Zip Watcher

By virtue of Penn State being in the Big Ten, the BTN is already on most TV's in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. To me, that means both Temple and Pitt are unlikely fits for the Big Ten's expansion strategy. They bring zero new TV sets to the table.

Since it's all the rage & I really need to waste some time at work, I present Zip Watcher's Optimal Scenario for Conference Realignment or ZWOSRC. Pac-10 has moved first, pillaging the Big-12: PAC-16: Coastal: Washington Washington St. Oregon Oregon St. Cal Stanford USC UCLA Southwest: Az AZ St. Texas Texas Tech Texas A&M Oklahoma OK St. Big-10 Moves next, beginning today & goes to 14: East: Penn St. Ohio St. Michigan Michigan St. Rutgers Maryland Northwestern (I know, but to preserve rivalries) West: Nebraska Minnesota Iowa Wisconsin Purdue Indiana Illinois Big East continues to sit on their hands and fret. So the Big 12 resuscitates itself: Medium 12: Kansas Kansas St. Missouri Iowa State Baylor Houston TCU Utah BYU Arkansas SMU Memphis SEC Realizes they don't need Arkansas, but ought to join the party & grows to 16: West: LSU Miss. Miss. St Alabama Auburn Vandy Tennessee Kentucky East: Florida Georgia Gerogia Tech South Carolina Clemson Cincinnati Louisville West Virginia ACC is stunned that Maryland, Tech and Clemson would leave & sharpens its pencil to stay @ 12: North: BC UConn Syracuse Pitt Virgina Tech Virginia South: Dook UNC NC St. Wake Forest Florida St. Miami POOF goes the Big East FB conference. The remaining schools gather together at the Grottos @ ND and stick together with a few additions to maintain a monster hoops conference with the Pope on their side and no FB (previously discussed as the meTro conference, I think @ CBS): meTro (12, non-FBS): Georgetown Villanova St. Johns Providence Seton Hall Notre Dame Marquette DePaul Dayton Xavier Saint Louis St. Joes (Philly) Now, C-USA starts to stagger: ECU jumps into the Atlantic and disappears. Rice, Tulsa & UTEP go to the MWC for more $$$ and less travel. Which leaves the following in the wind: South Florida (Briefly BE) UCF Marshall Tulane UAB Southern Miss Alright, ECU With 6 teams intact, C-USA can maintain continuity of existence. It's lost the Liberty Bowl, but still has some marketablility in football hungry towns. But they seriously need 5 teams to get to the magic 12 for a title game. Where do they look? There's only 2 places, MAC & Sun Belt. Both conferences have a few teams who would jump given the chance. They round up 2 from the Sun Belt, and Voila! Conference Its-A-New-Day needs 3 more FBS teams for a title game .. so 3 spots open up for the MAC. Temple is the first, leaving 2 to fight for: New Conference USA: Central MAC1 - Temple MAC2 - UA MAC3 - UT ECU Western Kentucky Middle Tennessee South Marshall UAB South Florida Central Florida Tulane Southern Miss At the end of the day, I really think the 4 teacher schools in Ohio aren't splitting up: OU, BG, Miami & Can't. CMU, WMU & EMU I think would stay in the MAC. Northern's an outlier geographically from some of this, and they also have a long history with the MAC. UA & UT are pouring money into athletics & facilites. They're similar schools in setting and academics. I think UT & UA stick together to form a new heated rivalry and roll the dice on the new Conference USA. This leaves a 10 team MAC, single division league, enabling a full 9+3 FB schedule & 18 game round robin in hoops: U@B Miami OU Can't BG WMU CMU EMU Ball St. NIU I do think that if the MAC is touched it will be in a minor fashion like this. At its core I think the main 8 or 9 aren't going to move. Despite discussion of OU, something tells me they're not motivated to leave the comfort of Miami and the MAC. Go Zips!!

