MDZip

Interesting comment by Todd Kowlacyzk at the end of the article. Kowalczyk also gave Johnson, who finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, credit. “He’s going to be player of the year in our league for a reason,” Kowalczyk said. So at least one coach values overall performance and team contribution. I think it is entirely possible we could have two All-MAC first teamers.

Was worried we might have no winners tonight but thankfully the Zips came back. The trio of Big Dog, Josh and Jimond (18, 8 and 6 for 32) were edged by Kwan, Antino and Noah (21, 13 and 2 for 36). Attendance as recorded by ESPN and reported by UAZippers was 3,365 so the people who got the Zips win, the Kwan, Antino, Noah trio and the middle attendance include zippyfan34, clarkgriswold, UAZippers, bigzipguy, ZIPSMOM2, ziptrumpet87, ejcool, Jalapeno Zippy, zippy_ua_00, lilroodude and MDZip. Congrats but everyone wins when the Zips win.

They are likely to be on the other side of the bracket and are as equally likely to get upset as they are to make the final.

Akron Zips (21-4, 11-1 MAC) vs Toledo (13-12, 6-6 MAC) Tuesday, February 14 • James A. Rhodes Arena Akron, Ohio • 7:00 p.m. ET TV/Video: Spectrum Sports (which I think is just the JAR feed) Live Stats: GoZips.com/Schedule - Live Stats Radio: Akron-IMG Sports Network - Steve French (PxP) and Joe Dunn (Analyst) WARF 1350 AM (flagship), iHeart Radio, TuneIn.com/Akron Zips Toledo worries me a little bit, they are capable of going off on occasion and playing a really good game but also can play terribly. Here's to terrible.

I called the folks at the Canton Civic Center about a table for the Gold Jacket ceremony. She said there are eight at a table and as I mentioned I think it would be great to get an Akron table together for the event. I'd be happy to do something through the University if anything is planned but I've checked and don't see anything at the moment so instead of missing the moment I'm willing to do the legwork to get a table together. Tickets are $135 apiece and I have two folks who have already committed to being part of it. If five more of you would like to be a part of it, I'll make the arrangements for it. You can reply, you can PM me whatever way you want to let me know. The sooner we get our request in the better chance we have of actually getting a table.

Zips lose at Ohio and Joey Brackets drops them from a 12 seed to a 14? No wonder he's the worst of the bracket predictors.

Maybe only because I'd asked a question in the Zips quiz about who would hit the first two three pointers In the game so I really had to pay attention.

Kwan was one of the last to get going in the game. 5 other players hit a three before he did (even he really heated up after that). Maybe the rest of the team gave him his confidence back?

Wonder if it has happened at any time this season that neither Kwan nor Big Dog led the team in either points (Utomi, 19), rebounds (Ivey, 7) or assists (Robotham, 6)? Edit: Went back and checked and answered my own question. Nope, first time it's happened this year (although once it was only saved by Big Dog and his 8 assists).

We are all winners tonight after that one. Excellent effort on that one. Also excellent effort from GJGood and Z-Pouch who were the only ones to correctly predict the Zips win, Kwan to have more than 12 points and less than 8 rebounds (14 and 6) and Antino to be the first to have two three pointers, but he just barely beat Dan Utomi to it whom no one predicted and I'm sure probably no one would have predicted as the teams leader with 19 points. Nice job! Also I'm guessing no one would have guessed the Zips overall shooting percentage would be exactly the same as the three point percentage (with 18! three pointers) at 52.9%. Until Noah hoisted up that late three the three point percentage was actually better.

Not any more. Ball State within 2, 75-73.

I think he's back :-)

Akron Zips (20-4, 10-1 MAC) at Eastern Michigan (13-11, 5-6 MAC) Friday, February 10th, 2017 • Ypsilanti, MI TV/Video: ESPNU Live Stats: GoZips.com/Schedule - Live Stats Radio: Akron-IMG Sports Network - Steve French (PxP) and Joe Dunn (Analyst) WARF 1350 AM (flagship), iHeart Radio, TuneIn.com/Akron Zips I like that we're on "real" TV at least for the tradeoff of moving the game. EMU started out really well this year but have really fizzled lately losing their last three in a row. So what do we think on this one?

That's almost exactly what I'd expect from a college kid but not in a bad way. He's kind of dickish but so were most of us in college. That's a young man grew some passion for his school and will probably be a life long fan. That's good in the MAC.

I'm betting someone probably posted this (but I searched and couldn't find it) because it was from October but Brian Mull from NCAA.com posted what he thought were the most likely bracket busters before the season started . He did pretty well, four of his seven are in first in their conference, one in second and one in third. His only bad miss was Ft. Wayne (the school formerly known as IPFW). Anyway good call on the Zips of course but I bring it up in this forum solely because they included a picture of Big Dog. Only it isn't Big Dog, it's Tree.

Number 8 on Sportscaster Top Ten. Also mentioned the 29 game streak.

Apparently not - according to Zips MBB ESPN was confused and as of this moment even the game flow in the ESPN story shows Ball State winning.

That's crazy that the 10 seed is only one game worse than the two seed. And I question whether or not the Zips have possibly already clinched a bye, since four teams would have to finish 11-7 (and have the Zips lose ALL of their games) which would mean even the 6-5 teams would have to go 5-2 over the next 7 games (and the Zips have at least one victory against all of them), and they all have to play several of each other. I suppose it's still mathematically possible.

That's my guess.

Actually while CMU is tied for the top spot in the west both NIU and Ball State have beaten them so they are only in first alphabetically. But even weirder there is a five way tie for second (the Zips have a four game lead on everyone, I want to see someone figure out who the second seed would be right now) and then four more teams are 5-6. Meanwhile in Portage County the Flushes lost a game in much the same way we won one. They were leading by one and turned the ball over with a few seconds to go and lost on a buzzer beater. And having nothing to do with the MAC, South Carolina and Alabama are in their fourth OT.

Everything is an under, not a great game except for the ending and a Zips win! :-) Really under total points (128), under the spread (2), under on three point percentage (an abysmal 21%) and slightly under on free throw percentage (66.7%). johnnyzip84 was the only one to foresee that this was not going to be a well played game. Congrats!

Wild finish - for those that didn't get to see it here's how the final few seconds played out: Zips had the ball up by one but too much time to run out the clock, Kwan attempted a three and missed Ivey tried to grab the rebound and it was knocked out of his hands by Ball State out of bounds. Zips got the ball back with 19 seconds to go but a poor inbounds pass gave it back to Ball State (Ball State was probably the last to touch the ball before it went out of bounds but were definitely fouled anyway). Ball state scored on a layup with about 7 seconds to go up by 1 and the Zips raced down the floor and Antino found Big Dog open under the basket with 2.3 left where he was fouled, where he missed the first and made the second (whew) to tie it. Ball State tried a full court pass but threw it out of bounds at the other end (Robotham could have grabbed it but smartly let it go since that meant the Zips would inbound under their own basket with the same 2.3 seconds left). Inbounds to Big Dog who made a jumper from about 17 feet with 0.2 left. Ball State threw it full court hitting the backboard but their coach was trying to argue a goaltend which is wasn't and couldn't have been since you can't shoot from out of bounds. Besides the fact the Zips never touched it. Zips Win a wild one!

Two huge inbounding mistakes one for both teams. Really smart by Robotham not to touch it. And Johnson has a jumper?

Love the drives to the basket even when they don't make them. Opens up the whole floor.

As expected the Zips lost all of their AP votes but did manage to maintain two of their votes in the USA today coaches poll.