Quickzips

I'll echo some other's thoughts here: I've not seen a crowd at the JAR that large and that into any game other than Can't in the decade I've been following the program. The volume in the second half when Kretzer and Walsh were hitting those threes rivals anything I've ever heard in that arena. Say what you will about our fanbase. When they decide to show up, they know how to bring it. Wish we could get more of that. You can say a lot of things about Zeke, both good and bad, but when he's up against a legit low-post scorer he brings his hard hat and his lunch pail. Not a lot of guys can shut down McCrae the way Zeke did tonight. On the flip side that tech was absolute horse kah kah, but at least it seemed to spark the Zips. More of the extended 1-3-1 zone please. I've never seen a single defensive adjustment so thoroughly fluster an opponent. Buffalo had no idea what to do when we went to that zone. It wasn't just that we went to the zone, we extended it out to about 25 feet, and it shut down their 3 point shooting. Great coaching by KD. Kretzer has gotten some flack for his recent shooting slump, but there is a reason KD leaves him out there for big minutes despite him being a freshman. The kid competes at a very high level. Going to be very fun to watch 3 more years of him. Another guy who has taken some flack all year who had a nice game tonight was Betancourt. He stepped up an played some nice minutes as the backup PG. Most troubling trend I am seeing right now is the Zips struggles to cleanly inbound the ball from their own baseline. I counted at least 3 dumb turnovers on inbound plays under our own basket. Buffalo overplayed Zeke and Pat and forced some bad turnovers down there. Have to get that cleaned up. Just as worrying for me is our perimeter defense. I really wish we had a defensive stopper like Q back on this team. I just don't have confidence in Gilliam, Walsh, Deji or McAdams to clamp down on a teams best 3 point shooter when we need it.

I realize the title of this thread may get it removed, but those are the only two words I can use to describe what I witnessed from the Zips tonight. To come back from 20 down to 6 down in the first half only to go back down 15 in the second half, then go on an 18-0 run to bring home the W. That takes a heck of a lot of testicular fortitude right there. And what a night to do it on. Biggest non-Can't crowd at the JAR in the KD era. And man were they LOUD.

I don't care who they are playing, I can't root for Can't under any circumstances. I'll settle for a tie in 6 overtimes.

Call me crazy, but I think it is a distinct possibility. To me, it all hinges on @OU. If the Zips can come out of the Convo with a win then I think we can do it. Who else on the MAC schedule is going to beat us? Central Michigan? BG? EMU? Even on an off night for us we are head and shoulders better than everyone not named OU. We've already passed our other biggest road test @Can't. Frankly, with the way things shape up right now I think 14-2 would even be a bit of a disappointment. 15-1 minimum has to be the expectation right now. Think bigger, right? Think about it this way for a second. Outside of OU and Akron the only team in the conference above .500 after 5 games is Western. Everyone else is 2-3 or 1-4. Western's 2 losses are to Akron and OU. Those 3 teams (WMU, Akron, OU) are 11-0 against the rest of the conference right now. I've been saying it for weeks, but it bears repeating. This is a VERY bad conference right now.

I think it is going to be close early, but Toledo has no depth at all. We should be able to close them out the final 10 minutes or so. They literally play about a 7 man rotation, with multiple players averaging 32+ minutes per night. The biggest thing that scares me is their backcourt of Pearson and Brown. If there is one place I feel like the Zips still struggle at times it is defending opposing guards. If we let both of those guys go off this becomes a real dangerous game. The only saving grace is that neither of them are very good from the 3 line (Pearson at 28%, Brown at 18%) which is where the Zips are more prone to giving up big games from opposing guards. We'll see how easy they find things trying to drive to the basket with Zeke guarding the rim. The other thing that scares me a bit is their big guys. Not that Boothe and Wannell are particularly skilled, but they are both pretty physical guys. I would hate to see them start taking cheap shots at Zeke. On a plus side for the Zips Gilliam, Harney, Tree and Kretzer ought to have a field day against their 3s and 4s. The only listed forward on their roster who sees any playing time is Matt Smith. Then you have a whole bunch of guards who are 6'4" or under and two 6'9" centers. I would look for another big game from Treadwell. The Rockets had a terrible time trying to contain Reggie Kelly against Ohio on Saturday, and I would expect a similar performance from Tree. It should bear noting that we beat pretty much this same group of guys by 14 at the JAR last year.

