Zip Watcher

Well .. we've gone from having the all time leading scorer in Colorado history on scholarship to a Florida AA POY as a walk on. I do suspect that's progress.FYI, I checked both rivals and scout, and there's nothing on Peterson .. so it's difficult to project which schools were interested in him.

Thanks Mollaut .. were the guys he was up against headed to D1? Any big school players on the Ky side? He held his own in Cbus against Buford (not directly 1 on 1) .. but I'm curious to know if the Ky team had any high major guys on it.

Did you grab any photos of those "players" running sprints along the baseline in game 2?

Actually, you may have been looking at a 7th or 8th grader. There's a kid on the younger Storm team that had to be 6-7 or 6-8 that I have on good info was still in junior high. I didn't see that team play, but they were hanging around the 17U team for a bit.

Ok, I know there are a few members of the Nation residing in Western PA / Pittsburgh, so I'm posting some information about what you should be doing THIS weekend to support the Pittsburgh Storm. Go catch some fine AAU hoops and cheer on the block party that is Zeke Marshall. The website of the Tournament is located HERE. Based on currently posted schedules, the Storm plays Friday at 6:30PM at the Peterson Events Center (Pitt's home court).They are then scheduled to play Saturday @ 8:30AM at Trees Hall (also at U Pitt).Directions to all sites are linked to on the main tourney page .. Pitt facility directions are HERE.Bracket play then begins, and is laid out on the home page. The Storm is in Pool 12, and the winner goes to the Gold Bracket, the 2nd Place to the Silver Bracket. Please check the tournament pages for final schedules, as everything is subject to change at the whim of Jamie Dixon .. er ... the tournament organizers.I encourage you to make it out if you're in the area. AAU hoops are HIGH quality at this level .. you won't be disappointed.Please continue to be mindful of contact guidelines regarding any potential player / family. Let's represent the Rowdies and UA well .. and support the Storm.Also, for those of us not in WPa .. please post your thoughts if you do go.Go Storm .. Go Zips .. Go ZekeP.S. The Storm is coming to UA in 2 weeks for those who didn't catch any games at Solon, or went to see the 16U team instead of the older kids. B)

I'm thinking that players just want to be around a winning program when it blows up. B) B)Reading the article, it sounds like he's spent time around the team / JAR in the summers. Maybe he has family in the area and spends the summer in Akron. Could be a local walk-on situation.Can't teach height. B)

I wasn't able to make it out on Sunday. Did anyone go?Seeing the results @ the tournament site makes me wonder what happened in the first game. The Storm go down to CBIZ to a tune of 56-42. There must have been some effective defense preventing the Storm from pushing the ball, since they were averaging 89 coming in.Anyone catch the game & can report back?The Storm will be at the King James tournament @ UA & surrounding gyms in 2 weeks. If you're in WPa, I believe they're playing at the Pittsburgh Jamfest next weekend. A rumor has them on Pitt's home court on Friday night.Go Zeke .. tear 'em up!Go Zips!

I wouldn't say it was like the Rowdies were in the house or anything .. but it was apparent who the Akron fans were that were there. I'm pretty sure all had a hat or shirt on. The one thing about the early rounds of these AAU events .. the only people there are generally the parents. So even a small block of interested fans supporting a team is noticed.

Updating the Storm's schedule based on Saturday's results:They play at 1:15PM at Aurora High School. Mapquest tells me that you can find Aurora HS HERE. Generally speaking, it appears to be just southwest of the intersection of Rt 82 and 43. Easy to get to. Not far from 480 or the Turnpike or Rt. 91.Should they win at 1:15, they'll advance to play at 5:15 PM also at Aurora HS.If they win that, they'll be playing in the finals at Solon High School, at 7:30 PM on Sunday. Our friends at mapquest tell me that Solon High School is found just off of Rt. 91 (Darrow Rd / SOM Center) a short drive north of Twinsburg.Check the Solon Cage Classic link in the first post of this topic for updates on the schedule & scores. I think they've been pretty timely. If you do go and have the ability .. please post to the Nation some scores & updates after the early games so more folks know the skinny for the evening game.We all need to continue to be good examples of Zips fans. Be friendly. And mindful of compliance. Have a nice time, you'll see a really good team if you go.Go Storm

