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Another great interview. Remi is so well spoken. He made the interview interesting with well thought out answers. It is obvious he and his teammates believe this will be an exceptional season. I also believe them.

@mrelegazna I'm kinda like you except I visit here most days. For me, it's like reading the funnies. It's nice learning about people coming and going, but that's about it.

I just pop in here every few weeks in the offseason, and when I saw how big this thread is, I was like, "Wow! The schedule must be coming together early, and/or there are some really interesting opponents!" But no, just Tulane and Bucknell so far, the rest is people arguing whether we should schedule Cleveland State and Youngstown State or not. I personally don't really care, with a slight lean towards "yeah, let's do it" for the following reasons, particularly with respect to Cleveland State: 1) Easy road game, and if Cleveland State's fan support is as bad as it apparently is, we can perhaps outnumber them in their own home, which is always great. 1a) As little interest as a CSU/Akron game or series might engender right now, I guarantee we play 3-4 OOC games each year that is even less interesting to both markets. At least. 2) Things change. 10 or 20 years from now, we might suck and CSU might be great. Especially with the fluidity you see in mid-major conferences. If you're not nice to people on the way up, they won't be nice to you on the way down. 2a) Cleveland State of course made an elite 8 appearance in the 80s, and wasn't it around that time that games against them and Mouse McFadden were breaking JAR attendance records for Zips MBK that still stand? (Fact check me on that). Maybe we can build that magic again, and it'd be helpful to lay the foundation for it now. 3) Some of you seem to be saying we should tell high majors to go to hell, while also espousing us to behave like mini high majors with respect to other mid and low majors. 3) Observations like "We can't give that CSU a home-and-home because that'd legitimize them" is way overthinking it IMO. It's highly unlikely our fates are gonna hinge on whether we scheduled the 2nd- or 5th-best Horizon League to a home-and-home, and it ain't all up to us anyway; these would all need to be two-party agreements, to state the obvious.

Featuring quotes from Captain Leo Morana … https://varsiq.com/cleveland-force-scs-rally-falls-short-in-4-3-home-opening-loss-to-pittsburgh-riverhounds-2/

"Voluntary" workouts started today.... I was told over half the team was there this morning which is very exciting to me, considering last year I was told were this week of "Voluntary" workouts they had something like 12 players there... Next Monday is the first day of mandatory conditioning for the returning and transfer players... I hope they build a lot of momentum. Right now the Zips are tied for first in the MAC so things are looking GREAT !!!!!!

The problem with this scenario above ... it does not take into effect injuries have on a season - overall or in part. I remember one season Sczerbiak injuried his wrist and missed 4-6 games with Miami going .500 in that stretch, enough to cost them the regular season title even though they were clearly the best team. In other years teams have lost players for the season, and did not become 'dangerous' until late in the season with a new lineup. In short, while the MAC is indeed a 1-bid league, it is not a 1-team conference. Most seasons anywhere from three to five teams would be solid NCAA Tournament representatives, even though all of them are likely-probably-definitely losers in the first round of the tournament. On Cleveland's neutral court, one of those 3-5 teams is 90-percent going to win the tournament. I'm good with that. The MAC Tournament, in my mind, celebrates the season. Guarantee the regular season champ a NIT bid, no matter what its NET/Kenpom ranking is. Give that team a financial reward for winning the regular season title. That, plus the No. 1 seed should be a viable reward. But don't fuk with the tournament. Again, I would love to have/hear Dustin publicly stand up for this. As a former MAC player and now head coach I would be shocked if he wants a double-bye or any other gimmick messing with the current tournament format.

I think the MAC BB tournament is a really good event for Cleveland. I wouldn't want to see it go away. I would like to see the better regular season teams rewarded. I'll throw this idea out. I'm not even sure how I feel about it. What if instead of a tournament in Cleveland, the MAC had a best of three championship series in Cleveland between the first and second place regular season teams? Potentially three straight days? Winner goes to March Madness.

Or give all the Wagon Wheel points and trophies to the regular season champs and just let the MAC tourneys be for advancing to the NCAA tourneys.

Bowden - who let the assistants coach on the field in the second half - starts 1-0 with a 44-34 win in Iowa. With everyone on their first game of the year, hard to tell who's any good or not, but better to start with a win than a loss. Offense was good downfield, but anything short or running was a little iffy. Pretty good defense, 3 or 4 interceptions. Stats a little lacking, hopefully the league at least gets them out there.

