Zip Watcher

for some reason .. that makes me laugh out loud!

Hey now .. ball movement!

This sounds EXACTLY like the URI game from last year. Absolutely nothing working in any facet of the game. KD ought to have their attention in practice for awhile.LOVING the technical difficulties!. LOVING IT.

I should hope not.

I was thinking Rhode Island. Same issues I think.

I'd settle for ISP figuring out when the timeouts start and end at this point .. baby steps.

I'm pretty sure I saw it happen that way in March.

Thank you for another technical difficulty .. this is hard to listen to.Not that RG is giving us stats or anything, but by my count, Zeke has 4 fouls already?

No D at all out at the perimeter.

It's all good unless it's misspelled "u m a s s" .. that would be a banning offense.Go Zips!

No no no .. just thinking that it'd take a whole lot more than removing bathroom stall doors to come even close to evoking memories of the Rubber Bowl at the Info. It's phenomenal .. and in a completely different league.I think they'd have to close 90% of the press box, shutter all but one concession stand and one set of restrooms, import some splinters for the seats and insects into the open restrooms .. and it still would give a throwback feel.

You haven't been back for a game yet, have you? I of course use the term "game" loosely.

I agree .. but maybe not about Memorial.In my imagined future where the Zips are playing in Plusquelic Pavilion on the edge of campus and are routinely recruiting top 100 guys like Zeke and Dakotah Euton .. I think the JAR fits the bill quite well.As an alumn of another big-10 school, I can tell you the best thing tOSU did for the rest of the conference was move out of St. John Arena .. great home court advantage .. a classic bandbox. A couple of years ago (maybe last year) they played one game there due to a conflict or something .. and the place was hopping. Pitt should do the same with Fitzgerald Fieldhouse .. hardly anyone ever came in there and won.We should save this post .. probably not good for Memorial, as it's coming down in the next year or so .. but maybe the JAR once the team has grown into a new arena.

Ok, Dave .. I ask that you re-read the first post in that thread, and consider your sentence above. The Great GP1 was recommending that the Nation check out a band that he ran into at an event / venue. He added a comment to it about an opinion .. and the rest is history. But the sole purpose? Latitude exists here within reason .. and things like this are typically handled by the members, not the Moderators. Several people said their peace in that thread, and in our view it was handled. The probing in the thread illuminated the Great GP1's mindset on the Amish.Many times things are stricken by the Moderators .. we have a trash bin full to prove it.Go Zips!

Some brief clarifications:#1. And I think this one is very important: I don't consider GP1 a troll. Never have .. never will. There have been a few dispatched from ZN.O lately .. but in my view, GP1 is NOT a troll. He's a Zips fan. One of the loyal ones.#2. My intent in the original post, was to ask GP1 a question. Which way does he want it? It remains unanswered. It was not to be a slam, and frankly, I'm surprised he took it that way.GP1 is fond of needling the folks he calls "builders" and refers often to the "building conspiracy." This is generally in reference to those of us here who recognize the progress that the hoops team has made over the last 5 season. Some of us see that KD has a vision for Zips hoops .. he thinks we're conspiracy theorists. His post citing Bill from WF radio illustrated (in my view) some contradiction on GP1's part: Teams that lose early will lose late? .. last season the Zips lost early and won late .. I think the point is BS, and I pointed that out.Don't read too much into this .. I think several people are. I just posted an observation on his behavior .. and what I see as him contradicting himself .. much in the same manner he is free to point out to others, and periodically does so. He didn't like my analogy and observations .. so be it. We move on.Go Zips!

They played the #1 team in the country as tight as anyone, didn't they?

Because you asked (and I'm a stats loser), here's what I got:Disclaimer: No guarantees on results (used excel formulas and the final result I got was -9 instead of -3)Bardo: +3Carroll: -6Conyers: -6Cvetinovic: -5Hitchens: +5Marshall: +35McClanahan: -21B. McKnight: -2C. McKnight: -6McNees: +7Roberts: -7Thanks for the effort .. pretty interesting stuff. I've often wanted to get a programmer going to have Gameflow's at ZipsNation .. seems like it should be pretty straightforward, given the availability of the play by plays. Maybe there's a Computer Science student with an interest in basketball that could program it up for us?I got a +24 for Zeke when I scanned it this morning. Either number is HUGE .. that big of a +/- is generally uncommon. Shows he was a real impact player yesterday .. even if we all already knew it.Go Zips!! B) B)

Related question: How does the pitch look right now? Is it holding up better than last year?Go Zips!

+1No loss is a good loss. But improvement can come from things like this. Losing like this might also expose some complacency on the part of the champs. Even had they held on to the lead and coasted home for a 15 point win, the D was bad yesterday. It needs work .. and the commitment demonstrated by players will define the rotations in the weeks to come.Go Zips!

No attack .. just an observation. You on the other hand? Nice response.

