Zip Watcher

"Nice job trying to ruin an otherwise exciting day to be a Zips fan." Pot, this is Kettle.Was thinking the same thing .. Hey skip .. I know some little kids who are learning to walk at the daycare mine go to .. wanna stop by and remind them that they still fall down now and then? Wouldn't want them to be proud of their accomplishment or gain some confidence, now would we?

I was going to say .. those are some GOOD looking Zips fans!! Save for maybe that one guy. B) Go Zips!!

1986.Hmmmm.

I would phrase it this way:We control our own destiny in reaching the NCAA Tournament. No team we'll face is better than the Zips. It comes down to coaching and execution from here on out.

That makes me laugh .. very funny.

I take the boy out of school (pre-school) to go to the early games today. That gets his fix .. and I don't have to burn a half court seat on the weekend for a kid who will get tired and not get it completely. It's totally low key & easy to get a good seat. I'll enjoy today. For those of us who've been buying the MAC PAC tickets to go to the whole tournament for 10 years, today is free basketball.FYI GoZips88 .. if you don't mind sitting away from the other Zips fans, you don't need to pay more than $5 each for your tickets .. they should be readily available on the street .. last year, I was able to pickup 3 or 4 extras for $10 total when I went down.Cost shouldn't really an issue for the fans today.Now, having to explain to my boy why the "guy with a basketball for a head" (CMU "mascot") isn't there .. now that may take some effort for me today.

I haven't really seen Geno defend Singletary .. where'd you find that?

Gotta love seeing a big running the break all by himself. Nice.The near tea-bagging at the end is pretty cool too.Go Zips!

It doesn't diminish what he has & continues to do for the program. These are observations regarding taking the next step. He's on the doorstep of a MAC title EVERY YEAR. To win it .. the team, players & coaches included, may need to improve to get over the hump. That's all.No one here is doubting his impact .. but everyone wants a title, right? KD included.Go Zips!! B)

CK .. your years are shifted by 1, FYI. But I think we can add UMass to the list. Double digit lead midway through the 2nd half. Took foot off the gas, combined with failure to adjust to a different defensive tactic by Coach Ford .. late loss.I posted the other day that the Zips can beat anyone by 10 or lose to anyone by 5. Win!'s post kindof spells it out. Pretty clearly if you ask me.Here's my questions:1. Why do the Zips allow the MAC style to affect their late game strategy? Generally speaking (broad strokes here) .. most of the conference can not stick with the Zips in a higher scoring affair where the ball moves inside out quickly and there's game flow. That flow requires energy .. most teams play 7-8 guys. The Zips play 10. Coupled with the good defense, the Zips can wear teams down midway through the 2nd half .. if they keep the foot on the gas.2. Why do we dribble the ball so much at the end of halves / games? I used to think it was Joyce who did that (see WMU game CK referenced) .. and it drove me NUTS to the point of looking forward to having a different PG. I owe you an apology Dru, as it now appears to me to be a component of the Zips late game strategy to milk the clock by dribbling. I imagine that the point is to shorten the game and try to get the best free throw shooter fouled .. but generally it means the Zips don't get the ball inside the arc until late in the shot clock or never .. they don't get fouled .. or they turn it over.3. Why not have Roberts as the primary ball handler late in the game? He's money at the line .. and steady with the ball. Steve's doing his best .. but he's a 2 guard. The 30 foot post up isn't really helping us.4. The Zips NEVER take a 2 for 1 at the ends of halves or games. Why not? Down 1 with 50 seconds or whatever yesterday. Why not get the best look you can in 15-20 seconds and make Can't State run their offense against the Zips strength (Defense) to get a shot. Once you run the clock down .. they don't have to do anything but wait for you to foul. The Zips NEVER take 2 for 1 .. I don't understand why.I'm not a basketball expert .. and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night .. but I'm confused by these things.I still believe the Zips are good enough to get this done this week. I just don't have a lot of comfort in late game / late shot situations. It appears to me that they're playing / coaching not to lose (See: Shottenheimer, Marty) rather than pushing the ball to finish the game strong. Think back to the OU game last week. Up 6 or 8. The McKnights have a WIDE open 2 on 1 against a single slow OU defender. Go in for the dunk or easy layup to ice the game? NOPE. Pull it back out into a sideline trap and turnover.This team and coach can be better than this .. I'm there pulling for them. Cause when they figure it out .. it'll be a boat race for the Zips. I'm hoping that's this week.Go Zips!! B)

Did the guy steal your girl? Why the axe grinding?The guy is physically stronger and more aggressive than our other current options. He's in his 3rd year .. why is it so hard to understand that he's ahead of some other guys? If you don't want to accept the truth, I won't restate it for you.He's a defensive specialist on this team. He plays limited minutes .. you're beating the drum, you know the statistics .. the guy's playing a whole 15 MPG .. he's the 7th guy in the rotation. Today didn't happen because of Bardo.

