MDZip

And #3 seed Baylor gone less than an hour later. Two three seeds gone in the opening four games of the tournament. Going to be another good one.

Barber named finalist for Sullivan award. Awesome, thanks to everyone that helped. Now we need to help him win it. Contest ends March 25th so we don't have to do it very long, c'mon Zips nation, give him a big push.

Does the pay wall still exist? For some reason I'm able to read as many stories as I want on the ohio.com site.

Now that the season is over (and with the decision by the Zips not to participate in a post season tournament probably not easily arrived at since that is one of the things the Zips like to tout, how often they have participated in the postseason under Dambrot), for a little fun, Hustlebelt presented each teams all time team to see how they would stack up against each other. I think CMU has the best overall, with BGSU and Miami being pretty close too, but I disagree with two of the Zips choices: G: Steve McNees (2008-11) G: Joe Jakubick (1980-84) F: Derrick Tarver (2002-04) F: Romeo Travis (2004-07) C: Zeke Marshall (2010-13) I would substitute Eric McLaughlin for McNees and Len Paul for Derrick Tarver and I think the Zips might have a shot. And by the way, with the success of the Bulls this year, Hustlebelt reported that Bobby Hurley's name is potentially being discussed as a good fit for DePaul. Another reason to be happy KD stays put.

You can't tell that story without the representatives response to Bowden's response though - “So I tell him, ‘Yes, I’m interested,'” he says. “And the guy goes, ‘Really?'”

Should be a good game, the only team that the Zips don't match up well against is Toledo, so I'm really rooting for CMU tonight as well. Both Buffalo games were close contests, my only concern is how tired the Zips might be. Great run in this one. After having never even made the semifinals in MAC tournament history before this long run of dominance, the Zips have now made at least the semifinal every year in the last ten years. Last time they didn't make it at least this far was in the 2005 MAC tournament. We're pretty spoiled. Edited - since I seemed to have touched a nerve with my verb choice, I will amend it to say we're lucky that we've been treated to a long run of success, especially knowing it doesn't happen all of the time as we know from being Zips fans in the past. I'll still bet every other fan base in the league would be happy to trade places over the last ten years with us, just as I'm sure we'd have been happy to trade for the best team in the leagues experience prior to that. Of course part of reveling in the good times is the sticking through the hard times.

Still fewer points than minutes played - that's not a good stat. Good thing the Flashes have been almost equally awful. Still in it.

Ugh - 1-10 to start from 3. Not likely to be 40% shooting tonight. Could be tired legs. Playing pretty well defensively.

Rough afternoon for the ladies, lost by almost 30. Only hope that the men's three seed has just as bad a time.

During the game they announced that a losing Ohio lottery ticket could again be used for a buy one get one deal.

At this blistering pace it will be 12-12 at halftime.

And Dave In Green was extensively quoted and now they are making a TV series about him. Amazing!

It was mentioned by Frenchie on the NIU playoff basketball broadcast that Shawn Barber has been nominated for the Sullivan award, which is given to the Nation's top amateur athlete. There are a number of college football and basketball players nominated but they get enough attention (and if I need to motivate the anti-tOSU crowd, so be it, there is a Buckeye nominated ). Past award winners have included people like Peyton Manning and Olympic Gold medalist Michael Phelps, Shawn Johnson and Missy Franklin. You can vote once a day for Barber here, there will be an elimination round that will cut it from 12 down to 6 finalists. Help him out, Zips fans he could be an Akron Olympic medalist in a couple years, how cool would that be to have a Zip in the Brazil World Cup followed by a Zip in the Brazil Olympics?

Baby Blue?

Even though this year the format hurts the Zips, I actually really like the format and think other mid-major leagues should think of adopting it. It makes the regular season a lot more meaningful and you should give your top seeds a little more protection. They earned it. But thinking back to the Zips being 8-3 and the number one seed and then finishing 1-6 (sigh) does not give me a lot of hope for tonight. Zips are in a steep decline while NIU has really improved. I think the Zips season ends tonight.

How often do you think it happens that the seventh seed in a tournament beat five of the six teams ahead of them and swept two of them?

Except maybe the people who were actually a part of the last wrestling team Akron ever had. Lot of foot in mouth on the board here recently. :-) It was a real shame too, because the Akron area has long been a stronghold for good high school wrestling, one of the reasons Can't has had a pretty good team for a long time. I pay attention to the minor sports maybe more than most other folks because to me that's what college sports are supposed to be, not a breeding ground for professional leagues. I find the Olympic type sports to be a little more pure in that way. I certainly root for the Zips in the big ones, but I also enjoy the minor ones. I think Shawn Barber is a more amazing athlete than anyone on the major sports rosters. And the reason I always enjoyed wrestling was because you didn't have to hit the genetic lottery to be a part of it, and even though you were part of a team it really was an individual sport, and if you worked hard enough at it you could get better. If you were 7 feet tall even without much talent at all the basketball team would probably find a spot for you, same for football if you weighed 250 pounds.

