Quickzips

Tempo is going to be the big story line here. If the Zips come out and dictate the pace and make EMU play faster than they want (which is pretty much any pace above that of an 85 year old man with a walker) the Eagles don't stand a chance. If the Zips let EMU control tempo this will be another nail bitter like the last couple have been. Luckily for the Zips, they seem to have figured out the formula for winning even when opponents force them to play slower. Probably some of the more interesting matchups that you will see in the MAC this year as well. Marshall v. Riley is about the only time you will see two 7'0" on the floor against each other in the MAC. Glenn Bryant v. Tree should be a fairly interesting pairing as well. I don't want to sound over-confident (as usual) but if Akron has any kind of focus at all I just can not see EMU taking this one. They just don't have enough offense.

I'll weigh in a bit on the rotation issues. First off, it is painfully obvious to anyone with two functioning eyeballs that Chauncey is huring out there. Him gimping up and down the floor for 5 minutes a game does nothing to help this team win or help him get healthy. With two games this week against relatively weak competition followed by a week off heading into the bracketbuster it is time to shut him down. Regarding Melo, I really have to wonder what his long term future is with the Zips. He isn't going to start this year or next year. That job belongs to Rico (I'll address his defensive deficiencies later). So he gets to back up Rico for about 10 minutes per night this year. What happens next year with Nyles Evans in town? You don't bring in a JUCO player without expecting him to play and contribute right away. So you have to expect that Evans at least gets the backup PG minutes. So does Melo redshirt as a "sophomore"? His game has a long way to go. He's shown some ability to be a good defender from the PG spot, but he has no offensive game at all. It is almost watching Eric Snow's last couple seasons with the Cavs where he was simply not going to shoot no matter how wide open he is. That isn't going to work. Especially in Dambrot's system where balanced scoring is emphasized. If he doesn't develop some level of shooting I can't see him finishing his career with the Zips. Deji is almost the anti-Melo right now in that he isn't afraid to shoot, but he shouldn't be shooting. Again, the kid just doesn't have a D-I shot. I remember watching recruiting video on him a couple years ago and being very concerned with his shot, and I have to say, it has only gotten worse since he got here. I can't understand why a guy who is so gifted athletically has to take set shot 3's. You can't tell me he can't get any lift on his jumper with the kind of athletic moves we've seen from him on the defensive end this year. On the flip side, he has shown that he can be a decent defender in this league. Unfortunately, I think he may just be limited to that in his career here. On Rico's defensive game, we've all known for a while that Rico is a weak link on defense. It isn't a coincidence that opposing PGs going off on the Zips has been a regularity over the last 2 1/2 seasons. Rico is who he is. No amount of conditioning is going to have a significant impact on that. He can play the passing lanes relatively well and get some steals, but that is about all he brings on defense. On the flip side, he is one of the best offensive players the Zips have. When he's feeling it on offense he more than offsets the negatives on the defensive end. Yesterday his offensive game wasn't there as much and so he really didn't contribute a lot (and hence the Zips found themselves in a surprisingly close game). Nothing really difficult about it. Time to move on. I do agree that the young guys, Kretzer and McAdams in particular need to see some more time. Kretzer gets pretty regular minutes, but it seems like KD is still hesitant to use Reggie at times. I'm not sure what this is about, as Reggie has shown he can handle himself pretty well at this level. I would at least get him those few minutes a game while Chauncey (should be) out resting that knee, and I wouldn't be afraid to reduce Deji's minutes either. To summarize: Shut down Chauncey for a couple weeks to let that knee heal up properly. Melo keeps getting his 10 minutes per night this season. Next year??? Less minutes for Deji. More minutes for McAdams coming from Chauncey sitting and Deji getting his minutes cut back. Rico is who he is on defense. Get over it.

Worst week we've had since the suspensions ended and we still got out of it with two wins. Not sure if that says more about the Zips or the quality of competition. Need to re-group big time.

What in gods name has happened to Zeke's FT shooting?

