Dave in Green

Let's not sugar coat it...we get enough of that on this portion of the board. Saying he is "moving on" is like saying someone who gets fired is "let go" as if it is voluntary. This guy got KDs boot and is out the door. I don't have a problem with that, but let's call it what it is. Why do you act as if you "know" that when we all know that you don't?

You found a link to his old freshman bio on the UMBC site, when he was listed at 220. The sports websites mostly have him at 230. But the latest, official UMBC bio shows 235. Sounds like a Charles Barkley type who's still growing -- a wide body who's not too tall for his weight, but can still elevate.

I believe the reason why Gilliam was the "odd-man-out" at UMBC is because he was the only talented player left. UMBC was actually pretty good the previous two seasons, and qualified for the NCAA tournament in 2008. But they lost all their best players to graduation, and Gilliam was the best of what was left even though only a sophomore. I suspect the reason he's transferring is because he has higher aspirations than the mediocrity to which the UMBC program fell with only one quality player.

ESPN, CBS Sports and Sports Illustrated all list Gilliam at 230 pounds, so it may be that the 220 was when he was still growing: ESPN Link CBS Sports Link SI Link Found an interesting quote from CapitolHoops.com from before Gilliam's college days: Chauncey Gilliam a 6'4" SG / Unsigned Senior was without a doubt one of the most athletic players in the Charlie Weber Invitational hands down. With his 44 inch vertical leap , he is a human highlight machine in the making. CapitolHoops.com Link We've had previous discussions about vertical leap and know that the numbers are sometimes exaggerated. But it looks from the multiple YouTube videos that he can easily play above the rim. There is no question that KD is starting to bring in a different type of player, and the days of fans griping that the Zips don't have the same level of athleticism as some of the teams they go up against may be coming to an end. Finally, judging by this post from a "Curtis Gilliam" who identifies himself as Chancey's dad on an America East Conference forum, he is apparently a good kid with a good academic history and good family ties, which indicates that KD does not have to compromise those qualities to get more athletic players: BasketballForum.com Link

The Zips' average team height sure is growing quickly. One thing I hadn't previously noticed about Gilliam is his weight -- 235 pounds. I'm guessing that may make him the heaviest guard the Zips have ever had. He's a little taller and a little heavier than Can't guard Chris Singletary, who was always a challenge for the Zips to match up with. Hopefully Gilliam will develop into a player who can perform at Singletary's level, minus the thugishness. If Gilliam plays good D, he won't have to be a big scorer to make an important contribution to the team. There aren't many 6-5, 235-pound guards at any level who shoot 80+ percent from the free throw line. So he's an intriguing prospect, for sure. I see that EA refers to Gilliam as a forward even though he's always been listed as a guard, just like Diggs. With all of the forwards the Zips are adding to the roster, I don't see how some of them don't end up at SG at some point. McNees and Roberts should be rock solid in their senior seasons. Hitchens' departure on top of the loss of Steward and Sullivan definitely opens up a huge opportunity for Nitro to step up at the SG position this coming season. Hopefully he'll channel the spirit of Jimmy Conyers and make the most of this unexpected opportunity in a backcourt that unexpectedly lost a lot of depth.

Not being a dittohead by nature, I'd like to find at least a small point to disagree with here. But I really can't. I saw the regular season, tournament, and that one ugly post-season game about the same. So I'll leave it to others to offer counterpoints to your conclusions. Overall, I have a bittersweet taste about the season, which was a reversal of the previous one -- a little better overall record during the regular season, and a little worse record during the tournament and post-season. What happened to those Zips that played Gonzaga even for 75% of a tournament game? I thought these Zips would be capable of more. In retrospect, I think there may have been a chemistry problem. The pieces all seemed to be a little better, but they didn't mesh quite as well. The unexpected number of transfers may be a sign that all was not well in the Zips family. Of course, we fans also had higher expectations this season, and they will be even higher next season with an experienced Zeke, plus a good mix of steady veterans and intriguing newcomers. I think that many of us will find every season bittersweet until the Zips take the next step of beating a highly ranked team during the regular season and winning a first round NCAA tournament game, not to mention thrashing Can't. The curse of a team getting better is that we don't want the improvement to ever stop. We want more, more, more every single season. Reality is that all teams have up years and down years, and the down years are more painful when we expect more than if we've completely written off the team as total losers and have low expectations.

Correct hyphenation can make a significant difference in meaning. One of the warnings below is more appropriate for the beach, and the other for a seafood restaurant: Look out for the man eating shark. Look out for the man-eating shark. The rule is to use a hyphen with compound adjectives, which are formed when two or more adjectives work together to modify the same noun.

Lol... zeitgeist. The movie laughed at and ignored by scholars, experts, or anyone with a high school education for that matter, but loved by morons on the internet. Anyone who allows their worldview to be changed by such ignorant babble is worse than the 6,000 year old earth people. The internet has everything man has to offer, from the very the best to the very worst. But, just as in real life, there's disagreement on which is which. When I was a kid, back in the good old days long before the internet, I read a book about flying saucers being real. I really believed that book, and wondered why the government was trying so hard to cover it all up. As I got older and learned more, I first began doubting the flying saucer book and ultimately rejected it. What it taught me is that it's possible for someone with good persuasive powers to convince a fair amount of people -- especially those who are skeptical of everything in the mainstream -- that almost any kind of alternative reality is real. To avoid being caught up in every phony flying saucer scam requires eternal vigilance. Of course, the same applies to the occasional real flying saucer-type reality that is being covered up for various reasons. It can and does occasionally really happen. But it's rare, and it requires a fair amount of research and intelligent discrimination to pick the rare tiny jewel from the mountain of trash.

Good catch. Assuming the 3 verbals for 2011 stay committed, there's still room for a 4th scholarship in 2011. Any new scholarship for 2010 would take further movement from current players. The more you look into these rumors, the more you find there's more talk than action. But some of the talk does eventually turn into action. The trick is in predicting exactly which talk will turn into action.

Wow. I never imagined the writers for Saturday Night Live would take the time to post parody on ZN.O. I'm actually impressed with the professionalism of some of the creative lunacy posted here.

I'm thinking that all those 40 grades in 2008 translate to "we really don't rate players beneath a certain point, so we just assign an arbitrary 40 to those dudes." In any case, all of the ratings are basically "we think we know about where the dude is now compared to his peers, and here's where we think he might be headed if he works hard and continues developing." Some work out about right, some fall short, and some overachieve. Among the many thousands of question marks are a few "can't misses" -- the LeBron category (had he elected to attend college). Zeke is a classic example of someone who's hard to predict. He started playing basketball late in his youth. He had a huge growth spurt that left him much, much taller than average, and he's still getting used to what he can do with that lllllooooonnnnnngggggg body. If he really wants to play basketball beyond college and really works at it, he could possibly become a solid NBA player. If he loves his computers more than basketball, he might still be a good college player, and then move into the computer business and leave basketball behind. Nobody really knows for sure on more than 99% of these players.

This is one of the oldest stories in the world, and an easy mark for any journalist. Most people want to make big money, yet begrudge the fact that other people already do. It's so, so easy for a reporter to get people to comment that most of those who make more money than they do really don't deserve it. Another twist would be to interview people about whether or not the OSU football coach should be making so much more money than the OSU president. OSU football fans would mostly say yes, while non-fans would mostly say no. Ask a reporter if they believe the president of the corporation that owns the reporter's news service deserves the big bucks they make, and guess what the response would be -- off the record, of course.

Don't forget Bill's advanced video taping and advanced radio frequency skills, which played 98.2 percent more than any statistical study in his formula for "winning" It would help me not to forget if you featured that well-researched statistic in your signature line.

Trying to understand the nuances of how the intelligent analysis of statistics can lead to more informed opinions is not for the feint of heart. It's hard enough to get past the apparent conundrum of the winning coach Bill Belichick saying "stats are for losers" while simultaneously being a leader among NFL coaches in the use of advanced statistical analysis.

So more than 70 percent of people voted that Rob would be here for 6 years or more. That seems to be a pretty nice welcome?!?! Well yeah but half of Zips fans think he'll be fired, and he hasn't even coached one game! (Statistics provide us with such clear and undeniable conclusions, Dave is so right!!!! ) Half of the equation is getting the right numbers. The other half is interpreting the significance of those digits completely and accurately. For example, if someone holds up a single finger -- say their middle finger -- and you interpret that as nothing more than the number 1, you may be missing the full significance of that particular digit.

Anyone who watched the Cavs-Celts game last night got to witness what a difference a great ball distributor can make at PG. Rajon Rondo was a magician at getting the ball to the open man in scoring position, and the Celts made the Cavs defense look like swiss cheese. If the Zips had a ball distributor with a fraction of Rondo's talent, they would be knocking off some of the stronger teams they've been losing to.

Akron and UA were mentioned again during last night's Cavs-Celtics game on TNT. How often are Akron and UA referenced in such a positive light on any national TV broadcast?

This is very good thinking on your part. I focus on threads involving club baseball and gun shooting myself and I believe over 90% of the board only reads the basketball threads. The good news, however, is that the other 90% only read football threads. I tried to verify your numbers, but ran out of fingers and toes.

No problem at all. I didn't take your remark as a zinger. But I know there are others on this forum who nodded and said "amen" when they read your comment. Hey, I understand we're all different. Some people don't want to read about stats on ZN.O, and others don't want to read about politics, religion, and the mating habits of dinosaurs. But it's all here -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. Getting everyone to agree on which is which is the hard part.

Excellent research! I understand how time-consuming it can be to put together something like this, and really appreciate you sharing. I never thought it would be as easy to find quality teams for the Zips to play home-and-home series with as some others seem to think. But I'm as surprised as you are at how really few meet all the criteria. You never know for sure until you do the math.

Does Can't still have two scholarships left?

I thought it was mandatory that all tattoos be stupid. In any case, the world's greatest basketball player having "chosen one" tattooed on his back is still more humble to me than, for example, someone with minimal life accomplishments noisily self-proclaiming their own greatness. There are plenty of examples of trash-talking self-promoters like that on radio, TV, and posting on forums across the internet trying to tear other people down to build themselves up. On the humble scale, some of those folks make LeBron look like Mother Teresa, tattoo or not.

As most everyone around here knows, LeBron did accept his first MVP award last year at St. V-M.

The focus is always going to be on LeBron no matter what he does. That the biggest star in professional basketball elects to share the focus with his home town, the high school he attended and the university he supports is pretty unique. I have a relative from New York who visited Akron last weekend. He's absolutely certain that LeBron will end up in New York, because the Big Apple is where all the greatest people want to be. What LeBron is doing today is just another in a long line of examples of actions that separate him from other superstars. LeBron is a humble man, which is alien to the New York thought process, so they have trouble understanding how he ticks. It's easy to understand why some people will never get it.

When you go out at night, is it difficult to find another T-Rex to mate with? While I understand that you have an obsessive fixation on the mating habits of various people and animals, and while I do appreciate you appropriately associating me with the top of the food chain, your personal interpretation of what group I belong to may not have a solid connection with reality.