Dave in Green

If KD had told his players that the only option was to get it to Zeke down low, and Zeke was smothered by defenders and the pass was knocked away, what would the level of criticism be on that? A good coach will draw up more than one option. If the primary option is well covered, there has to be a backup. At some point you have to rely on the players to make the right decision depending on how the defense is aligned.

That's the Jake I recall from his public posts -- anyone who doesn't agree with him is either crazy or a liar. I'm always puzzled how people think they are going to win others over to their point of view by making statements like that. Aside from turning people off with insulting language like that, Jake makes some pretty good points about the on-campus location. However, there are also some good points about a downtown location -- not just any downtown location, but an optimum location that is within a block or two of the campus border to make it an easy walk for students, and central to downtown parking decks/restaurants/bars. I'm waiting to see if it comes down to two definite, specific locations -- one on campus and one off campus. If it could be pinned down to specifics, we could have a reasonable discussion over the pros and cons of each. Well, some of us could have a reasonable discussion .....

I'm focused on the fact that this Zips team showed a lot of heart coming back from a deep deficit against a very good team on the road and fell just short. KD and the Zips performed better on Northwestern's homecourt tonight than Tom Izzo and Michigan State did a few weeks ago. I'm proud to be a Zips fan and KD supporter tonight.

The good news is that even if some of the Zips fans quit on the team, the team is not going to quit. This game is still winnable.

Zips going to school tonight. Regardless of the final score, this is a good learning experience, especially for the less experienced Zips players.

Crap! OT cuts into the Zips game. This stinks. EDIT: Never mind. They're going to our game for Ohio and Illinois residents, at least. Sorry for those of you who are elsewhere.

The kiss of death! I promise not to say a word if the Zips get a big lead.

Kind of sad watching the preliminary game on ESPN2, with UMass spanking Mississippi State. Who knew what an underachieving team MSU was going to turn out to be at the time the Zips beat them.

Since Zeke is a coordinated 7-foot-tall player with hops, he came to the MAC with the physical tools to be a dominant player. But he didn't come to UA with a lot of basketball experience compared with many college players who've been playing the game since they were little kids. So it was always unrealistic to think he'd be dominant in his freshman season. He was still too raw. Beyond physical attributes and experience comes the will and determination required to be a dominant player. Some college players are totally focused on basketball, and see that as their only chance to earn a lot of money in their professional careers. It was always unrealistic to think that a computer nerd who happened to play some basketball on the side would be totally focused on basketball. With all that, Zeke was the dominant defensive player in the MAC in his third season, and earned MAC defensive player of the year honors for it. He's one of the top 10 shot blockers in the country, and is on track to break the MAC career record for blocks. That's about as dominant as you can be in the MAC at the defensive end of the court. And while he was criticized early for not doing much on the offensive end, Zeke moved his offensive game up a notch this season and led the Zips in scoring. So while not dominant at the offensive end, he's improved his offensive game substantially. Fact is, Zeke has steadily improved all aspects of his game every season, and he can be expected to do so again next season as a senior. By the end of next season he will be ranked as one of the best college centers in the country on defense, and may well lead his team in scoring again as he did this season. He will also get his degree with good grades and be fully capable of getting a good-paying job in the computer industry, if he so chooses. As long as Zeke is satisfied that he is accomplishing what he wants on the basketball court, we should all be happy for him and happy for all the good things he's done and will continue to do for the Zips.

Haven't seen any name more fitting for a college basketball arena than that one.

This is a good discussion about CG. But it only takes a few words to turn a good discussion into an angry one. Going back over all the posts, it appears that the discussion started going from good to angry after a CG defender referred to others here as "you ungrateful naive people." Folks, this is a sports forum where fans state their opinions, and they're all different. If you think someone's opinion is misinformed and you know better, try to explain why in reasonable terms, and you just might win some people over to your side. Calling other people names is just going to push them further away from your viewpoint and incite them into calling names back. That's when good discussions turn angry, ugly and unproductive. Please, everyone keep posting your opinions here, edit out any name calling before hitting the Add Reply button, and help keep the good discussion going.

I guess anyone who doesn't want to receive PMs from a person should first send a PM back asking them to please not bother sending any more. If they ignore a polite request, you can select the down arrow next to their name in one of their PMs, and then select Add to PM Block List. I think we all understand that Jake is passionately committed to having a new arena built on campus, and passionately against having it built downtown. So if there's any shred of information about the potential for an arena to be built on campus or not to be built downtown, Jake will have it. I always assume that some of the info may be accurate and some exaggerated, as is usually the case with people who have passionate opinions on issues.

I'd like to believe that might be true. However, I think that the entire college basketball world is ingrained from years of experience to expect the MAC to only produce one semi-worthy team per season. I believe that if OU makes a run in the NCAA tournament, the reaction will be that OU is an exceptional team in spite of its conference, and that the MAC and other teams in the MAC would gain no more respect than previously. I really believe the only way the MAC gains enough respect to even be mentioned as a 2-bid conference for the NCAA tournament is for more than 1 MAC team to have really strong seasons -- only a few losses and several wins over top-ranked teams by multiple MAC teams.

RPI is often cited because it's a simple 1-2-3-4-..... numbering system. But it's only one of several measures the NCAA selection committee uses. RPI is not an absolute measure of a team's performance, but just one of many imprecise indicators that are ultimately subjected to human judgment. There is no perfect system.

I've received PMs from Jake after making posts about the arena. Since his PMs are always civil, unlike some of the shooting matches he got involved in when posting publicly on ZN.o, I have no problem receiving and reading them. I have no way of knowing how good his sources are, so I take them with a grain of salt as I do all unsubstantiated claims. But he's never made any outrageous claims in any of his PMs to me, and I don't object to receiving them.

A little more on NU's Princeton offense: An in-depth analysis of NU's Princeton offense suggests that the Wildcats may be missing one key element -- a post player talented enough to draw double coverage to open up a perimeter player to hit the open 3. Lacking a talented post player, NU has trouble freeing up perimeter players, and often has to settle for contested outside shots late in the clock. There should be no question that Zeke will be able to handle whoever NU plays in the post one-on-one. If the other 4 Zips players can stay with their men, NU will have a hard time getting open shots. The bad news is that the Princeton offense also emphasizes back door cuts, which have been known to catch the Zips napping. Zips defense is going to be critical in this game. Princeton's Flaws Being Exposed

Forgot to mention that NU runs the Princeton offense along with a 1-3-1 defense. Saw where one NU blogger was lamenting that NU got such a tough draw in Akron, and is predicting a 70-65 Zips win. Another blog said NU will have trouble with UA's bigs, and that they have no one who can match up against Zeke. Yet another blog mentioned that the NU coach and team were paying for all student tickets -- guess they're trying anything to pack the house.

My 2 cents on Chauncey Gilliam: I believe that KD recruited CG as a shooter in the mold of Brett McKnight. KD likes having an instant offense guy who can step in and hit shots when the Zips' offense is sluggish. Typically, designated shooters have the most problems on defense. CG earned increased PT throughout the season by improving his defensive play, and by the end of the season I thought he was playing much better D than early in the season. I think that CG has made a major effort to fit in with the team. Rather than shooting every time he gets his hands on the ball, he makes an effort to find the open man. He seems to struggle at times on pulling the trigger when he is open, which is unusual for a shooter. I attribute that to adjusting to the Zips game plan of knowing exactly when he's expected to shoot and when not to. If you look at the graphs of CG's performance throughout the season, almost every positive trend line moves steadily up, including shooting percentage. I think it's important to see how much CG has improved over the course of the season as he's gradually become more comfortable playing in KD's system. Toward the end of the season I started having a lot of confidence in CG's 3-point shooting. He scored some big-time shots at critical times. And I think CG has a beautiful and deadly accurate tear drop (or runner) shot that he hits for a high percentage. I would say the C- average might have fit CG's performance earlier in the season when he wasn't yet comfortable with KD's system. But by the end of the season his performance improved up into at least the B- range. Again, look at the graphs of CG's performance that can be called up on statsheet.com and the upward trends are all obvious. Final grades should be biased more toward performance at the end of the season rather than the beginning. There's no need to trash any of CG's teammates or the coaching staff to build him up. The Zips have a lot of good players right now, and they all play important roles in overall team performance. When looked at objectively, as opposed to through the eyes of a close friend or relative, CG's performance stands on its own. I personally have a lot of confidence that if CG continues to work on doing what KD wants him to do, he will be a major contributor next season and get even more PT.

Zips practiced today against the 1-3-1 zone that Northwestern uses extensively. Generally speaking, NU is a better shooting team than the Zips and relies much more on 3-point shooting, while the Zips appear to be the better rebounding team. NU's most impressive stats are in the areas of assists and turnovers. They're the 4th best team in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio, and the 7th best in assist percentage. This suggests that they guard the ball well and are good at hitting the open man rather than relying on individual players creating their own shots. While some may dismiss NU's record as unimpressive, it should be noted that they had the 13th best SOS in the country. All of their losses have been to top 100 teams, of which there are many in the Big Ten. They also have 3 wins over top 100 teams, including 1 top 25 team. Their only OOC losses were to Baylor and Creighton, both top 25 teams. This will not be an easy game, and will require the Zips to come fully prepared and enthusiastic if they want to be competitive. If they play like the Zips of 2 seasons ago in the CBI game against Wisconsin-Green Bay, it could get ugly. This is exactly the type of game against a mid-level team from a major conference that the Zips have to win on a consistent basis to gain the kind of national respect that Can't once had and OU started building with their 2010 NCAA tournament upset win over Georgetown. This will be a good test of this team's resiliency after a painful MAC tournament loss. The Zips need to make a statement that they deserved to be in the NCAA tournament by taking the NIT seriously.

Let's hope that Groce ends up with the Nebraska job and takes his Missouri transfer with him.

Interesting matchup, especially considering the soccer history. Don't know a lot about Northwestern, but here's how they match up statistically, with the understanding that their stats are against the Big 10 and not the MAC, and we had no common opponents: UA vs. NU Stats It looks as if they play a good nine players deep, and their two top scorers are 6-9 and 6-5. I don't see any major size problems in any of the matchups for the Zips: NU Player Stats Wish I could make it over for the game. But I have family commitments Tuesday. @GameChngr44, my wife loves shopping in NYC, and if the Zips make it to MSG, we are definitely going. @Big Zip, I understand that you're disappointed that the Zips aren't in the NCAA tournament. We all are. We all want the best for the team. The best thing for the team right now is to go as deep in the NIT as possible. Whatever you may say on the forum about not caring about the NIT, I'll bet you'll be pulling for the Zips because I think you're a full-time Zips basketball fan who's just really disappointed right now.

Yet another amazing RPI number for the Zips. After losing to OU on a neutral court, the Zips dropped from #51 only to #55, and OU leaped up from the 60s to #47. That #55 is the highest RPI the Zips have ever had after the conclusion of the MAC tournament. For perspective, Oral Roberts had the highest RPI of any team that did not receive an at-large NCAA tournament bid this year, and ORU's final RPI is #51. So we Zips fans should look at the 2011-2012 season as a major breakthrough it terms of one of the key elements in being considered for an at-large NCAA tournament bid. Just a couple of more wins (West Virginia, VCU, etc.) could have pushed the Zips into the magic zone of being in the at-large discussion. The key was OOC SOS. The Zips ended up with the 39th best OOC SOS in the country, and that helped offset the MAC West factor and give the Zips an overall SOS of #81. So the Zips' scheduling this season finally reached critical mass. We need to schedule as good or better from now on. If we win a few more, we're serious at-large contenders. We're almost there.

This thread is intended for full-time Zips basketball fans who are interested in following the Zips in the NIT. There are already several threads where part-time Zips basketball fans have expressed that they have no interest in what the Zips do in the NIT, so there's no reason for them to post in this thread. The NIT selection TV show is on ESPNU tonight at 9:00 p.m. Those who are interested can watch and see who the Zips will be playing and discuss it here. There are many other options for those who aren't interested.

For those who may believe that UA is regularly called for more fouls than OU because the Zips play more aggressive defense, the Zips averaged 18.3 fouls per game this season -- 1.4 fouls per game less than OU's 19.7.

Every Zips fan, player and coach is disappointed that the team is going to the NIT rather than the NCAA tournament. We're just reacting differently. At this point I would just suggest that all Zips fans try to put their personal feelings aside and try to focus more on the team than themselves. Regardless of how you personally rate the NIT, it has real value to the Zips players, coaches and overall program. The team would benefit greatly from a deep NIT run. It might make enough difference in their experience and confidence level to help them start next season with a few upsets. A great performance in the NIT could make the difference in a future recruit choosing UA rather than another school. Every Zips fans should feel free to state how much or how little they personally regard the NIT. But anyone who shows up in the NIT game threads repeating endlessly how little they regard the NIT will only be demonstrating that they care more about their personal feelings than they do about what's best for the Zips.