It's a FT shooting contest now. Which makes me as nervous as I've been all game.

Where would this team be without Reggie and Jake this year? Two freshmen that play more like 5th year seniors at times.

Back to a 1 point game (FINALLY). Have the Zips woken up?

The only thing that concerns me with EMU is that they play a similar slow it down zone style to what we saw Central take us to the wire with on Tuesday. EMU arguably has more pieces in place to play it, so maybe they make it even closer than the Chips did, but I'm not sure. I think more of it will have to do with keeping guys (particularly Tree) out of foul trouble. As far as this game today, I'm not particularly concerned. I know I sound like a broken record sometimes, but this is yet another MAC team that doesn't have the horses to match up with us. They only go about 8 deep. They don't have a lot of size in their frontcourt or on the wing. They are really still built for the slow down, grind it out Charlie Coles style of play, and that just isn't going to work now that they have a coach who wants to push tempo more. They will get better as the years go by, but for now they are what they are. Maybe if Bill Edwards hadn't gotten hurt this would be a more interesting matchup, but right now it has all the looks of another double digit Akron victory.

Frankly, if he is still having issues from the meniscus injury I wouldn't hesitate to shut him down for a couple of weeks. This team is deep enough to survive without him against the likes of Miami and EMU. We will need him more later (Bracketbuster, OU, Can't, Tournament). Is playing him 2 minutes per night on a bum knee really worth it?

Getting a very uneasy feeling about this Jackson kid. Repeated disciplinary problems like this are rarely ever a good thing. I wonder if this has anything to do with the late recruitment of Nyles Evans. KD hedging his bets that Jackson even makes it to campus perhaps? Just speculating here.

And in a clear demonstration of how you can't always rely on advanced statistics. The top team on this list. The team that had a 58.1% chance of running the table. The Florida Gators. Yeah, they lost last night to one of the worst teams in their conference.

To be fair a couple of those weren't to stop Zips runs but were to keep from getting tied up for a jump ball, travelling or failing to get the ball across the timeline. Still, it was one of the more liberal uses of timeouts I've seen in a fairly close game. Not sure how much of an effect it had in the long run, but it was interesting none the less. Just have to mention yet again how big of a performance that was from Tree. A lot of guys saddled to the bench for that long with foul trouble are never able to get back into the game physically or mentally. Tree came back in after sitting from basically the 5 minute mark in the first half and dominated in almost every facet of the game. Scoring, rebounding and passing. He did it all. That is REALLY tough to do.

Not sure what to make of that cluster.... Probably the worst thing that could have happened to the Zips was to come out and go up 13-3 early. At that point you could just see us relax like we already had it in the bag with only 3 or 4 minutes into the game. We never really found the intensity again until very late in the game. Luckily it was just enough to come out with a double digit win. Have to imagine that the foul trouble for Tree had a lot to do with it. We've become very reliant on his rebounding prowess and a large percentage of our offense runs through him. When he wasn't there the team seemed lost. No surprise that the Zips finally put it away when he got back in late in the second half. WAY too many turnovers. OU is probably sitting at home right now wondering why we couldn't have been that sloppy with the basketball on Saturday. Forsythe had probably his worst game of the year. Consecutive travels in the second half. Missed entry passes. And he was a step slow on defense all night. Speaking of Forsythe, was I the only one screaming at the TV when we tried to go with the twin towers approach? When a team is lighting you up from 3 and their zone has kept you out of the paint all night long why on earth do you decide to play both of your 7 footers? Dambrot has made some good coaching decisions over the last month or two. That was not one of them. Anyone have any idea what is up with Gilliam lately? I noticed him hobbling a bit in the second half. Is he still hurting? Is there a reason why he isn't playing more than about 5 minutes a night lately? Mark this one down. The Zips free throws will cost us a game before the end of the season. Big time play from Kretzer late in the game on that strip in the corner. That pretty well killed any chance Central had at trying to make one last push. It wasn't a pretty win, but it was a win none the less. Not feeling as good tonight as I did Saturday, but at least I'll be able to sleep tonight. Going to take a better effort on the road at Miami if we are going to extend this to 15.

