MDZip

Miami HawkTalk has picked it up as well. Guess Mr. Jankoski is getting his 15 minutes of fame whether he wants it or not. One of the other more famous reporting failures "Boom goes the Dynamite", was also a MAC reporter failure (for Ball State). Maybe the MAC needs to up the funding for journalism schools.

Interesting little tidbit on conference RPI's and SOS on Seth Davis's SI.com column.I was looking at conference rankings based on RPI numbers and was shocked to see the Big Ten at number four. With four legitimate top-20 teams (Purdue, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State) out of 11, how can the Big Ten be behind the ACC (which they beat in the challenge for a change) and the SEC?-- Jeff DeMars, Arlington, Va.Actually, the Big Ten is ranked fifth in the conference RPI, not fourth. I'm no math geek, but my understanding is the conference RPI rankings are mostly a reflection of the middle and bottom teams in the leagues. The Big Ten is strong at the top, but it also has four teams with horrible RPI rankings: Michigan (141), Iowa (190), Penn State (197) and Indiana (214). That will drag a league down far more than good teams like Purdue (7), Wisconsin (19) and Michigan State (28) will prop it up. The SEC, by contrast, has only one team ranked below 140, and that's No. 219 LSU.Incidentally, the same principle applies to strength of schedule. If a team has played a bunch of teams with really low RPI rankings, that will hurt its SOS more than playing strong teams will help. That's why many conference commissioners are taking a firmer, more broad-based approach to scheduling by demanding that the middle and bottom teams in the league stay away from teams ranked below 200. Former Atlantic 10 commissioner Linda Bruno started doing that several years ago in her league, and that is a big reason why the Atlantic 10 has such a strong RPI profile -- which, naturally, will result in more NCAA bids.http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writ...c#ixzz0gTxlHY5u

GoZips.com announced that there will be walk-on tryouts for the soccer team. Seriously? Wonder what's behind that? Do they need practice players? Is this a move to foster some good will on campus by Caleb? I gotta think that anyone who can make this team as a walk-on got seriously missed during the recruiting process.

Your section would have to make progress to suck. When Akron's not in town, there are 15 students standing in a half-full section. It's a sad showing for a team that's had as much success as your school has.Mollautt? Mollautt?

All we need now are all a couple of Bobkittens and Mollautt to check in - then we'll have a party.

I used to think of him more with the axe in his head in "The Shining".

This thread has been fun, especially with a few Bulls fans joining in so its time to "kick it up a notch" (and get away from whining at each other and aim it back at the Bulls) with the old look-a-like contest. Yes, I know some of you fear it, believing it has a curse. But its time to show that what we do on here doesn't actually matter in the outcome of games and this one was too good to pass up. So I give you:

I'll be there but we need someone else. Could that rather portly young gentleman Rowdy who popped up from behind the basket to do the twisty wiggly dance (painted blue with no shirt) during an opponent lady's foul shot last year be present this Saturday. You know who you are (sandy hair with glasses - I saw you in the Can't State white-out video). The shooter doubled over laughing and missed the foul shot. WE WILL NEED THAT POINT ON SATURDAY.P.S. BG's studette Lauren Postastico should be the target. Would the young gentleman grace us with his presence on Saturday ?It looks like you got your wish. Please quit wishing.

I am fairly certain that change was made as a result of the 26 win Travis team not getting a bid after that awful call at the end of the MAC tournament. There was big article in the NY Times, and then the rule was changed. THAT team really got hosed, they were the best in the MAC in every way and the refs hosed them. "Forgot" to start the clock.While the Zips deserved a spot that year, this rule still wouldn't have helped them. They were not the regular season champ that year, Toledo was. The Zips were the #2 seed. As a matter of fact the Zips have never been the #1 seed in the MAC tournament (and #2 only that one time). Here is hoping that streak ends this year.

About the third paragraph down on that page, fourth bullet, Dave.The regular-season champion of any NCAA Division I conference (as determined by the conference's tie-break protocol) not otherwise selected to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship will secure an automatic qualification to the National Invitation Tournament.

