- I suggest you do a bit of research on the "dropping N bombs in the huddle"...you might be surprised at what you find.
- They defeated Mississippi State on the road to start this season. Mississippi State was ranked as high as 11th this season and was in the Top 25 for most of the year. That was a pretty damn good win. The Zips finished with 55th in RPI, which is pretty damn good for a mid-major.
- Attendance isn't horrible. I believe Akron ranked 5th out of 12 teams last year, and while I haven't seen this year's numbers yet, it seemed to improve.
- He hasn't refused to play a tougher schedule, in fact, this year was the most difficult yet. Akron's SOS was 80th in D1 this season. Compare that to rest of the conference:
Miami - 98
Buffalo - 120
W. Michigan - 140
Bowling Green - 142
Kent State - 162
Ohio - 163
Central Michigan - 264
Eastern Michigan - 275
N. Illinois - 276
Toledo - 294
Ball State - 320
So yeah, his scheduling is just fine. And next year's is supposed to get even more difficult.
As for the championship games:
2011-2012 - Lost by one point to Ohio
2010-2011 - Won by one point over Kent (in overtime)
2009-2010 - Lost by six points to Ohio (in overtime)
2008-2009 - Won by twelve points over Buffalo
2007-2008 - Lost by nineteen to Kent
2006-2007 - Lost by one point to Miami
First of all, being in the championship game six straight years is an accomplishment on its own. They had one convincing win, one convincing loss, one screwjob (Miami), and three that could have gone either way.
When Keith Dambrot took over the Akron Zips, they were coming off of a 13-15 season and a 1st Round MAC Tournament exit. The program had three winning records in its twelve seasons in the Mid American Conference. They had never advanced beyond the quarterfinals in the MAC Tournament. As an assistant in Dan Hipsher's final season as head coach, Keith played a large role in recruiting two players (Dru Joyce and Romero Travis) largely unnoticed by other schools. These two players would help Dambrot begin the rebirth of Akron Zips basketball. Starting with 2004-2005, Dambrot has led the Akron Zips to eight straight winning seasons and seven straight 20+ win seasons. Dambrot now has 291 career victories at The University of Akron. His teams have played in the MAC Tournament Final for six straight years, winning two of the past four. He's led them to six postseason appearances (2 NCAA, 3 NIT, 1 CBI). During his eight year tenure, seven players have been added to the school's 1,000-point scorer's list. He helped turn Dru Joyce into the school's all-time assist leader and Romeo Travis into the MAC Player of the Year and an All-American Honorable Mention. He helped three players (Nate Linhart, Jimmy Conyers, and Zeke Marshall) to be named MAC Defensive Player of the Year, three (Cedrick Middleton, Brett McKnight, and Quincy Diggs) to be named as MAC Sixth Man of the Year, and two (Nate Linhart and Zeke Marshall) to be named MAC Tournament MVP.
This season was a difficult test for Dambrot. He had just lost four seniors (Steve McNees, Darryl Roberts, Brett McKnight, and Mike Bardo), giving him the 16th youngest team in Division I-A basketball. Six of his players weren't on last year's active roster and four of his rotation players (including two starters) didn't play a minute of college basketball last season.
The Zips still won the MAC Regular Season Title and just missed earning their 3rd NCAA appearance in four years.
Is he perfect? Absolutely not. Do the Zips need to take another step forward as a program? No doubt.
But Keith Dambrot on the hot seat? Ridiculous.
He has turned down offers to go elsewhere. Akron should (and will) show him the same commitment in trusting that he'll take us to that next level.
Calling a win over a team that didn't even make the NCAA tourney a signature win is laughable at best. Pre-season rankings mean nothing and where the finished in the end shows the quality of the win. MSU was a good win because it was an SEC team, but at the end of the day, they are a below average BCS team and was nothing to sneeze at. The Zips have been beaten handily by most top level mid majors over the years as well. Have they even gotten a signature mid major win???
So I got where he dropped the N bomb wrong...he still said it at the end of the day.
If you don't believe the attendance is terrible, you can go visit many of the topics on their fan boards at Zips Nation discussing the topic about how to fix their horrible attendance from the lack of students showing up, to a lack of marquee games to bring fans in and the lack of true fans in the lower bowl of the arena. It is probably one of the biggest hang ups in getting a new arena. They can't fill the crappy JAR, why would they fill a new arena? I think they hover around 3k a game. Pretty sad.
I will give you that he had made an effort to add at least a few tougher games to the schedule, but in a whole, it is substandard. Again, see the attendance issues and his scheduling tactics as to why they can't fill the JAR. He has built a schedule that almost guarantees him 20 wins a year. But those 20 plus wins mean nothing as he chokes year after year in the MAC championship.
I am not disagreeing with you that he has turned Akron around and has a top of the MAC level team year in and year out. But at the same time, he has shown that he is not capable of taking this team to the next level. Teams lose seniors every year. He also returned three starters and rotation guys that played minutes last year. McKnight was on and off the team last year and many considered him a distraction to the team more so than helpful. Although McNees was tough to replace. Roberts was easily replaced by players on this years roster.
At the end of the day, the discussion needs to take place. He has zero signature wins, (Florida St may be your only argument) he hasn't improved interest in the program, he can't win a low level conference tournament and chokes time after time in big games.
If that doesn't warrant discussion, then that is ridiculous. If you want to be complacent because you got a guy that will win 20 plus games on a soft schedule and bow out of the MAC tournament just because he is from Akron and turned down other jobs, then be my guest. But when I pay money to the program, I don't want to go to games to see them play a school I have never heard of and lose year after year.