My guess is that they may not have to give up BCS. If the Big 12 implodes, with 4 or 5 teams left over, they can merge with the upper crust of the MWC & Boise State to create a league that is still a BCS league. The key is probably Missouri. If Missouri doesn't get or take the Big 10 invite, the league will have a constant membership of 5 members, which means it can poach members of the MWC & Boise to get up to 10 or 12, keep its certification of continual existence intact and move forward as a BCS league .. won't be any weaker than the Big East in FB. Now if Missouri goes to the Big 10 .. that could leave only 4 Big 12 schools in the lurch. They'd likely be forced to go the other way & seek membership in the MWC or C-USA. MWC is on the doorstep of BCS-dom anyway .. so it likely won't leave these 4 or 5 teams in a much different situation than they're in now as far as the BSC goes. Now TV revenue is another story. Even if they lose continuity on the conference and have to patch a new one together, the only real penalty is the lack of automatic bids to NCAA championships. Doubt Kansas is worried about that for one year. My vote is that the remaining 4 or 5 reach out to Boise, Utah, BYU, Texas Western, TCU, Houston, Rice & Memphis .. some combination of the MWC & Western C-USA teams to keep a 12 team league in that area of the country. It could trim the western half of C-USA down .. and force C-USA to do something. Boom goes the dynamite!

+1 .. one of your better ones. Though I think there's several people that would find their way to the ledge before me.

If I recall correctly, that is actually Litigation Lager from Roo Brew.

I got the same courtesy call from the Athletic Department. I think it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Lot 9 would have been a Z-Fund lot last year if they had known it was going to be available. I do think there's a little bit of overreaction here. The press release and (at least my) call didn't say "these lots are no longer available for those who parked there last year." I merely states that the lot selection will follow typical Z-Fund priority. My guess? Most of the evil, import driving, upstairs beer drinking, non-fan donors to the football program are going to continue to choose Lot's 10 and 8. Some will choose Lot 9. I predict that most people here who parked in Lot 9 last year will again drive the revelry in Lot 9 this year. There simply aren't that many "big donors" out there to fill all of Lots 8, 9, 10 and 13 .. and frankly, for most of them, Lot 10 is more suited to what they're after. I know I won't be switching Lots. Go Zips!

Not the first time I've seen that observation, but it's astounding none the less. Perhaps truer words have never been typed by the Great GP1 @ ZN.O This illustrates one of the reasons that the LP unfortunately can't and won't be able to leverage even the most toxic political climate in decades to become a relevant force in American (or State) governance. There's too many LP's out there. They can't really come to common ground easily to present a united front to the nation of independent voters yearning for an alternative option. Another observation would be that a strict Libertarian interpretation would be anti-abortion. And many (I'd lay a Lincoln on about 45% or more .. along the lines of the rest of the population) are anti-abortion. One tenet of Libertarianism is the Declaration of Independence: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Non-aggression is another. Abortion *could* be described as a violation of both. The sooner the LP takes an inclusive approach to that issue, accepts that America is divided on the topic, and states and platforms that it's a *states rights* issue .. the sooner they'll be able to move into the mainstream. I think it would be fascinating for a presidential (or Senate or gubernatorial for that matter) to take a copy of the Declaration and the Constitution to a debate. You know those little paperback jobs you can get anywhere, and maybe for free online? Every question asked can be answered using those documents. It would be very interesting to see a candidate defer question after question to Ammendments 9 & 10 over and over in a debate. Might get people to actually consider what those were about. It will be a loss for the US if the LP can't fight its way into the equation in some small way over the next 4-6 years. But when you consider the LP's true values of individual liberty and freedom, it's almost a contradiction in beliefs to be a true Libertarian and hold office to govern the people. Go Zips.

Congrats on the first locked thread in months. Due mostly to Jake, but with an assist from others. Take the language and name calling elsewhere. Go Zips

Let's not sugar coat it...we get enough of that on this portion of the board. Saying he is "moving on" is like saying someone who gets fired is "let go" as if it is voluntary. This guy got KDs boot and is out the door. I don't have a problem with that, but let's call it what it is. Pure speculation from someone with absolutely no knowledge of anything whatsoever. You're not close on this one.

I think you are forgetting the talent level that Ronnie Steward was/is on. If i remember correctly, Ronnie was the starting point guard OVER Humpty at the beginning of the 2008-2009 season. An important point. Also for much of 2009-10, Ronnie was the preferred PG backup. More often than not, Humpty was playing the off guard when Steve was on the bench. Seemed to me that Ronnie had a real opportunity to grab a big role going into his junior year with a healthy off season. I think it's unfortunate he's moving on. He had some upside that we didn't yet get to see. Bad luck affected it early, but he was largely healthy the last few months of the season. Go Zips!

