Dave in Green

Come on, you guys know the drill. In the MAC, OOC games don't really count. In the MAC, conference record doesn't really count. In the MAC, it doesn't really matter what any team should do in any given game. In the MAC, it only matters what a team does in the MAC tournament. We're all in the MAC, so we all live by MAC rules. To discuss other scenarios is pure wishful thinking. Doesn't mean we have to like it. But that's our reality.

Lordy, how I love RPI. So William & Mary is now up from #7 in the country to #2. Well, here's what I think of RPI. If William & Mary is the second best team in the country, then Harvard is #1 because they beat William & Mary. What an amazing country we live in!I love the conversation here. But any time RPI is introduced in a thread, it makes me want to dance and sing and throw my keyboard and mouse high in the air that a saying I learned in school a half century ago is still valid:There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

I recognize some of the wording in that scouting report, so I assume the person who put it together did a search and copy and pasted from a variety of sources, from Wikipedia to ZN. It takes a lot of time to do one of those research projects, but it doesn't really require a lot of thought or creativity. I've noticed from visiting forums for other schools that this is not an uncommon practice.

Thanks. It's really good to know how RPI is calculated. That helps explain why William & Mary was ranked 7th in RPI after losing to Harvard while North Carolina and Michgan State were way down in 53rd and 56th.If anyone cares about RPI or any other rating system, it pays to know the rules of the system and how to play the rules to your advantage. It sounds like the best way to build RPI is to schedule a lot of road games against beatable teams that happen to have winning records.

This was an especially good win for the Zips because it showed they are ahead of where they were last year at this time. They built a small lead in the first half only to have Wyoming outplay them and take a similar lead midway through the second half. That was the point where we would have expected the Zips to fall apart last year. But this year's team appears to be more poised in pressure situations. They responded by outplaying Wyoming over the last 10 minutes, and pulled away over the last 5 minutes. It's the kind of game that builds confidence among the players that they can overcome adversity.We can pick out areas of weakness, such as continuing mediocre free throw shooting, too many turnovers and being outscored in the paint and having to rely too much on a high 3-point shooting percentage. But the important thing is that the Zips found a way to come from behind in the second half against a decent team on a tough road trip. This is not a one-dimensional team. If they're off in some areas, they have the ability to compensate in other areas. That's what it takes to be a consistently winning team.

I'll take whatever works. Last year worked for the Zips, so I'll take that again. One year it didn't work for the Zips, and it was such a sensational story that it got the Zips a full page story in the New York Times. How many Midwest college basketball teams have gotten a full page of coverage in the New York Times?It was a classic man-bites-dog story that happens about as often as one person being struck twice by lightning. Anyone who spends the rest of their life in fear that a man is going to bite their dog or of being struck twice by lightning is going to lead a pretty dismal existence for no good reason.The Zips do need to improve their strength of schedule somewhat in order to rise to the next level. Part of that is just having better luck in having the stronger programs they do play be higher rated in the years they play the Zips instead of down years where the team is weaker than its 10- or 20-year average (see Valpo). I don't see any need for a drastic change. If you play a weaker schedule, focus on winning more games and not getting upset by teams you're supposed to beat. Just make the most of what you've got instead of always wishing for something else.

Economics 101 says someone has to pay the bills. So how about dumping all the sponsors and charging more for tickets? No one would object to higher-priced tickets in order to remove the commercial names and return to the purity of the past, would they?

As discussed in another thread, RPI numbers are not worth mentioning unless you believe that William & Mary is the 7th best team in the country after losing to Harvard while North Carolina and Michigan State are respectively ranked 53rd and 56th.

Really, I didn't see much significantly different there in the evaluation of the Zips performance than has been expressed at times right here on this forum. If we based our evaluation of the Zips only on one of their earlier games, we all might have a more negative opinion of how good they really are.But judging the Zips on their early games is deceptive, as they have really come together recently. The front line, especially Conyers and B McKnight, have given the Zips a whole new dimension over the past few games. Right now, there is a really nice balance between the frontcourt and backcourt players. Either can carry the team at any given time, but neither really has to carry the other.Zeke is not a "project" in the sense of a big guy with minimal coordination and little grasp of the basics. But he is a true freshman with lots of room for growth. I like the way KD is rationing his minutes, as it will be important to have him peaking at the end of the season and not wilting from the fatigue of his first long college season.

Nitro is in exactly the same position this year that Conyers was in for the past three years. Conyers was backup for the team's most consistent player, Nate Linhart, who averaged more minutes last year than any other player. That does not leave much time for the backup to establish confidence in his game. Conyers never adjusted to playing short minutes behind Linhart, and has only blossomed this year with Linhart's departure.Nitro may or may not be able to adjust to playing with both poise and intensity in brief bursts off the bench. He's unlikely to get many minutes as long as Conyers makes it so tough for KD to pull him off the floor. But even if Nitro spends most of his time on the bench this year, he'll have his chance to pull a Conyers over the next two seasons and become a major force for the Zips. He certainly has the physical ability to be the next Linhart/Conyers-type.

I really like this sequence of Valpo at home, Wyoming on the road and Rhode Island at home. Although the Wyoming team is no powerhouse, they are strong enough to give the Zips a tough game on their home court with the altitude and time zone challenges. Overall, this game should be tougher than Valpo, and help prepare the Zips for probably their second toughest game of the year (after Texas A&M) against Rhode Island.