This isn't last year's team and last year is now officially on the shelf. This is 2009/2010 with a team that experienced winning last year and understands how to win now. I expect more out of this team than the usualy "building process". The real BS is reverting back to losing to teams we should not lose to and excuse it away as part of a "building process".No team has run the table since the 1976 Hoosiers. So every team the last 33 years loses games now and then. No one is excusing it away, it's a bad loss .. but some folks, like the Great GP1 are making it out to be more that it is.The Great GP1 in the past few weeks has exposed himself to be nothing more than a contrarian and a prejudiced one at that (see the Amish thread and others where he's the first to drift into off-color sweeping generalizations). And lately, he's also clearly established his agenda at Zips Nation .. the contrarian pot-stirrer. Take the opposite opinion of the majority and make it suit your need with self congratulatory keyboard diarrhea .. mix in some elitist drivel implying or in your case outright stating that anyone who doesn't agree is just too dense to really understand. Congratulations, you have a web persona .. good for you.Which is it, GP1 .. do you want to root for teams that are perennial losers like your beloved Demon Deacons, or teams that (apparently unlike WF) play every game in the season .. win some, lose some & try to move forward with lessons from both that lead to growth as a team and improved performances? You probably already know that Browns Fan would never know what to do if he wasn't calling some drive time sports hack in September demanding the ouster of a coach who's been on the job for 6 months and 3 games. This is the same Browns Fan who'll be calling the hack back on Tuesday morning if a miracle occurs tonight, singing the praises of the new coach and dreaming of 8-8 seasons in the future with the guy he currently thinks is the worst coach since Bill Belicheck. Well, I'm here to tell you that in the Zips Nation, you are Browns Fan. In football, you find a way to take a single D1 FBS victory over a mediocre to bad opponent and turn it into some optimism .. nay CONFIDENCE .. about the future of the club. But in hoops, you're here to tell us that losing a game in November is reason for alarm and that you don't want to see a team improve over the course of the year or think that they can.What the Great GP1 and Browns Fan (redundant I know) lacks is the patience or interest to observe the process that a full season is. My recommendation to you is to just buy a paper or check the scores online in mid-March and save yourself from the season, because clearly you're not really interested in the team or the season. You only care about what it says at the end, and how you can spin it to make yourself feel better and smarter. You could just save the rest of us the trouble and check in when the season's over.The unfortunate part of the Great GP1 and his two-faced agenda is that he does have a way with words and his metaphors are entertaining. It's commonplace to laugh out loud at one of his posts. It used to be for his humorous observations and creative writing skill. Lately however, it's more like laughing at the poster as he struggles to keep his stories straight and disagree with everyone, painting himself in one post as a protector of minorities and exposing himself in another as a prejudiced generalizer. Truly unfortunate, but humorous. B) Go Zips!

Personally, I like hearing parallels from other teams & other fans .. plus Winston Salem is a great town.However, it sounds to me like Bill needs to hang up his headset. If you don't win early .. you'll never win late? Has there never been a Wake team that improved over the course of a season? Really?I say BS. You certainly don't want to drift into and keep reinforcing bad habits .. but last year's Zips team is a perfect example of a team that wasn't good early, improved upon its weaknesses, and put it together when it counted .. which is at the END of the season, not the beginning.Go Zips!! B) B)

My brief takeaway's from the APSU game:#1. The defense isn't there yet. The guys were working at it .. moving their feet, etc. But the communication on help and switches isn't there. There were way too many open looks inside 10 feet for the Governors. I point to this as the single most important reason the Zips lost the game. How does the D improve? More time together .. better communication .. some more intensity .. and perhaps (just for the haters) more Conyers and Bardo. For all the shortcomings that are pointed out .. those two guys are willing to get after it defensively and put people on the ground when they drive the lane. I think the Zips were soft in the paint Sunday.#2. McNees is our only point guard at the moment. When he was on the floor, with any other guards .. he ran the point Sunday. Even with Humpty out there .. Steve was the 1 and Humpty the 2. A/TO seems to say he struggled, but my feeling at the time was that the team was better w/ McNees than without him. This is where I really wish that popcornmachine.net did college games .. because I'd like to see everyone's +/- for the game. It might be telling.#3. This team will score points. My guess is that they'll average somewhere around 70-75 points per game. Over / Under on the Scorchers promotion? .. my guess is 4 home games.#4. The team defense needs to get better .. and it will. It's been one game. Things are keyed differently without Linhart, and even more importantly with Zeke. This is something that doesn't just take Zeke getting adjusted, but the whole team needs to adapt to. One thing that I noticed was that APSU got into the paint at will on Sunday. Very similar to the Portland State game in Alaska two seasons ago. This led to astronomically high percentage shots. This will be improved. The team did a pretty good job in 08-09 of denying the paint .. and they can do it again.#5. Cvetinovic plays hard.#6. The new kid can play. There's tons of time to break down his game as the season goes on .. but I walked away with a good feeling about him. Two significant things stood out to me today watching him. First, he already understands the double team and what to do with the ball when it happens. He did a very good job several times passing out of the double team to find the open shooter. 1 assist, and I counted 3 other occasions that his pass out led to a ball rotation that got the Zips a wide open look. This will make the Zips offense in 2009-10 look more like 07-08 than 08-09. Second, I offer props to the guy for looking up immediately after rebounds to see if he can get an outlet pass off to start the break. Not perfect, but a few times he got the team some fast break opportunities. No 3 Second violations. No travelling. No TO's. Solid game.An ugly game. An unfortunate loss. But there's never been a better combination of talent and potential for success for the Zips than there is this season. B) Go Zips!

The Zips scored enough points to win the game.They didn't make enough stops. The Defense was among the worst ever played in KD's tenure @ UA .. especially at home.It will get fixed. It has to get fixed. Those who fix it will play.Go Zips!

Squatting from the west coast before I go hunting for a bar with ESPN U.