Dave in Green

Careful, Hilltopper. You never know when someone might spill the beans on your shady background. ;)If anyone reading this is looking for a career, journalism is a great profession. If I had it all to do over again, I might have stayed in journalism and skipped the corporate communications. My fondest memories are of the good old days of investigative reporting, digging up facts on a homicide or high-profile court case and trying to write it up in a clear, concise manner.There's still good journalism in the world, but you have to search for it. The best true journalism fairly presents both sides of the story and allows the readers (or viewers) to make their own conclusions. Much of what passes for journalism today is what used to be considered nothing more than partisan propaganda.Anyway, I'm happy to be retired now and have the time to dig up info on fun things like sports. If I find interesting data, as I did on Euton, I'll post it here for the benefit of those who don't have the time to do all the digging.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "majority lead," but the play-by-play of the Zips-Zags game (link below) shows that the Zips were never more than 4 points behind until 8:15 was left in the game.The Zips led the Zags from 6:40 remaining in the first half to 13:15 remaining in the second half, or 13:25, and a couple of times after that, as well.In the 10 minutes between 16:54 remaining in the first half and 6:40 remaining in the first half, the Zips pulled ahead of the Zags 6 different times.Only in the last 9 minutes of the game did the Zags clearly outplay the Zips. For the other 31 minutes, the Zips were either leading, tied, or within 4 points.Zips-Zags Play-By-Play

It doesn't bother me what one outstanding shooter may do against the Zips in a given game as long as the Zips defense holds the opposing team to fewer points than the Zips score. What would have bothered me is if the Zips had collapsed on Pool all night and held him to 10 points, but in doing so made it too easy for other WMU players to score, and lost the game.The most important thing about team sports such as basketball is overall team results, not individual stats. The Zips won because they played good overall offense and defense as a team. The Zips could have won at Buffalo if the team had played as they did against WMU.

I really don't see this as a dead horse discussion. From what's been said here, it appears as if the Zips are not far away from having a schedule strength that would be at least satisfactory to the large majority of fans.A too weak schedule doesn't help toughen up the team for conference play, and a too strong schedule can demoralize the team with too many big losses. A good balance of weak, moderate and strong opponents that will please everyone is elusive, as can be seen in discussions on college sports forums across the country.I can see the sweet spot changing if KD keeps getting better recruits. For example, it makes sense to at least slightly increase the difficulty of the Zips schedule in each of Zeke's 4 seasons. By his junior and senior years, Zeke should be capable of leading the team to a major upset or two, which would in turn help in recruiting even better players to the program.At this point it appears that most of us would be satisfied if just 2 or 3 of the weaker opponents typically found on recent Zips season schedules could be replaced by stronger ones. Upgrading 3 opponents represents changing only about 10% of the Zips annual schedule, so we're not talking massive changes here.

Outstanding team effort with lots of good individual performances, and 10 players getting double digit minutes of playing time. Solid defense all the way. Good field and free throw shooting makes up for below average rebounding. Individual props to Nitro for his best game yet -- 3 of 5 from the field, including a couple of 3s, and 2 assists in 15 minutes of steady play.We need all of you guys to win, and you all delivered as a team tonight.

With 0:58 to go, 73-63. This will be a huge, huge road win against a strong WMU team.

With 1:54, 71-61. Other than too many missed free throws in crunch time, the Zips are playing exactly as they need to play at both ends of the floor.

The key is for the Zips to remain aggressive on the offensive end, which they are. I like the way the Zips are playing tonight.

With 11.5 minutes left, Zips ahead 50-40. Fouls are evening out a little. Zips are playing good D, and not falling apart on the offensive end. Good consistency. This is exactly the kind of play it will take to win the regular season championship.

Funny how Google takes us to the same places. ;)I'm sure that every coach has slight variations on common offensive and defensive schemes. The same coach may even use variations on a theme depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the individual players from season to season. So it may be rare to see a pure textbook example of any offense or defense.

Reading the following about Temple, the 3-out 2-in motion does seem to fit the Zips offensive style of play, and also fits KD's self description as "old school." It brings back memories of how the Zips worked the ball with Jeremiah Wood, and thoughts of how well this might work in the future with Zeke:The Owls use an old school 3-out 2-in motion offense and work the ball inside and out. They try to get their bigs scores down low, and when they start drawing help, they skip it for open 3-pointers.With the 3-out 2-in, usually the emphasis is on pounding the ball down low. And the Owls do that. But when you're best scorers are your guards, you must get them the ball in a position to score, the Owls do that by drawing help in the post and skipping it for open 3-pointers, where their great scorers do most of their damage.Temple Offense Link

Thanks for the update. So in the first full round of conference play, home teams win 24 of 30, or 80%.The average home winning percentage I've seen posted for major men's college basketball is 66%. So it appears as if the MAC is way above (or below) average in this stat.

Texas A&M did not have a winning season for an entire decade from 1994-2004. Niagara has been a little more consistent in recent years, but just 4 years ago they were 11-18. All teams have their up and down periods. Only a few programs produce consistent winners year after year after year. It's not easy to schedule a major power on short notice. Often the commitments are made several years in advance, and there's no guarantee that the team you schedule a few years in advance won't be in a down year when you play them.

