Dave in Green

Skip, I always defer to you in presenting the most negative scenario. One thing you left out is that the team bus might crash.

Fort Wayne is actually closer than some MAC schools. It's 213 miles from UA to IPFW, or 3 hours, 25 minutes for those who drive right at the speed limit.

Let's try to limit the mythology about this year's tournament matchup. First off, I ain't buyin' that the players don't want to play in it until someone offers some solid proof. I don't expect anyone to believe anything I say unless I can back it up, and I hold everyone else to the same standard. Next, I ain't buyin' that IPFW is a "bad" team. The Zips currently have a 21-12 record and #96 RPI compared with IPFW's 24-10 record and #121 RPI. Not a lot of difference. The Zips should have a small advantage in their attempt to keep the 22+ win streak alive. But this is not a gimme game. Everyone can check out IPFW's season stats here and a comparison of team stats here.

I recall some ZN.o forum members being pretty open in saying the players didn't want to play in it, but I don't recall ever seeing any players actually quoted. As for Green Bay being a "bad" team that year, they finished with a 22-13 record and #104 RPI in the higher-ranked Horizon League to the Zips' 24-11 record and #98 RPI. So they were actually pretty evenly matched teams, and the Zips played a close game but lost by 4 points. Green Bay's head coach was none other than Tod Kowalczyk, architect of Toledo's renaissance.

Several teams have already accepted bids to this year's CBI and CIT. You can see them by searching over the past 24 hours. Just make sure any mention of Akron says 2014 before posting here.

Lady Zips should get good media attention based on this:

CBI and CIT start locking in teams as soon as the NCAA and NIT fields are announced.

@GP1, try reading the last few posts again for context after you sober up. It should be a little clearer to you then, unless you do your best thinking when you're drinking. In that case I'm not sure it would ever make sense to you.

How did I know you wouldn't get it. Surprised you didn't spring the ultimate GP1 insult -- 1950s thinking.

@GJGood, I didn't mean the NCAA and NIT tournaments got the best 100 teams. I meant they got to pick the first 100 of the 351 available D-I teams before the CBI and CIT get to pick theirs. There will be teams in the CBI and CIT that could beat up on some of the NCAA and NIT teams. As for whether the players want to compete in the CBI or CIT, I can't believe there are any prima donnas on the team who think playing in a lesser tournament is beneath them. In the unlikely case there is, let them stay home and just take the players who want to play basketball anywhere, anytime, against any competition. Those are the only kind of players I want to watch anyway.

If anyone has factual information about someone violating any laws, it's their civic duty to report it to proper authorities. Anonymously smearing someone with unsubstantiated innuendo on a public forum is not the mark of a good citizen. It's a sign of really poor judgment.

@Balsy, nicely thought out and well presented. There shouldn't be any question that the top priority of universities should be education. But there are powerful forces from many sources, both internal and external, also pushing universities to be successful in intercollegiate athletics. It's a tricky balancing act for which there's no perfect answer and many pitfalls. The trend in collegiate sports over the years has been steadily in the direction of more professionalism and less amateurism. The final line in the sand is paying the players in cash over and above the long-accepted policy of exchanging a free education for student participation. At that point the players cease being student-athletes and become paid professionals, and it really doesn't matter if they're students or not. So why not just let universities set up their own professional teams that compete in an intercollegiate professional league that plays in campus stadiums and arenas with school colors? Universities should just go ahead and be honest about it and remove the already blurred line between professional sports and amateur sports at the collegiate level.

Skip, it's no surprise that there are varying amounts of interest in Zips basketball expressed on this forum. Some folks here are primarily football fans who casually follow basketball in the football off-season, and some are primarily basketball fans who follow other sports more casually. Some of us lose interest in following the Zips basketball team when they fail to live up to our expectations and end up in a lesser tournament, and some of us will sit for hours and watch the Zips basketball team practice in the JAR even after a disappointing loss. After all these years of discussion here, we all pretty much know where everyone stands on everything.

Just happened to stumble across the following little nugget in a preseason story on MAC basketball while searching for something else:

Wow, now I'm really conflicted on who to believe -- Shaka Smart or GP1. Here's what Shaka had to say about his team's experience in the CBI: That quote and similar ones from other coaches on the value of playing in a lesser post-season tournament can be found in this story.

Of course the CBI and CIT tournaments are weak compared with the NCAA and NIT, which take the first 68 and next 32 right off the top. That leaves teams #101-351 to choose from. Continuing to play basketball still beats starting spring break early. And, yes, Shaka Smart did credit the team's CBI experience for helping the team make its NCAA Final Four run the following season.

I didn't watch the game, but from the final score (98-77) it was a real thrashing. David Brown went off for 32 points, which says something about the D the Zips laid on him last night. That beatdown just makes me feel all the worse knowing that if the Zips had gotten by WMU they would have had a great chance against the Rockettes.

Here's an interesting counterpoint to anyone who might think it's weak for the Zips to count on CBI or CIT wins to pump up the season victory total to 22+ wins. One of the 5 other teams besides the Zips to win 22+ games in each of the last 8 seasons is Pitt. In the 2011-2012 season, Pitt finished the regular season with a 17-16 record and was nowhere near an NCAA or NIT bid. So they opted to play in the CBI. They ended up winning 5 games to take the CBI championship, and those 5 CBI wins are what gave Pitt 22 wins that season. Without the CBI they would no longer be on that exclusive list along with Duke, Kansas, Gonzaga, tOSU and the Zips, who need only 1 CBI (or CIT) win to stay on that list.

I've always thought the CBI was about a half step up from the CIT. Also, the CBI used the Zips' exclusion from the NIT in 2007 in all their advance publicity to explain why the CBI was created in the first place. EDIT: You can check Wikipedia to see that the CBI champions have generally been more major names than the CIT champions.

Obviously it really isn't that hard to make a list of areas for teams to improve. Sports fan forums are full of such lists. Making the list is the easiest part.

Now down to a 10-point lead, 73-63, with 4 minutes left.

it's now 64-44, so a 20-point lead with 10 minutes left.

Found a little info in a quick internet search. He made 2nd team Inland District D-II as a junior, averaging 14 points per game. Triple Double prospects lists him as the 3rd best PG in the Ohio class of 2015.

Lady Zips up 47-30 a minute into the second half. Should we be nervous about a 17-point lead?

I'll just say this about the parole violation. One of the most common and least serious parole violations is a first time offender not reporting in to his parole officer on the first specified date due to not fully understanding how the system works the way career criminals do. I would not consider that to be a major factor in judging anyone's character. The focus should be on the nature of the violation that led to being put on probation in the first place. In addition to the coaching staff and players, it's also important that whatever decision is made be fully supported by UA leadership. This is a decision that reflects on the university as a whole and not just the basketball program. It's not an easy decision to make even when you have access to all the facts. While it's important to try to do what's best for every individual, it's even more important to do what's best for the university as a whole. My position continues to be that if UA does a fair and thorough analysis of all the facts, I'll respect their decision whichever way it goes.