Dave in Green

So much for the Zips' 3-point shooting slump -- 9-15 for 60%. Zips also dominated the boards, 45-33. I think there may be a future for that big lineup that bent but didn't buckle in OT.

Back to 62% free throw shooting, and it almost cost the Zips.

Good mental toughness.

Too many mistakes near the end.

We won't know the quality of all those new students until graduation rates are compared.

Little schools like Bryant and Longwood are obviously putting a high priority on stacking the vote.

In the first half the Zips' 3-point shooting (4-8, 50%) was way better than the 2-point shooting (4-16, 25%). Zips are winning the rebound battle (20-16), and are almost even with OU on turnovers (9-8). Q's the only player with more than 2 personals. Gotta get those inside shots to fall, continue crashing the boards and keep Q from getting more than the 3 fouls he already has.

A strong frontcourt game on offense will help loosen up defense on the perimeter. The midpoint for 3-point shooting percentage among all D1 teams is 34.2%. For the season the Zips are slightly below that at 33.8%. Their average has fallen over the last 2 games, where they've hit only 16.7% (6-36). It's time to snap out of the recent slump and raise their season average on 3s to a more respectable level. At 32.0% for the season, OU's 3-point shooting has been even worse than the Zips. We need to outplay them inside and out.

As much as I'd selfishly like to see Mr. Tressel more focused on raising funds for a new basketball arena, apparently that's been a much smaller part of his responsibilities than originally envisioned. Increasing freshman applications by 48% in one year is a good metric to help judge where his time has been spent and what his true value to UA has been. An overall stronger, healthier UA will eventually result in a new basketball arena.

Saint Mary's has announced plans for a $13 million upgrade to its 3,500-seat arena to add 500 seats, video boards, suites and a performance center (weight room training, etc.). Looks like the story omitted the word "successful" between "most" and "men's". I can't imagine that $13 million would transform McKeon Pavillion from its current status as a big gym into a modern arena.

@GP1, yes, field goals made and field goal attempts include 3-point shots. Additionally, box scores break out separately 3-point shots taken and made. So you have to subtract 3-point shots taken and made from field goals taken and made to get the 2-point shooting stats.

I don't think anyone here believed South Carolina had much of a chance against #10 Florida in Gainesville, especially after losing their team leader, senior PG Bruce Ellington. I would expect the same result against Kentucky and a couple of other top SEC teams. I think by the end of the season that the 5 freshmen and 3 sophomores in their 10-player rotation will have gained enough experience to make the Gamecocks competitive with most SEC teams. This is one of the youngest teams in the country with a lot of raw talent and excellent coaching.

Sometimes that formula works and sometimes it doesn't. I've been following sports longer than most on this forum, so I've seen that formula broken more times than most. There are late-blooming teams just as there are late-blooming players. The truth is that none of us really knows how this team is going to develop over the rest of the season. That's what makes sports interesting.

@Balsy, could you please do a little research on the issues of the MAC not wanting UA to do well and MAC refs enforcing that with bad calls against the Zips?

@ZipsBurgh, good catch. I was in too much of a hurry and missed the two different stats. As far as I can find, there's no per-game efficiency rating listed, but only the season average. Looking at the team's individual efficiency ratings, Zeke's 5.08 is better than 3 of the other 11 players on the roster and worse than 8. Players' +/- ratings for the season are not listed, but you can find Zeke's game-by-game +/- by looking at the 12 individual box scores. Adding them all up, Zeke is +4 over 12 games, or averaging +.33 per game. So averaging his first 12 games as a rookie, he's neither helping nor hurting the team to any great extent. He will need to raise both his efficiency and +/- ratings to maintain a spot on the roster.

I think what you're getting at is that teams with slower game paces take fewer shots and don't have as many opportunities to rebound, so they inherently average fewer rebounds per game. The more accurate way to gauge relative team performance is by rebounding percentage, which measures what percentage of missed shots a team rebounds. This removes the game pace factor and allows direct comparisons of all teams regardless of pace. Zips rebounding looks a little better when adjusted for pace. The Zips rebound 38.2% of all shots they miss, which is good for #27 nationally in offensive rebounding percentage. But they only rebound 65.9% of all shots missed by their opponents, which ranks them #287 in defensive percentage. Combined they grab 52.1% of all rebounds, good for #98 nationally. So comparing the percentages of the 350-odd D1 teams, the Zips are darn close to top 25 performance in offensive rebounding, in the bottom 75 in defensive rebounding and just barely top 100 in overall rebounding.

Right, Zeke was -4 in yesterday's game but is averaging +5.08 over 12 games. Back on Jan. 4 he had his longest stint of 28 minutes and probably his best overall performance of 10 rebounds, 4 blocks and only 1 personal foul. In other games he's run up 4-5 fouls while playing fewer minutes. Zeke's game-by-game stats are here.