We're going to learn a lot about this team's maturity tomorrow night. How you handle success often tells a lot more about you than how you handle failure. If this team can continue to stay humble after a big win over OU and a lot of local and even some national attention then the Chippewas don't have a chance. If this team is patting themselves on the back and buying into the press clippings this one could be a nailbiter. As far as CMU goes my biggest concern is containing Randall who is a crafty little score-first point guard. Those types of players have given the Zips trouble at times in the past. Central has no size to speak of, so as usual the Zips should have the advantage down low. Zeke and Tree ought to have a field day on the glass as nobody on their team averages more than 5 boards per game. They are going to rely a lot on the 3 ball to try and stay in the game (nearly 1/2 of their FGA this season come from the 3 line). I actually wouldn't be completely surprised to see a little of the 1-3-1 extended zone that we saw vs Buffalo. On the flip side I REALLY hope Bo Borowski isn't calling this game. CMU is a pretty good FT shooting team led by Randall (86% on 6 FT's per game). If this thing turns into a FT shooting contest the Zips could be in trouble.

Too much politics involved in the voting process for one player to receive both honors. I think he is definitly in the conversation for both, but more likely he splits the two awards with DJ Cooper. The bigger testament to this young man is that I don't believe Zeke will care one bit so long as the team keeps winning and makes a good run in March.

It would be nice, but where the heck do you get the scholarships from? Also have to remember that IF Larry were to transfer AND Q were to come back they would likely never see the floor together. Q has one more year of eligibility left while Larry would likely have to sit out next year under the transfer rules.

As fun as it is to talk at-large chances and bracketbuster draws, after yesterday, does anyone really see a legitimate chance of another team in the MAC beating us on Saturday in Cleveland? I'm trying not to get too cocky, but let's look at this realistically. OU was widely considered the only legit threat to us this year. We just took them down by double digits yesterday. The only other team that even has a winning record in conference right now is Western who we demolished earlier in the year. We took Can't's best shot at Can't and came away with a W. Again, not trying to get too cocky, or count to many chickens too early, but I really think that the discussion right now should be more about positioning ourselves for a good draw in the dance and a run to the sweet-16 or beyond. Think Bigger. Right?

I don't think this point can be overstated. The days of the Zips having to take a lot of 3's and hitting a high percentage to have a decent offensive output are quickly fading into the rearview mirror. This team can, should and does beat you up down low. We don't need a lot of 3's to beat a team. Timely 3 point shooting will suffice on most nights while Zeke, Tree, Harney and Forsythe dominate in the paint. Regarding Ivo Baltic, the dude has always been charmin soft. Never seen a guy who is listed at 6'9" who is that scared to mix it up around the glass. He seems to think he is some kind of superior athlete (his athleticism is only average for his position) so he can get away with playing 15 feet from the basket and never any closer. Frankly, he wouldn't even be in the rotation on this team. On Cooper, it doesn't surprise me that he would go into the "I'm just going to launch 30 footers until one of them hits" game that he loves so much. That has been his MO his entire career. If they are playing well he's a great teamate and a great passer, when they play poorly he goes into hero mode and starts jacking up junk from all over the arena. Then he pouts and turns into a little thug when they don't go in. John Groce allowed him to get away with WAY too much when he was at OU and from the little I've seen from Christian it looks like he is just content to the let DJ be DJ given that he is only there for the rest of this year. Kid needs a major attitude adjustment if he is going to go anywhere in life after basketball. And just one more thought on Tree. The really scary thing with him is that I don't think anyone really knows yet exactly how good he can be. He still has plenty that he can work on to become a better player. Dude has the potential to average 20 and 10 before it is all said and done, even with the KD style of balanced scoring. I just hope for his sake that he doesn't fall into the trap that Romeo Travis, Nik Cvetinovic and other bigs have fallen for late in their careers and try to turn himself into a long range shooter. If he never takes a shot from beyond 15 feet it will be perfectly fine by me and he will likely finish his career with at least 1 MAC POtY and will be a fringe NBA prospect.

