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Congrats, Zip fans. Great finish to a miracle season. You guys were dead more times than I can count this year, but you are the last ones standing. Well done. Good luck at the MCB. (And don't listen to any bullshit about attendance. It's the ball games that count. Attendance smack is the last refuge of the losers.)

Hearty congrats, Zips. Well done. Way to upset the MAC applecart. The staus quo was getting boring.

My heartfelt congratulations to the Zips for winning the national championship. I expect to see the banner up when the season opens next year.

I think shifting from 18 conf. games to 16 (10 division, 6 out of division) will help with overall records. BG, CMU, WMU, EMU, UT may have problems. (WMU minus Rost and Reed?) Miami has some big holes to fill and no one right now who can fill them adequately, though I don't doubt they will be tough somehow, some way. The power is all in the East. Ball St should be the favorite in the west, imho, with UT having gaping holes and being in Joplin's last year. Buffalo gradutes a lot, and are without Battle at the point. NIU looked improved as the season went along, but how good will they get? Not a contender that I can see. I think Akron, OU, and we will all be improved from being near the top this year. But all need to imporve to make at-large chances better. This year just didn't get the job done: a pack of teams at 11-7 is a ticket to stay home most years. OOC scheduling and success is critical to at-large chances and with two more games to add into that schedule, we should be better off.

Actually, the MAC doesn't use ratings, it now uses actual standings that reflect how good teams really are and not the empty hype of wishful fans. We are currently 6-2 vs the other MAC east teams: best record in the division vs. each other. If we are "overrated" what does that make the other teams? OU certainly gets its chance to put up or shut up this week. We eagerly await their arrival on Saturday.

I wouldn't give up so easily if I were you. You still have a shot at the east title if you win your last two and things play out a certain way. Even if not, you guys are very dangerous and match up very well against a lot of teams. Your inexperience showed in our two games a bit, but your team is learning on the job. How many people could we put in the Gund for a third game? It would be a war, I tell you, and anyone's game. Zips showed a lot of guts tonight and fought back everytime we made a run. A couple of bad possessions at the end did you in, but that's MAC hoops. Good luck the rest of the way--I haven't been able to work up much animosity for you guys this year. I like the way your team plays.

What a fine zip fan we have here! Ghetto? Better get your racial attitude in check, dude. Want to go for 3 at the Gund?

Capt., Well, we played FSU in Corpus Christie and had a raucous crowd of 500, I believe, so I don't know what that prepared us for, except perhaps a game at YSU. But we did play Marquette down to the last possesion on their floor in front of 13k, so I guess it evens out. BC and Creighton were nuts, though we had the BC crowd pretty quiet until the end. Had a tough crowd at Old Dominion, too, actually. They are really rolling this year in the Colonial--20-3, I believe.

I want Hipsher back. Very impressive, but from what I'd heard, I wasn't too surprised. I think KD nailed it when he said that experience in big games vs. little experience in big games was the difference. That and bench depth seemed to be the biggest factors. Neither team shot well at all, but the D was intense pretty much throughout and there were not a lot of shots in rhythm to take. The Zips are a force to contend with and it pains me greatly to say this, but I enjoyed the way they played. I'd go see them play anyone. Like a breath of fresh air compared to the previous regime. Travis? He's an All-Mac player. Tough, physical game, but that's the way they are played down the stretch and in the tourneys. I think you guys match up well with UT, and while it helps us if you lose, I kind of wish you would take them to the woodshed. See you in a couple of weeks.

Cutley--true soph., been starting all year. 27.5 minutes per game. Gates--sophomore 15.7 min. per game. Crenshaw-true freshman--15.2 min. per game (and on the rise). Our one senior is avg. 28 mpg. and that number is starting to slightly decrease. Your two main seniors-McFadden and Colins avg. a combined 36 mpg. Let's not count Meyers. My point is not that your team is not a young one, but that ours is a young team also. We returned one starter who is now a junior. We return everyone next year but one guy and are giving quality minutes to freshmen and sophomores. I'll say it again--I think some teams use youth as an excuse because they have nothing else to explain their poor records. OU is a good example. When they had experienced players they crashed and burned; now they have other players who are doing no better. Don't want to blame the coach? Fine. Players must be "a year or two away." Hey, if teams are always wanting to "wait until next year," fine with me.

I'll add in our young team. OU and others use young as an excuse for being not very good. It is possible to be young and have the talent to compete. Can't State 4 freshmen 5 sophomore 5 junior 1 senior If you average out the players (freshmen=1, soph=2, etc.) OU actually turns out to be the OLDEST of the three teams and the flushes are the youngest. OU--2.69 UA--2.20 Can't State--2.20 In the 4th year of your tenure, a coach should not still be "rebuilding." But they can keep O'Shea for as long as they want.

I posted this on MCAbbs in the Wood thread. I am sorry to hear about his injury. These guys work too hard and put in too much time and sweat and everything. It's so disruptive to a team, too. As a former HS coach who once lost for the season his two leading scorers and rebounders in the same game, it always pains me when players go down for the season.

What is this "football" you speak of? They do not play this game from where I come.

Wow. Thought I'd pop over and see what the Zip hoops fans had to say before the season kicks off.

I feel so dirty being here.

Geez, make me go look it up... UA--'01--4-4, '02--3-5, '03--5-3 Total: 12-12

I was asking about MAC records over the Cribbs/Frye period. Can't State was 6-2 in '01, 2-6 in '02 and 4-4 in '03. Total 12-12. Do you have those? (No smack here, just curious. I guess I could go look it up somewhere...)

Actually, Cribbs punted in the CMU game out of the shotgun and stopped it inside the 5. The rest is accurate. Capt, sadly for us, is right. You guys are a notch above over 9 years. We are, however, .500 in the MAC in the last three years (The Cribbs/Frye Era) and I don't know what you guys are. What is your MAC record for 01-02-03? I only root against you guys when you play us or can suffer a really embarrassing defeat at the hands of say UB or MTSU, much as I'm sure you would have loved to see us get whupped by Liberty. Those are fun. But I root for you against the MAC powers, as I do all the underdogs, just to shake things up. I hope you beat Marshall and Miami. And I hope you beat the life out of UCF! I do hope CF gets it rolling and start to put up the big numbers. I'd like to see him go high in the draft.

Good game, Zip fans. You got us with big stops and the shockingly bad game by our usually reliable kicker. Carry on!

I didn't say your board was INACTIVE, just that it was full of fans who have already given up! Look at all quitters in your football threads! Frankly, I am disappointed in you guys that so many have given up so quickly. The Captain has been like the Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke. (Not that I want to dwell on that image.) Takes the fun out of tomorrow night's final Zip meltdown. I know you hardcore guys will be there, but I'll be shocked if you come anywhere close to matching the number of flush fans who showed up in Akron last year. If you do, the place will be near capacity. Seriously, the best thing for both of us is if it's a game-long shootout. We can talk all the crap we want here, but we aren't playing--what we really need is another game to make both sets of fans want to keep on going to the games. I hope both teams are up to the task. And Rifle--you gotta come up with new material--posting the same stuff on both boards is just lack of imagination. We expect better during rivalry week.