Power rankings for the remainder of the season: 1a - Akron 1b - Ohio 3-12 - Pretty much irrelevant

I'll weigh in on the RPI, at-large discussion. There are two games that are killing the Zips right now. Loss@Coastal Carolina and Loss@Detroit. Without those two losses we would be sitting at 15-2 right now with our only losses coming against teams that have been in the top 25 all season (Creighton) or who have flirted with the top 25 all season (Oklahoma State). Win those two games and we are likely in the low 50's or high 40's in terms of RPI at least and we are legitimately on the bubble for an at-large selection. Then again, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts.... Are the Zips playing their best basketball right now? No. Anyone with two eyes can see that. They have been off from the 3 point line for at least two or three weeks now. Some nagging injuries have made it hard for certain guys to get into a rythm. And quite frankly, they have seemed indifferent through a lot of these games. Despite that, we've won 9 in a row and now have a two game lead on everyone in the conference other than Ohio. This only 4 games into the season. I think it is safe at this point to say that we all expect at least a top 2 seed in the conference tournament and a 7th straight appearance in the MAC finals. I do agree that one of the bigger problems overall right now for the Zips is the quality of the rest of the conference. The MAC is just simply not a very good basketball conference, and hasn't been for quite some time. Heck, most years we struggle to be an average baskeball conference. I know I made this point earlier in the week in regards to the CMU/EMU game, but I'll make it again here. The MAC has to stop rewarding teams that play ugly basketball and are only hoping to make it to .500 on the season. There is absolutely no reason for the MAC broadcast package to ever include EMU, CMU, NIU, Ball State or Bowling Green. Their athletic departments have consistently demonstrated that they could care less about putting together a competitive, entertaining basketball team. I do like what the MAC has started to do with implementing the new scheduling standards, but I think it needs to go further than that. If you want a slice of the conference revenues, and you want to see your team on TV you should have to meet certain minimum standards for RPI, Strength of Schedule, Scoring Average, Attendance, etc., etc. It is well past time to stop playing this little league game of everyone is a winner regardless of if you score 18 runs or you stand out in the outfield and pick your nose all game. This is DI athletics. If you aren't trying to put together a competitive squad that can win games, you don't get rewarded with a participation ribbon. Alternatively, if the MAC doesn't start to step it up the Zips need to start looking for a new conference for the hoops squad. Maybe the A-10? I'm not sure if the Catholic 7 would be interested in taking on a few more good programs that are stuck in bad conferences with the objective of getting to a 10 or 12 team league, but maybe that is a possibility. I don't know for sure what the answer is, but at the end of the day, something has to change.

After 4 games of the MAC season any talk that OU and Akron AREN'T the top two teams in the conference should be pretty well laid to rest. To be honest, I'm not even sure who number 3 is, and in any event, whoever it is isn't that close to challenging the Zips or the Bobcats. You could say maybe Can't, but they struggle more at home than a top 3 team should. Maybe Western, but you would really like your number 3 team to at least be able to keep it close against your top 2 teams. If Oldham wasn't injured maybe Buffalo, but without him they are a complete disaster. I would hate to think it is EMU with how god-awful their style of play is, but their results suggest that they should at least be in consideration. I can't in good conscience say Toledo when they won't have an opportunity to show it at the Q. Anyways, barring any huge disasters for either team there should really only be 3 more conference games that matter. OU@Akron, Akron@OU and Akron/OU @ the Q in March. Other than that everyone else is playing for an opportunity to get knocked out in the conference semifinals and a trip to the CBI.

The Zips are now 13-4, 4-0 in the MAC. We've now won 9 in a row, and haven't lost a game in over a month. The Zips next three games are at Toledo, home for Buffalo and then back to NW Ohio for a matchup vs. Bowling Green. Of those squads Toledo is probably playing the best right now, but they are not very deep, and I expect the Zips to be able to take care of them. There is a strong possibility that we could go into the OU home game on February 2nd at 16-4, 7-0 in conference and riding a 12 game winning streak. So here is the question, IF the Zips are able to take these next 3, do we start receiving a couple of top 25 votes? I would have to think so, particularly given that there aren't a whole lot of truly elite teams in the country this year. It would sure make for an interesting game on February 2nd if the Zips and Bobcats were both sitting at 7-0 in conference and receiving top 25 consideration.

Big road win! Huge comeback. 5 in a row!!!

Come on big fella, let's ice this one!

Why in gods name is Kretzer in there? Why are we shooting quick 3's when we have such a decided advantage inside. What exactly am I missing here?

Frustrating part right now is that if we hit even 50% from the line we would be up by double digits.

Big difference right now is the Zips are using their size to crash the boards and get multiple possesions while limiting Can't to 1 shot.

Can't let up just because we have the lead now. Push it to a 3 possession game by the under 4 timeout and really put the pressure on them.

You can't go 3-13 from the FT line and expect to win games. Do we even practice FTs?

Can't is really kind of a two man team right now with Evans and Holt. Those two along account for close to 50% of Can't's scoring. Outside of them only Kris Brewer scores more than 5 per game. I don't think we need to shut both of them down, but we need to at least limit one of them. I think the key matchup here is Harney against Evans. They are both pretty similar players in that they are both great athletes who have the size of a typical PF in this conference, but the athleticism and ball skills of a 2 guard. If Harney can equal or exceed Evans contributions I have a good feeling about this one. The other big thing for Can't is they don't particularly share the ball well. As a team they average a measley 11 assist per game. Kris Brewer at 2.4 per game is their leading assist man. Nationally they are ranked 286th in assists per game. That being the case, I'm not sure I wouldn't go to a little zone at times tonight and make the Flashes have to move the basketball to score. Beyond that, I think we need to establish Zeke and Pat F. early and often. They should both have a fairly decided advantage over Can't's two big guys who only run 6'9".

This one really shouldn't be that close. The Zips are a better team in almost every facet of the game. Ball State is ranked below 250 in the nation in almost every major offensive category including points per game (282nd), field goal % (271st) and assists per game (262nd). They don't have the size to compete with our frontcourt (nobody in the MAC does). Majok is a pretty good player at 6'9", but outside of that they have no size on their roster. Fields at 6'10" only sees 18 minutes per night. Matt Kamieniecki at 6'8" only 15 minutes per night. The only place where the Zips have shown a little vulnerability (defending the 3) is not a strength for the Cardinals in any way. Their best 3 point shooters only shoot 32% on the season. As a team they are barely over 30%. The Cardinals also don't do a particularly good job taking care of the ball. They average 15 turnovers per night. Jesse Berry averages 3 per night. Scaife and Majok both average better than 2 per night. Combine this with not having anyone who can really reliably create shots for a teamate (Marcus Posley leads them in assists at 2.9 per night) and Ball State is in trouble. The only thing to watch out for is Majok getting them second chance points. Dude is a beast on the glass (averaging a double double). He gets better than 3.5 offensive boards per game. As long as Tree, Zeke and Pat F. box out this should be a 15-20 point Zips win (at least).

I didn't think it could get a whole lot less interesting than the EMU at BG game over the weekend. Then I tried to watch a few minutes of the CMU at EMU game tonight. The Eagles are just flat out brutal to watch. I have no idea why STO has felt the need to put them on TV twice already 3 games into the conference season. If I were STO and the MAC offices I would issue an ultimatum to Murphy. No more TV time until your team regularly scores 60+ points per game. This is doing nothing to help the MAC's image.

The most encouraging thing about that. Our bench (right now): Betancourt - Freshman Ibitayo - Sophomore McAdams - Freshman Kretzer - Freshman Forsythe - Freshman While this team is very good this year, the future is also very bright. Especially when you consider we also still have two more years of Tree and Harney. Another year of Abreu. Plus we bring in a talented class of recruits with Evans, Jackson, Gladden, Cheatham and Johnson next year.

This. The history of Keith Dambrot at Akron is balanced scoring without having a single player dominate the scoring night in and night out. In his 9 years as head coach the highest scoring average on a season was 14.9 for Romeo Travis in 2006-2007. If Zeke continues to score around 13 per night for the remainder of the year he will end the season with the forth highest average scoring season under KD and it will be the first time since 2007-2008 (Jeremiah Wood at 14.1/game) that a Zips player has averaged better than 12/game. A lot of things have changed since KD took over in 2004-2005. We play with a lot more depth. KD is a lot more willing to trust players early in their career. We recruit taller, more athletic players. One thing I have a hard time seeing change though is that the Zips will continue to rely on balanced scoring.