That 70.9% really is pretty amazing if you think about it. When Zeke came in as a freshman he was a complete enigma on offense. His shot selection was horrible (I remember many games in which he was taking multiple 3's early in the shot clock) and he couldn't catch a cold in the low post let alone an entry pass. It really is a tribute to the work that young man has put in and the job that this coaching staff has done with him.

Just got back from my dad's birthday party (family always comes first) and am so glad to have seen a Zips win. When we went in the Zips were down double digits in the first half, and I wasn't feeling good. Looks like the Zips turned it around and pretty thoroughly handled OU down the stretch. Nice to see Abreu and Zeke have some good games. That should shut up some of the talk that those two choke against the Bobcats. If the Zips don't have at least one top 25 vote tomorrow it will be a damn travesty. This team has won 13 in a row. Longest streak in the country. We're 17-4. If that doesn't get you one measly top 25 vote then we need to get the heck out of this conference.

Don't underestimate the impact of two things. One, Zeke is a senior now. He is an established player in this league. He is getting a little more (as much as MAC refs give) of the benefit of the doubt when he goes for a block than he would have as a freshman or a sophomore. Two, Zeke has a legitimate DI center backing him up. Zeke doesn't have to worry as much this year about the times when he does see a little foul trouble because Pat is there to cover for him. Hence, Zeke doesn't have to think as much and can play a little more relaxed. It is leading to less fouls when Zeke would get to thinking too much out there and we are seeing less of the fouls piling up from frustration.

To me this game is pretty simple. It comes down to OU's backcourt against the Zips frontcourt. Strength vs. Strength. Not that Akron has a bad backcourt or that OU has a bad frontcourt. It is just a matter of OU having very good guards and Akron having very good bigs. If Zeke, Tree, Harney, Forsythe and Kretzer outplay Cooper, Kellogg, Offut and Taylor the Zips win. If it is the other way around OU goes home with a big road win.

OU - 5,500 - This one is almost sold out already, and it is still 6 days from tipoff. CMU - 3,900 - Tuesday night game, less attendance. Could be higher if OU ends up as an exciting win in front of a sellout crowd BG - 4,400 - Saturday game. Opponent is somewhat known to the fan base. If we keep winning at this pace momentum will be growing in the community. Bracketbusters - 3,200 - Probably our lowest attendance the rest of the year. Bracketbusters never draw well. No names out there that the casual fan will recognize. Could be more or less depending on tip time. Miami - 4,000 - Another Tuesday night game. Attendance could suffer as the casual fan has been turned off to Miami basketball after years watching Charlie Coles teams and doesn't realize that Coles has retired. Can't - 5,500 - Can't almost always sells out, but if their team doesn't pick it up and show some more competitiveness this could be a disappointing draw.

I know I shouldn't say this, but as a fan, I'm not too worried about taking care of business at BG. If there are two programs that KD has had their number they would be the Falcons and Western Michigan. Even in close games (see last year at Stroh) the Zips seem to find a way to win. Couple that with BG having one of their worst teams in recent memory, I'm not too concerned. I have other commitments Wednesday night, so I won't be at the game, but I am expecting a Zips win. It may be a little closer than many would like if the Zips are too focused on Saturday's matchup with OU, but it should be a W none-the-less.

Something has to be done about the EMU situation, and I really don't know what. They are better than they were a few years ago in terms of record, but the brand of basketball they are playing is hurting the overall image of the MAC. There were two great, exciting games in the conference tonight (UB@Akron and OU@Can't). Nobody will even notice. The only thing that will get any press is NIU scoring 4 points in a half. If the MAC ever wants to be respected as a conference we can't continue to have these teams that can only win if the game is in the 40s. Nobody wants to watch that. We just finally got rid of Charlie Coles, but quite frankly, Rob Murphy may be even worse in terms of playing entertaining basketball.