Dave in Green

BJ is also hurt and sitting out warmups. The formerly deep Zips are down to 8 scholarship players tonight.

Nice D to hold sweaters to 17. Pat is limping pretty bad. It would be a surprise to see him back tonight. Kwan has to fill the gap, and has made some nice moves.

With 20 minutes to tipoff, Millett is rocking with a good 200 fans here. That's two hundred. Seriously. We counted.

You don't have to root for Can't. Just root for what's best for the Zips.

On our way to Oxford. All rain and no ice. Will give a Millett Hall report.

That fits in with the research I did when Dr. Scarborough was first mentioned as a candidate. He took heat from the academic community at both DePaul and Toledo while delivering good results on the financial side. It's the eternal battle between academics and economics in higher education. Ideally you'd hope that he's become wiser with age and experience and has learned that a good balance between the two is what a university president is responsible for delivering.

Zach, it would be interesting to know exactly why they didn't like Dr. Scarborough and the administrators he's brought over from UT. Generally speaking, academic-oriented people don't care much for financial guys, who tend to ask hard questions about how money is being spent. It takes a good balance of academic guys and financial guys to make a university run efficiently and effectively, and the tension between the two can create animosity about things that really needed to be done one way or another.

Here's the exact timeline: UT and the Medical University of Ohio merged in 2006 while Dr. Scarborough was still at DePaul University. Dr. Scarborough was hired by UT in 2007 as Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration / CFO for both UT and the UT Medical Center. In 2010 he was given the added responsibility of Executive Director of the UTMC and was responsible for the overall management and operations of the UTMC’s hospitals and outpatient clinics. So he certainly has experience with both the academic and medical communities, primarily from the financial aspect.

Skip, the reason I called the Wikipedia list partial despite its large size is because I didn't seen Akron or a few other schools I know have had name changes over the years on the list. You know, when you think about the way words and phrases are being shortened these days, it makes longer formal names like The University of Akron seem kind of clunky. The "The" and "of" just take up space. Using "The" at the start of a company name like The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is straight out of the early 1900s. Can you imagine The Microsoft Company, The Apple Company or The Amazon Company? Akron University, or Akron U, does make a lot more sense in the less formal modern world, especially for those who do a lot of texting or tweeting. I have no inside information that Akron University is one of the new name candidates, but I wouldn't be surprised if it made the long list. As I said earlier, a name study may end up showing that The University of Akron makes more sense than any of the alternatives. Really, any name change would be the final step in whatever structural change might take place. If there are no major changes in structure or philosophy at UA, there might be no need to consider a name change, and clear benefits would need to be shown in any case..

Sit back with a 6-pack handy and scroll through this partial list as you work your way through the bottles or cans: List of university and college name changes in the United States

While there's no scenario that would get the Zips into the top 4, they would most certainly make the top 25 playoff rankings if they beat every team on their schedule including Oklahoma and Pitt. Marshall had no signature wins last season on the level of an Oklahoma, so the Zips would likely be ranked higher than Marshall was last season. But it's all in our wildest dreams.

Cocooning: It's back and thanks to tech, it's bigger

Since we're just daydreaming here, 13-0 with wins over Oklahoma and Pitt would get the Zips solidly into the top 25.

You really have to dig deep to find info on Isaiah. That figures as Rick Bolus ranks him as the "second sleeper" or #26 in his mid-season rankings for Ohio HS juniors after not including him in the Bolus preseason rankings. The Zips coaching staff has proven pretty good in recent years at finding sleepers on the rise who are flying under the radar of the bigger programs. Various sources list Isaiah as 6-5, 6-6 and 6-7, which isn't all that unusual for growing HS juniors. The only weight I've found for him is 225 pounds, which indicates he won't have to go on a high-calorie diet to get up to a good college playing weight. He's also variously listed as a small forward and power forward. He sounds a lot like BJ in terms of his build and his college potential to play the 3 and 4 depending on his height, weight and strength a year and a half from now and the Zips' needs. Not a lot of video on Isaiah, but in this short game highlights #15 in white grabs a rebound and throws a nice court-length pass to a teammate for a layup, makes a nice spinning jumper, and grabs another rebound and makes another quick outlet pass to a teammate for another layup. He looks pretty solid for a HS junior in this brief footage.

An otherwise tepid Miami team had a brief, late-season, 4-game MAC win streak, beating OU, BGSU, Zips and Can't. Sweaters beat BGSU and the Zips back-to-back on the road, a pretty impressive feat. But the Zips should take heart from the fact that the Sweaters were just beaten at home by the same BGSU team MU had beaten on the road. At the JAR against MU, the Zips didn't handle the pressure defense well in regulation and then played even worse in OT after Noah left the game. The Zips now have some experience with Antino running the show as well as experience dealing with MU's pressure D. Expect different looks in this game, better execution and an underdog Zips team acting like junkyard dogs in pursuit of that elusive top 4 MAC tournament seed.

I have some questions: Does anyone really know what actual student attendance was back in the '70s and '80s? Did they keep actual counts that we can reference? When they say a student attendance record was set nowadays, how far back are they measuring against? How much of the student fee in the '70s and '80s was devoted to athletics? Was it comparable to the current ~$800 in constant dollars? Was it roughly the same percentage of total student costs to attend? Did they even make that information public back in the good old days? Does anyone really know what kind of promotions are being used to attract students to athletic events at other schools? For example there are 347 D-I basketball programs scattered around the country, and I know of no source that tracks all their individual game promotions for students, let alone measure their effectiveness.

