Zip Watcher

Then they'd have to ask for more airtime from the newscast producers, and they'd be unable to cover the pro teams at all. 5-7 minutes a day is more than the nightly news sports segment.

Interesting post .. I need to think about this perspective for a bit.Congratulations anyway for introducing a new thought to this topic for the first time in forever.Go Zips!!

My father-in-law and I had a similar conversation. He's a BGSU grad converted to Zips fan, and a couple of years ago, we were surprised he was offered by the Zips when we first saw him. Joe had a nice game indeed.I think it's amazing they only had 2 guys make more than one shot in the game.

I would love to see Houston, Tulsa and SMU on the Zips schedule. And Marshall. People who don't know football think Marshall made a bad move leaving the MAC. While CUSA isn't at the Big East level, it is light years ahead of the MAC. Marshall made the right call.+1And I'd love to see UAB, Tulsa and Houston on the hoops schedule.

There you go again, GoZips!While I agree it's best not to get too up on this one beatdown, as I suggested we don't get too down after the URI loss .. I again wonder what game you watched on Saturday.The Zips turned it over 13 times Saturday night. Is that less than they normally do? YES, it is.Perhaps no significant adjustment needed to be made because there wasn't a significant problem with the 3/4 court press / trap? The Zips issue in the first half was shooting. They couldn't throw it in the ocean for the first 8 or 10 minutes. Then it turned around.For example, in the first half, the Zips had 6 whole turnovers that led to 5 BG points. Compare that to BG having 13 turnovers that UA turned into 19 points.I look forward to the next time we see that super effective 3/4 quart press put on the Zips.Perhaps the best adjustment KD made was the one he didn't make? B) Go Zips!

In August I posted a wrapup from the MAC Championship Season of 2008-09. Saturday, the Zips begin the MAC portion of the 2009-10 slate on Saturday vs. Bowling Green @ 7PM at the JAR. Others have gotten into grading of the team, player by player. I'd like to take a look at the bigger picture of things rather than just individual performances. The Zips win as a team and lose as a team. The Good: The Zips are winning. A lot. At the conclusion of the non-conference schedule, the Zips stand at 10-4. Solid wins include Drake, Valpo and on the road vs. Wyoming. Close losses at home to Austin Peay and URI are the only home blemishes. An early setback to NC State is the only game the Zips haven't threatened in. They competed closely with Texas A&M on the road. Many other games resulted in 20+ point victories for the Zips. After dropping the first 2 games to open the season, the Zips have won 10 of their last 12 games. Team defense. Last season the Zips made big improvements over 2007-08 in the areas of team defense .. points allowed, percentages .. etc. Thus far this season, they have picked up right where they left off. The Zips are holding teams to 62.4 points on 39.8 total FG% (good for 54th and 60th nationally at this time). This follows closely to the prior year, with the points allowed actually lower this season than last. Offense: The offensive output this season is also up over last. To this point in the season, the Zips are scoring 70.8 ppg, a full 4 points more per game than last season's average. Combined with an reduction of 2 ppg in points allowed, the Zips average scoring margin has INCREASED a full 6 points per game over a year ago. Rebounding: An area in which the Zips did not excel last season has been transformed into a strength this season. The Zips are currently averaging +5 in the rebound department. This in concert with the low shooting percentage allowed helps the Zips hold opponents under their scoring averages on most nights (Wyoming and URI as an example). Jimmy Conyers: The object of many seasons of frustrations and disappointment around the Nation, Jimmy has emerged as the most reliable player on the roster at the moment. Averaging nearly a double double during the past 5 games, Jimmy has established himself as the best rebounder in a Zips uniform since J.Wood's senior year. Currently averaging 7.7 ppg and 6.4 rpg, Conyers has stepped capably into the SF role and made it his own. He's doing different things than Linhart in years past, but similar to Nate, he's become an indispensable part of KD's rotation. The Bad: Restating what I wrote about last season: This is a relative list, things that aren't optimal, but in the light of defending their Championship, things that stick out to me as areas for the 2009-10 Zips to improve upon. Generally speaking, I have few complaints about the Zips performance thus far, so don't read into these too deeply. The Sergio Leone school of commentary dictates this section to be here. FT Shooting: For some reason the Zips have gone from being a 70.8% FT shooting team in 08-09 (good for 2nd in the MAC) to 60% this season. This has had an impact late in 2 games this year, and could continue to be a factor in how teams defend the Zips going forward. I believe that as fast as it's dropped, it can come back up. Let's hope the percentage in MAC play can approach the 70% from last season. It won't bring the season's average up all the way, but it would be good if that activity settled down. A:TO Ratio: This season thus far, it's at almost exactly 1, which is a marginal improvement over last year. I think as the PG position gets settled a bit, and we start seeing more familiar opponents, the Zips guards will grow this number. A real positive here is that Zips opponents thus far only have an A:TO ratio = 0.65 (that's 26th best in the nation). Last season's opponents averaged an A:TO ratio = 0.81, so that's further evidence of improved defense by the Zips. Closing Out: In 2 of the Zips 4 losses, they controlled the game for better than 25 or 30 minutes, only to have it slip away at the end. As a team grows together during a season, you'd expect this to happen less and less. Honestly, if it's only happened twice in 14 games, it's not a big problem. I do think it's probably an area the staff is looking to improve upon as the season goes. The Ugly: I'm pretty sure I saw an alley-oop pass thrown for Steve McNees in the first half of the URI game. I'm not sure who threw it, but it was one of the more interesting decisions of the season thus far. The halftime entertainment has been down a bit .. perhaps it's a budgetary thing, but where's the Red Panda Lady when we need her? Could have been the difference in the URI game. ISP. Culminating with the "hand him the cell phone" postgame interviews after the Valpo game, our friends at ISP in Winston-Salem have had some hiccups this season. We've got a great play-by-play guy in French, but if you can't hear him, it might as well be me doing the games. Fans / posters: I think the fans have fallen down in two areas this year. First, when things were getting interesting in the second half, you could hear a pin drop in the JAR. During the run in the first half, it was intense, and the fans were a factor. Late in the game .. not so much. We want intensity from our Zips .. we ought to help provide some energy. Fans / posters part 2: The Zips are defending champs .. they win a lot. We have come to expect them to win their home games. I have high hopes for this team. We all do. But I think sometimes the hopes and expectations turn into demands, maybe unreasonable demands. I reject the notion that in order to be a true fan, you need to leave the JAR feeling miserable after a loss. I disagree that I'm not a true fan, my heart isn't in it or the bar is too low if I have the ability to be disappointed and then shake it off, look at the positives and look forward to the next game. In my opinion, it's way off color to take the stance that the Zips piss down their leg every time .. or whatever down their leg. The only ones having problems with things like that now are us fans. We need some perspective here. And a Few Comments More: After games like URI, I turn to ZipsNation at lunch to read that the Zips "never beat the teams that are slightly better or upstream from them." We are constantly reminded that the Zips lost to Gonzaga, Dayton, Nevada, VCU .. etc. etc. etc. All true that they lost those games. It is ALSO true that in the past 5 years, the Zips have beaten their share of good teams: Mississippi State, Temple (2 or 3 times), Florida State on the road. They've won a MAC Championship, 2 NIT games and played in the NCAA. In the prior 15 years, the Zips had something like 1 or 2 conference tournament wins. In the past 5 they've played in 3 MAC Tourney Finals, won more games than any other MAC team and have advanced to the postseason 3 times, winning the ONLY 2 post season games in UA's D1 history. If you leave the game grumbling that the Zips always let you down, and never beat the good teams they face .. then I think you're CHOOSING to look for something to complain about, because the facts don't support the complaint. I choose to look at the whole body of work that KD & the Zips are putting together. Finally, I'm grateful for the Zips and the effort they show every time I see them play. I know for many regular posters the last few years haven't been the best of times. The economy has hit several of the business owners in the Nation hard. Folks have dealt with the losses life brings. We've lost some of the biggest Zips supporters within just the past 2 years. For me anyway .. things like watching the Zips are a nice escape, a change of pace. These players and coaches are busting their tails to improve and represent UA and the community well. I appreciate that, and one loss by 5 points to a team that hasn't been to the NCAA tournament in 10 years isn't going to shake my enthusiasm. And my upbeat attitude isn't an indication that my bar is low, my heart isn't into it or whatever else. I remain bullish on this Zips team heading into MAC play. I think they're a bit ahead of where they were at this time last season, and being at home for the opener helps get things off to a good start. Thanks for reading. B) B) Go Zips!!

