Zip Watcher

Linhart takes Bramos out of the game. Wood & Pollitz cancel each other out. Zips guards have a big night.Zips double the cover.Zips 70Miami 62

Nope .. when Ira Newble was on Miami, he was famous for having a sweaty butt crack .. and so the OZone @ OU would call him out for it .. Hence the Redskins(hawks) became known as the "sweaters"

At the bottom right of the window, you'll see a pulldown that lets you decide how far back to go for displaying posts.It may default to 30 days. If there haven't been any topics / posts in the past 30 days, then the forum will show as empty. Pull it down to a longer range option & the posts will become visible again.ZW

I wasn't at the game yesterday, but I have been to games at UD arena in the past.Is UD arena any less hostile of an environment for a visiting team than Cameron or the Dean Dome? Seems like yesterday it was pretty intense there.

Two words: Lamar Simpson

I'm not sure I agree with you on your 80% number. Some time back (mid-90's) I spent a lot of time tinkering with Chrysler vehicles, before the Benz takeover .. and almost all fasteners on the cars were Metric / SI. Certainly on the engine and powertrain, they were SI.There's not really any reason to not keep both in this area. The real pushback against the SI units 20 or 30 years ago was that the machining industry had all its machines and indexes set to the English system. That is, the milling machines, lathes .. production processes were run on machine with only English measurements built in. This is no longer the case with the (nearly) universal adoption of digital measurement readouts (that can provide either SI or English outputs) and CNC manufacturing.Any more, at least in our dealings with conventional manufacturing companies, there is no issue using either SI or English units. We generally use dual dimensioning schemes on all of our prints. So from the manufacturing sector, there is already wide adoption / acceptance of SI units.To me, elimination of English fasteners would be silly. Case in point being that the SI series don't always have the coursest thread options. Besides, a 1/4-28 fits nicely in the sizing tree between M6 and M7. Why not have both? There's no reason. Tools exist to make / use both .. no need to scrap them. I can tell you that for us there are clear occasions where one is preferred to the other, and it isn't always SI or English. It varies.

YSU should be a permanent home & home. I like the series. I think the same about CSU, but Waters is chicken and that's the end of CSU / Akron.I've seen the penguins once each of the past 3 or 4 seasons, and last season I thought they made a big jump forward. It will be interesting to see them again this week.

I'd like to see someone do some research on Gonzaga. Pull their schedules / results from 1995 through now, and also link it up to RPI results for each year if you can find them.- RPI & SOS for each season of Gonzaga since Dan Monson became coach, or 1995, whichever is earlier. I know that Mark Few is the coach now, but Monson was the initial architect.- Their schedule & results, as well as their post-season invites & resultsI think (wild ass guess here) that Gonzaga had no luck getting a favorable schedule until AFTER they broke through and became a known team with a few NCAA berths / wins. And by favorable schedule, I mean a schedule that isn't entirely on the road, with some quality opponents at home .. etc.It might be interesting to see Butler or (pick your own) during the same time period.Maybe a student can fit this in during break between cases of the Beast or Natty Light.If it's good info, there may be a pair of lower reserved seats for an upcoming Zips game for the best research into the topic.

Really? He (Moore) was on the roster for the CMU game.See Page 17

Exactly who is expecting that much here? Ball's freshman year was one of the worst seasons in Zips history .. he had to take every shot. McLaughlin was on a good team .. and has his number retired (finally).I don't see folks here saying these 3 guys are going to play 30 minutes each and supplant CM or ND as the stars of the team. What we're all hoping for is DEPTH .. especially at the guard spot. Even 10 minutes from DR will make an impact on the fortunes of the team. Not an impact because he's going to score 20 .. an impact because he spells CM & ND and allows the Zips to press more and with more energy. And better defense at the point will make the half court defense better.This isn't about going from 2-8 to go win the MAC. This is adding some bodies and athleticism to an already good team .. helping the team get more rested & get down to what it does best .. defend defend defend .. and shut people down. Amen .. isn't that what everyone is doing?

