MDZip

Does anyone know if Tom Wistrcill came from Ohio State right before this job?

This is a really tough portion of the schedule coming up which could easily lead to another three game skid, at co-leader Miami, home to 7-1 Ball State and on the road again to good and perenially tough Bowling Green. These next few games will show where the team really stands. Even if they lose these three they still will have a shot of getting to 20 wins which hasn't happened in well, ever. The team record is 18 two years ago, they should at least be able to tie that. This is a team of mostly juniors so I do look forward to seeing them next year as well. And on a lark, here are the combined standings for the men and womens teams. Akron 15-3 Toledo 14-4 Ball State 9-8 CMU 9-8 BGSU 9-8 WMU 9-8 Miami 9-9 Buffalo 8-9 EMU 7-10 Ohio 7-10 Can't State 4-13 NIU 4-14

Overreact much, coach? Betcha NIU fans would be willing to trade teams. And he ripped his point guard after the loss to OK St. Somewhere, recruits are noticing. This is the time of year where nothing to lose teams are really coming at the frontrunners. It's why I'm nervous for the rest of the Zips schedule, they have to play at a high level for all 40 minutes.

Should be around 12 since it's an away game and Miami appears to be a bit better than CMU (who we had at home). All of the remaining away games (Miami, EMU. Buffalo, and of course OU) have me a little worried. The Zips have not played well on the road this year. I'm thinking we're picking up a loss in at least one of these (and it might not be OU).

But Baylor is also a potential bubble team so having them lose is not a bad thing either. Without Nick and Tree the Zips were in the same position in Puerto Rico.

Women won a gut check game tonight. Down by one to EMU with about 13 seconds to play, EMU had the ball and Zips had no timeouts. Zips stole the ball on an inbound (Carly Young tipped the ball away to Kacie Cassell) and scored, EMU raced down and scored and the Zips brought up back up the court and it was knocked out with 2 seconds to play. Jodi Kest substituted Carly Young (who had 23 points and I am not sure missed a three pointer) back in to inbound the ball and found Rachel Tecca under the basket who converted. Guttty, gutty win. Give the Player of the Game to Carly Young, easily. And with Miami losing, the Zips are tied for first and that sets up Saturday's game as a battle for the East lead.

And their most likely, Florida, just took their first conference loss of the season. Down to 12 (and three each share a conference with another unbeaten). Too bad this wasn't written a week earlier. We could have helped pare down the list.

Fortunately Majok Majok isn't on the list. Which is why the best of the MAC was in quotes. Javon McCrea is now ahead of Zeke.

A little more recognition for the Big Guy. Best post players in college basketball (voters: Eamonn Brennan, Andy Katz, Jason King, Myron Medcalf and Dana O'Neil) 1. Cody Zeller, Indiana -- 46 (4) 2. Mason Plumlee, Duke -- 41 (1) 3. Kelly Olynyk, Gonzaga - 40 4. Nerlens Noel, Kentucky -- 32 5. Jeff Withey, Kansas -- 31 6. Anthony Bennett, UNLV -- 19 7. Laurence Bowers, Missouri -- 16 8. Mike Muscala, Bucknell -- 12 9. Patric Young, Florida -- 9 10. Isaiah Austin, Baylor -- 8 Also receiving votes: Jack Cooley, Notre Dame 4; Gorgui Dieng, Louisville 4; Kenny Kadji, Miami 3; Zeke Marshall, Akron 3; Alex Len, Maryland 2; Trevor Mbakwe, Minnesota 2.

We need some editors on GoZips.com. This is from one of the last lines about the CMU game. Brian Walsh and Abreu led the Zips with six points each. Zeke Marshall led Akron with three rebounds. Hey maybe change that to "assists" and "blocks" and maybe we'd have something (but even those numbers are wrong for this game). Wouldn't be such a big deal but this is also what is used as a wrap up in other places like the MAC Web site.

Could it have also been that it was his third foul that kept him out the rest of the half? Had that only been his first (and subsequent 2nd) I could see pulling him for a few minutes to calm him down, but perhaps Keith knew we might be needing him down the stretch and that might be a more logical expalnation for sitting the rest of the first half? And the SportCenter Top Ten (#7) for Alex and Nick was pretty cool but couldn't they have as least mentioned a 14 game winning streak?

The only thing I could think is a lack of rebounding with Tree not in there. Someday I think Tree is going to pop a ball when he comes down with a rebound. Even better was Abreu recovering it, falling out of bounds and flipping it backwards over the CMU players head to Kretzer to complete the steal/save. Excellent awareness. While Tree had another good game despite the foul trouble, it was again Alex who ignited the comeback. It really does seem that the team goes how he goes. Not a great showing but a win is a win. Go Zips!

I know its a bit of sacrilege to look too far ahead but I'm quite hopeful for this team. Realistically, if the Zips make the tourney, they will be likely be no better than an 11 seed and certainly no worse than a 14. So since seeds 11 and 14 & 12 and 13 play in the same cities there are only 8 possible places the Zips could play. Four great places Philadelphia Dayton Detroit Lexington Ok, but would prefer closer Austin Kansas City A little less desirable San Jose Salt Lake Would be nice to be in a place with as many Zips fans as possible.

Technically you're only a lurker (as am I and a number of other ZN.O members), you'd only be a troll if you started posting inflammatory comments.

And they listed the MAC as a High Major instead of a mid-Major. Nice.

I'm sure we both feel the same way as wanting the other to do well until we meet up. They have one pretty tough matchup before us but the other three are manageable.

We should be rooting for exactly the opposite.

Don't think the second half is more difficult, unless you are referring to the fact that we play at Buffalo and OU, but the combined record of every team except OU is 20-35 in the MAC. If we can't run the table on all of these games except possibly OU, we don't deserve those ranking points. The MAC is bad this year, the Zips cannot afford a slip up against anyone if there is still any prayer of an at large. We'll see a little bit of this teams mindset against an overmatched opponent at home. The Zips should demolish CMU. Should be lots of playing time for Jonas, Luke and co.

Easy there .. he gave the Zips a top 25 vote.

Creighton is listed as #3 in that list with Akron being one of their notable wins.

This one is funny. With all the emphasis on Social Media one Bobcats poster now refers to Akron as Hashtag Academy. Of course that's all because of their long and storied "tradition" that they would never consider such a thing. Glad we're ahead of the curve on this one.

If I was Larry Shyatt (Wyoming's coach) I wouldn't be to pleased to see something like that on Twitter. Kid should keep a lower profile.

Gotta throw Reggie McAdams in that group as well. He may have the highest 3 pt. percentage on the team right now. Great game by him last night. Love to see the hot hand, whoever it is, get more minutes. And it almost seemed like Zeke decided he needed rebounds and not blocks last night like he decided since he had the all-time MAC blocked shots record that he was looking for a new challenge.

Keeley went 3-7 and fouled out so Zeke has now dominated ther other three "best in the MAC".

DJ Who-per? 3-11, 14 pts, 6 assists, 2 rebounds. Alex Abreu 7-10, 21 pts, 9 assists, 4 rebounds. I would say Alex thoroughly outplayed him. And Zeke? 8-8, 17 points and 12 rebounds. I think the player of the year discussion is getting pretty close to over. There was another discussion about whether Zeke shows up in big games. Think its about time to put that one to bed too.