In August I posted a wrapup from the MAC Championship Season of 2008-09. Saturday, the Zips begin the MAC portion of the 2009-10 slate on Saturday vs. Bowling Green @ 7PM at the JAR.Others have gotten into grading of the team, player by player. I'd like to take a look at the bigger picture of things rather than just individual performances. The Zips win as a team and lose as a team.The Good: The Zips are winning. A lot. At the conclusion of the non-conference schedule, the Zips stand at 10-4. Solid wins include Drake, Valpo and on the road vs. Wyoming. Close losses at home to Austin Peay and URI are the only home blemishes. An early setback to NC State is the only game the Zips haven't threatened in. They competed closely with Texas A&M on the road. Many other games resulted in 20+ point victories for the Zips. After dropping the first 2 games to open the season, the Zips have won 10 of their last 12 games.Team defense. Last season the Zips made big improvements over 2007-08 in the areas of team defense .. points allowed, percentages .. etc. Thus far this season, they have picked up right where they left off. The Zips are holding teams to 62.4 points on 39.8 total FG% (good for 54th and 60th nationally at this time). This follows closely to the prior year, with the points allowed actually lower this season than last.Offense: The offensive output this season is also up over last. To this point in the season, the Zips are scoring 70.8 ppg, a full 4 points more per game than last season's average. Combined with an reduction of 2 ppg in points allowed, the Zips average scoring margin has INCREASED a full 6 points per game over a year ago.Rebounding: An area in which the Zips did not excel last season has been transformed into a strength this season. The Zips are currently averaging +5 in the rebound department. This in concert with the low shooting percentage allowed helps the Zips hold opponents under their scoring averages on most nights (Wyoming and URI as an example).Jimmy Conyers: The object of many seasons of frustrations and disappointment around the Nation, Jimmy has emerged as the most reliable player on the roster at the moment. Averaging nearly a double double during the past 5 games, Jimmy has established himself as the best rebounder in a Zips uniform since J.Wood's senior year. Currently averaging 7.7 ppg and 6.4 rpg, Conyers has stepped capably into the SF role and made it his own. He's doing different things than Linhart in years past, but similar to Nate, he's become an indispensable part of KD's rotation.The Bad:Restating what I wrote about last season: This is a relative list, things that aren't optimal, but in the light of defending their Championship, things that stick out to me as areas for the 2009-10 Zips to improve upon. Generally speaking, I have few complaints about the Zips performance thus far, so don't read into these too deeply. The Sergio Leone school of commentary dictates this section to be here.FT Shooting: For some reason the Zips have gone from being a 70.8% FT shooting team in 08-09 (good for 2nd in the MAC) to 60% this season. This has had an impact late in 2 games this year, and could continue to be a factor in how teams defend the Zips going forward. I believe that as fast as it's dropped, it can come back up. Let's hope the percentage in MAC play can approach the 70% from last season. It won't bring the season's average up all the way, but it would be good if that activity settled down.A:TO Ratio: This season thus far, it's at almost exactly 1, which is a marginal improvement over last year. I think as the PG position gets settled a bit, and we start seeing more familiar opponents, the Zips guards will grow this number. A real positive here is that Zips opponents thus far only have an A:TO ratio = 0.65 (that's 26th best in the nation). Last season's opponents averaged an A:TO ratio = 0.81, so that's further evidence of improved defense by the Zips.Closing Out: In 2 of the Zips 4 losses, they controlled the game for better than 25 or 30 minutes, only to have it slip away at the end. As a team grows together during a season, you'd expect this to happen less and less. Honestly, if it's only happened twice in 14 games, it's not a big problem. I do think it's probably an area the staff is looking to improve upon as the season goes.The Ugly: I'm pretty sure I saw an alley-oop pass thrown for Steve McNees in the first half of the URI game. I'm not sure who threw it, but it was one of the more interesting decisions of the season thus far.The halftime entertainment has been down a bit .. perhaps it's a budgetary thing, but where's the Red Panda Lady when we need her? Could have been the difference in the URI game.ISP. Culminating with the "hand him the cell phone" postgame interviews after the Valpo game, our friends at ISP in Winston-Salem have had some hiccups this season. We've got a great play-by-play guy in French, but if you can't hear him, it might as well be me doing the games.Fans / posters: I think the fans have fallen down in two areas this year. First, when things were getting interesting in the second half, you could hear a pin drop in the JAR. During the run in the first half, it was intense, and the fans were a factor. Late in the game .. not so much. We want intensity from our Zips .. we ought to help provide some energy.Fans / posters part 2: The Zips are defending champs .. they win a lot. We have come to expect them to win their home games. I have high hopes for this team. We all do. But I think sometimes the hopes and expectations turn into demands, maybe unreasonable demands. I reject the notion that in order to be a true fan, you need to leave the JAR feeling miserable after a loss. I disagree that I'm not a true fan, my heart isn't in it or the bar is too low if I have the ability to be disappointed and then shake it off, look at the positives and look forward to the next game. In my opinion, it's way off color to take the stance that the Zips piss down their leg every time .. or whatever down their leg. The only ones having problems with things like that now are us fans. We need some perspective here.And a Few Comments More:After games like URI, I turn to ZipsNation at lunch to read that the Zips "never beat the teams that are slightly better or upstream from them." We are constantly reminded that the Zips lost to Gonzaga, Dayton, Nevada, VCU .. etc. etc. etc. All true that they lost those games. It is ALSO true that in the past 5 years, the Zips have beaten their share of good teams: Mississippi State, Temple (2 or 3 times), Florida State on the road. They've won a MAC Championship, 2 NIT games and played in the NCAA. In the prior 15 years, the Zips had something like 1 or 2 conference tournament wins. In the past 5 they've played in 3 MAC Tourney Finals, won more games than any other MAC team and have advanced to the postseason 3 times, winning the ONLY 2 post season games in UA's D1 history. If you leave the game grumbling that the Zips always let you down, and never beat the good teams they face .. then I think you're CHOOSING to look for something to complain about, because the facts don't support the complaint. I choose to look at the whole body of work that KD & the Zips are putting together.Finally, I'm grateful for the Zips and the effort they show every time I see them play. I know for many regular posters the last few years haven't been the best of times. The economy has hit several of the business owners in the Nation hard. Folks have dealt with the losses life brings. We've lost some of the biggest Zips supporters within just the past 2 years. For me anyway .. things like watching the Zips are a nice escape, a change of pace. These players and coaches are busting their tails to improve and represent UA and the community well. I appreciate that, and one loss by 5 points to a team that hasn't been to the NCAA tournament in 10 years isn't going to shake my enthusiasm. And my upbeat attitude isn't an indication that my bar is low, my heart isn't into it or whatever else.I remain bullish on this Zips team heading into MAC play. I think they're a bit ahead of where they were at this time last season, and being at home for the opener helps get things off to a good start.Thanks for reading. B) B) Go Zips!!View the full blog post here.

