Dave in Green

The nice thing about being under-respected in preseason rankings is that when you outperform expectations the underdog factor comes into play. The public always likes a feel-good story about an underdog becoming successful, which is why the media is always on the lookout for those kind of stories. So ESPN is doing the Zips a favor by ranking them #115. Greatly exceeding those lowly expectations might earn the Zips a national story or two.

This is uncanny. The Cavs had a 1.7% chance to win the NBA lottery for the #1 draft pick this season, and they won it again for the 3rd time in the past 4 years. Fans of other teams should be excused for thinking this has been rigged. The odds against this happening are astronomical. What it really means is that there is no freaking excuse. If you can't produce an NBA winner with the top draft pick in 3 of the past 4 years, you are certifiably incompetent. Link

I like the turn this thread is taking. I'd much rather read about UA football winning more games in the fall than playing in the spring.

This is a point that often gets overlooked. The NCAA's own self-description begins with the following words: The members that drive the NCAA are primarily colleges and universities. If they aren't getting out of the NCAA what they're driving it to do, then they need to look in the mirror and do an honest self-evaluation of what it is they're really driving for.

GP1, I guess if you present it as a potential survival plan as opposed to something to get excited about, I can see it as something to at least reluctantly consider in the worst case scenario. But I'm not sure that anything can survive Zipmeister's odd sense of humor.

For me, special things are special because they're not common. In other words, they're not everyday things. They come, they go and they return with the cycling of the seasons. When they're here I enjoy them and when they're not here I enjoy something else while anticipating their return. I enjoy football from the fall to the early winter, basketball from the early winter to the spring and baseball from the spring through the fall. Basketball is my favorite, with football second and baseball third. I don't feel any need to want to extend any of their seasons. I don't care about basketball in the summer or baseball in the winter or football in the spring. I suppose you can sell just about anything to someone. But no one is going to sell extended seasons in any sport to me. YMMV.

GP1, I'd never lie about your position. I just haven't read all of your many spring football posts and must have missed your stance on minor leagues. I probably also missed your position on how the MAC playing spring football would affect MAC players in the NFL draft, where they've been doing pretty well while playing in sync with the rest of college football during the months that most people expect college football to be played.

Everyone who believes a certain forum member's claim that the world has been breathlessly awaiting the arrival of spring football was there. If you weren't, there's just no excuse.

Tree's rebounding and inside scoring will not be easy to replace when he leaves at the end of this season. While Jake has shown that he can back up Tree at the 4 for short minutes, he's more of a wing than a PF. Kwan is also more of a wing who's yet to show that he's as comfortable in the paint as he is on the perimeter. Ideally you'd want to have at least one of next season's recruits be a quality PF with a strong inside game. The Zips are pretty well stocked at the other positions for the next few seasons.

It looks like Houston has become a hot recruiting area for the Zips. Samir's Cypress Woods HS plays in the same Texas 5A Region III District 17 as Antino's Cypress Springs HS. This season Antino was the second leading scorer (19.2 ppg) in the league and Samir fifth (18.0 ppg). Samir was the leading rebounder (13.3 rpg).

UAZip0510, you and I must think alike. I just noticed this offer on Verbal Commits a couple of hours ago and didn't mention it because I thought it was a bit of a stretch offer, not that that's a bad thing. I like seeing the Zips offering players like this in addition to the 2-star recruits that are more likely to end up at MAC schools. You never know when you're going to hit another Zeke. Scout.com also shows that there's interest from the likes of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Stanford among majors. Verbal Commits also shows some other players that the Zips have offered recently. The Zips have focused on their biggest need (PGs) this year, but will need to start thinking about replacing bigs next season and beyond.

A San Jose State fan has taken notice of Noah's mention of the Zips' long string of 21+ win seasons influencing his decision to choose UA:

Below is from the NCAA bylaws (counter means the person's scholarship counts against his team's limit). My interpretation is that the only time an injured player's scholarship does not count against the team's limit is if it's a permanent injury that ends the player's career. That results in a medical exemption where the athletic department continues to pay the student's scholarship without it counting against the team limit. But if the player returns to his team, his scholarship is retroactively counted against the team's limit for the time he was out. In other words, you can't sit a player out a season even for medical reasons (medical redshirt) in order to add another scholarship player to the team. In the interest of full disclosure, I am not a licensed attorney.

Whenever people don't really know what's going on behind the scenes, it's human nature that some assume the worst and some assume the best. As far as I know Zips players who transfer generally maintain good relationships with Coach Dambrot, which suggests good mutual understanding on whatever happened. It probably won't be too long before we learn the solution to this scholarship traffic jam.

As I've said before, some players will never be happy unless they're playing long minutes. If they look at their team's roster and see there's a good chance they might be spending most of the next season sitting at the end of the bench, they start looking for other options. If they discuss their situation with the coach, they might get an offer to help them find a better situation at another school where they're more likely to play longer minutes. Sometimes it's as simple as that.

Back in the day when I was a proud member of the U.S. military protecting all you sissies from the threat of communism, we could buy a carton of cigarettes in the PX for $1. That's right, 10 cents a pack. Looking at the overall picture, I would not be at all interested in going back to those good old days.

GP1, your letters show you are a true salesman -- enhance the positive points of the product and stay far away from any potential negatives. Now all we have to do is find a way to keep all those idealistic young freshmen you helped recruit from reading ZN.o and being exposed to the cynics. There's a real conundrum here: How do you attract a generation of kids who've been spoiled by the riches of an economy built on the backs of previous generations and world events of the era to a university that doesn't offer the same level of amenities to which they've become accustomed? That's what the building process was all about. If you didn't build it they wouldn't come. How many of them will catch the message in Economics 101 that economies are cyclical, and that they not only rise but also fall?

Elton ranks Noah #4 in his MAC MIR (most important recruits) coming into the conference this season. If you go to the link you can add your vote for Noah, who's currently leading the fan poll.

GP1, were the letters you wrote for the Roo Crew as enthusiastic about UA's future as your posts here?

Elijah Brown noticed:

Now that Noah has signed his name on the dotted line, I'm looking forward to some comments from Coach Dambrot. George Thomas, where are you?

Are there even such things as "official" visits for a player who's already graduated from college and can play anywhere he wants without sitting out a year? This is a lot different from HS recruits, right? Don't they just do pretty much whatever they want to do without no steenkin' NCAA rules getting in the way?

Link to photo of Zeke helping a teammate get free for a shot during Elite Mini Camp in Chicago.

Because everyone knows that once someone has done something wrong they can never again do anything right.

Great news from Noah: