Women’s basketball

The most quickly accelerating team on campus might be Jodi Kest’s squad.

Sure, Akron (1-5) lost 74-55 to Pittsburgh (7-0) tonight, but the attitude is right. Kest said the team is much, much better than it was three weeks ago.

The first-year coach also said Pitt is a team Akron aspires to be.

Solid young post players like Niki McCoy and Riana Miller are how the Zips will get there. Both scored in double figures tonight. I imagine Miller will replace Mandy Holzer in the starting lineup soon.

Yeah, I’m optimistic about this team’s prospects in the next few years. I’m quite concerned about the fan support, however. Only 223 fans showed up to see Akron’s biggest out-of-conference home game in a while.

Just like the volleyball and women’s soccer teams, we’ll see if the improvement is for real once the MAC schedule begins on Jan. 3. The Zips will invite Lehigh to Rhodes Arena for another one of those awesome Sunday 2 p.m. start times.

Men’s basketball

In addition to what I wrote about Oral Roberts, the Buchtelite’s Michael Beaven points out the Golden Eagles play a strict man-to-man defense.

Because of it, coach Keith Dambrot says Akron must watch its turnover count closely.

It appears Dambrot will play Oral Roberts straight up on defense, rather than double teaming Caleb Green, like Kansas did. When the Jayhawks did that, Green still filled up the stats, and so did his teammates.

In the Buchtelite article, Dambrot said it will be important for Chris McKnight and Jimmy Conyers to have big games on Saturday. Overall, the coach seemed fairly confident the Zips can win.

• You have probably caught some of these ACC/Big 10 Challenge games. The Outsiders debated which conference the MAC should play if it made such a partnership. They agreed, however, they want Kent State to be a sacrificial lamb.

Football

Buchtelite football reporter Adam Ferrise just spoke with coach J.D. Brookhart.

Cincinnati has not contacted him about its coaching vacancy, he said.

Brookhart will head out on the recruiting trail starting Sunday. That’s what his staff is already doing.

For those of you wondering what assistants will come or go, Brookhart will evaluate them in February, once recruiting season has wound down. He hinted toward the possibility of adding a special teams coach.

For those of you freaking out about special teams next season, Brookhart expects kicker Igor Iveljic to have fully recovered from his back injury.

Men’s basketball

My business editor at the ABJ used to tell me people love reading lists.

Here are the top-10 things you need to know about Oral Roberts…

1. The Golden Eagles knocked off No. 3 Kansas on Nov. 15. The Jayhawks missed 10 free throws and allowed Oral Roberts’ Marchello Vealy to hit seven of eight 3-pointers.
2. That said, the Golden Eagles (3-2) are far from indestructible. Tulsa blew them out 75-57 on Tuesday. The other loss came at Loyola-Marymount, a future Zips opponent.
3. Those other games were at home: a blowout win over Panhandle State and close victory over Louisiana Lafayette.
4. Oral Roberts opened the season at No. 14 in the Mid-Major Top 25. Akron is No. 8. This week, the Golden Eagles received four votes in the USA Today Top-25 Poll.
5. The Golden Eagles (21-12) were a 16 seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament after winning the Mid-Con Conference. Memphis dispatched ORU 94-78 in the first round. It was the program’s first dancing lesson since 1984.
6. The year before, the Golden Eagles (25-8) lost the Mid-Con Championship to 12-18 Oakland, but landed a berth in the NIT against Maryland, who knocked them out. In short, this program has some tradition.
7. ORU coach Scott Sutton claims he has the nation’s most underrated player in 6-foot-8 senior forward Caleb Green. The two-time Mid-Con Player of the Year is averaging 17.8 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. He is an amazing post player who got to the free-throw line more than anyone in the country except Adam Morrison last season.
8. Akron also will deal with 6-10 Shawn King, who many considered the nation’s best juco center last season. He averaged 20.6 points, 12.6 rebounds and 7.1 blocks at Carl Albert State last season. Take another second to look at that stat line. As Sutton says, he can really be a defensive force this season.
9. Ken Tutt, a senior guard, is another scoring option. He has tallied 15.6 points per game this season.
10. I spoke with coach Keith Dambrot about what he can do against Oral Roberts’ "unbelievable size," as he calls it. The Zips will try to pound the ball inside against the Golden Eagles to get them in foul trouble and exploit opportunities on the break.

Women’s basketball

To quench your basketball appetite sooner, watch the Zips play Pittsburgh tonight.

The Panthers are 6-0, but the Zips have shown improvement each game this year. Game time is 7 p.m. at Rhodes Arena.

Swimming and diving

Coach Nittaya Klim announced four Akron-area athletes signed letters of intent to join the team next season.

The team will return from a three-week break to host the SummaCare Invitational this weekend.

Volleyball

Mike Sweitzer also pulled in a recruit.

Jess Antosz is an athletic middle hitter from Pennsylvania. With Kim Horn being the only senior, Akron needed a small freshman class.

Football

As you may have read on ZipsNation.org, wide receiver Vincent Hill is reconsidering the verbal commitment he made to Akron.

At this point, he is the Zips’ only three-star recruit, according to Rivals.com.

"I still my consider myself a commitment to Akron but I have been open with them that I am looking at all of my options," Hill told the site.

Hill plans to visit Virginia soon.

Some of you might see this as a bad season scaring away recruits. I see this more of Hill knowing there is plenty of young talent at his position in front of him.

Football

Along with discussing the Western Michigan debacle, the Buchtelite guys assess Luke Getsy’s chances in the pros.

Download podcast_19.mp3

• Dan Kadar wrote a good feature about defensive back John Mackey. With what the Walsh Jesuit grad has gone through this season, it’s no wonder he’ll be a leader in 2007.

Men’s basketball

The AK-Rowdies held a meeting tonight. If you didn’t attend (like I didn’t), I think you are SOL.

Here are some notes from UofAZips.com about the event. The Rowdies have some really good ideas for this season.

Women’s basketball

Coach Jodi Kest told the Buchtelite’s Matt Kane about the Zips’ late-game losses.

She also talks a little about the big home game against Pittsburgh on Wednesday. We’ll have game-day coverage of that contest.

Rifle

The Buchtelite’s Josh Volchko wrote about the Zips’ hot streak, which continued this weekend against Morehead State and IUP.

You won’t read this story in the newspaper. It’s a Web exclusive.

Miscellaneous

I hate cliches. Really. That’s what my column is about. For your convenience, I’ll put all cliches in italics…

Pardon me, but I have happy feet.

For the longest time, I’ve wanted to write a column using nothing but sports cliches - which I hate more than fighting tooth and nail only to lose a golf match.

The last few weeks, some people say my columns have lost a step. Before, I might have been, pound-for-pound, the Buchtelite’s best writer. Now I’m not sure. Other scribes, perhaps still wet behind the ears, are climbing the ranks. I’ll quickly get back on track and silence my critics.

Maybe you aren’t up with sports cliches. That’s because they are woven into sports language. They ooze out of coaches’ and players’ mouths. You can set your watch to them.

If a squad wins, it’s because "We brought our A-game," and "It was a total team effort." Lose and "It was a hard-fought contest," but "You have to live with a loss."

Gag me.

Most disturbing, you can’t listen to a single basketball announcer without hearing "He teed up a deep J."

Deep J? Is that Nike’s answer to Titleist’s Pro-V1?

Cliches put a damper on any creative juices left in sports journalism. If there’s one rule you should know about writing, it’s to avoid cliches like the plague.

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve got about a 1.2 cliche-per-line average, which is pretty good for being so green. As far as winning all the marbles and reclaiming my status as best writer at the newspaper, however, I’m on the bubble.

I can improve through hard work and sacrifice. This column isn’t over until it’s over. Never say die. Right? Oops, I just did.

But the pressure is on. The clock is my enemy. And the tying run is just 90 feet away. If only I can put aside my nerves.

I’ll get through this struggle by talking about the Browns and Zips. You want to say there is no quit in either, but the results were lacking this weekend.

The opponents lit up the scoreboard because the weary defenses were on the field too long. The offensive lines were porous, and the teams could not stop the bleeding.

When all was said and done, neither team notched a win in its own building.

