Zip Watcher

Moderator Note: I HEAVILY edited the "Football Country" post above for obscenities ... this is a public board that does involve younger viewers .. let's keep it clean folks.Go Zips.

Zippy is most certainly a female kangaroo ...why she would need to be male just to intimidate opponents is beyond me.after all ...Zippy sleeps with the light on because the dark is afraid of the Zips!

Not a bad line for the big fella:After 2 games:TotalsMIN PTS 2FGP 3FGP FT RO RD RT AS PF BS ST76 51 16-33 5-6 4-9 14 14 28 3 4 2 4Average:38.0 25.5 48.5% 83.3% 44.4% 7.0 7.0 14.0 1.5 2.0 1.0 2.0

French is our legend .. great announcer for the Zips.If he doesn't have one .. he ought to have the "lifetime contract" in place. At this point, he's as much the voice of the Zips as Joe Tait is for the Cavs .. it would be weird to have anyone else.

Fixed. Thanks for the heads up.

Good discussion & posts!My thoughts:1. In agreement with Quickzips on this one. We're not looking for Nate to transform himself into a 20 point guy. We need him to be himself: a defensive stopper, unselfish player who plays within the flow of the game. In Fairbanks last year he tried to force the issue too much .. but by conference play, he was back to being a key defender and playing within the flow. And his points went up as a result. Is he the leader of this team? I think by example yes .. but maybe not vocally .. that role may fall to the McKnights.2. McNees @ the 2 is a very good situation. He'll have better legs under him for shooting and won't be relied upon to guard the other team's quickest player. I think simply the fact that he'll be guarding the 2 and not the 1 this season will make him a better defender and better able to be left out there in crunch time. I'm told his commitment in the offseason was fantastic and we can expect big things.3. I think we'll be fine here this year. We've got 2 guys coming in with high level experience in HS. Ronnie has a year in the system and a full spring / summer of practice under his belt. Between the 2 of them .. I think KD will find a mix that works. It also helps that both Steve & Daryl spent time at PG last year too .. while it's not a preference, matchups could permit one of those guys at the PG spot periodically.4. I think this question has 2 sides to it: (A.) Can the big men step up against Pitt and VCU .. and whoever the Zips face in the postseason this year? .. and (B.) Can they contribute in conference play. These are 2 different scenarios. To win at Pitt and VCU and go deep in the postseason, the Zips will need solid contributions from Mike & Steve. Mike is a known commodity who will rebound and defend well .. his offense needs to pick up .. but that will be a gradual process. From what we're told (me and Roger Brown) Steve's offense isn't a question mark, as much as his grasp of the defense and the quickness to play in the Zips defensive schemes. A freshman will have bumps in the road. As for conference play, I think they're ready .. and I also think the Zips will be successful even if they're not. Aside from the big guy @ BG who is still very foul prone .. there's not much in conference in the way of a dominant big who's much bigger than Chris McKnight. So in conference, KD can slide CMcK down to the 5 and add a scorer to the floor. Again, I think the bigs are key to moving upstream and competing nationally (especially in 09 & beyond), but not essential to compete at a high level in conference.5. I've made this comment before: I think this is the McKnight's team .. while Nate's the senior lead by quiet example guy .. B & CMcK are the vocal and energetic leaders. Chris made HUGE strides on the court last season. His last 5-10 games against good competition showed that. Brett demonstrated an ability to score the ball and took Jimmy's minutes from him mid season. It sounds as if they had a good summer conditioning wise and the court competition was fierce. Bottom line for me is that the longer we can have them both on the floor, the better the Zips will be. Think Woody & Rome when they were both healthy. That's a difficult matchup for most teams in the league. Something to consider here is that they hopefully won't be relied upon for as much help defense this season. With the leap forward in athleticism and quickness on the perimeter, I expect the dribble drive to be prevented a bit better this year, so they'll be asked to do a little less, perhaps.I expect big things. Let's hope everyone's healthy.Go Zips!

Fixed.

Those schools that do the "identity crisis" cheer always amuse me. Are they worried they'll forget which team they should be root for?

Hey Win! .. what did KD say when you told him that?!

Given that Humpty may well not be our best PG option going into the season, even with his background .. that position will be fine this year.This team will score a ton of points this year. The defense will make or break the season.

This sounds good, but I think it's not factually accurate. There are a few ways to avoid the grounding call:- Throw to a receiver (which JD will debate that Jacq did)- Get outside the pocket and throw it past the line of scrimmage ..You don't need to have both of these conditions for it to be a fair play. This one was certainly debatable .. not as clean as you'd like to believe it was.

