Zip Watcher

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.

Just to help your dinner sit a little better tonight .. in using my little scenario generator .. I think a win Sunday vs. BG would have guaranteed the Zips a bye without even winning one more game.All together now ..

Wasting more of my afternoon to look at available paths to the first round bye, I find the following:1. Winning both remaining games assures the Zips of a bye.2. Winning vs. OU and losing to Can't State will get the Zips a bye if ANY of the following happens: - If both U@B and BG beat Miami - If U@B wins out - If BG wins out and Can't beats U@B - If Miami wins out with at least one additional loss by either U@B or BG3. Losing to OU and winning @ Can't State will get the Zips a bye if ANY of the following happens: - If both U@B and BG beat Miami - If U@B wins out - If BG wins out - If Miami Wins out with at least one additional loss by either U@B or BG - If BG beats Miami and Miami beats Buffalo4. If the Zips lose their last 2, they will be playing on Tuesday.I make no claim that these are the only scenarios. Only that I think they're on the right track. I believe them to be accurate, but mistakes can be made ..All in all .. several scenarios get the Zips a bye with one more win. B) Go Zips!

Spent 20 minutes looking at the scenarios during lunch.It would appear that the Zips can no longer have only 1 route to win the Regular Season Title. I can't only find one a scenario that gives UA the correct tie breakers to land the #1 seed.Everything I looked at assumes the Zips would go 2-0 to finish at 11-5 .. there isn't a way they end up in a tie at 10-6 for the division lead, as for that to happen, both BG & U@B would have to lose twice, giving Miami a final record of 11-5.CORRECTION: Based on corrected tie-breaking procedures .. UA wins 1st seed in Scenario 2 below.2 Way Ties @ 11-5Scenario 1: UA & Miami win out .. BG & U@B lose out.Here, Miami wins the tiebreaker based on a 3-1 record against BG & U@B. UA 2-2.Scenario 2: UA wins out .. U@B beats Miami, Loses to Can't State. BG Loses Both, Miami 1-1.Here, UA wins the tiebreaker based on a 2-0 record vs Can't. U@B 1-1. Both Teams 2-2 vs. MIA & BG.Scenario 3: UA wins out .. BG loses to OU, beats Miami, U@B loses out, Miami 1-1.In this case, BG gets the 1 seed based on 3-1 record vs. U@B & Miami. UA 2-2.3 Way Ties @ 11-5Scenario 4: UA & Miami win out .. BG Beats OU, Buff loses outIn this case, UA is 2-2 vs. the others, Miami is 3-1, BG 1-3 .. Miami Wins DivisionScenario 5: UA & Miami win out .. U@B beats Can't State, BG loses outIn this case, All teams are 2-2 against each other .. Miami is 2-0 vs. BG, UA is 1-1, U@B 0-2 .. Miami Wins DivisionScenario 6: UA wins out, BG Loses to OU, U@B Splits .. all 11-5BGSU is your division champion based on a 3-1 record vs. UA & U@B .. UA 2nd, U@B 3rd.4 Way Tie @ 11-5Scenario 7: UA & Miami win out .. BG beats OU, Buff Beats Can't State .. all are 11-5Here, Miami is the winner by going 4-2 vs. the others. UA second, BG third, Buff 4thDifficult Sucks for the Zips .. automatic NIT bid now off the table only one way .. if these scenarios are correct.Tomorrow, I'll look at the bye situation if the Zips split the last 2 games. I have a feeling it could be pretty similar.

Great article Ray .. thanks for posting it. Good to have an objective perspective on things about Zeke.

Agreed on your comment. My point above is that the team & fans need to move forward, learn from this and move onwards and upwards. It only counts as one in the loss column. There are still 2 games left .. both winnable. This loss doesn't change those games. Agreed. Opportunity remains there. Sunday made it a bit harder .. but the opportunity exists. Seize the frickin day!Go Zips! B)

What frustrated me a bunch yesterday was that Bardo and Nik were the 2 guys that BG was leaving alone on the baseline. We got them the ball a few times to good results .. but didn't go back to it very much. One or 2 more times down there might have been the difference maker.