We've got one .. and it's been collecting dust for years.

Yes, a really nice basketball player. Stud? Not a chance. At best maybe a Nate Linhart clone.Why did Gillespie offer Linhart? Just curious where the similarity is.It was Herb Sendek at NC State that offered Linhart.

Totally different than Nate. He's bigger and stronger .. but won't be guarding the 2 or most 3's .. and he's a top flight shooter from outside.If I could snap my fingers and change one thing about this Zips team, it would be for one of our bigs to be able to consistently step back and hit the outside shot. Think about Falknor, but in a more well rounded (perhaps that's a poor description) hoops player. For instance if Nikola had the percentages and consistency to shoot around 33% from outside, it would really open the paint up. CMac has shown it in the past, but they're not dropping.Euton has the potential to be that type of contributor. Big so he can bang inside and guard bigs .. but a reliable shooter who can stroke it from outside, forcing the defense to stretch a little, giving Nik & Zeke more room to work.I remember a BG game at the JAR when Falknor was a senior .. he was in the midst of a crazy hot streak that season, I think he went 7 of 8 or something like that and forced Dakich to keep sitting his bigs (Matella I think) down because they couldn't, or wouldn't, get on the perimeter to guard a 6-9 guy like Falknor. He killed BG that night. Falknor shot in the neighborhood of 44% from outside that year, higher than his overall percentage.The difference between Falknor and Euton is Euton's overall basketball experience, more athleticism, and a determination to be a good defender. If Euton brings even close to the outside prowess that Falknor had and the reviews indicate Euton has .. it will add to the Zips offensive options tremendously.Go Zips!!

Seemed to me that Zeke really showed some grit late in the URI game. He was in there battling defensively and changed a bunch of shots late. I can remember one where the guy was going up baseline, got Zeke to buy the fake and tried to go to the lane side to get around. Zeke knocked the ball free with his back side hand as the guy dribbled by. It was a great athletic play. I think URI got it back in the scrum, but it showed Zeke's determination to defend.

Euton is a high major caliber player.

What game were you watching? It was totally the opposite?! Our plan was to beat their press...to attack, and push the ball up the court. We sliced them up when we got into a "track meet." We were HIGHLY successful. It wasn't until Rhode Island slowed the game down and turned it into a half court affair that we struggled.I agree with both of you .. it may be a manner of semantics about who had the ball.When the Zips had the ball and pushed the tempo .. they were very successful.but at the same time ...When the Rams had the ball and the Zips were able to slow them into half court sets .. they were also successful. If I'm an A10 coach, I'd be looking to push the ball against the Rams and force them to play offense in the half court. URI was not very good at all in the half court for much of the night when they didn't get to the rim in the first 15 seconds of the shot clock or so. Until they hit those 2 big threes late in the game .. they really weren't able to convert on many jumpshots.

I think the comment about being overmatched may apply to the Zips entire backcourt .. at times last night. All of them struggled to get the ball to the post at times, due to the length of the defenders. The high screens helped a little, but there was difficulty with that. Off the top of my head, I'd guess that over half of our TO's were on entry passes that were bounced or misdirected due to pressure at the perimeter. It was a problem @ UMass 2 years ago, last year vs. Gonzaga .. and last night vs. URI.But I stick to my comment about McNees. He wasn't stymied whenever he tried to run the offense. He ran the offense whenever he was out there. 30 minutes. He was running the offense the whole game .. and for much of the game it was enough. This game got away from the Zips when they allowed 10-20 second chance points to URI on the offensive glass in the last 8 minutes. I don't think it got away from the Zips on the perimeter.One day (hopefully soon) .. we'll have a game flow analyzer here where we can see +/- on a stint by stint basis. Even with his struggles from the field, I'm certain Steve had a big + number last night. B) Go Zips!

