Zip Watcher

Posting some quick thoughts prior to tonight's WIN against league favorite UB: Why I think this season is a big opportunity to be successful: 1. KD has bodies. We're going to learn pretty quickly who can and can't play UA basketball. I look for Futch and Preston to gradually step up and fill new roles. Neither are going to be like Wood, but each can do things to help offset the loss a little bit. 2. DP is getting his hoops legs. I think he's on the upswing and things will go through him more and more. 3. The Zips won't always shoot 30% from outside. 4. We've now seen several occassions when the Zips have slammed the door defensively for 8 or more minutes on teams. Usually in the early part of the 2nd half. This tells me 2 things: KD is making adjustments and sound defensive coaching moves and 2: the team has bought into the concept that defense will win them games. Down by 13 at the half & coming back to lead by 6 with 8 to play showed a lot of heart at WMU. 5. Close road losses at UT and WMU. Even with Wood, we would probably hope to split that trip, and they had themselves in good position in both games. Shows some heart. If there has to be a time to get adjusted to losing a key player, a 2 game roadie to the West was probably as good as any. At least it didn't involve dropping a game at Marshall or a winnable home game. They competed in difficult situations and got through some of the adjusting .. now it's down to business w/ 14 league games to play. 6. 10-8 can be had if they continue to rebound and defend hard. That means defending the home court and stealing one more win on the road than they lose at home. I think that 7-2 / 8-1 at home in conference could happen, so they need to steal 2 or 3 road wins. Marshall, OU, CMU, Can't State .. there are wins available. 10-8 means home game.

BIG game tonight as a measure of how the team has adapted to the loss of one of its core players. UB picked to win the East. 2 road losses in conference already (EMU / BG). Everyone back from a good team last year. Zips undefeated @ home --> Zips favored by 3 tonight. Middleton vs. Middleton. I've liked what I've seen from Cedrick thus far. Joe Dunn was spouting some garbage about CM disappearing the last 5 games .. and I think he's trying to create a story. CM has been showing flushes each chance I've had to see him. Ultimately, I believe him to be the answer at the 2 come late Feb / early March. Can our captain break out of his turnover rut and knock down some shots? Against OU, home cooking was good for McFadden. Tonight would be a good time to hold on to the ball unless hitting the net with it. Travis HAS to stay out of foul trouble. Maybe the biggest impact of the Wood injury is that KD can't afford to have the periodic Romeo mental meltdown game. We need RT to be there every night. Late in the game at WMU (very winnable) it would have helped to have some interior defense / rebounding. Should be a good measure of the team mid-season. I look for a close win to move to 2-3. Hopefully more than 3500 tonight, though no students on campus yet??

Combinations of many things .. the late nights probably a big thing. The biggest is probably finishing the year end numbers @ work & adapting to the changes at home. I'll be back in frequency soon. More posting today I think. As for the schedule, I don't have a real problem with things this year. I think perhaps that people aren't posting because there's far less to bitch about this year than last season .. we're all stunned into realizing that many of the things that bugged the crap out of us in past years have disappeared for one reason or another. Team play is better Defense is better No academic casualties mid-year It'll pick up I'm sure .. when we win tonight .. it will help.

Well said. Awhile back someone ticked me off about this same thing & I posted similar experiences to a board somewhere sometime .. might have been dreamwater or macbbs .. and since the macbbss search function blows, I can't find it. But I couldn't agree more w/ CK. ZW (not a UA grad)

Well, I got up the courage to tell my son (Zips undefeated with him in attendance) about JW's injury this evening, and he wasn't very happy about it. His reaction pretty much sums it up for me:

I saw that tonight also. Where the cautious part should be kept in mind is the fact that XRays don't contribute at all to the diagnosis of muscle and / or ligament injuries. Only CT or MRI can visualize soft tissues. XRays tell you about the bone and might show if there are chips, or a complete tendon release from the bone, but they don't offer much in the way of indicating the presence of tears in soft tissues. Regardless .. I'm keeping the fingers & toes crossed until we hear more. Hang in there JWood!

