Dave in Green

Can't ties it with a 3, and its OT at 66-66.

Can't turnover, Miami gets the ball, Can't fouls, Miami hits 2 free throws to go up 66-63 with 13 seconds to go.

Miami hits a 3 and leads 64-63, 34 seconds left and Can't with the ball.

Can't up 63-61 with 46 seconds left, Miami with the ball.

Staying close at 58-56, Miami ahead with 4 minutes to go.

Miami up 51-49 with 8 minutes to go.

While Auburn supporters continue to tell everyone that the NCAA is no longer investigating Auburn on play-for-pay issues, Fox Sports reports today that "NCAA expands probe into Auburn recruiting": Fox Sports Link

A much better promotion would be to offer a big prize to the person who correctly guesses how many RC car races will be held at the JAR before the folks running the races catch up with the fans and realize that the yellow car is going to lose every time because it's defective. The folks running the races continued to appear clueless at the last home game as the yellow car once again spun out of control before it went 10 feet. We're getting close to the last game of the season at the JAR, and it's looking more and more like they will go the whole season without recognizing that one of their race cars is defective and has never finished a race.

More news on Justice: Readers of Ohio High School Hoops have voted Justice District Player of the Year in Ohio's Southeast Disctrict. Also, the following article in The People's Defender: The People's Defender

Believe the masses. Do a Twitter search of Kevin Cosgrove to increase the sample size of opinions you hear. Lots of reactions to Tom Deinhart's status about the hire. One thing I can assure you will never happen with me is to base an opinion on counting noses in Twitter or any other social gossip network. A prime example of why I would not trust the chattering of a vocal fan base was the hiring three years ago of Gene Chizik to be head football coach at Auburn. The Auburn fan base went ballistic and filled every known sports gossip network with extreme venom against Chizik, who they loudly proclaimed unworthy of the position for every conceivable reason. Three years later the Auburn fan base worships the ground Chizik walks on because he just delivered a national championship. All of my life I've tried to form opinions based on my personal evaluation of data from what I consider to be the most thoughtful, intelligent sources, not the most numerous, vocal, and opinionated sources, and that's not about to change.

I am first and foremost a Zips fan. I always want whatever is best for the Zips. No matter how much I dislike Can't, I could grit my teeth and root for the Flushes if it was clearly best for the Zips. So what is really best for the Zips? Is winning the regular season MAC championship still good for a guaranteed NIT bid? If so, that's tempting to wish for. But it would take a huge combination of Zips wins and Can't losses for that to happen. Getting the 3rd seed is a more realistic goal. As has been discussed here in previous seasons, the #3 seed is in some ways better than the #1 seed. If all the top seeds win out prior to the semifinals, the #3 seed ends up facing the MAC West champion in the semifinals while the #1 seed ends up playing the 3rd best team in the East (unless 2 West teams have better conference records than #3 in the East, which could possibly happen this year with Ball State and WMU). Assuming the 3rd best team in the East is better than the West champion, the #3 seed might have an easier semifinal matchup than the #1 seed, and be more likely to make the championship game. If Can't wins tonight, the #3 seed becomes a more realistic possibility for the Zips. If Miami wins, the #1 seed becomes slightly more possible for the Zips. I think I'm going to stay neutral tonight, see how it plays out, and hope that whichever team wins ultimately results in the best scenario for the Zips come tournament time.

The way the Zips are playing MAC games now, you get the feeling they really badly want a good tournament seeding and are working their butts off to make it happen. Maybe the way they play in the bracket buster game will be related to how badly they want to keep that streak alive of 20+ win seasons. I hope they use the game to continue fine-tuning their newly found full attack mode. I understand they can't continue to shoot the lights out in every game as they have recently, and especially last night, But even if their shooting is off in the bracket buster game, I hope to see both the offensive and defensive aggressiveness that has played a big role in their current win streak. That aggressiveness has shown up in outrebounding their opponents as well as outscoring them.

Gee, I wish I knew who to believe.

