Dave in Green

Even though Coach Thomas played in only 36 NBA games, I think that experience is good to have on the Zips coaching staff. I was also pleased to hear Coach Dambrot in his weekly video call out passing as something the Zips needed more work on. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, sloppy passing struck me as the Zips' most obvious shortcoming during the Toledo game.

The pitch of the seats makes a critical difference. You want the pitch to be so steep that the elderly require assistance to get to their seats. You can see from the Toledo photos that the pitch is too shallow to keep the whole crowd close to the court.

Based on his performance against Toledo and other recent opponents, Hustle Belt's Matt Sussman is starting to get more bullish about Zeke's NBA draft stock: And with continuous performances like this, the 7-foot Marshall might actually have a shot at being the first MAC player drafted since Brandon Hunter ten years ago.

Double doubles in points and rebounds the last two games.

Forgot to mention that the Zips' current 10-game winning streak is the first time since the 14-game winning streak of the 1972-73 season that the Zips have had a double-digit winning streak. Everyone pause and think about where you were 40 years ago. Were you even born yet?

I think that Coach Dambrot is pretty smart to be bringing Chauncey back slowly from his knee surgery, increasing his minutes by a few from game by game. Chauncey is a great energy boost off the bench. But if Harney has more games like this one with 0 points and 4 turnovers in 18 minutes, it won't be long before Chauncey is back in the starting lineup and Nick is bringing the energy off the bench. To be fair to Nick and the other players who weren't at their peak tonight, every player has on and off nights, so the roles could be completely reversed in the next game. That's the beauty of having an 11-player rotation. Give everyone a chance but ride the players who are delivering. The scariest part of tonight's game is that Rico played all 20 minutes of the second half. Melo is just not developing as quickly as hoped, and the Zips are currently without a viable backup PG. If Rico runs into any kind of problem, the Zips are screwed. I sincerely hope nothing goes wrong. But if it does, don't come on here trying to tell me the Zips are just fine without Q.

I keep thinking of that line about the Zips being able to beat you in so many different ways. They cycled through a few different ways throughout the course of this game. But they will never get away with passing like that against OU. The Bobkitties will feast on steals and Zips turnovers if they don't get more serious about their passing game. The rest of the MAC teams are going to have a hard time staying with the Zips unless they're off in several major areas at the same time.

Two words for practice this week: Passing Drills!

Toledo smelling blood and Zips getting tentative. Bad combination.

Zips offense is nothing special, but the D looks good. With all those blocks and altered shots, the Zips were called for only 4 fouls, same as the Rockets. Love the way the refs are calling the first half, and hope they don't go crazy in the second half. Toledo's great free throw shooting didn't count for much as they didn't even get to the free throw line one time. The early season soft rebounding continues to improve as the Zips had a 25-16 first half advantage. Melo's turnover problems continue as he had 3 in just 6 minutes. He appears to telegraph his passes as the defenders start converging on his target before he even moves his arms to pass.

Zips looking good so far.

I take it you don't have STO, which is broadcasting the game in HD on TWC Ohio. I've watched games on my big screen plasma by connecting it to my computer with an HDMI cable.

I think the Zips have the talent to do it but I'm not sure if they have the will and focus to avoid an upset or two along the way. They surprised a lot of people last season by winning the MAC regular season championship for the first time. Running the table is a lot tougher. The 17-1 MAC record posted by Can't in their 2001-2002 Elite 8 season was pretty special, with only a 1-point loss to Buffalo on the road spoiling a perfect MAC run.

@GJGood, my best understanding of the Jackson situation is that it was a single incident of violating a team rule with no prior history of misbehavior. The appropriate people at UA are aware of the details, and the incident did not rise to the level of jeopardizing his Zips' scholarship offer. @GoZips, I'm sorry to hear about your sister. I didn't know that she passed away from diabetes. I can understand how you might be sensitive to perceived joking about that disease. But I'm sure that no one was trying to make fun of diabetes. The intended humor was over the twisting of words and not the disease itself, which has probably affected the families of many forum members.

@GJGood, did you see this post and link?

@zestycoyote, you're right that individual and team stat comparisons are not completely reliable because different players and different teams face different levels of competition that affect the ease or difficulty of running up those stats. These variables exist to some degree in all amateur sports along with other variables, such as some coaches electing to run up scores and others putting in subs early with a big lead. I take stats with a grain of salt, but still appreciate when Zips teams and players are at or near the top in any national category.

Tree is a unique and intriguing player. There are a lot of talented players in DI college basketball. But there are only a few players over the years who've excelled mostly on desire and willpower. The story mentions Ken Faried and Paul Millsap. I also think of players like Dennis Rodman and Ben Wallace and a few other undersized forwards and centers from smaller colleges who learned to rebound and defend in the NBA at a level of intensity that their taller and more talented contemporaries from the blue chip college basketball programs could never match. Sure, the odds are against him. But Tree is starting to show signs that he just might be one of the rare exceptions. He has to get better and he has to get more consistent. But if he wants it badly enough, it's there for the taking. It won't be easy. If it was, more players would be doing it. But those 10 critical rebounds in 19 minutes in the second half of the Can't game made one heck of a statement. I'm looking forward to watching Tree make even more emphatic statements as the season goes on.

A detailed comparison of UA and Toledo on statsheet.com shows one area where Toledo is clearly superior -- free throw shooting. Toledo is #6 in the country in free throw percentage at 76.9% and the Zips are #219 at 67.2%. In a typical game, that should only be worth about 2 points. The Zips lead in just about every other area. But upsets happen every day in college basketball.

@Z.I.P., posted just 20 minutes before your post right here.

Bleacher Report picks the Zips (along with Long Beach State, Boise State, North Dakota State and Charlotte) as one of 5 Mid-Majors Capable of a Surprise Sweet 16 Run.

Tree and Harney can petition the NCAA for another year of eligibility at the end of next season as long as they keep their academic grades up until then.

Speaking of OU, the Rockets led the Bobkitties at halftime and gave them a heck of a battle in Athens.

Zeke has led the Zips to another #1 national statistical ranking. Noted in a story titled Jeff Withey, Kansas, and How Being Big Will Never Go Out of Style is the following: The Kansas defense has only allowed opponents to make 47 percent of their dunks and layups, a percentage that ranks second only to Akron, a team blessed with rim defender Zeke Marshall. Also, Zip2Go posted the following in another thread, and I thought it deserved to be added to this thread, which I plan to continue to update as more good data comes out on Zeke.

There are plenty of different MAC stats that could be used to break a tie, starting with margin of victory in the case that the Zips and OU split their two games.

Most of the Zips players' parents, relatives and good friends who post on ZN.o appear to have no problem with constructive criticism and suggestions from fans who balance their critiques by acknowledging what the players are doing right.