Dave in Green

UAZip0510, interesting take on the Rowdies. If I had been put in your position when I was in college, I'd have done the same thing you did. We didn't have a group like that where I went to college. We didn't need it. Most of the students were very much into the basketball games, and we all made ourselves heard. We didn't need special uniforms or practiced chants. We were all naturally loud and enthusiastic. If a few people started a chant of some kind, we just all automatically joined in whatever the chant was. We created a heck of an atmosphere at our little basketball arena, which made the JAR look like a palace. We had a little snake pit gym, and we didn't know any better to hope for a better facility. We just all loved basketball and our basketball team, and we weren't shy about letting everyone know it. We didn't all sit together in one location, either. We were scattered all over. But there were enough of us, and we were noisy enough that everyone knew we were there.

Compare it to their last few years and tell me the trend. Compare ours to the past few years, and tell me the trend. My main point was that CSU has a big advantage over UA by being in a higher population metro area. Looking at attendance stats over the past 7 seasons, CSU has been up and down while UA was pretty steady at one level, dropped off about 500 spectators 3 seasons ago, and has remained pretty steady since. Zips have consistently outdrawn CSU until this season. Here's the 7-season home attendance averages (current season first and working back), CSU in the first column, UA in the second, and the 3rd column being the Zips +/- attendance compared with CSU: 3,277 / 2,871 = - 406 2,278 / 2,824 = +546 2,245 / 2,984 = +739 3,307 / 3,454 = +147 2,619 / 3,593 = +974 2,013 / 3,470 = +1,457 2,418 / 3,369 = +951

CSU drew 8,490 fans at home to see them play Butler. Their next highest home game attendance was 4,711 for the South Florida game. They had 3 other home games with attendance of more than 4,000, 2 home games between 3,000-4,000, and 8 home games with attendance under 3,000. That's not so hot for the best mid-major basketball team in Ohio with a star player (Cole) located in the heart of the second most populated urban area in the state.

No question the Serb has made a major leap in all areas of the game this season. I honestly did not expect him to be able to play at this level based on what I thought was a pretty inconsistent performance last season. If he stayed another season and made another leap in performance of the same magnitude, I think he might be able to play in the NBA Development League. It should be noted, however, that Linhart played pro ball in Europe before making it in the NBADL. The odds of getting from the NBADL to the NBA are pretty small. The Serb is a little undersized for an NBA power forward and lacks the shot of an NBA small forward. It would take a major leap in skill levels for him to make the NBA. Pro ball in Europe probably pays better than the NBADL, and the Serb has many personal reasons for wanting to be closer to home. The Zips team and fans will definitely miss him next season.

I was hoping that scottditzen would expand a little on his remark about it being the JAR's fault. I suspect his reasoning is similar to what others have been saying. The way I actually saw the crowd for the Creighton game is that it was a little light in all areas, including the Rowdies' sections on the floor. I can't say whether there were more missing students or more missing non-students. But the one constant I always expect to see is a full house in the two Rowdies' sections. The JAR is obviously not the greatest facility, and tweaking the seating situation might help a little. But let's be honest about this. We can always dream up thousands of excuses for not doing things we really aren't interested in doing. The fact that the JAR is not the best basketball facility, the seating arrangement is not optimized, some fans try to discourage others from making noise, etc., are all weak excuses not to show up and enjoy and support the performance of this Zips team. All excuses aside, the bottom line is that the Zips are playing good basketball right now and are entertaining to watch. They deserve more support from both the student body and the community.

Someone (maybe QuickZips) mentioned awhile back that Walsh was being groomed as the backup PG for next season. Diggs could also play PG in a pinch, as his ball control has been improving game by game and he's pretty good at driving and dishing. I did a little research on Walsh and found some older articles identifying him as a combo guard rather than a shooting guard. So he is apparently a pretty decent ball handler in addition to having great shooting ability. I was really surprised at all the schools that were recruiting Walsh back in 2006: Duguesne, Pittsburgh, St. Joseph’s, Memphis, Penn State, James Madison, Delaware, Xavier, Eastern Kentucky, Maryland, Stanford, Ohio U (where his parents first met) and Akron. 2006 Walsh Article And a 2008 ESPN player evaluation said the following about Walsh: Brian is a 2 guard who can play the point if needed. He can really handle, is an excellent passer, and he is a deadly shooter. ESPN Walsh 2008 Evaluation I agree that the Zips have a lot of young talent to help fill the gaps next season, and it's good that a couple of them have previous college experience. But the Zips are already losing a lot of experience from senior graduations, and losing the Serb on top of that would result in a pretty inexperienced team starting next season. They might develop into a great team over the course of the season, but with the lack of experience early in the season, things could be a little ugly for awhile.

I mostly blame the JAR. Absolutely. The facility was to blame, not the students. The JAR was only allowing older folks in for this game. The JAR stopped students at the door and wouldn't let them in. If I were a student, I'd organize a protest against the JAR for discrimination.

The Feb. 2 Can't-WMU game was cancelled due to a big winter storm in Michigan. Tomorrow night's rescheduled Can't-WMU game is now threatened by a big winter storm in Michigan. The national weather service is predicting a half inch of ice plus snow and high winds for Kalamazoo and other parts of southern Michigan this afternoon into tomorrow, accompanied by power outages and school closings. It's getting pretty late in the season to find a convenient time to reschedule games cancelled due to weather. Interesting that this would happen to two teams with a good chance to win both the MAC East and West. I know the rest of you Zips fans feel as badly about this as I do.

