Dave in Green

Some interesting back and forth about Euton on the Blue Grass Rivals board -- the usual mix of positives and trashings. The most interesting part is how Euton matched up head-to-head with the highly rated Jared Sullinger in an AAU game during the King James Classic.Blue Grass Rivals Link

I've always had an aversion to bigots.

Rosa Parks became active in the civil rights movement 12 years before the famous bus incident, and was an active member of both the NAACP and Voters League. I'm sure that she was worn out after a hard day of work, as most working people are. But if she ever said that the only reason that she didn't give up her seat on that bus was because she was too tired to walk to the back of the bus, I'm sure she said it with a wink and a nod. Those who really knew her have said over the years that she had a wonderful sense of humor, and fought the civil rights battles with grace and dignity.I was wondering how long it would take for someone to call Rosa a liar.As I'm sure everyone reading this thread understands, I did not nor would not call Rosa Parks a liar. Your last statement is a poor reflection on you.This is how she responded to the question in one interview:How did you feel when you were asked to give up your seat? I didn't feel very good about being told to stand up and not have a seat. I felt I had a right to stay where I was. That was why I told the driver I was not going to stand. I believed that he would arrest me. I did it because I wanted this particular driver to know that we were being treated unfairly as individuals and as a people. Rosa Parks Quote Link

All JD has to do is convince UA that he can get the Zips to play like they did today on a regular basis. Like so many others, I left the stadium this evening feeling really good.

The Zips did a great job of blocking for Nicely, and when Can't was able to get through, Nicely did a great job of evading them.

Rosa Parks became active in the civil rights movement 12 years before the famous bus incident, and was an active member of both the NAACP and Voters League. I'm sure that she was worn out after a hard day of work, as most working people are. But if she ever said that the only reason that she didn't give up her seat on that bus was because she was too tired to walk to the back of the bus, I'm sure she said it with a wink and a nod. Those who really knew her have said over the years that she had a wonderful sense of humor, and fought the civil rights battles with grace and dignity.

As good as JB was for UA, I personally doubt his departure was the deciding factor in Adreian Payne selecting Michigan State over UA. Without taking anything away from JB, I think KD was and still is the deal closer for UA recruits.UA is now at least on the radar for higher potential recruits. But the Zips are still at a disadvantage with the very top recruits against teams that are regularly in national championship conversations such as Michigan State, North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, etc.Signing Zeke was a huge step forward, and signing a player the following year who was previously committed to Kentucky should not be taken lightly, even if Euton's stock has fallen a bit for the highest level schools. I think he's still another step forward for the Zips on the long road up from also-ran in the MAC to a potential future national power.

I've probably already borrowed a few of your comments without thinking, so by all means feel free to borrow the rare intelligent remark I might make.

As stated earlier, Dakotah seems like a perfect fit for KD's system, and I was hoping he arrived at the same conclusion during his visit. From reading this story, apparently that's exactly what happened. I have a good feeling that he will be a big contributor to the Zips future success.

How can you even compare Gonzaga to Akron. That is like comparing apples to apple sauce. Gonzaga is constantly in the top 20 year in and year out. They have a name that recruits will play for, They go to Maui just about every other year which is a huge recruiting tool. Numerous NBA players. What has Akron done? I love Akron, but we need to start being a little more realistic here. This is not fantasy land, no matter how much we want it to be. If Gonzaga supporters read this stuff they probably would not respond, because it is like the nerdy kid in school who has a patch on one eye of his glasses, who eats his boogers saying that he is going to beat up the football captain. Its a pipe dream.Please read my post again a little more slowly, and try not to misinterpret it so grossly.

I just took a time out to study a little history on this subject. As near as I can tell, there's a long history of civil discussion on ZN about potential sites for a new arena. The nature of that discussion appeared to change at the point that a new forum member accused older forum members of being "dishonest" and "trollish." From that point on, the general level of civility on this subject has remained beneath former ZN standards.

Isn't it interesting that the national sports writers are generally ranking the Zips + Zeke so high and one of the local sports writers is so tepid?I admire EA for continuing to state his honest opinion, as the easy route for a local sportswriter would be to simply feed the "extremely high expectations" of local fans. It's certainly not popular for a local sportswriter to be so pessimistic, as evidenced by the backlash right here on ZN. Like everyone else here, I look forward to EA being proven wrong.If the Zips + Zeke perform at a high level and do better than EA predicts, I fully expect him to admit in print that he was wrong and give credit where credit is due.

Everyone's holding their breath .....

The team that scores the most points always wins. The team that plays the best overall game usually scores the most points, but not always.Home field advantage is a statistical reality, and it's partially based on fan support. In a close game, it can make a difference.

I'd argue that a one-sport rivalry is not a true collegiate rivalry. Sure, one sport may have more national significance than another at any given time. But that can change from football to basketball to baseball to soccer, etc. I think a true collegiate rivalry is one that's always there to varying degrees in all sports, no matter how high or low the teams may be ranked nationally.I think a rivalry that's only based on national rankings is a false rivalry. It's just about beating another highly ranked team to improve your own position. A true collegiate rivalry between two schools is much more emotional than that. Winning or losing an intense rivalry game can make or break a season, regardless of how good or bad the rest of the season may go.If you don't feel it in your heart and in your guts, it probably doesn't make much sense to you. But that's the way it is.

