Zip Watcher

The Great GP1 needn't worry, I'm working on a 2010-11 roster breakdown and analysis for the only NEO hoops team with a recent title. Should be ready sometime next week. No charge for the optimism. Go Zips.

When that game appeared out of reach late in the 2nd half, it was Linhart & C. McKnight that willed the Zips back into the game. Humpty's heroics were great plays .. but they have no impact on the result of the game if Nate & Chris don't pull the Zips back into it. Go Zips!

+1 The game he had at BG that year might have been the best single game performance by a Zips FB player that I've witnessed in person. He was the difference maker that year.

Those 2008 guys built the foundation that made 2008-09 possible. They did a bunch of the heavy lifting. Nate showed the Zips what it was like to have the will to win. It will be interesting to see which guy on the current roster emerges to keep the Zips on that trajectory and get them back to the NCAA. McNees clearly has the will to win. Nik has the energy and emotion required .. can they pull it together. The talent is here. I wonder how the open gyms are going this summer with the revamped roster. What's happening now has a big impact on the 2nd Saturday in March. Go Zips!

Cavs are still a playoff team with little or no additions without Lebron. The East is that bad. Basically, the Cavs are the Washington Wizards without Lebron. Jamison, Williams, Hickson & the others will string together about 43 wins and be the 8 seed. The attendance won't suffer much because the season ticket base is already renewed & strong. It won't be sold out, but this won't be Stepien era crowds. I won't put it past Gilbert to get in front of this before the end of the weekend with a clear concise plan for how to restructure the roster in the next 2 or 3 years to contend for a title. One benefit of the Ferry approach has been that they DON'T have too many long term contract anchors. They're a player in free agency in the next offseason, and I think you'll see them take a Dumars approach to building a solid team, rather than hinging on one stud player. Jamison isn't a bad start. They'll use 2010-11 to find out what they have in Hickson and Green, and then go from there. I think the decimation of the Cavs is a bit overstated. Gilbert isn't going to let his franchise go down the tubes without a fight. Go Zips!

No argument about the contributions and talent of the guys you listed. Of course the "post 2008" guys are the ones that had the most important 4 game winning streak in Zips history. Go Zips!

The real question in my mind is, can we get Big Dog on national TV to "represent NEOH" and cry like a child if LBJ leaves?

Under Coach Dambrot (6 seasons?), what are the Zips top 2 OOC victories? Florida State. Temple. Mississippi St. All on the road.

If you create a user Gallery here (look for the tab upper right), you can upload as many photos as you wish. The limit is a database size restriction thing. No limits apply in the Gallery. Let me know if you have any problems. FYI, the batch upload for Gallery takes about 2M at a time without choking. Go Zips! ZW That info should be pinned in the tech support forum. It's good advice. I agree. July 8th, 2008

If you create a user Gallery here (look for the tab upper right), you can upload as many photos as you wish. The limit is a database size restriction thing. No limits apply in the Gallery. Let me know if you have any problems. FYI, the batch upload for Gallery takes about 2M at a time without choking. Go Zips! ZW

+10 That might be the best suggestion posted here @ ZN.O in a LONG time. Thanks for stopping by! Go Zips!

Great to hear. Hope those summer workouts are keeping him challenged! Go Zips!

Hey Spin, First off, glad to have you here .. I lurk one of the other regional sports sites you're around. Great to have another sports fan here. How does the Champions League title work? Don't they play more than one match in the final? I seem to remember reading something a couple of years ago where the final game was a tie, but the title was awarded to one of the teams based on "goal aggregate." Does that mean they played a series of 2 games?

The legend grows. But you're way low. I was actually born in 1545, bitten by a vampire as a young man, and continue to live on after 565 years with the minor inconvenience of having to raid a blood bank every now and then. Two times last week, I made a sarcastic comment about age that ended up being spot on. The first was when I ran into an acquantaince of mine that I hadn't seen in some time. His kids were in elementary school I guess the last time we hung out. So I make a crack about his kids being in college, not grasping the duration of our lack of contact, and he looked at me and said: "sort of, my son's in Law School and my daughter will graduate next year." I was stunned. Then a day later, I make a joke figuring that only Z-P and not the D.I.G. would remember NBA pre shot-clock .. and here the guy remembers it. Done with calling people old for a week I guess .. except Hilltopper .. who was around when dirt was clear. Go Zips!

Now see, you've changed forums. The issue @ UA is how to get rowdies to perform inside the JAR with the same vigor and numbers as they do at Lee Jackson. Now, THAT would be a home court advantage for the Zips! Go Zips!