You can watch the halftime on that link above, somehow the Iowa Woo got Red Panda for halftime. Greenheads up 38-34 early fourth (1/6 on two point PATs now)

Bowden did return for the second half, but he's staying on the sideline

24-20 at half Monroe 0/4 on two point tries so far or it could have been a bigger lead

Delay early in the second because Bowden got clobbered on a deep ball interception (one coach is on the field for both teams in the indoor game) Bowden getting stretchered, though he isn't happy about it. Probably testing for a concussion. Also he's 70 and was the only one in the play that didn't have pads and such. So...that went well In a little better news for his team, the Greenheads seem to have a pretty good downfield passing game in the early going. 24-20 Monroe with about 1:45 left in the first half.

Congratulations to Zips Men’s Soccer alum Aodhan Quinn.

If the conference tournament is designed to make money ... the current format accomplishes that. If the MAC wants to reward the regular-season Champion, either don't have a tournament ... or seed the regular-season champion direct to the MAC TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP game. No in between bullshit. The rest of the league fights to play the champion. For the well-rested champion, it's one game, win or go home. Think of the crowd - both in the arena and on TV - on Saturday night to see if a rested undefeated Miami could finish the job, no matter what MAC team they played.

Both. But winning three games when everyone has equal rest vs winning two games with one or two less games than your opponent is a pretty clear advantage for the higher seed.

That is a legit argument, but my counter argument would be that a coach might find it wise to rest all valuable players dealing with a nagging injury once they secure a trip to Cleveland. What are the team’s priorities? It might cost the player some stats and accolades, but it will put the team in a better position to win in Cleveland. Players play through a lot of pain at times to win the conference title and get the best seeding. The problem is the MAC sends only one team to the NCAAT and the seeding has proven to not be much of an advantage. Recently Kent State and UMass have both been dangerous as the 8 seed. So the whole season is about playing your best and being healthy come March. And if it means dropping a few spots so be it. Better to go into MAC Tournament at full strength than a top seed currently. Can you imagine showing up at a Kent State v. Akron rivalry game with top players on both sides sitting out? I could Todelo doing this. Winning the conference has only gained them mockery.

The problem with the double bye is why have a tournament if 7 out of the 8 teams that make the tournament final over a 4 year period are the 1 & 2 seeds? The one that wasn't was the 3 seed. If the tournament becomes too predictable why would anyone care to watch unless you're a fan of one of those top 1-2 teams? Like I said before I'm against the idea of a double bye as it strips the MAC Tournament of the one thing that makes it exciting. I'm not opposed to entertaining options, like a 6 team tournament or re-seeding between rounds, that meets somewhere in the middle. Simply having a chalk tournament yearly defeats the purpose and that's what the double bye produced more often than not.

Did the format accomplish that goal or did the teams? The 2 seed hasn't missed a Championship Game yet in the current format. See my previous post for who the 1 seeds were that missed.

I think the MAC Tournament is one of the best run events in all of college basketball. I do like having the whole league participate with the lower seeds having play-in games on college campuses. Too often an 8th seed with a .500 record gets hot and healthy at the very end of the year. The current format gives them the same road as the teams carrying the weight of being the target all season long. Not fair. And because the MAC is usually a 1 bid league, I do favor giving the top seeds a bye. I agree that sometimes a bye will backfire because the opponent has the advantage of getting acclimated to the large arena. But more importantly, having to win 3 games in 3 days is just not ideal for anyone. You end up with the most resilient team, but not necessarily the best team. It would be nice if the MAC was given an at-large bid more often, when warranted.

It is a fact that during the double-bye era, the #1 and #2 seeds consistently made it to the championship game. If the goal of the MAC is to reward the top seeds for regular season performance and increase the odds of their champion being a top seed, that format absolutely accomplished that goal previously.

He’s a guy I’m excited about. The question is how quickly he’ll come along. Will he be ready to step in and contribute right away, or will it take a season or two? For comparison, I liked DeWalt coming out of JUCO, but it took him a full season to get comfortable and figure things out before everything clicked in year two. We seem to have good depth this year and there’s no denying Galloway’s upside, that’s for sure.