Dave in Green

As predicted, the Zips ugly win plus other Saturday results combined to drop them a couple of spots to #54 in RPI and #53 in Pomeroy. For the first time this season, Pomeroy ranks the Zips defense higher (#52) than the offense (#58). They really need to regain the offensive performance they showed earlier in the season while continuing to tighten up the defense.

@skip-zip, Rico could develop at least a little more speed by reducing his body fat and focusing more on proper conditioning exercises. But his body is just not built for speed. He'll always be at a coverage disadvantage to faster guards. So discussing how the team can help compensate for various individual players' deficiencies is also fair game. As for Deji, Coach Dambrot has said that he's about a year away from becoming a really good player. He needs PT to develop, and his growing pains are going to be painful for fans to watch. Deji was a late bloomer in HS, where he was considered a shutdown defender with modest offensive skills, and that shows up in his current game. His 6-9 wingspan, spectacular leaping ability and good foot speed hint at his potential. Unlike Rico, he has no problem staying in front of guards he's defending. But his shooting and ball handling are works in progress. In retrospect, Deji could have really benefited from redshirting. But when Rico suffered his knee injury early last season, Deji was forced to play due to lack of backcourt depth. If the best qualities of Deji and Rico were combined in one player, he'd be a star.

Oops, meant to say that Cleveland State also lost, not repeat the Detroit loss. Anyway, you can check out the weight that each team's performance has on the Zips RPI at the bottom of this page on RPIForecast.com. Many are worth less than a tenth of a percent.

It's always hard to cheer for a rival like Can't or OU to do well. But there are times when it's in the best interests of the Zips. The best possible scenario is for the Kitties to upset Belmont, and then for the Zips to win in Athens. I don't expect every Zips fan to openly cheer for the Kitties to beat Belmont. But that would be the best thing for the Zips.

Constructive criticism should always be welcome, because it's in the best interests of the team as a whole. The Zips have won 15 games in a row because their strengths have outweighed their weaknesses. Doesn't mean they don't have weaknesses that shouldn't be pointed out and discussed. Rico has strong and weak areas like every other Zips player. His ability to guard a faster player is a widely recognized weakness that he helps offset with other strengths. But that doesn't mean it's unfair to point out where we'd like to see him improve his game. Coach Dambrot isn't shy about saying where he thinks each of his players excels or lags. He also gives credit where credit is due, which is something that some critics forget to do.

Detroit also lost. But these losses by teams the Zips have played doesn't appear to be having a major effect on the Zips' RPI. UA is still #52 on Live RPI, which automatically updates each time every game ends. RPI tends to have wild swings early in the season when not many games have been played, and then slows down later in the season when each new result is a smaller percentage of the whole.

"This is really inexcusable,'' said Demetrius Treadwell

Well, the Zips' stats took a big hit today. They're going to drop several spots in the Pomeroy rankings due to poor performance. But folks around here tell me the only stat that matters is wins, and the Zips have just extended the nation's longest current winning streak to 15. So don't worry, be happy.

I wonder what the NCAA record is for back-to-back turnovers by 2 teams?

Outrebounded by gnats, 19-14.

Each team has 5 steals and 6 turnovers in the first 8 minutes. Looks like another sloppy, grind it out game.

Zips start the game 0-5 from the field, but already with 3 offensive rebounds.

Love the quote about Tree in the article above: He keeps the gnats off of Zeke.

Jackson was back in the lineup last night when Gahanna beat Pickerington north, 65-47. Walnut Hills also played, and Isaiah Johnson was a perfect 9-9 from the field in a 51-38 win over Loveland, boosting his season field goal percentage to a Zeke-like 70.5%.

After NDSU's loss, they fell to #46 on Pomeroy, exactly 1 position ahead of the #47 Zips.

I would think that any PT any Zips player gets after a medical procedure would be 100% based on physician recommendations to the coaching staff.

Boom! And as if by magic, Draft Express updates its rankings, moving Zeke up from #36 to #19 among seniors, and finally including him in their Top 100 prospects list at #93. Zeke's NBA draft stock is rising along with his performance and the Zips winning streak.

Zeke is ranked #16 in the chart that accompanies the following story. Why he's not in the Draft Express top 100 is puzzling. Head of the Class: Ranking the 2012-13 NCAA Prospects There are eight seniors in the top 30 (Taylor Smith, Edward Daniel, Zeke Marshall, Pierce Hornung, Ryan Broekhoff, James Hulbin, Fred Hunter and Ian Clark) who are not listed on the Draft Express top 100 (including 7’1″ Zeke Marshall from Akron). A smart team would scout them and start prepping summer league invites right now.

Breitbart story: Akron to Wisconsin - Alphabetical List of Who should Make it to March Madness If the season ended today, these are the 58 teams (in alphabetical order) that should be invited to March Madness. The list starts with a newcomer in Akron - led by 7-foot center Zeke Marshall (20th best player at www.valueaddbasketball.com), 5-foot-11 Alex Abreu and 6-foot-7 Demetrius Treadwell - and ends with reliable Wisconsin.

Rico is not fast, but he's quick and deceptive. He's really good at moving slowly, faking one way and taking off another direction before his defender can recover. While he can fake and get around faster guards on offense, he struggles to stay with them on defense when they're on the run. Rico has quick hands, and is good at poking the ball away from behind when a faster guard blows by him. He benefits from having Zeke and Pat guarding the paint when a faster guard gets past him and heads to the bucket. The combination of Rico's lack of outright speed plus having Zeke and Pat anchoring the defense is a good reason for the Zips to play more zone defense. I had really thought that Melo would catch on a little quicker. But everyone seems to be in agreement that he is in the midst of recovering from his slow start and is starting to look a little more polished in recent games. Melo is faster than Rico and seems better able to stay with his man on D. In limited 3-point shooting so far, he's only 1-6. But he's hitting 55% of his 2-pointers, and seems to be good at taking it to the basket against taller defenders. Now that he's starting to play with more confidence, hopefully he can get extra minutes, especially in games where the Zips run up a big lead. He needs more PT to continue developing.

And another "boom" as Belmont's undefeated OVC season ends in a defeat to Murray State, 79-74. The more conference leaders who are upset by underdogs, the better the Zips' unbeaten conference record looks.

And then there was Illinois, 2-7 in the Big Ten entering tonight's game with #1 Indiana as a huge underdog. Boom. A 74-72 upset, and another conference leader falls to a team near the bottom of the conference. This is what the Zips will face over their next 7 MAC games.

The streak really matters more than some might think. Same with LeBron. I spent my entire professional life in the news business, and I know how it works. It's really hard to reach critical mass. But once reached, there will be one heck of a big bang. The longer the Zips can keep the streak alive, the wilder this ride is going to get.

After checking with multiple sources, it appears that nothing has really changed with Jackson. The suspension is reportedly part of the original disciplinary action, and should be over in the next game or two. His HS coach is a strong disciplinarian, and he would probably not have been suspended for so many games at many other schools. Jackson comes from a strong family background, has no history of troublemaking and is considered to be a good citizen worthy of wearing a Zips uniform.

Avoiding the unmentionables here, there's another good reason besides keeping the winning streak going to beat North Dakota State. On Jan. 31, the Bison embarrassed a close relative of the Zips, the Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos (aka UMKC Roos), 71-34. That's right. The Bison herd mercilessly trampled a mob of poor, innocent Roos. Zippy and all Zips fans need to bring some extra spirit to this game to help avenge this shocking cruelty against fellow marsupials. I'm going to do my part by finding a local restaurant that serves bison burgers on game day.