Dave in Green

I'll just copy what I posted in the last new arena discussion thread:

The way I see it, the Zips currently have 9 players who've demonstrated enough all-around ability to merit averaging 20 or more minutes per game: Zeke, Rico, the Serb, Nitro, Q, Walsh, Gilliam, Tree and Harney. As the only true center and only true PG on the team, I'd expect to see Zeke and Rico play closer to 30 minutes per game. I'd expect the other 7 to get varying PT depending on their growth in performance over the course of the season, their level of performance in any given game, the type of team the Zips are playing, and a number of other variables. There's still a lot of growth potential left in this group, as individuals and as a team performing together. It may take the whole regular season for everyone to mesh into a smooth-running team where everyone has a clear role based on their individual strengths and weaknesses. Winning their first conference road game against a team like Miami whose playing style under Charlie Coles always causes problems, and making it the first game of the season they've won after trailing at the half, is a good sign of progress for the Zips.

@lumberjack, you need to do a little research on Miami Redhawk history. They only play ugly games. The one I'll never forget is the one I sat through at the Q two years ago during the MAC tournament between Miami and OU. Halfway through the first half, OU was leading 12-4. That's right, 10 minutes into the game, and the score was 12-4. Halftime score was 21-12. OU was 6 of 22 from the field at halftime, and Miami was 5 of 20. Miami plays ugly, and they make the teams they are playing against look ugly, too. It really doesn't matter how bad the Zips look beating Miami. The only thing that matters against Miami is winning.

Moms are always right. I'd be concerned if any Zips player had several games in a row where they dramatically underperformed from their normal output. I expect every player to have the occasional off game.

A multipurpose arena does not have to be designed to accomodate every type of event. If you eliminate trying to accomodate hockey or arena football, you can design the seating to come right down to the edge of the basketball court. You can optimize the arena seating for basketball and still have concerts and any other type of event where the open floor space required is no larger than a basketball court.

Harney is already ranked high nationally in one scoring statistic. He's ranked #60 in the country in points per minute played (.58 ppm). The only MAC player ranked ahead of him in that stat is Javon McRae, who's #9 in the country (.67 ppm). Jarrod Jones is ranked #66 (.57 ppm). As Harney works his way back into more PT, he's likely to be the Zips' leading scorer. . NCAA Player Points Beating Miami, along with the losses by Can't and OU, produced good statistical results for the Zips in the Pomeroy ratings. Zips are now the top-ranked MAC team in the Pomeroy ratings at #69. Can't is #77, Buffalo #78 and OH #79. Pomeroy Ratings

Looking at the box score of a Miami game is bad for your health. Just look at the final score, enjoy, and move on.

@skip-zip, below are the average minutes per game last season. The first number is the average for all games played and the second number is the average for conference games only. They don't break out non-conference games separately, so you have to do a little interpolating as the conference and non-conference numbers are included in the average for all games. But it makes the point that no one really saw a substantial change in average minutes during the conference season. Some of the veterans saw slightly more and some of the veterans saw slightly less conference PT compared with non-conference. CVETINOVIC, Nikola... 27.7 27.2 MCKNIGHT, Brett....... 17.9 18.5 MCCLANAHAN, Brett... 26.1 25.2 MCNEES, Steve.......... 31.5 30.8 MARSHALL, Zeke........ 22.4 22.2 ROBERTS, Darryl........ 27.6 27.1 ABREU, Alex.............. 19.7 20.2 DIGGS, Quincy.......... 16.6 15.5 BARDO, Mike............. 11.4 10.4 EGNER, Josh.............. 6.1 4.5 EUTON, Dakotah........ 4.8 1.5 PETERSEN, Kyle......... 2.0 1.5 OLDHAM, C.J............. 2.9 1.4

I don't think the bench shortening necessarily applies to the Zips under KD. If you compare last year's minutes per game in conference statistics vs. overall statistics, you'll see that the same 9 players averaged double-digit minutes in both, and there was not a substantial difference in average minutes played. Last Season's Team Stats I expect the situation to be similar this season, with the top 9 players averaging double-digit minutes in conference play at a similar proportion to what they averaged in non-conference play. Ibitayo and Egner would be the two scholarship players least likely to see double-digit minutes during conference play, same as non-conference.

Gwinnett makes a quick change from arena football to hockey rink. But it doesn't appear to be set up to have great seating for basketball, i.e. modular seating that pulls in closer to the smaller basketball court.

The story at GoZips.com states the following about the ONN telecast: Time Warner Cable: Channels 362 (SD), and 1308 (HD) I just checked on my TV, and ONN does show up on channel 362, and it does show the Zips game scheduled for 7-9 p.m. tonight. But channel 1308 shows up as STO, and the online schedule for 1308 shows OU playing BGSU from 6-8 p.m. tonight. Obviously 1308 would be the better viewing option as it's in HD. We'll have to wait and see if 1308 has the Zips or not.

Great observation, @skip-zip. If you freeze the previous video near the end you can see that all of the lower section seats are at a shallower angle than all of the upper section seats. The same situation currently exists at the JAR. I've sat in both the lower and upper section seats at the JAR, and do not like the shallower angle of the lower section seats as it makes it harder to see over the heads of those seated in front of you. I think the practice of having a shallower slope on lower section seats is fairly common in all arenas, and I don't much care for it. I prefer a steeper angle from the first row of the lower section all the way to the last row of the upper section. That results in the last row being closer to the court in the horizontal plane but further away in the vertical plane. The important thing is that it makes it easier to see over those seated in front of you and have an unobstructed view of the whole court. I'd prefer an arena with a continuous, steeper slope in all the seating. This would be harder to accomplish in an arena designed for both a smaller basketball court and larger ice rink. There are some pretty interesting multipurpose arena conversion videos on YouTube, but they all appear to have a common characteristic of shallower seating angles on the lower sections:

A two-time state championship hurdler, Commack missed his sophomore football season at FSU due to a broken femur while running hurdles: ESPN ACC Blog He appears to have enough speed, skills and experience to be useful to the Zips next season, and can perhaps use the opportunity to raise his NFL draft profile: NFLDraftScout.com

It takes a fair-sized crew a number of hours to convert any multipurpose arena from an ice rink to a basketball court or the other way around. It's still less costly than having two separate facilities. Some people think that Akron can be a good market for ice rink events and some don't. Someone will have to make the call as to whether an ice rink would generate enough additional income in the Akron market to justify including it in a multipurpose arena.

