Men’s basketball

Former Akron assistant coach Shaka Smart is headed to Gainesville to work under Billy Donovan at Florida.

Basketball people say Smart will be a big-time coaching prospect. He left Akron two seasons ago to be an assistant at Clemson. He knows a lot about basketball. Good luck to him.

Football

According to someone present at the trial, Joe Nemer is asking the jury to award him $3 million for his property.

The university has offered $1.038 million, which is reportedly above fair-market value.

I guess $3 million is the point where it stops being about principles.

Here are some new scholarship offerees, who might play football where Joe’s bar sits…

Gary Gilliam, tight end, Hershey, Pa.
Offers: Akron, Connecticut, Virginia and Villanova
Height: 6-foot-7
Weight: 245
Speed: Not listed
Notes: Penn State, Pitt, Connecticut and Virginia are in Gilliam’s top four. Akron’s not a likely destination.

Jim Teknipp, tight end, McDonough, Ga.
Offers: Akron and Central Florida
Height: 6-6
Weight: 230
Speed: 4.8
Notes: Teknipp’s family lives in Ohio. If they move to Florida, it appears UCF will win. If not, Akron has a chance.

Logan Ryan, cornerback, Voorhees, N.J.
Offers: Akron, Boston College, Maryland, Michigan State, Northwestern, Rutgers, Virginia and West Virginia
Height: 5-11
Weight: 175
Speed: 4.46
Notes: His top five are Rutgers, Virginia, Boston College, Maryland and West Virginia.

Genesis Fonoimoana, safety, Los Angeles Harbor C.C., Calif.
Offers: Akron and Nevada
Height: 6-0
Weight: 205
Speed: 4.45
Notes: One thing’s for sure, he has a great name. In his first year at LAHCC, Fonoimoana grabbed six interceptions and made 34 tackles.

Miscellaneous

Put this in your “I probably don’t care” category, but I’ll discuss it anyhow.

Last night was the annual Mike Rasor vs. Captain Kangaroo/Dr. Z softball duel.

CK and Dr. Z run the premier Zips Web site, ZipsNation.org. If you’re a Zips fan, you should have it bookmarked.

Anyhow, our teams played a doubleheader in the Stow slow-pitch league. Correct me if I’m wrong about the exact scores, CK, but I think we won by counts of 21-3 and 15-7.

Here is the wildest play of the game: I drove a liner over the left-center fielder’s head. I caught up with the runner ahead of me at third base. He planned to stop there. I yelled at him to keep running. We both scored.

CK, who was pitching, claimed we scored because of a missed cut-off man. It definitely went in my team’s scorebook as a home run.

Despite all that, check out ZipsNation.org if you don’t already. Like I said, spare me the “We don’t care” comments. I know.

Miscellaneous

Mike Waddell wooed the people of Cedar Falls, Iowa, turning his trip to campus into a political stump, according to the local newspaper.

The University of Northern Iowa decided not to hire the former Akron associate athletic director to its AD job. Rather, the Panthers went with Troy Dannen, whose experience entails being executive director of a statewide girls’ sports organization.

Although Mack Rhoades was probably more qualified to get the Akron AD job, Waddell should be UNI’s AD, instead of this Dannen fellow. Despite this rant, rest assured, The Wad will get his shot.

Notes…

While we are on the topic of miscellany, you might have noticed that the blog posts have been few and far between the past couple weeks. It’s a slow time for college athletics news. Although I’ll be pretty busy this summer (10 credits and a legal job), I plan to report quite a bit from football camp in August. In my opinion, this will be the most intriguing camp since 2005, when I started the blog.

Ohio.com’s Dan Kadar discussed the possibility of Jason Taylor becoming a Cleveland Brown.

Miscellaneous

I know a lot of you were interested to see how I would vote in the race for chairman of the Republican Party.

