Dave in Green

Being spoiled is having more than others and constantly demanding more without acknowledging appreciation for what we already have. Certainly most Zips fans are not spoiled by the Zips' unmatched consistent success in the conference tournament over the past decade or believe they're somehow entitled to more. Those who've suffered the longest with mediocre results from Zips basketball teams should be the ones who most appreciate what we've got now compared with what we had before. During last night's Can't game one Zips fan was lamenting that Can't has more athletic wings than the Zips. After the game a Can't fan was lamenting that one of the Zips (presumably unathletic) wings (Reggie) is the best shooter in the MAC. Human nature is to want what someone else has even though what we already have is coveted by others.

Here's the half/half minutes played split for the Zips' 3 bigs: 15/7 = Big Dog 5/8 = Pat 14/20 = Kwan It's pretty rare that a Zips player is on the court for the full 20 minutes of a half. Kwan's 34 total minutes matched Antino for game high, which shows how much growing trust Coach Dambrot has in Kwan's play. He keeps saying he's concerned about the number of minutes he's playing Kwan and Antino, but they're performing too well not to have on the court as many minutes as they can take.

Happy to say the officiating was OK tonight, and I would say the same if the Zips had lost. A few questionable calls both ways, which there will always be. You can't ask for more than that from normal humans.

I clearly heard the buzzer go off just before the ball left Manley's hands and was certain that a video check would show the shot didn't count. Before he got the shot off, though, Manley slipped, fell and skidded a couple of feet on the floor, which in my book was traveling. Then again, I'm not a ref. On Kwan's pair of banked 3-pointers, they weren't luck. In warmups Kwan was practicing banked 3-pointers and at one point hit 7 in a row. It's a real shot, not a fluke. Kwan was also great on defense, though it's unfair to single any one player out when the team as a whole played great defense the whole game. Then again you have to single out Pat's amazing performance of 12 points in just 13 minutes. The amazing stat of the day is that Pat scored 23% of the Zips' total points while playing just 6% of the team's total minutes. Without Pat the Zips would have been in big trouble tonight.

Hitting 18% of 3s and leading by 3.

No quit from these Zips.

An 11-player rotation would help in trying to win 5 games in 6 days.

Good news and bad news from warmups: Good news is BJ is suited up and warming up. Doubt he'll play but good to see he's healthy enough to at least go through the motions. Bad news is that the Zips draw Frank Spencer as a ref yet again. Is he on permanent assignment to Zips games or what? Be prepared for odd calls.

Kudos to the Zips band for serenading us at the Lizard.

Ha! I'm just a poor pensioner scraping by on Social Security. But seriously it's good to have multiple places as one place wouldn't hold all the Zips fans here tonight.

There were lots of Zips fans at the Winking Lizard, but it wasn't at all overcrowded. Always nice to have a pre-game dinner with the players' families. Great food, great beer, great service, great Zips spirit. Couldn't ask for more. We're headed back there right now.

"pissing contest" = 408,000 hits "pissing match" = 254,000 hits "peeing contest" = 37,300 hits "peeing match" = 3,660 I generally prefer to take the road less traveled, so next time I'll use "urinating competition" (1,260 hits).

I trust that Coach Dambrot will be right on basketball strategy most of the time because he's proven over many years to be a darned good coach. But I don't believe he's right all of the time because no one is. Fans who lack the training, experience and knowledge of a good coach are wrong most of the time on basketball strategy. But I don't believe they're wrong all the time because no one is. Congratulations to every fan who gets one right.

Kwan was right to be annoyed by the uncalled-for poking at the ball by the WMU player. It's OK to be annoyed, but you have to be able to manage your emotions in those circumstances. I love the level of emotion that helps drive both Kwan and Antino to perform at a high level, which reminds me of Q's game. But they both need to learn to avoid overreacting to provocations and taunts from opposing teams. Just focus on your game and don't get suckered into doing something that ends up hurting your team with a technical. It's all about winning the game, not winning peeing matches with opposing players.

Well, tonight's WMU game is the second I've watched in the last 8 days where MAC ref Frank Spencer has issued both a warning and a technical to the UA bench, so 2 warnings and 2 technicals in 2 games in 8 days on the Zips bench by 1 official. This is starting to sound like a personal problem.

Skip, I thought you would have commented on WMU having only 1 assist for the whole game. But you're right that it was a gem of a defensive performance. The start to the second half was crazy with Antino going wild and turning the ball over on the Zips' first 3 possessions and going to the bench, then the Zips scoring just 3 points in the first 7 minutes. The ice was finally broken with a string of 3s.

Frank Spencer issues a bench warning to WMU. What a ref.

Frank Spencer issues a Zips bench warning. Watch out.

WMU shooting 12.5% from the field.

Pat looks relaxed and smiling in warmups. He had nice elevation on a slam and smooth delivery nailing a 3. No sign of discomfort or even the slightest favoring of his injured foot. Fingers crossed.

I owe all of my anonymous fame to ZipsNation.

I don't know about the rest of the season ticket holders. But in my package of tickets received before the start of the season I received a ticket that said: Zips Basketball vs. Opponent TBD Mid-American Conference Tournament Opening Round (if necessary) Monday, March 9, James A. Rhodes Arena. I know we're not used to using these. But the minute the Zips lost to Miami I knew when and where I was going to be using that ticket. I agree with Skip that the smaller than hoped for crowd that showed up for the NIU game was noisier and more enthusiastic than many larger crowds I've seen at the JAR. Maybe it had something to do with the type of fans who came vs. the ones who stayed home. Maybe it also had something to do with not having the band playing so loudly all the time and no gimmicky contests being held on the court. Everyone who just wanted to see pure basketball without all the frills was free to make as much noise as they wanted whenever they wanted without interruption. What a novel idea.

The inside game can open up the outside game and vice versa. I don't think it really matters which one is established first as long as one gets established to help open up the other. Against NIU Big Dog missed the Zips' first shot of the game inside and Antino missed the second shot, a 3-pointer. The third shot was a 3 made by Antino, followed by a pair of missed 3s by Kwan and Nyles. Kwan was fouled on an inside shot and made 1-2 free throws, then Antino hit a 2-point jump shot and Jake nailed a 3. So the Zips scored 9 points before NIU scored, attempting 5 treys (hitting 2) and 3 2-pointers (hitting 1-2 and going 1-2 on free throws for a shooting foul). All of the above began to open up both the inside and outside games as Zips scoring after those first 9 points went 3, layup, 3, layup, layup, 3, 3, 3, layup, 3, etc. When you get both the inside and outside games going while playing good defense, good results follow.

The MAC rightfully wants to be represented in the NCAA tournament by its best and strongest team that is most likely to have success. One way to do that is to give a tournament advantage to the top four regular season teams who've proven themselves over an 18-game conference schedule. This helps reduce chances of a weaker team getting hot and pulling off a MAC tournament upset. The current system assures that a team outside the top four regular season teams has to do more to prove itself worthy. Winning five games in six days and upsetting two of the top four seeds in the semifinal and final is a good way to prove a team is worthy to represent the MAC in the NCAA tournament. Yes, it does create a big gap between the #4 and #5 seeds. But no tournament system is without its faults. If there were any other system in place, we'd just be questioning its faults instead.

So you don't see what others see?