MDZip

Christi Smith Jenna Compton Stevie Large Men's Soccer welcome Shawn Barber Awesome

After watching them last year I really thought they'd have a shot this year but when Sina King went down and CMU and BGSU played so well thought they had a much longer shot at it but things really fell their way in this tournament and are really taking advantage. Wouldn't it be ironic if the first NCAA tournament win came from the ladies?

What a terrific team, heart, brains and guts.

Western Michigan's schedule was arguably more difficult than the Zips. Their two crossover games were Miami and Ohio. and they played Toledo twice. They and the Zips both had EMU twice and NIU was probably as good as half the East. WMU is legit but the Zips have an excellent shot.

But six in eight days might - go EMU

Now the Zips are the last team left in the East as the Bulls just got upset by EMU. I'm disappointed I wanted to see a Buffalo-Toledo semifinal.

Saw a post on the Bobcats board where someone was looking ahead to next season and thought their freshman center would be helped by the departures of McCrea, Whittington and Tree. Didn't have the heart to tell him. Don't think the Zips fear WMU at all. Tomorrow should be another good one.

Q at the Q right on cue. Great game from him tonight, but offensively no one played too badly. Zips ended over 60% on field goals and almost that good on 3 pointers. Their FT percentage (58.8) was barely better than their 3 pt percentage (58.3). Maybe they need to shoot their free throws from further back. But the Zips missed more than the Bobcats even attempted (14 misses to 11 attempts). Wow.

Where did this Campbell kid come from? He and Big Dog could have a few battles over the next three years. And what's our free throw percentage like 35%?

That's because Gonzaga's sports teams are the Bulldogs not the Zags. I think the Zips do have the only Z in college sports (there are no Zebras). I like the Z.

The MAC payer of the year, Crystal Bradford will miss the MAC tournament. http://www.cleveland.com/sports/college/index.ssf/2014/03/mac_player_of_the_year_cmus_cr.html If the Zips win their game tomorrow night they will a face a Bradford-less CMU team. That's a huge swing. Speaking of that, anyone heard anything on Rachel Tecca?

The MAC released the POY and COY. No real surprise that McCrea won it, my big surprise is that four MAC players got votes and Tree was not one of them (hope thats a bit of motivation for next year). All four of the other first teamers got at least one vote. Steve Hawkins of WMU got the other vote. Can't argue too much with that. Montgomery (NIU) Kowalczyk (Toledo) and Hurley (Buffalo) also got votes. Glad Hurley didn't win it. http://www.mac-sports.com/tabid/969/Article/327373/Buffalo-s-McCrea-Western-Michigan-s-Hawkins-Receive-Top-MAC-Honors.aspx. Something seems a little funny though. The article mentions a 25 member voting panel and there are 25 votes for COY but there are 26 for POY.

Every team in the MAC has been to the NCAA tournament in the 2000's except EMU (last appearance 1998), NIU (1996), Toledo (1980), BGSU (1968) and Buffalo (never). While I expect the Zips have an excellent chance of advancing to the Championship game again this year, I believe that the winner of Toledo/Buffalo will end their own drought. My guess for the rest of the tournament: Miami over OU NIU over EMU Akron over Miami Buffalo over NIU Akron over WMU Toledo over Buffalo Toledo over Akron

Terrific linebacker for the Zips in the 70's http://www.hustlebelt.com/mac-football/2014/3/11/5491712/2014-college-football-hall-of-fame-mac-candidates

Bobcats vs. Redhawks for the right to play the Zips. Ladies get the winner of WMU and Toledo.

Let's not leave the ladies out either. http://www.mac-sports.com/News/tabid/969/Article/326937/mac-announces-all-mac-teams-defensive-player-and-sixth-player.aspx Tecca and Luburgh 1st team and Plybon freshman 1st team. Shame about Kacie Cassell she should minimum at have least gotten Honorable mention.

Even more likely - they mixed up Eastern and Western Michigan.

