Dave in Green

Can't argue with reality. The record speaks for itself. KD and the Zips are still just short of that last step it takes to get big-time national attention. We all want to see them take that last step up and get all the national acclaim for UA, and then have KD stay true to his word and not ditch the Zips for the multimillion-dollar offers that would surely follow as they have for Shaka, Brad Stevens, etc.

I see these posts were lifted from another thread and placed in a separate thread here. After all the nice things I had to say about Jake's PMs, it's only fair to go on record here with what ultimately happened. Jake took offense at one of my comments and sent me a rambling, angry, insulting PM with all of the old language he used to use in his public posts against anyone who disagreed with him. As I said earlier, I had no problem receiving Jake's PMs as long as they were civil. As soon as they turned uncivil, I added Jake to my PM block list.

First Shaka, then Brad Stevens: Butler's Stevens turns down Illinois' offer Next up: Ohio's John Groce: The next target?

Hint for Zeke's future professional agent: I found some good words of advice for Zeke in a New York Times Sunday sports section Q&A with a 7-foot ex-NBA star center who deserves being listened to -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Q: You were so successful with your sky hook. Why do you think players in the NBA don't use the shot today? A: From what I have observed, that shot is not being taught to young players as they start their playing carrers. It's a simple shot that can't be easily blocked. But if no one is teaching it, it could become a lost-art aspect of the game. We know Zeke can shoot the sky hook because we've seen him do it. He also seems to be able to shoot it at a fairly high percentage. But he doesn't shoot it often enough. If he really focused on it, it could become his primary offensive weapon. The sky hook could be the key to Zeke making millions in the NBA to start his computer company. As Coach Mike Dunleavy says toward the end of this video, he tells big men coming into the NBA you should practice hundreds of left- and right-handed hookshots every day. But only if you want to make tens of millions of dollars. If you don't want to make tens of millions of dollars, just do what you're doing.

The Aeros have a proactive marketing department. My wife and I own a small business, and received a cold call last year from the Aeros asking if we'd be interested in being involved in a game day theme related to our area of business. While the concept sounded as if it might be good for us, the call came less than two weeks before the game date. Since that would not have given us time to properly execute a marketing plan for our business, we declined and told them we'd consider in the future if there was more advance notice.

That was quite a comeback by Elida against a more talented Dunbar team. McAdams almost brought Elida back against an undefeated Dunbar team that will be remembered as one of the best in Ohio HS history. Dunbar's full-court press caused Elida to make many mistakes and turnovers, resulting in an 18-0 run in the third quarter. But McAdams held up pretty well under the pressure. His ability to bring the ball upcourt against that pressure was really impressive for a big guy.

One player can't get it done by himself. Dunbar has way more talent than Elida, and erased an 11-point Elida 3rd quarter lead with an 18-0 run. No way Elida comes back against what Dunbar is throwing at them now.

Looks like the Bank of Kentucky picked up 10% of the costs for naming rights. Here's what the approximate cost would be to produce a replica at UA: Assignable Square Feet: 126,503 Gross Square Feet: 243,000 Construction Year: 2008 Original Cost: $69,800,000 Replacement Value: $74,050,820 Ground Breaking Date: May 20, 2006 Dedication Date: September 22, 2008 Occupancy Date: August 15, 2008 Bank of Kentucky Center

Groce is definitely on the radar with the Illini: Who’s left for Illinois? “I’d put John Groce, the Ohio dude, at the top,’’ the source said. Butler’s Brad Stevens denies contact with Illinois for coaching vacancy Groce is becoming a hotter name after the Bobcats advanced to Friday night's Sweet 16 against North Carolina, the team's second trip to the NCAA tournament in three seasons. His Mid-American Conference affiliation is also a common tie with Thomas' hiring background, including new Illinois football coach Tim Beckman. After turndown, Illinois broadens search

Kellogg was 4-5 and Offutt 6-10 from 3-point land -- 10-15 together. Baltic was 2-10 and Cooper 3-20 from the field -- 5-30 together. They take turns being hot, and enough of them are usually hitting that they stay in the game. As I've said more than once, OU's ability to cover the passing lanes and poke the ball away without picking up fouls is among the best in the country. It almost worked against North Carolina, though it probably would have fallen much shorter against a North Carolina with its starting point guard. But OU has nothing to be ashamed of tonight. They represented the MAC well, and put a target out there for the Zips to shoot at next season.