One more still available for 2011-12, right?

Gotta wonder if Ronnie would have stayed had this transpired sooner. Good luck to Humpty. Fun to watch and a really nice guy to talk to.

It's been almost 2 months since the end of the season, and my notes have been on the desk since then. Life & business have delayed this summary, but I did intend to post about a month after the season. I feel like a little time away gives me better perspective on the season that was. Note that this is an effort to capture my thoughts on the season that was, NOT the events since the last game or the changes afoot for next season. That's for another day. So once again, with sincere apologies to Sergio Leone, here is my 2009-10 Zips Mens Basketball Season Retrospect: The Good! - Playing on Saturday for the MAC Title. Again. The outcome on Saturday night wasn't what any of us hoped for, that's certain. On the other hand, for me, it will NEVER get old to be @ the Q on Saturday night watching the Zips play for the conference title and NCAA birth. After 6 years of not even seeing the Zips on the weekend, we've now had 4 straight finals appearances. The team doesn't know any different, it's become a habit and routine to play on Saturday. Now it needs to become a routine to win on Saturday. But no matter how you slice it, the Zips put themselves in the position of playing 40 minutes for a league championship. That's good. - Improvement in regular season consistency. Finished with 3rd seed (2nd in non-division format). Even the 2009 Championship team didn't win the East. Far from it, they ended up with a quarterfinal game. This season, the team was a little more consistent during the regular season, avoided losing streaks and racked up a nice 12-4 conference slate within a 24-11 overall record. It was a good regular season performance. Perhaps they never really caught their stride and got on a big roll like last season, but they did grind out a 12-4 season. - The defense & rebounding, at times? This was the best rebounding team on the court during KD's era thus far. Solidly top half defensive team. Generally speaking, the Zips were able to drive the tempo of games and keep teams under control defensively. The primary weakness remains perimeter on the ball defense (exposed by the lost of Linhart perhaps), and that hurt the Zips late. But the team buy in to defense first remained strong. They guarded the perimeter well, and rebounded extremely well. The defense and rebounding were good enough for this team to defend its conference title. - McNees was clutch for the team: All season long, Steve McNees played off his primary position, and stepped forward to help the team. Where on the floor leadership was needed, Steve played a capable point guard, taking care of the ball extremely well. A season similar to Dials' senior season, Steve stepped into the role that the Zips needed him to fill. At the end of the season, he was clutch on several occasions. Is there a Zips player that has had a better go of it at the Q, ever? I'm not sure there is. Thanks for another You-Tube moment Steve .. and that voicemail I still have saved on my cell was priceless also. It's been debated in these parts to death whether or not Steve should be the PG, but I'm of the opinion that KD didn't really have a better option, and Steve put the team before himself. I'm looking forward to another season of Steve. Hopefully he'll be able to get his shot more often, but I'm sure whatever KD asks of him, McNees will gamely step up and give his best. - Conyers. Conyers! CONYERS! : Most of you know I've been on the Conyers bandwagon a long time. I've been called a Conyers apologist .. whatever. For a few years I think I was driving the wagon by myself. With one exception being my son. The boy has come aware of hoops watching Jimmy. He still doesn't quite get that Jimmy's done as a Zip. Six years ago, Joe Jakubick told me that Conyers would be the most athletic Zips hoopster the day he set foot on campus. Probably true. Certainly he passed the eyball test the first time we saw him. I think that it took a while for Jimmy to find his groove & regular role. The year off hurt him, and he overlapped Nate Linhart role wise. It's safe to say that Jimmy made the most of his senior year. After being called out by strong Zips fans, Conyers destroyed all expectations anyone had for his senior year. He stepped into the 3 man role early in the year and made it his own. Differently than Linhart, he had more of a post game than outside. But he rebounded extremely well and scored better than most of expected. His perseverance and hard work really showed and paid off. He's another in the long line of guys that make me like Zips hoops better than the BCS hoops I saw in school. It will take a herculean effort by a future player to unseat Conyers as my favorite Zips hoopster of all time. Thanks for the effort and hustle Jimmy! My boy and I will miss having you on the Zips. The Bad. - Playing to the level of the competition: The Zips had a habit of playing to the level of their competition at times. The APSU and EMU home games are an example. In both games, it seemed the Zips would be able to dust their opponents whenever they wanted to. And it's almost like they got in thier own way, preventing what might have been a bankable win. This was sometimes linked to offensive dwells more than defensive breakdowns. The offense sometimes didn't get rolling, and that allowed some teams back in games. APSU and EMU were the best examples of struggling to