Dave in Green

With 36 points in the last 2 games, Rico has raised his season scoring average to 10.1 points per game, joining Zeke (12.6) and Tree (10.8) in double digits. He's hitting a decent 43.6% from the field and 42.2% of his 3s. He seems to be finding the right PG balance of getting all of his teammates into the game and scoring himself when the team most needs his points. Alex does not have top 10 national stats like Zeke. But he does have high ratings in a couple of key areas. He's #23 in both assists and assists per game, #29 in assist percentage, and #88 in assist-to-turnover ratio. These all represent major improvements over last season, and have been trending up in recent weeks as he was recovering from a badly sprained ankle that adversely affected his performance in early season games.

Maybe not as big an overreaction as you might think if you believe the Sporting News story, Jayhawks vs. Horned Frogs: Calling Kansas' Upset Loss the Year's Biggest Too Limiting: According to Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com, there has not been a wider differential in RPI rankings between an upset winner and its victim than TCU (No. 236) and KU (No. 7) in the two decades he has been tracking the ratings.

Even LeBron gets into the Zips lovefest per his quotes in Florida's Sun-Sentinel: James keeps eye on former coach James has contacted Keith Dambrot more frequently than usual. Dambrot, who coached James at St. Vincent-St.Mary's high school, is now in charge at Akron University. The Zips are 18-4 and 9-0 in the Mid-American Conference. "I'm following them a lot," James said. "They've got 13, 14 straight wins, on top of the MAC. They're playing some really, really good ball right now. I'm extremely happy for him. I wish I could get back home to get to a game soon."

How much is the nation's longest winning streak worth, even if it's mostly against weaker teams? The latest ESPN mid-major power rankings show the Zips have now moved ahead of Bucknell, BYU and Wichita State, and trail only Gonzaga, Belmont, Middle Tennessee, Creighton and St. Mary's: 6. Akron (18-4, 9-0 MAC) – The Zips have the nation’s longest winning streak (14 games).

How disgusted was Kansas Coach Bill Self with the Jayhawks' performance against TCU last night? Disgruntled Bill Self compares 'worst Kansas team ever' to Northern Illinois

Tonight there was yet another example of how a conference-leading powerhouse can be upset by a conference cellar-dweller. TCU, 0-8 in the Big 12 entering tonight's game, just upset mighty Kansas, 62-55. As much as we Zips fans all cringed at how the our team struggled against CMU, the fact that the Zips won is way better than what's happening to leaders in other conferences.

Statistics tell us that when we flip a coin, there's a 50-50 chance it will come up heads and a 50-50 chance it will come up tails (and almost never end up standing on edge). Yet I just pulled a quarter out of my pocket, flipped it five times, and it was heads every time. Darned statistics! But, seriously now, the irony is that the article about the odds on going undefeated in conference play was based on Ken Pomeroy's advanced stats. Yet, just a few days ago, Pomeroy posted on his blog a cautionary tale for Florida in which he said: While Florida’s run has been impressive and unusual, it’s not unprecedented. Even with this run, they will probably lose again in regular-season play, maybe even twice. When that happens, there will be some chatter about what’s wrong with Florida. But taking a longer view, they should still be expected to lose a game. (My system has the Gators as better than 50/50 to go unbeaten in SEC play, but it’s working with an unrealistically high rating.) So there may not be any reason to freak out when they do. It's not that the stats are wrong. It's all in the interpretation.

CBS Sports names the Zips near the top of the list in their story on Which Team Has the Best Chance of Going Undefeated in League Play? Not only that, but the photo at the top of the story shows the AKRowdies holding up the big Coach Dambrot cutout.

A little news starting to come out on Jackson, but no details. Apparently he was suspended again for multiple games: Senior guard Aaron Jackson, a University of Akron recruit, was suspended for wins over Reynoldsburg (65-43 on Jan. 30), Lancaster (64-50 on Feb. 1) and Canal Winchester (65-56 on Feb. 2) and wasn't expected to play Feb. 5. His status, according to coach Tony Staib, is uncertain for the Lions' game Friday, Feb. 8, against visiting Pickerington North. Jackson also missed four games earlier this season for disciplinary reasons.

Associated Press game coverage is the single most widely distributed source of information about sports team performance, with the lead paragraph often used by itself in sports wrap-ups. Following is the lead from last night's game: AKRON, Ohio (AP) - Alex Abreu scored 15 points and dished seven assists as Akron extended the nation's longest active winning streak to 14 games, downing Mid-American Conference-foe Central Michigan 68-56 Tuesday night. The part that I bolded will be showing up in the lead of every AP game story on the Zips until they finally lose one. The more that sports journalists across the country see that line appear on the newswire, the more they will be inclined to think about doing their own stories on the Zips. The winning streak will continue to create more attention and respect as long as it can be sustained. This could turn into a really big deal.

@zen, I think that Rico and Tree are the heart and the soul of this team. They bring the same visible passion to the game that Nik Cvetinovic brought over the past few seasons. It's not that the other players don't also have some of that. But it's just easier to see in Rico and Tree.

That's exactly what we were saying as we were walking out of the JAR -- Tree willed the Zips to victory.

Don't know if anyone else noticed, but the CMU coach was using his timeouts brilliantly any time the Zips started to make a run. Problem is, there weren't enough timeouts to stop all the Zips runs. CMU burned its last timeout with more than 9 minutes left in the second half and was powerless to stop the late Zips run.

By the way, anyone who is disappointed by the Zips' performance tonight should take a close look at the just-concluded Wichita State-Southern Illinois game. Wichita State came in highly ranked while Southern Illinois had a cellar-dwelling 1-10 record in the MVC. Southern Illinois just won, 64-62.

As I said earlier, there are no more easy games this season. CMU brought their best game and the Zips were flat. This kind of game against a lowly MAC West team is exactly what I have nightmares about from the bad old days, because many times the Zips could never recover and ended up being upset. This team is good enough to close out a close game by playing up to their potential when it counts. Zips won the first 5 minutes 13-3 and the last 2 minutes 11-0, so 24-3 in those 7 minutes. In between was not pretty. Credit to CMU for playing the game the way wanted it played the other 33 minutes. Tree, Rico and Kretzer had nice games while some others struggled. Tree was called for a phantom foul, objected and drew a T. The Zips really do need him playing long minutes, so I hope he learned a lesson that you can't win an argument with anyone wearing a whistle. Chauncey played 3 minutes, missed all 3 shots, had 2 turnovers, couldn't keep up with the quicker CMU players on defense, and pulled up limping at the end of his 3-minute stint. Not sure what's wrong, but he's definitely struggling. Anyway, the national media is going to be more focused on lowly Arkansas upsetting #2 Florida by 11 points than they are in the Zips only winning by 12. The winning streak is alive, and the Zips have been served with a wakeup call.

Nice little video report on Sporting News called Giving Credit to DJ Cooper, Akron and Air Force, leading off with Akron with a focus on Zeke. Feel free to stop the video when they start talking about Cooper.

Isaiah Johnson is now the leading scorer (17.4 PPG, 69.1 FG%) and rebounder (8.9 RPG) on his Walnut Hills team, which is ranked #23 nationally by MaxPreps. Here's how a BasketballElite scout describes Isaiah's game: Isaiah Johnson (C, 6’9, 2013): His big body provides brick wall defense. Johnson works hard defensively in the paint, laterally sliding his feet and positioning his body for denial of post-feeds. He is excellent at boxing-out and putting himself in position for rebounds. He walls-up defenders without leaning over or fouling them. Offensively, he keeps a low stance and settles for smart, high percentage shots. Loves his right-handed sweep hook and works toward the midline of the paint. One downside to his game is a low elevation from his jump. Johnson has committed to Akron. His "low elevation" may be due to his high playing weight of 280 pounds. But he's looking more and more like a solid backup at center behind Forsythe next season. Finally, here's a link to a photo of Isaiah hanging on the rim waiting for traffic to clear from underneath him.

@LZip, that's why I like BPI, which has a Games With/Without Top Players section for each team, including the Zips.

Every team in the MAC was already saving its best game for Akron. Upsetting the Zips this season is good for MAC bragging rights. Things became a little more intense when UA took over the nation's longest active winning streak. Upsetting the Zips now is not just good for MAC bragging rights, but for getting recognition in the national media for being the team to end the nation's longest active winning streak. As much fun as playing basketball can be, the Zips need to be deadly serious about demolishing every underdog team that will be deadly serious about trying to embarrass UA with an upset end to the winning streak. There are no more easy games this season.

Allowing one team to switch to suit its own purposes would be opening Pandora's Box, with every other team crying "favoritism!" It was never going to happen even if UA offered to bribe someone with cash. The Zips got publicity out of this, same as they got publicity with the uniform issue. Kudos to everyone at UA who participated in taking something that was never going to happen and making it into a national story. That's two-for-two now, first with the uniforms and now this.

The Detroit site is not in Detroit. It's the Palace of Auburn Hills, a nice facility comparable to the Q in an upscale area 30 miles north of Detroit. I've spent a lot of time up in that area, and can assure you that it would be a great place to see the Zips play.

I thought this one deserved its own thread because it's a big story in the Columbus Dispatch's Buckeye Extra with lots of good quotes from Coach Dambrot, including the fact that he'd be willing to play some home games at the Q if it would help attract higher level competition: Akron Goes Big-Game Hunting

NBC Sports calls Rico "the key for Akron in March" today in their story, Five Mid-Majors Who Can Throw Your Bracket Into Chaos: 2) Akron (17-4, 8-0 MAC) The nation’s hottest team, the Akron Zips have won 13 straight games and are the lone undefeated team in MAC play. Leading the way are 7-footer Zeke Marshall and 6-7 forward Demetrius Treadwell, with five other players averaging between 5.8 and 9.9 points per game. The Zips are one of the nation’s most efficient offenses, ranking 28th in efficiency according to statsheet.com and that front court tandem of Marshall and Treadwell can give opponents fits in the paint. The key for Akron in March may be point guard Alex Abreu however, because when he’s under control and properly balances getting his own shots with putting teammates in the best position to be effective Akron is a handful.

Thanks for the numbers. I see that Bjorklund was 5-10 from the field against Cody Zeller and 7-12 against Alec Brown, both 7-footers projected to be NBA draft choices. He was also 5-8 against Minnesota's Trevor Mbakwe, another projected NBA draft pick. So Bjorklund appears to be for real. Zeke really likes this kind of challenge. Should be a great game.

Thinking about having the best possible record is not only about an at-large bid. It's also about having the best possible body of work to impress the selection committee into awarding the Zips a higher seed. If the Zips were to win out from here, including the MAC championship, they could be rewarded with an impressively high seed.