Dave in Green

While it's true that CCU got whipped by Ole Miss, 90-72, that's not quite the whole story. CCU was on the road and actually led Ole Miss at halftime, 39-36, in Oxford. Ole Miss is projected as one of the better teams in the SEC, which is ranked as the fourth strongest conference in the country this season. The Rebels are currently projected as an NCAA tournament team. Unlike the Zips, the Rebels were playing at full strength against CCU's less deep lineup, and wore them down in the second half with 10 players playing double-digit minutes. The Zips might have been expected to do something similar on CCU's homecourt had Tree and Harney been able to play and Rico's ankle not been injured.

So, #1 in the final regular season coaches poll + #2 in the final regular season RPI = #5 seed is the kind of math the NCAA wants its member institutions to be teaching their student-athletes? Seriously now, has there ever in the history of the NCAA been any team in any sport with final regular season rankings of #1 in the coaches poll and #2 in RPI that ended up with a #5 seed? I think if this had ever happened in a more mainstream American sport like football, basketball or baseball that every sports media outlet would be filled with stories of outrage, and it would be a topic of conversation among sports fans across the country.

As has been discussed before, scheduling a good lower level team early in the season has benefits over scheduling a weak D1 team, as it does not count against the Zips' RPI. On the other hand, if the Zips had scheduled a good D1 team, they would have been screwed with Tree and Harney out and Rico playing at reduced capacity with a bum ankle. So JCU worked out just fine as a tuneup for the Oklahoma State game, where the loss of Tree and Harney along with Rico's bum ankle put the Zips at a significant disadvantage.

Nice analysis, Lee.

I get the Ayn Rand reference: The NCAA is a political organization.

Speaking of Chauncey, he was wearing wraps on both legs tonight against JCU. It was obvious that he was half a step slow and could not elevate to his usual soaring height on his drives to the bucket. I thought he played a good game off the bench considering he's obviously not at 100%. Both Chauncey and Rico deserve a lot of credit for playing hurt and still looking good enough that a lot of fans can't even tell that they're injured.

For those who watched Rico in the CCU game and thought his ankle was "OK," KD said otherwise tonight. KD said that Rico's ankle sprain was a bad one and that he has been on light practice for the last 2 1/2 weeks. He said that in the CCU game and tonight against JCU the still injured ankle prevented Rico from going at full speed or playing extended minutes, and that he was having a lot of trouble moving on both offense and defense. As I said earlier, the Zips team performance suffered last season when Rico's knee was injured, and the same thing is going on now with Rico's ankle. I'm sure the adrenaline will kick in when Rico plays in front of the home crowd at the tournament in PR. But he will not be at full speed.

Yes, they get to travel to PR with the team and play after sitting out the tournament's first game.

@zen, I agree with you that no one should be discouraged from expressing their honest opinions, and that tantrums don't add much to the conversation. Thoughtful opinions should be encouraged, even those we may disagree with. I've learned a lot from paying attention to people on this forum who see things differently from the way I do.

I'd also give Coach Bowden five years as long as he continues to show progress. The progress shown in this first season is that the Zips can actually move the ball on a pretty consistent basis and score a lot more points than the previous two seasons. Unfortunately, that progress was not enough to make any change in the won-lost column. If team performance continues to improve in Coach Bowden's second season, it's hard to imagine not winning more than one game. Another 1-11 record next season would destroy many more fans' hopes that the program can be turned around.

This is really good news for Zips fans as long as we stay focused on one cardinal rule: If Can't can do it, UA can do it better.

@SeeTeeZip, I feel your pain as much as I feel the pain of every Zips fan. The point you are trying to make is worth considering at some point. But I don't believe that now is the time. It would be totally unfair to Coach Bowden and his assistants to give them only one year to turn around what has arguably turned into one of the very worst D-I programs in the country. While the Zips football program has never been great, it was at least competitive for a number of years before being driven totally into the ground, and it could become competitive again even if it never becomes a perennial D-I powerhouse. Coach Bowden is the best chance the Zips have to become respectable again. He deserves at least two full seasons to show that he can start turning around the won-lost record. If he can't get the job done and UA can't find anyone better to replace him, then more Zips fans might start thinking the way you do. But it's still too early for that.