Not going to analyze this game in depth. A crappy loss that comes at a bad time. When the team starts to take advantage of these types of opportunities, it will have taken another step towards being a great team. Until then, the Zips are a good team.After several hours of staying away from posting .. the following is the main thing that stuck with me throughout the day:Everyone has a bad day at the office. I know I do. And I'm pretty sure that KD & company had a bad day Sunday. I think they got abused by Louis Orr & staff for most of the 40 minutes. The Zips complete inability to get the Falcons out of the 2-3 zone for the whole game is a failure of the staff in my opinion. It's strategery .. not just the guys not making shots.The Zips shot a horrible percentage because they got themselves very few open looks. Nearly everything was contested. Props to Louis Orr and the Falcons for executing a masterful defensive game plan. But I think it also points to KD's inability on this day to make an adjustment to get better looks. The Zips struggled tremendously all afternoon. All of them .. players & coaches included.I also agree with the comment that it appears KD threw the McKnights under the bus in the postgame. They played with heart today. They played hard .. the effort wasn't really questionable. It didn't appear to me that the coaching made the same efforts to alter the path of what was a pretty winnable game. I think KD embarrasses himself by doing that in the post game.Finally, no matter how many season ending injuries Nikola had in this game .. pinning him to the bench for the last 10 minutes (or whatever it was) may have been the dagger today. He showed an ability to get the ball to the rim this afternoon .. or get fouled. After his shoulder ding & roll around, it was clear that KD wasn't going to play him. I do think that Nik has to show some toughness .. but that can be addressed after the game. Fact is, he was one of the few players having an efficient game .. and not having him out there late hurt the Zips' chances. It appeared to me that he wanted to back out there .. and was told otherwise.This was one BAD game .. ONE .. I'm in agreement w/ KD that the Zips can bounce back. I hope that means all of them. Players and staff. And I hope that includes more than one way to try and crack a 2-3 zone. Attacking the zone might help next time. Any coach that faces the Zips in the next 5+ games who also owns a video player ought to be preparing a 2-3 zone for the Zips. At the moment, it's not clear they can handle it.Despite today's frustration .. both the regular season and tournament titles are within the reach of the Zips. Let's support them as they chase it down.Go Zips!! B)

I think this is a phenomenal post. Agreed on all accounts. I think the end of #3 is especially pertinent. It's probably career suicide to be turning down interviews like this if you're as early into a career as Mack is. I have no problems with him answering his phone.

Nice point & good post.I have to say that I'll *never* understand the negative spin that seems to surround Mack here at the Nation. I think most of us would agree with 72's point 5 above. Mack has been a key player in that the past few years. I'm not saying the ONLY player .. but a key player.I'm CERTAIN that if you examine the Academic and Financial state of the Athletic Department now, and when he arrived, you'll find that both conditions are better now than before. Isn't all we can ask of Mack that he improve and / or at least maintain the level of the Athletic Department? Is there really any evidence that hasn't happened (or continued to happen) under his watch?I figure if it comes about that he takes another job, which we ALL do from time to time .. and he leaves the Zips in a better place than he found it in ... we should say thanks & good luck.On another note .. in a hazy cloud of blind optimism regarding one day jumping to the FBS side of a divided Big East .. wouldn't it help the Zips to have 2 of the 8 league members being run by former Zips ADs?Go Zips!

I'm with 37 ..The games against Miami demand 40 minutes of concentration and effort. They're defensive battles .. and I look forward to them every year .. Even when Hip had bad teams .. that game was usually a good one.Last night was awesome.

Statsheet.com rocks.It's where we go everytime there's a dispute about Brian Wood's Assist:Turnover ratio in 2001-02.

I don't remember which game it was .. I think the CMU game that was the Saturday when the Coaches vs. Cancer thing happened, where the staff wore tennis shoes.I think I remember them pointing out that KD & company (and maybe some players) were wearing the new Akron themed shoes.

I thought they were already wearing them.

The big question is when the Official Scientific CK lunchtime rankings will be updated.There were no rankings last week, and the Zips struggled with the last cupcake.Coincidence?I think not.

I wish I had been smart enough to save the image .. because it was clear as day. Took them maybe 5 minutes to do it. The thing was about the size of a truck cab .. not hard to see.

what, are you some sort of homophobe? Get help, man. Get help.

Read it again slowly good Dr.