Dave in Green

After awhile these discussions get all deja vuish. People make the same points and others make the same challenges that were made in previous threads. Reminds me of the old joke about someone visiting a nursing home and seeing two old guys sitting next to each other in wheelchairs. One old guy says "37" and the other laughs hysterically. The second guy says "13" and the first guy doubles over in laughter. The visitor asks an aide what's going on. The aide says, "Oh, they keep telling the same old jokes over and over, so they finally just gave numbers to the jokes so they wouldn't have to go through the whole spiel every time."

Nick Harney has immense potential, as GoZips informed us months ago. I had to keep reminding myself last night that he is the equivalent of a true freshman in only his second college game. He did not even get to practice with the team last season, as a redshirt freshman would have. Harney is listed as a sophomore, but that's only because he's an academic sophomore. I liked the way KD played him at PG at the end of the game. It was basically dumping more responsibility on him to see how he'd respond. It also forced him to play long minutes at an unfamiliar position. You could see him starting to run out of gas at the end. But, wow, does Harney have sweet moves, big hops and both a soft touch on his shots and an authoritative touch on his slams. Some of Harney's passes last night were almost Rico-like. I was just stunned at the length and accuracy of some of his passes. He seems to have a veteran's eye and judgment in what to do with the ball. I see KD continuing to give Harney new challenges to see all he's got in him. Tree also played a long stint at the end, and was starting to wear down. Like most true freshman players, Harney and Tree will have to work on their conditioning in order to play longer minutes effectively. But what a pair of additions to the Zips. I was at least a little prepared for Harney's performance based on GoZips' practice reports. But Tree is a different player from what I expected to see. Tree was extremely active on defense, chasing the pesky little Hiram players around the floor like a guard. He has quick feet and great hops. I saw no evidence of him slacking off in his efforts, but just starting to physically run out of gas near the end. Tree had 6 rebounds in 14 minutes, which was second in rebounds per minute only to Egner's 6 rebounds in 9 minutes. The rebounding of these two players is critical in backing up the Serb's rebounding, as Zeke is always more focused on blocking and altering shots than in rebounding missed shots. Walsh could indeed play well at the 2, which is his natural position. But he's badly needed to backup Rico at the point. At the end of the MSU game, Walsh and Rico were in together when MSU was pressing to get the ball back, and the two of them together played really well in keeping the ball away from the defenders and safely getting it upcourt. This team is pretty special in a number of ways. Setting Zeke and Rico aside for a minute, the rest of the players likely to get significant PT are all between 6-4 and 6-8. They can all dribble and pass the ball at least fairly well. Unlike past Zips teams, there are no players that you cringe when the ball is in their hands, expecting it to be lost. In many ways they are interchangeable pieces who can all play multiple positions. They all seem to have at least decent shooting from different ranges. It is going to be hard for opposing teams to defense against an ever-changing lineup of multi-skilled players. Again last night I was struck with how much these guys like to play together and how unselfish they are. The Serb was as loose as I've ever seen him. There are no ball hogs or "me first" guys there. They all want to get the ball to the player with the high percentage shot. There's no scowling or sniping at each other. Individual abilities and skills aside, this is a true team in the best sense of the word. The sky is the limit for this group of players if they work their butts off to continually improve. This is a team that could develop into one capable of winning games in the NCAA tournament.

@GoZips, help me out here. I fail to see a major problem with Gilliam. He only got to play 7 minutes against MSU but hit 2 of 3 from the field and looked like the same Gilliam we saw playing in Canada. He had an off shooting night against a much weaker Hiram team, going 0-6 from the field. Every Zips player will have a number of off-shooting nights before the season is over. Nitro, for example, is only 4 of 19 from the field in the first two games. But we know he can and will produce a much higher shooting percentage for the season. Have you seen a deeper problem with Gilliam's performance in the first two games that I've missed?

For a large institution like UA, internet forum critics may be considered nothing more than annoying little gnats buzzing around that aren't even worth the energy to swat at. But an article like this in the local newspaper is like stepping on a hornet's nest. This is actually a pretty big deal.

We've discussed the attendance issue several times, but here are the basics one more time: Paid attendance is always more than actual attendance because there is always some percentage of no-shows for various reasons (health, weather, etc.). Paid attendance can be legitimately increased by including hundreds or thousands of tickets as part of paid sponsorship packages, and a large percentage of these tickets tend to go unused. There is a greater gap between paid attendance and actual attendance when a team is performing poorly because there are more no-shows for losing teams than winning teams. Best guess is that UA is including many thousands of tickets in its paid sponsorship packages, and with the Zips' record the past two seasons, there should be no question why a large percentage of the paid-for tickets are going unused.

Mississippi State knocked off South Alabama today, 80-65. They did it without the services of Renardo Sidney who was out with a groin pull, no doubt a result of trying to score over Zeke earlier this week. Moultrie and Bost both had good games today without Zeke and Rico around to harass them into numerous mistakes.

I had the same problem with the soccer feed last night. Kept cutting out with the same messages mentioned here.

Today's attendance was the best of the year on both sides of the field. Obviously, Can't fans filled the visitor's side way more than any other visitor this year. And the home side was by far the best, probably due to the nice weather and Can't rivalry. Overall I'd say the stadium was at least 1/3rd full of actual people.

I took the comment about Stainbrook being one of two complete centers in the league to mean that he also plays like a football center in knocking players off their feet.