I think everyone is really overlooking how good Central Michigan is, the Zips were pretty lucky to hold on and beat them and they've beaten both Buffalo and Toledo twice. I would be OK with the Chipps winning it all since the odds are really long for the Zips.

Still going to be tough to win it this year, if the men can't beat Can't tonight, it's a tie, and in the spring Can't has a clear advantage in baseball and men's and women's golf, the Zips probably have the advantage in M&W T&F and softball is probably a tossup. Men's soccer and swimming (where Can't doesn't have teams) would have helped.

Well I'll be watching the game since its on ESPN2, but this is the least excited I've been about a Can't game in quite some time. A promising season really went up in flames, eerily similar to the football season where a promising start disintegrated at the end of the season (even though there is one game left, both basketball and football ended on a 1-5 stretch). Always good to beat the Flashes, but sadly it's not going to mean much this season, I'm afraid.

The Zips are definitely alive for a top four seed. It's not still possible to grab the number one, since either Toledo or CMU will finish with at least 12 wins. The fact that the Zips lost to lower division teams much more than the upper division teams oddly works in their favor. The first thing that must happen is the Zips must win their final two. If they don't, there are still some outside scenarios that could still give them seed #4 but they are pretty remote (like requiring both Buffalo and Can't to lose their final two games). Top four seed contenders remaining games: East: Zips: @Miami, @Can't BGSU: Can't, @Buffalo Buffalo: Ohio, BGSU Can't: @BGSU, Akron West: Toledo: @CMU, @EMU CMU: Toledo, @WMU WMU: @NIU, CMU Buffalo looks to be in the best shape since both of their games are at home with the easiest draw So as it looks right now, here are the best scenarios for the Zips. Games tonight. Toledo is the Zips kryptonite and are the only top team to hold an advantage on the Zips, so probably best for them to beat Central and bring Central back to the pack as they could also lose the Western and the Zips hold the tiebreaker with them. The Zips pretty much need to beat Can't in the finale so yep root for them against Bowling Green (I threw up a little in my mouth there). It'd be great if Ohio upset the Bulls too but I don't think there is much chance of that happening. Those are the important games tonight and if the Zips can beat Can't it sets up some really interesting final scenarios. If the Zips tie with only these teams, here is how the tiebreakers would go: 1. Tie only with CMU, Can't State, BGSU or WMU: Zips win all of these. 2. Tie only with Buffalo: Zips win it, with a 1-1 record against Buffalo, but the Zips are 1-2 against Toledo and CMU while Buffalo is 0-3 and at least one of those team will have 12 wins (if BGSU factors in the Zips already have two wins there) 3. Tie only with Toledo (not even sure that is possible): Zips lose If the Zips tie with these two teams, here is how the tiebreakers would go: Can't and Buffalo: Can't eliminated (0-4 vs. UB and UA), goes to tiebreaker 2 Can't and BGSU: Zips win 4-0 vs these two BGSU and Buffalo: Zips 3-1 and BGSU at best 1-3 even if they beat Buffalo (buffalo at worst 2-2), Zips win again CMU and Buffalo: Zips 2-1, CMU 2-1, Buffalo 1-3, Buffalo eliminated, Zips win head to head against CMU CMU and BGSU: Zips 3-0, BGSU 1-2, CMU 0-2, Zips win CMU and Can't State: Zips 3-0, Can't State 1-2, CMU 0-2, Zips win Toledo and almost anybody: We're screwed Three way ties: Can't State, Buffalo, BGSU: UA 5-1, Buffalo (5-1, best they can be), BGSU (3-3, best they can be), Can't State (1-5, best they can be), Zips win Can't State, Buffalo, CMU: UA 4-1, CMU 2-1, Buffalo 3-3, Zips win Buffalo, CMU, BGSU: UA 4-1, CMU 2-2, Buffalo 3-3 (best case), BGSU 2-3 (best case), Zips win Can't State, BGSU, CMU: UA 5-0, case closed, Zips win Toledo and anybody: Zips are screwed So if the Zips can manage to at least get into a tie with any teams for the fourth (or better) seeding position, they win an awful lot of tiebreakers. Just win baby.

IIRC, wasn't swimming and diving really terrible at Akron for a very long time? Pretty amazing that they have won two straight MAC titles now.

And has a lot of baseball been played there since November?

That area in North Carolina got about 7 inches of snow today.

The UB game looks to be pretty much an elimination game for that fourth seed. Again maddening as the Zips beat every team at .500 or better except Toledo and lost to every below .500 team except Ball State.