Dave in Green

In 2010, Akron fired Brookhart and hired Rob Ianello, a former Notre Dame assistant coach, to take over the football program. Ianello, now an assistant coach at Kansas, said he was told of the addiction issues of Jacquemain and Campbell and that he needed to bring discipline to the program.

If the Zips win out in the regular season, they would add 5 more MAC East wins and a BracketBuster win to their current 18-7 record for a final regular season record of 24-7. They wouldn't play until the semi-finals of the MAC tournament, where a win would make them 25-7. If they then lost in the MAC tournament championship game, they'd be 25-8. RPI Forecast predicts that if the Zips are 25-8 after the MAC tournament, their expected RPI would be 19.8. Obviously, that's a highly speculative number. But it does suggest that an at-large NCAA tournament bid would not be out of the question. They would have a record of 22-3 over their last 25 games of the season, and the NCAA selection committee gives more weight to teams that have performed well over the latter part of the season than the beginning of the season. Zips RPI Forecast

I knew about Egner's back but wasn't aware that Deji was being kept out of games due to knee problems. If Egner's problem is chronic back spasms, there would be no physical evidence such as an x-ray or MRI that could be presented to the NCAA to prove why he couldn't play most of this season. But it sounds as if KD is leaning toward going that route and petitioning the NCAA to get an extra season of eligibilty for Egner.

Just noticed something positive about the Zips' SOS. One of the stats listed by Statsheet.com is projected SOS, that is, their estimate of what each team's SOS will be at the end of the season based on projected results of all teams after all games are played. Earlier in the season, the Zips' projected SOS was estimated to be somewhere in the 140s. Currently it's listed at #104. That means that a lot of teams the Zips have played and will play are having better seasons than originally estimated, driving up the Zips' SOS. We've discussed in the past that the Zips really needed to elevate their SOS. Last year, for example, it was only #170. If the current trend holds and the Zips do finish close to #100, that will represent a significant improvement.

Part of the RPI drop for the Zips was due to losses by other teams the Zips have played such as Mississippi State, West Virginia, etc. Makes the Oral Roberts draw in BracketBusters even more fortunate, with ORU's RPI still hanging in the 40s while some of the others teams the Zips might have drawn have been falling in RPI.

Zips were trying some new stuff tonight, and it wasn't all going smoothly. For example, they pressed more than I can recall them doing in quite awhile, and had mixed results. It's always a good idea to try new tactics against a weaker team that you figure to beat anyway. I think with a little practice that the Zips' press could be pretty effective. My wife, who's not a big sports fan, goes to one game a year with me. After hearing me rave about all the great players that the Zips have, she gave me the old skeptical eye at halftime. I told her not to worry, that the Zips would blow out NIU in the second half. After I said that, I thought about previous Zips team where a first half like tonight would have me concerned that the Zips might fall apart in the second half. Not this team.

Lots of little kids there with their parents. Must have been some kind of promotion. That's cool. NIU would not ordinarily draw a big crowd, so why not bring in some potential future Zips fans on a promotion?

I'd really like to see WMU beat Buffalo. But that's a tall order playing at Buffalo.

I just posted that in the 2/12/08 thread. Amazing performance.

More than 10 minutes into the game, EMU leads OU 9-0 with the Bobkitties 0-11 from the field and 0-3 from the free throw line. OU has gone more than the first quarter of the game without scoring!

ESPN's Basketball Power Index is a little more sophisticated than RPI, similar to how Ken Pomeroy adds more measures. BPI is interesting in that it makes allowances for games where any of a team's top five players (by minutes per game) was missing. One flaw is that it does not account for missing bench players, and some teams (like the Zips) rely more on their bench than others. BPI currently ranks the Zips #57. ESPN BPI BPI Explained

I don't see a lot of response yet to this thread. Might be better to plan it at least a few days in advance rather than trying to do it today with only a couple of people.

Saturday would be better for me. But do what's best for the most. Sharing the highlights here afterwards will fill us all in.

That's pretty amazing that Bowden beat out Gus Malzahn for most intriguing hire. After directing Cam Newton as offensive coordinator for Auburn's 2010 national championship team, Malzahn was one of the hottest properties in college coaching, and his move to Arkansas State was a stunner. Here's a direct link to the page in the story that mentions that: CBS Sports

Here's what I'm looking at from the Serb playing a little more outside than inside on offense this season: Effective field goal percentage 2010-11 -- 45.2% 2011-12 -- 50.0% Offensive rebound percentage 2010-11 -- 9.2 2011-12 -- 9.0 Offensive rating 2010-11 -- 99.3 2011-12 -- 99.3 The tradeoff is that his effective field goal percentage is up about 9% and his offensive rebound percentage is down about 2%.

Outstanding. I'd like to be there. Maybe George could start the discussion by briefly explaining some of the ABJ rules he has to comply with, i.e.how much space he's given, whether he's directed to write for the average reader vs. sports fanatics, how much his editors make changes in the stories he submits, etc.

@wadszip, nicely researched. Many also laughed at the idea that there was any chance of Jim Tressel actually going to work for UA in any capacity.

Are we to believe that the Serb regularly plays out of the position where KD directs him to play, and that KD allows him to remain on the floor and continue to ignore coach's orders?

Then I won't expect to see you posting on here about the Zips' performance in the NIT if that's all the further they get.

Zips RPI has crept up to #52 on Live RPI.

Didn't Stainbrook flagrantly throw his big booty out and flatten Roberts for about 30 seconds while WMU was bringing the ball upcourt at the Q last season without drawing a foul?

StatSheet.com shows the highest 5 Can't final RPI ratings over the past 12 seasons as follows: #15 in 2001-2002 #21 in 2007-2008 #35 in 1999-2000 #48 in 2005-2006 #49 in 2009-2010

I predict the key to this game will be which team can score the most points.

I don't pay attention to all posts.

Bracketology is just someone's best guess of a snapshot at a point in time. It reflects the way someone thinks things would be if they remained about the same as they are today. Everyone knows that things are going to change. But it's still interesting and fun to follow all the ups and downs along the way to the final destination.