I'm in the camp that thinks Bardo helps this team .. he can't be an offensive centerpiece .. no one is saying that. But he's an athletic banging body .. a big that we need.Cut Mike some slack.Go Zips!

OK .. building on some confidence that the 2 seed West winner factors into the tie-breaker, I think I can phrase it again .. may be cleaner with seeding details:If Akron wins vs. Can't:The Zips will be the #1 Seed in the following situations:1. OU beats BGSU. U@B beats Miami & Ball State wins the West (UA 1-0 vs. BSU, U@B 0-1).2. OU beats BGSU. Miami beats BGSU & CMU wins the West (UA 1-0 vs. CMU, MU 0-1).The Zips will be the #3 Seed in the following situations:3. BGSU beats OU. Regardless of the outcome of MU vs. U@B.4. OU beats BG, MU beats U@B & WMU or BSU wins the West.If Akron loses @ Can't:5. An OU win vs. BGSU gives UA the #4 Seed (& bye)6. A MU win gives UA the #4 Seed7. A BG win & U@B win drops UA to the #5 Seed.The closer I look at this, I'm feeling better about things. There's really only one scenario (#7) where the Zips play on Tuesday. EVERYTHING else puts the Zips through to Thursday.Go Zips!! End the speculation and POUND the flushes .. take control of your own destiny! B) B)

My personal opinion is that it doesn't matter whom the Zips play. It matters how the Zips play.What matters is the Zips finding a way to re-discover some offensive rhythm ... er ... rhythm on offense. If they can do that, the opponent is less important. Now by "doing that" I mean against man, against 2-3 zone .. against press .. etc. In the middle of conference play, the Zips had it going .. so it's in there .. they just need to re-find it.Finding some offense, and (this is the important part) remaining committed to the stifling defense they've shown most of the season will give the Zips a very good shot at cutting the nets down.As for matchups against the East teams:- Miami: Doesn't scare me because they can't guard our bigs. Their depth is suspect, and in the 2nd half we can wear them down with the McKnights .. not an easy win .. but I think Akron can force the issue even in the half court and get good looks at the bucket. Zero chance the Redskins will come out in a 2-3 zone against the Zips.- OU: What we saw last night .. they're not very deep .. we can have a horrible shooting night and still be right there. You need to defend them the entire 35 and force them into bad shots. Also keep Tillman off balanced.- BG: Were the Zips to have aggressively pounded the ball inside on Sunday like last night .. even 5 or 6 times .. we'd be talking about having a bye already sewn up, and perhaps securing the 1 seed even with out winning at the MACC. I think the Zips match up well here. Solving the 2-3 a bit earlier in the game would put big time pressure on the Falcons.- U@B: I think defensively they give us problems .. maybe my least favorite matchup against the East because I haven't seen them much. Reggie's a good coach, and I'd think we'll see some zone.- Can't State: Sunday will tell the story. They appear to have 3 (potentially great) scorers .. and a bit of a drop off there. I don't think they have the cohesiveness defensively to successfully pull of 40 minutes of a 2-3 zone like BG did. Not crazy about playing them 3 times .. but we have beaten them 3 times in one season before.West:- EMU, CMU & UT don't really give me cause for too much concern. CMU has finished better down the stretch .. but taking the air out of the ball only got them beat by 25 @ the JAR. Not sure what they'd do differently a 2nd time around.- NIU: I have no interest in playing them. Sure, they're not good away from DeKalb, but Patton has KD's number some how some way .. if we could avoid them .. I'd be happy.- WMU: We seem to be able to play with them the past 3 or 4 years as long as it's not in Kalamazoo. - BSU: Maybe the best team in the West .. should win the West. Not sure why their record is as bad as it is .. but they seemed to be the best West team to come into the JAR by a big margin to me.Ultimately, I think the Zips have shown they're good enough to beat most any MAC team by double digits .. and also bad enough to lose to most any MAC team by 1 or 2 buckets. It's up to them how it's going to be.Go Zips!! B)

I'll restate it:The #2 seed plays the 7 seed in the quarters. The 7 seed is probably going to be an East team. So the #2 seed may very well go home Thursday night, leaving East teams only. You can't assume that the #3 seed is going to play the West winner in the semis if the West winner has to play an East team on Thursday in the Quarters.That's why I don't think there's a big difference there. Both the #3 and #4 will be playing East teams on Thursday .. and if the favorites carry through .. they'll all be playing East teams on Friday.

I think this is a big leap. Remember that the #3 will have to (likely) play the #6 on Thursday, which looks to be an East team. So I'm not so sure that the #3 will ever see the #2 seed.

