to UA activity with all this professional happenstance, so here's what we've missed over the summer.

1) Memorial Hall is going, going, gone. Here's a lovely article about the good ole days of the Hall, and some nice classic pictures.

2) The football team has been practicing for a couple of weeks now. New head coach Rob Ianello praised the defense. You can see his thoughts on yesterday's practice here.

3) The football home schedule looks promising this year. The season starts with two home games against Syracuse and Gardner-Webb, respectively. Conference play at home will be against Northern Illinois, Western Michigan, Miami (Ohio) and Buffalo.

4) LeVon Morefield got a nice article in the Beacon Sports Journal. Rob Ianello seems to be a promising coach, especially when he makes decisions like these.

5) The new soccer field looks amazing, and the sight of extra bleachers make my feet happy.

6) Zips fans may have another soccer team to watch this year. The women's team was picked second in the MAC East in the preseason polls, and third in the MAC overall, behind Western Michigan and Miami (Ohio). Their season begins tomorrow, against Illinois State.

7) Open poll for the comments section: Will the football team make a bowl game this year? What will be their overall record?

We're Underway!

2010-08-17T13:12:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the Akron Zips Sports Blog. I will be making some design changes to the blog over the next few days, and then (hopefully) getting into full swing.