Dave in Green

Is it too early to say, I believe?

I'd sure like to study video of this game in slo-mo and see if all those traveling calls against the Zips are legit. It's almost as if someone told the refs to watch the Zips because they travel a lot, and the refs are seeing travels everywhere. It's one thing with Harney and Tree getting multiple calls, but Nitro just got called and he rarely travels.

Sloppy is the exact same word I just used in the thread about the refs. If the Zips don't play with more precision, it won't matter how the refs call this game.

Forget the refs. The Zips are killing themselves with sloppy play.

Absolute download speed is not always a good indicator of whether or not one is going to get a choppy webcast. Internet traffic can cause intermittent problems even with the highest download speeds. I recall reading a recent article about streaming movies now taking up close to half of all internet bandwidth, with Netflix alone taking up to 32 percent of peak downstream traffic, and movie streaming is at its heaviest in the evening when we're trying to watch streaming video of Zips games. I just popped to have my DSL internet speed doubled, and it's still choppy at times. The increasing use of streaming movies is starting to put a strain on the existing internet infrastructure.

The complete thought would be: I hate losing any time. But if we're going to lose I would rather lose now in the regular season and get it over with, and go on a long winning streak in the post-season.

$7.2 million in tuition money would buy a lot of premium seats at the JAR if it wasn't being spent on things like classroom facilities, professors' salaries, etc.

@Carol, I like your attitude.

As far as I know, the lower bowl is open to anyone willing to pay the price for premium tickets. I don't recall ever seeing a large, organized cheering section of visiting students occupying premium seats in the lower bowl at any previous games. So I think it's likely that UB students paid the price for a block of premium seats in the lower bowl. If that's the case, I don't know how you can stop that from happening.

No one said it. Just in case anyone might be thinking it, I thought it would be good to make the point by example through analysis of the MSU-UK game. MSU is a classic case of a bunch of players who are individually talented to the point of being able to outplay the #1 team in the country and almost winning despite having one of the team's key players sidelined with an injury. But they are also a classic case of what can happen when all those players don't play consistently together as a team, in which case they can lose many games to teams with inferior talent but superior team chemistry. With all their players healthy, MSU is the type of team that could make a deep run in the NCAA tournament as VCU did last season, or they could go out in the first round. There's a lesson here for this season's Zips team, which also has a lot of individually talented players who don't always demonstrate good team chemistry.

Anyone who believes that Mississippi State doesn't have great individual talent should do a closer analysis of their game against #1 Kentucky. MSU had UK down by 13, which no other team has done this season. Then Rodney Hood, MSU's 2nd leading scorer and 3rd leading rebounder, went down with an injury and wasn't able to play in the second half. MSU normally only plays 7, and finished the game by playing only 6 players in the second half. They still held off UK until UK finally took the lead for the first time in the game with just 4 minutes remaining. Darrius Miller, a 6-8 guard, led UK's second half scoring barrage that eventually sunk MSU. He would have been guarded by MSU's 6-8 guard Rodney Hood had Hood not been out with an injury. A team without great talent could have never come so close to upsetting #1 Kentucky. A team with great talent and poor chemistry can almost upset the #1 team in the country despite losing one of its star players to injury, and can also lose a bunch of games to lesser teams. Conclusion: MSU is a team with great individual talent and poor team chemistry.

Back to reality, this Zips team isn't much different from previous Zips teams in terms of results. Typical Zips teams of the last few seasons find creative ways to lose the MAC regular season championship. Typical Zips teams of the last few seasons go to the Q as underdogs but find a way to make it to the championship game. Typical Zips teams of the last few seasons are more likely than not to win the MAC tournament and earn an NCAA tournament berth. Really, if this Zips team ends up being typical of the last few seasons, I'm OK with that. To prove that they're better than a typical Zips team of the last few seasons, they need to find a way to beat Can't on the road. Or, if they lose at Can't, they can still be better than a typical Zips team of the last few seasons by winning an NCAA tournament game or two. In other words, the real season comes down to the next four games -- one at Can't, two at the Q and one in the NCAA tournament. These next four games will write the legacy for this Zips team. They have the raw talent to succeed. But if the recent games against ORU, OU and UB haven't shown them that they're not good enough to win on raw talent alone, then they will end the season prematurely without matching the results of the last few seasons. This team desperately needs to buy into a winning game plan, and they need to execute it with precision and determination. That's what has carried Zips teams of the last few seasons to heights beyond what was predicted for them.