Duke 77, Belmont 76 Duke avoids upset loss

I really like this SI story that gets to the heart of the problem created when there's no system of checks and balances in place. It also correctly points out how we fans are partly responsible for helping create an atmosphere where a coach can do no wrong as long as he's winning and doesn't get caught up in something so bad that it can't be swept under the rug. Penn State tragedy shows danger of making coaches false idols

This SI story by sports law professor Michael McCann discusses legal aspects of the PSU case, and is well worth reading by everyone for a different perspective from all the other news stories: Sandusky grand jury presentment doesn't tell the whole story

Elton thinks the Zips have too much firepower for Can't this season, and thinks that Harney could be "the most prolific offensive weapon to wear a Zips uniform since Marcel Boyce." As long as Harney and/or Treadwell do well, Zips should get great coverage in the PD over the next four years. EA's MAC Basketball Season Predictions

A little about Hiram, but mostly about MSU: Gaffney ABJ Story

@Doug Snyder, you heard what I heard. Everything KD said to us is consistent with what I've heard him say over the years. I believe KD has always gone after the best quality players he thought he had a chance of landing as long as they came from good families and had good character to match what UA expected of its student-athletes. We don't really know how many transfers KD has tried to recruit over the years. We only know the ones who've actually signed with the Zips. We know that Nick Dials worked out really well when he transferred to UA from OSU in 2005. We don't really know if the fact that the Zips currently have 3 transfers on the roster is a trend or an aberration. I haven't seen any rumors about any future transfers. We also don't really know how many players who needed to catch up on their academics KD has tried to recruit over the years. We know that Darryl Roberts had early academic issues, but overcame them and worked out really well for the Zips as both a player and a person. We don't really know if the fact that the Zips currently have 2 players on the roster who had to sit out a season to get their academics in order is a trend or an aberration. For example, Justice and Ibitayo both have strong academic backgrounds, and I believe all the potential recruits being mentioned for next season do, as well. One thing we do know is that a college team with an athletic 7-foot center and trips to the NCAA tournament in 2 of the last 3 seasons is more attractive to quality transfers as well as quality HS recruits than some of the teams the Zips have had in the past. We also know that KD can coach winning teams with all kinds of different players. The stronger his record grows, the more higher potential players he's able to recruit, and the more higher potential players he's able to recruit, the stronger his record grows. KD has helped put UA basketball on the national radar to the point that it's one step away from being included in conversations with VCU and Butler. This season's team has the potential to take that next step if everything works out just right. If it does, the level of recruit attracted to UA would also be raised to yet another level. You're darn right KD has a "building process," and it's working darn well.

Good call, Quickzips. Nitro's biggest strength is his 3-point shooting, so Justice is almost certain to be filling some of Nitro's minutes next season. From what I saw of Justice in the practices, he has a sweet shooting stroke and does not appear to have any glaring weaknesses in other aspects of his game. If the Zips needed him this season, I don't doubt that he could contribute. But there's just not enough PT available for all the talented players on the roster this season. No need to waste a year of his eligibility sitting on the bench.

More details on the DA's disappearance in this story. Very mysterious about the cigarette ashes found in his abandoned car since he didn't smoke and didn't allow others to smoke in his car. Also mysterious how the DA's laptop hard drive was destroyed, and investigators found evidence on the DA's home computer that someone had used that computer to search for information on how to destroy a computer hard drive. Gricar's 2005 disappearance only one of many mysteries in PSU scandal

Already covered in this thread.

This is not breaking news about the missing DA. This has been included in some of the stories earlier this week. But it's only been mentioned as an aside. In reality, the fact that the DA who made the decision not to prosecute Sandusky in 1998 went missing in 2005 and his body was never found, is a huge sign that this case is going to explode far beyond Joe Paterno, PSU football and PSU as an institution. This whole thing stinks at a level that will cause us all to be holding our noses for a long time. Here's how the Brits see it: UK Daily Mail

I watched the whole webcast. My poor wife had to suffer through my negative comments the whole way through. I finally had to apologize for using a word I normally don't use in front of her. What an embarassment for a Caleb Porter-coached team. You all know I'm an absolute soccer rookie and know very little about the fine nuances of the game. But I've been an avid sports fan for almost 60 years, and I catch on pretty quickly to the general flow of games. This team has worried me all year long, but I kept hoping they'd get over the hump and start performing at a higher level. After today's game, I've reluctantly reached the point where I just don't think they have it in them. It was a good season but not a great one. I have no expectations at all for what this team might accomplish as an at-large NCAA tournament team. Last season was great. Maybe next season will be, too.

I don't think a poll needs to be conducted to count the number of people who found this "joke" to be funny.

A bad offense can make a defense look good and a good defense can make an offense look bad. As a team, I thought the Zips played fairly good defense and, as a team, I thought MSU played only fair offense. The combination of the two left the Zips in control of the whole game. But I think the Zips will have to play even better defense to have a chance against WVU. The Zips offense looks to me to be ahead of the defense. Our players all seem to like to keep the ball moving to create open shots, and it looks like we have a lot of guys who can score from close in and mid-range. If they start hitting their 3s, they're going to be really tough to defend. They will need to be good at both ends of the court to beat some of the teams coming up on the schedule.

I don't need to know any details as long as I can be assured that the good news is about the football program. Soccer and basketball are already generating their own good news without having to wait for the near future.

Normally, key non-conference opponents are those that are ranked higher than the team being discussed. The Zips were ranked lower than Marshall prior to the MSU win. After the MSU win, the Zips moved up to #82 in the Pomeroy ratings, right on top of Marshall at #81. As long as the Zips keep winning and building on their MSU win, they will increasingly come into more of these discussions.

Everything that goes wrong is the result of a "building process" and everything that goes right is something else? Ridiculous.