Dave in Green

I've seen folks accuse you of that here, but this is the first time I've seen you admit it. But seriously, for everyone who thinks that UA has grown and improved under the Dr. Proenza administration, don't you think the very people responsible for managing UA's growth want to select the person who they believe is most capable of continuing and expanding on that? If Jim Tressel doesn't meet those qualifications, he's not going to be offered the position regardless of what those who worship his football accomplishments may fervently believe. And if he does meet those qualifications, he has a good chance of being offered regardless of what those who've pigeonholed him as being capable of nothing more in life than coaching football may fervently believe.

DraftExpress ranks only two MAC players among all of its NBA prospects -- Javon McCrea is #38 and EMU's Da'Shonte Riley is #65 in their top 100 seniors list. By comparison Zeke was ranked #22 in last season's list of top 100 seniors and wasn't drafted. There are no MAC players in the DraftExpress top 100 lists of juniors, sophomores or freshmen. So the sad reality is that right now there are no players in the MAC who are likely to play in the NBA unless they show dramatic improvement in their level of play and move way up the lists of prospects.

Complaining without making salient discussion points may be frowned on. But you and @Balsy made some interesting points about the effects of scheduling. Good observations.

WMU-WVU final, 0-0.

Zips win 2-1.

Tree is tough as nails without playing dirty, and I appreciate his style of play much more than McCrea's. I'm pulling hard for Tree to ultimately have better college and professional careers than McCrea. But I'm not talking good citizenship awards here. I'm addressing effectiveness on the court and ability to move to the next level. The NBA has plenty of successful thugs taking home big paychecks. I personally don't like them, and I certainly don't glorify them. Ignoring them doesn't change reality and make them go away.

I was just going to post and say that I must be turning into a soccer fan because I'm really developing an appreciation for the way the Zips work together passing the ball and controlling the flow of the game, but I wish they would score. Bingo! Just as I was about to leave the streaming video to post, Najem nails one at 11:25 of the 1st half. More of that, please! And as I post this, NIU ties it 1-1.

Buffalo is softening up Can't right now, whipping them 27-7 34-7 midway through the 3rd quarter.

Just remember when dressing for the game that the sun is now disappearing behind clouds, and that 45-degree temperature with the current wind speed makes it feel more like 35 degrees.

Good read. What an amazing coincidence that Clarett first met LeBron after by chance getting seated next to LeBron's mother at a game. I hope that Clarett was able to speak with Abreu and help him straighten out his life.

Tree and McCrea are similar dominant power forwards. The main difference at this point is that McCrea is going into his fourth and final season of college ball while Tree is a year behind. McCrea has had an extra year to show what he's got and become more polished. The comparison won't be complete until they've both finished their final seasons. I think that Tree may have a bigger upside. But he's going to have to keep improving over the next two seasons to exceed McCrea's accomplishments. Their career stats to date are similar in many ways, but with McCrea leading in almost every important category.

Big Dog is a big man from head to toe. He has big biceps and forearms, big torso, big thighs and calves. He has such regular proportions that he really doesn't look that big until you see him standing next to someone else. He has the kind of build that you would never think of describing as "fat." Hopefully his joints are built like Shaquille O'Neal's, as the 325-pound Shaq had a reasonably injury-free career despite carrying all that weight.

Another advantage of the new instant-on lighting is that if there's ever a brief power interruption, say from a nearby lightning strike, we won't have to sit around waiting for the lights to cool down and reset. That would be especially important for a televised game. The new lighting will enhance the game experience in multiple ways and represents a smart investment.

