Dave in Green

Or, ZN.o could grow up and eliminate the cute but old and worn feature that won't allow the name of the Zips rival to show up here, which creates more headaches in posting links than it creates satisfaction in seeing the rival's name morphed into a joke.

@zippyman23, I did a little checking around, and it appears that your analysis of the situation is 100% accurate. Odds are against Walsh getting a sixth year to complete four seasons due to the fact that one of the years he used up was from a voluntary transfer. It depends on the strength of the case that can be put together that there were extenuating circumstances for transferring out of Xavier that were not entirely within Walsh's control. But the NCAA is pretty tight with its six-year exemptions, so it's looking more as if next season may be Walsh's final year of college eligibility. Listing Walsh as a sophomore this season is just being optimistic.

Someone who recently saw Tree and Harney together told me it looked like Harney is now taller than Tree. Out of HS Harney was listed at 6-6 and Tree at 6-7. On the Zips roster, both are listed at 6-7. If Harney is now up to 6-8 or more, he would be even more of a problem for Zips opponents to defend. Has anyone here seen Harney recently? Does it look like he's still growing?

Good analysis. I'll throw in my analysis of Walsh's situation at Xavier based on what I've read. He was recruited by an Xavier head coach who then left the program. Walsh met with the new coach, who informed him that he didn't fit in with the program's new direction and was unlikely to get much if any playing time. At that point, Walsh decided to transfer to a program where he believed he could be a productive member of the team. I assume the NCAA judges each of these cases on its individual merits. I don't know how all of the details of Walsh's situation match up with other players in similar situations. I do know that KD and UA are optimistic that Walsh is going to play three seasons for the Zips. I see no reason to list him as a sophomore other than the fact that they fully expect him to play his junior and senior seasons here. Either they have information that we don't or they're just bluffing.

@zippyman23, I'm no attorney, but I once stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. My understanding of an NCAA medical hardship waiver is that you can apply for it at the time of the injury. If Xavier did this for Walsh at the time of his injury and got it approved, my understanding is that Walsh would have been granted an extra season of eligibility at that point, and that his eligibility to compete four seasons within a five-year window would have been reset. I guess we'll know for sure at next season's final home game when they honor the seniors.

This is what KD told a ZN.o forum member about Walsh's eligibility at UA:

Just to be clear, academics have never been an issue with Walsh. He played in Xavier's first nine games in the 2008-2009 season before going down with a season-ending injury. He came back from the injury to play in 21 games for Xavier during the 2009-2010 season. He then transferred to UA and sat out the 2010-2011 season. If UA is listing him with three years of eligibility to play for the Zips, it is likely because he has already received an NCAA medical hardship waiver for a fifth playing season based on his season-ending injury early in the 2008-2009 season at Xavier. I don't believe that UA would list him with three years of eligibility if they only thought he might get that waiver.

UA is pretty conservative with their claims, and this is what Walsh's official bio has to say on gozips.com: A physical guard ... a solid shooter ... practiced with the team during the 2010-11 season after sitting out due to NCAA Transfer guidelines ... will have three years of eligibility with the Zips beginning in the 2011-12 season. Brian Walsh Bio

I'm really pleased that the Zips landed an ex-Xavier guard with three years of eligibility who is a team player fully capable of averaging 15 points per game if that's what the coach asked of him. Brian Walsh is an honor student of high character who has not had the kind of "on and off-court issues throughout his career" that would cause a coach to drop him from the team for the betterment of the team. Give me more Brian Walshes and let Can't go after the Mark Lyons.

@Zipsrifle, we've had seats in the second row of the upper deck right on the 50-yard line from the first season. The good news is that the view is spectacular, especially when compared with the Rubber Bowl. The bad news was that the view was too good for what was happening on the field for the past two seasons. Back to good news, a Terry Bowden-coached team is going to be a lot more fun to watch from those second row, upper deck seats.

So symbolic to see the basketball in the middle of all of that.

I guess the rumor about Can't cleaning up the program and pulling back on the "second chance" philosophy was wildly overblown. Sounds like business as usual -- the better the player, the more that can be forgiven.

In the past, winning the Bracket Buster games did not make a difference in getting an at-large NCAA tournament bid because the rest of the Zips' OOC schedule was too weak, and winning the MAC tournament was the only route for UA to the Big Dance. As the Zips slowly improved their OOC schedule, that began changing. This season, the Bracket Buster game and others on the OOC schedule were important because the Zips' SOS was high enough to earn an at-large bid with enough wins in those games. Next season's OOC SOS is looking to be close to this season's. So, again, winning enough of those games could put the Zips in position for an at-large bid should an otherwise great season be spoiled by losing the MAC tournament championship. KD has been slowly growing the program, which among other things involves slowly evolving his coaching philosophy. Previously KD's realistic position was that the Zips had to focus on winning the MAC tournament. Now the Zips have a realistic shot at an at-large NCAA bid if they can win 85-90% of their regular season games. I don't think we will be seeing KD make any more statements about Bracket Buster and other OOC games not being important. I think we will see the coaching staff and the players approaching each game as important to setting up the opportunity for a post-season run in the NCAA tournament.

