Quickzips

From what I saw of Can't on Saturday, two things are going to hold that team back. First, Rod Sherman is not a point guard in any sense of the word. Now you can say that the Zips don't have a pure PG either, but they at least have some good combo-guards in McNees and Hitchens and a pure PG who is working himself back into the rotation in Steward. Can't has a bunch of SG's and SF's trying to run the point. The second thing is that they lack depth. Tonight is a perfect example as in an overtime game Evans, Greene and Sherman all played better than 35 minutes, and for all intents and purposes they really only played six guys, their starting 5 and Simpson. Three others struggled to log 10 minutes in an OT game. That will burn them eventually, probably in the tournament where depth is critical, or in a game where foul trouble (or in the case of Singletary outright ejections) becomes a problem.

What!?!? Where are you hanging out? Ken+? I wear Akron stuff more than any other sports team. I have NEVER had anybody say something to me. Steeler stuff, yes, Akron stuff, no.Better question, where are you hanging out? I mostly get "what team is that?" "aren't you a Buckeyes fan?" "you mean Akron is D-I?" or sarcastic "ohh...the Zippers huh?"

I'm not sure I agree that the Cleveland media needs to pick up on us more than they do. Don't get me wrong, free media attention is always a huge benefit, but it needs to be earned. What exactly do the Zips do to "earn" it? Why should anyone in Cleveland care about the football team that hasn't had a winning season in what? 4 years now? Why should they care about a basketball team that plays nobody of significance during the regular season and is pretty much a one and done if they get to the NCAA's? There isn't much reason for them to care. You saw a major uptick in UA Soccer coverage when the team was making their run through the tournament. Why? Because that was something people could care about. The soccer team clearly has their house in order, and unlike football and basketball, isn't going to get overshadowed by other state and local teams in the same sport if the athletic department does a piss-poor job of marketing them. I think the first step is to get our own house in order. Start winning games, meaningful games. Put together a functional marketing department. Put together a complete product (team, facilities, side entertainment, concessions, etc.) that people want to come and see and care about. Then I think we can start to complain about a lack of free media.

This should be a victory for the Zips if they approach the game seriously. Watching the Ohio/Can't State broadcast over the weekend I didn't see much special from OU. They have some talented young guards, but they play a very "me first" brand of basketball. As someone already said, their frontcourt is very suspect. I still can't figure out where all the Van Kempen loves has come from. The guy has been a scrub for three years and I didn't see anything Saturday that would show me that he isn't a scrub in year four. If the Zips are patient and run their stuff they should dominate the post. We will probably need some good defensive performances from our guards, as their team is built on dribble penetration trying to break down the defense. Have to stay in front of their guards and not give them easy lanes to the basket.OU fans are already calling this a must win game after they piddled away a comeback effort over Can't. Handing them 2 early home losses to start the conference season would be demoralizing. Let's take OU out of the MAC race early.

I'd like to know what you would consider a "sure thing." To me, right now the Zips are a "sure thing" and we certainly don't have great attendance. As much as it pains me to say it, Can't State for the last 10 years has been a "sure thing" and they haven't had great attendance. You are right that NEO sports fans are desperate for a winner, but I don't think this is a case of "if you build it they will come." It is more a case of "if a tree falls in a forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

I have to disagree with you about the economy having no effect on attendance. I own a small service type business. We are seeing huge impact from the economy. Anything that is a luxury is seeing large decreases. Disposable income is at an alltime low right now. People are saving at the highest rates seen in decades. Even those people with secure employment are scaling back on spending. All entertainment related industries are taking big hits right now. Most are just trying to hang on, but there is little expected in the way of growth predicted for the next few years. If you don't believe me I can post links to dozens of news reports to back up my thinking. I'm well aware of what is going on in the entertainment industry right now. I spend a good deal of my time intricatly involved in it. The entertainment industry is most definitly suffering right now due to the economy, but it isn't because people don't want to be entertained anymore. People are simply looking for cheaper ways to be entertained. They are thinking twice about spending $40 a pop on those Browns tickets and are looking for a cheaper way to spend their afternoon. This is where the Zips can and should come into play. Adult GA for a Zips game is $10 a head, youth $7 a head. For a family of four that is $34. Prices for ONE single game ticket to a Browns game started at $32 this past season. The people you talk about who don't have a lot of disposable income and are scaling back on spending right now should be looking at that. The problem is that nobody within the University is really pointing it out to them.

I actually see it as a lot less of a compliment. The fact that Can't has picked up on our woeful inability to market to the people of Akron and is trying to step in and fill that void is pause for serious concern.

Quickzips...You know I already agree with many of your viewpoints on the direction we should go with our scheduling. But, these discussions I had with fellow fans were not on that topic at all.We were much more focused on how the economy might be impacting attendance, and seeing how our current trend this season might compare with the last few years.I don't think the economy is having as much of an impact as one might think. If you look at the one common opponent so far from this year to last year the numbers are practically the same.BG Last year: 3175BG This year: 3028Now this might play out a little different as the season goes on, but I don't really think it will. I think the rest of the MAC home schedule will end up being right around 3K people with a sell out for the Can't game like always.The fact is that the Zips are still a pretty cheap night of entertainment for people. It might be a bit expensive if you want season tickets in the lower bowl, but general admission tickets for a family of four doesn't set you back any more than going to the movies with that same family of four really. I think it all comes down to marketing and putting together a product on the court that excites people. Give them a quality experience for the money they are spending and they will want to come back and spend more money with you.

Not to defend the Leaking Urinal, but I'm sure Can't paid for that advertising. UA obviously didn't. In today's economy, and with newspapers struggling to survive, it would be a tough sell for the Beacon to turn down whatever Can't paid them for that. If you want to blame anyone, blame the UA administration for not stepping up for that advertising. However, I really don't think the little tower banner ad is going to do a whole lot for Can't.

1.) Schedule some better teams both at home and on the road. You don't build local excitement over this team by playing Malone, St. Francis, Pine Bluff and Greensboro.2.) Don't lose early season games to mediocre teams like Austin Peay.3.) Don't schedule so many Sunday afternoon games against the Browns. You'll get the die hard Zips fans to the JAR for those games, but Joe Akron will be at home on his couch watching the Browns lose...again.4.) Don't piss down your leg every time you have a quality opponent on the ropes at home.5.) Give us a little better halftime entertainment. You can only watching 12 year olds jumproping and doing Irish dances so many times. Where is the red-panda lady when you need her?6.) Actually let the community know that the team is playing. Hasn't been very much of a push this year to advertise this team.7.) Implode the JAR and build a new family friendly arena with better concessions, restrooms, sight lines, seating, etc.That is about all I can come up with for now. Most of this, as Cap'n indicated has been hashed out on here over and over again.

That was probably my favorite play of the game. You could just see the look of sheer terror on Polk's face as Nik was dribbling him down from the top of the key. When Nik spotted up at the FT line and knocked down that jumper it was priceless. By then the game was pretty much already decided but that was a nice little cherry on top.

Few more thoughts on last nights beatdown of the Falcons:How weird must it have been for Humpty to actually match up against a guy smaller than him for once? That little guy from BG is quick, and is a hounding defender, but it looks like he is going to struggle to get decent shots in the MAC because of his size.I have to go ahead and ask the question. Could it be possible that Jimmy Conyers is actually better than Nate Linhart? I love what Nate did for us, but damn. Conyers was absolutely the catylyst for us last night. I think back to all the big plays last night, Jimmy was involved in most of them. The chasedown block in the first half that started to swing the momentum our way. The two big threes at the end of the first half to push us to the halftime lead. Another big three early in the 2nd half to set the tone. Finally, the two dunks late in the game to seal the deal. Not to mention how stellar he was on defense. I can't even count the number of balls he flicked away from BG. He didn't always get the steal, but he made it so difficult for BG to get into their offense. At this point he might just be a darkhorse for conference player of the year.Finally, FINALLY our big guys knocked down some free throws. Chris McKnight 6 of 7, Brett McKnight 5 of 5, Nik Cvetinovic 2 of 2. Whatever those guys were doing last night, they need to keep it up. The only weak spot was the normally consistent Conyers who went 1 of 4.I'll echo what was said above about McNees. He isn't a pure PG, but he doesn't do anything that I can honestly say contributes to us losing games. He knocks down his shots (including one that Dambrot almost strangled him for taking), he's adequate when it comes to initiating the offense and he plays tough defense. I will sure be glad to see Otis Polk's fat behind out of the MAC. We frustrated him last night, but he still scares me. The one thing that frustrates the hell out of me with the officiating last night was the lack of 3 second calls on him. He didn't just have a tent pitched underneath, he was in the process of building a nice two story condo for himself. Can someone please tell me what Brett McClanahan brings to this team? I'm hoping his is just a situation like Jimmy's where KD has him on such a short leash that he isn't playing with confidence, because this guy is starting to look like a wasted scholarship.