Yep .. no room for improvement or added depth on this team. And some backcourt depth here wouldn't help our shooting percentage. Whatever.It is entirely feasible that one or more of these guys can make an impact on the outcome of the season for this team. No one here is saying any of these guys are coming in here to average a triple double. We're seeing weaknesses on the team surrounding numbers & rest in the backcourt .. and specifically having to play guys (Dials) out of position, which affects their normal output.Besides, if I listen to some of you guys, we've NEVER had a freshman make an impact on the team. Not Peterson, not Joyce, not Travis or Wood. And thats the past 6 years.I for one look for a little infusion of energy from the new guys .. and some better substitution numbers.Go Zips!

I'm confused. I thought you said the other day that these games aren't enough to help elevate the program. Now which is it? Agreed .. all the games matter. This one was a loss. And it was one loss from which there is much to learn.

That HAS to be a good sign.

GP1, can you confirm this?

Thanks for the notes from on site .. I appreciate them. To be fair .. you saw one of UA's worst shooting nights of the year .. at the end of the year, I suspect it will be in the bottom 3 percentage wise. After 35 minutes, an average Akron night had them up 10. I suspect that if Akron plays to their potential in this game .. they could have won by 20 .. seems to me the teams were a pretty good matchup. I think this relates to the calvalry that we hope arrives in 2 weeks time. Certainly the case tonight .. wasn't so in the past 3 games. A work in progress? This is why it's a good thing this is game 7 & not game 33. Here again, this was absolutely the case tonight .. but on the whole of 7 games this season, it's an outlier .. recently (games 4-6), they have been extremely efficient on the inside out game. I think if you can make it to a couple more games later in the year, you'll find this to be a strength of the team. Against Wyoming .. you don't get 80 points out of 4 guys if you're not moving it around to the open player.Nice notes .. thanks again for reporting in.ZWStill ...

Since you've stated this, or similar a few times now ... Here's probably where our fundamental difference of opinion lies. You're looking at this as 30 (really it's 21) years of frustration since the last NCAA birth .. or maybe you're looking back to the last deep run in the College Division. Understandable .. if I had seen Wyatt Webb's teams play .. I might feel the same long term pressure .. but I've only got about 25 years of Zips watching.My view is this: This is not the same as 18 years ago .. it's not the same as 10 years ago .. and it's not the same as 5 years ago. We can NOT consider this year 21 of the rebuilding process .. or year 30 .. or whatever. I think we can only look at the program in it's current form: KD as head coach. This is year 4 of a program build under KD. He wasn't head coach in 1993, or 2003 .. he's the head coach now, and I think the program now is what we have to look at:2004-05: 19-10 overall, 11-7 in Conference, First Conf. Tourney win2005-06: 23-10 overall, 14-4 in Conference, Reached Conf Semis, 1-1 in the NIT2006-07: 25-7 Overall, 13-3 in Conference, Reached Conf. Tourney Finals.2007-08: 5-1 record thus far.I choose to consider the program's progress on these items alone .. not the 19 years of futility that preceded them. We're not going to wake up tomorrow and be a top 15 team that can demand reasonable game terms from other elite teams. But if we're patient, and support the team, coaches & program adequately, we WILL wake up a few years from now in that situation.This is going to take a little bit. We have to have some continuous improvement and the program will eventually be able to win year after year. JWood is the last player that remembers what it was like before .. and it either motivates him, or he's left it behind. Either way .. only now can you really say that every aspect of the program has KD's mark.I for one am good with what I see ..

My favorite part of the story:

Mr. Wood will see you now .... Are you serious!!?? This guy may be the best big man UA has EVER had!Wow ..Kidding aside, it was nice to meet you on Saturday RZ.

I'm not missing anything .. I just don't agree with you.Getting into the neutral site games is fine if you can swing it .. but bending over to go on the road for 8 of your 12 OOC games is not good for the team. Everyone hates it in football .. and I think it's a disaster in hoops. See the season 3 years ago when we played Louisville & Cal on the road .. did it help us? ??

Just did a little bit of quick counting:Memphis has the Nation's longest current home winning streak at 34 games.So I went back to check how they've done overall in the time KD's been coach here:04-05: 14-605-06: 16-106-07: 16-007-08: 5-0Now, I'm trying not to count the C-DOA tournament games that also happen in Memphis, but I do think those are on the Tigers' home court .. so it might be even better than what I counted here.For the Can't State fans reading this, it adds up to 51-7 over the time that UA is 43-2 .. so Memphis hasn't been better .. the Zips may have the best home record since the 04-05 season began.Interesting also that over this span, Memphis has played 13 more home games than the Zips. That further explains that the big schools just aren't going out to play risky games at solid mid-major clubs' gyms.

