Dave in Green

Show me a more knowledgeable and accurate sports statistician than Ken Pomeroy, and I'll drop Pomeroy like a hot potato and go with your guy.

STAT ALERT! The following post contains statistics. Those who are allergic to statistics should avoid reading this post. Pomeroy also currently projects the Zips to beat Illinois Chicago by 2 points. IC's win over Rhode Island did nothing to pump up their standing in the Pomeroy ratings. Pomeroy currently projects that IC will lose all of their remaining games this season except for a home game against Youngstown. Meanwhile, the Zips are currently ranked in the top 50 nationally in three team categories. The highest ranking comes in turnover percentage, where the Zips are the 26th best team in the country at 16.7%. For comparison, BYU is #1 at 12.8% and Centenary is dead last at 29.3%. This is a nice improvement over last season when the Zips finished 147th in the country at 19.9%. The Zips are currently ranked 30th nationally in steal percentage at 7.3%. UNLV is #1 at 4.8% and UNC Greensboro last at 17.6%. Last season the Zips finished 217th in this category at at 10.2%, so another nice improvement so far this season. The third category is block percentage, where the Zips are currently ranked 44th at 6.3%. Oregon State is #1 at 4.0% and Southeastern Louisiana last at 22.2%. Last season the Zips finished 26th in the country with a slightly worse 6.7%. Taken together, these stats tend to indicate that the Zips are taking better care of the ball so far this season. They are making fewer turnovers, allowing fewer steals and having fewer shots blocked.

Blasphemous? Blasphemy is irreverence toward holy personages, religious artifacts, customs, and beliefs. The Rowdies are holy personages? In any case, the Rowdies have been criticized by forum members right here on ZN.O for such things as not being able to turn out more than a small fraction of their 2,000 members for various Zips sports events. So it appears to be fair, for example, to say that one is not impressed with the Rowdies when it comes to turning out a larger percentage of their membership in support of Zips teams. That's an example of context. I can say that I have gotten absolutely no help on the context of Coach Ianello's alleged remark from anyone on this forum. No one posted a public message or PM to me explaining any details. No one is able or willing to share any context. I've gotten some preliminary input from some people at UA, but nothing definitive yet. I have some good leads on other people to speak with, and will continue to pursue this. Fact finding is a little more time-consuming than just winging it.

As discussed on ZN.O last season, the Pomeroy ratings show the Horizon League as the 12th strongest out of 33 conferences (actually 32 conferences plus independents) and the MAC 16th. That's where they finished last season, and that's where they stand early in this season. Two seasons ago, the HL was 11th and the MAC 18th, and three seasons ago the HL finished 11th and the MAC 12th. The last time the MAC was rated higher than the HL was six seasons ago, when the MAC finished 11th and the HL 16th.

Wagner made second team All-MAC last season as a redshirt freshman.

Speaking of flying, did you see your buddy miss another point blank dunk last night? I hope this doesn't become an issue. I'm not worried about a proven HS slammer like Egner missing a couple of his earliest slams as a true freshman college player. I'd compare that to a good free throw shooter like Abreu missing a bunch of his early free throws as a true freshman college player, and a proven HS 3-point shooter like Euton missing a lot of his early college 3-point attempts. I think all three true freshmen will do better in their various specialties as they get more PT and experience at the college level. But there's no doubt that all three will look shaky at times until they get more comfortable with the flow of the college game.

Yikes, East Tennessee State just beat Dayton at Dayton. I thought the Zips playing Dayton close at Dayton was a pretty decent achievement. Maybe the Flyers aren't flying so high this season.

I feel a lot better after seeing the Zips overcome adversity in the first half to stay close, and then come out in the second half and take control. They really played a full game tonight with effort, intensity and smarts. They seemed to have better teamwork, with fewer instances of one player not knowing what another was doing. They still have a ways to go, but they're definitely looking better. I'll never forget the expression on the Detroit player's face as he looked incredulously at the ref after he had to deliberately foul McNees three times to get the ref to blow the whistle and stop the clock from running out. I promised myself not to get upset at the refs this year. But this was poster-quality bad officiating. Thank goodness it didn't cost the Zips a W.

Amazing ref tricks: The Detroit player obviously fouls McNees to send him to the free throw line. The ref doesn't call it. The player grabs McNees again. The ref doesn't call it. Finally grabs him with both hands a third time, and the ref can no longer ignore it. The Detroit player puts his arms out and looks incredulously at the ref. Hey, that was the ref game plan tonight. Call everything on the Zips and nothing on Detroit. Disgusting!

About time for Zeke to return, isn't it?

Some good and bad in the halftime stats. Bad news is the Zips were outrebounded 22-13, and didn't get to shoot a single free throw. Good news is that the Zips had only 4 turnovers to 9 for Detroit. Other than that, the numbers are fairly even.

Zips continue to have a problem stopping opponents from driving to the basket and getting easy layups, but can't return the favor at the other end.

Greatest Bardo move ever. The ball went to him inside with his back to the bucket. He spun around, faked the defender off his feet and banked it in. I am in total shock and awe.

I agree on the community relations suggestion for Coach Ianello. At the very least, there's a strong perception that he's not as actively involved with the community as many Zips football fans think he should be. If he'd finished the season 11-1 instead of 1-11, he might get by with that in the euphoria over winning. But when a team is losing, fans tend to latch on to any negative, whether big, medium or small. Ultimately this is a UA problem and not just a head football coach problem. It reflects on the whole university, not just the football program. Responsibility doesn't end with the athletic department. It goes all the way to the top. This issue needs to be proactively addressed, either by the athletic department or whoever is responsible for UA's overall community relations.

The HL has had consistently higher ratings than the MAC over the past few years, and a comparison of records so far this season shows that the trend appears to be continuing: HL = 43-21 (.730) MAC = 27-39 ( .409) And the MAC East continues to outperform the MAC West: MAC East = 18-17 (.514) MAC West = 9-22 (.290)

So no one here is either able or willing to provide any more info on Ianello's remark about the Rowdies? As far as everyone knows, Ianello just made the remark out of the blue? No one has made any effort to get some kind of clarification on what might have happened to provoke the remark or what might have been done after the remark to try to resolve any misunderstandings? As I said earlier, if Ianello has declared war on the Rowdies for no good reason, I'll cancel my season football ticket until there's a resolution to this issue or the Zips get a new head coach. But I'm not going to make any decisions until I get the full story, whether from someone on this forum or by contacting UA directly. If anyone knows anything that they don't want to state publicly, please feel free to PM me. You can rely on me to maintain your confidentiality.

Minnies score 10 more than Ginnies in the first half, but are outscored in the second half by 18.

Hope KD is keeping notes on what Virginia is doing in the second half. Cavs up by 10 with 7 minutes left.

No need to go on any further. You've made a good case for why it was even more embarassing for VT to lose to a I-AA program than it was for UA, but that VT knew they were way better than that and proved it while the Zips didn't and couldn't.

Losing to I-AA James Madison didn't seem to shake the confidence of Virginia Tech, which has won every game since that embarassing loss.

Final, 2-1. Go Zips!

Zips getting more aggressive after IU's goal and the game is being played about evenly between the two ends, but no more shots on goal. Time stopped at 2:21 for IU player injury. Still 2-1.

IU playing with a sense of urgency now. Most of the game being played at the Zips end. Zips are playing great D. Another shot on goal is stopped without too much difficulty. But it's definitely more of a game now. And, with about 8 minutes left, IU scores. 2-1.

And, of course, as soon as I open my mouth IU starts getting competitive. Two trips to the Zips end and 2 shots on goal, both easily stopped. Still 2-0 with 15 minutes left.

I watch very little soccer, so I can't say how this compares to other games. But to me the Zips look totally dominant, almost like pros against amateurs. I expected more from IU. I've only watched the second half, but IU hasn't been near the Zips goal. The whole game is being played around the IU goal. With less than 20 minutes left in the game, IU doesn't have a single shot on goal.