Dave in Green

Can't completes the upset, 76-75, and both Can't and Toledo are 8-4 in the standings.

Wow. Can't blew a 5-point lead with 17 seconds left and they're in OT.

I'm so old-fashioned that I still go to basketball games just to watch basketball without gimmicks. But I guess you never know when you might go to a Tinder event and have a basketball game break out.

Since Eric Stoller has been on the job for six months now, he should just be hitting his stride. It sounds as if he had some award-winning ideas at Longwood. Hopefully that was accomplished on a tight budget like UA's so he has experience with underfunded promotions. His bio says his department increased Longwood sponsorships and ticket sales to all-time highs. Longwood's basketball team had only one winning season in the eight years he was there, so he has a lot more to work with at UA.

Dr. Scarborough's strong financial background that helped make him a top candidate to lead UA in the current economic environment is clearly evident in his intelligent response to this issue:

The most important thing right now is seeding for the MAC tournament. Getting at least a top 4 seed is critical for the Zips. Earning a #1 or #2 seed gets you straight into the semifinals, while getting a #3 or #4 seed gets you straight into the quarterfinals. The other 8 teams will end up having to win 4 games in 6 days while playing 5 games in 8 days (including their regular season finales) to win the tournament. It's a little early to be guessing which results among other top teams would end up helping the Zips the most. Any results that end up getting the Zips a minimum #4 seed and preferably a top 2 are obviously good. Looking at the current overall MAC standings, it appears that only 6 teams have a realistic shot at those top 4 seeds: REALISTIC SHOT AT TOP 4 SEED 8-3 - UT* 8-3 - Zips 8-3 - BGSU 7-4 - Can't 7-4 - CMU 6-5 - UB UNLIKELY TO EARN TOP 4 SEED 5-6 - WMU 4-7 - OU 4-7 - EMU 4-7 - NIU 3-8 - MU 2-9 - BSU * Currently owns tie breaker over Zips for #1 MAC tournament seed

When I uprooted myself in 1972 and moved all the way out to Southern California in search of a better life, I remember being in awe of all the entertainment options available compared with the heartland. I recall attending world premiers of blockbuster movies at Grauman's Chinese Theater on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the California 500 for Indy Cars at Ontario Motor Speedway. Who needed to go to Disneyland when you were living in the middle of Disneyland no matter which way you looked? And then there were sports. I was there when the short-lived World Football League played in Anaheim Stadium. And my love for basketball took me to many ABA games in Los Angeles and San Diego because I always appreciated the finesse of the ABA to the physical hammering of the NBA. But my first love has always been college basketball, and what a selection I had for my adopted team. UCLA in 1972 completed their first of two back-to-back 30-0 seasons under legendary Coach John Wooden. And for those who preferred underdogs there was always USC. But me being me, I went with the big underdog. I adopted Long Beach State with its upstart coach, Jerry Tarkanian. The year I arrived in SoCal, Tark took the huge underdog 49ers all the way to the Elite 8 before losing by just 2 points, 57-55, to undefeated UCLA. The next season when I was there to watch every game, Tark again took the 49ers to the Elite 8 only to be ousted again by Coach Wooden's UCLA. I went to every Long Beach State home game. What a thrill it was to watch future NBA players like Easy Ed Ratleff (who led Columbus East high school to the Ohio State Championship in 1968), Glenn McDonald, Cliffton Pondexter, Leonard Gray, Eric McWilliams, Chuck Terry and Bob Gross. Amazingly, all of them played for Long Beach State in the two years I followed them before Tark left for UNLV and a future NCAA championship. Tark the Shark was aptly named. He pushed the envelope like no other college basketball coach. He was the hotshot amateur attorney who knew every loophole in the NCAA book of law. Looking back on it I see it was like being a fan of the Can't teams of a few years ago where more players had police records than degrees. But just watching the brand of basketball was mesmerizing. I can still see him standing on the sideline chewing on that towel with his future NBA players steamrolling any team that dared set foot in the Long Beach Arena. Great memories of an era gone by. RIP Coach Tarkanian.

I think what you propose is neither popular nor smart. I think it's best described as expedient. It's just another way to push the concept of big money that drives professional sports down into the amateur ranks, which is already well underway. Once established at the college level it would only be a matter of time before it was being pushed at the high school level and below. It's essentially the concept that anything that doesn't generate quick cash is worthless and should be abandoned. Think it all the way through and see if that's the kind of world you want to bring up your kids in.

It means that all of the teams in the SWAC taken together had the #3 ranked SOS out of all conferences, but that they didn't earn sufficient RPI out of that to carry into conference play. In other words, they all started conference play with poor RPI because they couldn't win on the road against stronger OOC opponents. SWAC schools schedule that way because they're all underfunded and need to earn money in OOC road games to help pay for their athletic programs. They are the polar opposite of the overfunded majors that have loads of cash to buy whatever they want. MAC teams are somewhere in the middle.

You are correct. I cited from the wrong column on that number. I should have cited OOC RPI rather than total RPI. In the OOC RPI column the MAC is #11 at 0.5044 vs. #8 at 0.5208 for the AAC. So the AAC did get slightly more value than I originally posted out of virtually the same won-lost record as the MAC but with a significantly higher difficulty of schedule. Thanks for pointing that out.

Don't know if it was from fear of crowd noise or fear of band noise, but I noticed for the first time ever at the JAR a fan seated in the stands wearing ear plugs -- not ear buds, but the kind of ear plugs you wear to shut out noise. I'm sure there must be a good background story in there somewhere ...

Comparing the MAC with the AAC is a great case study of how much value is available from beating stronger opponents. The #10 RPI MAC's OOC record is 80-50 vs. 80-49 for the #8 RPI AAC. The MAC's OOC SOS is #31 vs. #12 for the AAC. The MAC's RPI forecast is 0.5174 vs. 0.5220 for the AAC. So moving all the way up from the 31st strongest OOC SOS to the #12 strongest while maintaining the same won-lost record, which is easier said than done, doesn't really gain all that much.

The SWAC is #3 in conference OOC SOS yet #33 and dead last in conference RPI, so all those road losses to stronger opponents did nothing for their RPI. That along with the MAC's OOC SOS of #31 and RPI of #10 only goes to show that there is RPI value in consistent winning against weaker opponents.

Good point, Zach. I'm going to change my updates in the Around The MAC thread to list teams by conference record regardless of division since that's what counts for MAC tournament seeding.

Thanks, THZ. I've been meaning to tell you how much I appreciate your more active participation on the forum this season as you bring a wealth of knowledge about college basketball. Since you don't participate as much in the football discussions, I assume you're like me in terms of being more interested in basketball than football. The priority on ZN.o has always been biased in favor of football, so I guess that puts folks like us in the minority. But I'm really impressed with the rising level of interest in the basketball forum. We have a lot of new posters here bringing different viewpoints, and I think that's really healthy for the overall conversation compared with the past when the same forum members were presenting the same repetitious viewpoints. We Zips basketball fans are really fortunate to have a program that's been in the mix for the MAC championship every season for the past decade. We're also fortunate to have a great place like ZN.o to carry on our discussions. Life is good.

EMU is a problem due to their uncommon 2-3 zone. But their 13-1 home record is deceiving. Of the 14 teams they've played at home, 4 were not D-I. The 10 D-I teams they've played in Ypsilanti had an average RPI of about #250. Their best home win is by 6 over a WMU team crippled by the loss of starting senior PG Austin Richie. EMU plays the 2-3 zone with the intensity of a man defense or even a press. Their players are all quick and follow the ball like a swarm of bees whose hive is under attack. They defend both the inside and outside uncommonly well. Good ball movement with multiple quick passes will be critical to finding Zips players with enough of an opening to quickly get off shots before the swarm arrives. Pat and Big Dog will be especially vulnerable to getting swarmed if they hesitate before shooting or passing. The Zips beat EMU in Ypsilanti and at the JAR last season. On their floor, Jake hit 7-12 3-pointers and Carmelo had 8 (!) assists. The Zips are stronger this season at PG but may need a player or two to get hot from behind the arc. This will be a big test for our freshmen. They need to study EMU game tape and take this game as seriously as if it were UB or UT, not NIU.

Probably best that UT beat UB as it gives the Zips a 2-game lead over the Bulls with a game at their place still left while the Zips' remaining game with UT is at the JAR. But you never know how it's going to shake out at the end of the regular season ... Zips 61, Can't 52 BGSU 65, WMU 49 UT 92, UB 88 CMU 68, OU 57 EMU 83, MU 69 NIU 75, BSU 63 MAC STANDINGS 8-3 - UT* 8-3 - Zips 8-3 - BGSU 7-4 - Can't 7-4 - CMU 6-5 - UB 5-6 - WMU 4-7 - OU 4-7 - EMU 4-7 - NIU 3-8 - MU 2-9 - BSU * Currently owns tie breaker for MAC tournament seeding FRIDAY MATCHUP: 7-4 Can't @ 8-3 UT SATURDAY MATCHUPS: 8-3 Zips @ 4-7 EMU 8-3 BGSU @ 2-9 BSU 7-4 CMU @ 6-5 UB 4-7 OU @ 3-8 MU 4-7 NIU @ 5-6 WMU

A lot to like about the Zips' play in this game, especially in the second half. Hitting 11-14 free throws was certainly a step up from recent games. Maybe most impressive was 13 assists with 6 turnovers for the game, and 9 assists with just 1 turnover in the second half. That kind of performance indicates how well the players are coming together as a team. Once again the 11-player rotation was an advantage as the Can't players were visibly tiring near the end while waves of fresh Zips players kept entering the game.

Hangin around.

Took only 5 3-pointers and missed them all badly.

They can't stop our penetration, either.

Nice crowd.

A Zips sweep of Can't tonight and March 6 will tie the all-time series at 71-71 and set up an opportunity for the Zips to take the all-time lead forever as early as the MAC tournament. Let's do this thing.

To try to understand this better, let's take a quick look at the history of RPI. It was first used by the NCAA in 1981 to help in selecting and seeding teams for the NCAA tournament. It was never intended to be the most important selection criterion but just one of many tools. The NCAA has repeatedly said that the selection and seeding process is based on each team's entire body of work, including record, signature wins, bad losses, SOS, RPI and several other measurements. The MVC as a conference made a decision to try to game the RPI system by encouraging all of its teams to play OOC schedules that produced artificially high OOC RPI. Then during conference play their RPI rankings were further magnified by playing each other. That strategy reached the height of gamesmanship in 2006 when the MVC had a ridiculous 6 teams in the top 40 RPI despite each of those teams having no fewer than 8 losses: 19. Missouri State 20-8 23. N. Iowa 21-9 24. Wichita State 23-8 27. S. Illinois 22-9 35. Bradley 20-10 40. Creighton 19-9 That was capped off when the NCAA selection committee compared those RPIs to each team's entire body of work, decided the RPIs were way inflated and famously made Missouri State the highest RPI team to ever be excluded from the NCAA tournament. The MVC went through this exercise because they were primarily a basketball conference looking to increase their prestige. Since the MAC is primarily a football conference with basketball secondary, they'd never bother try to do this with MAC teams. And since the NCAA is on to the RPI inflation scam anyway it wouldn't really help. The bottom line here is that putting undue emphasis on RPI is a waste of time if the rest of a team's entire body of work doesn't match up. There's some value in having a higher RPI but it needs to be kept in proper perspective.

RooYahoo, thanks. I always try to measure my own opinions against verifiable facts and often surprise myself. I appreciate the enthusiasm that people like you have for individual players as well as for the entire Zips team. You've made it clear that you're a big fan of Pat, and you should feel free to express that as much as you want on any sports forum. Pat deserves a lot of credit for his performance this season. He's not only #1 in the MAC in field goal shooting percentage, he's also in the top 100 in the country (#92). Add that to a top 100 in blocks per game (#82) and it's pretty clear that he's a strong presence on both offense and defense. Depending on his motivation and self-confidence, I believe Pat has a real shot at playing professionally. Adding stretch 4 experience to his already good post performance would only enhance his professional opportunities. Pro basketball is evolving to where big men are more and more expected to be able to step outside and hit the long shot. I think Pat is capable of doing that and Coach Dambrot is giving him the opportunity to develop that phase of his game. Ideally Pat and Big Dog will develop their games to the point that they don't just fight over who gets the biggest chunk of the 40-minute block of game time at the center position but that each can play 25-30 minutes per game with 10-20-minute overlaps where they're both on the floor together depending on the opponent and game situation.