Dave in Green

Someone mentioned in the NIU thread that the referee named Crawford was making especially bad calls against the Zips. I got his full name (Eugene Crawford Jr.) from the box score and did a search. That's when I came upon http://www.StatSheet.com . Wow! What a wealth of information on sports.If you click on College Basketball, then Referees, then enter the name of the ref in the search, you can find out a lot about how each ref calls games. There are two refs listed with the same name -- Eugene Crawford Jr. One has done a lot of major games -- Big Ten, ACC, etc. Unfortunately, the one we drew was only officiating his 3rd game of the season, and this is his first season officiating college level games. It was the first college conference game he ever officiated! Here's the link directly to Mr. Crawford: http://statsheet.com/mcb/referees/2-eugene-crawford-jr-So everyone feel free to bookmark this site as a future reference to check out the records of the refs who often make the difference between winning and losing.

I said just before tipoff that it was about time for Humpty to have a special game. For most of the game he did a nice job of protecting the ball, but nothing really special. C. McKnight, however, was just everywhere -- battling for rebounds, stifling on defense, hitting a fair number of key shots and drawing lots of fouls. He is becoming the heart of the team, and just needs to spend a little more time practicing those free throws, as he is going to be drawing a lot of fouls with his work in the paint.In the last few minutes, when Zips fans are often filled with dread that the team will be tentative and make poor choices at the offensive end, Humpty just took over and had his special game. Interestingly, McNees in recent games had been playing the point a lot in crunch time, and had been doing a better job of protecting the ball. But he apparently had the flu, and with his minutes limited, Humpty got his chance to show that he can be the man when the game is on the line. This was an important statement in an important game by a player whose performance over the remainder of the season will play a major role in how far the Zips can go.The refs, who called a fair and balanced first half, did a reversal in the second half and kept the game close. They kept whistling the Zips for everything at the defensive end, which would have ordinarily caused me to cringe. But I kept saying over and over that as long as the Zips executed at the offensive end, they'd be fine. They executed beautifully, and left me feeling more optimistic about them than I have all season.While McClanahan had an off shooting night, I thought his defense and teamwork were good. I am just really comfortable with his overall play, even though he is still due for some rookie mistakes based on his late season redshirt burning. And I'm becoming more and more comfortable with Cvetinovic. We all knew his energy would be good for the team, and game by game he continues to improve his ratio of good moves to bad ones. He gives the Zips a front court dimension they didn't have at the start of the season.I've defended Bardo's performance in the past because I think he tries hard and may be playing close to the limits of his abilities. But one thing I can't defend is taking and missing 3-foot dink shots when you could have jammed. The coaching staff owes it to the team to make Bardo practice slams every day, and instruct him to never, ever throw the ball at the basket from 3 feet away. He just doesn't have a shooter's touch. But when you're 6-10 and 3 feet from the basket, you don't need a shooter's touch. Just jam the snot out of it, bring the crowd to its feet and energize the whole team. That's not grandstanding. That's taking the higher percentage shot.Individual performances aside, it was a great team win against a tough opponent. Keep 'em coming!

The survey was only of MAC West coaches. Apparently Akron and Miami made a bigger impression on them over the last six games. I wonder what the MAC East coaches think?

Sure, Can't has a chance to be the hot team at tournament time. So do quite a few other teams that are bouncing up and down the MAC power ranking charts like yo-yos. There is no single powerhouse in the MAC right now. Whichever team peaks at the right time, and perhaps gets a few lucky breaks, is going to win the tournament. It could come down to a 3-point bank shot with less than a second left .....Meanwhile, Rasor has come up with a unique way to predict MAC tournament seedings:http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/zips/2009/02/p...nament-seeding/

I don't think anyone on this forum disagrees with the fact that the only way the Zips can make the NCAA tournament is to win the MAC tournament, and that no result is more important than that. Of course winning any game is always preferable to losing. But beating Valpo must not become a distraction to the main focus of winning the MAC tournament. This is also the Zips only remaining game whose outcome will not have a direct effect on their MAC tournament chances. For example, it's not a game in which you want to have any key players on the court for long minutes, which could take away from their performance in the next MAC game.What this game does offer is an opportunity to try some things that the Zips might not want to risk for the first time in conference play. So I think we may see something a little different from the Zips in the Valpo game than what we might expect in a conference game.

A cupcake on steroids.

After their destruction at the hands of Valpo, Loyola-Chicago bounced back today to beat the #15 team in the country, Butler, 71-67.

I just did a little research and came up with the following on NCAA Medical Hardship Waiver Bylaw 14.2.4 as it applies to team (not individual) sports:* A student-athlete must participate in no more than 30 percent of the team's regular season games in order to guarantee an extra year of athletic eligibility.* A similar request is to waive the five-year period of eligibility and extend a sixth year. This requires two out of five years of circumstances beyond the control of the student-athlete. An incapacitating medical circumstance would be one example of a qualifying condition. A voluntary redshirt year would not.Steward competed in only 6 of the Zips 31 regular season games, which is less than 20%, so he easily qualifies on this point.On the second point, as long as he has documented medical reasons for missing both this and last season, he should qualify for a sixth year of eligibility. But if last year's redshirt was not documented as a medical, the NCAA could deny a sixth year.As desperately as the Zips needed a pure point guard last season, I'm pretty sure that he had a medical redshirt and that it was not voluntary. So as long as all of the medical documentation is in place, there should be no reason for the NCAA to deny him a sixth year of eligibility.

Agreed. Buffalo is a good team, but not a dominant one. Western and Central Michigan both took the Bulls right to the buzzer before losing. Ball State is fully capable of winning this one, especially since it's being played in Muncie, Ind.

East was perfect today:Miami over Western Michigan, 64-46Ohio over Toledo, 91-58Can't over Central Michigan, 61-57

Perfect positioning.

Skip, most of what's discussed on sports forums is speculative, with minimal statistical analysis. While it would be possible to statistically analyze the minutes played of every college team in the country by going through the thousands of box scores on any number of sports websites such as http://www.cbssports.com/ , it would be incredibly time-consuming and not likely to happen in our lifetimes. ;)I base my opinion that it's not likely there are many winning teams in the country with the balance of playing time among the top 10 players as the Zips on casual recollection of the hundreds of box scores I glance at during a season. I just don't recall many box scores where no player on a team played more than 29 minutes, as has been the case for the Zips over the past 6 consecutive games.

The Horizon League definitely has a quality video broadcast. I didn't see the whole game, but the part I saw was almost TV broadcast quality. Would love to be able to see all the Zips road games like that.Valpo absolutely destroyed Loyola-Chicago, 71-47. Loyola's strength of schedule and season record is comparable to many MAC teams, and in fact they won at both Western Michigan and Northern Illinois earlier this season. In the part of the video I saw, Valpo's players appeared to be much more athletic and aggressive than Loyola's. They were clawing and scratching for the ball all the time.This should serve notice that Valpo will not be a cupcake for the Zips.

The season's trend has been toward more balanced playing time:* In the first 18 games of the season, there were only a couple of games where one or more Zips didn't play at least 30 minutes per game, and those were blowouts where the bench was emptied early.* In the last 6 games, no Zips player has been on the floor more than 29 minutes, even in the close one against Ball State.So it's fair to say that Akron's first 5 players off the bench can expect more playing time with the Zips than they would with just about any other D1 team in the country with a winning record and reasonable chance to win their conference and make the NCAA tournament. Of course you can never tell when a young player will get it in his head that the grass is greener somewhere else. Also, much as we don't want to think about it, injuries can strike at any time and affect the lineup. But even then, with more than 10 players talented enough to play in a 10-player Zips rotation, the program would not be as damaged by the loss of a player or two as a less deep team. So we should have less to worry about than most other teams.

Skip, are you talking about the possibility of some in the 10-player rotation feeling they're not getting enough playing time, or are you talking about players outside those 10? Certainly if you have a player who thinks they could contribute to a team somewhere but were getting almost no playing time at Akron and thought they might never crack the 10-player rotation, they'd have to at least consider other options. For those in the 10-player rotation, it's less likely that they might consider leaving. Then again, Bubba was probably going to be in the Zips regular rotation, but apparently wanted to go somewhere where he would be more likely to start and play more minutes. I hope Ohio was all he thought it was going to be when he transferred.The Zips system favors lots of good players rather than a few key players. What you hope is that any recruits would do enough homework to understand this and make their decisions on where to play based on the systems they see in place at various schools.

This is a really good point to keep in mind. This year's team is the deepest Zips team I've ever seen. All the pieces are in falling into place to indicate the bench may be even deeper next year. What the Zips have to offer is an opportunity for 10 quality players to play about 20 minutes per game. This is different from the past, when quality players could come to Akron thinking they had a chance to play 30+ minutes per game for 4 years. If this trend continues, the Zips have the potential to be a MAC power for years to come.

As I said in another thread, it really doesn't matter if some Zips fans take Valpo lightly, as I'm sure the Zips coaching staff will not. This is a team with a good basketball tradition and a strength of schedule rating about the same as UCLA. They will not be intimidated by the Zips, and will play us tough, especially on their home floor.

I was concerned at the beginning of the game that the Zips had fallen back into old habits. They were shooting too many from outside and not working the ball inside enough. When they did start going inside, they finally established a lead. But as the game wore on, the Zips looked worn. They just didn't show as much enthusiasm, energy and aggressiveness as Ball State, and the lead was slowly eroded. The confidence I had in the Zips over the past few games also eroded, and I was concerned that they might fold.The good news is that the Zips revived themselves at the end and showed once again that they've learned how to close out a close game. This time it was against a team that, if not a powerhouse, is at least the strongest in the MAC West. This is all good experience as we come closer to the second round of the MAC East and the conference tournament. I'm glad to hear that KD is backing off a little on practice, as this team looks like it could use a little rest.

At the current rate, it appears as if Linhart may fall just short of hitting all four -- 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 200 assists, and 200 steals. He's averaging fewer minutes this year because the Zips have a deeper bench. On a defensive-minded, low-scoring team with a 10-player rotation, it's unrealistic to expect anyone to amass big numbers. Sure, it would be nice to see Linhart hit some milestone numbers for the record books. But those of us who've watched him play over the years will never measure Linhart's performance by his numbers. He's just a unique team player who plays with intensity and selflessness in all aspects of the game. He quietly, almost invisibly goes about his business, with the occasional spectacular shot, block or steal just when the team needs it most. He led the team with 11 rebounds last night against Ball State, and I didn't realize he had so many until I saw the stats. I'm already thinking how much he'll be missed next year.

And Bowling Green only beat Toledo by 5. Maybe the West teams are starting to print out comments from Zips Nation and post them in their locker rooms.

I was watching the play-by-play online until it went into OT. As bad as NIU is, Can't wasn't much better. Last year's MAC Player of the Year missed a layup and then a free throw late in the second half that almost handed the game to NIU. But NIU handed it right back. Can't seems to bounce back and forth between being pathetic and being dangerous. I don't think there's any predicting what we'll see in the last game of the regular season.

Elton Alexander seems to be matching Tom Gaffney story for story. His most recent is on the McKnights:http://www.cleveland.com/sports/college/in...akrons_mck.html

Just took a quick run through with IE7, and every page I visited was error-free. I still like the cleaner look, and was impressed by how quickly all the pages loaded. There may still be problems there, but I didn't see any.

NIU ahead, 57-54, with 5 minutes to go.

With 10 minutes to go, Can't 45, NIU 44.