Dave in Green

As much as the early results hurt, in the overall scheme of things I'd rather see the Zips start the season a little sluggishly and finish strong than vice versa. Hopefully we'll see signs of improvement pretty quickly as the new head coach and new players become more accustomed to their new roles together.

That was a fast cut. Looking more and more as if Zeke's future is in computers. Marshall, Jones, Radetic out, Bubalo in

@GP1, good analysis. The bad loss to UCF was a little worse than I'd hoped for, but that was more than offset by virtue of playing Michigan and Louisiana close and having a realistic chance to win both games. So the Zips have at least slightly exceeded my expectations overall so far.

The better team won tonight. But they didn't win easily. The Ragin' Cajuns came in 8-point favorites on the road, and their fans understand when the game ended that they were a bounce of the ball away from losing. Louisiana fans have shown respect for the Zips on this forum, and we Zips fans should have the class to return that respect in kind.

You guys have a really well-coached team with a lot of talented players. The onside kick call was brilliant and perfectly executed. If the Zips had played you two seasons ago, you would have blown us out. Hope you win your conference and get a bowl invitation.

I'm pretty neutral about tOSU, in that I don't really have strong feelings for or against them. But I have to say I'm not impressed with what they did in the first half of today's game against little Florida A&M. Running up a 55-0 halftime score with 6 touchdown passes against an unranked FCS team is a little excessive to me. As I write this, it's now 69-0 in the 3rd quarter.

Still shows up as private for me in both IE9 and Chrome.

The burning question is whether the Zips had a perfect storm against Michigan that they won't be able to replicate or whether the Michigan game was a sign that the Zips have finally turned the corner under Coach Bowden and will begin playing more consistently like that on both offense and defense. Despite the rain and gloomy NEO skies outside right now, I'm feeling optimistic. Zips match Louisiana score-for-score through three quarters, the defense comes up with a big stop in the fourth quarter and the Zips upset the Ragin' Cajuns, 42-38.

Much as I'd like to, I can't buy into the highly optimistic speculation that any of the current Zips is "likely" to go high in the NBA draft after their senior season. I think it's realistic to say they have a chance if everything goes right. But it's going to depend on how much they improve between now and the end of their senior season. Of all the current Zips, Q and Tree have shown the most potential so far to possibly move on to the next level. Focusing in on Q first, he showed flashes of brilliance in his junior season, and seems to have returned this season with a burning desire to be the absolute best he can be. Like Tree and McCrae, I think he also has a shot at MAC POTY. In the NBA, his size probably limits him to the backcourt. His greatest potential in the NBA would be a combo guard who could backup both the 1 and 2 spots. I think it's possible he could get a shot near the end of the draft if he has a brilliant season. But the reality is that there are a lot of outstanding players with similar abilities to Q in college basketball, many of whom play for bigger-name teams. I'm rooting for Q all the way. But he's going to be fighting high odds. I think it's more likely that he gets a chance to prove himself overseas and earn an NBA shot. Tree is a beast as a power forward at the college level. Like Q, he's shown flashes of brilliance. But he's slightly undersized compared with most of the top 4s in the NBA. Switching to the 3 at the professional level would require Tree to have a reliable long-range shot, which he's never shown and seems unlikely to develop playing the 4 for the Zips. So I think Tree is boxed in to the 4 spot, and will have to develop into an exceptional rebounder and defender with a reliable short-range shot to have a chance at the NBA. It would help if Tree were to be among the college leaders in rebounding, which is what got Paul Millsap drafted as a slightly undersized 4 who regularly outrebounds taller NBA power forwards. I think we Zips basketball fans are really fortunate that with Zeke, Q and Tree, we will go through 3 NBA drafts in a row where we have at least a chance of having a Zips player drafted. Just having the annual discussion helps elevate Zips basketball. Many college basketball programs never have a single player with anything close to NBA potential.

CK, you did a great job of connecting the dots for a sports radio audience that would mostly be unfamiliar with the Zips. Your answers to the questions were concise and clearly stated. Live radio interviews are not easy to do, but you came across as a natural. Thanks for representing the Zips so well.

@Z.I.P., you don't need any sources to do the simple math. The Zips have 9 senior, junior and sophomore scholarship players on the roster (Diggs, Treadwell, Harney, Forsythe, Kretzer, McAdams, Evans, Betancourt and Ibitayo. That's a pretty deep rotation right there. Big Dog is the most likely freshman to break into the rotation due to giving the Zips a quality backup true center, a luxury that most MAC-level teams don't have. That would make a 10-man rotation. Each of the other 3 freshmen would have to clearly outperform one of the veterans in order to have any shot at meaningful PT. Is it worth burning a year of eligibility for players who might have a lot more to contribute for the 4 seasons following a redshirt?

Glad to see there's a clever campaign behind the seemingly bland Back The Zips theme. Playing on the back-to-back championships and taking photos of fans and players back-to-back is pretty cool. I'd still like to see some play on the Got Your Back concept tied in.

@Redzone Radio, you are correct that my memory was somewhat selective on Terry Bradshaw's success against the Ragin' Cajuns. That 34-21 win in 1969 was sweet because USL had won three in a row over Tech in the previous three seasons. The 1966 and 1967 Tech losses to USL came with Phil Robertson as the starting QB -- the same Phil Robertson who most recently has starred on A&E’s Duck Dynasty reality series. As good as Bradshaw was he didn't become the starting QB at Tech until his junior season after Robertson left. In his first start against USL in Lafayette in 1968, Bradshaw and Tech suffered one of only two losses that season, losing 24-28. Even in the loss, Bradshaw was spectacular, throwing for a then-record 432 yards -- the second highest passing yardage of his college career. Ironically, that was the season that Tech and Bradshaw ended the year with a 33-13 win over the Akron Zips in the Grantland Rice Bowl. So Bradshaw had a career record of 1-1 against the Ragin' Cajuns. Tech and USL took turns breaking each other's hearts on both the football field and basketball court. That's why it was such a great college rivalry.

Oldtime Louisiana Tech grad here, and I just have to reminisce. The Ragin' Cajuns were the greatest rivals anyone could ever ask for. When I was at Tech, Terry Bradshaw was the QB and USL was outgunned on the football field. But the basketball games were just insane. Future NBA coach Scotty Robertson at Tech and Louisiana legend Beryl Shipley at USL were two of the best basketball coaches in the South. USL guards Marvin Winkler and Bo Lamar -- both future NBA players -- broke many hearts from way outside the 3-point line that didn't even exist at that time, and future 4th overall NBA draft pick center Mike Green ruled the paint for Tech. We drove down from Ruston to Lafayette for every game, and loved the pulsating atmosphere at the old Blackham Coliseum. Coach Shipley and USL broke the color barrier by being the first predominately white southern university to recruit black players. They paid dearly when the NCAA made them the first school to suffer the dreaded death penalty. But, oh my God, those were incredibly wonderful times with some of the most amazing basketball games I've ever witnessed. When we drove down from Ruston to Lafayette, we had a mixed car full of blacks and whites, and we were always a little nervous about being stopped by an unfriendly sheriff or local KKK group. But once we reached Cajun country we knew the attitude was at least slightly more enlightened. This is really a big game for me. As much as I'm an adopted Akron Zips fan today, my mother was born and raised in Westlake, LA, deep in Cajun country, and I will always feel a part of the Cajun culture. So I hope that Louisiana performs as well as I remember from the good old days while losing to the Zips.

@Zipmeister, I'm disappointed that you didn't get a chance to ask Bob about Pat Forsythe this year as you did at last year's Dayton Agonis Club appearance. It's OK, though. I've spoken with another person who has known Bob for many years, and he reports that Pat is responding well to Big Dog's presence. At one point it appeared that Pat was a lock to get most of the playing time at center this season. But Big Dog is pushing Pat hard in practice, which is a big motivation for Pat that has really helped bring out the best in his work ethic. I'm sure that Bob would be pleased to see one of his ex-players do well at UA.

Virtual reality at its best.

That could be the single most valuable result from the brief burst of publicity for coming so close to upsetting UM. The Zips now have a quality coaching staff and a steadily improving influx of quality players. At some point you reach critical mass, start winning regularly and become a destination for coaches, players and fans.

@Buckzip, please do not read this thread as it will only give you heartburn. I just stumbled across the following story on Fox Sports that mirrors what many tOSU doubters have been saying on ZN.o. Whatever you think of this story, be sure to watch the video of the end of the Wisconsin-Arizona State game: Starting 11: Ohio St. is way overrated

@Zipgrad01, what you say has a lot of truth in it. But how can we expect fans of schools many miles away to know what some Zips fans don't yet fully appreciate about the promising potential that Coach Bowden has assembled? Granted, potential is only hypothetical until demonstrated as reality, and Zips fans are intimately familiar with unrealized potential. But we're too close now to give up the faith. Onward and upward, one step at a time.

How about EKU as a MAC replacement for UA if the Zips can land in a bigger conference?

Just received an e-mail from an old friend who at one point in his career was the Associated Press sports editor in Cleveland and really knows his football. He watched the game and said he's really impressed with what Coach Bowden has done with the Zips. My wife was with a knitting group of older ladies who never talk about sports, and they were all talking about this game. It really caught the attention of a lot of people across the country.

For me, the respot and the failure to reset the clock from 15 back to 24 seconds are the most questionable calls. I guess you'd need to have access to all the high-quality, stop-action replays the officials reviewed to be able to make a fair assessment. They're not supposed to overrule the call on the field unless the video replay shows clear evidence. I still haven't heard a good explanation about why the clock wasn't reset to 24 seconds.

Ask Coach Huggins if he has heard anything since the last time he made a public appearance in Dayton to change his opinion on Pat Forsythe's work ethic.

Here's how the Detroit Free Press saw the game: Link

Economics 101: LeBron earns millions of dollars from Nike, and tOSU is a much bigger deal to Nike than UA by virtue of way more shoe sales. Anyone who can't live with Akron and UA sharing a piece of LeBron with Columbus and tOSU is just going to have to live the rest of their lives unhappy and grumpy.