Big win for the Zips who didn't just come out ice cold, they were chyrogenically frozen. 3-22 from the field to start the game and we still win by 26??? Another big game from Conyers who is just playing like an absolute beast lately. Zips defense was as good as I've ever seen it. Only two Falcons hit more than one shot on the night. Otis Polk who went 2-11 and Joe Jakobowski who went 5-9. Bowling Green shot 27.7% from the field overall. Outstanding. We also had a Chris McKnight sighting tonight as he had a nice game including 6-7 from the FT line. McNees, Humpty, Cvetinovic and Brett McKnight also had nice games. Not much out of Zeke tonight as he sat the entire second half. Looked like his right knee was bothering him over there on the bench. Mike Bardo stepped in and actually did play some decent interior defense tonight. Very interesting that KD came out to start second half with Bardo and Chris McKnight up front instead of Zeke and Brett McKnight.Good win for the Zips. On to Athens.

I would take Marshall off the list for UNC. They have a much better team now days than they did when they were in the MAC lead by a fine big man in Whiteside who a lot of people think will be a top-5 pick in the NBA draft whenever he decides to come out.Further, when it comes to scheduling for UNC or Michigan State versus scheduling for the Zips you really are comparing apples to oranges. Those two teams get to play a very difficult league schedule with a lot of big name teams like Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Purdue, Wisconsin, Indiana, etc. that goes a long way towards making up for some bad OOC games. Those programs also have a lot more money behind them to be able to offset some crummy games with games against Ohio State, Syracuse, Nevada, Kentucky, Texas and Rutgers (for UNC) or Gonzaga, Florida, UMass and Texas (for Michigan State), not to mention they played each other this year. On top of that they attract more attention from the bigger pre-season tournaments that can really boost their OOC schedule. None of these are really luxuries that the Zips have.

Pretty good game right now down in Athens. Tied midway through the 2nd half. http://www.ohiobobcats.com/multimedia/ohio...multimedia.htmlOn a side note, when is our administration going to get with the program and put something together like OU does with a free and quality video feed for every home game???

Nobody is asking us to play a schedule comparable to Miami's. Nobody, that I have EVER seen on here, has asked us to go on the road for most of our OOC games and play top-10 and top-25 teams all the time. All that we want is to not sit at home playing NAIA and D-III schools so much. Give me one or two more road games against top-50 type programs and a couple more home games against solid D-I mid-majors. That is all that I, or anyone on here, can really ask for. Give yourself a chance. A chance to MAYBE get some at-large consideration and a chance to catch a little bit of the attention from the local community based on who we played and hopefully who we beat. That is all.

What's debatable about the progress made in MAC football. Doesn't 1-14 in the last 15 bowl games indicate where MAC football is. The MAC was 1-4 in this season's bowl games, and the Zips only had 2 MAC wins...Akron should definitely keep pouring money down the football hole while ignoring hoops; perhaps we'll achieve 5 MAC wins again and get into a $750k bowl through a convoluted tie-breaker. So much better than the money that could be earned by getting to the sweet 16 or elite 8, NOT. It is debatable because a lot of people will point to more televised games (on ESPNU, ESPN360, ESPNforJapaneseDwarves, ESPNforFlyingPinkElephants) and the fact that the conference now has more bowl affiliations (that they generally fail miserably in) and say that these are signs of progress. This of course ignores the fact that pretty much every conference has a larger television profile and there are now more bowl games than anyone really cares to watch, hence more bowl bids. Pretty much the college football version of inflation. But never mind all of that, football is king, basketball be damned.

Pretty well defines the problems with MAC hoops. The main problem being that hoops have been ignored for a decade now in favor of "progress" on the football side of things. How much progress we have actually made is still debatable, but the effects on basketball aren't. It is up to the league office and the individual institution presidents to step up and say that this isn't acceptable, otherwise the MAC is going to continue down this road.

Take two or three off of the crap opponents list and add them to the High and Mid-Level lists and I'll be fine. If you are going to break it down like that I would want to see at least 4 High-Levels(preferably 5 if we are going to include the likes of Rhode Island who I wouldn't quite put on the same level, recognition wise, as Texas A&M and NC State), 8 Mid-levels and only 2 crap teams. I could deal with 4, 7 and 3. 3, 6 and 5 is unacceptable though.

You predicted 10-2 for the football team, right? I've got $10 says the MAC East champ finishes the league season with 10 wins max.I made no such predictions when it came to the football team, and I'll take that bet. In fact if you care to make it $100 I'll take that bet too. History is on my side on that one.

Ok, so I think it's time to move on from the debacle that was Tuesday night. There isn't anything that any of us can do about it at this point, and all of the negatives and positives have been sufficiently hashed out. As much as it still stings, this is the halfway point of the season. The OOC schedule is over (besides the bracketbuster) and MAC play is beginning. Now seems like an appropriate time to hand out some individual grades to the Zips and look ahead to conference play.Steve McNees-Starting PG:B+McNees has improved this season. His shooting percentage is up. His scoring is up. His turnovers are down. He has even been better on the defensive end where he has nearly doubled his steal numbers from last year. All of this while playing practically the same amount of minutes as he did last year. Probably most impressive with Steve is the significant jump in his 3 point percentage. He has become more consistent with his most dangerous offensive weapon. He isn't a prototypical PG, but he does an adequate job running the offense and has earned his starting position.What we need from him in conference play: Continue to protect the ball. Even more consistency from the three point line. Work in more of his mid-range game to keep defenses honest. Needs to use screens better to initiate offense.Darryl Roberts-Starting SG:A-Roberts has been the most consistent of our guards all season. He is never going to be elite in any one area of the game, save maybe FT shooting, but he does just about everything well. What has impressed me most about Darryl has been the addition of his midrange game. He has shown the ability to come off of picks and pull up for the little 12-15 foot jump shot which he hits with regularity. That has a lot to do with why his FG% is up from 40.5% last season to 47.3% so far this season. This is only an A- because of his uncharacteristically missed FT's early in the season that contributed to at least one loss (Austin Peay).What we need from him in conference play: Darryl needs to look for his shot a little more. He's one of our most consistent shooters, but he defers to others too often at times. He also needs to look to get to the line more often, particularly late in games.Jimmy Conyers-Starting SF:AWhat more can you say about Conyers? He is the feel good story of the year. The kid who was burried on KD's bench for the last three years who is making good on his last chance at college hoops glory. He has been a monster on the boards, an efficient scorer and a shutdown defender for us since being given more minutes starting against Arkansas Pine-Bluff. I don't think anyone could have accuratly predicted that we would see this kind of performance from Jimmy this year.What we need from him in conference play: Jimmy needs to work on his jump shot as teams will try to cut off his driving lanes and force him to shoot over the top. He is also going to have to take on the Nate Linhart role of shutting down the opponents best perimeter player every night. Brett McKnight-Starting PF:B-I am always pretty hard on Brett. Truth be told, he has the tools to be an absolutely dominating player at this level. When he is healthy, focused and playing hard he can be an elite scorer and a suffocating rebounder. The problem this year has been that he either hasn't been healthy (early in the season) or has lost sight of his role on the team. He went through a 5 or 6 game stretch starting against Malone where he showed the player he can be. Working within the offense, dominating the low post, playing adequate defense and staying aggressive on the boards. Then he lost his focus against Rhode Island, dominating the ball at the expense of his teamates and breaking down on the defensive end. Brett is equally the most exciting and most frustrating player on this team.What we need from him in conference play: Consistency is the name of the game here. If he can play every game the way he did against UIC and Valpo the Zips will be tough to beat and he will be a first team all-MAC selection. If Rhode Island is a sign of things to come...well I just don't want to think about that. Zeke Marshall-Starting C:C+Don't get me wrong, I like what Zeke brings to this team, and to date he has been about what I would have expected. flushes of talent mixed in with reminders of just how raw and unpolished a player he is. Tendenitis in both knees and the simple fact that his frame has yet to adequatly fill out are holding him back in a lot of ways. Still, there are a lot of things he needs to work on. Free throw shooting, shot selection, receiving passes in the lane and at times, rebounding have all been problems for Zeke. Still, he is an impact player for this team if for no other reason than his defense around the basket.What we need from him in conference play: Get healthy and continue to defend the basket. Concentrate on the glass and work on receiving the ball cleanly in the post and finishing at the rim.Anthony "Humpty" Hitchens-Backup PG:B-Humpty has improved in a lot of areas. His turnovers are way down from a year ago, while his assist numbers are up. Those are both good things for the Zips. The problem is that the improvement hasn't been that drastic. Humpty is still a dynamic and exciting player on the court, but he can still be quite frustrating at times. He started off the season very well, scoring in double figures each of the first five games, but since then... Extended battles with illness may have held him back a little, but he honestly hasn't seemd like the same player since the skirmish at the end of the Arkansas-Pine Bluff game. His shot hasn't been