Zip Watcher

I've never been in the building, but is the Knight Center big enough to make a bushleague little gym out of it for a season? If you ever went to the MAC tourney at the Seagate center when it was there, it was nothing more than an open room with some retractable seats. You don't need too big of a room to have 5000 temporary seats. Again, I haven't been in the Knight Center, but I imagine it must have a big common convention floor that might do the trick. I'll have to look into it. I like the idea of having some old school games at Memorial .. what did that hold anyway? We could schedule the biggest games there so that there would be people on top of the court .. and nary an empty seat!

What he said!! I concur also. It would be nice if they could use a copy editor with internet access to check Pluto's work in the future. Memo to Terry: 1. The story is only a quiet one because the local paper that's all of 1 mile (if that) from the JAR doesn't cover the local team. If it's a quiet story ... it has a little to do with your paper. Printing the wrong coupons and ads doesn't help make it louder either. 2. Peterson is JUNIOR! 3. The seniors on this team are: Mario Collins Nick Meyers Rick McFadden. Get to know them. Maybe interview one of them for the first time before they graduate this year. Please make a note of it! GoZips!

To my knowledge there was a brief outtage in the AM (maybe around 9 am?) but I was able to access the board each time I tried during the day. Did many people have troubles???

Nice win that the Zips had to have at home. Gotta hold serve at home. Some brief thoughts before I turn in for the night: - I would categorize this as an UGLY win. A win's a win, but there were opportunities to blow this game open .. and those chances were blown by trying to make a difficult pass when the passer had a good look at the hoop already. Turnovers on interior passing in the 2nd half almost cost the Zips a win. - Was this Rick McFadden's best ever game as a Zip? Gotta hand it to him .. that's what a captain should do .. go out and hustle and lead the team to victory. I think he's played quite well the past 2 or 3 games. Nice to see him upping his game. Hope to see hiim finish out his career strongly. Nice work Rick. - I thought that for BRIEF STRETCHES both Preston and Futch showed that they can be effective contributors to this team. I think both of them were at a small peak around the time of the Ball State game & lately have been a bit off. But in the middle of the 2nd half, Preston was huge with a couple of blocks & rebounds. Late in the game, Futch had a key basket and some big rebounds on the defensive side. Rob's tip on the loose pass late in the game was key. Nice game fellas .. looking foward to seeing you both continue to put it together. - When Rob is able to knock down an early three, I think he presents a huge matchup dificulty for the other team defensively. He can blow by big guys off the dribble and shoot over most forwards .. If Rob can get his defense together & commit to the hustle and rotations .. he could be a player. - Romeo continues to improve every night. He's now surpassed Ryan Andrick in my list of the most improved players from one season to the next in recent Zips history. We look forward to seeing him every game because he really brings it. Anyone else notice that he's been able to keep his fouls under control and still be agressive inside? Improvements are visible game to game now. That's what I've got for now. The Zips now sit 2 games back of Miami in the 2nd spot in the East and 3rd overall for the MAC seedings. They control their own destiny for a home game or first round bye. Next one is huge because it will seal up another tiebreaker. The tiebreaks are looking good for the Zips right now and a win on Wednesday would go even further. 8-5 with 5 to play. 11 or 12 isn't out of reach. Go Zips!!