I cast my ballot for Alex Arshinkoff, who built the party from scratch. As much as Arshinkoff hated the pressure of competition, I think it was a good check on his power. Arshinkoff won, 260-115.

Still, the party is better off with such a strong leader, even if he rubs some people the wrong way.

Speaking of strong, innovative leaders, Mike Waddell is a candidate for the athletic director position at Northern Iowa. Waddell is an associate athletic director at Cincinnati. He previously held the job at Akron.

Good luck to The Wad, who’s probably ticked that I mentioned him in the same blog entry with Arshinkoff. Deal with it, pal. Also, I second Captain Kangaroo’s suggestion of a home-and-home deal with the men’s basketball programs.

Miscellaneous

It’s hard to characterize 2007.

Looking back on the year, you might call it an utter disappointment. The basketball team failed to reach the postseason. The football team won four games. The soccer team got upset in the first round.

On the other hand, you could call it a success with Keith Dambrot winning 26 games and having the best men’s basketball team ever to play at Akron. The athletic department revealed its gem of a stadium. The soccer team returned to national rankings and got great play from two freshmen.

Here is the list of most notable moments from the year. Please add your memories for each one.

1) Penno’s Prayer — You won’t see many heartbreaks like this in sports. Cedrick Middleton’s free throw went off the front rim. Then 6.6 seconds seemed like an eternity as the ball found Doug Penno, who found backboard and twine. If you want to torture yourself, watch the Youtube video. I don’t think I have ever written with such anger.
What I wrote

2) Miracle at Kalamazoo — You won’t see many finishes like this game, either. Andre Jones took a pitch and cut out Western Michigan’s heart. “Everything but a band on the field,” ESPN’s commentator said about its top play of the week. If you want a reason to drop the noose from Penno’s Prayer, watch this video. Unfortunately, the rest of the season was a huge downer. In the MAC, however, you never can say next season won’t be better.
What I wrote

3) Zips flush Flashes four times — Is there anything sweeter than beating the Golden Flashes THREE times in one basketball season, including eliminating them in the MAC Tournament? Naa. Top it off with a victory in the teams’ final meeting in the Rubber Bowl. That should silence the Kent State fans for at least 12 months. Winning at the MAC Center will prove to be essential to the team’s confidence during this conference season. Here’s a video of the KSU band solemnly playing at The Q. I assume it was after the fate of its team was known.
What I wrote

4) Stadium revealed — Since 2004, we have heard promises of a new stadium. A concrete announcement came in July. It seemed like a great day for everyone involved. Well, except for the property owners who are losing their homes and businesses. This stadium will be the MAC’s finest. If it does open in 2009, the Zips will have no excuse for not competing at the highest level of any mid-major team. I had to threaten legal action in order to receive the rendering before the announcement, and that was fun.
What I wrote

5) Soccer success — The Zips returned to the level of success under Ken Lolla. Akron should sustain it too, because two of the key players Anthony Ampaipitakwong and Steve Zakuani were freshmen. The team lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, but Caleb Porter will have the Zips contending for the foreseeable future.

Honorable mentions

Zippy made an improbable run for the Capital One Mascot Challenge championship. We will learn tomorrow if the marsupial beat Goldy Gopher. I say “improbable” because I assumed Akron would have no chance to beat several BCS schools in a fan voting contest. I know for a fact a handful of dedicated Zips fans were carrying the load.

The women’s track team won another MAC Championship. The men finished second, which is their highest place ever.

Golf coach Tom Porten smacked his tee-ball out of bounds by bolting to Kent State to be an assistant.

Akron suffered through severe incompetance at quarterback. Chris Jacquemain turned into Rex Grossman after the first quarter of most games. Carlton Jackson ran well, but was a turnover machine. Both guys were suspended.

The university did not renew volleyball coach Mike Sweitzer’s contract. He had held the job for 17 seasons.

The university added women’s golf. Jenny King comes from Kentucky to lead the Zips, who will begin play in 2008-09.