falling, and he often tries to force things off the dribble, getting himself too far under the basket for his size and not leaving himself an outlet other than forcing up a bad layup attempt. The battle with Humpty will always be trying to keep him under control while not handcuffing him so much that he becomes completely ineffective.What we need from him in conference play: Work on shot selection. Continue to be a hounding defender on the ball. Free throw shooting can be better. Also needs to become a better passer, particularly in traffic around the rim.Ronnie Steward-Backup PG:B-Honestly, this grade mostly reflects the miracle that it is that he is even on the court. He hasn't done much of anything special to this point, but he has been alright. He is capable of running the offense and getting things set up. His shot is as flat as anything I have ever seen, but he's shown the ability to get to the basket and finish. There is still a lot of rust to be knocked off, but the fact that he is even out there is a positive sign for the Zips.What we need from him in conference play: If he can give us 10-15 minutes a night of solid PG play, running the offense efficiently and staying with his man on defense I will be perfectly fine with it.Brett McClanahan-Backup SG:DMcClanahan had his redshirt burned mid-way through last season to add depth to the Zips guard rotation and spur his development for this season. Consider the second part of that equation a failure. Brett has done nothing significant of note so far this season, and at this point is all but out of the rotation. He hasn't shot well from anywhere on the court and seems so amped up when he is on the floor that he just makes mistake after mistake. I think part of the problem is that he is being asked to play more SF than SG to make up for the absence of Nate Linhart. Still, the decision to burn that red shirt has to come into question after his performance to date this season.What we need from him in conference play: I'm honestly not sure if we even need him in conference play. Until he calms down and learns what his role on this team is he really isn't good for more than giving guys a breather every now and then.Chris McKnight-Backup PF:DI hate to say it, but a D is kind of generous for Chris right now. He has been the exact opposite of Conyers this year. Instead of stepping up his senior year and playing hard he has rolled over and taken a step back. Across the board his numbers are down. He continues to regress, seemingly by the day when it comes to shooting FT's. His ability to step out from the PF spot and hit 3's has apparently left the building. He isn't rebounding, isn't finishing around the rim and his defense remains suspect at best. He has fallen from the starting lineup, and his minutes, stats and overall impact on the game have decreased all year long.What we need from him in conference play: Man up. This is your senior year Chris. There is no more after this. You've shown in the past that you can be a very strong player and a team leader. Get your head on straight and start acting like it.Nikola Cvetinovic-Backup PF:BNik has been pretty solid all year for us. He's worked on not letting his emotions get the best of him while still playing with energy and toughness. He's seen an uptick in production across the board and seems to be KD's most trusted big guy off the bench. At his best he frustrates opponents on the defensive end with his deceptive quickness and strength while displaying a fine array of drives to the basket and post moves on offense. His baseline spin move is a thing of beauty. Still, his game isn't without holes. Particularly at the free throw line where he has been horrible. We have also seen the emotion overcome him once or twice this season.What we need from him in conference play: Work on his free throws and continue to play under control. Otherwise, continue doing what he's been doing.Mike Bardo-Backup C:C+Bardo is who he is. He's a 10 minute a game backup C who can get our other guys a few minutes of rest and bang around with opponents big guys. He will never be a scorer, and contrary to what others might have you believe, he isn't an elite defender. He is alright on the glass, and has actually shown better awareness this season on the offensive boards with a few putbacks off of misses. You can't argue with him getting his minutes, but if he has to play 20-30 minutes a night, we're in trouble.What we need from him in conference play: Come in for his 10 minutes a game, rebound the ball, clog up the lane on defense and have enough awareness to score every now and then on putbacks and when defenses cheat off of him.Tim Carroll, Steve Swiech, Alex Sullivan, Kyle Petterson-The Bench:BThese guys do just fine for what they are. It is still disappointing that Swiech can't get on the floor afer all the hype when we signed him, but Jimmy Conyers performance this year has to at least give him hope. Tim Carroll has been a decent fill in at SF for a few minutes here and there. Sullivan and Petterson really only play when games are already out of hand.What we need from them in conference play: Hopefully each of these guys is getting 4-5 minutes a night at the end of each game. Realistically, they just need to be ready in case of injuries.Coaching Staff:B-Let me first state that I love KD. He is an excellent coach for this program. However, there have been some holes this season. The scheduling has been hashed to death over and over on here, so I won't get into that again. KD's constant lineup meddling early in the season was a bit of a problem this year. It seemed like everyone had such a short leash that nobody was really comfortable out on the floor. It contributed to us losing some games. I also feel that Zeke should have sat for a week or two when it became obvious that his knee injuries were hampering his development. The constant struggles from the free throw line by most of our players is also troubling. That said, the team is almost always in games and usually plays fundamentally sound. The team has gotten much better against different types of defenses, particularly against the zone that so many teams like to play against us and the full court pressure. They have shown some grit by going on the road to Wyoming and overcoming a fast paced team at altitude for a win and giving #22 Texas A&M a good scare. Outside of the opener they have taken care of business, eating up the cupcakes on their schedule.What we need from them in conference play: Continue to tighten up the rotation. We must utilize our depth, but we also need some cohesiveness. Conference PredicitionsBG-W@Ohio-W@Buffalo-LMiami-W@Can't-L@WMU-WToledo-WEMU-WNIU-W@Ball St.-W@CMU-LOhio-W@Miami-WBuffalo-W@BG-WCan't-WOverall conference record: 13-3 and at least a first round bye in the tournament.