grab defeat from victory. - Offensive Flow: If I had to point to a singular area that I look for in next year's team, it would be Offensive Flow. The Zips struggles against perceived lower teams relate to me to the offensive end. When they played to the tempo of other teams, then sometimes they didn't get on a roll. This team never really got on a big roll this season. OU got on one right when it counted, and needed OT to dispatch the Zips. The Zips were right there, but the offensive execution at times handcuffed their ability to put teams away and move from one game to the next building on momentum. Fortunately, this rarely if ever affected team D .. but sometimes the shots didn't fall and the Zips couldn't get on a tear. - Complacency? - In the summertime, a question discussed here was one of complacency. The team had struggled to break through and win the title, which they did in 2009. The fortunes of 2009-10 really rested on what the players did by themselves in the summer time. Teams & individuals get better in the offseason, and I wondered how much urgency there would be to maintain and continue that improvement. Now while the guys didn't take any big steps back, it seemed like KD was starting over with a new group in the Fall, rather than picking it up where he left it in March of 2009. I have to wonder if the games in the summer were what KD wanted out of the guys. I have no knowledge or inside dirt than anyone slacked off. It just appeared that they were farther away in October than they might have been if they'd had a summer of growth. - Opportunities gotten away. With 15 seconds left in the game, the Zips had possession and an opportunity to defend their tourney title. They did come up short, perhaps OU took it away more that UA gave it away .. but it was an opportunity lost. A few days later, the Zips had themselves a home postseason game and the real chance to make some noise and play some more basketball against good competition. Execution struggled against UWGB .. and that opportunity was lost. A team comes into the JAR like URI who (at the time) is on a big tear and headed to the rankings .. and the Zips have them near the ropes, but it got away. There were chances this year to move forward from last year, but they just didn't come together for the Zips. Had the right one or 2 of these gone better, this would have been a great season. As it is, I call this a good successful season. The Ugly. - The finish, particularly the UWGB game. Out of gas or whatever it was, the Zips probably had their most lackluster outing in the CBI game @ the JAR. Certainly it had to be tough to get up for a small tourney game after being one possession away from repeating their appearance in the NCAA tournament. But teams get better in the offseason. I looked at the GB game as another game to see the seniors, who DIDN'T disappoint that day .. and another game for the younger players to play together. At times, it seemed that they didn't have the energy to keep playing. At times it seemed they (collectively) didn't have the desire. It didn't approach the games we'd see near the end of season of bygone eras in Zips hoops (the CMU game in 2000 stands out particularly), but it wasn't pretty. - That fan of the year guy. The Zips need some better looking fans. And a few comments more. - I think it was a nice successful season for the Zips. It wasn't a great season by most estimations. But it was a collection of guys that we could easily get behind, and they posted a 12-4 regular season conference record, won 24 overall, and once again played for the title. That's a good year in my book. The team is in the HABIT of winning now, it takes time to get to this position .. the trick now is to start winning the games that got away this year. And I believe that they will. - I will look back at this group of players as one of the best collection of guys and talent we've ever watched @ the JAR. It really is a good group to follow. It's easy to bring a little kid around these guys and have him get invested in them. They don't let us down off the court, and they bust their tails on it, while wearing our team's colors. I enjoy rooting for these guys for those reasons. I'm rooting for them to be successful. If they win a title, that's awesome .. but I'm rooting for them to win for them .. not for me. They take the time & put forth the effort to represent our UA, and they do it well. They don't owe me anything. I know they want to win more than we even want them to win .. and I'm enjoying this ride. Thanks for doing it the right way fellas. - It's been mentioned here that KD awarded me the Fan of the Year award at the banquet last month. I'm utterly flattered and humbled that he would think of me in that manner. There's lots of fans around the Zips that can give more time, more money and more energy to the Zips success than I'm able to. Frankly, I just think it's cool to be able to be around the program and have my kid be around the players. One of the great things about KD's program and the Zips Nation is accessibility. It is a family, and they'll treat you as such if you do the same. So I'm certain I don't deserve any special recognition, but I am thankful and honored by it. Finally: I'm proud of this team. Proud of the effort. Proud to be a fan. Hopeful for bigger and better successes going forward, but this 2009-10 team will go down in my book as one of the better Zips teams I've seen. Thanks to the departing players for all of your efforts as Zips. Thanks for a nice season Zips.

It's been almost 2 months since the end of the season, and my notes have been on the desk since then. Life & business have delayed this summary, but I did intend to post about a month after the season. I feel like a little time away gives me better perspective on the season that was. Note that this is an effort to capture my thoughts on the season that was, NOT the events since the last game or the changes afoot for next season. That's for another day. So once again, with sincere apologies to Sergio Leone, here is my 2009-10 Zips Mens Basketball Season Retrospect: The Good! - Playing on Saturday for the MAC Title. Again. The outcome on Saturday night wasn't what any of us hoped for, that's certain. On the other hand, for me, it will NEVER get old to be @ the Q on Saturday night watching the Zips play for the conference title and NCAA birth. After 6 years of not even seeing the Zips on the weekend, we've now had 4 straight finals appearances. The team doesn't know any different, it's become a habit and routine to play on Saturday. Now it needs to become a routine to win on Saturday. But no matter how you slice it, the Zips put themselves in the position of playing 40 minutes for a league championship. That's good. - Improvement in regular season consistency. Finished with 3rd seed (2nd in non-division format). Even the 2009 Championship team didn't win the East. Far from it, they ended up with a quarterfinal game. This season, the team was a little more consistent during the regular season, avoided losing streaks and racked up a nice 12-4 conference slate within a 24-11 overall record. It was a good regular season performance. Perhaps they never really caught their stride and got on a big roll like last season, but they did grind out a 12-4 season. - The defense & rebounding, at times? This was the best rebounding team on the court during KD's era thus far. Solidly top half defensive team. Generally speaking, the Zips were able to drive the tempo of games and keep teams under control defensively. The primary weakness remains perimeter on the ball defense (exposed by the lost of Linhart perhaps), and that hurt the Zips late. But the team buy in to defense first remained strong. They guarded the perimeter well, and rebounded extremely well. The defense and rebounding were good enough for this team to defend its conference title. - McNees was clutch for the team: All season long, Steve McNees played off his primary position, and stepped forward to help the team. Where on the floor leadership was needed, Steve played a capable point guard, taking care of the ball extremely well. A season similar to Dials' senior season, Steve stepped into the role that the Zips needed him to fill. At the end of the season, he was clutch on several occasions. Is there a Zips player that has had a better go of it at the Q, ever? I'm not sure there is. Thanks for another You-Tube moment Steve .. and that voicemail I still have saved on my cell was priceless also. It's been debated in these parts to death whether or not Steve should be the PG, but I'm of the opinion that KD didn't really have a better option, and Steve put the team before himself. I'm looking forward to another season of Steve. Hopefully he'll be able to get his shot more often, but I'm sure whatever KD asks of him, McNees will gamely step up and give his best. - Conyers. Conyers! CONYERS! : Most of you know I've been on the Conyers bandwagon a long time. I've been called a Conyers apologist .. whatever. For a few years I think I was driving the wagon by myself. With one exception being my son. The boy has come aware of hoops watching Jimmy. He still doesn't quite get that Jimmy's done as a Zip. Six years ago, Joe Jakubick told me that Conyers would be the most athletic Zips hoopster the day he set foot on campus. Probably true. Certainly he passed the eyball test the first time we saw him. I think that it took a while for Jimmy to find his groove & regular role. The year off hurt him, and he overlapped Nate Linhart role wise. It's safe to say that Jimmy made the most of his senior year. After being called out by strong Zips fans, Conyers destroyed all expectations anyone had for his senior year. He stepped into the 3 man role early in the year and made it his own. Differently than Linhart, he had more of a post game than outside. But he rebounded extremely well and scored better than most of expected. His perseverance and hard work really showed and paid off. He's another in the long line of guys that make me like Zips hoops better than the BCS hoops I saw in school. It will take a herculean effort by a future player to unseat Conyers as my favorite Zips hoopster of all time. Thanks for the effort and hustle Jimmy! My boy and I will miss having you on the Zips. The Bad. - Playing to the level of the competition: The Zips had a habit of playing to the level of their competition at times. The APSU and EMU home games are an example. In both games, it seemed the Zips would be able to dust their opponents whenever they wanted to. And it's almost like they got in thier own way, preventing what might have been a bankable win. This was sometimes linked to offensive dwells more than defensive breakdowns. The offense sometimes didn't get rolling, and that allowed some teams back in games. APSU and EMU were the best examples of struggling to grab defeat from victory. - Offensive Flow: If I had to point to a singular area that I look for in next year's team, it would be Offensive Flow. The Zips struggles against perceived lower teams relate to me to the offensive end. When they played to the tempo of other teams, then sometimes they didn't get on a roll. This team never really got on a big roll this season. OU got on one right when it counted, and needed OT to dispatch the Zips. The Zips were right there, but the offensive execution at times handcuffed their ability to put teams away and move from one game to the next building on momentum. Fortunately, this rarely if ever affected team D .. but sometimes the shots didn't fall and the Zips couldn't get on a tear. - Complacency? - In the summertime, a question discussed here was one of complacency. The team had struggled to break through and win the title, which they did in 2009. The fortunes of 2009-10 really rested on what the players did by themselves in the summer time. Teams & individuals get better in the offseason, and I wondered how much urgency there would be to maintain and continue that improvement. Now while the guys didn't take any big steps back, it seemed like KD was starting over with a new group in the Fall, rather than picking it up where he left it in March of 2009. I have to wonder if the games in the summer were what KD wanted out of the guys. I have no knowledge or inside dirt than anyone slacked off. It just appeared that they were farther away in October than they might have been if they'd had a summer of growth. - Opportunities gotten away. With 15 seconds left in the game, the Zips had possession and an opportunity to defend their tourney title. They did come up short, perhaps OU took it away more that UA gave it away .. but it was an opportunity lost. A few days later, the Zips had themselves a home postseason game and the real chance to make some noise and play some more basketball against good competition. Execution struggled against UWGB .. and that opportunity was lost. A team comes into the JAR like URI who (at the time) is on a big tear and headed to the rankings .. and the Zips have them near the ropes, but it got away. There were chances this year to move forward from last year, but they just didn't come together for the Zips. Had the right one or 2 of these gone better, this would have been a great season. As it is, I call this a good successful season. The Ugly. - The finish, particularly the UWGB game. Out of gas or whatever it was, the Zips probably had their most lackluster outing in the CBI game @ the JAR. Certainly it had to be tough to get up for a small tourney game after being one possession away from repeating their appearance in the NCAA tournament. But teams get better in the offseason. I looked at the GB game as another game to see the seniors, who DIDN'T disappoint that day .. and another game for the younger players to play together. At times, it seemed that they didn't have the energy to keep playing. At times it seemed they (collectively) didn't have the desire. It didn't approach the games we'd see near the end of season of bygone eras in Zips hoops (the CMU game in 2000 stands out particularly), but it wasn't pretty. - That fan of the year guy. The Zips need some better looking fans. And a few comments more. - I think it was a nice successful season for the Zips. It wasn't a great season by most estimations. But it was a collection of guys that we could easily get behind, and they posted a 12-4 regular season conference record, won 24 overall, and once again played for the title. That's a good year in my book. The team is in the HABIT of winning now, it takes time to get to this position .. the trick now is to start winning the games that got away this year. And I believe that they will. - I will look back at this group of players as one of the best collection of guys and talent we've ever watched @ the JAR. It really is a good group to follow. It's easy to bring a little kid around these guys and have him get invested in them. They don't let us down off the court, and they bust their tails on it, while wearing our team's colors. I enjoy rooting for these guys for those reasons. I'm rooting for them to be successful. If they win a title, that's awesome .. but I'm rooting for them to win for them .. not for me. They take the time & put forth the effort to represent our UA, and they do it well. They don't owe me anything. I know they want to win more than we even want them to win .. and I'm enjoying this ride. Thanks for doing it the right way fellas. - It's been mentioned here that KD awarded me the Fan of the Year award at the banquet last month. I'm utterly flattered and humbled that he would think of me in that manner. There's lots of fans around the Zips that can give more time, more money and more energy to the Zips success than I'm able to. Frankly, I just think it's cool to be able to be around the program and have my kid be around the players. One of the great things about KD's program and the Zips Nation is accessibility. It is a family, and they'll treat you as such if you do the same. So I'm certain I don't deserve any special recognition, but I am thankful and honored by it. Finally: I'm proud of this team. Proud of the effort. Proud to be a fan. Hopeful for bigger and better successes going forward, but this 2009-10 team will go down in my book as one of the better Zips teams I've seen. Thanks to the departing players for all of your efforts as Zips. Thanks for a nice season Zips. View the full blog post here.