One of the interesting things about this forum is that we have a lot of age diversity, which leads to a lot of different perspectives. Many of the older fans may have a better sense of historical perspective while many of the younger fans may have a better sense of what it's like for today's students. Considering all the different perspectives usually produces a more realistic picture than that of any individual, so I hope that everyone keeps sharing their thoughts.

Oddly enough, Louisiana Polytechnic Institute changed its name to Louisiana Tech University while I was working on my degree there. At the time, LPI was a smaller fish in Louisiana than UA is in Ohio today. Dr. F. Jay Taylor was the forward-thinking president at the time who wanted to grow the little polytechnic school into a major university and gain more respect. After studying the academic landscape of the time, Dr. Taylor instituted many changes that started advancing the school forward. Today the former little polytechnic institute is the only school in the nine-member University of Louisiana System ranked as a Tier One national university in the U.S. News & World Report college rankings, surpassing many of the Louisiana schools it previously trailed. Changing the name from LPI to LTU was the smallest of the changes but the most immediately obvious and emotionally wrenching for some.

My understanding is that Dr. Scarborough is having every aspect of UA reevaluated as most new CEOs in most businesses do, especially in times of a changing business (higher education) and economic climate. This includes basics down to the very name of the school. It doesn't mean that everything will be changed, but just those things that make sense to change to better position the school for the foreseeable future. It's possible that UA could be realigned in a way that a different name might make more sense in describing what the school will be focusing on in the future, which may be different from the past. Look at the bright side. A lot of talk about a new name might help educate Joe Akron into no longer referring to "Akron U."

Let's look at the team-by-team scenarios for a Zips top 4 MAC tournament seed. The Zips are 9-7 and must beat both Miami and Can't on the road to finish 11-7, which will be the minimum record required to earn a top 4 seed. Beyond having to win their last two games, the Zips only control their own destiny with Can't. There are various combinations of results in the last two games that could end up benefiting the Zips. Here's what the Zips need each of the other top teams to do assuming the Zips finish 11-7: Can't (10-6) can finish no better than 11-7 and Zips own tiebreaker. Can't can also help Zips by beating BGSU on the road Tuesday. WMU (9-7) can finish no better than 11-7 and Zips own tiebreaker. WMU can also help Zips by beating CMU at home Friday. BGSU (11-5) would finish 11-7 and lose tiebreaker to Zips if they lose at home to Can't Tuesday and at UB Friday. BGSU can also help Zips by beating UB. UB (10-6) would finish 11-7 and lose tiebreaker to Zips if they lose at home either Tuesday to OU or Friday to BGSU. UB can also help Zips by beating BGSU. CMU (11-5) would finish 11-7 and lose tiebreaker to Zips if they lose both at home Tuesday to UT and at WMU Friday. CMU cannot help Zips by beating either UT or WMU. UT (11-5) would finish 11-7 but own tiebreaker over Zips if they lose both Tuesday at CMU and Friday at EMU. UT can also help Zips by beating CMU. Did I miss anything?

Late night typo corrected to 11-5 UT @ 11-5 CMU. Pretty important game as the Zips could still tie CMU in the final standings for a top 4 MAC tournament seed, and the Zips own the tiebreaker with CMU, which closes out the regular season with a tough game at WMU.

Just did a little research and discovered that the secondary tiebreaker beyond head-to-head competition is each team's record against the top seed and runs down the list until one team shows an advantage. Since Buffalo is winless against Toledo and CMU, the Zips currently own the tiebreaker against UB. This is pretty big, as the Zips also own the tiebreaker against CMU, BGSU and WMU, and will own the tiebreaker against Can't if they win that game, which they're going to have to do to get a top 4 seed anyway.

CMU falls back into the pack thanks to another NIU upset, and the Zips still have a pulse for a top 4 seed.. Zips 70, OU 59 NIU 73, CMU 55 UB 71, Can't 65 BGSU 62, MU 57 UT 70, BSU 59 WMU 80, EMU 72 MAC STANDINGS 11-5 - CMU * 11-5 - UT 11-5 - BGSU * 10-6 - Can't ** 10-6 - UB * 9-7 - Zips 9-7 - WMU * 7-9 - MU 6-10 - EMU 6-10 - NIU 4-12 - OU 2-14 - BSU * Zips definitely own tiebreaker ** Zips definitely own tiebreaker with win in upcoming game TUESDAY MATCHUPS: 9-7 Zips @ 7-9 MU 11-5 UT @ 11-5 CMU 10-6 Can't @ 11-5 BGSU 4-12 OU @ 10-6 UB 9-7 WMU @ 6-10 NIU 6-10 EMU @ 2-14 BSU

CMU loss was huge. NIU was their easiest remaining game.

Toledo (11-5) has beaten Ball State, so the best the Zips can do now is tie them at 11-7, and UT owns the tie-breaker. Buffalo (10-6) has beaten Can't (10-6), 71-65, which is an OK result as they're both now just one game ahead of the Zips. And NIU is surprisingly stomping CMU at halftime, 33-20, which is good for the Zips. So the situation is still fluid.