Here's my personal theory on guards: Point guards are generally at their best when they're thinking and shooting guards are generally at their best when they're not.To expand on that, PGs are the team QBs. They are primarily responsible for seeing everything on the floor and getting everyone involved in the offense. They also have to shoot at the appropriate time. But getting assists is more important for a PG than scoring points.SG's are primarily responsible for scoring points. Shooting the ball should not require much thought for someone with a good stroke and rhythm. Thinking too much about something that should come automatically is a hindrance. You see it a lot when a streak shooter loses confidence and hesitates or alters his motion.These are all generalities. There are some PGs who can score in bunches, and some SGs who are as good as PGs at finding and feeding the open man.But what happens when you ask a guard who's primarily a shooter to run the point? He has to think a lot more, and I think that can have a negative effect on his shooting. Again, this is a generality. But I think we saw this happen with Dials as his shooting percentage went down when he moved from SG to PG, and I think the same thing has happened with McNees.I still believe that McNees has the potential to shoot the lights out if he wasn't forced to think about running the team. Make him a pure SG with no point responsibilities, and let him focus on getting open and pulling the trigger.

Lots of good thoughts there, skip-zip. We had some good discussions about Hitchens last season, and I look forward to more as this season unfolds. He made some freshman mistakes that made us all cringe. But he steadily improved as the season went on, and his performance at the end of the season on a bad ankle was really inspiring. If the ankle sprain never happened, there's no telling what might have happened in the Gonzaga game, where McNees unfortunately went cold after being such a big factor in winning the MAC tournament.Hitchens is a risk taker, and taking risks can have both positive and negative consequences, so he will continue to make some mistakes this season. But I fully expect him to continue to cut down on the mistakes, keep growing as an all-around PG and allow the Zips combo and shooting guards to focus more on what they do best. Having Hitchens and Steward share the point might be the best situation. But with Steward out again, we are fortunate indeed to have players like McNees and Roberts who can step forward and do a nice job of playing the point.Along with a deep bench, the overall flexibility of the players to fill in at multiple positions is a big strength of this Zips team.

Wow, that was fast. Thanks, UAzipsMan. Looks like I'm with the majority at pretty strong. I think basketball is intense right now and football less so. But rivalry can ebb and flow in different sports depending on many variables. The key point is that true college rivalries are always there to at least some degree in one or more sports with a fair number of people (more than 10). I suppose a rivalry could disappear completely for lack of interest, but I'm not aware of any in particular that have in college football.

The last new comment I saw about a week ago on a KY forum was that since Euton had said that he and his parents would be making a decision in the “coming weeks,” and since the fall signing period for basketball is Nov. 11-18, maybe that's when we should look for the decision to become public.

I never realized coaching was so easy. Just look down the bench, pick the 11 biggest guys and send 'em out on the field. Forget about speed. Forget about skills. Size rules. Recruiting should focus on the local obesity clinics.

Maybe someone who's into creating polls would want to whip one up on the UA-Can't rivalry with something like 5 options:How strong do you think the UA-Can't rivalry is today?IntensePretty strongModerateWeakVirtually non-existent

Really, you're wrong, and as usual your response was self-righteous and sanctimonious. How about a couple more uses of the word "really" while you're at it? A rivalry isn't any kind of a rivalry until more than 10 or so of the fans from each side care about said rivalry. I'll say it one more time for those of you who clearly missed my point. The supposed UA/Can't State rivalry is a joke. Nobody beyond about ten posters here give a rat's behind about this "rivalry", and this "rivalry" is part and parcel of what has kept UA football small time in the minds of fans everywhere. A rivalry with a school that has won nothing in, well, forever. There's a winner for you....not. You can have your silly little "rivalry" game that nobody cares about, and I'll continue to root for better.Let's see how this grand "rivalry" game draws this weekend. It's a huge rivalry right? How many fans do you suppose will show up for this grand "rivalry"? 12K? 15K?I think I get it now. The /Vent Mode Off/ at the end of the first post was a bit deceptive. Seems this whole thread is full /Vent Mode On/. Vents should not to be confused with invitations for discussion.On the other hand, vents do have a lot in common with sports rivalries -- the emotionalism, the exaggeration, the taunts, the insults. This thread has many of the same qualities I've witnessed at UA-Can't games over the years.Interesting juxtaposition.

A debate about rivalries on a sports forum? Really?Rivalries do not require explanation or defense. They exist because a large number of people want them to exist and believe they do exist. They do not need to be rationalized because they are not always rational. But sports are not entirely rational, either. They feed on the emotional energy of fans (fanatics).Seriously questioning rivalries on a sports forum borders on trolling. Really.

Hey, believe whatever you want, regardless of empirical data. That's what many people on sports forums do, so no embarassment there. I like to try to rely on the best available factual data. Fact is, Gonzaga had the 5th toughest non-conference SOS last season, so they're obviously not trying to duck tough competition.It's always fair to quibble with whether a sports team was somewhat overrated or underrated in a particular poll, because all polls involve some degree of subjectiveness. But dissing a team that was universally highly rated in all polls reflects more on the disser than the dissee. ;)EDIT: By the way, you said "Whenever they play a Top 20 team, they get beaten badly." The results in the link you provided showed that prior to the NCAA tournament they beat No. 12 Tennessee 83-74, lost to No. 2 Connecticut 88-83, beat No. 18 St. Mary's 69-62 and lost to No. 15 Memphis 68-50. So they beat two top 20 teams, lost to one by a small margin and were beaten badly by only one.Do you really want to be taken seriously here?