One interesting point about Buffalo is that Javon McCrea is not having the killer season that everyone expected. He's having a solid season, but is by no means a dominant force. He's not likely to win MAC POTY. In fact, his teammate, Mitchell Watt, is arguably Buffalo's highest performer. Watt is slightly better in more statistical categories than McCrea, and is not that far behind Zeke in blocked shots per game, where Zeke currently ranks 12th nationally and Watt 19th. There's no question that McCrea and Watt together are an imposing frontcourt duo. Zeke, the Serb, Tree and other Zips frontcourt players will have a big challenge to keep those two under control. But in the loss at Buffalo, Zeke and the Serb performed as well or better than McCrea and Watt and the Zips still lost. So it will take a total team effort to beat Buffalo at the JAR. McCrea vs. Watt vs. Zeke Season Stats Akron vs. Buffalo 1/18/12 Box Score

In retrospect, a bad loss like the Zips had at OU can cause friction within the team. Let's just hope that the players don't start pointing fingers at each other. Otherwise, you end up with a situation like the one our friends at Mississippi State have run into: Miss. St. falling apart on court, in locker room

I see players talking to the refs all the time after a foul is called. I don't see anything wrong for any player at any time to ask a ref for a clarification on a call. What's a ref going to say if a player asks what he has to do to avoid getting foul calls, tell the player he can't answer? Of course the refs are going to tell the players what they call and what they don't call. Everyone benefits from that, including the fans who get to see more basketball and less foul shooting. I see no issue there at all as long as the refs treat all players equally and don't play favorites.

Zips fans often talk about the lack of respect UA gets. Well, at least we can say that the Zips are respected by the mathematical formula used to calculate RPI. The Zips were ranked #59 prior to the ORU game. Today, despite losing to both ORU and OU, the Zips are ranked #58 on Live RPI. Even though the Zips' 19-9 record (RPI only includes D-I games) is not spectacular, the higher SOS this season is helping keep the Zips ranked higher in RPI than they've ever been before.

As always, the Zips are not as good as some describe them and not as bad as others portray them. That's what happens when you focus more on the positive than the negative or vice versa. From my perspective, in the years that KD has coached the team the Zips have generally been in the 60th-120th range out of 344 D-I college basketball teams. That's roughly the 17th-34th percentile, or top 1/6th-1/3rd of all D-I teams. This season they've pretty much settled in around the 60th rank, which is their best season performance to date under KD. About 1/6th of all D-I teams are better and about 5/6th are worse than the Zips. Of course, we all want better than that. We want the Zips to take that last step and really impress everyone by beating several ranked teams, having an undefeated MAC season, winning games in the NCAA tournament, becoming a Gonzaga, Butler or VCU. I'm OK as long as they keep progressing, and this season so far has seen at least a little progress over previous seasons. It could get even better, or it could all fall apart in the last few games of the season. We'll know soon enough how this season stands up to previous Zips season performances under KD. Whatever happens, we'll be expecting even more next season.

@lumberjack, it's good to see you back posting on ZN.o. While I don't always agree with all of your observations, I do appreciate reading your point of view. I hope that you'll remain active here and call 'em as you see 'em.

@scottditzen, I agree with you that just south of Exchange in the University Square District is not a bad location for an arena. If the arena were to be a block or two west of Infocision Stadium, it would be almost directly across Exchange from the new parking deck. It would be just a short walk across the street from the parking deck to the arena. The University Square plan calls for slowing down traffic on East Exchange and creating diagonal parking spaces along Exchange through the campus area. This would make it easier for pedestrians to be able to freely walk across Exchange from campus to University Square. They might even consider an elevated walkway across Exchange between the existing parking deck and the new arena. Throw in a few new restaurants and pubs in this area, and it could become quite the hot spot. The plan encourages private investment in mixed development for this area. An arena would make a great hub.

OU took the Zips to school tonight. If the Zips learned their lesson, then the embarassing loss was worth it. The lesson is that if you bring your normal game to the Q, you ain't going to the NCAA tournament. OU played championship game ball tonight while the Zips played their normal game. Now the Zips need to take out their frustration on Buffalo.

Zips aren't coming back tonight. OU is playing the second half with the same sense of urgency and level of intensity that dominated the first half. Remember, OU did this same thing to Georgetown 2 years ago. They can do it against anyone at any time. They just can't do it consistently. They might not be around for the MAC tournament championship game.

It's really not that the Zips are playing so bad. The Zips are playing their normal game, which works against so-so teams. OU brought their best game tonight. OU did not play like this when they lost all their earlier MAC games. They turn it on and they turn it off. They turned on the intensity and urgency tonight, and the Zips have been unable to adjust and turn it up a notch. This is what I was expecting from OU. What I wasn't expecting was that the Zips weren't prepared for it.

Message to Zips from OU: You guys aren't so hot. We're going to eat you alive and spit out the bones, and you can't do anything to stop us.

Two different levels of basketball being played so far by two different teams.

A Zips win in Athens would be seen as a quality win in the eyes of many sports writers/bloggers. I've run across more random references to the Bobkitties on college basketball sites than all the other MAC teams put together. Memories of OU's NCAA tournament upset of Georgetown 2 years ago along with their hot 12-1 start this season, with the only loss being a near upset of Louisville, continue to resonate among those around the country trying to figure out who is the best team in the MAC now that Can't is no longer dominant. Even OU's weak showing in the MAC this season hasn't completely killed some thinking that they will bounce back come tournament time. For some reason, the Zips just can't get any traction nationally. They get some talk started with an upset at Mississippi State and then kill the talk with losses to lesser teams. Beating OU in Athens might start generating a little more national respect for UA. This will be a tough game, and I only hope the Zips are well prepared.