Going on the road against NIU is a little different than going on the road against Creighton. Will we blow out the Huskies (as in 20-30 point victory), I don't know. But I am not expecting the Zips to lay an egg. I'll also chime in on the full-court press issue. Unlike some others on here, I actually like what it is doing for us. You have to have a realistic expectation when you go to a full court defense. First, you have to go into it knowing that you are going to give up a few easy buckets along the way because when a team is able to beat it you don't have a sufficient second line of defense back there in a lot of instances. I won't complain about Richie getting a few easy layups when the Zips went out and tried to trap. You will get that when you press. You don't see as much of it when you run a straight up, man to man half court defense. You also don't generally see as many turnovers and run-outs the other way off of rushed shots when you play straight up half court defense. Which brings me to my second point. It isn't ALL about forcing turnovers. Focusing in on raw turnover numbers can often be a false indicator of whether or not a press is working. A good full court press can be just as effective forcing 20 turnovers as it is forcing 12 turnovers if in the process you force your opponent to rush 8-10 shots leading to a quick rebound and a run-out. Finally, I don't think you can discount the impact the press has in terms of your opponents stamina. Most teams in the country (and certainly in the MAC) are not going to run out a 10 or 11 man rotation like the Zips have done this year. A lot of teams may only go 7 or 8 deep. If the Zips can continue to go 10 or 11 deep and force opponents to have to play full court they are going to continue to see opponents tire in the second half (as I believe Western did on Wednesday).

I don't think it has as much to do with the MAC West teams not sucking as much. I think it has more to do with certain MAC East teams sucking more. I could argue that outside of Akron and Ohio the rest of the MAC East has taken a significant step back this season. You can kind of forgive Miami's drop off a bit with a new coach implementing a new system after years under Charlie Coles. Bowling Green's issues are inexcusable. When you only have two players who are even capable of scoring the ball on offense your coaching staff is flat out not doing it's job on the recruiting trail. Buffalo has something of an excuse as a key injury to their PG has left them scrambling, but they look pretty bad. Can't has no real excuse. They have enough history on their side that they shouldn't be losing at home to MAC West teams that have nothing to play for. I don't find much entertainment in watching crappy basketball, and that is pretty much all you are going to see from the MAC this year. IMO there are only two games that are in any way worth watching. Ohio at Akron and Akron at Ohio.

The MAC is just bad, bad, bad this year. We haven't been a good conference in a long time, but this year is just flat out horrible. Ohio and Akron can probably play with most teams, but outside of that there are a lot of teams that would have trouble with D-II schools right now. Can't just suffered a double digit loss at home to Toledo. They continue to suffer from a lack of strong leadership from their upperclassmen and their coaching staff. Buffalo is doing their best to waste one of the most talented players in the conference. It doesn't help that their PG is gone, but you really have to feel bad for Javon McCrae. They got absolutely demolished last night in Athens. You have to wonder if it is time to make a change at the top there. Miami just lost at home to a CMU team that is in the first year of a major re-build. Prior to that they drew less than 1000 fans at home for a good OOC opponent in UMass. I'm afraid that the last 3-4 years of the Charlie Coles era may have done some irreperable damage there. Bowling Green is a two man show. Outside of Calhoun and Crawford they have nobody. Most of their roster wouldn't sniff a D-I scholarship anywhere else in the country. Louis Orr. Good person. Terrible coach. Terrible recruiter. EMU is fools gold. They may win a few games here and there that you don't expect them to with that slow it down style, but when faced with a really good team they get slaughtered (witness 52 point loss to Kentucky). Western was exposed big-time last night. They might actually have the frontcourt to be decent in the MAC, but their backcourt is just so awful it isn't even funny. I have to imagine that Hawkins was in the compliance office this morning desperately trying to find a way to get another season of eligibility for David Kool. NIU is....NIU. That said, for some reason they always find a way to be a headache for the Zips no matter how bad they are. Toledo shows some signs of turning things around, and I will give them credit in that unlike the rest of the conference they actually seem willing to invest the resources into trying to get better, but they are still at least a couple of years away. The postseason ban this year seems to have taken a bit of the wind out of their sails. Central looks to be a bit further in their rebuilding than I would have expected, but they still have a long way to go. Ball State is on the verge of yet another coaching change.

The sad part is the Zips played a pretty poor game overall tonight and still won by 22. The MAC is just not very good at all this year. OU and the Zips, that is about it. Maybe Can't could make a little noise. EMU can try to keep a game close with the boring old Charlie Coles slow it down style game. The rest of the conference is utter crap.