Dave in Green

Just like school, the internet is full of folks who haven't done their homework.

With all the medical testing Josh Jones, is going to be going through, it doesn't seem likely that he'll be able to play against the Zips Sunday: Notes: Jones blacks out, goes to hospital On the other hand, 6-9 senior Creighton center Gregory Echenique is on a roll right now and looking forward to going up against Zeke: Echenique comes up big again for Jays

We were spoiled by the Zips going entire seasons without being slowed by injuries. That's not typical of college basketball teams. Already this season we've seen Rico affected by first an ankle and now a knee, Chauncey by a knee and Pat by a shoulder. Fortunately they can all still play, even if not quite at 100%.

Per someone's suggestion, I started a new thread in Basketball Recruiting here with the player links from my post above to make it easier to find and track this information throughout their senior HS seasons.

Someone suggested pulling the links below out of the middle of another thread and starting a new thread here in Basketball Recruiting to make it easier to track the senior season HS accomplishments of the Zips' four 2013 signees. The links below go to the team/player stats sections in the hometown newspapers of the high schools where each of the recruits is playing. If anyone finds better stat tracking links, let me know and I'll update this first post. We can also keep track of news and feature stories about the recruits in this thread. Isaiah Johnson (Walnut Hills HS) Kwan Cheatham (Winton Woods HS) Aaron Jackson (Gahana Lincoln HS) B.J. Gladden (Olympic HS) Note: The B.J. Gladden link initially takes you to the Olympic HS girls basketball stats, and then you have to click on the BBB tab for boys basketball.

Scary moment last night for the Bluejays' first guard off the bench. Talk about playing with heart, how about a heart with a replacement aortic valve formed from cow tissue. Creighton's Josh Jones hospitalized after fainting

Creighton goes to Lincoln, NE, tonight and destroys a so-so Nebraska team, 64-42. Nebraska has wins over Wake Forest, Southern Cal and Valparaiso, but was also whipped by a doggy Can't team, so it's hard to say how good the Huskers really are. But the bottom line is that the 16th-ranked Bluejays now have an 8-1 record coming into Sunday's game with the Zips.

A little internet searching shows that Isaiah Johnson's Walnut Hills HS team is an early favorite to win the Ohio D1 HS championship this season, and that Isaiah is being ranked as the second team center on the preseason All-Ohio teams. First team center, generally rated the best pure HS center in Ohio this season, is 6-10 Maverick Morgan of Springboro. Ironically, Morgan just signed a letter of intent to play for Illinois after being recruited by none other than John Groce. You can keep track of Isaiah's stats throughout the season on Cincinnati.com here. Kwan Cheatham's Winton Woods team is considered one of the strongest in the Cincinnati area behind Walnut Hills and Moeller. Right now, Kwan is generally rated honorable mention in the preseason All-Ohio teams. With that big growth spurt from 6-3 to 6-9 and moving from guard to forward, no one is sure how quickly he will adapt to being super-sized. You can keep track of Kwan's stats throughout the season on Cincinnati.com here. Aaron Jackson's Gahana Lincoln team is ranked second only to Westerville North in Central Ohio preseason D1 ratings. Aaron is being ranked as third team in the preseason All-Ohio teams. You can keep track of Aaron's team box scores at dispatch.com here. B.J. Gladden's Olympic HS team is currently ranked #2 in the Charlotte Observer's Sweet 16, which considers all of the HS teams in the Charlotte, N.C., area. B.J. is generally ranked among the top few dozen HS players in North Carolina. You can keep track of B.J.'s stats throughout the season on charlotteobserver.com here. (Note: This link initially takes you to the girls basketball stats, and then you have to click on BBB for boys basketball).

@Ada Zip, I'm with you. Anything that's best for the Zips trumps any desire I have to see the Zips' biggest rivals fail. Would have been great for the Zips to have OU come into their first game undefeated and ranked in the top 25, and have the Zips blow them out. And, speaking of OU's second loss, their old coach has Illini fans all excited. Illinois under Groce is off to a 9-0 start and ranked #13 in the AP top 25. The first big test comes Saturday when the Illini visit Gonzaga, also off to a 9-0 start and ranked #10. As the season goes on, we'll see how much of OU's previous success was due to Groce and how much to the players.

I know he's not my kid and I know he's not Hilltopper's kid, but I can't speak for anyone else who you might be addressing with that general question. Update on Henniger: He had a scoring outburst of 9 points tonight along with 3 rebounds in 29 minutes against mighty Bucknell, which butchered Can't, 76-60.

Looking at Henniger's per-game stats so far this season, I'm pretty sure that Egner could match or exceed his old Jackson HS teammate's performance if he were playing 23.9 minutes per game at Can't: 4.8 points 48.3 FG% 58.8 FT% 0.5 assists 4.5 rebounds 0.2 blocks 0.5 steals The fact that Henniger is averaging 23.9 minutes per game with those stats speaks volumes about where the Can't program is this season. Future Zips opponent Princeton (3-4) visited Can't (5-3) Saturday and led the whole game, winning 62-50. Henniger was scoreless in 22 minutes and had 4 rebounds.

Good reminder. But I think you may have meant to link to this earlier thread on Egner, where Hilltopper and I were high on him after seeing him for the first time in a HS game. As for young Mr. Dunn, even if he develops into a HS stud and leads the Polar Bears to a state championship, I'd still have the same caution about him that I expressed in the earlier thread about Egner and Henniger:

So, if the Zips soccer team were to start playing and winning at the same relative level as the basketball team, their loyal student supporters would start ditching them?

TD is a 5-10, 150-pound sophomore who is projected to be in the Jackson Polar Bears' varsity 10-player rotation this season. Will be interesting to see how he performs against the big boys.