Basketball Guy™ here & I would point to that exact item as a hurdle for me becoming more of a futbol fan. I'm certainly not a hater ... we've had pretty much every game projected on the wall here at the office (ESPN3, the Tres, can't get enough of it). But the shootout concept in an elimination game eludes me. It seems to cause teams to bunker and not try to win, for fear of making a mistake. I don't want futbol changed to be more complicated or high scoring .. I just don't get the PK finish. Seems to me that every time I follow a tournament or follow futbol multiple times in a short period (World Cup, NCAA tourney) .. the games are good, close matches that end up in ties decided by PK's .. it's deflating. I have no illusions that I have a solution .. it's just my hurdle. Not a roadblock .. just a hurdle. I think the WC is fascinating theatre. It'd be good to get some Luis ads on during the final on ABC when it goes down, similar to the Superbowl Ads ... during HT. Make it futbol centric and brag about the new facility and the team on a impressive run. That would help capitalize. Would have been better had Bradley's side made an extended run .. but whatever. Go Zips!

Close to 40?! Really? What does that make the Statistical D.I.G.? Close to 80? :eek: Go Zips!

+1

I think the equipment in use is partly to blame. The helmet "protects" players pretty well, so in turn, they feel invincible. It leads to more injuries long term, even if they're not apparent directly when they occur. Hitting with the head, near the head & neck .. whether intentional or not, is serious bananas and should be dealt with seriously. There ought to be a rule, from the NFL on down to Pop Warner or PeeWee that if you lead with the head, if you hit someone with your helmet, or if you hit them in the helmet .. it's an immediate ejection. First offense is ejection just for the current game. Second offense generates an additional one game suspension, and third offense you sit for the rest of the season. I think it may need to be phased in, but it HAS to start at the lower levels. Anyone who ever played football is ingrained at a young age certain rules about offsides, motion .. etc. This needs to be one of them. Only by making it really serious at all levels will this be addressed adequately. This won't solve hitting your head on the ground or another player as you're tackled, but it may help the problem. The head is not, and should not be, a weapon. The faster that gets solved the better the players will be, and additionally in my opinion, the better the game will be. I write this as my son is at (flag) football camp this week. But I can promise you that I'd rather him play rugby than football. The equipment makes the players feel empowered to play with reckless abandon. Go Zips!

In my opinion, Terry Pluto's best 2 efforts as a writer were "Loose Balls" and "Tall Tales" .. about the formative years of the ABA & NBA respectively. His style of introducing a topic and just letting the interviewees tell the tale worked well. In Tall Tales, there's a chapter devoted to Biasone and the 24 second clock, as well as its impact on the game. I don't recall there being many principals in the NBA that didn't agree that it helped the league tremendously. Only after that invention were some teams forced to move from bowling alleys to arenas due to uptick in interest and attendance.

Hey Dave, Since you were around back then, can you tell us what it was like before Biasone & Hobson invented the shot clock? Did you like the game as much then as you do now, or did it grow on you after that change? I'll hang up and listen to your answer. Go Zips!

First off, it is nice to get a new hotel near downtown, and Courtyard's are generally reliable accommodations. I have to wonder however if this is really the best place for a hotel downtown. Zach brings up a valid point in my opinion. It ought to be walkable from places like the Info & Canal Park. This location is a bit of a stretch in my mind. I don't think it necessarily means it' s a bad idea .. mostly I'm just frightened that the same thing occurred to me as that occurred to the kid.

Wasn't that Roger Bacon that beat them?

+1

One of the major reasons the stadium was built was because the NEEDED one. The last one was falling down...literally falling down. I don't think we are going to have anything to say about realignment and may be forced out of our current position along with other MAClike schools. I dont' think the BCS schools want anything to do with schools like UofA and as soon as they can separate themselves, they will. We really need to plan for when that happens. Agreed that the stadium was NEEDED. No question whatsoever. However, the scope and facility that was CHOSEN to fill the NEED represents a much deeper commitment to FBS football. No doubt we needed a FB stadium. The manner in which UA addressed the need reflects UA's desire to compete in major college football, not FCS. My hope is that the Zips fall somewhere in between. There are MAC schools funding Football improvements (both operationally and facility wise), and there are some that are focused on the status quo. I think those lines will reveal themselves before any real options become available. Then my hope is that some of the eastern C-USA come looking to create a new middle level FBS league needing 4 new teams. UA & UT could do ok in a league with Marshall, UAB, MTSU, WKU, ECU ... etc. No idea whether or not Temple or U@B would follow. I am still bummed there's not utter chaos right now. Would have been fascinating summer theater. Go Zips!