Football

I remember one of the final press conferences of the season I asked J.D. Brookhart whether he will swap his 3-3-5 defense for a more conventional scheme — especially considering the team struggled to contain mobile quarterbacks.

He asked if I had any suggestions on how to recruit defensive linemen.

Touche.

But it seems the team is shooting for decent d-line players and getting some this recruiting season. The newest is Jarvis Givins, a 6-foot-3, 300-pound defensive tackle from Miami.

Givins is seen as a high-potential player who simply needs to improve on his technique. Florida International, Colorado, Western Michigan, South Florida, Rutgers and Central Florida offered Givins a scholarship. He had interest from North Carolina and West Virginia.

Scout.com gives Givins two stars and calls him the 92nd best defensive tackle in the country. Rivals.com does not rate him at all. Givins joins Joe Rash and Shane Shead as current d-line commitments.

Men's basketball

Maybe oddsmakers know something I don't.

They have the Zips as a 1.5-point favorite to beat Nevada tomorrow. The over-under is at 140. Perhaps this spread is the result of Akron having an immaculate against-the-spread success rate.

Not that anyone asked, but my line would be Nevada minus five with an over-under of 155. It's not that I don't think Akron can win. I just would save my guarantee for some other night.

• Tom Gaffney's preview describes the up-hill battle the Zips will have. Coach Keith Dambrot acknowledges the awful matchups, but says his team will play hard.
• Romeo Travis will play Friday. I'm speculating he skipped a study table or something minor for his one-game suspension.
• I don't think you can call yourself an Akron fan if you don't attend this game. A win could propel the Zips into the NCAA Tournament.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 21st, 2006 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.