Dave in Green

I want to see Hurley go one-on-one with Bo Boroski. Maybe at the Q.

Now it gets really tough. Tree on the bench with 3 fouls with 7 minutes left in the first half. EDIT: Huge relief as TV comes back from the timeout and says the foul was on Nick and not Tree.

Sorry I couldn't make it to the JAR tonight, but I'm delighted at the energy the Zips are showing, Great hustle from Deji.

In case anyone missed it, I posted a link in another thread to a USA Today story about falling student attendance at college basketball games almost everywhere. Even the Cameron Crazies at Duke are no longer filling their student section at basketball games. It suggests that attendance at college basketball games may have peaked years ago. It's a generational trend that has raised concerns throughout the college basketball community. This story helps explain the erosion of student attendance at UA despite nearly a decade of improved team performance. It offers a clear warning that UA needs to be careful about not over-sizing any new arena, as future student and alumni attendance may be in a long-time period of decline. Link.

I can't compete with Voodoo Statistics.

I didn't mean to shift the focus to football. So I went looking and found an article focused on college basketball that's more relevant to the discussion here. I think the USA Today story below reinforces the generational thing even more strongly for basketball than the previous one did for football, as evidenced from what I thought was probably the most telling part: College Basketball Faces Questions As Attendance Tumbles

@ZZZips, good fact checking. Our memories sometimes play tricks on us. That's why I frequently go back and check actual records to measure against my memories. The Zips have run up an impressive home record over the Coach Dambrot era. But over the last 5 seasons the Zips are only 6-4 in their final 2 conference games at the JAR. It's going to take a special effort to win these last 2. I was encouraged by the player attitude I saw at the JAR last night. The Zips played really hard, tough defense. They played with a sense of urgency I hadn't seen in awhile. If they play with that kind of effort in the last 2 games, they have at least a fair chance of winning both.

I just read an interesting ESPN story on this subject a couple of weeks ago and was going to post a link on ZN.o but forgot. Thanks for reminding me. The story focuses more on college football but is also applicable to basketball. Bottom line is that UA is far from unique. The story's headline suggests that it may be a generational thing: Will Next Generation of Fans Show Up?

@Dr Z, it didn't take long for me to spot a creative scheme by the Zips. Full details available in the BG game thread here.

Skip, you have a good eye for what changed the game. For the first 28 minutes, BG was dominating the paint and playing even with the Zips. The score was 32-32 at 12:14 of the second half when Coach Dambrot put Melo and Nyles together in the backcourt. Just 2 minutes later, at 10:15 with the Zips up 38-34, Deji joined Melo and Nyles in the backcourt as the Zips went small. BG countered by going small and lost their advantage in the paint as Tree took advantage of the open space. The smaller Zips forced several turnovers, took control of the game and ran up a 46-36 advantage over the next 5 minutes. At 5:09 Q replaced Deji while Melo and Nyles remained in the game and the Zips held their 10-point lead to the finish. The Zips played with only 2 bigs on the floor over the last 12 minutes of the game, and Melo and Nyles remained on the court for that full 12 minutes along with either Deji or Q when the Zips finally broke away from BG and ran up a double-digit lead. Who would have expected those two to be on court together for so long and play such a big role in the Zips victory? Dr Z asked in another thread when anyone had seen the Zips have a creative scheme. We saw it tonight when the Zips went small with a 3-guard offense to defeat a team that was playing them even when both teams went big.

One down and two to go.

Looks like relying on the Kitties to lose was better than Buffalo. Zips now control their own destiny. Three wins earns them a top 4 seed with no tiebreakers to worry about. Of course, Jake and Reggie aren't warming up here at the JAR, so even BG will be a challenge if the Zips don't play better than they did at Miami.

The only way the Zips overtake Buffalo now is if we win all 3 remaining games and Buffalo loses all 3 of theirs. Not likely. The Zips have better odds of overtaking OU, but they don't control their own destiny there, either. In the last 3 games OU has to lose 1 more than the Zips or it goes to tiebreakers. Here's a reminder of the tiebreakers for tournament seeding: 1. Between TWO teams (Zips and OU): A. Head-to-head competition (tied 1-1). B. Division record (10 games for the purpose of determining the division champion only; not applicable for tournament seeding). C. Winning percentage vs. ranked conference teams, top to bottom, regardless of division, vs. common opponents regardless of the number of times played. Winning percentage is used instead of record because of situations where teams do not play each other the same number of times (against Toledo, Zips are 0-1 or .000 and Kitties are 1-1 or .500). End of story. Kitties own the tiebreaker. Zips must finish 1 game ahead of OU to earn a top 4 seed.

Rumors of the end of Reggie's season appear to be greatly exaggerated. GT reports that Reggie practiced with the team today, as did Jake. Neither participated in scrimmages. But that's still better than the rumor that Reggie's season was over due to not bouncing back from mono. Apparently Reggie's mono was not the most severe, and neither was Jake's concussion. UA’s Wings Take Step Toward Returning

@Dr Z, thanks for the colorful description. I see exactly what you're trying to accomplish.

Someone on ZN.o posted awhile back a description of the Zips' creative schemes. Oh yeah, it was you.

Your whole analysis was really good. But I especially liked this observation. For all the grief Deji has taken from some, he's kept working and working and working on his game. Here's a guy who had a shaky offense in HS and was best known as a shut-down defender. Right now his .370 3-point shooting percentage is second only to Reggie's .406, and Reggie's season is done. So for the rest of the season he's the Zips' best 3-point option! His .452 field goal percentage is 4th overall on the team. He's athletic enough to take it to the rim as well as nail the open 3. He's far from a complete player, but who on the Zips' roster is right now?

I was out last night and couldn't follow the game. When I got home and saw the results, I was sick to my stomach. I understood that Jake and Reggie were still out and Nick might be a little rusty. But the Zips still have enough talent to beat Miami if they play up to their talent level, and more importantly play together as a cohesive team. When your 2 leading scorers can't shoot and 2 of your next 3 leading scorers are out, you're in big trouble. Looking at the Miami and OU games together, Tree and Q were a combined 12-51 from the field while Deji was 10-16. Let that sink in. In the last 2 games Deji made 2 fewer field goals on 35 fewer attempts than Tree and Q combined! I'm getting nauseated just looking at those numbers. Since Nick's return didn't provide the spark needed to beat Miami, the Bowling Green game now becomes a question mark without Jake. Don't even think about Buffalo. I'm really starting to wonder now if Jake isn't the glue guy that holds this team together. In addition to his 3-point shooting, he also makes a lot of hustle moves that help get the team going when they need a boost. I just hope we hear good news about Jake's concussion being a really mild one and that all the symptoms disappear quickly. I think the Zips need him really badly right now.

@zippy5, GT originally reported 7-14 days on Jake. The missing words were "at least." You're absolutely right that concussion recovery time varies widely. Medical experts typically say that full recovery from a concussion can take "days, weeks or even months" depending on the individual and the severity of the concussion. We can only hope that Jake's concussion was mild and that he's on the shorter end of that recovery time. We all agree that his long-term health has to be the top priority.

Great news on Nick. Hope he's learned his lesson once and for all. I think that Jake would be back sooner if this was his first concussion. Since it's the second of his Zips career, I think they'll err on the side of caution and keep him out a little longer. I'm hoping he's ready to go by the Buffalo game.

@I speak truth, I think what @UAZip0510 meant was that the Zips would be better off with a true PG playing PG and Q playing his natural position of wing 100% of the time. Since the Zips currently do not have a proven true PG who's shown they can consistently play the position at a high level, the Zips are fortunate to have a multi-talented player like Q who can take up the slack. But wouldn't you really prefer seeing Q playing wing alongside a consistently high performing true PG?

@Glib Shanley, sorry, but the fact that you had your photo taken with Coach Dambrot at a golf outing automatically disqualifies you from having any credibility here with a certain percentage of forum members. Just kidding, we have lots of disagreements of opinions here, but we all have in common that we're Zips fans. New forum members adding their opinions are always welcome. Hang around and have some fun along with the rest of us.

Zeke has been rewarded for his steady improvement in D-League play by being named starting center of the Red Claws for the past 2 games, replacing Daniel Orton (former Maine starting center Ty Walker was traded to the Erie BayHawks). Averaging about 25 minutes per game in his 2 starts, Zeke has averaged 10 points per game on 9-16 field goals and 2-2 free throws. He's also averaged 7 rebounds, 1.5 blocked shots and 1.5 steals with only 1 personal foul and 1 turnover per game. Zeke's basically gotten better at every aspect of the game. He still has a way to go. But earning the starting center position over an ex-Kentucky center with NBA experience (Orton) is a nice step up.

We don't really know if the #3 seed is preferable to the #4 seed. It depends on who the #1 seed is. Right now it looks like it will be either Toledo or WMU. Whichever one you'd least like to play on Friday at the Q could end up as the #2 seed, which would make the #4 seed preferable to the #3. There are still too many variables at this point to wish for the #3 over the #4.

@skip-zip, if Buffalo wins at OU and the Zips win at Miami, the Zips would have a 1-game lead over OU for the #4 seed with 3 games left. At that point the Zips would only need to match OU win-for-win over the last 3 games to clinch the #4 seed. I don't see that as a more remote chance than relying on tiebreakers that we haven't even fully calculated yet. @GJGood points out the perils of 1 tiebreaker where the Zips look pretty weak right now. If OU beats Buffalo, they would own that tiebreaker against the Zips. Beware of wishing for tiebreakers unless you're sure they're in your favor.