He was a college coach before St V and before he was dropping N bombs in the huddle.
This may have been their first #1 seed, but they were arguably one of the best teams in the tournament for three of those years and fell on his face twice. He has had a poor out of conference record and has almost zero stand out Ws. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any major upsets this team has ever had.
He has done a good job at getting the Zips to play consistent, but he has clearly shown he cannot take this team to the next level and the fact that people aren't discussing his future is setting up the program for failure. There needs to be the discussion over his inability to take this team to the next level. I am not saying it's time to fire him at this time, but to say there shouldn't be a discussion is absurd. Attendance is horrible, he refuses to play a tougher schedule, only one regular season MAC title (which is one of the worst conferences in America), and has choked in the title game four out of six years.
The discussion of if he is capable of taking this program to the next step is a valid question.
- 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.