[GoZips]

What is happening in men's basketball? A lot, actually.

The pre-season trip to Canada is set. The team will start practice August first. On the tenth
they leave for Toronto for the first of five games with Canadian teams. The first game to be
played in Toronto and the remaining four will be played in Montreal. I do not have any opponent
team names at this time.

The two incoming freshmen are on campus and participating in "open gym" pick up games with
the current Zips players. All the Zips are currently healthy which is good news.

The team is "deep" and very, very athletic. Still, the entire MAC East will be "loaded" this Fall.
The Zips may be ranked as the second or third best team in the early going; well, on paper.
Personally, I think Akron is far and away the team to beat.

Ball State and Western Michigan are expected to give the East teams a run for the roses.

Met and spoke with "Tree", Demetrius Treadwell for the first time. Tree is a large wide body
of the Cvetinovic mold. He certainly looks fit and ready to play. Great attitude to top off his
disarming smile and gentle presence. He is immediately likeable. He came to play.

Heard a lot of good and encouraging words about the incoming talent. That is, those players
who sat out last year and the two non-qualifiers. Who, both made grades.

For those of you who have long clamored for a "tough" schedule ... you get your wish. The Zips
open the season at Mississippi State with a road game not long after in Morgantown against
the West Virginia Mountaineers. Marshall comes to town along with Detroit (they are loaded)
and Virginia Commonwealth. Trips to Valpo and Duquesne are scheduled. While the schedule
is not complete, these games are firm. Oh, a short trip up to Cleveland State on the docket.

It is going to be a banner year for the talented and deep Zips. Anything less than the Sweet
Sixteen will be a couple of yards short of their goals.

[Blue & Gold]

It is going to be a banner year for the talented and deep Zips. Anything less than the Sweet
Sixteen will be a couple of yards short of their goals.

I'd be half-way to dying a satisfied Zips' fan. I've always wanted to see the basketball team make the Sweet 16 and the football team crack the Top 25.
(No football jokes, please )

[skip-zip]

It is going to be a banner year for the talented and deep Zips. Anything less than the Sweet
Sixteen will be a couple of yards short of their goals.

I'd be half-way to dying a satisfied Zips' fan. I've always wanted to see the basketball team make the Sweet 16 and the football team crack the Top 25.
(No football jokes, please )

WHOA!! No kidding. Dissappointed if we don't make the Sweet 16? GoZips...love the optimism. But, can you show me at least one basketball expert who is willing to say that the Number 6 team in the MAC last year, that lost 4 pretty key players to graduation, is going to emerge as one of the Top 16 teams in the country?

[Zipmeister]

It is going to be a banner year for the talented and deep Zips. Anything less than the Sweet
Sixteen will be a couple of yards short of their goals.

I'd be half-way to dying a satisfied Zips' fan. I've always wanted to see the basketball team make the Sweet 16 and the football team crack the Top 25.
(No football jokes, please )

WHOA!! No kidding. Dissappointed if we don't make the Sweet 16? GoZips...love the optimism. But, can you show me at least one basketball expert who is willing to say that the Number 6 team in the MAC last year, that lost 4 pretty key players to graduation, is going to emerge as one of the Top 16 teams in the country?

I don't believe there is a college basketball expert who wouldn't agree that if at least 70 of the D1 basketball teams that are better than the Zips get wiped out by bus accident, disease, or some other mayhem, that the Zips have a reasonable shot at a sweet 16 run in the tournament. Such an outcome is unlikely, but is a possibility.

[Hilltopper]

It is going to be a banner year for the talented and deep Zips. Anything less than the Sweet
Sixteen will be a couple of yards short of their goals.

I'd be half-way to dying a satisfied Zips' fan. I've always wanted to see the basketball team make the Sweet 16 and the football team crack the Top 25.
(No football jokes, please )

WHOA!! No kidding. Dissappointed if we don't make the Sweet 16? GoZips...love the optimism. But, can you show me at least one basketball expert who is willing to say that the Number 6 team in the MAC last year, that lost 4 pretty key players to graduation, is going to emerge as one of the Top 16 teams in the country?