Weatherspoon was ranked by scout.com as the nation's 37th best PF in the 2009 HS graduating class. He missed some games at tOSU due to academic problems. In his two seasons at tOSU, the 6-6, 215-pound Weatherspoon played in 35 games. He averaged 2.7 points and one rebound per game and averaged 59 percent shooting, going 37-for-63. He averaged about six minutes of court time per game playing behind Jared Sullinger, Deshaun Thomas, etc. Weatherspoon appears to be the type of player who gets short minutes on a Final Four-level national power program that's loaded with talent, but who could be a major contributor at a quality mid-major program.

Zac Jackson and Todd Porter co-wrote the book, “We Believed ... Lessons Learned from Jackson’s Improbable Run to State Basketball Championship.” So Zac has a special interest in Josh Egner and Zips basketball right now. The comment about Rico becoming the best guard UA has ever had is one that I had heard from another source close to the team. He's got two seasons left to get it done, and next season is Zeke's final one. A lot of things have to come together to make it happen. If all the Zips players dedicate themselves to giving everything they have, next season could be pretty special.

On his goals: “We want to win games in the NCAA Tournament. We want to be the first mid-major to win a national championship.” Didn't someone recently post on here that KD didn't set high enough goals for the team?

UA is a good football team and a new basketball arena away from being a strong candidate to move up to a bigger and better conference. If Coach Bowden turns the football team around and Jim Tressel raises enough money to build a new basketball arena, they could all move up to a bigger and better conference without ever leaving UA.

I wonder if Beckman started recruiting DiLauro while he was still coaching Toledo?

Coach Bowden has 10 years experience as a professional national television and radio show host on ABC Sports, Westwood One, Sirius, etc. You couldn't just put him on a TV show with an inexperienced local host, as he would totally overpower the host. I don't know if it's ever been done before with a college football coach, but Coach Bowden could host his own show. He knows the right questions to ask himself because he has years of experience posing those questions to other coaches. Eliminate the middle man.

I could not sit there and listen to those four great Coach Bowdens and not believe. When you listen to the long list of their accomplishments, you know they have the secret formula bottled up and kept in a private cellar for family use. Bobby talks about having one losing season at FSU before turning it around, and Tommy gets up and asks his dad what a losing season feels like because he's never had one. I've learned over the years not to believe in smoke and mirrors. But this family has the results to prove they don't use smoke and mirrors. I believe they are going to get the job done, and that Zips fans will finally be rewarded for decades of suffering. I can't imagine having a better coach to turn around UA's football program than Terry Bowden. We are headed for the big time.

No surprises or major announcements made publicly. All the formal activity was about honoring this season's team. All the players were there except for the Serb, who is back in Serbia. Most interesting piece of info overheard from a really good source is that the focus on a new arena has moved to the downtown area. No details and nothing defnite yet. But the current thinking at UA is that they could live with a downtown arena close to the campus as long as UA maintained a reasonable amount of control over the arena. That is, it would not be acceptable if UA basketball did not have first priority on dates or if the arena was compromised to the detriment of basketball in any way. If that can't be worked out with the city, the focus would go back to an on-campus location.

Turner may have been a five star out of HS, but this story says he's now ranked a two-star corner/safety, according to Scout: Former top Michigan football recruit Justin Turner turns up in Hawaii's class

@g-mann17, good one on the stats. But I don't think KD is dismissing fan expectations. I think he's just pointing out the reality that higher expectations are harder to live up to. If a reporter ever asked KD if he would prefer that Zips fans have higher or lower expectations for his teams, how do you think KD would respond? @GP1, no deflection intended from me. I agree with you that "coach speak" and execution are two entirely different subjects. Sorry if my previous post wasn't clear on that. Coaches can be entertaining with their words. But fans ultimately want to see game results.

From the story above: His meddling with academic and athletic programs, particularly football, is one of legend. Lowder’s attempt to oust Tommy Tuberville as head football coach – interviewing another coach while Tuberville was preparing for the Iron Bowl -- at the end of the 2003 season remains a sore subject. The coach who Lowder interviewed in 2003 was none other than Bobby Petrino, who has shown over the years that he had the perfect moral character to be part of Lowder's Auburn empire. When asked about the interview with Lowder, Petrino swore it never happened. Then a reporter confronted him with a copy of the flight records and passenger manifests of the aircraft used to ferry people to the airport meeting, and Petrino had to admit the truth. Petrino's latest problem and attempted coverup at Arkansas comes as no big surprise.

Getting back to the bet, most available data supports that Xavier and Gonzaga do have the recources of mediocre BCS basketball programs. In a previous ZN.o discussion on the BCS-level resources of top mid-major teams, I researched the fact that Gonzaga's basketball team has a private jet for road games and for jetting the coaches overseas to evaluate foreign talent. That's BCS-level, not mid-major.