Dave in Green

But Skip, you know how fast they can move people through the concessions lines. Seriously, you are dead right about the logistics of ticket exchanges 10 minutes into the game. Some would end up standing in line for the whole first half. Telling people to just move down after the first 10 minutes is not perfect, either, as a certain percentage of spectators will be at the concessions buying food and drink or in the restrooms. You'd end up with a constant flow of people moving in and out of your section as seats are claimed and reclaimed, and all that foot traffic would be pretty disruptive to trying to view the game. I think it makes more sense for UA to identify blocks of reserved seats owned by companies and try to communicate with designated representatives from those companies on game day to see how many of those seats would go unused so they could be claimed by general admission ticket holders at a ticket exchange in the lobby. Trying to reassign reserved seats of individuals would be time-consuming and disruptive.

I've never been interested in gambling and pay no attention to professional lines. I enjoy the mental exercise of doing my own handicapping without external assistance.

Pick your own upsets or go with the bookies -- your choice. I found it interesting that OU beat UB at the buzzer in Athens and UT struggled to edge BGSU in Toledo. When it was all over, Can't remains the only MAC team without at least 2 losses and EMU the only team without at least 2 wins. Looks like the MAC is wide open, especially considering that Can't has a lot of tough away games coming up after Tuesday. Zips 71, WMU 69 Can't 63, BSU 52 OU 63, UB 61 UT 71, BGSU 67 CMU 65, EMU 51 MU 60, NIU 55 EAST Can't 5-1 Zips 4-2 BGSU 4-2 UB 3-3 OU 2-4 MU 2-4 WEST WMU 4-2 CMU 4-2 UT 3-3 BSU 2-4 NIU 2-4 EMU 1-5 Tuesday's matchups include: 2-4 BSU @ 4-2 Zips 4-2 CMU @ 5-1 Can't 4-2 WMU @ 3-3 UB 2-4 NIU @ 4-2 BGSU 2-4 MU @ 3-3 UT 2-4 OU @ 1-5 EMU

That's generally what happens when there's questionable officiating. It tends to go both ways, so either fan base can point to the bad calls against their team if they lose. Only occasionally are the questionable calls so one-sided that there's an appearance that one team is being favored over the other. It's hard for fans to be objective about questionable calls even when they're split exactly 50-50 between both teams.

Not only did both teams hit 14 free throws, they were both 24-56 from the field. The 2-point victory margin came from the Zips hitting 2 fewer 2-pointers and 2 more 3-pointers than the Broncos. Can't get much closer.

Just heard on radio that Big Dog suffered a scratched eye in practice yesterday and was questionable for this game. He said his vision was a little blurry. Throw in Aaron being sick and the Zips were really down to 7 players who were 100%. Good thing Isaiah and Aaron were able to play through their problems. That's the beauty of the 11-player rotation that gives everyone enough experience to step in and play when needed without hurting the team.

Hey, the Zips made exactly the same number of free throws as WMU -- 14. The Zips just did it in 18 attempts vs. 27 for the Broncos.

Saved by Big Dog's free throw shooting. I really do like the way Coach Dambrot's teams respond to adversity.

Gutsy first half performance with two starters out of action on the road against a good team.

Zips starters 3-10 from the field, Zips bench 5-5.

That changes the odds considerably.

Yep, Zips did stay in the Chicago area. As for playing Pat and Big Dog together, typically they're on court together only a few minutes per game. They still haven't coordinated how best to use this double post, and need to work on optimizing their strengths. Big Dog has no outside game and thrives close to the bucket. Pat had a nice mid-range game in HS, and he's shown on several occasions he can drill a 12-15-foot jumper. When playing with Big Dog, Pat needs to step back and play more like a stretch 4. A mid-range jumper from a 6-11 player is tough to defend, and demands that the other team's tallest player step outside the paint to guard him. That leaves the lane open for Big Dog to crash the boards on Pat's misses and get easy putbacks. When the shot comes from one of the guards or wings, Pat and Big Dog both need to crash the boards from opposite sides looking for easy putbacks. This can be made to work.

Deji comes into this game as the Zips leading scorer (and only one in double figures) at 10.0. He's done this despite averaging only the 6th most minutes per game (18.6). He's averaging 21.49 points per 40 minutes, tied for fourth best in the MAC. Pat has dropped to second on the team at 9.889 ppg and Noah has been moving steadily up and is now 3rd at 9.667 ppg. Deji has been consistent in bringing energy off the bench and seems to have earned more minutes based on his all-around performance. Yet despite playing an above average 22 minutes in the Toledo and Bowling Green games, he's played only a below-average 13 and 16 minutes in the last 2 games against CMU and NIU. After playing a solid game against WMU at the JAR with 12 points in 17 minutes, could this be Deji's game to pull a Reggie?

I like the way Coach Dambrot's teams respond to adversity.

The Zips caught the Broncos by surprise with their level of intensity and physicality in their conference season opener at the JAR. That element of surprise is gone, WMU will be prepared and the Zips will need to find other ways to beat a team that is favored by the oddsmakers. Pat and Big Dog thoroughly outplayed WMU's bigs at the JAR, hitting a combined 8-9 from the field and grabbing 14 rebounds. But Pat is hurting and Big Dog has not been performing at a high level. Detailed comparison of the two teams on statsheet.com shows the Zips trailing in most offensive categories and leading in most defensive categories. A more graphic comparison can be seen on teamrankings.com . This is an important game for the Zips as a loss would drop them to 3-3 and potentially 2 games behind both the MAC East and West leaders. A win would leave the Zips tied at 4-2 with West leader WMU and no worse than 1 game behind Can't and BGSU in the East depending on their results today.

I'd just like to say my initial impression of Sportsjunkie300 was wrong. While most of his early posts seemed to be aimed at trashing the program, his posts over the last couple of months have shown that he's a strong supporter of Zips basketball who calls things as he sees them, both good and bad. I look forward to reading his posts.

Great news on Jake practicing! I never want to hear head injury and Jake Kretzer mentioned in the same sentence again. Bad news about Pat. That explains why he was on the bench for the last 6+ minutes. Hope both of them can bounce back for WMU.

Great stuff, B&G. And speaking of stuff, Peter is a beast ...

I understand. The bookies favored Can't and the Zips. I didn't. But I don't publish betting odds. Win some, lose some.

I agree that 4-2 wouldn't be too bad. But to get to 4-2 the Zips will have to beat a vengeful WMU in Kalamazoo as right now the Zips are 3-2 in the MAC. Lose to WMU on the road and the Zips would be a not-so-swell 3-3. Big game.

My life doesn't revolve around bookies. In this case they called the Can't-Toledo game right and I called the Zips-NIU game right. But since my definition of upset upsets some, I'll refrain from using the word in future posts and everyone can continue to rely on their favorite bookie for that part of the results.

I was just thinking the same thing. This team isn't built to win the MAC regular season championship or come remotely close to an NCAA at-large bid. The only other prize left is to win the MAC tournament. No coach has been better at the Q over the past decade than Coach Dambrot. He knows his veterans are up for a run at the Q but needs his freshmen to contribute as well. Nothing like throwing his rookies into the fire in a close game on the road to get them seasoned for what they'll face at the Q. Trading a few regular season losses for a better shot at winning it all at the Q is not a bad long-range vision.

Quote of the day from the ABJ: WTF? If it was a head injury as CK mentioned, it's a huge concern based on what we saw with Jake at the end of last season. I believe it was said at that time that Jake had a history of concussions going back to HS. But I can't find any written confirmation anywhere that says it was a head injury last night, so hoping for the best. Jake is so valuable to the team in so many ways beyond just scoring that it's not unrealistic to think his loss so early in the game by itself could account for the difference in a 3-point loss. The ABJ just had a GT feature story on Jake that started with the following:

Can't was likely favored at home because recently they've been over-performing and Toledo has been under-performing. I still consider it to be an upset because Toledo has more talent and is more likely to prevail as the season goes on. Having said that, Can't can no longer be taken lightly. In fact, for the Zips, no MAC team can be taken lightly, even cellar dwellers OU and EMU.

Upset of the night has to be Can't (4-1) over Toledo (2-3) as NIU (2-3) over the Zips (3-2) in DeKalb is just no longer a surprise. Maybe the surprise is that the Zips still have a better conference record than UT, and the only 4-1 teams are Can't, BGSU and WMU. NIU 64, Zips 61 Can't 67, UT 60 CMU 84, UB 73 OU 82, BSU 73 WMU 69, MU 58 BGSU 74, EMU 58 EAST Can't 4-1 BGSU 4-1 Zips 3-2 UB 3-2 MU 1-4 OU 1-4 WEST WMU 4-1 CMU 3-2 UT 2-3 BSU 2-3 NIU 2-3 EMU 1-4 Saturday's matchups include: 3-2 Zips @ 4-1 WMU 4-1 Can't @ 2-3 BSU 3-2 UB @ 1-4 OU 1-4 UM @ 2-3 NIU 1-4 EMU @ 3-2 CMU 4-1 BGSU @ 2-3 UT