Euton is an interesting case. He developed early, and people thought he'd keep growing both physically and in skills. I think that's how he ended up on the radar of Kentucky, Florida and other majors. But he stopped at 6-8 instead of growing to 7-0, so he couldn't be the big center most college teams covet, and never really had the dazzling athleticism of most superstar forwards. That's when the big programs lost interest.What he appears to have is a combination of decent size, strong fundamentals and a desire to play above his pure athletic abilities. That's a really good combination. I have a feeling that he will become a major contributor in the Zips program -- if we're lucky, perhaps a more talented version of Nate Linhart with even better shooting and rebounding skills, but similar desire.You never really know for sure how these things will work out. But from all I've read about Euton, I'm optimistic that he will be an excellent fit with the Zips.

According to that report, home teams have won 24 of the first 31 conference games. The math is a little fuzzy, as there have only been 30 conference games. In any case, that seems like a high percentage even by MAC standards.

Sorry, I've followed basketball pretty closely for more than half a century, but have paid little attention to labels on various offensive and defensive schemes.If someone wants to take time to filter through the various offenses at the link below, the Zips offense is probably in there somewhere:Basketball Offenses

Pomeroy currently rates the MAC right square in the middle -- 16th of 33 conferences:Pomeroy Conference Rating Link

Benefit of the doubt: To believe something good about someone, rather than something bad, when you have the possibility of doing either. I have to admit that there are some people who post on ZN who I have trouble bringing myself to give the benefit of the doubt.But Coach Ianello? No problem at all. The more I read about his background, the more impressed I become that he has the potential to develop into the kind of head coach that could never have been lured to UA if he had already proven that head coaching potential at another school.It's also possible that he might be a total failure as a head coach. But I like the upside odds better than the downside.

They shouldn't have to "grow", as you mentioned they already did last season! They dont have their heads in the game...it's very apparent.Maybe I wasn't clear. By "grow" I meant improve in all areas, including focus and consistency. No individual and no team is good enough that they should ever give up on trying to improve. Continuous improvement is a key factor in separating winners from losers in sports, business and life in general. If I thought the Zips coaching staff and players didn't believe in continuous improvement, I'd throw away my season tickets and look for another team to follow.I have no connection to UA or its sports teams. I wasn't born and raised in the Akron area, and I didn't attend UA. My interest in the UA basketball team is purely based on my lifelong appreciation for basketball and the fact that I now live in the Akron area. If the UA coaching staff and players were a bunch of losers, I'd have no interest in watching them.

Kool represents more than 28% of WMU's offense, so the Zips defense on their big shooter will need to be better than what we saw in the Buffalo game. Kool is tall enough (6-3) to shoot over Hitchens or Roberts. McNees is a decent defender, but probably not enough to stop Kool. Conyers would be a good defensive matchup against Kool, but moving Conyers away from the basket would weaken the Zips front court defense and rebounding.This could be an ideal matchup for Nitro. He's supposed to be a good backcourt defender, and he even has a little size on Kool. Will Nitro get extra minutes in this game to dog Kool and prove his value to the team?

The problem with having Linhart playing this year would be that he'd be on the floor for more than 30 minutes a game, which means that Conyers would be on the floor less than 10 minutes a game.To me, Conyers is exerting every bit as much will this season going after all those rebounds, scoring those points and shutting down opposing players as Linhart did last season.

Good points, Skip. The Zips are a mid-major team in basketball and a major team in every way in soccer. It's a monumental task to develop a national championship caliber program in any college sport. But it's relatively easier for a school like UA to develop a national championship caliber team in what is generally considered one of the minor American collegiate sports than one of the majors such as football or basketball. This comparison should in no way be interpreted as diminishing the accomplishments of the Zips soccer team, but simply calls out the reality of the collegiate sports pecking order in America today.As much as we're disappointed with the Zips basketball team for not consistently playing up to their full capabilities, at least there is progress over last season's team. After the first round of the MAC East last year, the Zips were 2-3 in conference play and 10-8 overall. This year's team has as much potential to grow from this point in the season as last year's team did at the same point.

Yep, diversity is good. I learn from other people all the time. So I hope that no one ever feels discouraged from posting their honest opinions. But we always have to remember that the way we state our opinions reveals as much about ourselves as it does about the object of our opinions.Two extreme opposite reaction examples to adversity would be a] posting thoughtful suggestions about what a sports team might do in a similar future situation to produce a better outcome, or b] posting the equivalent of screaming and pounding on the floor like a 2-year-old throwing a tantrum.While everyone may be tempted at times to vent opinions that are closer to b], more people will be more receptive to those that are closer to a].

No passionate Zips fan feels good about what happened in the Can't game. But there are different kinds of passionate fans. Some are more negative and some are more positive. Crapping all over your team every time they play crappy is not the definition of passion. It's the definition of negativity.Positive fans don't like losing any more than negative fans. They just don't pile on when it's obvious that the coaches and players are already well aware that they didn't play up to their full abilities as a team, and that they let down all of their fans along with themselves.Adversity is an inevitable part of life. It's how we respond to adversity that defines us. I like the way the Zips responded to adversity at the end of last season when everything was on the line, and know they're capable of doing it again this season. That's what really matters to me.

For the Zips to be an NCAA tourney team, they have to win the MAC tourney, just like last year, weak schedule and all.