Dave in Green

Big Dog raising his game another notch.

Kwan to the locker room with injured hip.

Nicer than the JAR for sure. But the first thing that hit me about the seating is the pitch is much shallower than the JAR. We're fine in the 3rd row, but the 2nd level is waaaaay back. Dorms not yet open so light on student turnout.

Leaving now for Toledo and my first look at Savage Arena. More later.

Thanks for the update, OU Dude. We're so used to OU quickly reloading that it's a bit of a shock to see how lean things have been so far this season. No matter what their record the rest of the season, I'm sure the Kitties will be up for the Zips games.

There are some interesting attendance numbers in a MACbbs thread discussing last season's conference average. One surprise is that UA has the second highest attendance/capacity in the MAC. Toledo leads with an average 68.5% capacity vs. 65.6% for the Zips. Buffalo is third at 57.1%, the MAC average is 38.1%, and EMU and NIU are battling for the cellar at 10.2% and 10.1% respectively. MAC average attendance in 2013-2014 was down 113 from the previous season to 2,869 compared with the national average of 4,817. In 2003-2004 the MAC averaged 3,790, so in the past decade average MAC basketball attendance has fallen about 25% per game. Over that same period, Zips home attendance has risen from an average of 2,902 in 2003-2004 to 3,609 in 2013-2014, an increase of about 25%. So UA and the MAC have been going in opposite directions over the past decade when it comes to basketball attendance.

A nickel here, a dime there, it's all going toward the rich getting richer. The NCAA is like a political party catering to the biggest, wealthiest donors.

Skip, I'm not just basing my opinion of Aaron's rebounding strictly on stats. I'm also taking into consideration what I saw with my own eyes. Each game I try to focus on a couple of different players rather than watching the general flow. I was watching Aaron pretty closely in this game because he hadn't really played much prior to this, and he didn't just get a lot of favorable bounces. He went after the ball like he owned it and really locked on to it. That was the thing that I first noticed about Tree in his rookie season. He was really raw in most areas of the game. But rebounding is one area where a raw player with lots of desire and effort can excel. Since we both think Aaron has great potential, let's see how he does over the next few games.

A little more on the Bobkitties: This is their first season with Coach Saul Phillips, who came over from the successful North Dakota State program. Looking at tonight's box score shows something very different from past OU teams. Although the starting lineup of 3 guards and 2 forwards was typical OU, the minutes played were not: Starters 39 = Maurice Ndour (F) 38 = Ryan Taylor (G) 33 = Antonio Campbell (F) 33 = Javarez Willis (G) 28 = Mike Laster (G) Subs 16 = Stevie Taylor (G) 13 = Treg Setty (F) This is the shortest rotation I can recall seeing OU play. Don't know if that's the new coach's philosophy or if circumstances dictated it. Senior Stevie Taylor coming in as a sub after starting half of the Kitties' 12 games is a bit of a mystery. Whatever's going on in Athens, the Kitties are now 5-7 and struggling mightily, their 3 NCAA tournament wins in recent years a distant memory.

Last night the Zips zapped WMU and CMU upset Toledo. Tonight the first round of MAC play is completed with a couple more upsets: NIU 70, OU 60 BSU 60, EMU 59 BGSU 66, Can't 64 Buffalo 79, Miami 72 NIU was projected to be at the bottom of the MAC West, so OU's shaky results to date are confirmed by this bad loss. BSU was projected to be near the bottom of the MAC West and EMU near the top. Oops. BGSU and Can't were projected to be in the middle of the MAC East, so this was a coin toss. Buffalo was projected to be near the top of the MAC East and Miami at the bottom, so this one came out as expected. EAST Akron 1-0 Buffalo 1-0 Bowling Green 1-0 Can't State 0-1 Ohio 0-1 Miami (OH) 0-1 WEST Central Michigan 1-0 Northern Illinois 1-0 Ball State 1-0 Eastern Michigan 0-1 Western Michigan 0-1 Toledo 0-1

That's true, though I think it's more true of shooting than rebounding. While size, strength, hops and technique all help a player become a better rebounder, desire and effort are what separate great rebounders from average ones. Everything I've seen of Aaron to date is that he is loaded with desire and effort and also has the physical tools to get the job done. So I think Aaron's first good rebounding performance in his first extended play game may be more repeatable than a player having their first good scoring performance.

The current RPI formula counts a home win as 0.6 win, a road win as 1.4 wins, a home loss as 1.4 losses, a road loss as 0.6 loss, and a neutral site (tournament) game as 1 win or 1 loss. So if you can win a lot of games on the road and avoid home losses, you can pump up your RPI. But the only real value of RPI is when vying for an NCAA tournament at-large invitation and NCAA tournament seeding if you make it to the big dance. The RPI required for a MAC team to receive an NCAA at-large bid is outrageously high and not a realistic goal. Over the years a number of teams from better conferences than the MAC have failed to receive NCAA at-large bids despite having RPIs in the 20s and 30s. The NCAA selection committee would tinkle all over a MAC team vying for an at-large bid with an RPI in the 20s or 30s. I believe the conference most often discussed for a challenge series with the MAC was the Horizon League. Almost every season the MAC and Horizon have similar conference RPIs, and there could be many good matchups from top to bottom. Haven't heard much about this in awhile.