Zeke has been a late bloomer throughout his basketball career, so it was unrealistic to expect him to walk right into the D-League and be successful from day one. The Maine Red Claws are giving him a fair opportunity to develop. Zeke started out playing about 5 minutes per game and was on the floor for 21 minutes yesterday, with his average minutes per game climbing to more than 14. His efficiency rating, which started in the negative range, is now up to +5.08. That's important because it means the Red Claws are performing better than their opponents when Zeke is in the game. That means he's likely to get more playing time, which will give him more experience and opportunity to improve.

@Dr Z, in rebounds per game the Zips are currently ranked #45 in the country at the offensive end (13.4), #313 on defense (21.7) and #204 in total (35.1). Defensive rebounding is the major problem.

Looking at a few areas in a little more detail: Shooting -- Everyone is focused on 3s right now because last night's 3-23 (13%) performance continues a several-game cold streak. This will correct itself. The Zips have several players who can hit their 3s at a 35%+ rate over the season, and they will have runs where they hit above that average just as they are now hitting below. On 2-point field goals, the Zips were 23-42 (54.7%). That's above average, and a good sign that the inside game is working when it's used properly. On free throws the Zips were 17-24 (70.8%). That's slightly above the NCAA average 69% -- not great but acceptable compared with the Zips' season free throw percentage. All other things being equal, if the Zips had an average 3-point shooting night against BSU they easily win by double digits. Ball protection -- I already mentioned that the Zips had only 8 turnovers. How good is that? Wisconsin leads the country in fewest turnovers per game, averaging 8.2. If the Zips had only 8 turnovers per game as they did last night, they'd be leading the country in ball protection. Of course they haven't shown that they can come anywhere near averaging only 8 turnovers per game. But they deserve credit for doing it last night, and need to continue working on bringing down the average number of turnovers. Rebounding -- Once again the Zips were outrebounded. What's this all about? A lot of fans used to post here that Zeke was a weak rebounder, so surely the Zips aren't missing him? What about Tree? You'd think with Zeke gone that Tree would be grabbing an even bigger share of rebounds. Yet even though he's averaging almost 2 minutes per game more playing time than last season, his rebounding average is down from 7.9 to 7.6. Is that because with Zeke gone defenders can focus more on boxing out Tree? If so, where is his help on the boards? The Zips' roster averages slightly more height this season even with Zeke's departure. Why can't they outrebound shorter teams? Last night 6-4 guard Rian Pearson led Toledo with 13 rebounds. When's the last time a Zips big had 13 rebounds? Bottom line is that when it comes to rebounding, heart matters more than height, and the Zips need more heart when it comes to crashing the boards.

The difference in this game was steals and turnovers. Zips had just 8 turnovers and only had the ball stolen 1 time for a total loss of 9 possessions. BSU had 15 turnovers and the ball stolen 6 times for a total loss of 21 possessions. The 12-possession difference in favor of the Zips more than offset the areas where BSU outperformed the Zips. Correction: A steal by one team is considered a turnover by the other. You can't add steals to turnovers, so the math above is bad. On the basis of turnovers, the Zips had 7 more possessions than BSU, exactly matching BSU's 7-rebound advantage.

Not pretty all the way to the end. Just a big old ugly road win.

Not a pretty game, for sure. At least the Zips are offsetting poor shooting (Tree continues to struggle at 1-7 from the field and the team is 2-13 on 3-pointers) with better ball handling. Zips had just 3 turnovers in the first half -- none by the guards -- and 5 assists. BSU had 9 turnovers to 3 assists. Their freshman PG has 5 turnovers, 0 assists and 2 points. As bad as the Zips looked in the first half, BSU looked at least 6 points worse (halftime score 34-28).

I didn't question you when you first posted that because I agreed with you that it appeared he was bleeding from the nose. Even in Dr Z's photo it looks like the bloody towel is covering his nose. GT wrote that the gash was above his nose and required 5 stitches. Assuming it was the result of a stray elbow, it may have missed breaking his nose by an inch or two. Anyone who watches much basketball knows that elbows to the face are not uncommon and that statistical verification is not required. @Eagle66 is right about watching PG Zavier Turner. The 5-9 freshman is only shooting 39% from the field, but hits 46.6% of his 3s (#32 in the country) and 97% of his free throws (#2 in the country). His 4.2 assists per game are offset by 3.8 turnovers per game. His stats suggest he may be a score-first PG with better 3-point and free throw shooting than what the Zips have been getting at the point.

Generally speaking, most areas of the human body bleed less than the head with a similar-size gash in the skin.