Zip Watcher

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.

Anyone else catch that jacuzzi / hot top being dropped into the endzone facility?

A Fiercest Mid-Sized Bird win against Buffalo would give the Zips one of the tie-breakers if they end up beating U@B and tying for the East.

The strange thing is that he sounds like an OU or Temple fan that got lost and woke up in Oxford.

Mmmm .. getting hungry.Now, which one of these is a husky?

The bigger question is .. do the TPS reports he juggles have Cover Pages?

CUP-CAKE. C-U-P-C-A-K-E. Mark it down for all to see...NIU is a 100% cream-filled, heavily-iced chocolaty delight. Should they be taken lightly? Of course not. Should they play the Zips within 12 points? Of course not.K.e.n.t. is bad, and NIU committed every possible basketball atrocity known to man in the last 25 seconds of regulation to hand them the game.The Cleveland Browns are cupcakes. The Detroit Lions are cupcakes. The Northern Illinois Huskie men's basketball team is a cupcake. If the game in DeKalb is a severe test, then the Zips will have played their worst game of the season. This "test" will be as easy to the Zips as the Pope taking a sobriety test.Second verse same as the first. GREAT post .. but have you forgotten there's a German in charge at the Vatican these days?Benedict & his buddy say Go Zips! Cupcakes ahoy!Edit: I guess that was from his younger days as Cardinal Ratzinger. Here's a more current image:

I pretty much disagree with the entirety of this post.It's rare to have buy in by a whole team to a defensive concept. Especially at mid-major levels. And KD has it. Whether a player "feels he / she deserves more playing time" is not really a debatable point. The question is whether or not they use it as motivation to work harder to earn that and in doing so make the team succeed to a greater degree. The player that decides that the team's success falls second to their own minimum minutes requirement doesn't fit into the system at UA. He probably wasn't recruited if the signs were there in HS.What evidence do you have that this is a group of guys thinking about themselves before the team? I see none. You say it is not Duke .. but I say, this group of 15-20 people are focusing their every effort in practice, on the court, in the offseason and in the classroom to elevate the program to heights never before seen. Will it be Duke tomorrow, of course not. But the sights are set higher than the current strata. This IS what they are working towards. These guys wouldn't be here if they didn't buy into KD's vision .. and they GET that the teams success means they are successful.I don't think your post is a jab at KD at all. I think it illustrates that you are a fan that doesn't have the "belief structure" or buy-in to what KD is trying to accomplish here. IMHO, you're using the prior 20 years of D1 mediocrity and the current state of the conference as the boundary conditions to speculate on why a guy would stay here if he doesn't start as a sophomore. I believe you have to focus on KD's program and that program alone .. look at how far it has come .. and consider that it can go that much farther again and more. And that will take DEPTH .. lots of it. And that depth needs to be comprised of players who understand that they succeed ONLY as a team. Not as individuals. What I know and have experienced of these guys tells me that every one of them puts the team first.Remarkable? Yes, I agree!Look up the last guy who averaged 20 in a Zips uniform .. and then ask yourself if that team could stay within 15 points of this years team.Go Zips! B) B)

I have to think Swiech can see the writing on the wall. If he wants to play, it will have to be somewhere else. I bet he would help a Youngstown or Wright State type program -- definitely a Robert Morris (closer to home). He has always been a great kid, so let's help him find his way, wherever he plays. But in Akron it seems limited to practice time.That's wrong. Swiech is able to play here .. he's just a work in progress. I sure hope he doesn't go anywhere. I've seen him in practice enough to know he can be a big contributor here.I think something we as Zips fans need to get used to is that we have a deep Deep DEEP roster. Guys aren't as likely to come in here like Linhart, Joyce, Wood .. etc, and start for 4 years. They're going to have to work their way up the depth chart. The experience factor will become a bigger factor as our talent gets better. When we were mediocre .. a talented guy could come in and start right away .. see: Peterson, Andy Hipsher .. the guys listed above. Now that there's actually talent already here, it very well may take some really talented players a year or 2 to push their way onto the court.It's a new concept .. but it comes with (relative) success and an overall increase in talent across the board.I personally would refrain from opening the door for ANYONE to transfer out .. KD is showing he will go deep if the team can handle it .. and a guy like Swiech could be a MAJOR player down the road. Remember, he's 25 games or so into a 120 game career. Lots of time left.