Here's the funny thing. Groce's name has to my knowledge not yet been mentioned in connection with the Illinois head coaching position. Yet here's the coach who talked Chicago HS player D.J. Cooper into coming to OU, which still burns enough to be mentioned in a Chicago Tribune story. Here's the coach who took a MAC team to the sweet 16 and took the Tar Heels into OT. Groce could be a killer head coach at the University of Illinois.

Groce is going to get a big offer from a big school, and if he takes the game he coached at OU to a school that can attract even better players than he could at OU, his teams are going to be regulars in the NCAA tournament.

Maybe Roy Williams knows his players as well as the NBA draft scouts do: The biggest issue with Zeller's NBA prospects is figuring out who he'll be able to defend. He does appear to be a guy who will put a solid effort in, but he gets muscled around at the college level, and his underdeveloped body would show up even more in the NBA. His lack of lateral quickness also hurts him covering the perimeter, making him vulnerable to quicker big men facing him up. Tyler Zeller on DraftExpress.com

Great idea! Too many professional athletes get screwed out of their money because they trust the wrong people to look out for their best interests. No question that an NBA career could generate enough income to start a nice little computer company. Connecting all the dots, the better Zeke gets at basketball, the more earning potential in the NBA, the more money to invest in a computer company. I'm sure his agent will do a good job of laying all this out for him.

Pretty amazing that he was finally revived after his heart stopped beating for 78 minutes: Fabrice Muamba 'dead in that time'

Zach, while I agree with you in general principle, I would also try to factor in some of the problems the team had in terms of new and inexperienced players, suspensions and injuries that had a bearing on some of those losses. The history for all the games is there for anyone to look up. But one example would be the VCU game. At the time, Harney was the team's leading scorer. But he had just served a 5-game suspension, and this was his first game back. He played only 6 minutes and scored only 4 points. And many believe that Rico was the Zips most valuable player this season, and the one player they could least afford not to have at full strength. The VCU game was his first game back after knee surgery about 10 days earlier. Without full use of their leading scorer and with their point guard and arguably most valuable player playing his first game after knee surgery, the Zips took VCU into OT before losing by 1 point. On one level it was just a plain old loss. On another level, it was the Zips coming remarkably close to a win that many would have predicted they were unlikely to achieve under the circumstances.

Question about Lee Jackson Field: When it's referred to as a retention basin, is that an inside joke or is it actually designated as an emergency retention basin? The reason I ask is because a little birdie (not Jake) keeps chirping in my ear that the baseball diamond at Lee Jackson Field is a prime candidate for an on-campus arena. If the area is actually designated as a retention basin to manage runoff in the event of a major rainstorm, that would seem to disqualify it as a reasonable candidate for a multi-million-dollar arena.

Shaka has developed a pretty solid pipeline for talented players at VCU. But to translate that to Illinois he would have had to be successful recruiting in Chicago. Several sources are reporting that Shaka had concerns about recruiting in Chicago, and I'll post a couple of links below. Interestingly, the first link is a Chicago Tribune story that mentions concern about Illinois schools letting D.J. Cooper get away. It's pretty interesting that first Mark Few at Gonzaga and then Brad Stevens at Butler and now Shaka at VCU have taken mid-major teams to high-major levels, they've all been pursued by high-major schools, and they've all to this point decided they were happy right where they were. I have to believe that each of them has dream job head coaching positions at schools that they would not turn down, but that none has yet gotten the perfect offer. Recruiting Chicago gives Shaka Smart pause Shaka Smart Does Illinois A Favor, Says No

The Zips return a solid, proven, 7-man rotation anchored by 3 seniors (Zeke, Q, Gilliam) and 2 juniors (Rico, Walsh). Those experienced players are backed by 2 talented and athletic sophomore bigs with a full season's experience (Tree, Harney). There's also a 3rd sophomore big with a year's experience (Egner). I count these 3 as sophomores with the understanding that Tree and Harney will likely earn a 5th year of eligibility, and Egner will be successful in getting a medical redshirt and a 5th year of eligibility. Add to that a 6-3 guard with 6-9 wingspan who at least has a partial season of college experience (Ibitayo), and the Zips will be 9-deep in players who are all familiar with the Zips system. Even if none of the freshmen play a single minute, the Zips are deep enough in experienced talent to win both MAC championships and win games in the NCAA tournament. Doesn't mean they will. But the potential is there for these talented players with another year of experience to be even better next season. And while potential doesn't win championships, teams without potential aren't even in the discussion. It takes potential plus hard work and execution to win big games and championships. As far as I know, the top 7 returning players are generally well thought of by most Zips fans. Assuming they all raise their level of play another notch next season, I don't expect we will have a situation as we did with Nitro this season where he appeared to lose confidence, lose his game, and lose the support of the fans. The one thing I would like to see is a tougher physical fitness program for all the Zips players focusing on endurance. I want to see them run back and forth up and down the court on both offense and defense, and after an extended run of that see the other teams' players gasping for breath and not the Zips. OU returns all their players and will be the MAC favorites. If OU improves as much or more than the Zips improve, the Zips will likely be runners-up again next season. The key to next season is for the Zips to improve more as individual players, to mesh better as a team, and to focus more on the type of game it will take to beat OU. The Zips need to develop an attitude that they are better than the Bobkitties, they need to get a chip on their shoulder to prove it, and then they need to go execute. Other teams in the MAC would have to improve a lot to challenge the Zips or OU next season. It could happen, but I don't see it right now. Some teams might surprise during the regular conference season. But the cream usually rises to the top at the Q.

When I look back on this season as a whole, I see the promise of better things for the Zips. But the promise wasn't fully realized this season, which ultimately resulted in disappointment for all of us. I see a lot of the promise reflected in some of the observations here and a lot of the disappointment in others, and I understand where each is coming from because I've felt them both at various times. When I think of this season from a mostly negative point of view, it makes me feel depressed about the thought of next season being similar. When I focus more on the positive than the negative, the promise of what these Zips could be makes me feel good about next season. So I choose to focus more on the positive while understanding that others choose to look at it more from the opposite point of view. No one is going to change my outlook, and I'm not going to try to change anyone else's outlook. The world would be a boriing place if we all saw and intepreted things the same way.

Also interesting on that website is that they say exactly the same thing about each MAC school: "Not a viable candidate at this time." But for Buffalo, they add: "If there is continued growth of the athletic programs, the school could one day be a Big East candidate after decades of success."

@skip-zip, thanks for the clarification. I understand your point now. I think we can all agree that the Zips fell exactly 3 wins short of their goal. They needed to beat OU at the Q, and they fell 2 points short of earning the opportunity to play the 2 NCAA tournament games they needed to win in order to achieve their goal. I think it's fair to say that the Zips almost beat OU at the Q as long as we agree that a 1-point loss is as close as you can get to winning without winning. Whether or not they could have won 2 NCAA tournament games is speculative. I guess I would have said that they almost reached their goal if they had beaten OU and had won their first NCAA tournament game but lost in the second round. Based on what actually happened, I would say that over the course of the season the Zips almost became a good enough team to achieve their goal, but ultimately fell short of their full potential.

@skip-zip, I don't think it's an either-or on the disciplined or wide-open style of play. I think it's getting the balance right. I think it's a matter of recruiting the right level of athletic players and then schooling them on fundamentals and teaching them a certain level of discipline to use within the context of a wide-open style of play. If you watch VCU casually, it looks like a helter-skelter style of play. But what I saw within the seeming chaos was that VCU players were always ending up in just the right position to block a passing lane on the defensive end or catch a pass and have an open look on the offensive end. In other words, there can be an appropriate amount of order within chaos. It's more like a chef's recipe of the right combination of ingredients added at just the right time and simmered for just the right amount of time more than it is a scientific formula. KD needs to be a master chef, and I think he's making progress in the right direction.

On the issue of the UA-Northwestern game, the teams were matched closely enough that venue likely made the difference. NU won by 2 points on their home court. On a neutral court, NU loses at least 2 points of their home court advantage. In the JAR, the Zips would likely have had the edge. But it's all speculation. Nobody's right and nobody's wrong. As for the connection between UA and the sweet 16 being ridiculous, only if you believe that the Zips should not set high goals for themselves. Are there any Zips fans here who believe the team should not have set such a high goal at the beginning of the season? If not, why is it inappropriate to talk about that goal now, even though they missed it? Do we not want the Zips to set a similar high goal of going to the sweet 16 next season?

Amen. This is what I said after watching VCU's play against Indiana. Even though VCU narrowly lost, it was the style of play that intrigued me. If KD makes this happen, I'm going to be a happy fan, and I'll bet I'm not alone.