Zips now in a 3-way tie for 3rd in the MAC East after OU beats Buffalo at Buffalo, 76-69. Cooper and Baltic each score 24.

Heck of a game. OU ahead 72-67 with about a minute left.

OU up 62-60 with about 5 minutes to go.

I'm watching the OU-Buffalo game now, hoping for an OU win to drop Buffalo into a 3-way tie with Zips and BUGS at 7-5. Buffalo currently up 60-58 with about 7 minutes left.

What did those of us following the box score and not watching video miss about the Serb maybe not being OK?

It's hard to imagine a greater disparity in 3-point shooting ever -- 16 of 24 vs. 0 for 6.

Forgot to note that the Serb already has 9 rebounds, and the Zips are outrebounding BGSU 27-17.

This is turning into a beatdown of epic proportions. Nitro has hit 5 of 6 3-pointers and the Zips lead 52-27 early in the second half. The Zips sure have found themselves over the last few games.

Let's not underestimate the players the Zips lost from last season. Without even counting the other subs who moved on, three key players alone missing from this year's lineup had huge impact on last season's team. Here's how they ranked in key team categories: Playing time: 2. Conyers 3. Hitchens 5. C. McKnight Scoring: 1. Conyers 2. C. McKnight 5. Hitchens Rebounding: 1. Conyers 2. C. McKnight 8. Hitchens Assists: 1. Conyers 3. Hitchens 5. C. McKnight Steals: 1. Conyers 2. C. McKnight 3. Hitchens The above stats don't fully address such things as teamwork, defense and intangibles. The remaining Zips players may have another year of experience, and some of the new players are performing pretty well. But the loss of those three players above created a much larger hole to fill than may be obvious without closely examining and considering what they actually contributed to team performance.

Depends on what stats are being considered. A thorough direct statistical comparison between McNees and Abreu on statsheet.com shows that they're fairly closely matched, with each doing better in some categories than the other. In the important Offensive Rating category, which measures total player impact on scoring, assists, rebounds, turnovers, etc., McNees rates higher than Abreu, 98.4 to 91.8. I like Rico. He's going to be a great asset to the Zips this season and, hopefully, the next three as well. He's definitely more of a pure PG than McNees. But he's a relatively inexperienced freshman and McNees is a senior who's been there and done that. Also, McNees tends to peak toward the end of the season, as he's been showing the last few games. Overall, McNees is the best guard to lead the Zips right now, with Abreu playing an important supporting role. McNees-Abreu comparison on statsheet.com

McNees' performance can be measured in great detail through his charts on statsheet.com. The shooting percentage graph shows that he has just been through the worst extended shooting slump of his 4-year playing career. It also shows that in recent games he has pulled out of the slump and is now trending up closer to his previous 3-year average. Had McNees "quit shooting" a few games ago, he wouldn't have had a chance to break out of his slump toward the end of the season when it really counts. The points average season trend chart shows that only in his freshman season did his scoring drop off near the end of the season. Over the last three seasons, his point scoring has risen toward the end of the season. Everyone knows that McNees is not an all-star player. But there aren't any current all-stars sitting on the bench waiting to replace him, either. McNees is a good veteran combo guard who can both shoot and run the offense. It's possible that Abreu and/or Q may eventually be better all-around guards than McNees. But it's highly unlikely that will happen before McNees graduates. McNees has proven over the years that he deserves to start and finish games, especially toward the end of the season. McNees at statsheet.com

There's just no way of getting around the fact that anyone who believes that Steve McNees has been performing at a higher level in recent games is, by definition, acknowledging that he was playing at a lower level in previous games. Count me as one of those who is impressed with the change in McNees' game. I've already mentioned several times after recent games that McNees has become much more effective at driving and either hitting layups, getting fouled, or dishing to the open man. Whenever we compliment someone for getting better, it's acknowledgement that the person previously was not as good. That doesn't mean that we're trying to insult the person for not previously doing as well as they are now.