I was able to catch both games on Saturday, along with no less than 8 other Zips fans in attendance to observe the Pittsburgh Storm. My main observation: Any and all Zips fans that are able should go see this team & their center play on Sunday. You won't be disappointed.My main thoughts on what I saw:1. At times it was like watching Shaq against 6th graders. In the first game, I think Zeke had 7 or 8 blocks in the first 10 minutes. Ended up with 12 for the game. Some of these were on the perimeter as he closed on an outside shooter quickly. After awhile the first opponent stopped going inside. I don't blame them.2. I'm not sure if he needed to jump to block those shots or not .. but they went a flying ...3. I'm not a talent expert or scout, but seems to me that ZM has a huge upside. He's bigger (thicker) than I expected, given the weights listed on the recruiting site. He's strong, quick, and agile. No clumsiness or anything about him. The man can play basketball.4. One thing I think you'll see on Sunday is the Storm is a darn good hoops team. In addition to Zeke, I'd guess that at least 2, maybe 3 other guys on the team are headed to D1 programs, though none have verballed yet. The team this weekend does not include any unsigned seniors .. only juniors and below. But there are a few guards on the team that should get calls from Reggie Witherspoon. He could use the help. #10 especially impressed me, as did 11 at times. There was a sequence in the first game where the other team turned it over in the backcourt on 4 consecutive possessions, all due to the Storm's guard play.5. By the way .. the Storm hung 89 on both teams, and won both games by over 40 points. The games were 2 16 minute halves .. so they got up and down pretty well. They defended and scored.6. I've forgotten how good AAU hoops can be. Both the play and the officiating were first rate .. a real treat to enjoy for a change.7. I can go on about the talent on the floor, but I recommend you go see it for yourselves. The guy has a TON of potential. He shows some commitment to defense and rebounding already. Demonstrated a couple of different effective post moves .. back down and turnaround, little sky hook .. and he blocks everything in sight. Defensively, he's a monster now. I'm curious to see him a year from now. Absolutely worth the drive to see the Pittsburgh Storm on Sunday. The weather's gonna be crappy, so why not go inside and see some hoops.I'm otherwise engaged on Sunday so I probably won't make it out there .. but I'm sure to get down to the King James Classic in 2 weeks.Go Zips .. Go Storm ... GO SEE THEM PLAYPS -- Here's a shout out to lilroodude .. what say you big fella?

I'll post some results when I get back tonight .. and the schedule for Sunday .. so you may have a chance later this weekend.Go Storm.

Zeke Marshall and the Pittsburgh Storm are coming to NE OH to play in the Solon Cage Classic THIS WEEKEND.Official Site - Solon Cage Classic.For those interested in seeing Zeke play .. supporting the Storm, etc, I've assembled the following information: The Storm are guaranteed 2 games on Saturday April 12thGame times are 11:30 AM and 2 PMThe games are located at the Edge Sports Complex in TwinsburgThat complex is located on OH-82 (Aurora Rd.) east of OH-91 (Darrow Rd.)A mapquest map of the site is HERE.Should they win both games, the Storm would get a bye and play Sunday afternoon @ 1:15 at Aurora HS.Any losses would leave them playing a first round bracket game Saturday night @ Solon HS, time TBD.Full schedule and bracket information is found on this page.Now let's get out there and support a {hopefully} future Zips cager!Please be mindful of your conduct regarding contact .. represent UA and the Rowdies well .. and I'll see you on Saturday! B) B)

Well .. my thoughts on this are that we are using the news collector to pull in Zips related stories for the front page. The front page pull stories from that Forum only.In the future we hope to pull other feeds (Rasor, etc) that are Zips related in the attempt to have the Nation be your one stop shop for Zips news if you want one. We're working on what we can and can not pull in and how much. For instance, if you pull Rasor's RSS feed, it pulls the entire article, which would reduce Mike's hits .. which we DON'T want to do.So we're working on that .. As for commenting in the News articles themselves .. I think our intent at the moment is to keep the sports discussions together .. so that folks don't have to check multiple places if they're interested in discussions related to a specific sport. I haven't figured out how to auto sort the articles into the right forums. In that case, we could import them into the news forum for the front page .. and the individual forums for commenting ..but at this point, I don't have that figured out .. so things will remain as they are. The news forum is jsut that ... a collection of news .. discussions remain within their established forums.not permanent .. but it's the way it is. Comments noted.Thanks.ZW

Isn't that why the Oklahoma City folks are trying to steal the Seattle Supersonics?

Sounds like a good argument .. but it's just wrong.A: How do you figure "a long way away from making the NCAA Tournament" .. they've been one game away 2 years in a row now. EMU and Buffalo are a long way away .. the Zips are quite simply not.B: Go look up at Can't State's NCAA results from 2001 (the year before their elite 8 run .. ) and let me know how they did in the dance that year.

