Dave in Green

Following a couple of hours more sleep after the game, I woke up thinking how much the Zips miss Zeke in the middle after relying on him for four seasons. The Gaels scored lots of easy points in the paint that would not have happened on Zeke's watch.

Outside of rebounding, the box score is really ugly. Middle Tennessee on the road is not going to be much easier.

Big Dog is definitely the bright spot of the night for the Zips. If he can play this well in his first game as a true freshman against a team like Saint Mary's, he should be able to feast on the MAC.

Zips have a lot of work to do to become a more cohesive team. They just seem to be out of sync with each other. Saint Mary's is solid with great teamwork.

Zips already have 14 turnovers to 7 for the Gaels. Someone has to start hitting from outside.

Zips way up on rebounds at the half (22-12). Gaels hit 14-15 free throws while Zips are 1-6 on treys.

So what does everyone think of Big Dog so far? He's 2-3 from the field, 3 rebounds and a nice bounce pass assist to Nick.

Big Dog makes his debut and does a nice job of boxing out Waldo.

Woke up without alarm precisely at 3 a.m. Guess I really wanted to see this game. Good to see the Zips aren't off to a slow start.

From everything I've read, the whole Wolstein Center/Q situation was a nightmare of lack of political coordination between the city, county and state. Here's a part of one article written just recently:

@akronzips71, don't give up on Pat Forsythe too quickly. He may not be a guaranteed college star, but he has the ability to play at a high level. In some ways, Pat was an even later bloomer than Zeke. Pat went from an invisible backup as a HS junior to an all-star offensive and defensive center as a senior. Injuries hindered his progress at WVU, and he's shown only brief flashes of what he's capable of doing as Zeke's backup at UA. Coach Dambrot had enough confidence in Pat to play him 28 minutes against Coastal Carolina. His stat lines may not look great, but he didn't make the silly mistakes he did last season as Zeke's backup. It may be that he will respond to long minutes by becoming more confident and delivering on both ends of the court. Let's give him a fair chance to see how he responds to being given more responsibility, and see if he can rekindle the magic of his senior HS season when he went from invisible backup to all-star. On the other hand, there's no doubt in my mind that Q will be much more than a "sort of" replacement for Walsh and Gilliam. Count on it.

According to the attendance figures posted on Wikipedia, from 1984 through 1988, CSU basketball home attendance at Woodling Gym rose from an average 1,393 per game to 3,391. If Wikipedia is correct that Woodling Gym had a seating capacity of 3,000, that means that they were over capacity in both 1987 (3,096) and 1988 (3,391), several years before the Wolstein Center opened in 1991. Let's say that actual capacity of Woodling was more than 3,000. The fact remains that they were at or near capacity and apparently growing, which makes a good case for a new facility. They certainly didn't need a capacity of 13k for CSU games. But prior to the Q, downtown Cleveland needed a large event arena. What eventually happened was a mess. But there was certainly a good case for at least a somewhat larger CSU basketball arena at that time.

Let's not get too carried away with the emotion of last season's amazing MAC tournament championship. As a team, the Zips performed extraordinarily well at the Q. They came together as a team and performed way beyond expectations after the loss of their star PG. It all caught up with them in the VCU game, as most of those not emotionally involved correctly predicted. Harney did an incredible job of doing something he's not really built to do. Now, replay that whole season with Harney as the primary PG. Not pretty. I give the Zips huge credit for all they accomplished last season. But let's be realistic about the importance of having a real PG over the course of a long season.

@skip-zip, if I understand your question correctly, I'd say that while the basic plays remain the same regardless of who's at the 1, the options would be altered to some degree based on the individual skills of who's playing the position. Iso plays for Q are always an option, regardless of whether he's playing the 1, 2 or 3. As for Nick running the show, remember that the only reason he was called on in a pinch last season is because Q wasn't available. Q may not yet have shown that he's a better PG option than Nyles or Melo, but he's certainly better suited to the duties than Nick. When Q was playing at UNO he was listed as a swingman or wing. When he came to UA he picked up the small forward label. That was probably because the Zips were long on guards and short on forwards back then. But everything we've seen of Q since he arrived at UA suggests that he's a classic wing who can swing back and forth between the 2 and 3. He's also spent a lot of time working on PG skills due to the question mark at that position for the Zips. Now the following is purely speculative on my part, and I have no inside word on why this decision was made. But if the thinking is that Q will be mainly used at the 1 and 2 positions this season and not at the 3, that creates additional need at the 3. Kwan is technically a 4, but he's really a 3 who just had a big growth spurt. He's fully capable of playing both the 3 and 4 positions. I can't say for sure whether that was part of the decision not to redshirt Kwan. But it seems to me that there's some logic to adding Kwan to the Nick/Tree/Jake mix in the 3/4 rotation if Q's services are needed elsewhere.

@skip-zip, I can tell you what I watched in last Friday's game. Nyles was on the floor for 20 minutes and Melo for 15. During the other 5 minutes, Q was the primary backcourt ball handler who ran the point. That fits with what @GoZips -- who has attended every Zips practice and scrimmage -- has already told us: Q has played at the point in practices and scrimmages. The only way we don't see Q playing point this season is if Nyles and Melo combine for a solid 40 minutes of floor time.

Thanks for sharing your opinion. Both are among the best at what they do, and I don't see either as "way better" than the other overall. Like all the top predictive statistical analysts, their predictions are more speculative and less accurate early in the season than later. I do like the fact that Sagarin currently ranks the Zips much higher than Pomeroy, and hope his analysis is "way better" in this one instance.

NIU needs a big win to move ahead of Fresno State in the BCS standings, where they are currently #14 and #15 and battling for a BCS bowl berth. Two seasons in a row would be great for the MAC.

The ratings game is pretty imprecise so early in the season. But Ken Pomeroy, whose expertise I respect, sees it this way: He currently ranks the Zips #109 after a home win over #258 Coastal Carolina, and Saint Mary's #43 after a home win over #107 Louisiana Tech University. With LTU ranked slightly higher than the Zips and Coastal Carolina way down the list, it gives some idea of the challenge the Zips face playing Saint Mary's at their place at midnight in their time zone.

@Z.I.P., you forgot to update us that Shane Whittington ended up being suspended for the first two games of the season and didn't play in the WMU-Hawaii game, and that the Warriors upset the Broncos by 10.

Home field advantage offsets the Zips' better record?

Seventh-ranked Marquette suffers loss to DePaul, postseason uncertain

The story you link to only mentions a homophobic slur. I think any discussion that evolves from this may be better suited for the OT forum. I hope the discussion remains civil.

@skip-zip, I hear you. I spent many years in the corporate world and had to set the alarm for 5 a.m. But I could never go to sleep before midnight, so I ended up averaging less than 5 hours sleep a night over decades. You could say that 3 a.m. is the twilight zone that's a little uncomfortable for both night owls and early risers. I guess the DVR is a good backup for situations like this. A DVR would also help you enjoy the late night talk shows via time shifting.

I always knew there was something wrong with you. I'm a certified night person. I just might stay up for the game.

@akronzips71, at no time have I ever stated that I knew that KC would be redshirted.