Guilty.Does anyone watch Mad Men? There was a scene last season when the young red haired girl, Peggy, was trying to explain to Don an Aqua Net commercial she designed. She kept saying, "Then this happens...then this happens.....then this happens." Don looks at her and say, "Everytime you say 'then this happens' you lose me."Maybe the Zips problem is this simple, and I have been saying it for years. They play a defensive game. When you play an offensive game it is very simple. You focus on putting the little orange ball through the little orange ring. Outscore the other team and you win. When you play a defensive game, it sounds like Peggy..."You focus on double teams in the post, then the ball is thrown in, then you double team, then you hope the guy takes a bad shot, then you rebound, then you get the ball down court, then..." This logic assumes all of that is going to happen and then the guy with the ball on the offensive end is actually able to make a shot. In reality, they guy was brought here to focus on defense and not shooting.Defense can win a lot of regular season games when the competition ranges from very good to very bad. With defense, we should be able 100% of the games against the average to bad teams. Beat 50% of the good teams and the next thing you know you have 20 wins. We need teams that can outscore the good teams in critical situations. "But GP1, are you saying defense isn't important?" No, I'm just saying offense is critical in high profile games when things are close. In a close game, points become more important than defense. Points force the other team to match you shot for shot and it puts pressure on them.I disagree. Focusing entirely on offense is a bad way to try and go about winning championships. You want the prime example, and I know it is from the NBA so spare me the lecture on that, but look at the Phoenix Suns. They have tried for years to more or less ignore the defensive end of the things in order to focus more on offense. It has netted them exactly zero championships. Coaches often say that offense comes and goes. A guy can have a poor shooting night, a couple of good looks can not fall early and guys can get frustrated. But defense is a constant because it is all about effort. If you put the effort in, just about anyone can be an adequate defender night in and night out. Add some physical attributes and skills like long arms and good foot speed and that adequate defender who is putting in the effort can be a great defender night in and night out. But even the best effort night in and night out from the best offensive player in the game isn't always going to give you a good night scoring the basketball. Offense matteres, but if you are going to focus more of your attention on offense at the expense of your defense you are playing a VERY dangerous game.

