NWAkron

"Watered down Akron" has ten 3 pointers and a 61 to 41 lead at half! I think it will be "blow out" weekend as opposed to "upset Tuesday" as these teams follow Akron's lead no matter winning or losing.

In the lower level, there were a lot of season ticket holders who weren't there last night. Most gave their tickets to others. Coach mentioned after game the last loss to BG cost us a conference championship. I don't remember that game. The last loss i remember to BG was at the Q when Hipsher was coach after we finally made it past the first round. Continue to hope chaos continues today for the rest of the MAC. But I have no doubt it will all come down to the Big Game on Friday for the MAC regular season championship.

Big Dog just made a 3???

Nothing is ever that simple when it comes to the Zips except that win over the Kittens in the MAC championship a few years back.

What a rough stretch of games for the team and the fans. But if all goes well we could have "home court" advantage in SIX more games instead of these final three. Time for a re-set of the season.

Thanks for posting this thread. This really helps those of us with no basketball IQ. It does seem like even when we do get a fast break it ends up with a whammy...missed dunk, missed lay up, a foul and missed free throws.

All I was saying is that at large discussion assumed we didn't win the MAC tournament. And I think that the cards are stacked against a MAC team getting that ticket. We ride this roller coaster every year. And considering all the upheaval in the standings being the #1 seed and the MAC champs is good odds. I do appreciate the mind reading. I, too, have psychic tendencies. Hence the prediction of the Miami loss.

I would attend the games whether we were 5-20 or 20-5. That's what we do as life long fans. Just like going to the football games even when they were 1-9. I never bought into that "at large" scenario primarily because cutting down the nets at the Q is the best way to end a season...at least from this fan's perspective. If we are looking for the bigger picture, we need to look no further than the MAC itself. That is our microcosm of incestuous mediocrity. WMU went to the tourney two years ago...bottom feeder this year. Toledo over last few years had some incredibly talented teams...nothing came of it. OU...has a run with Groce and then nothing. Buffalo...one and done with a star player who was a thief and kicked out of school. Miami once a power in the conference who had one great player (which will unlikely happen again) is struggling every year but does have Akron's #. Akron has won 22 out of 23 games against BG but Ohio lost twice to them this year. EMU has a star player in Thompson whose past is quite checkered. And the team up Route 76...enough said. It goes on and on. What about Central? And a final note, it seems these rule changes have affected Akron for the negative despite our Coach being on the rule committee. My thought is just like the economy is not set up to help the little guy nor are the NCAA rules.

Should make for an interesting MAC tournament. Ironically, we may limp in to one of those top 2 seeds a year too late. I'm taking the Eastern Michigan Eagles for the win, Pete. We need to think more like those teams (and fans) in all those little southern and east coast conferences who always consider themselves underdogs and are just happy with a conference tourney win and a 16 seed and the slightest chance at being a Cinderella. Cant's trip to the final 8 and the Kittens trip to sweet 16 got us all thinking we are something we clearly aren't. We have a decent MAC basketball program that still has as good a chance as anyone (proven by tonight's results Kittens lost to BG twice? Kant twice to Buffalo?) in this conference at winning the MAC tourney. But that's it folks. It will never be anything more than that. That became crystal clear as we walked out of Auburn Hills on a cold March night a few years back. We have much more fun when we dream rather than when we expect.

Unfortunately, I saw this coming Friday night. Same pattern every year. Didn't follow or listen tonight. This was predictable. That being said, this February schedule was brutal for the team and fans. One home game over a three week period. Just put a knife into any momentum.

Speakng of which...who wants to start the Miami thread?

Two turning points: Reggie's miss when we were tied and when we were up 19 to 15 and they got offensive rebound and a 3. Was reading how 6th ranked Maryland lost to lowly Minnesota. This stuff happens and with the stagnant nature of the MAC it just seems worse. How well all these teams know each causes these same results...unexpected losses...or big wins from the bottom feeders. Until there is some new blood in the conference it wont change.

Thanks Zipsnation for giving us all a place to vent. Inexplicable. But it has seemed like for the last few games that our three point game plan was hanging by gossamer threads ready to be snipped on some random February night.

With Pat...just have to bite my tongue or my fingers in this case. I'm skeptical about Miami game. Not because I'm negative but it just fits the pattern.

This movie is all too familiar. The usual pattern is to now go down to Miami and lose to last place team. I wouldn't say refs were bad. Our best free throw shooters missed front ends of one and ones. We do the same thing over and over again each year and expect different results

Nothing in transition. A missed rebound really turned the game around. It's never easy for Zips. Teams always raise their game for us. These black uniforms don't bring good luck. Should have hauled out the Purple.

I will be sitting in the lovely MAC Center bleachers and as much as I hope to carry a nice double digit lead throughout the game, I know there will be those "the sky is falling" moments of anxiety. All in how we stop the dribble drive and who gets into foul trouble. Doubt we will see a traveling call all night.

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/playPopup?id=14795976 here's a link to a Dambrot interview which discusses some of the issues in this thread along with a "If you had Lebron..." question.

purchased my tickets for the game tomorrow night. They then sent me an email that they were having a "Gold Out." Dribble/drive, dribble/drive, will probably be what we see all night. Who gets into foul trouble first and the most will make the difference.

I don't know if that's his attitude. Just an impression. I trust his judgment...not our former A.D.s judgment. But I do trust he knows what is best for the team.

I think having the home games is a big deal even if the teams we play aren't that great. All that travel and some big losses thrown in there and some injuries just doesn't seem worth it. I know the injuries can occur at home, too. But what I gathered from Dambrot's interview last night is it just doesn't sit right with him how it plays out. Our team is flying (usually commercial) all over the country while these "bigger" schools get to buy us off and stay home and rested. And Gonzaga has their own jet to get them where they need to go.

The guy in front of me gets a good laugh because every time Kwan looks like he's going to shoot I exclaim "Don't!"

As for that PD story comment, I didn't see what Coach Oats did to deserve the technical but the Perkins tech in the second half was quite obvious at least from where I was sitting. I would say that free throws kept Buffalo in the game during the first few minutes. Don't think either side won with the refs last night. I just don't understand how Buffalo can be mugging the Zips all night and nothing is called and then get 5 fouls in the course of a few minutes.

We only have one game cushion at this point for the true out right MAC Championship. If for some unthinkable reason we are tied with say Ball State, we would win a tiebreaker with them. However, we are not going to get to that point.

We were more short-handed than it seemed. For as frustrating as Pat is on the offensive end, his presence is really needed on defense. SUNY Canada started getting a little cold and tired, but before that it seemed the Zips were still shaking off the loss at DeKalb. Central took care of Toledo for us. Cant blew a lead and WMU took them to OT. Let's get that outright regular season title and the #1 seed.