Zip Watcher

Uhhh .. yes they DID open the curtains on the side opposite the benches. The lower bowl only seats about 11k, and there were 2k+ upstairs.

Some Zips fans are attending their 9th consecutive MAC tournament, regarless of the shortcomings of previous teams.

Absolutely serious .. been watching Jimmy VERY closely. He rebounds well from the SF / SG position & he NEVER gets beat one on one. Not against Kemp from Nevada .. and not last night. Early in the year I think he struggled keeping up on the rotations & switches, but he's been in tune with the D for the past several games.Jimmy's not the guy who's rolling off picks in this offense on this team. He's the guy SETTING picks to get the bigs or Dials free. I can say I've not noticed him tripping on a guy through a screen .. He's the guy setting the down screens in the rotations.Jimmy will be key & will be clutch for us the next 3 seasons (he'll get one back if Scott Taylor does his job). I think him vs. Singletary for Can't State will be interesting to watch.

Good thoughts .. only a few to add:- Regarding SF, I thought last night was a good night for Conyers. He played most of the first half and by my count only gave up 1 bucket on defense. Singletary was not a factor against him & Jimmy provided good help D on several occasions. I thought it was a good sign that he could contribute on that end of the floor in that environtment with that much on the line.- Also with regard to Jimmy .. I think he must have played for Norman Dale in HS. There were 2 occasions where he put the ball on the floor beat his guy to the rack and then passed off to someone else, rather than taking the open, OPEN look at the basket. Both times he was told by KD as he came out later to "Shoot the Ball!" .. perhaps a confidence issue. Regardless, I thought he contributed solidly to the first half defensive effort.- Would sure like to see a little more McKnight early in games to keep Rome & Jeremiah fresh .. but I can't argue with the results.- Not sure how I feel about taking the risk in having Nate out there. He really pounded that hand on the end line play in the second half. Not sure the risk / reward was right .. but he came back out.- Good to see the Juniors sack up and get it done for the Zips last night. Makes me feel pretty good about next year already. Wood is our best player IMHO, hands down & he gets better each game.- You know that LBJ is rooting for the Zips .. anyone get a good look at him last night? Was the first guy out of his seat on the big plays by the Zips ... by all of the Zips, not just his boys. There's a lot of moaning about too many references, but I say BS to that. It's clear the guy is an Akron guy and and Akron fan .. and we should be damn glad he is .. cause our guys are playing with him in the summers & it will continue to benefit the program long after DJ & RT are graduated.- Great atmosphere & great win. To be the top dog in the conference, you have to go and beat the top dog .. championships aren't given to you .. you have to go out there and TAKE them. This win is another small step towards that goal. Nice effort & finish by the club.What a great way to start this week, the best week of the year, out on the right foot. Nice job KD & the boys .. now get some rest & be ready for some wars.Go Zips.Soon to be

Topper ... I'm going to the BG/OU game with my boy .. you going up? Would be good to sit by you if you are.

I'll post more on this later, but Marshall wasn't rooting for the flushes .. he was just sitting there since there were people in his seats .. by my observation from 4 rows back, he was pretty impartial tonight.

Ummmm ... which team has 20+ all time NCAA tournament wins? Look it up.Which team took 50 years to get to its first NCAA DI tournament?Which team got there in year 6?Look it up.Tradition runs deeper than 8 years.

No one's posted this yet and it's been on my mind for a few weeks.Props to Scott Taylor for a fine job on the radio this season. Over the past few weeks, he's really gotten his legs underneath him as a wingman for Frenchie. Early on, I think Scott was slow to point out the things the Zips were struggling with, but of late he's been concise & lucid with his commentary during both good and bad stretches of Zips hoops.As a guy who is close to the program in several regards, he may feel he's in a tough spot where it comes to critiquing the play of the Zips. I think he's found a nice sweet spot lately and has added to the road broadcasts (when they've been on the air).I think it's time that they play up the fact that the guy is a former player (letter winner) for the Zips and start working him in as the full time hoops radio color guy. As a former player he can (and does) bring perspective of experience in playing at this level .. traveling on buses .. dealing w/ crappy conference officials, etc. Consistency game to game will help Frenchy too.Nice work Scott .. keep it up!

The only opportunity for UA and Can't State to meet in the finals exists if UA and UT lose on the weekend. That would drop UA to the 3 and elevate Can't to the 1 by virtue of the first tiebreaker w/ Toledo (flushes won). UA and Can't State can not drop to the 4 seed. That will either be OU or Miami at this point. Not sure if WMU can sneak in there or not .. haven't seen the West scores from Thursday yet.

The face of the Zips in 2 years will be illuminated by the glare of at least 1 MAC championship ring and be toughened by the experience of multiple post season victories.

Not a brother. Emeka has one sister & if my memory serves, he was from somewhere in the south or southeast.

Any word yet on their participation in the NCAA championships?

How big is swiech when compared to Bardo? Bigger? Wider? Curious about exactly how big the guy looked.

Take his minutes and split them between Jimmy & Chris. Get them out there extended time against (solid) competition. Jimmy has shown he can defend .. he doesn't need to be the first option in the offense, but he needs a chance to get into and stay in the flow of a game .. he hasn't had that since the YTown game. A 6 man rotation is a sure way to end the season on March 8th or 9th.

Brown played 2 seasons, did he not? I think he transferred from WKU in his sophomore year & we had him for 2 full, or at a minimum 2 1/2.Regardless of how long he played, he was the best player in a Zips uniform since Huggins left. A healthy Andy Hipsher may have been better .. but we'll never know that.I agree entirely that you can't be raising banners for 2 years of service, a la Nate Thurmond .. which is why Boyce isn't up there.

I did a little digging to find an old post .. see this Thread from '04.It always did bug me it wasn't up there. Glad Mike & Mike got it done.It is interesting to read peoples posts 3 years out to see how KD is doing against our expectations. And what has gone well & what is still needing some improvement.

Cricket won something like 90+ games @ UA.UA won an OVC championship (reg. season & tournament) w/ CricketUA went to an NCAA & NIT (or 2?) with CricketThe man's number is where it belongs. Retired. He earned it. Well said, CK. These guys have a bunch of games to win to be even thrown in the same category as the Demetric Shaw led flushes. A whole bunch & not much margin for error.Now if DJ & RT go out there & sink free throws to take UA to new (DI) heights .. then perhaps they'll have earned it. As it stands now, I don't put them in the same category as the Cricket.

Would you rather have either of those guys or the Cricket on the floor? My answer is the Cricket, no question.It took us almost 20 years to get the Cricket rightfully honored, I think talk of this with these guys in mind is way premature.

Great post CK. Nice player assessments.I don't personally understand what everyone is comparing him to. I can only think of 1 maybe 2 Zips from '90-'04 that I would trade for to put on the court with this team.I've said it before & I'll say it again: Fasten your seatbelts Zips fans, and get ready for a fun ride up .. it's underway now, but this season isn't going to see the peak.

Brief comments:- Zips looked OK. Not their best game .. and not their worst. Good teams win on off nights.- AP was a nice team .. good depth. A little on the small size, but a talented group. I think it's a nice road game to have next season. It was cool to have an old OVC rival back in the JAR after 20 years. I think this would be a nice home and home to have. So long as AP is at the top of the OVC, I think it's a good OOC game.- When Wood & Travis play together, communicate & look for each other as they are now, the Zips are a tough team to keep in check inside.- Our end of half or end of game, get the last shot offense sucks. I'm tired of the Andre Sims dribble the ball out and then kick it up in the air as the clock expires offense. KD has to have something better than that to offer. A weak point at this point, in my mind.- People who laid the points .. not that I know any .. must have been sweating needing the Zips to hit 2 foul shots late to cover the 16.- I like the Bracketbuster .. always have. I'm watching Drexel come screaming back against Creighton right now & it's flat out good hoops. Better to watch for me than the UNC / BC that was on when I got home. Not sure I'll be able to stay awake longe enough to see NMSU double the spot against OU .. but I must say that high level non-BCS hoops is where it's at for me .. not so much one on one .. good defense & intense competition.Have a nice weekend.

There's nothing better than having your primary rival at home to beat into the ground when you're trying to sew up a division title. And 10AM or whatever it was on the holiday was a great time for the game. It would only work with a local team like the flushes .. big fun.

Any word on whether or not the Can't State game will be played the week of Turkey Day again? That was awesome 2 years ago .. hope they do it again.

OZoner, You're welcome to hang here. You probably won't find any TOS bashing discussions anyway. BCA is among the most emotional boards as far as upswing & downswing. Crazy place sometimes .. super active though.

Anyone else just get dumped off the video feed?

Is that true for all sports? Does a hoops prop player (Conyers) get 4 years on court if he just stays elligible?