Well folks, it looks like GP1 wants me out of here too. I never took a class at UA, but follow UA hoops more than any other sports team. Moreso even than my 2 alma maters who are much farther upstream in the food chain than UA. We all have reasons for rooting for who we root for .. mine have to do with being at ACME Zip games and the JAR as a kid with my Dad. But just because I didn't attend UA .. I'm a goner. Listen slugs .. many of us hate certain schools for a variety of reasons (ask me sometime how I know that umASS fans eat their own poo .. ). I am in the camp that views Columbus State as an example of what is wrong with college sports .. so I don't root for them and I give crap to those who do. But they can root for whoever they want to. Being an OSU fan in OH is very different in my mind than the kids down the street that are "die-hard" Bulls fans cause Michael was there .. or Dook because they win a lot. The fact is, we who reside in NEOH are continuously bombarded with coverage of the big school down I71. So kids are going to grow up Buckeye fans. What gets under my skin is that the local hack papers fail to recognize the presence of major college sports in our own backyard. Unfortunately, until we fill the gyms and the stadiums .. they're not going to pay any attention to the Nation. And if the Nation isn't covered, children (other than those directly in the Nation) aren't going to grow up rooting for their backyard D1 school .. they're going to be fans of the one down the road that the papers and TV stations tell us that we should watch because it's all they're aware of. My gripe is completely with the media on this one .. especially the one a half mile from the JAR. I lived & studied for a time in Indiana and there is a popular saying in those parts that you might see on bumpers once in a while: "Hoosier by birth. BOILERMAKER by the grace of God." The fact is, it's easy to be a Buckeye fan in this state .. it's what the crowd does. It can be tough to be a Zips fans these days. Our challenge my brother and sister Zips is to bring more people to the enlightened state that life in the Nation provides. We have been entrusted with a great thing .. and like any other gift, it is only as good as the number of people we share it with. The Nation is a sleeping giant, and KD & JD will continue to help wake it up. And when it wakes up, a new generation of fans will be found that might not be so inclined to root for a team 120 miles away before the one down the street. You guys (GoZips and GP1) need to chill a little bit. Smack is smack & many of us appreciate a good Columbus State joke, but BZ is a member of the Nation and should be treated as such. We have a forum for smack & jokes .. To paraphrase the big orange monkey creature: Zip shall not flame Zip P.S. Let's not scare the Dude away .. we miss him around here ... P.P.S. BZ --> register up so you can at least claim your login for your own & we all hope to see you around for a long time.

Seems like Hipsher can't catch a break Majerus pulls out the rug from DH ...

Did a little digging on this last night. I don't have a link handy at the moment, but a quick google would indicate that if a player suffers a season ending injury BEFORE the halfway point in the season and has played in 20% or less of the teams total season games, he may qualify for a medical hardship year (which is separate from a straight redshirt). I think the standard redshirt used to be 6 or 8 games, both of which JWood has already played in.

My view: I concur with many comments above, re: Joyce & Peterson .. won't repeat. I agree. - This was an encouraging game to watch. The team responded to adversity (more on JW below) well and defended the whole game. I agree with KD that this is going to take time, but one of the things the Zips HAVE to do to contend in the MAC, this year or any year is defend the home court. Especially in a divisional game against a team riding a 16game road losing streak, this was a game they shouldn't lose, and they didnt. The defensive intensity has to be the biggest single change from 03-04 and it won the game last night. The Zips were by no means burning up the nylon, but when you can hold a team without a field goal for 10 minutes to open a half, you can get by on an average shooting night. If they don't defend everynight, they'll risk looking like OU or Oakland when the shots aren't falling. - Regarding the Cricket. Can someone explain to me why he isn't honored in some fashion at the JAR. As one of the rocks of the late 80's run of 20 win seasons, he has to have won more games as a Zip than most other players that have played here. Certainly in the D1 era. I hear all the time how the Cadavaliers should retire World B. Free's number, but the Cricket not being recoginzed confuses me more. - At times last night, the half court sets were a bit painful to watch. Often times, teams that like to run are hard pressed to execute when forced into a half court offense. I like the run and gun, and the half court has looked ok .. but last night there were possessions where confusion reigned if DP didn't get the ball early in the shot clock. - Winning a rebound battle by more than 10 will never hurt a team. - What ever happened to the 50-50 raffle? - From our seats we can sometimes can hear the play call from the court in the second half. And I'm pretty sure the Zips have a play called "Tarver" .. they ran it last night in the second half a few times. Someone near me mused that it must be an isolation play followed by an off balanced jumper. - I think Middleton could be a big part of this team down the stretch. At times, he's shown the ability to create good open shots for himself off the dribble. Rashon Brown and Johnny H (v. 1.0) were both able to do that at will and it really helps free things up at times. - Anyone else think that it's nice that we didn't show up for the past 2 games and see 2 guys AWOL for grades reasons? Refreshing, since these are student athletes. - I'm truly enjoying the postgame shows from KD. Direct insight and comments .. you can learn from his comments and I think he's pretty pragmatic. Re: Wood: From where I sat it looked pretty bad when he came down. It looked to be a clean play, just bad luck. He came down hard, and he was just WAYY up in the air and got himself a little off balance coming down. There may have been incidental contact, but it just was one of those things. I'm not into speculating on the seriousness of the injury. I've seen guys roll around on the floor in far worse agony than Wood did and it ended up being an MCL sprain. On the other hand, what sometimes appear to be minor injuries end up being total ACL tears. Here's hoping it's not serious and that he recovers completely. Utlimately this team isn't about just this season, it's building for the future. Wood will be back in any event and be a cornerstone of the team again. In his absence, however long, these other guys will get experience, and we'll learn what they can contribute. Shaking the rust off of Myers / Futch and Preston should help the team in the stretch run.