Putting someone else down to try to raise oneself up is a practice best left to the losers of the world. Winners don't have time for that.

For much of my professional career I was on the road and read hundreds of newspaper sports sections in hundreds of different cities around the country. This type of story is not unique to NEO. I've read so many different stories like this in so many different newspapers in so many different cities across the country that I could almost anticipate what was going to be in the following paragraphs as I was reading along. Basically this story reflects the thinking of a lot of fans who are speculating about the Browns QB situation. Browns management won't commit to Colt McCoy being the starting QB next season, so everyone is looking around to see who might be available. It's pure journalism 101 that Matt Flynn is the hot story of the week based on his record-setting performance against the Lions. Marla Ridenour does a nice job of describing why Flynn would be a potential candidate for the Browns, and she also does a nice job of describing the risks of going after a 26-year-old NFL QB who does not have a large body of work to be measured. It's a well-balanced story written by a sound journalist. I expect that the Matt Flynn story will be played out in sports sections across the country wherever an NFL team might be in need of a new QB. I also expect to see many other local stories like this one in the ABJ and PD about other potential Browns QBs.

Before Terry Bowden, UA football was irrelevant when the PD wrote about tOSU football. The PD wouldn't have even thought of quoting anyone associated with UA football in a tOSU article. Terry Bowden brings a level of credibility to UA football that extends so far as to make him the primary source of quotes for a tOSU article. Terry Bowden is being established by the PD to its readers as a head football coach who is on a similar level with Urban Meyer, which will cause people to generally consider UA football to be at a higher level than they may have in the past. This is a whole new level of respect that we Zips football fans aren't used to dealing with. We're used to tOSU football being placed on a pedestal and UA football being ignored. We're used to any reference to football at UA and tOSU in the same story to be positive about tOSU and negative about UA. There is nothing at all negative about a tOSU story in the PD that focuses as much on UA's new head football coach as tOSU's.

I'm with you, CK. If the Zips don't show up with an attitude against the Bobkitties, I am going to be terribly disappointed. OU has joined Can't as being perceived by the national media as the cream of MAC basketball. The Zips no longer have the luxury of focusing exclusively on the Golden Felons as the only MAC team that stands between them and national prominence.

SEC teams have had a lot of success using smaller but quicker defensive ends. Try Googling Barkevious Mingo.

Sorry I missed the second show. I'll be sure to catch the rest. I'm not that concerned about the production values of the first few editions of the show. This is a starting point for local fans. It's not as if the Zips have a national following and the show is competing against national TV shows. Eye candy like HD costs money, and is not really critical to the initial goal of attracting hardcore fans like those of us on ZN.o. I see this as part of a longterm process to grow interest in Zips basketball. Those of us who've attended Zips basketball practices and listened to KD talk to us about the team know that KD is really comfortable doing that. I wouldn't expect him to be that comfortable on the first few TV shows. I can see the show growing and improving as everyone gets more comfortable doing in front of the camera what KD does so well with the few fans who show up for Zips' practices. I think it can be productive if everyone feels free to state their opinions here, and if someone from the show monitors these comments and makes adjustments as appropriate. It'll be interesting to see how far the show has progressed by the last show of the season.

While sports pundits and most polls are generally ranking OU and Can't well above the Zips in terms of MAC favorites, Ken Pomeroy's sophisticated method of measuring team strength currently ranks the Zips pretty well even though the Zips' 8-6 record is not that great. Here's the way the top MAC teams rank among all DI schools in the current Pomeroy ratings: 67. OU 73. Zips 78. Buffalo 79. Can't The next 2 MAC teams in the Pomeroy ratings -- Ball State (#136) and Western Michigan (#153) -- trail way behind the top 4. It appears that the mathematical formula for the Pomeroy ratings gives a lot of credit to the Zips for their good wins and doesn't penalize them excessively for their 6 losses. Pomeroy Ratings

Bobkitties get their second loss of the season, losing in Athens to Robert Morris, 70-67. Just imagine, a single 3-pointer could have tied the game. So what did the Kitties shoot from 3-point land? How about 3 for 26 (11.5%). Bottom line is that only the absolutely worst 3-point shooting in history caused them to lose by 3 points. They were outrebounded 38-21 on top of that. They're still a tough matchup.

Zips would be a lot better than 8-6 right now if not for the injuries and suspensions. If the Zips stay healthy and suspension-free for the rest of the season, they continue to morph into a monster and kick butt in the MAC. If there are more injuries and suspensions, the rest of the season could be like the first part.

Little Trimmie? What's that mean?

It makes a big freaking difference how a multipurpose basketball arena/ice rink is configured. Done poorly, it degrades the basketball fan experience. There's a reason why there's a basketball forum on ZN.o and not at ice rink forum. I did a little research and found a multipurpose arena done right, with modular moving seating that can be brought in tight for a basketball court or pulled back for the larger ice rink. Check out the following video for a basketball arena/ice rink done in a way that does not compromise basketball seating. I could live with this: