LeBronCenter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.