Miscellaneous

The ABJ’s Patrick McManamon sat down with Mack Rhoades for a Q&A. If you haven’t seen today’s sports section, the story dominates it.

Women’s soccer

Catherine Byrne resigned as Akron’s coach after building the program from its infancy.

Everytime I spoke with her, she was a kind person, who appeared incredibly dedicated to advancing Akron women’s soccer.

The amount of work she put into the job is commendable, but the team had not been improving at the rate the university would like to see. The Zips went 6-7-6 this season.

Miscellaneous

I have said this before, but forgive me if I don’t post much for the next two weeks. School is getting really hectic.

If you’re killing for Zips news, check in with ZipsNation.org as much as possible. There are a lot of informed Zips fans over there who certainly can provide good perspectives.

Also, remember to vote for Zippy whenever you can. The marsupial is putting a whoopin’ on Otto from Syracuse. Don’t let up.

Football

Chris Jacquemain is now the starting quarterback, according to the updated depth chart.

J.D. Brookhart benched Carlton Jackson against UConn for skipping a morning’s worth of meetings and treatments for his ankle on Tuesday, a source tells me.

Either the coach decided to extend that punishment, or he liked what he saw out of Jacquemain. My guess is probably the latter, given Jacquemain’s decent stats against a staunch defense.

Westerrn Michigan, Saturday’s opponent, is pretty good at pass defense, allowing opponents fewer than 200 yards per game through the air. The real weakness to exploit is the Broncos’ run defense, which is 115th in the nation.

Other changes to the depth chart…

Phillip Morris replaces Andre Jones as the second kick returner.

Andy Hildreth is the permanent holder.

Media clips…

The Buchtelite’s Adam Ferrise wrote an interesting feature about John Mackey and his knee injury. He seems to think Mackey has a good shot at getting that medical redshirt.

The Buchtelite’s Vincent Dorsey wrote about the game, including some quotes from Brion Stokes and Jacquemain.

Miscellaneous

The Buchtelite also spoke with Ohio’s education chancellor Eric Fingerhut about the plan to combine UA and Cleveland State. He was vague and spoke in generalities, often dodging the real question. When I say “Finger,” you say “Middle.”

Miscellaneous

It seemed maybe Ted Strickland had some sense.

He wasn’t from the same breed as Bob Taft, after all.

Not so. Sources are saying Strickland and head education cronie Eric Fingerhut are tossing around the idea of merging Akron with Cleveland State. It might save a few dollars here and there.

I sincerely hope alumni from both universities mobilize to toss these idiots out of office. Any nominal savings would be irrelevant when weighed against the inconvenience for students, the lost credibility for both schools, the lost tradition of both schools and numerous other drawbacks.

Luis Proenza is pretty calm about it, so the idea probably doesn’t have legs. If these politicians start publicly discussing it, I personally will lead a picket in front of the governor’s mansion.

I agree with the men in this regard: If we were to start all over again with colleges, it probably wouldn’t make sense to plant public universities in Cleveland, Youngstown, Akron and Kent. But we can’t start over again. So what’s the point of mergers that would defeat the purpose of all the infrastructure in place?

Back to Fingerhut. This guy is truly a clown. I remember his Senate campaign chants of “When I say, ‘finger,’ you say ‘hut!’” The guy didn’t win a single county against George Voinovich. I do have some faith in Strickland, especially following his tuition freeze. Fingerhut, if he’s the one dreaming up this garbage (and even if he’s not), has no business holding state-wide office.

Notes:

Have you driven by the Rec Center lately? The university put up an incredibly large “Roo Town” poster on one of the facings of the Stile Field House. I’ve often wondered why UA doesn’t do something with that space. I never dreamed it would be that huge. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a diversion on your way home from work. Just drive down Spicer and you can’t miss it.