No kidding .. who cares if the conference blows goats .. better for the Zips to dominate and keep the bid to themselves. I don't really believe Can't State will fall fast, but it wouldn't break my heart if they never won another game.Do people really think that Gonzaga is up nights worrying about why the league they're in only has 1 or 2 good teams (this year being different, I know)? No .. they own the WCC bid and that's the way they like it.The Zips are working on their business .. the rest of the league is irrelevant.Go Zips!

So who else expected Davidson to pull a page from the Zips end of game playbook and not get a shot off? :wall: w00t survives another season .. this was pretty close.Go Zips!

I think you kindof had to interpret the JUCO / Transfer approach he's been taking as an indication of a plan to move on sooner rather than later. So this doesn't surprise me at all. I do think the move to TCU is a bit surprising, given the rumored interest of Oregon State and Providence.It probably means he wasn't really on the inside track for either of those gigs. And he probably didn't want to wait for the Xavier job to open up. But with a Zip running the show at Xavier, or at least heavily involved .. maybe he wasn't hot on their list either.Good luck to Jimmy C. I'll say one thing: While I'm not a fan of the 2 year player approach, and much prefer the stability and growth we get to watch with KD's approach, you have to admit that Jimmy was a master at getting the chemistry to come together mid-January. It seems like the past 3 years, the wheels have been wobbling a little coming out of Christmas .. and then all of a sudden, he'd find the combination and ride it to the top of the MAC. One time could have been an accident .. but 3 straight .. no the guy has figured out how to mesh differing personalities.Geno being the coach at Can't State has to frost the asses at bobcatattack .. but would Geno go back to the place that ditched coach Hunter? I wonder if the firing of Hunter ultimately hurts OU in the long haul. There are some young rising coaches around (Geno, Boals ..) who might think twice about going back to Athens.Ultimately, I'm happy we've got our guy. Wouldn't trade him for anyone.Go Zips.

I think it would have helped if Villanova hadn't gotten totally pasted last night. A Davidson Villanova game might have had Davidson as the favorite. With nova not even giving Kansas reason to work hard .. the jayhawks should be fresh.

Remember This Wager?!I think this is year 2 of 5, based on the dates of the posts, right?GOOO DAVIDSON! Win one Sunday!Go Zips!! B) B)

It'll have to go to something like hoops, right?So first tie-breaker is head to head. In a 3way tie, that's 1-1 for all teams.Then it would go to best record against the top teams in the league, going down the list.Unless three teams tie with 1 conference loss each (against one of the other 2), that would solve the issue, since they'd all have lost at least 1 other game. .. but then if they all lose to the 4th place team .. hmmm.Maybe overall record has to be factored in?

Here's 2 articles from ohio varsity . com about Humpty, related to the DII Final Four a couple weekends ago.A free 7 day signup will get you the complete articles.Best Performances from the State TournamentA snippet: All Tournament Teams: State TournamentA snippet: Go Zips! B)

All,I have taken steps to inform all about permissible behavior regarding contact w/ recruits & their families. See the announcement above.As it relates to what goes on here at the Nation, I have reviewed what I can find about the contact issue, and here's the current approach for the time being. With further clarification, this may be modified. Due to the fact that we know that some members of the Nation are contributors / members of the Z-Fund, we will assume that all ZipsNation members can be considered UA boosters. A conservative tack is the safest approach.Contact MAY be initiated by a recruit or family member. The recruit / family member is not prohibited from contacting / updating the Nation.The booster should not make any effort to recruit the prospective student-athlete, and instead direct questions to the appropriate UA coach. Pleasantries can be exchanged, but boosters should refrain from direct recruitment activities.Discussion about recruits amongst ourselves and why we think a recruit might like UA and why we hope he / she chooses UA is perfectly fine and should continue, without direct contact to the recruit or the familyJust to be clear, I think we all agree that we'd love to have the best & brightest prospects choose to become Zips. That's not at issue here at all. However, we need to let the coaching staff do the recruiting under the guidelines in which they operate. As a result, posts here that could be construed as contacting the recruit or family member may be suppressed until it is clear to the Moderators that they are appropriate. PM's and Emails should also be avoided.N.B.: I am aware that this may be excessive restraint .. but it is the goal of ZipsNation.Org to support Zips Athletics in any way we can. In this case, supporting the UA Athletics staff may mean not interfering or generating unnecessary conflicts with accepted recruiting practices.We do look forward to hearing more updates from any recruit's families if they choose to initiate the contact to update us here and feel comfortable doing so.I hope everyone is having a nice day.Thanks for your understanding & Go Zips!!

Here's the log from the UMass game:Tough end to great season.So after 4 roadies and 2 weeks, what does everyone think?Worth keeping around?Let us know.ZW

Janikowski isn't even 265 is he?I wonder about the "Fat Punter" of MAC legend .. maybe he was 265