MDZip

You know what though, it is possible he was expressing the same frustration many of us felt since Ohio beating Belmont would have helped the Zips at-large case. One thing I did learn from the Twitter "feud" was that Reggie Keeley holds the JAR rebound record of 20. My bold prediction - Tree erases that record before his career is over. One reason I don't like Twitter - I went to see what Brian's actual tweet was and saw him say to Pat Forsythe "when you gonna be back?". Thought that meant Pat was injured, turns out he was only referring to being in a night class. No more Twitter for me.

This was posted on Hustlebelt.com Symbolically, I'm hoping it's also what the Zips do to the Bobcats.

Any word on Walsh's availability for Wednesday? I'd hate to see Reggie Keeley disappointed.

The list is down to five now with Miami (FL) losing. If the Zips can get past Ohio and not suffer the letdown game at Buffalo, I like their chances a lot with only two remaining homes games vs. Miami and Can't.

If the Zips win at OU, I think this is very possible. That means they fear no one and will have beaten a quality opponent at their house and excorcised a nasty demon. I am already excited about the possibility. Zips just got bumped up a seed line to a #12 in Lunardi's latest projection and for those who don't think they could meet OSU, they are currently projected as a #5 seed. I'm rooting for an 11/6 matchup with OSU in Philadelphia. Too much? Also find it funny that we think the Zps are getting tons of publicity and Andy Katz thinks they are getting none. From our perspective it's a tidal wave of ink.

For all the of the enjoyment I've gotten from watching Zeke play over the last four years, this is a pretty small thing to do. Done.

Of course this all makes perfect sense - after all, the guys name is tread well.

Sad part for me is there are only two games remaining at the JAR for the rest of his Zips career.

While that is all true, its ignoring the strategic impact of free throws. Late in games when teams are down, they intentionally foul hoping to get a 1 (or 0) point scoring attempt before getting the ball back. Its there that could exist the Zips Achilles heel.The rest of the game free throw percentage doesn't mean as much, because there are plenty of other ways to make up for it, but at the end of the game when you are being fouled, its of critical importance. Much as you want Tree out on the floor at the end of a close game, there might come a time when he needs to be removed just because of that.

Nice headline on the Zips win on the ESPN Main basketball page.

Still think I'd prefer my stadium be named after a telemarketing company rather than a prison group. Kudos, FAU AD.

Can't wait for next Wednesday, has to be the biggest game in the MAC regular season, ever? Can't have ever been a 12-0 team vs 11-1, can there? The MAC season was over at 12 games not that many years ago. So (combined with the Buffalo game, which makes me nervous), a game for effectively the regular season championship and NIT, a possible national ranking and a possibility of finally making noise as a true at large team. Go Zips! Beat the Kittens! And oh, out of necessity, Go Bobcats - beat Belmont!

While I don't have any hope for the AP rankings, in the coaches poll, the Zips sit at #28, and numbers 21, (CSU), 22 (Pitt), 23 (Oregon), 24 (VCU) and 27 (St. Marys) all lost since the last poll. A lot of them lost to good teams (Pitt lost twice to ranked teams), so if the Zips can get past NDSU tonight, do they have a chance to crack the top 25? If we win, I'm betting we end up at #26, so tantalizingly close.

Geez, now we we're just ahead of high school stadiums again? Texas High School opens $60M stadium. Plus I really wanted to resurrect the longest thread and second most "feel good" (I would submit behind the soccer National Championship) thread in ZN.O history.

Yes, but Creighton is not directly behind Akron. I also hadn't seen this, while it is not directly applicable to this year, ESPN did a ranking of the most successful 50 programs of the last 50 years. You got included as long as you had been playing D-1 basketball for at least 15 years. The conference rankings are below (Miami didn't miss the top 50 by too much). The Zips are tied with Oregon, Lafayette and Mississippi Valley State. Can you imagine where we'd be without Keith Dambrot? And for any of you that might like a good read, I noticed the Citadel is almost at the bottom of the rankings. An excellent author by the name of Pat Conroy wrote a terrific book called "My Losing Season", about playing basketball for the Citadel. 61. Miami (Ohio) 78. Ohio T-118. Ball State T-121. Toledo T-150. Bowling Green T-164. Can't State T-172. Akron T-221. Western Michigan 224. Central Michigan T-229. Eastern Michigan T-256. Buffalo T-267. Northern Illinois

Zips have climbed to #3 in the ESPN mid-major rankings. Only Gonzaga and MTSU are ahead of us - and we beat MTSU, c'mon give us #2. The Bobkittens are #11.

I would suspect with EMU's style of play, several Purdue players likely fell alseep during the game which probably aided EMU's win.

I don't think it is an unlikely as you think. Barring a complete collapse OSU is going to make the tournament somewhere bewteen a 3 and a 6 seed. The Zips, assuming they win the MAC tournament, would be somewhere bewteen an 11 and 14 seed. Those would line up perfectly in terms of playing positions. With four regions that would be 16 possible positions for each team. So the Zips would have a 1 in 256 chance of playing the Buckeyes in the first round. So those aren't great odds but is possible.

From a CNN story about the big snow storm out West. It snowed in Arizona where the MLS is holding pre-season games. They used this picture of Real Salt Lake vs. New England. There is Scott Caldwell on the right. He is probably used to it.

Well finally got the attention of the ESPN Bubble Watch folks: Akron [21-4 (12-0), RPI: 49, SOS: 170] The Zips have a similar profile to Belmont, in that they have a bunch of victories, one good win over Middle Tennessee, and a couple of truly questionable losses. Unfortunately, Akron's nonconference schedule doesn't hold a candle to Belmont's, so the Zips' SOS and RPI don't have quite the same punch. This is a bit of a long shot, one that probably requires Akron to win out, including wins over North Dakota State and at Ohio in their next two games. But a long shot is still a shot.

I think it was mentioned in another thread that Chauncey was disappointed over losing a starting spot during his injury but that he should keep his head up since you never knew when other injuries might make it necessary for you to step up again. Man, I hope he's healed up well, would love to see another Chauncey takeover this Friday night like the one that happend against UNC Asheville earlier in the year.

Another reason why it is so amazing to be looking down at them in the standings. I suspect that has NEVER happened before, especially this late in a season.

I'm pretty sure that was not the analysis JZ84 was looking for.

Even Joe Lunardi gives a little love during his chat wrap. Hi Joe, love the work you do. In last year's tournament it seemed like there were a lot of mid-major 12 and 13 seeds that at least had a chance to pull off upsets in the tournament (12 VCU, 12 Long Beach, 13 Montana, even 14 Belmont). Any thoughts on who might have a shot this year? It seems like the pool is a little thinner. Joe Lunardi (3:02 PM) Hard to say without actual match ups, Jake, but I think we'll see more than a few "live" mid-majors in the field. Middle Tennessee, Belmont, Akron, Louisiana Tech, Bucknell, South Dakota State and Davidson are all good enough to win a game in the tournament. And a second reference a little later on (did Nick Harney ask this one? ) Nick H (Akron Ohio) If Akron wins out but loses to Ohio in the MAC Tourney will you think they can get a at large? Joe Lunardi (3:25 PM) They can, but I doubt they will. Best non-conference win is Middle Tennessee State (at home, in overtime). Probably not enough.