I don't believe there is a college basketball expert who wouldn't agree that if at least 70 of the D1 basketball teams that are better than the Zips get wiped out by bus accident, disease, or some other mayhem, that the Zips have a reasonable shot at a sweet 16 run in the tournament. Such an outcome is unlikely, but is a possibility.

I knew we could count on you to set Skip straight on this topic!

[Quickzips]

For those of you who have long clamored for a "tough" schedule ... you get your wish. The Zips
open the season at Mississippi State with a road game not long after in Morgantown against
the West Virginia Mountaineers. Marshall comes to town along with Detroit (they are loaded)
and Virginia Commonwealth. Trips to Valpo and Duquesne are scheduled. While the schedule
is not complete, these games are firm. Oh, a short trip up to Cleveland State on the docket.

Awesome, Awesome, AWESOME! Mississippi State, West Virginia, Marshall, Detroit, VCU, Valpo, Duquesne and Cleveland State are all quality teams and are the kinds of games we need to be playing. Just have to finish off those last six or so spots with a couple more quality opponents, maybe a neutral site tournament and one or two cupcakes just so we don't over-do it and wind up with a Miami type gauntlet. Pushing that bracketbuster return game with VCU back to this season worked out splendidly for the Zips as the Rams should draw a little more attention from the local fans after their Cinderella run this March. West Virginia is a nice little road trip against a pretty quality Big-East team that I actually think we'd have a pretty fair chance against. As many have said on here over the years, Cleveland State should be on the schedule every year. If the Zips play their cards right with the remaining games this is the type of scheduling that could give us a reasonable shot at an at-large.

[skip-zip]

It is going to be a banner year for the talented and deep Zips. Anything less than the Sweet
Sixteen will be a couple of yards short of their goals.

I'd be half-way to dying a satisfied Zips' fan. I've always wanted to see the basketball team make the Sweet 16 and the football team crack the Top 25.
(No football jokes, please )

WHOA!! No kidding. Dissappointed if we don't make the Sweet 16? GoZips...love the optimism. But, can you show me at least one basketball expert who is willing to say that the Number 6 team in the MAC last year, that lost 4 pretty key players to graduation, is going to emerge as one of the Top 16 teams in the country?

I don't believe there is a college basketball expert who wouldn't agree that if at least 70 of the D1 basketball teams that are better than the Zips get wiped out by bus accident, disease, or some other mayhem, that the Zips have a reasonable shot at a sweet 16 run in the tournament. Such an outcome is unlikely, but is a possibility.

I knew we could count on you to set Skip straight on this topic!

Yes, thank you. I see how that can happen now. I completely forgot about the possiblity of 70 tragic bus accidents during the course of a D-1 basketball season. I got it now

[Dr Z]

Thanks for info GZ.

[Zip Watcher]

It is going to be a banner year for the talented and deep Zips. Anything less than the Sweet
Sixteen will be a couple of yards short of their goals.

I'd be half-way to dying a satisfied Zips' fan. I've always wanted to see the basketball team make the Sweet 16 and the football team crack the Top 25.
(No football jokes, please )

WHOA!! No kidding. Dissappointed if we don't make the Sweet 16? GoZips...love the optimism. But, can you show me at least one basketball expert who is willing to say that the Number 6 team in the MAC last year, that lost 4 pretty key players to graduation, is going to emerge as one of the Top 16 teams in the country?

Only one MAC school played in the NCAA tournament, and they most certainly didn't finish 6th in the games that counted in Cleveland, so I'm not sure what the 6th place team has to do with anything.

[skip-zip]

It is going to be a banner year for the talented and deep Zips. Anything less than the Sweet
Sixteen will be a couple of yards short of their goals.

I'd be half-way to dying a satisfied Zips' fan. I've always wanted to see the basketball team make the Sweet 16 and the football team crack the Top 25.
(No football jokes, please )

WHOA!! No kidding. Dissappointed if we don't make the Sweet 16? GoZips...love the optimism. But, can you show me at least one basketball expert who is willing to say that the Number 6 team in the MAC last year, that lost 4 pretty key players to graduation, is going to emerge as one of the Top 16 teams in the country?

Only one MAC school played in the NCAA tournament, and they most certainly didn't finish 6th in the games that counted in Cleveland, so I'm not sure what the 6th place team has to do with anything.

Sorry. Lets change that to......the 6th place team in the MAC last year, who won the conference tournament, and lost 4 key players. Do you think that would increase our chances of getting chosen by anyone to be one of the Top 16 teams in the country next year?

[Dave in Green]

Lots of good news here. The OOC SOS is starting to look like what a lot of us wanted to see in Zeke's junior and senior seasons. The academics of Tree and Harney are something for which many of us have had our fingers crossed for months.

One key point is team confidence. It's a really good thing if the Zips believe they can grow into a Sweet 16 team by the end of the season. Outsiders may look at all the available facts and disagree with the Zips assessment of themselves as way too optimistic.

But if the Zips truly believe they can be that good, and if they would be truly disappointed not to prove it, that's one heck of a motivation to go out there and seriously execute.

I like the chances of a team that truly believes in themselves a lot better than a team that thinks they'd be lucky to get to 20 wins.

[skip-zip]

Lots of good news here. The OOC SOS is starting to look like what a lot of us wanted to see in Zeke's junior and senior seasons. The academics of Tree and Harney are something for which many of us have had our fingers crossed for months.

One key point is team confidence. It's a really good thing if the Zips believe they can grow into a Sweet 16 team by the end of the season. Outsiders may look at all the available facts and disagree with the Zips assessment of themselves as way too optimistic.

But if the Zips truly believe they can be that good, and if they would be truly disappointed not to prove it, that's one heck of a motivation to go out there and seriously execute.

I like the chances of a team that truly believes in themselves a lot better than a team that thinks they'd be lucky to get to 20 wins.

We'll see how it shakes out, but it would really be great news if it is indeed a serious upgrade. Not just Zeke's last two year, but ANY year. I'll keep repeating this...we're a good basketball program now, so its an absolute MUST that we control the only thing we can control that gives us an opportunity at an at-large bid and better seeding.....and that's to play an OOC schedule that gets people's attention.

[Z.I.P.]

I'm ready to get on the bus with GoZips. I just hope our driver is more skilled than those who aren't steering toward the Sweet Sixteen.

I'm also sorry that the fans in the JAR Arena won't have a chance to see the Bulldogs @ home. They put on a real fine show here last year!

[ZachTheZip]

One of the things that held back the team the past two years may have been a simple lack of confidence. Saying that their goal is to get to the Sweet 16 is great, but to actually get there they have to truly believe that they are good enough to beat every team they play.

One of the things that hurt us against Notre Dame in Chicago was that Zeke was something equivalent to being "starstruck". He acknowledged that after the game and understood how it affected him, so I don't think he will let that happen to himself again. The season before that, we had some kind of mental block when playing Can't and it cost us.

I do think that the team has finally figured out the mental part of the game and we'll see that reflected in our "big" games. There's no reason why we shouldn't take those BCS teams to the wire with a chance to upset or why we shouldn't beat teams like CSU or Detroit or Valpo.

[akzipper]

Honestly I don't think the 4 players we lost will hurt us too much. The players we have coming will probably be better, and I am not worried.

Let's take a look at the four we lost.
McKnight was a strong presence off the bench but had his ups and downs, with a bit of an off the court issue. Not saying he's a bad person or player I just don't feel like we'll be hurting. McNees was clutch shooting and a decent pg, but I think Abreu will be able to take his place easily. Bardo hurt us more than he helped. Roberts was a good veteran presence.