Yeah, but you should have included the whole quote:Blackburn: "Definitely - I still am. I'm a normal fan when I watch football. I wish I would have been able to go to Ohio State, but things worked out the way they did going to Akron, which I have no complaints about. It was a great school and a great fit for me. Who knows what would have happened if I went to Ohio State?"That puts it in a much different light - plus the guy grew up right outside of Columbus.This is the quote that really confused me:Q: How did you end up at Akron?Blackburn: "I got recruited by a lot of MAC schools. I got offered a couple of scholarships from MAC schools. I went to Akron for a visit and it was a good time. They showed me around the campus and they had won the MAC championship the year before ...

I don't know how you are defining too big, but Akron is just about the same size as most other MAC schools. Enrollment figures might be a little dated but it still gives you a rough idea.University of Akron 25,942 Bowling Green State University 22,882University at Buffalo 28,054 Can't State University 34,415 Miami University 20,126 Ohio University 20,437Ball State University 20,113Central Michigan University 26,788 Eastern Michigan University 22,974 Northern Illinois University 25,313 University of Toledo 19,706 Western Michigan University 24,818

My niece plays for Our Lady of the Elms (Motto: undefeated in football since 1926) so I'll see if I can set something up for next year.

Especially since Miami is the only team who has yet to lose a home game in conference, I'll have my fingers crossed but I have a bad feeling about this one:Miami 55Zips 52I will be more than happy to eat crow.Munch, munch, munch, tastes good and happy to do it.

And NIU was 4-0 and at the top of the West a few weeks ago. Man, what a facade. Eight straight losses and only not at the bottom of the rankings because of Toledo.

As long as the NCAA lets you count one, we still need to play it. I'd rather not either, but I think we need to because it serves two purposes, first is the aforementioned bowl eligibiglity game. Look, we're not likely consistently knock win against even low-level BCS teams or the teams where it would seem we have a 50/50 shot with. We need to have some place for a "guaranteed" victory to help us. Morgan State is to us as we are to Penn State. Second, it is one of the few ways we can get a home game without a 2-1 deal or a home and home. If we play one ATM game every year, we need to have a way to balance out our home schedule. 6 homes games and six away is what you want every year.

Do bracketbuster and playoff games count in the stats?If so, I think he could break the top 10 and better.Yep, they all count for a season. We have five regular season games left, hopefully 3 in the MAC tourney and at least one in a post season tourney. Zeke is at 45 blocks right now (too bad they don't seem to count all of his ) and the season record is 65 by Romeo Travis. If we get that many games, he has an outside shot at it. That would tie him with Quade Milum for #7 (with 121 games played compared with 26 for Zeke).

And he is only five away from planting himself in tenth place all-time on the Zips list and has already tied Romeo Travis for third place on the Zips list for most blocked shots in a season. I'd count that as a pretty successful freshman debut.

I think its a good move. Marshall certainly has some name recognition (maybe close to an Indiana), it has a viable travel distance, and is a game where the Zips do have a shot at winning it. A win over Marshall counts just as much toward bowl eligibility as a win over Penn State (and is a lot more likely). I'd like to see the future OOC schedule have one road "ATM" game (to help balance the budget and give us one shot at a big upset), one home 1-AA that we're pretty well guaranteed of winning, then a C-USA/WAC/Sun Belt/low level BCS team as the other two games with a home and home setup. Marshall absolutely fits the bill as one of the "other" games.

Especially since Miami is the only team who has yet to lose a home game in conference, I'll have my fingers crossed but I have a bad feeling about this one:Miami 55Zips 52I will be more than happy to eat crow.

Regardless of stats, individual players, clutch games, in the end analysis, this looks awfully nice again (isn't awfully nice an oxymoron?):

I don't know if you can make an argument on position based on those stats, but you do have to examine a few games before trends are evident. Nav was nice enough to post the stats on a couple of other games here for CMU:http://zipsnation.org/forums//index.php?showtopic=17195and here for the first Ohio game:http://zipsnation.org/forums//index.php?showtopic=17194and it is pretty clear that Steve should be on the court somewhere for some serious minutes. What position and whether he should be in for "clutch" minutes can't be determined this way but it does seem like we are a better team when he is on the floor. No one else stands out quite like he does in terms of the Zips outscoring the oppostion when a player is on the floor.

Lucky, lucky, lucky win - but a win!

Speaking of not going strong to the hoop, what the hell was McNees shooting a 27 foot shot when they had enough time to drive to the hoop? Crap - Double OT.

Chris McKnight is quietly having a really big game. If he could just hit a few more free throws.