I’m really throwing my support behind Charlie Frye, too. He’s a dark horse candidate to become a Cinderella story. With awful blocking, however, he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance.

Oh, boy. It’s crunch time. This has been a real barnburner, but I only have a few lines left to really show you what I’ve got. Where is my Mariano Rivera of cliches to slam the door shut?

Oh, no! The buzzer sounded.

Hopefully, the committee will survey my whole body of work.

Football

I’m still waiting to hear more out of Cincinnati.

While I do, read about the four Zips on All-MAC teams this year.

Earning a spot on the All-MAC Second Team were sophomore lineman Chris Kemme, freshman receiver David Harvey and sophomore running back Dennis Kennedy. That’s plenty of youthful talent to look forward to.

Senior quarterback Luke Getsy earned All-MAC Honorable Mention.

Football

I just got off the phone with athletic director Mack Rhoades, who genuinely does not know anything more than you or me about Cincinnati’s coaching decision.

Typically, an athletic director will contact his counterpart before speaking with a coach about a new job. I’m guessing this would go double for Mike Thomas, Akron’s former athletic director. Rhoades confirmed Thomas has not contacted him about this.

Football

As you all know by now, Cincinnati’s Mark Dantonio officially took the head job at Michigan State this morning.

Immediately, the speculation was that J.D. Brookhart would be his replacement, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.

Dantonio said he would be comfortable endorsing either of his coordinators, according to the Enquirer’s beat reporter. The writer, C. Trent Rosecrans, says defensive coordinator (and interim coach) Pat Narduzzi is his choice.

I think the trustees, fans and boosters are too strong at Cincy to allow a 5-7 coach at Akron to replace Dantonio. I’ll have more later tonight. We sent out a lot of feelers.

• In other coaching news, NC State’s Chuck Amato is out of a job.

Women’s basketball

Dayton hit a 3-pointer with eight seconds left to crush the Zips’ hopes of winning over a quality team.

Akron lost 58-57 in front of 349 fans at Rhodes Arena this afternoon.

I am no expert in scheduling, but you’d assume the women would have a much greater shot at drawing a crowd if the game was played on a weekday night — when students are on campus. With a game this close, a few AK-Rowdies could’ve made the difference.

Anyhow, the Zips drew strong performances from Jessie Crooks, Sarah Tokodi, Niki McCoy and Riana Miller, all of whom scored in double figures. Tokodi added nine rebounds and six assists. McCoy pulled down eight rebounds with five assists.

The Zips (1-4) will host Pittsburgh (6-0) on Wednesday night at home. My guess is we’ll see more than a few hundred fans.

Football

All four above-.500 teams from the MAC will play in a bowl.

As I reported last week, Central Michigan has accepted a bid to play in the Motor City Bowl. Ohio will play in the GMAC Bowl. None of that has been announced yet.

Western Michigan will probably get the nod at the International Bowl, Dave Ruthenberg of MACReportOnline.com says. Northern Illinois is going to the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego.

A few bowls basically had guaranteed the Flashes a spot if they had beaten Ball State on Saturday, a member of Kent State’s football staff told me last night. Instead, they were blown out.

Men’s basketball

To quell some of your depression about the above post, remember Akron will face Oral Roberts Saturday with gobs of RPI goodness at stake.

Men’s basketball

When Niagara slowed the pace on offense, Akron made a fairly common-sense adjustment.

Only guard them tough in the last 10 seconds of the shot clock. The Niagara Gazette gives other interesting details from the game.

Men’s basketball

Akron used solid defense and spread the scoring to win 63-48 over Niagara.

Romeo Travis and Nick Dials scored 13 apiece, but the real work was done on the other end of the floor as the Purple Eagles made only four of 17 3-point attempts. What’s funny is that performance actually lifted their percentage from long range.

I’ll have more on the game tomorrow.

Football

I have to make an apology to all Zips fans.

I committed an error detrimental to the football program.

After Kent State’s win over Akron, I said the game story should go on the front page of the Buchtelite. I suggested the headline "Fear the Flashes." I regret that, in hindsight, because tonight I found out that KSU coach Doug Martin clipped out that paper and hung it in his office.

D’oh!