I agree CK,I think the schedule is a solid one for where this program is at the moment. I think in a few years, when we've had an NCAA win or 2, and are nipping at the rankings every season, then you go back to the high majors & you can get home and homes .. or 2 for 1's .. but 1 off games on the road or 3 for 1's are just not productive.I like the games against Wyoming, Temple, Winthrop & Dayton. I think they're the kind of games that you'll eventually see fill up our OOC schedule. The teams are in the same strata as the Zips and provide good road tests when we go there.I'd like the idea of home and homes with the following types of teams:YSU (local .. generally a win, though they are getting better quickly)Duquesne (for recruiting purposes .. until we can get on Pitt's schedule)Dayton / XavierButlerMissouri StatePretty much any MWC team .. though you need 2 games to make the trip worthwhile, so it would be good to partner up w/ another midwest school to get teams from MWC to make a 2 game swing through the midwest.TempleSome NYC school (Manhattan / Iona / Hofstra? .. another recruiting boost?)I'm ok w/ the current strategy of not selling the team out for a quick payday at a super high major. Until we're at the level where we can get them to come here .. even the Q (as long as it's not OSU or Cincy) .. I say we work to get those teams on neutral courts. As the team improves, perhaps the next trip to Alaska is to Anchorage for the Great Alaska Shootout, rather than Fairbanks. The Puerto Rico tourney a couple of years ago was a good one .. 2 or 3 BCS games on neutral floors.One thing that I overheard leaving the JAR on Saturday is that pounding a MWC team by 35 isn't going to necessarily help bring the next team into the JAR. If the Zips are 43-2 over this season and the previous 3 .. are there any teams who have a better record over that stretch? I doubt it. It's getting to be viewed as a place where the road team loses .. and until the Zips become a "solid road win" for an upper mid or high major .. they're not coming here.All in good time.

Speaking as someone who owns 5 season tickets downstairs @ the JAR .. I couldn't give a rats a$$ if they start giving GA's away for free. I choose to support the program and will continue to do so .. it guarantees me my seats & that doesn't change if they start a freebie program.

Now if Central was picked to win the west by some .. and they're 0-5 .. what the heck is Watson doing coming off the bench? He'd be the last guy in the MAC I'd want the Zips to face in the next 2 weeks .. and they're not starting him?

No kidding! What he said.

A couple of observations about the SF position on the Zips: Linhart & Conyers were tasked w/ guarding Christian & at times Tyndale. Now Cedric was involved in the defensive rotations on those 2 as well ... but lets look at the production of Temple's 2 key swing men. Coming in, they were combining to average 36 points & 9.8 rebounds. On Monday night the produced: 20 points, 12 rebounds & 8 turnovers. First & foremost, the Zips beat opponents w/ defense. The defense keys the offense by starting the transition game. And slowing down the opponents top 2 scorers goes a long way to securing a win. Last night, Jimmy & Nate were instrumental in holding the top 2 Temple scorers 16 points below their average .. most of this was done by holding Tyndale to 3 points .. more than 13 under his average .. I'm certain that he was always guarded by Jimmy or Nate when out there. Tyndale only played 20 minutes .. and when he wasn't out there, our SF's were helping harrass Christmas into a 3-14 shooting night. The Zips don't necessarily need to have 20 points a night from the SF spot. Locking down the opponents top scorers can be just as effective. That being said, Monday was Jimmy's best game as a Zip. 9 & 9 in 20 minutes w/ no turnovers. You can almost see the game slowing down for him. I'd still like to see him get more agressive .. he's showing signs. Had that putback dunk gone down, it'd have been the most athletic dunk I've ever seen @ the JAR (at least I can't remember one better). The crowd reaction was something. Team's getting better .. Calvary is still a few games away .. December is for building chemestry & rotations. Having attended all 6 games thus far, I like what I see. Put 'em on Zips Fans!!