Speaking of crashing the boards, how about Aaron Jackson's performance. While Pat led the team with 9 boards in 24 minutes, Aaron was second in rebounds with 6 in just 17 minutes. When GoZips told us earlier in the season that Aaron was going to be Tree's backup at power forward, I was skeptical. Aaron was recruited as a guard and that's how he's still listed on the roster. Even though he's grown to 6-8 and 215 pounds, moving from the 4 to the 2 is a big leap. But PF is the position Aaron was playing last night subbing in for Kwan, who had 3 rebounds in 19 minutes. Aaron does have some Tree-like intensity about him that may actually be better suited to rebounding in the paint whereas Kwan really plays more like a 3 even though he's a bit taller. It's going to be interesting to see how Aaron's rebounding looks in upcoming games as he gets more playing time. Coach Dambrot said Aaron's development process was slowed earlier in the season by a nagging injury, but now he's ready to go. I don't picture either Aaron or BJ riding the bench this season after the promising development we're seeing from both of them.

That formula sure didn't work in Charleston. The most upset and vocal Zips fans have been about the refs so far this season has been the Southern California game in Charleston, which the Zips won by 20. When Miami beat the Zips by more than 20 in Charleston Zips fans made only a fraction of the ref protests they made in the Southern California game.

I didn't see any major problems in the officiating of tonight's WMU game. Neither did the rest of the crowd. There were only a couple of plays that were loudly questioned by fans, and after officials called a foul on WMU at the other end everyone cheered and that pretty much ended the complaining. Fans at every college basketball game always boo a few calls at every game. Tonight's game was no different.

Remember, thanks to Dr Z there's a separate thread for discussing officiating to keep game threads from getting derailed.

Obviously the string of OOC cupcakes prepared the Zips pretty well for the MAC. Quickzips nailed it with the complete game description. The Zips played solid offense and defense without any long lapses. They established the inside game early and then went about hitting their 3s at slightly above their season average. The final count was 28 each 2-point and 3-point attempts. One thing that really caught my attention was the continuous subbing. The Zips started subbing players less than 3 minutes into the game, and it seemed as if there was at least 1 sub made every minute or so throughout the game. I can't recall ever seeing such rapid player rotation. Then again, Coach Dambrot is asking his players to go all out on defense, and that can be tiring. As long as you have 10 or 11 good players who can contribute, why not use them? The Zips had 10 players with double-digit minutes, and BJ would have probably been the 11th to play double-digit minutes if he hadn't been injured in the last game. WMU had 4 players who were on the court 30+ minutes, and they were having a hard time staying with wave after wave of fresh Zips. Pat and Big Dog played a combined 39 minutes, and were a combined 8-9 from the field, scored 18 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, blocked 4 shots, and had 4 assists and 1 steal while committing only 2 turnovers and 3 personals. With no dominating center in the MAC this season, the Zips have arguably the most effective pair of centers in the conference. The more Pat and Big Dog establish themselves in the paint, the more the floor will open up for the other Zips. It would be great if the Zips could play like this every game. But they will inevitably have ups and downs. The Toledo game just got a little more difficult after CMU upset the Rockettes tonight. But for now I'm just going to enjoy what I saw tonight with the Zips putting together a complete game and coasting to an easy victory over the defending MAC championship team.

David Brown, Connor Tava and Austin Richie will all likely be as good or better than they were last season. Tucker Haymond, a 6-6 sophomore, joins those three scoring in double figures. Drake LaMont, a 6-10 freshman, is no Shayne Whittington, so unlike last season the Zips should have a clear advantage at center. After all his medical exemptions, this is Brown's 6th season of MAC play, and he is a talented veteran. At 6-4, Brown is a tough matchup for the Zips' smaller guards. More than half of Brown's field goal attempts are 3-pointers. Deji did a great job of shutting him down at the Q last March. Tava, a 6-6, 235-pound junior, is highly skilled and a sneaky good player who leads WMU in scoring. Zips need to guard him closely or he will score lots of easy buckets inside.

Elton has obviously been reading ZipsNation.

I think both of you have shown that you are good Zips fans who want the best for the men's basketball program. In previous discussions we established that no one is asking for Coach Dambrot to be fired and everyone wants to see the Zips take the next step up from what they've accomplished over the past decade. So we shouldn't even have to debate those points. I hope we can continue to have productive discussions without misinterpreting each others' positions. Fair criticism is fair, and it's also fair to question the reasoning behind various criticisms. It's fair to point out what we perceive as negatives in the program, and it's equally fair to be reminded of the positives.

Of course. Kwan is in the process of changing his game from mostly outside to more of an outside-inside balance. Last season 67% of his field goal attempts were 3-pointers vs. 44% this season. I expect that percentage to continue to go down as the season goes on. But he's one of the best 3-point shooters on the team, so you don't want to give that all away.

True. The Zips are giving up some free throw opportunities in return for averaging more points per 3-point attempt than 2-point attempt. Then again, some would rather not see the Zips go to the free throw line that often. It's all about tradeoffs.

The more money that's spent in college sports, the more it becomes like professional sports. When professional football, basketball, baseball, etc., had problems with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, they came up with things like the draft, salary caps and luxury taxes to create more parity. Now that we've reached the point in college sports where players want to be paid salaries and form unions and some college football coaches are being offered bigger salaries by universities than professional NFL coaches, it's fair to start considering similar measures for college sports. If the big universities want to be like the pros in terms of spending big money, let them also be like the pros in terms of having to abide by rules that reduce the ability of the rich to buy championships with cubic dollars and create more parity with the have-nots.

He played many of his HS games at the JAR, he still practices at the JAR and some of his best friends played basketball at UA. He supports the entire Akron community, and UA is certainly a big part of that. How could the greatest basketball player on the planet choose to live in Akron and want the best for Akron and not be interested in having a nice basketball arena in Akron? He's certainly not going to pay for a new arena out of his own pocket. But he's the single most influential person around when it comes to convincing corporations to open their checkbooks. His involvement at some level would greatly improve the chances of getting others behind a new arena.

ABJ has a story on the soccer promo at the basketball game. Also the other day I got a pop-up ad for the promotion but can't remember what site it was on -- may have been ohio.com.