OU started high on Pomeroy based on his analysis of their strength from last season and returning all players. As with all RPI-like formulas, the early season rankings are not nearly as accurate as the later season rankings, which are more based on performance of the current team and the relative strengths of teams they've played. It's all kind of a semi-educated guessing game, with the guesses getting more accurate as more actual data replaces initial estimates.

The Zips band did something yesterday that I've always really liked from some college bands at basketball games. They had a couple of segments where they featured the percussion section solo -- tribal drumming, syncopation, etc. The proper use of drums at the appropriate time can really add to the atmosphere. It's not so intrusive as to make it impossible to talk with the person sitting next to you. But it has a subtle, infectious rhythm that really seems to get the crowd fired up and ready to go to war. I'd vote for more war drums more often and fewer full blown instrumentals.

Maybe those students who are buzzed by Zips basketball could help out by trying to create more of a buzz among their fellow students who don't go to basketball games. Maybe try talking up the great show the current players are putting on and how much fun you've had at the JAR. Sure, the seating's not ideal, the back entrance is a pain, halftime entertainment is hokey, food lines are slow, etc. But the main point is that the Zips have evolved into a darn good college team that's fun to watch, and they will perform even better with a large, enthusiastic, noisy student turnout. Maybe students here on ZN.o who enjoy Zips basketball could try bringing it up in everyday conversation with other students and see how good you are at recruiting higher quality student fans to support the higher quality student athletes Coach Dambrot has been recruiting to raise the level of Zips basketball.

Ideally, you want to begin a final shot sequence with the ball in the hands of your best ball handler/distributor. If that player also happens to be one of your better shooters, all the better. He either finds the open man or creates an open shot for himself with enough time left on the clock for an offensive rebound but not enough time for the other team to rebound and get into position for a decent shot at the other end. There's no question that Rico is that player for the Zips. He's currently averaging 5.7 assists per game and shooting 52% from the field and 81% from the free throw line. Beyond that, it's up to the coaching staff to draw up plays with multiple options and for the players to properly execute. There are many things that can go wrong along the way, and fans have long memories when things go wrong even when they don't know exactly what it was that caused things to go wrong.

@taxpayer, absolutely agree with everything you say. The new band location appears to be a tactical mistake. I can think of no positive reason that overcomes the negative of making it harder for the Zips to hear what their coaches are saying than it is for their opponents. You'd think that KD would be able to get the band location reversed if he thinks it's a competitive disadvantage. The noise and enthusiasm from the crowd was great. I can barely talk today, but at least I know I wasn't just one of the usual small vocal minority. A lot of Zips fans are hoarse today. Hopefully we can keep building this enthusiasm for a team that really deserves it. Think BIG and yell BIGGER!

The Zips have been up, down and all around in team free throw shooting percentage over the past 5 seasons. In 2008-2009 they shot 70.8% and were ranked #106 -- in the top third of all D1 teams. In 2009-2010 they fell off dramatically to a terrible 65.7% and were ranked way down at #272 -- in the bottom 20%. In 2010-2011 they bounced back to 70.4% and #132 -- just under the top third. Last season they dropped off to 69.2% and #167 -- square in the middle of all D1 teams. This season they're back up so far to 70.1% and #131 -- again just under the top third. To put that in perspective, the top 10 free throw shooting teams in the country typically average about 78%. If the Zips had shot 78% instead of 69.2% last season, they would have averaged scoring about 2 points more per game. As much as we'd like to see the Zips be a consistently excellent free throw shooting team, the reality of college basketball is that most of the top 10 free throw shooting teams each season are not powerhouses who do well in the NCAA tournament, or even qualify for the tournament. So while high percentage free throw shooting is a nice little bonus, it's not what separates the top college basketball teams from the rest of the field.

Northern Illinois belongs in the BCS because Big Ten, Big East champs don't; deal with it

It all depends on whether you believe in the statistical odds of a specific player making a disputed 3-pointer versus making 3 consecutive free throws or whether you believe in the voodoo magic of the NEO curse that whatever happens, regardless of circumstances, always produces the worst possible outcome for any NEO team. But, seriously, folks, Tree did not commit a foul on that disputed 3-pointer. Tree timed his leap just right to try to disrupt the shot without contacting the MTSU player. Immediately after releasing the ball, the MTSU player cleverly extended his arm so that it contacted Tree as he went flying past and flopped to fool the ref and draw the foul. Since the refs today were not drawn from the same pool as those who are selected to officiate the NCAA Final Four, the ref bit on the flop and called a phantom foul on what would have otherwise likely been a game-ending missed shot. Stuff like that happens all the time in sports throughout the country and around the world.

Wow, 16th in both polls and 19th in the average of 6 computer ratings was enough to move NIU up to 15th in the final BCS standings. That's some magical formula the BCS has conjured up. I'll have to find a good article describing how the system works, because it just didn't seem likely that this could happen to a lot of people who are smarter than me about things like this. Poor Boise State was 15th in both human polls, but stuck down in 31st with the computers. Who would have imagined that beating Can't could raise your BCS score from .1936 to .3276? Huge leap there. And Can't still finished 25th in the final BCS standings, so the MAC ended up with two teams in the final BCS standings. Great news for the conference.

That works. So he's offensive coordinator/quarterbacks for a team that seems to be built more for running (269 yards per game) than passing (152 yards per game). Will be fun to see how far he moves up the coaching ladder.

Harris Poll just released with NIU ranked 16th, same as the USA Today Coaches Poll. If the Orange Bowl rumor is true, it means that NIU made a major gain in the computer rankings to end up 16th or better in the BCS standings, which should be officially announced any minute now.