I posted something similar over in the men's topic but the women's criteria appears just slightly different in that criteria B is not used for tournament seeding. Don't know why that little subtle difference is there. So the Zips are locked into the 3rd seed, they can't fall any lower and even if they won out (beating BGSU in the process) and BGSU lost both games, the Zips and Falcons would have the same record and the Falcons would get the two seed by virtue of beating CMU. Even an almost impossible three way tie with CMU and BGSU wouldn't make any difference). Interestingly, should the Chippewas and Falcons win out, their seeding will be decided by a coin flip - meaning the loser of the coin flip will likely have to face the Zips in the semifinal - not an easy task. 1. Between TWO teams: A. Head-to-head competition B. Division Record (10 games)^ C. Winning percentage* vs. ranked conference teams (top to bottom, regardless of division, vs. common opponents regardless of the number of times played) D. Coin flip 2. For MULTIPLE (3 or more) team ties: E. Total won-lost record/winning percentage* of games played among the tied teams F. Two (2)-team tie-breaker procedure goes into effect (refer to A). NOTE: Once a three-team tie has been reduced to two teams, the two-team tiebreaker will go into effect. ^ - Only used in determining the Divisional Champion (not tournament seeding) * - Winning percentage is used because of situations where teams do not play each other the same number of times. (Therefore, a team that is 1-0 (1.000) would win the tiebreaker over a team that is 1-1 (.500).) ^ - For the purpose of determining the Division champion * - Winning percentage is used instead of record because of situations where teams do not play each other the same number of times. Therefore, a team that is 1-0 (1.000) would win the tiebreaker over a team that is 1-1 (.500).

Looks like the bracket is correct. Criteria B might only be used when a division championship is on the line but it appears in this particular case it will also determine the top seed from who is declared the division champion. Found this on the MAC sports site at http://www.mac-sports.com/Portals/20/MBD30414.pdf So by beating Buffalo the Zips may have given themselves a potential semifinal matchup with WMU (a three way tie with Buffalo WMU and Toledo would have given it to Toledo). One thing that really does work in the Zips favor is the fact that they truly have experience in winning these types of games, that may give them a little edge. Ties in winning percentage, and thus for tournament, seeding positions shall be broken as follows: 1. Between TWO teams: A. Head-to-head competition B. Division Record (10 games)^ C. Winning percentage* vs. ranked conference teams (top to bottom, regardless of division, vs. common opponents regardless of the number of times played) D. Coin flip 2. For MULTIPLE (3 or more) team ties: E. Total won-lost record/winning percentage* of games played among the tied teams F. Two (2)-team tie-breaker procedure goes into effect (refer to A) [NOTE: Once a three-team tie has been reduced to two teams, the two-team tiebreaker will go into effect.] ^ - For the purpose of determining the Division champion * - Winning percentage is used instead of record because of situations where teams do not play each other the same number of times. Therefore, a team that is 1-0 (1.000) would win the tiebreaker over a team that is 1-1 (.500).

If this bracket is correct (and I think it is, I can't find a place to verify it but it looks like the tiebreaker criteria is head to head, then division record for division foes and then then how you did against seeded teams top to bottom) if WMU holds that would give the Zips a huge break. I think they match up against WMU as well as any of the top teams and that would mean Buffalo and Toledo would have to fight in the semifinals). Even if the Bobkittens get the 5 seed they will have to win two games before they even get to the Zips. I actually like the way this is shaping up and wouldn't have a problem if the bracket stayed like this. Zips really need to beat the Flushes. here is a link to the Hustlebelt story on it. http://www.hustlebelt.com/2014/3/5/5472526/2014-mac-tournament-seeding-update?utm_source=hustlebelt&utm_medium=nextclicks&utm_campaign=articlebottom

I realize this was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek (or maybe more than that) shot at one of our members who could give the appearance of getting to far down in the weeds in analytics at times. I know not everyone enjoyed that but if it bothers you that much, you always have the "ignore" button option. I sometimes enjoyed the lower level analysis and details that might have been overlooked and it gave me one more reason to think about the Zips. Who cares if it sometimes may not have mattered in the big picture. What in sports really does all of the time? He was one of the more passionate Zips fans around and with our very limited numbers we need as many of those as we can get. I don't see the sense in attacking other Zips fans who are all really rooting for the same thing - Zips success. Long live Dave and his statistical analysis. /rant

Just to give the ladies a little credit after climbing out of a 1-3 start, they are now 4-3 and in second place in the East. But Rachel Tecca has been amazing, she was the MAC East Player of the week after scoring an Akron record with 43 points (and 22 rebounds) at Eastern Michigan in just 27 minutes. She holds the Akron record for points and rebounds in a career and is now 28 rebounds short of becoming just the second player in MAC history to record 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. And this young lady continues to be named to the all-MAC academic teams every year as well. Damned impressive.

While it probably wouldn't matter with the free throw situation, the Zips do deserve some credit for starting out 5-1 with four of those being on the road (and 3 of the next 5 also on the road). Only good thing is that means 5 of the final 7 are at home. CMU isn't that bad, surprised they haven't won a game. Tree with his 4th straight double-double tonight.

Gave up on the video feed - terrible. Switched to Frenchie on the net. The video feed is as bad as the Zips are playing this half.

Massive choke job by the Eagles. Lose to OU in the last minute of play after being up by 12 with 11 to play.