Dave in Green

I actually found a quality mid-major program playing in a smaller gym-like arena than the JAR. St. Mary's plays in the 3,500-seat McKeon Pavilion, which has been criticized by many but which does provide a tough environment for visiting teams. Here's part of the Wikipedia entry: Common criticism of the gym, including by students, is its age and size. It is one of the smaller gyms in the West Coast Conference. The seating is mainly along two sides, running along the long sides of the court. Behind one basket is a large wall, and behind another a handful of elevated, VIP seats. Seating is mostly bleacher-style, not stadium style. However, many feel that the small size of the gym adds to the intensity of the crowd at sold-out games, when the cheers of 3,500 fans are amplified due to the small space. Because of this, McKeon Pavilion is considered by many to be one of the tougher gyms to play in for an opposing team. Current athletic director Mark Orr has said there are design plans that would knock out the front and back walls of the gym, adding 1,000 seats, but there is not yet funding for the project.

Isaiah skipped HS football last fall to focus on basketball this season. It's possible he was closer to 6-8 when he last played football two seasons ago, and has grown an extra inch or two since then. Kentucky and Louisville thought enough of his abilities as a lineman to offer him football scholarships.

WMU's record is 18-9 while Can't is 16-12.

I must have blinked. Kitties back in the lead and starting to pull away.

The Kitties were also mentally and physically exhausted after Wednesday's game. It hasn't stopped them from cruising to a 39-33 halftime score at Bowling Green. The Zips will have to show they can bounce back quickly from tough games if they want to make a run in the tournament.

Zeke is at the top of the player list in Ken Davis' 10 Potential NCAA Tourney Heartbreakers: Marshall ranks in the top five nationally in blocks (3.6 per game) and field goal percentage (66.3). The 7-foot center averages 12.7 points and 6.9 rebounds and he is a major reason behind the Zips’ 19-game winning streak, the nation’s longest this season. Marshall had 18 points, nine blocks and eight rebounds at Toledo on Jan. 23.

The Bracket Guru joins Dan Dakich on the Keith Dambrot National COY bandwagon: 3. Count me in as a member of the Akron bandwagon and Keith Dambrot for National COY award bandwagon. Wisconsin is just a terrible draw for them. Any of the other 5 seeds (Memphis, UNLV and Ohio St.), and Akron would be a very trendy sleeper upset.

From the selection committee's perspective, playing Western Michigan (RPI rank #107) would clearly provide more value to the Zips than playing Can't (RPI #171).

Coach Dambrot has already said he would consider playing a few "home games" at the Q if it would help attract bigger-name opponents for the Zips.

Ha, just noticed that on a night when only eight college games are being played, the Zips' RPI rank just moved up from #35 to #34. So the Princeton win did have value for the Zips.

Princeton has already moved up to #110 on Live RPI. But Harvard is the only Ivy League win that really helps Princeton's RPI. The RPI rankings of the four Ivy League teams that Princeton has left to play are #207, #267, #280 and #314. That's not likely to get them into the top 100.

Never promise what you can't deliver.

If the purpose of a stronger OOC SOS is to raise the Zips profile with the selection committee, we shouldn't even be talking about home games. The selection committee puts a premium on quality road wins, and rewards teams that have good wins on the road. Gonzaga set the model. They play in a weak conference like the MAC that would almost never earn them an at-large resume. They had to schedule road games against quality opponents across the country and win a fair number of those games in order build up their SOS and RPI numbers. Most of the big name teams they play never journey to Spokane for a return game. But we've been through the Gonzaga exercise before. Gonzaga has a high-major budget for basketball, not a mid-major budget. Gonzaga has a private jet that they use for international recruiting around the globe. You can't replicate the Gonzaga model without the Gonzaga budget and resources.

OU's RPI rank last year at the end of the regular season was #72. After winning the MAC tournament it rose to #50. After winning two games and then losing in the NCAA tournament, their final rank was #43.

Personally, I think this is a more flattering view of Isaiah .

I believe that the last time the Basketball Travelers site was brought up on ZN.o, it was determined that UA was active there. EDIT: Found it.

@Blue & Gold, I've been vacuuming up bits and pieces about Isaiah Johnson in all the odd corners of the internet. I didn't collect links and can't vouch for any of the accuracy. But here are some tidbits to ruminate on. I found one site that has Isaiah listed at 250 pounds -- 30 pounds under the highest listed weight of 280. That may or may not explain the 30 pounds you mentioned his coach said he lost. He's variously listed from 6-8 to 6-10. Could be exaggeration or could be he's still growing. His wingspan is listed at 7-2, just 3 inches short of Zeke's 7-5. He is almost always described as a throwback, traditional center who likes to play with his back to the basket. His favorite player is Shaquille O'Neal, which may help to explain both his playing style and his weight. Despite his size, he has smooth moves and a soft touch. But he doesn't have great speed. He's basketball smart, knows his own strengths and weaknesses and doesn't try to overextend himself beyond his capabilities. He likes to score from the paint, and his teammates are all happy to feed the ball to him. Some have said that his body is a little soft and that he'd benefit from a good weight training program. Xavier fans liked it when X offered him. But the minute he committed to Akron, they said X had soured on him and he belonged in the MAC. He's been described as a late bloomer in basketball because he was originally more focused on football, where he received offers from Kentucky and Louisville. His HS has a great academic reputation and he gets good grades. His goals are to get a college degree and play in the NBA. He lists his greatest achievement to date as receiving a scholarship to college. He's active in community service. His HS coach says of him, "“Isaiah is a giant with a gentle heart. His ability to get others to follow him is incredible. He is a natural born leader that comes from a solid family foundation that has groomed him to be successful.”"

Will Bo Boroski be officiating?

The stat that really sticks out to me is that Gladden is his team's leading rebounder as a small forward/shooting guard playing as 6th man. That's a pretty unusual accomplishment.

@skip-zip, right, Akron can "easily" schedule games with teams like Oklahoma State, Tennessee and North Carolina State every season because they have lots of openings on their schedules and they're all sitting by their phones anxiously awaiting calls from Akron. At one time I used to think you were a fairly knowledgeable college basketball fan.

Actually, that article was pretty darned complimentary to the Zips all the way through, including the final score.

Thanks, I also heard from another source that official seating capacity was about 7,000 before some of the bench seating was replaced with individual seating, which reduced capacity to the current 5,500. The reason I asked the question is because I was thinking back to the bad rumor about a new arena with seating for only 3,800, which Tom Wistricill categorically denied was being considered. I was thinking that perhaps the 3,800 number might be more related to a JAR upgrade that would replace all bench seating with individual seating. I know that many have complained of the discomfort of the JAR's bench seating. But if converting to all individual seats would pull the official seating capacity down below 4,000, that doesn't sound like a very good option.

What I meant about building around Pat's different skill set from Zeke's was not that they would build the whole offense around Pat, but that his skills would be taken into consideration along with every other players' skills, and the resulting offense and defense will be built somewhat differently from this season. I do disagree with your opinion that Coach Dambrot will not fully utilize Pat's offensive skills. Not many college teams have quick, agile, 6-11 centers who are consistently able to create their own shots. Pat can put a lot of pressure on other teams' defenses, and it would be a waste not to fully utilize his talents. I expect a typical Coach Dambrot balanced scoring attack with Pat getting his fair share of touches and scoring opportunities.

I've spent lots of time searching for more details on Isaiah and just haven't been able to come up with many details. I saw where his coach said he had lost a lot of weight, but the most recent weight I've seen him listed at is 265 pounds. I'm hoping that cincinnati.com will do a feature on him with more details since he was named POY. An interesting observation is that prior to the start of the season 6-11 Maverick Morgan was rated by some as the best pure center in this year's Ohio HS class. Morgan was also named on the Division I first team, but lost POY honors to Johnson. Morgan was recruited by John Groce and committed to Illinois.

Up to #3 in ESPN's Mid-Major Power Rankings behind only Gonzaga and Middle Tennessee: 3. Akron (23-4, 13-0 MAC). The Zips cracked the latest coaches’ poll. They haven’t lost since Dec. 15.