Zip Watcher

I'm pretty sure Dwight Lowery was able to make it in for that game.

This was my first thought as well. Geno to Bradley? Really? He knows the Zips are going to dominate over the next two years. Bradley is a great gig .. in a town that supports the Braves as the main game in town. And with the happenings of the past weekend & last year's final four .. we might be entering a new golden era of college hoops where teams like Butler, VCU and even Akron & Bradley can compete with and beat the supposed "elite" teams. Stable programs and rosters can win the tight games because of trust and continuity that the one year reload teams don't have. The Bulldogs & now Rams are showing that it can be done. Geno can win at Bradley.

When KD was on the Ken Carman show last Monday .. Ken asked him about Shaka "wanting to stay at VCU" .. KD's answer was (paraphrasing) "sometimes you want to stay somewhere .. but you just can't. Especially for a young coach." A fundamental difference between Ford today and KD today is where they are in their careers. How old are their kids .. more simply: age. Geno is young, has a young family .. and doesn't have those deep ties to his (now former) employer. He owes it to himself, his wife & kids to advance his career as best he can with good decisions .. based on the basketball evidence, opportunity and .. yes. The finances. KD's in a different spot than Geno. Coles in much the same spot. It's a different time in their careers, thank heavens. Good for Bradley .. they got a very good coach who could be a great one. The interesting thing to watch will be if the new AD at Can't State can channel Laing Kennedy and make the right choice again. Kennedy never missed. B) B) Go Zips!

+1 For the first time in a little while, there are some NBA guys playing in the MAC on different teams. I can think of 3 that I'm pretty sure of .. and another 2 or 3 that are fringe guys. All underclassmen and returning for more next season. It's on the upswing. And the Zips are one of the teams at the head of the pack. Go Zips!

First, let me say .. good topic. I like reading how people responded to this .. and it forces a little different dialog. I'm just now getting caught up from all of the time away the past 2 weeks, so I haven't been able to post much of my thoughts yet, but I have been mulling this particular one over for the past week. I thought of several words: Belief, Tenacity, Resiliency (someone used that?), Resolve, Habitual, Transitional .. etc .. but in the end, because of a feeling that I got from watching the MAC tournament, and then the ND game, and having the chance to speak with some of the staff & players both before and after the game in Chicago .. I choose the following: Ascending This season was one that will be looked back upon as a critical season in the ascension of the Zips from a team that is competitive in their mid-major conference to one that is competitive on the national stage. It wasn't a perfect season, without bumps & slumps. It was however, a season which saw a team right itself before it mattered .. and pull together to win 11 of 14 down the stretch, including their 2nd tourney title & NCAA birth in 3 seasons. It took a few trips to the Q for the Zips to make a habit of winning games there. Then it has taken some trips to the championship game for the Zips to make a habit of winning on Saturday. Now they have played in 5 straight .. and won 2 of 3. Likewise, it will take a couple of trips to the big dance to make a habit of winning there. I believe firmly that what transpired in Chicago proved to the Zips themselves that they belong on the stage w/ top D1 teams. They know they had the right game plan to beat ND. They know they had the size and athleticism to punch the ball in against a #2 seed. They see that they got the shots they needed to compete with and scare the Big East runners-up. Whether or not an ND beat writer saw that , or Zips fans saw that or believe that doesn't matter. The TEAM & STAFF know they had the game plan and the players to win that game. Shots didn't fall. So they will go back again .. and habits will continue to be formed .. and the Zips will continue to rise. For me, I will remember this as an ascending season, where another corner was turned in the belief structure of our Zips. Get 'em on. You're going to need them. B) B) Go Zips!

Akron Athletics youtube page uploads a post game video after every regular season home game. It usually include clips from the game as well as interviews with KD and some of the players. http://www.youtube.com/user/ZipsAthletics#p/u The ZipsAthletics channel on Youtube is great. But it's sadly under-viewed. Our goal as fans should be to get every video on there to 1000 views. And to get the number of channel subscribers to at least 500. It should also be the athletics department's job to promote this. Put a link to it on their Facebook pages, display an ad for it prominently on Gozips.com, things like that. There are so many simple things that could be done cheaply and quickly that aren't being done. Everything should tie into everything else, but instead you have the website, the YT channel, the social media stuff, and the traditional advertising all as separate entities. This is in the process of being blown up and re-done. There's a process underway to resolve these issues.

It would appear he's a Zips fan.

Really what's being discussed here is the potential for losing BOTH Bardo & Cvetinovic with no replacement to step in from the redshirts / rested players. To me, it's really boiling down to what do you do with Bardo's role. He's got his detractors, but just about everyone recognizes that Mike played a key role off the bench with good defense & rebounding this season. You'd think that Euton could replace that, along with perhaps providing some pick & pop .. so not necessarily replace .. since Mike is quicker .. but Euton has been here a year, and could provide that role. Now, if both Nik and Dakotah are gone .. there's a need for another body in the post to spell Zeke, and provide some muscle. At the moment, that would be a void on the roster & in the rotations. Go Zips! B)

I have just the guy to help the Zips next season:

VCU & Butler

You should PM Hilltopper .. he's taking his '72 MicroBus .. he can probably fit one more.

I'd bet most people who call themselves college basketball fans can't keep their attention on one of these game for more than 10 minutes. They really don't like them and the network has to switch to games to try to keep fans watching. They are a waste of time. So because a writer and a football-fan-first guy opines that the first 2 rounds are a waste of time, the rest of us should be deprived? +1 on Dr. Z's post .. if the games can't keep your attention, get out your VHS of the 1991 title game and watch that instead. The advertising $$$ says otherwise whether or not people will watch and enjoy it. Go Zips!

I like this matchup much better than the Gonzaga one two years ago. Brief thoughts: They're not THAT much bigger. Diggs and McClanahan can be guarding shooters .. and if the Zips are pressing the perimeter like they've done to some success the past months .. the shots will be contested. ND doesn't appear to run the ball much. The Zips will need to push tempo when they can, and try to score some in transition. ND plays largely zone (based on articles, not 1st hand viewing). The Zips could have some success from outside, especially if they attack it more like the game @ BG than the OU home game. These Zips have been there before, and won a bunch of do or die games over the past 4 years. They shouldn't get rattled. Gerry roots for Akron. B) B) Go Zips!

What a week it was. From the loss at Can't State to the 2nd MAC Tourney title in 3 years in a matter of 8 days. I'm digging out of the short week from last week, during this short week before heading to Chicago. Thought I would put down some of my thoughts about the MAC Tourney while they remained fresh in my mind. Brevity is king here, because awesomeness needs few words. And awesome it was! B) So with the customary nod to Sergio Leone, my take aways from the weekend of dreams at the Q: The Good: Team Tenacity: None other than Geno commented in the postgame about the ability of the Zips to remain calm when things were trending for the opposition. The Zips faced big runs at the end of the Miami game, the beginning of the Can't game .. and to a lesser extent the end of the WMU game. Teams will put forth runs, and things won't always go your way .. but it is the team that can rally itself, keep its composure and see through the storm that usually comes out on top. Our seniors this season are now 12-2 in the MAC Tournament. Are there any other MAC players who have even BEEN IN 12 postseason games, much less won 12 of them? IMHO this played a huge role in the Zips emerging victorious. Multiple Sources: McClanahan comes up big with a huge performance vs. Miami, and a big bucket against Western. Diggs tears western up. McNees brings the Zips back in the first half vs. Can't .. and Zeke obliterates the paint in the 2nd half & overtime in the title game. The Zips got big performances from lots of different places .. so many places that it has to be difficult to coach against, if you don't know where it's going to come from. The true essence of a team working together for a common goal. Great to see that. Thanks guys. The Environment: It wasn't a huge crowd by MAC Title game standards, but it was a lively one, and after watching the replay, it played well on TV for a national audience. It was a great atmosphere, and validates the conference having the tournament in a centralized, professional setting. Nice show as always. Boroski, Simpson & Wyman: Perhaps the best officiated game I've witnessed in the MAC. Calls were made .. and it was even. But for the first time in what seems like forever, the stripes just let them play. Both teams were able to get into a flow .. and the stripes weren't the center of attention for most of the night. Thanks for that, guys. The Better: Zeke! was huge, tremendous & clutch for the Zips against Can't State. He found a groove in the second half of the Can't game where he was able to keep the drivers away from his body and swat the shot without fouling. A big step for him. Keeping him on the floor really changed everything. No one expects that this will be the norm every game .. at least not right away. However, he was hugely deserving of MVP honors .. and played his best on the biggest stage he's yet faced. KD has said for awhile that a big like Zeke helps the Zips compete "when we get into the NCAA's." I for one can't wait to see the big guy's first go at in in the Big Dance on Friday. McKnight: comes close to earning the Jawanza Moore award for this season. On the offensive end of the floor in the title game, he put the Zips on his back late. He took and made tough shots, late in the shot clock .. when the Zips absolutely needed them. The knock on having a team like the Zips where 6 guys average between 8 and 11 points, but no one scores 20 has always been: there's no go-to guy .. no clutch player to carry a team. Brett may have come as close as we've seen on Saturday. A great performance in his last in a Zips uniform in Ohio. Tremendous effort. Brett has shown the ability to go off against high major competition. The 2nd half against Pitt being an example. Now would be a great time for another game like that. Honorable mention to Roberts & McNees as they also were clutch. The Beautiful: This needs no words .. just pictures. This one credit to the Beacon Journal / Phil Masturzo Credit to Mark Duncan / AP This one also credit to Mark Duncan / AP .. And a few Comments More: Ecstatic for the team: I'm really happy for the team .. and it's great for us fans. What really strikes me is how cool it is to see a group of people excel at what they're working hard at. We witnessed a group of 15-20 people having one of the best days in their basketball lives .. for some their career. It's a cool moment I think. I couldn't be happier for the guys. They deserve this. Great seasons are defined in March .. but made in the summer months and early season workouts. This team has put in the work .. battled through slumps of different kinds .. and come out on top. This continues to be a great season because the team trusted themselves, the coaches and the process .. enough to be able to make the crucial plays down the stretch in 3 nights in Cleveland. More basketball awaits them and us in Chicago. If you're able to go .. I recommend it. During my days as a student, I had the opportunity to attend several NCAA tournament games in which my schools were participating .. and it's a whole different experience. My hope is that as many Zips fans as want to attend this can find a way to attend it. My secondary hope is that thousands of Purdue fans have purchased all session tickets. Because if they have, I can tell you that the Zips fans in attendance will have friends Friday .. LOTS of them. Go Zips! Enjoy the moment. Play smart .. play hard .. and play together. And have fun. I know I will. B) B) :champs:

What a week it was. From the loss at Can't State to the 2nd MAC Tourney title in 3 years in a matter of 8 days. I'm digging out of the short week from last week, during this short week before heading to Chicago. Thought I would put down some of my thoughts about the MAC Tourney while they remained fresh in my mind. Brevity is king here, because awesomeness needs few words. And awesome it was! B) So with the customary nod to Sergio Leone, my take aways from the weekend of dreams at the Q: The Good: Team Tenacity: None other than Geno commented in the postgame about the ability of the Zips to remain calm when things were trending for the opposition. The Zips faced big runs at the end of the Miami game, the beginning of the Can't game .. and to a lesser extent the end of the WMU game. Teams will put forth runs, and things won't always go your way .. but it is the team that can rally itself, keep its composure and see through the storm that usually comes out on top. Our seniors this season are now 12-2 in the MAC Tournament. Are there any other MAC players who have even BEEN IN 12 postseason games, much less won 12 of them? IMHO this played a huge role in the Zips emerging victorious. Multiple Sources: McClanahan comes up big with a huge performance vs. Miami, and a big bucket against Western. Diggs tears western up. McNees brings the Zips back in the first half vs. Can't .. and Zeke obliterates the paint in the 2nd half & overtime in the title game. The Zips got big performances from lots of different places .. so many places that it has to be difficult to coach against, if you don't know where it's going to come from. The true essence of a team working together for a common goal. Great to see that. Thanks guys. The Environment: It wasn't a huge crowd by MAC Title game standards, but it was a lively one, and after watching the replay, it played well on TV for a national audience. It was a great atmosphere, and validates the conference having the tournament in a centralized, professional setting. Nice show as always. Boroski, Simpson & Wyman: Perhaps the best officiated game I've witnessed in the MAC. Calls were made .. and it was even. But for the first time in what seems like forever, the stripes just let them play. Both teams were able to get into a flow .. and the stripes weren't the center of attention for most of the night. Thanks for that, guys. The Better: Zeke! was huge, tremendous & clutch for the Zips against Can't State. He found a groove in the second half of the Can't game where he was able to keep the drivers away from his body and swat the shot without fouling. A big step for him. Keeping him on the floor really changed everything. No one expects that this will be the norm every game .. at least not right away. However, he was hugely deserving of MVP honors .. and played his best on the biggest stage he's yet faced. KD has said for awhile that a big like Zeke helps the Zips compete "when we get into the NCAA's." I for one can't wait to see the big guy's first go at in in the Big Dance on Friday. McKnight: comes close to earning the Jawanza Moore award for this season. On the offensive end of the floor in the title game, he put the Zips on his back late. He took and made tough shots, late in the shot clock .. when the Zips absolutely needed them. The knock on having a team like the Zips where 6 guys average between 8 and 11 points, but no one scores 20 has always been: there's no go-to guy .. no clutch player to carry a team. Brett may have come as close as we've seen on Saturday. A great performance in his last in a Zips uniform in Ohio. Tremendous effort. Brett has shown the ability to go off against high major competition. The 2nd half against Pitt being an example. Now would be a great time for another game like that. Honorable mention to Roberts & McNees as they also were clutch. The Beautiful: This needs no words .. just pictures. This one credit to the Beacon Journal / Phil Masturzo Credit to Mark Duncan / AP This one also credit to Mark Duncan / AP .. And a few Comments More: Ecstatic for the team: I'm really happy for the team .. and it's great for us fans. What really strikes me is how cool it is to see a group of people excel at what they're working hard at. We witnessed a group of 15-20 people having one of the best days in their basketball lives .. for some their career. It's a cool moment I think. I couldn't be happier for the guys. They deserve this. Great seasons are defined in March .. but made in the summer months and early season workouts. This team has put in the work .. battled through slumps of different kinds .. and come out on top. This continues to be a great season because the team trusted themselves, the coaches and the process .. enough to be able to make the crucial plays down the stretch in 3 nights in Cleveland. More basketball awaits them and us in Chicago. If you're able to go .. I recommend it. During my days as a student, I had the opportunity to attend several NCAA tournament games in which my schools were participating .. and it's a whole different experience. My hope is that as many Zips fans as want to attend this can find a way to attend it. My secondary hope is that thousands of Purdue fans have purchased all session tickets. Because if they have, I can tell you that the Zips fans in attendance will have friends Friday .. LOTS of them. Go Zips! Enjoy the moment. Play smart .. play hard .. and play together. And have fun. I know I will. B) B) :champs: View the full blog post here.

From where I stand, the team on paper looks pretty damn good. They were loaded with seniors, brought in some good talent in the off season and have a high school All-American playing for them. I don't know why everyone is so quick to downplay the talent on the team. They have better talent than Can't State and showed it last night. Can't State was the No.1 seed and there is no way that team has more talent than Akron. We ARE a talented team. +1 on that!

Can't made some shots early, certainly that's true. The nuance here is that the Zips forced them into jump shots. Can't hit some jumpers early .. and for the most part, fell in love with them for the rest of the half. Very little inside scoring was done by Can't & almost none of the open path layups we saw a week ago. Can't hitting shots isn't necessarily indicative of the quality of D being played. The Zips executed a game plan designed to force Can't into their weakness offensively, and away from their strength. Can't State hit some big shots early and they weren't aggressive in getting back to what they do well. At no time, even in the beginning of the game did I think that Can't was getting over on our D. They were hitting the shots we wanted them to be taking .. percentages even things out .. and it played out in the Zips favor. It was a good game plan, and the guys executed it well. Go Zips!

They weren't ready to play last night. In fact, they were terrible the first 5-7 minutes of the game. The players found it within themselves to play better after that. Let me get this straight. You're saying Akron won in spite of their coach last night? No negatives here. The Zips won for all the right reasons. They won because our group of players played better than their group of players over a 45 minute game. During the first 5-7 minutes of that game, the Zips were terrible followed by Can't being terrible for a 5-7 minute period. The Zips were sleepwalking at the beginning of the game. Both teams were well coached and the refs were not a factor. The Zips played good, cohesive D from the opening tip. They couldn't get shots to fall in that early period, but the D was there & kept them in it. Much different from a sleep walk. Defense won this championship .. they forced Can't State into making jumpshots & not layups .. and Can't State didn't make enough of them.

Fixed.

oddly enough .. other than the hair trigger T on Quincy .. Boroski has been solid this weekend.

More than anything else, I think this tournament is about the Zips .. and less so their opponents. - The Zips need to play together. This means sharing the ball on offense & communicating on defense. It's no secret that the 7 game streak coincided with good D, and a high A:TO ratio. I think it's pretty much that simple. They play together & communicate on D .. and I think we've got a good shot to see 3 Zips games this weekend at the Q. B) Go Zips!

I'll take "it was the grand daughter" for $100, Alex. On the upper right, just below the gold bar, but above the thread posts, there's an "options" button. Click that, and check your display mode. My guess is that you got switched over to linear or something. Choose "standard" and it should return to normal. Go Zips!

I really don't care how often you see them. You're part of the apology train. I make no apologies for anyone. It's not about how much I see them, it's about how little you see them. You remain uniformed about what is actually happening game over game, year over year on the court. Not so. For the past few years, the offense was not up tempo, not push it. It was set up to go to the beast on the block and work the half court set for open looks. While he's wanted to be up tempo .. I think this year is the closest he's gotten to that. At times. 2010-11: 57 spg 2009-10: 50 spg 2008-09: 54 spg 2007-08: 53 spg 2006-07: 56 spg Most shots per game this season compared to the last 5. You're the guy who beats the drum that you need to score more to be a better team .. you think it's simple. Well, more chances help you score more, and this team is generating more chances than the past. Significantly more than last season. Next season, I think it continues to go up. GP1 is the only one calling this re-building. The program is on a sustained run of success. KD & the staff are working to further move the program into sustained excellence. Go Zips! B)

When aren't we rebuilding?....... He's been here seven years....how much more rebuilding can we take? There's no rebuilding going on here. I appreciate the reality that you see the Zips on a limited basis, with the stupid STO blackout rules and all. In my opinion, the best description of this season is that it has been a bit of a transition year. The Zips are transitioning from more of a half court based execution team to an up tempo offense & defense. Some of this is actually evidenced by the Zips shots per game count .. I haven't checked, but I'd guess the Zips took more shots in league play than any other team. They have strived to push the ball at most every opportunity the past 6 weeks or so, and the zone D with perimeter pressing has started to come into the game plan. Unlike the NFL, this type of change can't happen overnight with a new coordinator hire & cancelling some player contracts. It does take time to evolve the personnel. Joyce, Middleton & Dials were a lot of things for the Zips. Big winners, heady guards .. good shooters. But they weren't going to press teams and they were only moderately effective on the break. What we're seeing with guys like Abreu, Diggs, Zeke & Egner is a move to players that can get up and down the court more. Next season appears to bring a couple (maybe as many as 3 or 4) more players who fit that system. We will continue to see a move to more 3/4 court defense & up-tempo offense. It's that type of team that will have the best chance of making and sustaining an impact in the NCAA's. KD knows this, and continues to work to make the Zips into that. What I think is good about the program is that they can work through a transition like this and remain relevant in the conference race. For arguably the 6th year in a row, the Zips enter the conference tourney as one of the 2 or 3 teams most likely to cut down the nets. Have they done it every year, no. But you can't win the championship if you don't play for it. And play for it they do .. year in and year out. As the athleticism and size continues to improve .. I think we'll see more separation with the league .. and competitiveness nationally. It simply can't be done at this level without some time to bring in and groom players. My $.02. I see big things this week. B) Go Zips!

I don't think satisfied = complacent. My wife is a great cook. And while I'm satisfied every night with what she is able to whip up after a full day at the office, I still very much look forward to the opportunities to enjoy what Michael Symon or Jonathan Sawyer has to offer.