Dave in Green

I've always been envious of people with the special power of being able to read other people's minds. I've watched hundreds of coaches being interviewed over the last half century, and I haven't been able to read the mind of a single one to the point of being confident that they are "comfortable" with losing. Extraordinary! Two mind readers in a single thread! Over the last half century I've seen many players transfer out of winning programs, so I'd have never guessed that one transferring out of a losing program "obviously" did it because he felt the program is a mess.Now that I know that there are so many forum members on ZN.O with the ability to read other people's minds, I'm going to be extra careful about what I'm thinking. So sarcastic one, how many athletes have you seen transfer out after 4 games into their true freshman season when they aren't redshirting? I am not expecting an answer or at least not an honest one. Read my mind.

I've always been envious of people with the special power of being able to read other people's minds. I've watched hundreds of coaches being interviewed over the last half century, and I haven't been able to read the mind of a single one to the point of being confident that they are "comfortable" with losing. Extraordinary! Two mind readers in a single thread! Over the last half century I've seen many players transfer out of winning programs, so I'd have never guessed that one transferring out of a losing program "obviously" did it because he felt the program is a mess. Now that I know that there are so many forum members on ZN.O with the ability to read other people's minds, I'm going to be extra careful about what I'm thinking.

Many thanks for starting and maintaining these annual recruiting threads. It seems to me that 2012 is the class where the Zips need to bring in their next center to play a season behind Zeke before he graduates. Skilled true centers are hard to come by at any level. There are NBA teams that don't have highly skilled true centers, let alone college teams at the MAC level. So while I'd like to think the Zips might find another Zeke out there, there's a good chance they may have to rely on one of their power forwards in the middle after Zeke graduates.

Interesting that this formula ranks the MAC 7th best out of the 25 "lesser" conferences. It appears that the Zips will trail only Can't among MAC teams when the countdown to #1 is finished. Though being 2nd to Can't in anything is an ugly thought, it does represent a big leap up from where this formula would have ranked the Zips in the years prior to KD's arrival. The next step up requires knocking Can't off the top of the MAC heap.

The seating layout of Mackey Arena shows how a circular design can have the front few rows modified to keep the midcourt premium seating close to the court. Having every seat facing the exact center of the court is definitely a nice feature of a circular design. Having straight rows of seats along the sides of the court and semi-circular seating at each end would also be an improvement over a purely rectangular seating arrangement, as would a properly shaped oval.

http://www.thetaphouseakron.com/ He's a businessman who needs to eat and pay the bills. Few Zips show up for the shows. He's a Zip fan. What would you have the guy do? Poor guy. I'd recommend that he go for the bucks to feed his starving family if painting his restaurant silver and red makes the difference between survival and going out of business. I'd further recommend that UA look for another location for the show that's not so desperate to stay in business that it has to resort to overtly disrespecting the Zips in their own backyard by tarting up the establishment in the colors of a distant rival.

Reading down near the end of the Blanton comments made by the Gannon hoops editor, another familiar name appears: * The info related to Blanton's high school days that really jumped out to me were the statements made by his former assistant coach at Euclid when talking about a current EHS player. Tedd Kwasniak, who won back-to-back state championships as the head coach at Villa Angela-St. Joseph in 1994 and 1995, is an assistant at Euclid. Talking about Demetrius Treadwell, Kwasniak "brought up names such as former NBA player Ruben Patterson, current New Orleans Hornet forward James Posey, former VASJ standout Jerome Davis, former St. Joe's and Ohio State standout Treg Lee, and former All-Ohioan Darrell Blanton - a Euclid grad." If Blanton and Treadwell are similar in talent, and Blanton is 6-3 and Treadwell 6-9, I'm pleased that the Zips ended up with the much taller of the two.

Obviously just about any modern basketball facility design would be superior to the JAR. While I like the circular design for general sight lines, I would not want to pay the premium for front row center seats that are that far back from the court. In any case, the seating is not in a perfect circle. The sections at the four corners appear to have their front two rows removed to clear the corners of the court. I'd like to view other designs to see if this can be done even better by further combining circular and oval elements.