2/3rds of the way through the MAC season, sitting at 7-5. 6 games to go, 3 at home and 3 away. Big one tonight that needs to be won. Some thoughts: - Zips now sit 7th overall in the MAC seedings. A win tonight puts them back in 3rd place, with a bye to the Gund due to tiebreakers. A win tonight would really help the tiebreaking game in any route, as they'd really be in good shape against most of the teams they're bound to be tied with. Wins against BSU and BGSU may end up to be huge before this is all over. - Went to the Can't State / BGSU game on Saturday and watched Can't State waste any advantage they had gained by winning on Wednesday night. The game against BG confirmed my thoughts that the UA game was among the flushes best defensive efforts of the year. They weren't nearly as sharp on Saturday. -- If the rumors are true about DP & MC, then the Zips will need a nice showing from Cedric tonight. I think he's got it in him, but we'll need a strong defensive effort to counteract the loss of MC. As for DP, I think Preston will need to be the guy to step up and knock down some shots. - Have the last 5 days gone anywhere in helping convince Futch that the paint is where he needs to be? - I've only seen UT 2 times this year (both on TV) and I would guess that they won't be trying too hard to force a slow-down game like Can't State did. Zips should be able to get out and run tonight. That should help set up the press. I have to like the matchup. UT is tough and did beat us last month, but it was a roadie & the first game w/o JWood. - A recommittal by Preston & Futch to hit the glass and win the rebounding margin would go a long way tonight to sealing up the win. - The next 2 games (UT & OU) are HUGE for seeding in the MAC. Win these 2 and the Zips really put themselves in solid position for a home game and can start thinking about that bye to the Gund. Both OU and UT are going to be in the mix of a log jam for the 3-8 seeds .. Going a combined 3-1 against them will pay big dividends. Get the game tonight! - Again, I look for the KD defense to cause troubles for UT. Every team so far has been stumped by that one particular set he likes to run. I don't think anyone has solved it yet .. hopefully they won't need it too much tonight. - Hope to see a big crowd tonight. Wednesday gave everyone a reason to come back again. Can't State wasting their advantage on Saturday helps also. - The Zips have been in EVERY game this year late with opportunities to win, and I expect nothing different tonight. - What better way to celebrate romance than a woodshed beating of the Rockets .. wouldn't that be nice? Go Zips!!

My thoughts: - From what I've seen from Can't State on TV thus far, and I admit that last night was the first time I've seen them live, that was Can't's A game defensively. Excellent effort on both sides defensively, but Can't State really came and defended the perimeter well throughout. - With the exception of Romeo & occasionally Peterson, I'm not sure any Zips player was able to free himself on his own to create a good shot. That's an indicator that this team is better than the individuals and that there is room for improvement. Can't State was a step quicker at almost every position. I did find myself wondering a little in the first time if Milum might have brought some quickness to free some stuff up ... young kid though. Goddard would have had every shot back in his face last night. - Futch fell back into his "take the 17 footer" mentality last night & it really hurt us. Can't State was successful in forcing the half court game and dictating their tempo, and we needed some big guys to pound it in and force them to defend in the paint. Other than Travis, the Zips didn't do that. Both Cutlley & Warz had 2 fouls early and they really never went after them. Pounding it in woul d have opened things up outside a bit more. This was a game where JWood was really missed (I count this as the 3rd game that he'd have made the difference in a loss - WMU & Miami the others). - Can't remember the last time I saw a team struggle this much to get open looks. Props to Can't State's D for taking Bubba and Peterson out of their games. - Romeo continues to impress .. great game by him. - In the second half, when the ZIps started their run, they went to the 1-1-3 .. maybe with about 9 minutes left? By my unofficial count, there were about 8 possessions when they used it, and Can't State never solved it. I believe 4 or 5 bad shots, a shot clock violation and some turnovers. I have to wonder why we didn't see that look earlier in the game. Similar to the other recent home games (UB, CMU, & BSU) .. it really stumped the opposition. I know that Can't State was in slow down mode, but they didn't get any good looks against the 1-1-3. - The defense and some fouls probably came about a minute or 2 late. All in all, it was a great game. Great atmosphere .. 5500 Zips fans .. wasn't that cool?! Good effort and intensity on both sides. I have no issues w/ the ref's last night, beyond the fact that they didn't give us the call when the Zips were TRYING to foul Warzinski. They hammered him and he walked .. no whistle for either infraction. I think it's telling that in a game where both teams defended well and didn't turn it over excessively, the Zips were right there last night. Can't had to work for this one .. and Akron had opportunities to make it happen. I'm not sure how much credence I give to the "big games" theory. I think there were some bounces that didn't go the Zips' way (missed layups & solid looks by RT that just didn't drop in the first half) and they didn't convert on some easy opportunities. I think an encouraging game, even in a losing effort. Losing to these guys sucks .. but we get another crack at them in a few weeks. The bottom line is that the Zips have been in EVERY game this season, with opportunities to win late. They're getting better every night. More later ... I'm going to watch the tape tonight or tomorrow I think. Go Zips!

This has to have been one of my most unproductive few days in my career. Phone ringing off the hook .. excitement building out there. There's a buzzzzz .. might not show here, but things are building up. Tonight has not come fast enough for me. Thoughts on the game: - Romeo needs to play .. stay out of foul trouble and on the floor for 25-30 minutes. - Will Can't State try to slow it down and pound it inside, or will they try and get out and press and run against the Zips? One of those approaches will get them killed tonight, IMHO. - It's been awhile since the last home game. I'm sure the team will be pumped to come home to a jam packed house. Come out loose fellas! We'll be there to keep the energy up tonight .. you just settle in and defend. - Warzinski seems to be putting up nice numbers. Looking forward to seeing what he's all about. - Anyone remember when Tarver broke Haynes' ankles at the JAR last year. Just thought of that .. highlight of last year's game. - Per macbbs, the Can't State folks seem a litle concerned. My flush buddies are talking confidence, but they seem worried about this. What do they know? - I'm feeling pretty good about tonight. Not over-confident I don't think, but I think our team is well prepared and equipped to win the big game tonight. Lots can happen this season in the MAC, but I feel good about tonight. - This type of game has taken WAYYY too long to get here. God Bless Keith Dambrot, Mike Thomas, our players and everyone who contributed to this .. (old HS & college coaches included). Only now am I realizing how much I missed having a dominant team @ UA. - If last seasons Zips could win @ home against Can't State, this team should do much better than that. The Zips are light years better than a year ago. Is Can't State better? The same? Worse? Ultimately, I think tonight is an opportunity to put the earth back on it's correct axis and restore the correct order of things in local college hoops. This is a HUGE opportunity to stake a claim to a top three seed and wake up the Nation. Let's hope it works out! Go Zips!! See you tonight & let's get it on!!! Oh yeah: DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS

So you need a college degree to teach finger paints now? What program is that?

Buffalo steps up big and gets the win in Kalamazoozoozoo. I have to admit I'm surprised a bit. Not by UB winning, but more by the continued slide by the Broncos. Perhaps there's an injury that's playing a factor? Regardless, the UB/WMU game result leaves the Zips in the 3rd spot in the MAC Tourney seedings. This by tiebreaker as a result of the best record among games between the teams tied at 7-4. The importance of tonights game is clear to all of us. Hoping to see the JAR full of Zips fans .. 5500 of them. With 7 games remaining in the season, the Zips are in the driver's seat for the 3rd bye. A win over Can't State on Wednesday will pretty much seal up the tie-break with them and get us a game up. I think I'm rooting for BG & Miami to start winning out (aside from the 23rd of course). Miami wins against OU and Can't State will help further establish separation for the Zips.

Thinking about tomorrows game & the race at this point in the season: - Huge win by BGSU for us last night. I hope BG runs the table. In the tiebreakers, records against the top teams comes into play somewhere. Go Falcons. - I can't say I'm impressed much w/ OU. They looked pretty similar to what we saw a month ago in the JAR on Black Sunday. Very athletic, somewhat undiscliplined. I think a press will continue to hurt them. - Who do we root for tonight? A win by WMU pretty much sinks a nail into UB's hopes for a home game, securing it for UA and the others. Or do we root for UB because the Zips are in the hunt for a top 3 seed & we'd prefer BG or BSU to win the West (see tiebreakers above)? - Anyone else notice on the other boards that most projections by fans out there (Mollaut excluded if I remember right) have clearly not considered that the Zips might be in the hunt down the stretch. One guy has the Zips finishing 10-8 in conference. Is that reasonable? 4 more losses seem like a lot to me. In December I would have been thrilled with 10-8 & I still think it's a nice season, but this team is on the edge of much more. - There's an eerie calm around these parts and among the UA fans I've spoken to in the past few days. Sort of a quiet confidence (most people I've spoken to are somewhat confident about tomorrow night) perhaps? Maybe the calm before the storm? Trying hard not to jump on too soon? It's kind of strange ... I'm getting pumped for the game on Wednesday. - Glad to see the Padre re-surface. I guess the Pinto must not have snow rubber, so he had to drive south to avoid the nasty weather & get a good XM signal?

I concur Z.I.P.! You and I think alike. I can picture an upgraded bandbox JAR that could be tough as hell to play in as a road team. The team on the court is doing its part .. now the community & campus will follow suit.

Z-Pouch, You are correct. We sit about 10 rows up in the center court lower bowl (I think it's Sec. 109). And I would hightly recommend them if you can get some. The first year at the Gund, we sat in C109 (Club seat level), and then moved down to the center lower bowl when we renewed early. Due to media, etc. there aren't any floor seats along the sidelines. Media tables have traditionally run the length of the sideline opposite the benches. I'm not sure what the deal is on the baseline boxes behind the band .. maybe those are for sale? Or are they like loges?? I'd rather sit sideline. I've been taking a group to the MAC tourney ever since 99 in Toledo, and I believe it to be the best use of my sports entertainment dollar. 550 for 7 games X 4 seats breaks down to about $20/game in great seats with free parking. If you like bitch-ball, they throw those in for free also. The games are usually pretty good (2000 was insane). Try doing that well at a Cavs game. MAC PAC seats also go up the center court area in the club levels (CXXX). Those are also pretty good seats. Actually a few people in my group have said that the best seat in the house would be center court in the first row of the C1XX (108 or 109 and the same sections across the court). Not sure I would argue with them. The seats that the schools get are pretty close to as good. They'll be within the baselines, from above the 3point line to about the baseline, starting in the lower bowl and going up to the club seats. Not bad seats at all. Actually, I think the MAC PAC seats only go about 8 or 12 seats in from center court, and then the school seats start, so if you've got priority w/ ZAC, you'll get great seats. It's REALLY a first class event if you've not been there. It will be better w/ the ZipsNation in large attendance, but I've been to other tourney's (Big East for example) & the MAC takes a back seat to no conference in how well it's run. I'm hoping to see a nice long extension signed at the Gund sometime soon .. I think it's only certain through 2006.

Not sure about that, but I'm looking to find out. I've already pretty much filled our 12 center court MAC PAC seats, so it might be necessary to get more from UA for those sessions. I think the best they can do is just take "orders" until the Zips are actually in a game @ the Gund. So probably not till they seal up the East title the last week of Feb. will we be able to get tix from UA. Go Zips! Oh yeah! --->

I'm in .. same place as before?

All, As a point of interest, a group of us will be gathering for pre-game thoughts, food & beverages. We'll probably be there beginning around 6pm or so. Any slugs out there looking for a beer before the game w/ fellow Zips fans .. that's a spot you're sure to find like minded folks & perhaps a few Can't State followers also ... Hope to see you there.... GoZips!

OK, I think that everything is working over here now. Thanks to CK for helping with some test posting. Thanks to the slugs for the patience. The timing really SUCKED on this thing with the big win last night and all. Regarding all of these "GUEST" posts that are popping in now: due to the relatively low number of posts that didn't come over with the server move, I've just been re-posting the most important of the new posts. Thus, you'll see several posts, whole topics even that are all posted with ***Guest in the names. These posts can be attributed to the user listed, but I couldn't find a super clean way to bring them over .. reposting was the quickest solution. Please post any difficulties you have here, but unless I hear othewise from people, I'm declaring this a finished issue. We've been moved to a much faster server that hopefully won't crash every day at lunch following a big Zips news day. My observation from here is that it is performing better .. we'll see if that holds up. Thanks again for your patience .. Go Zips! ZW

OK .. as of 2PM Eastern, this thing appears to be on the new server. Functionality is still someone iffy. New postings result in a blank screen temporarily. I'm still looking into this. It may take a bit more time before everyone sees this new version .. but certainly by the end of Friday. I am aware that there are some posts over on the other side that are not here. We will do our best to port them over, I know there aren't many. It may end up that we need to repost them here ... Please post any problems or questions you have in this topic. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE!

All, Many of you may have noticed that the Nation has been intermittently down a few times in recent weeks. The hosting company at which the Nation is located has been encountering some difficulties with our current server. As a result there have been more outages than we would have liked to have. Please note the following: There will be a significant upgrade & maintenance period early on Thursday 3 February, 2005. There should not be any prolonged downtime in the server. However, as data is copied over, there is the potential that some new messages might be posted to the forums right as the transfer is taking place, and may not cleanly make the move. I will do everything that I can to update this thread with current status, but I'm hoping that the transfer will occur largely in the early AM hours on Thursday. The Moderators, Zippy and yes, even your local postal carrier / Can't State graduate appreciate your patience with the recent server problems and now with this planned maintenance. By mid-day Thursday, I believe that all should be back to normal in the ZipsNation. Again: This ought to be seamless, but please keep copies of any posting you do between Midnight on Thursday morning and mid-day Thursday. Some new items may not be transferred correctly. Saving any specifically insightful comments might be worthwhile. This means you ZIPMAN! In the event of prolonged difficulties w/ ZipsNation, I will post updates at macBBS in the UA forum there. Thanks for your attention. ZW

Anyone here ever been to Conte Forum @ BC? It occured to me that maybe costs could be spread around by combining the facilities (FBall & Hoops). NOT in a Bobinski type dome or something .. more from a structural and physical plant perspective. Conte Forum @ BC is sort of like that. The Forum is the Basketball / Hockey arena on BC's campus. Nothing too spectacular about the arena itself, but it is a nice facility. What makes it unique is that it sits behind one of the sidelines of the House that Flutie Built. On top of the Forum is an upper deck to the football stadium that was built well after the stadium opened. The kicker is that there is a row of suites / lux boxes that look into both the football and basketball venues. They look in along the baseline (above one of the student section ends) of the Arena, and are centered at the 50 yardline of the Football stadium. I'm not sure how the access works .. clearly there must be a hallway or something .. But it's an interesting thought when you think about space limitations on campus and the desire to keep the facilities centrally located with respect to the rest of the athletic sites. Some concessions / facilities could be shared .. sell a few boxes to the big companies / booster groups (makes for a cool Tommy Evans / Varsity A combination). I'm thinking something in the neighborhood of 8-10k seats max for hoops, sort of configured in an Anderson Arena "band box" setup .. only modernized. I've got tons of thoughts about JAR upgrades also .. very interested to see what transpires on the facilities side once we start running out of room in the rafters.

My first reaction to that is that it sucks. My second is that it's fine for this team. It forces people to come out to see them and maybe makes this team a little more hungry for respect. There is also the idea of remaining below the radar for a bit longer. Still would like to get a good team here that we can dust with the Defense and get some RPI points from.

I think I must have listened to a different game than you because: 1. There were no technical fouls. Not on RT .. not on any Zips .. not on any RedHawks. I don't recall any from listening to the game, and there aren't in any box score. 2. The Zips couldn't throw it in the ocean for 20 minutes, yet found themselves within 4 points with ~2 minutes left int the game. 3. The Zips showed heart defensively late to go on an 18-1 run in 4 minutes late in the half. 4. The last 3 weeks won't be a waste no matter what happens on Thursday. The fact is that nobody in the East has more than 2 road wins (Buffalo). Miami has SIX remaining ROAD games among their last nine. The Zips are only 1 game back in the win column right now. Only WMU and Miami have more wins than UA in-conference at the moment. I'm not even close to losing any hope in this young team at the moment. Here's what I heard during the game on Sunday: The Zips rolled over a little bit yesterday. Came in fighting the flu (Futch & Joyce didn't play much .. and didn't play well). The past few games they've been playing well for 30 minutes and ok for 10. It was the reverse yesterday. In the first half, they played good D and got stops, but couldn't throw it in the ocean to build any kind of a lead. Then Miami got on track and built a 9 point lead at the half and stretched it out to 20 with about 6 minutes left in the game and things looked bleak. Then the Zips yet again went on the big run .. this time on the road. The Defense KD has them playing is working. Probably the worst rebounding performance by the Zips since before Wood went down. Really a game they could have had with some better D to start the 2nd half. Miami shot a blistering 73.9% in the 2nd half. This was the first game since the Western road loss that they really needed to have Wood. Usually either Futch or Travis is active enough on the glass to cover up for not having JW. Yesterday Futch is sick and Travis wasn't really active .. so they got killed on the glass and Horace had an easy time of things in the post. Not a great performance by our young team .. but nothing to cause anyone of us to go out and start trading our 'roo gear for Can't State rags. It looks like Miami is way up on the division at first glance, but take a look at the schedules down the stretch and consider the fact that they've got 6 of 9 on the road to finish up. The East hasn't heard the last of UA in this title hunt.

Can't imagine how this happened .. we'll have to look into it No others as of yet .. ideas?

Gee David .. did you cover any road games that weren't @ Can't State?

Wasn't that also accomplished by adding additional chairback seats upstairs? Was that upper side always chair backs? I thought maybe they added the chair backs a few seasons later to limit the capacity that way also. I'll never forget how hot the JAR was against MTSU in the OVC tourney final. I need to get a press guide or something to take a look at that box score to see announced numbers .. had to have been one of the largest crowd in the building's history. I've scoured the web a few times, but haven't been able to find a box score .. anyone have it?

Knocking on wood here, but it would appear the Zips may win out on Jackson. UA is far upstream of Tennessee State, is it not? Is TSU in the OVC (1AA?)?