Mike, I don't know the answer .. but in the dynamics of the current situation for the Zips, I don't think it matters.Here's why:The only 3 teams in play in the West are WMU, BSU & CMU. Against these teams, UA is 3-0. The Zips can't LOSE any tiebreaker involving the West champs .. no matter if it's a clear winner, a 2 way or 3 way tie. However, they CAN WIN a tiebreaker if one comes into play with Buffalo or Miami, as UB was only 2-1 against these three (lost to BSU) and Miami was 2-1 (lost to CMU). So the West thing can't hurt the Zips .. only help them. And if they're in a tie for something with BGSU and it goes to the West, both teams were 3-0 in those games .. and it goes on down the line, where we would generally lose since BG went 2-0 vs. U@B.

That's PHENOMENAL .. great job ladies & good luck Saturday!

Ok, There's some dispute regarding the tiebreaking procedure, as to whether or not it goes down the schools as they're ranked by RECORD ONLY or if it goes down the schools as their ranked by SEEDING. This is important because then the record of tied teams against the West winner would come into play. I'm going to try and break it down both ways.First, the WEST: To get this out of the way, here's the situation in the West: Ball St. wins the West by beating EMU @ HomeWestern Michigan wins the West by beating CMU @ Home if BSU loses to EMUIf CMU beats WMU & BSU loses to EMU, there will be a 3 way tie in the west.That tie is broken by whoever wins the MU @ U@B Game: A Miami win gives the West to CMU. A U@B win gives the West to BSU.Make sense? Hope so.Now, moving on to the East, there appear to be 2 schools of thought. First, let's deal with the general vagueness of the conference site, and the method employed by most fans of other schools (Mollaut for example). This says that the seeding order doesn't play a role in tiebreakers. You just go down the rankings by record.In this case:Akron gets a bye by beating Can't State, no matter what.Akron WINS the East with a win vs. Can't State AND wins by both OU AND U@B on SundayAkron secures a BYE with a win by Miami, regardless of what happens vs. Can't StateHOWEVER .. per Rasor, who is citing KD & Greg Bach as sources (ones I'd think know the details pretty well), the tiebreaker that uses records against the rest of the league in descending order DOES include the West winner as the 2 seed. This can change things to the Zips' benefit if true. Basically it gives the Zips one more route to the 1 seed. I don't believe it affects the bye in the case they lose to Can't.In this case: Akron gets a bye by beating Can't State, no matter what.Akron WINS the EAST with a win vs. Can't State AND wins by both OU and U@B on SundayAkron also WINS the East with a win vs. Can't State and Miami win @ UB if BG loses to OU and CMU wins the West.Akron secures a BYE with a Miami win vs. U@B, regardless of the Can't State outcome.As stated above, I'm not 100% certain regarding the West seeding impact on tiebreakers. But the simple things are this:1. With a win, Akron gets a bye.2. With a win, coupled with U@B and OU wins Sunday, Akron gets the 1 seed.3. With a Miami win, Akron gets a bye.Go Zips!! Time to find the offensive flow again! B)

Good win .. had to have it. Now on to Wanker County.Observations from last night:- KD finally got away from letting the opponent dictate the style and tempo in the second half. I was relieved to see it. They punched it inside & got Brett some good looks. They penetrated the middle of the zone, and that led to kick outs & rotations to open shooters. Our guards are ice cold .. but at least we got them some more open looks.- I thought McNees helped us in the second half when he settled down. Humpty looked like a Frosh in December .. very tentative with the ball. Good on D .. but tentative with the ball. That led to some turnovers.- Welcome Back Conyers! Jimmy picked a good time to come in and contribute. I think he helped us big time with energy & defense in the second half. His attempts were in the flow and open looks. 1-2 from outside I think? Jimmy helped yesterday. He was also able to "commit" a foul that should have been Brett McKnight's 4th foul earlier in the half .. so that helped.

Cameron was in attendance Thursday night applauding the Zips efforts.

For now, I'm going to assume the West winner doesn't come into play here. It can only help the Zips in the case of a 3 way tie with WMU / CMU & BSU .. in that case if it came into play while UA & Miami were tied at the top of the East .. CMU would win based on having beaten Miami .. and that would potentially give the East to Akron.Concentrating on the bye should the Zips lose on Sunday, I think these would be the scenarios that would still give the Zips a bye:1. Zips get a bye with a win @ Can't State2. Zips get a bye with a loss @ Can't State and a Miami win @ Buffalo on Sunday.3. I believe the Zips get the 1 seed if they win @ Can't State, Buffalo beats Miami, and OU beats BGSU (but the West thing may make other scenarios work too).Nice win tonight.

There are more possibilities than you might think to get the bye.

Nate channels the Jawanza Moore Effect .. and has one of his best games ever at the JAR in his final appearance.Zips win .. but don't cover. All the home teams win today to keep Zips' dreams of #1 seed alive.Go Zips! B)

I agree .. I think I was doing the tiebreakers upside down on that one .. so there's one way through. I'll re-verify the others sometime soon to check if there's another way.