Dave in Green

We Zips basketball fans begin every season filled with hope for great things, and slowly watch the hope eroded as the season wears on. At some point in each season we have to reevaluate and come to a realistic assessment of where the team actually stands. This season the Zips failed to win one of their tough OOC games, and had some close wins over some of the weaker teams. The biggest win so far this season was against Can't. They were without Guyton, and the Zips only beat them by 3 at home. That was good for the win column and satisfying for everyone who dislikes the Flushes. But the margin at home against a team missing one of its best players was not so good. Then the Zips fall at home to OU and now on the road to an inexperienced Buffalo. Since I didn't get to watch the Buffalo game, I can only look at the box score and see some pretty thin stats from some players who need to play well for the Zips to win. At this point, I'm officially lowering my expectations for this season's team. They just have not been able to show that they are winners. They started the season as a very average team, and now they are starting to fall below average. I suppose there's a remote possibility that they'll suddenly awake from whatever funk they're in and run the table in the MAC. But right now I don't even feel confident about their chances against all the MAC West teams, let alone the MAC East. A 20-win season is starting to look like a fantasy. There's a good chance that the Zips may not get a bye for the MAC tournament, and a possibility based on how they're playing now that they might not even make it to the Q. Who imagined how much the Zips would miss Chris McKnight and Jimmy Conyers? Who would have thought that no one on the roster would step forward and fill the gap? I don't know how much of it is the coaching and how much is the players. But something is definitely out of sync in Zipsville.

Of course kids sneak behind their parents and look at and listen to stuff they're not supposed to. I did it when I was a kid, and I doubt kids are much different today. Is that a good reason for parents and other responsible adults to give up and encourage kids to be exposed to unnecessary crap by taking them to supposedly family friendly events and then not protesting what the kids were exposed to in the presence of their own parents? It's the age old question of where do you draw the line?

OK, glad to hear that KD assumed responsibility. As Dr Z notes, it would have been best if he'd said that first before critiques of individual players. Maybe KD needs to make it crystal clear to the players during practice for an upcoming game that anyone who cannot follow the game plan will be pulled from the game and replaced by someone who does, even if he has to go to the far end of the bench to find players who can stick with the game plan. Maybe it's a case of having to look each player square in the eye and ask each one to confirm that they completely understand what they're supposed to do and what they're not supposed to do, and what the consequences are of not doing what they're supposed to do. Maybe this team just believes it can dig itself out of deep holes, and thought they could do it in this game. They started the second half as if they were going to blow right past OU, then stumbled again as OU reasserted itself. Maybe it was a good lesson that they can't always dig themselves out of a deep hole, and need to put more effort into not digging their own deep hole in the first place. Maybe it was just one of those games that every team has during the course of the season when none of the players are really sharp and the teamwork just doesn't work. I guess the only way to know is to see how they perform in upcoming games. Lots of maybes.

I don't think the scoreboard is fixed. Will pay a little more attention at the next game and see how the math works out. And unless someone at UA reads this forum and actually takes action, bet on the yellow car to lose the next RC race.

I really don't care for bitters in my drinks.... Hear, hear! Less bitters and more bourbon.

Absolutely agree. Now we don't really know KD's exact words, because ZTVSportsProducer was just paraphrasing him. But I've always thought that coaches come across better to fans and players alike by saying something like: "I thought I had the team ready for that zone they put against us, but from the mistakes that were made in doubling on the inside shooter/against someone on the other side, leaving the 3 shooter open, it's obvious that I didn't do as good a job of preparing the players as I thought I had."

Nice interview! The most interesting thing to me is that Nate is considering a possible coaching career. You never really know how good a coach any given player would make. But if Nate could teach his winning attitude to younger players, I think he'd have a good chance at becoming a successful coach.

Are you sure the yellow RC car won't always spin out and lose at the on-campus arena downtown?

I'm assuming that everyone posting here understands that UM is Brady Hoke's dream job. If he had been given a choice of USC, Florida, Alabama, any other school, he would have picked UM. He's an old-fashioned type of guy, and old-fashioned ain't all bad.

Technically, it may be a charge when someone is standing with their feet planted and someone else runs into them. But the circumstances on these charges were not typical. In all cases, OU had just scored, the Zips were inbounding, and everyone was headed upcourt. I've been watching basketball for more than half a century, and have only rarely seen an offensive player who didn't even have the ball charge into a defensive player as the teams were heading upcourt. Freeman made it happen several times in one game. I supposed one could call that "good basketball" because it achieved positive results for the team that ran the "play." But if every player in basketball employed this tactic, the game would be unwatchable.

USA Today joins the growing list of national media slowly beginning to focus in on Cam Newton and Auburn. Seems as if Auburn's athletic director told the media before the game that Auburn and Cam's father, Cecil, had reached an agreement that Cecil would not be attending the game. Then, of course, after the game, Cam ran up into the stands to embrace his father. The funniest part of the USA Today story is how Newton's attorney tried to spin this to the media, as if Cecil could have been watching the game at a sports bar and been magically transported into the stands right where Cam was looking minutes after the game ended. The national media is really beginning to smell blood in the water on this. USA Today Story

Bingo. Freeman could teach Anderson Varejao some things about flopping. Anyone else remember a Zips-Bobkitties game where the Zips were repeatedly whistled for fouls as the teams were headed upcourt and Freeman would stop dead in front of Zips players who were looking over the shoulders so he could get "run over" and grotesquely flop to the floor? We all know that Zeke is not an elbow thrower. But in this case two OU players were swarming Zeke, and Freeman appeared to be trying to hit one of Zeke's elbows with his head to draw a foul. As much as I dislike OU's questionable tactics, I admire the intensity with which they play.

Yep, turning two previously bad teams around did a lot more for Hoke's resume than just staying at the first one he turned around. If ever a major program needed a coach with double proof of being able to turn mediocre teams around, it's the University of Michigan.

I never pay attention to the words in rap songs. I assume that most of them contain profanity, but that UA would have the good sense to find ones without profanity to play for a family audience at the JAR. Apparently I was wrong, and UA is certainly wrong for allowing this to happen. I do pay attention to the remote controlled car race, which UA obviously does not. The red car wins every time no matter who's controlling it because the yellow car is defective. The yellow car always spins out every time it reaches the far end and the "driver" tries to turn to come back to the finish line. Let me be clear: The yellow car ALWAYS spins out and ALWAYS loses. The folks who run the race usually have to run out to midcourt, pick up the yellow car and carry it back because it becomes undriveable every time it makes the turn to return to the finish line. The yellow car is as defective as the scoreboard that is programmed incorrectly. It always shows the wrong shooting percentage. When both teams have taken and made exactly the same number of shots, the scoreboard ALWAYS shows different shooting percentages. We don't even need to get into the food and drink operation, because that's already been pointed out here many times. There's a recurring bad message here with all of these obvious shortomings that could all be fixed with minimal effort. The message is that UA doesn't pay attention to the small details that are ridiculously obvious to casual observers. Every good business with which I've ever been associated has had one or more people who continuously look for obvious problems like this and get them fixed.

Zeke was far from the Zips biggest problem in this game. I don't think it does much good to try to try to single out a player or two for criticism. This was a team effort by the Zips, with not a single player having an above average game. The refs didn't help. This was the worst officiating I've seen so far this season. But that's not an excuse. The Zips could have still won if they had properly executed a game plan. The Zips failed on both offense and defense.

If "everyone is cheating" to gain an advantage, then the biggest cheaters would be more likely to gain the biggest advantage and become the biggest winners. Recall that when SMU went down, SMU boosters were at the forefront of exposing other teams in their conference for doing similar cheating, and the whole conference suffered. The biggest fear in the SEC right now is that if Auburn goes down, Auburn boosters will lead the charge to expose other SEC teams for doing similar things, and the SEC's current advantage over other conferences could be severely compromised.

I don't think it's KD's style of defense to leave wide open shooters and hope they miss. I think it's the failure of Zips players to properly execute KD's defense and not leave so much space to an open player that they can't get back to cover the player they're responsible for guarding when he gets the ball. This may work against a poor passing team without a decent PG. Against a PG like Cooper it's suicidal. To correct his, all the Zips need to do is analyze videotape of the Bobkitties defense. The OU players were able to tightly cover Zips players on the perimeter as well as inside. Whenever a Zips player caught a pass, whether outside the 3-point line or under the bucket, they immediately had a Bobkitties player in their hip pocket. If the Zips play defense like that, the Bobkitties don't shoot the lights out. I absolutely agree on more PT for the Zips best defensive players, whoever they might be. Over time I think Diggs and Egner could play better D than some of the Zips current starters. They might also be better able to create shots against a tight defense than some of the current starters. But we'll never know unless they're given a fair chance to develop.

The human trafficking portion of the investigation goes beyond Auburn and the Newtons, and the story is being tracked by many major news organizations beyond an internet forum. It involves questionable agents hiding behind non-profit and pseudo-religious groups taking minors on "recruiting trips" across state lines without their parents' permission. The following Fox Sports story from one small town in Louisiana hints at what the FBI stumbled across while investigating bribery, gambling fraud and a major bank failure: Fox Sports Story

The originator of the massive thread I've been following posted a really brief summary today that gives a good idea of the scope of the FBI investigation. It appears that a lot more will become public by the end of January. Here's the brief summary of what to expect: The FBI and DOJ are involved for three reasons. BingoGate, Lowder & Co., and the shopping of players. Look at the charges and understand the severity of each segment. (1) BingoGate is an attack on the very foundation of Democracy - Maybe if it involved just one crook and politician, they would not be as concerned. But the depth and magnitude of this Network, combined with the ulterior motive to create such an elaborate organization, the Feds don't care for what they tried at all. Everyone's head will be had before the day is done. (2) Shopping of Players is the least severe of the three but it deals with human traffic commerce, concentrated in urban areas preying on economically challenged youth - tantamount to slavery - again not good. (3) With Colonial/Lowder, the Feds are looking for $2.9 Bln (that's with a "B") and they're pissed because we as taxpayers had to foot the bill to cover Dear Bobby's overdraft account. They want their money back, and they want it now. They don't take kindly to swindlers such as these and their conviction rate is pretty high.

That's what the Zips had to defend against, and they didn't. Cooper tied the JAR record with 15 assists, and Freeman was joined by Nick Kellog in shooting the lights out with uncontested 3s. End of story. Forget about OU's record. They are the best team in the MAC because they have the best PG in the MAC, and a great PG can make his teammates and team look greater than they really are. If the Bobkitties can turn it on when they want, as they did tonight, they will certainly turn it on in the MAC tournament. If they win the MAC tournament, they're fully capable of taking down another Georgetown in the NCAA tournament. Rico had his first chance to see the PG he has to learn to outplay for the Zips to become the best team in the MAC.

Lots of snow on the ground, but the road crews are doing a nice job of clearing it. I sure hope no one uses weather as an excuse not to come to honor the Zips soccer team. Sure would be nice to have a high percentage of those who attend Zips soccer games show up for tonight's festivities. I'm planning not to yell too much in the first half of the basketball game to save my voice for the halftime soccer celebration. We really need to rock the JAR to honor what the soccer team accomplished this season.

I misread statsheet.com on Cooper's 2-point percentage. They show him at 45.8% on 2s, which isn't too bad; 28.8% on 3s, which is pretty bad; and 40% overall, which is only fair. I still think Cooper's greatest value is in breaking down defenses with his drives and then dishing to the open man when the defense collapses on him. But regardless of stats, I do expect a battle and a close game.

Brett McKnight is back with a vengeance. He's now leading the Zips with an offensive rating of 121.8. How good is that? To be included in the national rankings, a player has to have played a minimum of 40% of team minutes, so McKnight obviously doesn't qualify. Here are the current top 3 in the country: 1 Kemba Walker, Connecticut (123.8) 2 Jon Leuer, Wisconsin (123.0) 3 Alec Burks, Colorado (122.5) So if McKnight had averaged 16 minutes or more per game in all of the Zips games this season and had his current 121.8 offensive rating, he'd be ranked #4 among all D1 players in the country.

Can't get too excited, as they simply plug the current MAC leader into bracketology, and the Zips earned it for now by beating Can't. But everyone should be excited about even a hint that the MAC champion could wind up playing so close to home in Chicago. I have a feeling that if the Zips make the Big Dance, a lot of us would be waving to each other on the Ohio Turnpike.

Nice analysis, as always. A couple of observations. First, Cooper scores a fair amount of points because he takes a lot of shots. His shooting percentage is not that great, especially his 3-point percentage. Doesn't mean he can't get hot in a particular game and go off for 40+, but his average percentage is only fair. Cooper's main claim to fame is assist percentage. When he's on the floor, and he averages a healthy 36+ minutes per game, he assists in 49.1% of his team's baskets. That's not just good, it's the second best assist rate of any D1 player in the country. Just for comparison, Rajon Rondo currently leads all NBA players with a 48.7% assist rate. So look for Cooper to be driving to the bucket a lot and passing off to his teammates. The Zips can't afford to collapse on Cooper when he drives to the bucket, or his teammates will be getting a lot of high percentage bunnies. Tommy Freeman is the best 3-point shooter on the Zips schedule this season. Freeman is currently hitting 3s at a 45.6% rate -- easily best in the MAC and 37th best in the country. The Zips can't afford to play too loosely on Freeman when he's out on the perimeter, or he could shoot the lights out from 3-point range. Nitro and Q seem to be the natural defenders for the 6-5 Freeman. I'd be concerned if any of the Zips shorter guards ended up against Freeman, as he could shoot 3s right over them.