Whatever happens, I think they ought to pick a kicker and let him get into a routine. The quick hook last year was poison for routine and confidence.

Late night server patching, bored IT Guy and a copy of Gimp... Brought out the Gimp! Nice. Way better than Photo$hop!

That's a monster season he had right there. Had a triple double in one game (18,18,10) and a couple of 20 rebound nights. What really jumps out at me is that the guy led the LEAGUE in BOTH rebounds and assists. Ends up in the top 5 in scoring, about 4 points out of the lead. Not sure I've ever heard of a hoops triple crown, but that's pretty darn amazing for a big to lead the league in assists. To me, that's the biggest thing the Zips have missed since Wood finished here: the good kick-out from the double / triple team to the open shooter. I'm certain that's where he's getting most of his assists. Something that will make Zeke (& our other bigs for that matter) very difficult for MAC schools to match up against is a good sense of passing the ball out. KD's offensive philosophy revolves around the "inside-out" ball movement. The past couple of seasons, while we've gotten pretty good post play, and we get good looks at the rim ... the recognition of when & how to pass out of the double & triple teams hasn't been as good as it was with Wood. Perhaps if he's in some open gyms in his hometown this summer, this knowledge can be imparted to the youngsters. It would make Zeke a monster. Great season Woody. Go Zips! B)

Most accurate summary of the McNees situation. Thank you. +1

Bowser got invited to the Arizona Cardinals rookie camp. Cool. Andre Jones is now on the clock.... I sort of figure that someone in the Bellicheck tree will give Jones a look. These guys (McDaniels, Mangini, Pioli, & Bill) all really like these guys that are versatile enough to play multiple positions. They make great special teamers and emergency nickel backs.

+2 Nice posts by GoZips and the "D.i.G. right out of Compton." Go Zips!

Guess I can't cheer for Akron since I never went there. And no "Joe Akron" can cheer for the Zips because they have no connection besides living in the city. What a ridiculous argument. Cross me off too fellas .. never took a class at the U. Sucks I'm not welcome.

I'm pretty sure it's in Vegas. Not sure the details.

I like the line of thinking, but do believe it needs to get to 12 teams pretty darn quickly to make it work. The extra coin for the title game does matter. So from the MAC: UA U@B UT TU From C-USA Marshall ECU Southern Miss UAB From Sun Belt WKU MTSU It's hard to find 2 additional teams from the Sun Belt. At first, I thought that you'd need to have 4 teams from 3 conferences so that there's an initial balance of historical power, but it may be infeasible. I guess you could grab Troy .. but I'd think it be easier if you were finding one or 2 defections than finding 4. C-USA could be in shambles .. so those 4 are the eastern half of what would be left if Memphis and UCF go East. WKU & MTSU have a long standing rivalry, haven't been in the Sun Belt forever, and are on the northern end of the league. The MAC hosed that up big time several years ago when they could have drawn them in instead of Temple. None of these conversations would be happening if they had drawn WKU into the league for hoops and kept a balanced FB schedule. So this league (not my personal priorty BTW) would look something like this, with NO divisions, a full round robin 9 game FB schedule and 18 game home & home for hoops: UA U@B Temple Toledo UAB Southern Miss Western Kentucky Middle Tennessee East Carolina Marshall The geographic spread looks something like this.

The question isn't really ?better? is it? .. isn't the question "more lucrative?" BTW, how about the old SU AD (in link posted here I think) predicting that which the Great GP1 has been advocating, namely a split between the BCS and the rest of the FBS teams.

I'm with Johnny!