MDZip

Clever catch.

C'mon man, give Can't some credit.

Lost in the men's great run is the fact the women are having their best season ever. Beat Ohio (who granted is one of the worst teams in the MAC) 98-80 and missed a shot at the end that would have given them 100. They are playing very good ball (though they didn't play very good defense tonight) and still lead the MAC East with two games to go.

That is cool to see but the AP rankings are the ones that are generally accepted. So how could the Zips get in there this week? It's possible but a few things have to happen. First the Zips have to beat Buffalo. Not likely the Zips are passing any team above number 20 and either all of the teams above the Zips also won this week or did not play a mid-week game so in order here are the possibilities. #20 Butler @ VCU - VCU is ranked one spot above the Zips so it would probably be better for the Zips to have Butler win. Tough game and if Bulter loses it is possible that both they and VCU make the top 25. #21 Notre Dame @ #22 Marquette - One of these two is probably knocking the other out of the top 25. Probably doesn't matter who Villanova @ #23 Pitt - possible upset but not a great chance of it. Villanova really needs this to stay on the bubble though so maybe Oregon State @ #24 Oregon - don't see this upset as being too likely Utah State @ #25 LA Tech - USU is not bad but still not a likely upset (#26) Colorado State @ Boise State - Chance of an upset at least (#27) VCU (previously discussed) (#28) AKRON! - Best chance for an upset for other teams was Wednesday. So our best shot is to have CSU and VCU lose and that will put us in. Others losing just gives us a better chance.

I do want to congratulate the prescient OU student with the "The Streak Ends Tonight!" sign. He was correct, Ohio's 19 game unbeaten home MAC streak is indeed over. On the game site on ESPN, there were 534 comments which I have to think is also a Zips record. Also a gutty performance by Brian Walsh coming off an injury. Interestingly, he and Reggie Keeley had a somewhat similar imapct on the game in about the same amount of minutes. And even though they returned pretty much the same team, part of the big difference between OU last year and this year has to be Ivo Baltic. I remember him playing fairly well last year in the MACC, according to ESPN, his line from last night was one attempt, no points, no rebounds and he fouled out in 13 minutes of play. When one of your bigs that you counted on from the previous year pulls this kind of a disappearring act, it has to effect the rest of the team. Glad it has been helping the Zips but I actually feel a little bad for the guy.

This game is too big not to have a separate in game thread

Hey can you guys have your fight on your board?

No OU party When the Zips celebrate with "Frosting" on the cake

Yeah I was looking for that anywhere too. I went and checked USA today because it was their poll and couldn't find the Zips with the number 24 next to their name but I did find these:

I advise all of our fans attending the game to take their own water and to get in and out as quickly as you can. The Convo may start approaching third world status and we want to avoid another Carnival Cruise Line or Superdome type situation. Team - get the Win and get out as quickly as possible as well.

This week's SI is sort of a slap in the face to college basketball. The cover is about Spring football kind of displacing NCAA basketball. Anyway, the background is NCAA basketball and Zippy can be seen up in the top right corner. And my apologies for making the OSU haters (and lovers) wet themselves.

Huh, that's odd, I didn't even look up that high because they list Wichita State as ORV on the main page (they got a #21, a #23 and a #25), but the Zips actually had a 21, two 24's and a 25 and they weren't called out. It's a conspiracy I tell you.

Zips got votes in the ESPN.com Power poll from Andy Katz, Seth Greenberg and Miles Simon.

This should make Gonzaga #1. Happy for them. It will be good to see a (very) strong mid-major up there and hopefully another one a bit lower down.

Nice to hear the streak belongs to Akron again at the end of the game but other than that it doesn't mean much. Minnesota upset Indiana and they are in contention for an at-large with the Zips. Well regardless, it's almost time to see if the Zips have earned their spot.

The announcers said the only other smiling coach in America (other than Memphis coach Josh Pastner) is Keith Dambrot.

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.