Hey, we've been reporting on the new lights in the arena thread! The scrimmage was pretty intense, with the players obviously going hard at it most of the time. I spent a lot of time watching Pat and Big Dog going at it in the paint. Pat showed some really nice offensive moves and scored several buckets on effective little hooks. He also drove from the top of the key almost like a wing, snagged quite a few rebounds and blocked a couple of shots. Big Dog looks like he's laboring when he runs up and down the court. But once he gets into the paint, he shows some amazingly quick moves. On one possession he had the ball near the bucket and did such a quick spin move that my jaw hit my chest. I just didn't think it was possible for a man that big to spin so quickly. As in previous practices, I was impressed by his soft touch in getting the ball through the hoop, both from under the bucket and from the free throw line. I think a lot of Zips fans are going to be surprised at how agile and skilled he is for a 300+ pound basketball player. Overall I'm impressed with the depth from top to bottom. All of the players, including the freshmen, can shoot well. They can also all handle the ball pretty well, including the big guys. They all had a taste today of having the new rules enforced, as the refs nailed several players for hand checking. The good news is that the players seemed to catch on pretty quickly and most of the hand check fouls were called earlier rather than later after the players had a chance to adjust. Hope everyone can make it to the first exhibition game to have a look at all the freshmen before Coach Dambrot has to make the difficult decision about who to redshirt.

The teacher should have made it clear to the students that the assignment was not an open invitation to publicly insult HS staff or fellow students.

Even better than the new lobby lighting at the JAR is the new court lighting that I saw for the first time at this morning's scrimmage. All the old warehouse-style metal halide lights have been replaced with high-bay T5 fluorescent fixtures. The JAR's interior is not only more evenly lit, more glare-free and brighter overall, but the T5s have a much better CRI (color rendering index) that makes everything look more natural. I know from having a study done to convert a large facility from metal halide to T5s that this was not an inexpensive project, but likely ran into tens of thousands of dollars. So while Zips basketball fans might not be any more comfortable in their seats this season, watching games played under the new lighting will be a lot easier on our eyes. Good move.

All the players pictured played HS basketball in Ohio, so they may have started out with that thinking and then evolved into the "Ohio Born" line. That would explain the disconnect in omitting Gladden, who was born in Elyria but didn't play HS basketball in Ohio.

You can always identify a good discussion on ZN.o when @Zipmeister makes a serious and relevant comment. I also like @ZachTheZip's thinking -- upgrade to quality seating, reducing the JAR's total capacity. That would create more sellouts and create more demand for Zips basketball tickets. When enough people complain that they can't get tickets, offer them an opportunity to pre-purchase season tickets in a yet-to-be-built new arena. When the backlog ticket requests reach critical mass, build the new arena. The tricky part is to keep winning, and I think Coach Dambrot is up to that challenge.

The NCAA distinguishes between seniors and 5th year seniors in its Summary of NCAA Regulations – Division I:

"Not being recognized as much as deserved" is something we've all thought at some point in our lives. The curse in today's world is social media like Twitter where we actually go on record stating it. Don't say it. Just do it.

It's OK. It's just Ohio trying to be as serious about HS football as Texas.

@Bull_In_Exile, as you review the video of the cheap shot that Singletary delivered to Linhart, consider that there was also some outrage expressed here about the kidney strike that Javon McCrea delivered to Jake Kretzer last March. It took Kretzer some time to fully recover from that. The difference is that video of the latter incident was not available to explain why Kretzer was in as much pain as Linhart. Those are the types of incidents that tend to develop "hatred" among fan bases. Previous to that, I'd never seen anything to suggest that there was any reason for Zips fans to have any special dislike for Buffalo. Personally, I've always admired the passion and class shown by Bulls fans. But cheap shots by individual players can erode that good will.

You can't win if you can't score works for all sports. But I guess you have to add for soccer that you can't lose if you can't be scored on. The Zips defense deserves a lot of credit for holding both Wake Forest and MSU scoreless. This year's team is very good. But Zips fans have been spoiled by greatness, and that requires excellence from both the defense and the offense. If the Zips football or basketball programs were hanging in the top 20 in the country after losing their best coach ever, we'd all be ecstatic.

Same old story. Zips lead on shots, 23-5, and SOG, 10-2, but can't finish. You can't win if you can't score, and the Zips end up with a 0-0 tie.

Surprised that no one is posting. It's 0-0 with 2 minutes left in the second OT.