More details. By the letter of the NCAA law, the players are held responsible for understanding and complying with the NCAA's billions and billions of rules. University compliance departments are there to help, but the players take the fall no matter how small a technical error is made. AthleticScholarships.net Sporting News

Left a Zips football game at halftime for the first time ever. UMass is a really bad team. Today made their season. I can't even begin to describe my disappointment with the Zips' performance. Maybe things will get a little better next season. Over and out.

@GP1, thanks for the clarification on what you meant by "more of the same."

@GP1, appreciate your views on seeing this edition of the Zips for the first time. You lost me a little when you described the missing Harney and Treadwell as "more of the same." Most everyone who's seen them play has described them as very different from previous KD players. So I'm not getting the connection with "more of the same." Also, although Rico may not have been obviously limping, this was his first game back from a badly sprained ankle. The fact that he did not start and played only 29 of 45 minutes are clear signs that he was not 100%. The Zips also struggled last season and lost some close games to teams they should have beaten when Rico wasn't 100% after his knee injury and surgery. Melo is longterm backup insurance for Rico, but he struggled in his first real college game with 5 turnovers in 10 minutes -- a lot like Rico in his early Zips games as a freshman. CCU's senior guards are the stars of their team, and they used their skills and experience to advantage over Rico's bum knee and Melo's inexperience. The Zips will improve greatly at the point as the season goes on with Rico's ankle getting healthy and Melo gaining college experience. A disappointing loss, for sure. The Zips could have won this game even after losing Q for the season, even after losing Tree and Nick for 3 games, even after having Rico recovering from a bad ankle sprain, and even after playing 4 freshmen a total of 96 minutes out of 225 available player minutes. That's right -- freshmen accounted for 43% of the PT in this game. It seems like just yesterday that a popular topic of conversation on this forum was how KD never trusted giving freshmen long minutes. Amazingly, freshmen almost pulled this game out of the fire in their first real college game for the Zips. The biggest positive out of this game was the play of Kretzer and McAdams, both true freshmen. Kretzer played more minutes (43 of 45) than any other Zips player, and McAdams wasn't far behind at 34 minutes. Sure they made some freshman mistakes along the way. But their contributions overshadowed their mistakes. Kretzer and McAdams were ready to be major contributors from their very first Zips game as true freshmen, and Melo and Forsythe aren't far behind. We had a glimpse of the next 4 years, and it looks pretty good. When Rico is back to 100%, Tree and Nick rejoin the team, and as the freshmen get more experience, this is going to develop into a really good team.

Xavier won’t be playing with its most complete roster just yet. Redford’s return coincides with the start of Isaiah Philmore’s three-game suspension for a paperwork oversight at Towson. Xavier officials discovered during the transfer process that Philmore didn’t complete a form validating his amateur status before his two seasons with the Tigers. XU self-reported the violation to the NCAA. The resulting penalty prevents the 6-foot-8 forward from suiting up for a game until Nov. 22. “It sets our team back because we’re down one player that we’re counting on this year,” coach Chris Mack said. Xavier

NCAA 1, Zips 0.

Zips down by 5 with 2 minutes left.

I'm hearing now that this was not so much a problem with the UA compliance department as it was a petty sneak attack by the NCAA on an obscure technicality. Reportedly, UA was one of seven schools (Xavier was another) that got caught on a minor paperwork technicality that was easy to miss. A bunch of players from all seven schools will have to sit out the first three games of this season. Keep an eye on the various sports websites to see how this plays out when it becomes public knowledge.

No one posting here, so I'll just add for those who might be interested that NIU beat WV 1-0 and the Zips are up 2-0 at the end of the 1st period.

Thanks. So Melo started and has played a lot of minutes, but Rico has played a little on his bum ankle?

Zips up 34-31 at halftime. I haven't been listening on radio. Who's been running the point?

At least ESPN is showing the score -- Zips leading 28-23 with 3:01 left in the first half.

I've tried all the usual websites and none of them has live scoring for this game.