Good for you, but I'm not sure this is the right forum for this .. Zips FB member or not ..

At ANY D1 school, the life of a walk on is a tough one. Opportunites to play are often few and far between and caused only by shortening of the bench due to academic casualties, injuries and/or redshirts. On this team, unfortunately, we appear to see a deep bench with all scholarship players healthy and no one redshirting. Minutes for the walk ons may be hard to come by. In my view walk ons at this level are the ultimate team players. They go through all the sacrifice of the scholy guys and do all of the same work .. to help the team get better and have enough bodies in practice. Many of these guys will never get the recognition of the fans at large, but their contribuitons are huge in building a good team. ZFM, I wouldn't worry too much. Your guy is going to get his chances to help this team. If you saw the CSU game when he was in, the Vikings were pretty active in denying him the ball. Even if he's out there a few minutes and never hoists a shot, he'll draw a defender out and open things up for the team. Your man has a role on this team, he gets mention in the post game by coaches and players .. he'll be a part of it before this is all over. Best of luck to Maurice in his new team. I'm sure he'll be an asset to a DII school, probably an immediate contributor. At the JAR, he was unfortunately on a team with several swing men in front of him. All the best to him in his further academic exploits. Seems like forever since we've had a game .. looking forward to the game a Dayton. Should be a good measure of how the process is going.

CK - Nice points .. beat me to the punch. Here's my view of the game (what sticks with me after a long night ...): Was this the longest 40min game in the history of the JAR? Were the ref's working on a per foul basis last night? Wood continues to impress (CK's description is good). Someone lit a fire under Romeo's tail last night. Both he and JWood were monsters with the energy on the glass last night. If he brings that energy & fire every night, Travis is earning big minutes. Having 2 guys out there like that made a big difference last night. I wouldn't mind seeing Goddard in the mix for spot duty.. he didn't hurt his chances with his brief performance last night. It was interesting to me that CSU knew he was a shooter and worked pretty hard to keep on him. That may have opened things up a little bit, even with him not getting a shot off (did he shoot? can't remember) Great to see DP get off. 23 points on 13 shots is a good night. I thought he looked comfortable and steady. That's the kind of game the Zips will need from him to be successful. Was nice to see him actively in the mix. Anyone else notice that Preston had an ice pack (or heat pad) on hi s lower back whenever he was on the pine last night? Looked remarkably similar to the way Andy did when he would sit there with an ice pack ... ? Middleton can play. How nice was it to hear KD exhort the locals to get out and support this team? I thought it was a nice crowd, but should be more. Great that he just goes after it on the radio. I like his style in the postgame. Very pragmatic & educational (for me anyway). Last night's turning point: With 3:57 left in the game and the Zips trailing 66-65, KD goes to a THREE POINT GUARD SET with Travis and Wood when on Defense. That group did a much better job rotating on the perimeter. Collins, Middelton & Joyce all out there at the same time & it made a difference & momentum shift. They got after it and got a couple of steals. Defense & timely foul shooting won this game down the stretch. Overall thoughts: Wins early for this young team are important, and I thought this was a nice effort. What will have to improve in conference play is the ability to choke a team for good when the Zips get up by 12 or 13 early in the 2nd half. Gotta work on putting people away & maintaining momentum. Young team & it's early. I like what I see .. they're getting after it on D and the energy is there, both on the floor and the bench. The flip side to this win is that they had to work pretty hard to beat a mediocre (and that's what CSU is) team that wouldn't fare too well in the MAC. CSU had 30pts on the pine for most of the game with the foul trouble and early injury. I don't think we should read too much into this game. It's a win .. nice to have early. Good to build upon. We're going to learn a lot about where the Zips are in the next 2 games. Good times are coming .. and we should all be patient. The Zips Nation shall rise!