UA did not schedule Valpo. This was the obligatory return match for last year's BracketBuster game, where there is no choice of opponent.Having said that, Valpo is a good example of the type of program UA should try to schedule. They are generally recognized in college basketball as a quality program with a quality coach. Homer Drew is currently 7th among active D1 coaches in career victories. Starting in 1995 Valpo had a run of 7 NCAA tournament appearances in 9 years. Even though last year was their worst overall record in 20 years, they are still averaging about 20 wins per season over the past 2 decades. They play a much tougher schedule than the Zips, including playing the #1 team in the country for the last 5 years in a row.UA needs to schedule a good mix of weaker teams, some of comparable quality to the Zips and some that are stronger. Valpo has consistently been stronger than the Zips for most of the past 20 years, and only in the last few years has slipped a little. Scheduling a winning program is no guarantee that the program won't be having a down year when the scheduled game is played.

I see in the current RPI that William & Mary, which lost to Harvard, is currently rated #7 in the country, while Michigan State is currently ranked #59.So please excuse me if I don't pay much attention to UA's current RPI rating, or the RPI system in general.

UA vs. Valpo is the FanMatch game of the day on the Pomeroy Ratings site, though not a particularly high CPHE factor (chance of pleasurable hoops experience) compared with top rated games on other days. Interesting read on what FanMatch is all about:Pomeroy Site Link

I agree with your "optimized" scheduling. Only problem is, this is what every team wants. It could be tough scheduling weaker teams early and increasingly stronger teams later, as that would be the optimal schedule for all teams. Bottom line is that the Zips current scheduling is pretty decent for where they've been, but should become increasingly tougher overall as a proof point for the higher level they are trying to achieve. It's a delicate balancing act that is guaranteed not to please all of the fans all of the time.

Selecting the strongest programs off of the 1986-87 schedule and comparing them against the weakest programs on the current schedule is guaranteed to produce skewed results, just as the results could be skewed the opposite way.For example, another selective comparison would be that Pitt was the only "big name" school on the 1986-87 schedule while this year's schedule features at least two in North Carolina State and Texas A&M.But the only way to reach a fair and accurate conclusion would be to compare all of the teams and rate them on overall program strength in the context of their respective eras. A truly objective comparison would require a lot of historical research.

No joke, most of those games are better than what we play today.Please go through those teams again, one at a time, slowly, give it some more thought, and report back.

Prior to the start of the game, Nitro was draining 3 after 3 with an effortless stroke, and I thought he might light up UIC. In the game, it looked like he tightened up. I'm beginning to wonder if he and Conyers don't have something in common.KD had been enthusiastic about Nitro's performance in practices prior to the start of the season. But he seems to be playing nervous and almost anticipating that he's going to get quickly pulled off the floor in games, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.Like Conyers, Nitro has the athletic ability to be a big contributor to the Zips. I just hope he finds himself before his senior year.

Bingo. As much as I don't like that other nearby school, it was great to know that a MAC school was fully capable of beating some of the big boys on a regular basis.KD has taken the Zips part way up the ladder. A few more rungs up and the Zips could duplicate our neighbor's past success.Zeke doesn't need the weight of the whole Zips program on his shoulders. But the plain fact is that if the Zips can't climb up a few more rungs during his four years at UA, everyone is going to be sorely disappointed.

Thanks for the reality check on attendance, CK.

Zips fans totally underestimated Valpo last year. Is this deja vu all over again?"Fairly tough schedule" is putting it mildly. Four of Valpo's losses this season have been to top 25 teams -- North Carolina, Michigan State, Purdue and Butler. They will play the Zips tough, and the Zips will need to bring their A game to win.

Now that the Zips are starting to gel as a team, the depth will become more and more of a plus. As all of us who follow the Zips on a regular basis know, each of the players has different strengths and weaknesses, and they mesh together in different ways. This will make each of the players more or less effective against different teams depending on the matchups. I can see the balance of minutes played changing from game to game depending on the matchups or who happens to be hot in a particular game.But the key point is that the Zips do not have any significant fall off in overall effectiveness with any of the 10 players who get the most minutes. Some combinations of Zips players will be more effective against certain teams than others. But I don't think the Zips will fall apart no matter which five are on the floor.The Zips are far from unbeatable. But I think the depth and variety of talent on the team has to create increased stomach acid for opposing coaches trying to develop a game plan to counter the Zips.

That was a scary moment when the UIC player fell across Zeke's leg. I was really holding my breath. It was one of those awkward tangles like you see in football games that often result in leg injuries. It was a huge relief when Zeke was able to shake it off and run upcourt. But even if there was no injury, I can imagine there will be a lot of soreness in that leg.Overall, the Zips continue to look better as a team. They still have a way to go, but their unselfish teamwork is starting to pay off. While they were a little sloppy early on, they protected the ball pretty well when it mattered. Although their outside shooting wasn't bad, it was the inside passing and points in the paint that were most important. They will need this more and more to win games as the season goes on, because the outside shot won't always be there.

Thanks for the clarification of your intent. One of the hazards of language is that the intent of words can be interpreted many different ways. I hope you can understand how easy it would be to misinterpret your original wording in a negative way.In an area where civil, friendly discussion is the norm, people generally assume the best about a statement that could be taken either positively or negatively. Where there is much hostility in discussion, people generally assume the worst.In a mixed environment such as ZN, where civil, friendly discussion is mixed with hostile challenges and blunt rudeness, asking for clarification can often be the best way to avoid misunderstandings.

Notre Dame and Columbus State obviously didn't think St. Francis was unworthy to schedule this year.