I think there were 3 game changing personal fouls .. 2 by the same player. Just senseless stuff .. clipping a guy that was behind the runner on the play before Johnson got hurt REALLY hurts us. Generally I guess it's hard to expect the players to demonstrate self control when the head coach doesn't .. the team is a reflection of it's leader.Hopes and prayers for Andrew .. looked like bad hit in the pile .. guy just bent his neck back.I sure hope this game doesn't cost the Zips a bowl appearance heading into the Info.Go AJ .. Go Zips.

No matter how you spin this ...today's was a BAD BAD loss .. the lack of focus and discipline is disappointing.

And what does Cleveland fan have to do with us?

Perhaps the biggest difference is the lack of soap & hot water in Amherst. Just a guess. :D :D

Perhaps. I'm not sure, but there may have been language that required the BE to take UC if they met certain qualifications. Not sure .. but I think I remember that. When I was there in the early 90's .. FB was a total afterthought. You went to one game a year (vs. Yale) and you hardly ever made it into the stadium. :CK_brew: :cheers: Students generally didn't give a rats a$$ about FB. Make no mistake: CT is a hoops crazy state. There's a lottery for student tickets for ladies hoops. There's waiting lists al la the GB Packers for general public season tickets. Both women's & mens.The Renschler field thing is rooted in a couple of areas. #1 .. UC is the flagship U of the state, no question there. The law makers like to have things centrally located. The roads in and out of Storrs simply wouldn't support a crowd of 50k on a Saturday. Also UTC was willing to donate (or at least offer at a very cheap rate) their closed airfield (it used to be a cargo airport) for the site. #2, UC plays about half it's hoops games in the Mall in Hartford. Again, see the lawmakers for this. When Gampel Pavilion was built, they purposely limited its size to prevent UC from moving all the home games to campus. So the U, the students .. the community are sort of used to the whole distance to sporting event thing .. I can't tell you how it plays out for FB .. but it worked ok for hoops. It was a nuisance. Maybe the thing to discuss here is the pure interest in college FB up there. I can tell you it's not nearly what it is here in the Midwest. Even HS football isn't that big of a deal. The area is way more diverse in its interests than Ohio. So I don't really think there are many folks up there bummed that there's only 2 FBS teams .. I think it's just not as important to folks. In the next 5 years: 0% Mainly because wheels aren't even turning there for a move to FBS. They'd have to be committed to a plan today to be 1-A in 3 or 4 seasons, and they wouldn't get right in the BE.In the long run: Well less than 50% .. I simply think they like their current affiliations. They're in a very good hoops league that they can be competitive with. They play FB against UVM, UNH, Maine .. local teams .. and I think they aren't looking to change that. It just seems to me that the Minutemen will continue to play FCS with a near High Major hoops conference. I think one thing that could change the equation is if the A10 were to combust (not sure why that would ever happen). And I think it takes more than Temple leaving the A10 to make it happen. I think a departure of hoops-rich schools like Xavier, Dayton, GW .. etc would cause a re-look at the strategy.Remember, I have no inside knowledge of the knuckleheads in Amherst, but am only an observer from as far as I can be from there. I will tell you that their hoops facility is first rate. Woody tore it up when there.Go Zips!

I would.UConn is a charter member of the Big East .. there wasn't really a "dice roll" involved there. They had the inside track to join in football if they ever upgraded to 1-A. They've been in the BE for all sports since its inception.And as a UConn alumn, I can tell you that there won't be an initiative coming out of Storrs to add U*Ass anytime soon. They don't belong on the same field / court .. besides the fact that there's not really a lot of momentum in Amherst to move up to FBS .. UC anyway isn't going to clamor for them to be in the BE.And one other thing .. you are aware that U*Ass is in the middle of nowhere, right? It's farther from Boston than Athens is from Columbus, and almost as far as Toledo from Cleveland. As the bird flies, Amherst is closer to Albany than it is Boston. And with the 300 schools in Boston, including BC, BU, Northeastern .. it might be a stretch to label U*Ass as a big market grabbing team.Just my $.02Go Zips!

:D I hear Dwight Lowery is also 2nd team with the J E T S Jets Jets Jets. 3 Tackles so far! :D

Better? Indeed .. he's a local guy and the best of the crew ..

Conventional discussions have held that if a split were to occur, the 8 1-A FB schools would go out hunting 4 more so that the new conference could have a lucrative championship game. So the 8 are known .. and they'd need 4 ..IF the split happens, of course.

Thanks for stopping by Mrs. Pendleton. We hope your son is able to help the Zips also.Go Zips!

I saw him get held big time on a play late in the second quarter that netted big yards for CLE .. not called, but he was squarely in the grasp of an O lineman of the browns.

Through the magic of the Internets .. here you go.

Umm .. actually .. I DID grow up a Zips fan.

Huge debut for "former Zip" Dwight Lowery, as he returned a punt 62 yards to beat the Browns on Thursday. Always nice to see the former guys perform well at the next level.You go Dwight.