Rich Bell, the No. 18 center in the nation, committed to Ohio. He had a bunch of MAC offers, including Akron. I don’t recall the Zips losing many recruits to the Bobcats in recent history.

I’m still psyched up about tomorrow. I really have a good feeling about the game. I’ll have my prediction tomorrow morning. I’ll be tailgating around 8 a.m. It’s 6:45 p.m. and…

Miscellaneous

Zippy’s not doing so hot in the Capital One Bowl standings.

Help her out with your vote today.

Here’s the plan… Vote every time you return from the john. By my estimation, each of my 3,000 readers uses the restroom three times per day. If half of them remember to vote after each trip to the commode, Zippy easily will make up the 2,000 votes he is behind Cav Man (from UVa).

Does the Republican Party need a replacement for Karl Rove? I’ll be job hunting around spring 2010.

Football

The question: Can the defensive line hold up?

Discussion: The defensive line was my biggest concern heading into camp. J.D. Brookhart was pretty uncertain, too. Has it changed? Yes and no.

In scrimmage situations, the defense was able to penetrate and rush the quarterback. What does that mean? For one, it shows the pass rush is ahead of last season, when even bad offensive lines were able to protect their passers. Maybe Akron’s offensive line is really bad at pass blocking. Maybe the Zips’ blitz has improved. It will be hard to decipher the real reason until Sept. 1 against Army.

In terms of run stopping, the line performed fairly well. Sure, the Zips offense moved the ball, but it should have. The ground game will be the focus of the new offense, and the roster is peppered with talented running backs.

As far as personnel goes, the 3-3-5 scheme includes a tackle, nose guard and end on the defensive line. The coaches added a potential four-year starter at defensive end in Almondo Sewell. Don’t expect him to be a star right away, but the fact that he displaced Eric Lively should say something. With the injury to Jared Cecchetti (which I will soon discuss further), Lively moves again — from guard to tackle. Wallace Pendleton will start in the middle of the formation at guard.

Of course, the real concern never has been the starters. It’s the depth. Nate Robinson can backup at tackle and guard. Until Cecchetti returns, the rest is a crapshoot. The coaches don’t quite know what they have in Mitchell Magloire, Viktor Rajek, Shawn Lemon or the seven true freshmen. Of the newcomers, the most imposing appears to be Marquinn Davis, who stands 6-foot-6, 280 pounds. Brookhart said at least two of the true freshmen will burn their redshirts to help in 2007.

Cecchetti could return from his broken foot by the end of September. That grants Brookhart the flexibility of a five-man rotation, and perhaps six if one the “unknowns” emerges. But that’s only if the line hasn’t suffered another injury.

So yes, the defensive line’s play has been better than expected this month, but depth still is a monumental concern. If I’m defensive coordinator Jim Fleming, I insert and substitute the unproven defensive linemen like a manager switching pitchers in a late-inning nailbiter. He must find a couple more players who will step up and provide energy. I understand the concern of wasting their true freshman redshirt rights, but what good is a bulk of defensive linemen who never see the field until their junior year?

Looking ahead to next season, the starting line probably will include Iowa transfer and consensus “beast” of the team, Ryan Bain, along with Sewell and Lively. By then, the young players should be prepared to add an imposing two-deep field.

But this year, the line’s viability depends on health, quick learning on the job and the full recovery of Cecchetti.

Answer: Maybe

Miscellaneous

UofAZips.com has added a new feature called RooTube (how appropriate).

You can view Zips-related videos on the site or send new clips to site administrator Jason Roberts at contact@uofazips.com.

Men’s soccer

Even without three regulars, Akron beat Michigan State 2-0 in the Zips’ first exhibition match.

Ben Zemanski and Elliot Bradbrook scored the game’s only goals. Matt Tutich, Ossie Michalsen and Anthony Ampaipitakwong sat out with minor injuries.

Akron will play Cleveland State in the preseason’s final game tomorrow at 5 p.m. at Lee Jackson Field.