We are in trouble. I watched him dribble at the top of the key for 25 seconds last night with his back to the hoop looking left, dribble off foot, recover basketball, look right, dribble dribble dribble, look left, (back still to the hoop) dribble dribble dribble, look right, dribble off knee, recover, dribble dribble dribble, pass the ball high up top with seconds on the shot clock forcing into a bad shot.Your statement might be right, but for the love of gawd we have GOT to find somebody that can run the point.A PG emerged on this team on March 12th, and on the 14th .. the Zips won a ticket to the Dance because of it.

GoZips .. I'll never question your passion for the Zips, but I have to question whether you attended the game last night .. or perhaps, which game you attended:#1: On McNees. At some point this season, you'll realize that Steve is the best PG on the team. Humpty is a good scoring guard, but if you watch closely, when they play together, Steve is the PG, not the SG. Here's the line scores from the box score for 4 players on the Zips. Care to pick out which one was Steve last night? I've cut the shooting numbers out since that makes it obvious .. but take a look at the rest. REBOUNDS## Player Name OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MINGuy #1 2 3 5 2 6 3 0 0 0 30Guy #2 1 1 2 2 5 0 0 0 1 27Guy #3 0 1 1 1 6 0 2 0 0 5Guy #4 0 2 2 0 5 1 3 0 0 17I thought that Steve was pretty good last night. It appeared to me that the Zips were better with him on the floor than without him. Seemed that KD was really minimizing the time which he didn't have either Steve or Roberts out there. Rarely were they both on the pine.Where I thought the offense broke down last night, leading to some limited scoring from outside was that the Inside-Out didn't really happen well. URI is long and athletic and they frustrated our bigs inside at times. But there were opportunities, especially in the 2nd half where our bigs over committed, allowed a double / triple team, and failed to get the ball back out to the perimeter for rotation to an open shooter. I think that's why the percentages were so low, and I think the Zips left some points out there in the half court.#2: The FT shooting does need to improve, but FYI .. the Zips missed only 1 last night that was the front end of a 1-1. One. FT shooting affects this team, but your comment on the front-end misses doesn't really pertain to the URI game.

He's saying you jinxed the Zips by observing early in the game that the Zips were for real, when they were up.

McNees and Roberts play a steady ball handling game, with help from Humpty & Ronnie.Conyers takes one of the URI guys under their average by 6-8 points, and puts up another double double.Marshall contributes 8, 5, 4 & 5 .. Zips win by 5. Endzone Hill Lawn Gnomes rejoice! B) B) Go Zips!!!

You're supposed to stand on the endzone grass, gnome .. not smoke it.

Grasshopper .. I bestow on you the bible of college hoops records online. Use it *wisely*.

Last at large was in 99 when Can't upset Wally's Miami team .. but Miami hadn't run the table or anything I don't think. Wally ended up taking the RedHawkSkins to the Sweet 16.

So you're saying the O-Line coach at San Diego, who has the benefit of having LT behind his line .. would agree that running the football with a RB isn't a relevant part of football anymore?

That would have been a pretty good post if you had stopped there.You proved me right by not providing a solution. Complaining about the current situation is easy. Finding a solution is the tough part I proved nothing of the sort. I'm not complaining about RPI .. it's simply rubbish. My only complaint is when posters use it as a crutch to either over promote or denigrate teams.That's why the games are played. Every team in the country has an opportunity to win the National Championship. Every year. Win your league's autobid .. you're in the dance. Win 6 games .. you're the Champ.RPI has never cost a team a single game or championship, nor has it given a team a game or championship. There's no problem to solve.Go Zips!

That would have been a pretty good post if you had stopped there.

Taylor has made visits to UA .. he was supposedly on campus the same time Euton was in the fall. But with the verbal of Ennis, perhaps something has changed for Stevie. Hopefully the Linhart / Gahanna Lincoln tie-in can help something here.Looking at losing Bardo & Brett McKnight .. I figure at least 2 of those recruits will be post players.