While I completely support the Serb doing what's best for him, the thought of losing McNees, Roberts, B McKnight, Bardo and Cvetinovic at the end of this season is downright scary. That's 80% of the team that's been starting the second half of the last few games plus the Zips' top scorer off the bench (with the 3rd best per-game scoring average on the team). There may be some talented underclassmen waiting in the wings to try to fill the Serb's shoes, but none of them have had much chance to prove themselves at the college level. Without him, next season becomes a huge question mark for the Zips.

Yet another solid game. Tonight solidified in my mind that this team has learned to play a strong game without Zeke on the floor. Maybe the refs are a little picky on Zeke. But he is also his own worst enemy. He seems to be out there expecting to be whistled on every play, and he often is. He's got to learn what he can get away with and what's going to draw a whistle, and adjust his game. The rest of the players are doing fine. I could nitpick the play of each of the players, because they all make some mistakes. But the key is that they are doing more good things than bad things as individuals. and even more importantly they are playing much better as a team. There's good communication and good chemistry when they're on the floor together. They're really resilient, and bounce right back from any adversity by aggressively attacking at the other end of the court. I like the way they're playing good team D right now, and I also like the passing and setups for easy buckets. The Serb deserves big credit for playing consistent offense and defense game after game. I couldn't agree more with what I heard KD say in the radio interview on the way home from the JAR. Nikola may have the best all-around game in the MAC right now. If the Zips run the table and win the conference, the Serb deserves strong consideration as player of the year. He may not have the greatest stats. But without his all-around play the Zips would be in deep trouble.

Guyton = 34 minutes Sherman = 31 minutes Greene = 27 minutes Holt = 25 minutes Porrini = 24 minutes Manns = 20 minutes I'd say they weren't holding any of the regulars back from their normal PT.

Who likes him? No one important. Just a few insignificant folks outside the masses on the social gossip networks.

Imagine that, some people like him and some don't. Who'd have guessed?

I agree that the team wins and loses games, not one individual. But it's also true that certain combinations of players tend to give the team better chances of winning at certain times, and the combination changes from game to game and even during certain times of each game. The coach earns his salary by determining which combination of players works best in different games and at different times. Players also tend to run hot and cold. Even the most reliable players have good and bad games. For example, it's true that McNees has started taking more shots in recent games than earlier in the season, and that he's also starting to hit at a higher percentage rate. The missing stat that would tell an interesting story is how McNees' shooting compares when he's playing the 2 spot as opposed to the 1. My impression is that McNees pulls the trigger pretty quickly when he's open. I know I've seen him fire up some long 3s while playing the point when his defender plays too loose. Anyway, it all makes for interesting discussion. We all watch the games and we all see slightly different things. I like to check what I think I've seen against the hard, cold stats to see if I've missed something. In many cases I find that I have missed something. At the same time, I would feel uncomfortable trying to judge a player or a team only from stats. I want to also see what's happening to see if I can pick up the intangibles. I think that Rico has huge intangibles, such as the way he got into Randy Davis' head in the Ball State game. That can be incredibly disruptive to an entire team's offensive effort when you rattle their PG. I think before the season is over that we'll see Rico play a big role in more than one game. The Zips' guard rotation is getting stronger with each game.

In this case, it's better to rely on the stats than on your impressions from watching them play. Rico is taking more shots per minute of PT than McNees: McNees -- 202 FG attempts in 796 minutes = .254 FG attempts per minute played Abreu -- 145 FG attempts in 497 minutes = .292 FG attempts per minute played

It's not an either/or with McNees and Rico. With two players fully capable of playing effective PG, KD has lots of flexibility with the guard situation in each game. At 31.8 minutes per game, McNees is averaging more PT than any Zips player since Dials averaged 32.0 minutes per game in the 2007-08 season. So McNees' PT is going to overlap Abreu's PT (19.9 minutes per game) during the course of a 40-minute game. At times during each game I expect Rico will play the 1 with McNees or Roberts at the 2. At other times I expect to see McNees at the 1 and Roberts at the 2. Rico's assist percentage is about twice as good as McNees', while McNees' turnover percentage is about twice as good as Rico's. There will be times in each game when one is more important than the other.

As previously discussed, Can't beating Miami last night rather than vice versa would have improved the Zips odds of earning the #3 seed. Miami beating Can't resulted in only a slightly improved chance of the Zips earning the #1 seed, which would require many more favorable things happening over the next couple of weeks than would have been required for the Zips to earn the #3 seed if Miami had lost. The Zips still have a shot at the #3 seed, but the odds are reduced after last night's results. But, since we don't have any control over game results, it really doesn't matter what we wished for last night.

Miami 9-3 Can't 8-3 Akron 7-5 Buffalo 7-5 BUGS 7-5 Ohio 6-6 Zips need to beat Miami and Can't and have at least one other team beat Miami and Can't. Not much room for error to grab the #1 seed.

Zips have a better chance to be the #1 seed now if everything falls their way. Beating Miami at home and Can't on the road is critical now.

Miami wins, 86-80.

Miami up 79-72 with 37 seconds left.

Miami up 78-70 with 46 seconds to go.

Miami up 74-70 with 1:18 left.

Porrini fouls out, Miami up 71-70 halfway through first OT.

Greene, Manns and Porrini enter OT with 4 fouls each for Can't, while Winbush and Mavunga each have 3 for Miami.