Pretty sure it's this Charles Thomas: Wikipedia Link Northwood University Link

Question answered.

It's pretty logical that if you have a lot of really good players you can go straight at another team and dare them to try to stop you. If your players are not so talented, you can magnify their abilities with well-planned and executed deception. The NIU offense last night was a good example. I think someone on this forum predicted that NIU was a running team, and all the Zips had to do was stop the run. But their first three offensive plays were passes, and they just rolled right down the field against a Zips offense that appeared to be expecting the run. The NIU QB was a real magician. People seated around me kept remarking about how they couldn't keep track of who had the ball in the NIU backfield, and they kept following the wrong guy. Their QB made all kinds of spins and fakes before handing off, passing or running the ball himself. He was totally unpredictable, and the Zips defense appeared baffled. By contrast, there was never any doubt which player had the ball when the Zips offense was on the field. The Zips offense looked slow and predictable from way up in the grandstands, and it must have looked the same to the NIU defenders on the field.

The dead silence here long after the latest Zips debacle is pretty telling. Those of us who had some hope left for this season had to face reality tonight. Any glimmer of improvement we may have seen in the last couple of losses was pretty much extinguished in the rain tonight. The Zips really showed me nothing at all in their first MAC game, and that leads me to believe that it's probably not going to get much better this season. About the only thing left to pray for is that the Zips might be slightly better than a couple of other MAC teams, and escape a winless season alone in the MAC cellar. But after what I sat through the rain tonight to witness, I now reluctantly have to admit that 0-12 is a distinct possibility.

As much as I enjoy Ray Ratto's sports columns, J.A. Adande at ESPN absolutely nailed the big picture on this issue: Adande Column

Make it 80. I just dug out a 30-year-old Goodyear poncho that's never been worn, and am ready to sit through the all-game drizzle that's about to start falling.

One of my favorite sports columnists, Ray Ratto, gives the best perspective I've seen yet on the most recent remarks: Ratto Column

I'd like to know if there will be any practices open to fans. I'd like to see some of the new players in action.

Records are wonderful consolation prizes, and beating OSU in any sport is always a big treat for Zips fans. But winning the National Championship is the big prize. The Zips have proven several times already this season that they can dominate top 5 teams. The fact that they were tied by a team that's barely in the top 20 is painful to Zips fans, especially when it's the team from Columbus. But it's not critical to winning the National Championship. I can't wait to see how they bounce back from this, and how strongly they peak at the end of the season.

That's a badly written story, and here's why. The direct question was: Do you think there's a role that race plays in this? LeBron's direct answer was: I think so at times. It's always, you know, a race factor. Carter's direct answer was: It definitely played a role in some of the stuff coming out of the media, things that were written, for sure. The writer rightfully agrees that race does play some role in the thinking of some people in these types of situations. Anyone who argues against that point is fooling themselves. The writer then concludes: Which isn't to say there aren't some people relying on the basest stereotypes to fuel their hatred of LeBron James. But chalking it all up to that, instead anything he might have done to provoke censure, is just going to make him more hated. More proof that LeBron James just doesn't get it. But by their own quoted words, neither LeBron nor Carter were "chalking it all up to that (race)." LeBron, Carter and the writer all stated that race played some role with some people. The writer flat misrepresented what they said even though their direct quotes are there for all to see that they did not say what the writer said they did. There's nothing else they said in the rest of the interview to lead to the writer's conclusion, either, according to the full transcript: Full Transcript I by no means believe that LeBron and his entourage are saints. I agree with some of the criticisms about some of the things that they've done. But I disagree with twisting quotes to make it appear that someone intended to say something that is clearly not represented in their own words.

There's no question in my find that the Zips have been improving. The only question is whether they are improving at a faster or slower rate than the remaining teams on their schedule. That will ultimately determine how well they do against NIU and the rest of the MAC teams on the schedule.

I'm surprised that one of the PN7 bashers hasn't twisted that into something like "he's such a poor passer that even the defensive backs can't catch his throws." But seriously, averaging .25 interceptions and .25 lost fumbles per game after 4 games is more than good. If we're going to criticize the Zips for the things they've been doing wrong -- and there's plenty to talk about there -- we should also acknowledge what they're doing right. I certainly understand pointing out the lack of fumbles, interceptions, and penalties as some bits of good news in an otherwise awful start to the season. Agreed. And better yet, NO interceptions in our three games against I-A opponents. But, I have a much harder time trying to understand your point that the lack of interceptions is a result of us "doing something right". As our resident stats man, don't you find it to be more of a statistical oddity that NONE of them were intercepted when you have one of the nation's worst passing effeciently ratings, and over 60% of the passes thrown in those 3 games were errant, thrown into coverage, deflected off of receivers hands, etc? I'm thinking that "bashing" pretty much comes with the territory if you're a fan of any sports team that's performed to that level of futility. Absolutely. In sports, bashing pretty much comes with the territory even with above average players and teams. In the most virulent bashing, anything that goes wrong is due to poor playing and coaching and anything that goes right must be dumb luck. Let's say it has been pure luck that PN7 has not had more passes intercepted. Let's say that he's such a poor QB that his interception statistics should be as poor as the rest of his statistics and those of his receivers. Statistically speaking, that should even out over the course of the season and PN7's career at UA, and we should see the number of interceptions rise to an obviously poor level. It's certainly unrealistic to think the Zips will maintain a .25 interceptions lost per game average, as that is beyond the abilities of most high level BCS teams. But if they consistently maintain a reasonably low interception level over the course of this season and the next couple of years, at some point you'd think some of the less virulent bashers might grudgingly admit that some aspects of the Zips game are not as bad as others. This applies to the fumbles lost stats, as well. We'll see how the numbers average out over time.

Ever hear the old saying about moving the goal posts?

The Bobkitties of Ohio U respectfully disagree after beating UK in 2004 in Kentucky, 28-16.

I'm surprised that one of the PN7 bashers hasn't twisted that into something like "he's such a poor passer that even the defensive backs can't catch his throws." But seriously, averaging .25 interceptions and .25 lost fumbles per game after 4 games is more than good. If we're going to criticize the Zips for the things they've been doing wrong -- and there's plenty to talk about there -- we should also acknowledge what they're doing right.

UA is only "overscheduled" for the team as it currently exists, not for the team Zips fans aspire to have. How many teams have successfully pulled themselves up by the bootstraps from doormats to powers by underscheduling? Would UA football fans really show up in greater numbers to watch the Zips beat no-name cupcakes than at least try to compete with bigger-name programs? It seems to me that UA is making many of the right moves to become a football power, even if only a mid-major power. The facilities are all now first class. The effort was made to bring in a quality coaching staff, regardless of whether or not all fans believe it was the right choice. The current OOC schedule also fits a plan to move up. But without well-coached, talented players executing as a team to the best of their abilities, the whole thing becomes a house of cards that falls apart in the winds blown from the mouths of disgruntled fans. If only the transformation from doormat to power were as easy as flipping the imaginary switch on the wall that some disgruntled fans envision in their dreams. I honestly don't know the level of commitment at UA to improve the football program, or how far they're willing to go to make it happen. It may be that in their heart of hearts the powers at UA would be satisfied to have the football program rise to the level of slightly above average. Maybe their priorities are to make UA a leader in other areas, and not overobsess over football. If so, then the football forum on ZN.O is never going to be a happy place to visit. On the other hand, if the powers at UA are making a sincere effort to raise the level of football, the path will be full of ups and downs, and the football forum on ZN.O will be a heck of a roller coaster ride.

That about summarizes it for me.