Dave in Green

Playing without Diggs isn't a big deal? Right. MAC Sixth Man of the Year, proven backup PG, best Zips wing at driving to the rim and creating his own shot, best Zips wing at stealing the ball and getting easy layups, a Tree-like motor. Dime a dozen.

While I don't believe in an officiating conspiracy, something Districtballer said at least conjures images of an NCAA conspiracy. We know that VCU was the worst possible matchup for the Zips in the tournament because of our guard shortage. Districtballer pointed out that Michigan was the worst possible matchup for VCU because Michigan is best in the country at guarding the ball. So what the NCAA set up in that little 4-team corner of the South Regional was first one mid-major (VCU) most likely to take out another mid-major (Zips), and then another matchup (Michigan vs. VCU) most likely to knock out another mid-major. Could be pure coincidence, but still good fodder for conspiracy theorists. Whether by chance or design, it does point out that some teams end up with easier paths to the title than others, and the paths may be completely different for teams with different strengths and weaknesses. Tournament seedings produce an interesting study in rock-paper-scissors.

Believe me, as a Zips fan, I'd love to be able to buy into an officiating conspiracy. But I just didn't see it. The numbers don't support it either. In the Zips game, the refs called the 1st foul against VCU at 19:45 and the 4th foul at 14:57. In today's game, they called the 1st foul against VCU at 19:34 and the 4th foul at 16:47 -- not much difference. Maybe if HS Stripes watched both games he'll check in and give his perspective from someone with an officiating background.

VCU had 17 personals called against them in the UA game and only 14 today.

Winning a second straight MAC regular season championship after having never won one before last season and winning 19 games in a row have already escaped your mind? That speaks volumes.

Just be prepared for those who will say that Michigan would have beaten the Zips by 71 points.

@akronzips71, high-major teams almost always beat MAC teams. Coach Dambrot's vision of building a high-major-type team at UA would serve a dual purpose of making the Zips dominant in the MAC and able to play toe-to-toe with high-major teams. What's happened is that our frontcourt is closer to high-major than our backcourt, which is good but not great. The Zips need Tree-quality guards to complete the package. It's hard as heck for a mid-major like Akron that's never won an NCAA tournament game to recruit high-major players at every position. In my opinion Coach Dambrot is doing a pretty amazing job of bringing in higher and higher level recruits considering what he's been given by UA to work with. Adding an all-star PG to the equation would allow the Zips to have a real chance at running the table in the MAC and winning NCAA tournament games. So far there is nothing to indicate that a high-level PG is considering UA.

Well, we can either choose to laugh at VCU for getting their comeuppance or commiserate with them because we know what it's like to be embarassed when your game is so far off from what it should be. If VCU was hitting their open shots early, this could have turned into a completely different game. But the bottom line is that inconsistent teams do not make it to the Final Four.

Michigan has 11 turnovers. VCU is 0-7 in games where they force fewer than 15 turnovers.

VCU playing much better so far in the second half. But Michigan's center Mitch McGary is almost singlehandedly killing them -- 7-7 from the field, 15 points and 11 rebounds 5 minutes into the second half. Michigan up 49-33.

Talk about extremes, now I know what the VCU fans were talking about when they said the Rams could stink it up in times. Their defense is based on making shots, and they are at the polar opposite of shooting from what they were in the Zips game. They shot 30% from the field in the first half. And it wasn't that Michigan was defensing them so much better than the Zips. VCU missed uncontested shot after uncontested shot. The low light was the worst shot I've ever seen in a high level basketball game. A VCU player got the ball standing right by the bucket. He went up uncontested and untouched, shot the ball with his hands literally 2 feet from the rim, and it was an air ball right over the rim. This is a totally different VCU team from the one that played the Zips. Halftime score, Michigan up 38-23.

Shooting for both teams has tanked with both clanking open looks -- VCU 31% after 17 minutes, Michigan 42%. Michigan leads, 25-19.

VCU shooting 50% from the field after 9 minutes, but Michigan shooting 64%. VCU pressure is causing Michigan to work hard. They may tire out as the game goes on. I've seen a few D.J. Cooper-type passes through the VCU pressure that led to easy Michigan baskets. The Zips really missed having that.

Unfortunately, Michigan is easily handling VCU. In the first 5 minutes, Michigan had only 1 turnover, while VCU committed 3 turnovers and picked up 4 fouls. Michigan leading 16-11 after 7 minutes of play.

Just glancing at the Basketball Travelers site, here are a few of the big name team/conference options the Zips could try to sign up for, even if there's no guarantee that these teams would be willing to sign a deal with UA: And on and on and on ..... Just remember that many of these dates will not fit the Zips' existing schedule. Most of all, keep in mind that many of these teams will not want to schedule the Zips. When that happens, there's nothing that can be done about it.

Coach Dambrot and Coach Smart have made it crystal clear that they do not want to schedule each other. The previous meetings were all a result of BracketBusters. There are plenty of options out there without beating this dead horse. As previously discussed, the Zips have been methodically raising the OOC SOS every season to the point that this season UA had a top 50 OOC SOS. Since the MAC conference SOS is so weak, the Zips need to continue raising their OOC SOS from top 50 to top 25 and then top 10. As long as we continue to get quality recruits and improved team performance, the Zips could start approaching a Miami-type OOC SOS and not be afraid of losing all those games as the RedHawks usually did. We just have to accept that almost all of those games are going to be played on the other teams' courts, which would be better for the Zips' RPI than home games.

Stereoptype: A set of inaccurate, simplistic generalizations about a group that allows others to categorize them and treat them accordingly.

If Zips Nation wants to be included with the big boys, the team needs to play like big boys and the fans need to act like big boys. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face, the only thing an early out for VCU would prove is that the Zips were even worse than others thought from our loss. The only thing that makes the rest of the country think better of Akron is if VCU does the same thing to the big name teams and marches right on through to the national championship. Then the story of VCU's march will begin with a comment about how VCU's dismantling of an Akron team with its starting guards out was just the first sign of what they would do to the rest of the field. We Zips fans can start establishing our big boy credentials right now by losing any spiteful little boy attitude of "getting even" with VCU by wishing them to lose. Instead, we should be acting like big boys and wishing for what's best for our team under the circumstances. That would be having VCU destroy every team they face on the way to a national championship.

I personally do not care much about soccer in general. But, since UA is so good at soccer, I care about UA soccer. I also have friends who don't care so much about football or basketball, but love soccer. Any time I'm talking with them, we always talk about Akron soccer, and I try not to let my general soccer ignorance be too obvious. So for anyone who doesn't care about soccer but does care about UA, try not to be so negative about soccer.

Wow. First #2 seed falls as Georgetown gets whipped by #15 seed Florida Gulf Coast, 78-68.

Isaiah may have weighed 300 pounds at one time when he was playing football, but not now. His HS coach says he lost a lot of weight prior to basketball season.

Happens to me all the time.

Melo can be as great a PG as he wants to be, if he's willing to put in the hard work. That means spending extra time before and after practice doing all the things that separate a great PG from an average one. He has the tools to do it. Be honest here. If we had had a poll here before the VCU game, how many minutes would you have guessed he could have lasted against VCU's havoc? I'll bet not a one of us would have guessed as high as 31 minutes. And if the poll had been to guess how many turnovers Melo would have had if he played 31 minutes against VCU's havoc, I'll bet not a one of us would have guessed as low as 5 turnovers. Heck, Abreu has had more than 5 turnovers in 31 minutes against lesser teams than VCU. Whatever any of us may have imagined, the reality is that Melo did better than expected. But that's because we have generally low expectations for him. It's up to him to raise those expectations by working his butt off harder than he's ever worked in his life. Tree has set the new standard for the Zips. Anyone who doesn't work as hard as Tree is a lazy bum.

@LZip, I was specifically referring to your statement that you would not give KD a pass because he had all season to make an adjustment for the loss of Q. I interpreted that as saying that you expected the team to be just as strong without Q after the adjustment. Since the thread has gone off in different directions, we may be talking about different things. A lot of the recent conversation was in response to skip-zip asking how VCU could have gotten so much better than the Zips after last season's 1-point game differential. Q is a big part of that equation. In my opinion, Coach Dambrot should be given a pass for not being able to make the team as strong without Q, Abreu and a healthy Walsh in last night's game. Maybe you're addressing a different point.

It sure didn't sound like it when you said this: