MDZip

Whew! Many more like that and MDZip may not survive to ask any more quiz questions. :-) Interesting night lots of folks felt Kwan would be the leading scorer and man was he (career high 31 I think he beat his career high by 10!) but very few thought he would do it without a double double ("only" 7 rebounds, but Big Dog did register a double double - even a triple double if you count missed free throws but we'll not dwell on that since he hit a huge one :-)). So congrats to the only two people who guessed Kwan as high scorer with no double double - feetg10 and ziptumpet87.

My favorite game of any type of all time. NCAA tournament on the line against a good Kent team, in OT with that final flurry and defensive stops. Can't ask for much more than that as a fan.

Not even close to me, no question hands down Zeke. He changed the game in ways that weren't always reflected in the stats (like people not driving to the hoop when he was patrolling it). Plus will probably stay ahead of Dig Dog in total points for a career and oh yeah the leading shot blocker in MAC history!

The Bulls who have been a bit of a nemesis for us over the last few years come to the JAR at 7:30 Saturday night. This is not as good Buffalo team as in past years but still quite capable of winning. I'd be a lot more worried if the game was at Buffalo. Commence your predictions.

Let me present an "alternative fact" skip. We indeed did start 13-0 in 2013 in conference (as part of that 19 games winning streak) so we have been here before. I think the Zips were pretty clearly the best team but we did have a pretty strong challenger that year in Ohio. Both teams finished 14-2 but the Zips gave Ohio their only two conference losses. But that means the Zips also lost to a couple of lesser teams in Buffalo and Kent. I expect something like that to happen this year too.

Not since 1986 anyway, which is the furthest back I could easily find records. Kent did go 16-1 in 01-02. That was the year of their big NCAA tournament run and they only lost @Buffalo in the MAC. But their other losses in the regular season that year were to Hofstra, Xavier and @Youngstown State. I'm going to take that as a good sign.

Love that they embedded the University ad in that story too. Love the AK-rowdy selfie at Christianborg Palace in Copenhagen. I think the ad is terrific I just wish they'd do one more thing. When Keith Dambrot says near the end of the ad "What starts in Akron is noticed by the world", I think it would have been awfully cool to show DeAndre Yedlin during the World Cup and Clayton Murphy on the medal stand at the Olympics.

Or mediocrity. I put my Akron education to good use to be able to figure out meaningless things.

So another terrific game by Kwan with 20 and 11. Keeping this pace up should certainly warrant some first team all-MAC consideration. Loved this quote from the Hustlebelt story. This ought to terrify other teams. Akron held the lead at the half, led by Kwan Cheatham Jr. with 13 points and 9 boards. Akron was already good, but if this 6’10 athletic freak keeps playing like he has most of the MAC season, they take it up a notch or three.

As a matter of fact that is the maximum possible separation in a 12 team conference after 7 games. 7 games x 12 teams means 84 outcomes so 42 wins and 42 losses. Subtract out the Zips wins and that leaves 35 total wins for the other 11 teams. That's an average of 3.2 wins per teams so somebody had to win four (actually at least two teams had to win four or somebody would have had to have been at five) so that is amazing the Zips have a maximum possible gap seven games in. If that keeps pace the Zips win the MAC by nine games.

And it happened. Zips 7-0 next closest MAC teams are 4-3. Wow.

7 winners this week. Congrats to clarkgriswold, zippyfan34, 72Roo, Hilltopper, roopride, ZipZap and Zip JD. Congrats most to the Zips on a nice win, way over on the over and Josh and Kwan tied with three threes apiece.

If you felt you were a basketball power and were currently ranked #19 out of 32 conferences you might not want to be a part of it either.

Mostly the same thing but never got officially ranked in the AP poll Feb 4th 4 points (same week as getting the first votes in the coaches poll) Feb 11th 12 points Feb 18th 16 points Feb 25th 43 points (highest we got, ranked 28th) Mar 4th back down to 4 And gone :-)

I looked it up - eerily similar year in some ways. Started off with an awful loss to Coastal Carolina, then a couple "good losses" - one to Oklahoma State (I remember this one painfully I was in attendance in Puerto Rico, where Tree and Harney did not play over a paperwork issue and Chauncey, oh Chauncey why did you have to foul late on a missed three point shot? But I digress :). Anyway also lost at Creighton (and a loss to Detroit Mercy). So the Zips were 17-4 and the streak was at 13 when they got any votes in the Coaches Poll Date Votes Rank Record Streak 2/4/13 2 42 17-4 13 2/11/13 9 37 19-4 15 2/18/13 19 27 21-4 17 2/25/13 53 24 23-4 19 Ranked in top 25 3/5/13 6 36 24-5 lost to Buffalo 3/12/13 0 0 24-6 lost to Kent

MAC currently rated 12th out of the 32 conferences. Not fantastic but not terrible either. But you know what is terrible? Look at who's at #19. Wow

The ESPN3 broadcasts have been top notch. No complaints.

Akron at WMU, Kalamazoo MI. 7:00 1/24/2017 The Broncos are only 2-4 in the MAC but all four losses have been away and they have beaten KSU and Toledo at home. They are 6-1 overall at home so this may not be an easy game. Go ahead and enter your guesses.

Holy cow Marcus Keene went for 50 against Miami tonight.

Plus it would put everyone two games back six games into the season.

It was on right before the Top Ten plays toward the end of the show.

I thought it was just going to be an SC top ten on Jimond's dunk. It was a whole segment during Kevin Connors Star of the Night. Excellent!

Sadly no winners tonight (other than the Zips!). Maybe I overcorrected and made it too hard. The only two people to guess Big Dog as the Zips high scorer did not think there would be no double double. Big Dog and Baylee Steele from EMU came closest with double digit points and 8 rebounds. Even though it wasn't a great game by the Zips good win over a decent team.

Actually I find it harder with just yes and no questions. I just take the category that has the fewest number of winners and then see if they are also in the other two category winning slots. Not that bad.

EMU has just the kind of offense and defense I think will give the Zips matchup problems. They have size inside to counter Big Dog and Kwan and have quick guards to counter the Zips three point shooters. Plus Raven Lee returns tonight and he and Thompson are tough offensive players. Don't see the Zips going undefeated so I think they drop this one. However I am never so happy as to be wrong with a Zips win.