Dave in Green

OU earned this win the hard way by outplaying a Zips team that played their hearts out and came up just short. I hope the Bobcats represent the MAC well in what will certainly be a tough matchup against a high seed.

The officiating in the Zips' first game was horrible. But the officiating both yesterday and today was OK. There were a couple of calls against the Zips tonight that I really didn't like. But I also thought the Zips got a couple of good calls that could have easily gone the other way. I appreciate that both yesterday and today the refs did not call many cheap touch fouls, and kept the game under control without handcuffing the players.

I'm with you 100%. After driving back and forth to the Q for three days, I thought I was going to be angry and depressed if the Zips lost tonight. But they played their hearts out and almost came up with yet another miracle finish.Numbness is a great description. I do feel numb. I also feel sad for the players that their season is ended after they tried so hard to make it two straight trips to the NCAA tournament. They came so darn close, and I'm so darn proud of them for never giving up. They were just outplayed tonight by the smallest of margins. A different bounce of the ball on a single possession could have produced a different result.Kudos to KD for getting his team to the MAC championship game for four straight years. How many other coaches have ever achieved that in the MAC?I'm already looking forward to next season.

I would pull for any team representing the MAC in any tournament. It's not about the team. It's about getting more respect for the MAC, which would translate into more respect for the Zips.

Of course we're all more interested in seeing UA grow stronger than in just being even with a traditionally great team having a down season. UA is about where it always is at this time of the year with KD at the helm -- not great but not bad. Still, it's an interesting point to note that the consistently great UNC program, with access to the best recruits in the nation and coached by the great Roy Williams, can fall so far as to be about even with a UA team that does not have stud athletes and is not coached by an elite coach.

Might as well savor a moment that Zips fans normally only can dream of.At this very moment in the continual shuffling of RPI numbers, the University of Akron Zips are ranked #89 and the University of North Carolina Tar Heels #90.RPI at StatSheet.com

It really felt good to see him hugging his dad after the game. Great family.

Not much to add to the great analysis, except to reinforce the warning not to overlook the Bobkitties' sleeper -- Tommy Freeman. How good is this skinny 6-5 forward who rarely gets noticed or mentioned?He's only the #3 D1 player in the country in effective field goal percentage (69.1%).He's only the #7 D1 player in the country in 3-point field goal percentage (46.9%).He's only the #11 D1 player in the country in clutch Roland rating.And he's only the #40 D1 player in the country in overall offensive rating.He's not an all-conference player. But he's very, very good at certain aspects of the game.Tommy Freeman on StatSheet.com

So, do you have any advice for Nik and Humpty on how to maintain their composure?

Didn't we just have this discussion about Hitchens? Emotional players have their good and bad nights, just like streak shooters. When they keep their emotions focused on basketball fundamentals, they can have a great game. When they're distracted, their emotions can get them in trouble and hurt the team. Humpty did a good job of channeling his emotions into good plays last night and Nik did not. KD obviously realized that Nik was having a bad night and kept him sitting a lot. That gave more PT to the guy who ended up winning it for the Zips -- C. McKnight.Once again, KD's philosophy of playing deep into the bench and riding whoever is hot in a particular game paid off. Who knows who it will be next time?

I agree that Nitro did a good job on Kool while relieving Conyers. Neither player was perfect in guarding Kool, but who could be? WMU constantly ran picks and anything else they could do to shake Conyers or Nitro off of Kool to get a mismatch defender on him. At some points there are situations where the defenders have to switch off or they lose Kool completely. Zeke even ended up on Kool a couple of times, and did a pretty decent job of staying with him despite Kool's advantage in quickness.There's a limit to how tightly you can guard Kool without setting off a chorus of MAC ref whistles. I thought the refs let Kool get away with a few things. But overall the game was called better than any of the other games I've seen at the Q this tournament. The refs only called a few minor touch fouls, and were generally fair and balanced. So it was a great game to watch, even if it was too close to allow Zips fans any time to relax.

Had to leave the Q after the first half of this game. It was too painful watching Charlie Coles suffer through this debacle. If you ever think you suffered watching the Zips play an especially bad half of basketball, you cannot imagine how everything went so terribly wrong for Miami.With 2 minutes left in the first half, Miami had 7 points and 9 fouls. I have never seen anything like that in my life, not even close.I think the Zips would have matched up better against Miami than Ohio. But there are no choices here. You get whoever wins.Ohio will be a challenge for the Zips, even if they weren't spectacular tonight. The Zips will need to play defense at the same level Miami was playing, which was pretty good. But the Zips cannot afford to have an off shooting night as Miami did. The Bobkitty guards are really good, and the team plays the kind of swarming defense that gives the Zips problems. The Zips will need to bring their best game to the Q.

Cooper and Bassett are very polite. They take turns having good games.

The camera angle looks like a good view of what the AK Rowdies will be seeing.I'm pretty sure that's Henniger down in the lower right corner wishing he could get up that high.

And as we're discussing this, OSU hits a desperation 3-point shot as the game clock runs out to squeak by Michigan 69-68 and avoid a loss that could well have made them a 3 seed.

WMU playing time is a great point. Four of WMU's five starters had 39, 37, 37 and 34 minutes of PT yesterday.

Excellent analysis, Quickzips. Slightly more fatigue than normal may be a minor problem for some of the players. But this is exactly the situation where KD's strategy of playing deep into the bench really pays off.I think that fatigue would be a bigger factor if the Zips were coming back in tonight's game against a Buffalo or Ohio type team that pushes the ball harder. WMU's pace should be a little less stressful for the Zips.Here are the minutes played by the Zips when they beat WMU in Kalamazoo:CVETINOVIC, Nikola 19McKNIGHT, Chris 18CONYERS, Jimmy 23McNEES, Steve 27HITCHENS, Anthony 26STEWARD, Ronnie 8McCLANAHAN, Brett 15ROBERTS, Darryl 22McKNIGHT, Brett 19MARSHALL, Zeke 12BARDO, Mike 11Looking back at this game reminds me that it was Nitro's best game of the season (9 points, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 foul, 0 turnovers), so I would expect to see more minutes out of him tonight.This also reminds me that the Zips could have used some quality minutes from Bardo yesterday. The Zips may be missing his front line muscle more than some of his detractors might imagine.

The one thing I dread about this game is a repeat of the calls Kool got in the second half from the refs yesterday. As far as the refs were concerned, Kool walked on water, and woe to any defensive player who created so much as a ripple anywhere near him. Add that to the way the refs reacted any time a Zips defender got close to an EMU player yesterday, and there is some really ugly potential here. The Zips will have to be very smart and very careful tonight.

All 14 seeds are huge underdogs to all 3 seeds. If the Zips get into the NCAA tournament, I'd rather see them be a huge underdog to OSU than to another power team from half a continent away.Everyone in Ohio would expect OSU to destroy the Zips, so any decent showing would help earn some respect in their home state. Imagine if the Zips could play OSU as close as they played Gonzaga last season for 30 minutes with all of Ohio closely watching. Now that would create a buzz.Too many variables to think this matchup has much of a chance of happening. But it could if the Zips avoid being upset in the MAC tournament and OSU slips in the Big 10 tournament.

Some players are mostly cool, calm and collected, and some are driven by emotion. The emotional ones are susceptible to getting out of control. But they're also capable of rising to the occasion and inspiring their teammates to do extraordinary things when an ordinary performance might result in defeat.Every team needs well-grounded anchors and emotional spark plugs. Humpty and Nik are the Zips' emotional spark plugs. It's only when they occasionally go over the edge that their emotional reaction to a situation may hurt the team more than it helps.On balance, the positive energy Humpty and Nik bring to the Zips far outweighs their occasional outbursts. They are both good, clean players who play with so much passion that they exhaust themselves while on the floor. They will both mature and get better at channeling their emotional energy more into improved play and less into the occasional outbursts.Not only do I hope they never completely lose their edginess, I'm looking forward to seeing how another edgy player fits into the mix next season when Josh Egner arrives.

Just did a little stat research on McNees at the Q to see how well he shoots 3s when an NCAA tournament bid is on the line.In 187 minutes of PT in 8 MAC tournament games over the past 3 years, McNees has attempted 26 3-pointers and made 16 for a 3-point shooting percentage of:61.5%

I'm so glad I stayed at the Q for this game. It was almost as much fun as watching the Zips come from behind to beat EMU. OU played an incredibly good game. Their backcourt is outrageously good. Cooper was a little off tonight, but Bassett was in another dimension.

Zeke really looked like a complete player tonight. He's not yet a dominant force, but he's getting there.

I had the distinct pleasure of running into Steve McNees at a concession window at the Q after the Can't game, and got to shake the hand that fired The Shot. All I could keep saying to Steve and Nik and Nitro, who were all standing there smiling, was, "I love watching you guys play. I love watching you guys play." Nik said with a big smile, "Be here tomorrow night."

I was at the Q, and left my voice there. I could not yell loud enough to express my displeasure at the refs. There were bad calls both ways, but more against the Zips. If Coach Ramsey objectively reviews video of the game and is honest with himself, I don't think he can say that the refs cost his team the game. EMU would have lost in regulation if the refs hadn't tried to foul out every forward on the Zips' roster.