The guy you're talking about needs to prove he can defend at the D1 level .. and that's probably the main reason he isn't seeing significant minutes. Also, he doesn't have the ball skills necessary to create his own shot. With a good set shooter like that, the team needs to run plays / specific picks to get him open. At this stage of the game & season, they're not set up to accomplish that. The game is more than just pure shooting, or David Faulknor would be an NBA all-star.

Uhhh .. Bubba actually brings about 10 pts / game (in about 18 minutes). That's significant since it puts him as our 3rd leading scorer. Up and down? Certainly .. but he can hit outside shots. I wouldn't substitute him for anyone until I see solid defense from the other options. Simple fact may be that our best shooter hasn't played much, but he's got to prove he's capable of being a shutdown defender. Bubba has been solid on D, as solid as most Frosh are .. and his size / quickness / and ape like arms help us on defense. Some of the other options are just too small & a step too slow to provide that type of D for 20 minutes / game. There's a role for every player on this team.

What exactly happened on the last play of the game? By my rough estimate, there should have been about 8 or 10 seconds left for MSU when they set the ball for 4th down. Either that much left for a punt return, or to take over on downs? Just when I thought the Spartans had gotten jobbed enough .. the refs let UH have a 40 second play clock on 4th down? As with anything, the Zips need to take control of their own destiny. NO ONE will ever do it for them. Nice season Zips! Go Blazers!

During my time in W. Lafayette, I believe the Boilers played at least 2 games AT MAC schools. Joe Tiller's first game was a loss in the Glass Bowl .. and I think there was a trip to Ball State mixed in there back when Jim Colletto was coach. My thought is that perhaps the Zips could get a 2 for 1 out of Purdue and down the road bring the Boilers to a new on campus stadium? Keep the Boilers game. I go out there for 1 to 2 games a year, and next year would have 2 September games to catch .. UA and ND.

I'd be happy to donate to the cause .. anyone have ties to a sign printer that can make up a real professional looking sign? Maybe someone who lurks here could design the sign?

I think I'm going to try and make it. I was able to make the alumni game last week (I do have some notes that I'll post one of these days) & this should be pretty cool.

I'm curious .. what do you mean by that?

I have to respectfully disagree w/ Z.I.P. here. I think that UB has to be the favorite in the East, if not the whole conference, and it's in no way an indication the MAC has fallen. UB was more than solid last year, and with everything back plus a summer of practice & experience, I expect them to be a very good MAC team. No way do I think they'll be outside the top 100 if they meet the expectations of a MAC division winner.

Server is restored & everything should be back to normal now. Please post here if you continue to get the "internal service errors." Thanks, ZW

Correction pimpleflush .. they don't announce the OPPONENTS until mid-January. The location of the contests (ie home teams) are determined prior to the season starting. Check your Can't State schedule from last season. You'll see they were already listed at home when the hard copy schedules were printed in October.

Many of you may have noticed periodic "Internal Server Errors" when using the forums. The problem has not only been annoying, but has also been affecting overall performance and hard drive space. I have been working with the hosting service company to resolve this, and they have arrived at a solution which will require some short downtime for the server on which ZipsNation.Org is hosted. As a result of this ongoing problem, and the effort to resolve, please make a note of the following: The scheduled server downtime will be: Start: Monday, August 16th @ 11:00PM CST End: Tuesday, August 17th @ 7:00AM CST It is anticipated that this should take no more than 4 hours, but the 8 hour block is indicated to allow for other upgrades and server testing. Sorry for the inconvenience & I appreciate everyone's patience in the move over here. Hopefully these problems will be well behind us as the season begins. Go Zips! -ZW

Aren't they ALWAYS "really going for the win" ?? I hope so.