The dangers of making judgments just based on the box score. It doesn't give you a good feel for the game and how eached missed free throw and turnover affected it. The Zips might have had a better FT shooting percentage in the 2nd half, but a large part of that was that Roberts went to the line twice (once for 3 shots after being fouled on a 3 point attempt) and Conyers once. Those are our best FT shooters, and all of those FT's came early in the half. Late in the half we sent Cvetinovic (probably our worst FT shooter) and Brett McKnight to the line. Those were the clutch situations, where we really needed the points desperatly to keep up with Rhode Island's run. That is where we shot our worst from the FT line. As far as points off of turnovers, just the simple fact that we turned the ball over is enough of a plus for Rhode Island. It means the Zips didn't score, and likely didn't even get a shot off on that particular possession. If they get out on the break and score themselves based on the turnover it is pretty much just gravy. Rhode Island didn't get as many points off turnovers in the second half, but I can guarantee you that they got more key turnovers at critical times from the Zips in the second half.

Fact is the Zips weren't getting an NCAA at-large bid the minute our OOC schedule came out. Unless Drake, Niagra and Valpo magically started pushing for a top-25 ranking and the rest of our schedule majorly over-performed it wasn't going to happen. Win or lose over URI our NCAA tournament scenario's weren't going to change. You can debate whether or not that game will make a difference with the NIT, CBI, etc. committees. Quite frankly, I don't care. Those tournaments would be a step back for the Zips this year. We've been to the dance now, that has to be not only the goal but the expectation every year. Improvement this year would have been winning games like NC State, Texas A&M and Rhode Island, going undefeated or damn close to it in conference play and winning an NCAA tournament game or two. So far the Zips have struck out in all of those opportunities, mostly of their own doing.I agree with Cap'n. Rhode Island was not exactly a superior team to the Zips. They are built differently, that is for sure. And they run a different style on offense and on defense than the Zips do. But they aren't superior. That team was ripe for the pickings for the Zips and we crapped/pissed down our legs like we've done so many times before.

Yes there are other examples...Dayton, VCU, Nevada, hell...go back to Xavier if you're an old-timer. Look at the recent MAC Tourney losses to Western Michigan, Toledo, Miami and K.e.n.t.. Look at the pattern of those losses, in addition to the Winthrop loss...or even Austin Peay. The Zips always seem to find a way to pull off the "come-from-ahead loss" in these crucial games. Many held at home, or 40 minutes from campus. Like Lakers HC Pat Riley trademarked "Three-peat," Dambrot should trademark "Crapped Down Our Leg." Every time we play these games, it's "Groundhog Day."If you have no worries, you really aren't a huge Zips hoops fan. Your heart isn't in it. Your bar is low.Leaving the JAR after yet another leg-crapping flat-out sucked.On this we can agree captain. I don't even remember the drive home last night. I was so pissed from watching that again. It really was like Groundhogs Day. I'm not going to give up on this program, but I wanted to get really excited about our team yesterday and it didn't happen. Instead it was another opportunity lost.In response to GoZips, no, I don't believe Steve McNees walks on water. Far from it. If you look at my posts from the last couple of years I have been quite critical of Steve at many points. For most of his time here he has been a one dimensional player. He could hit those catch and shoot 3's with the best of them, but when it came to making a shot that wasn't a 3 or trying to run the offense he was utterly ineffective. That wasn't the Steve I saw last night. A year or two ago, in a game like that he would have had at least 5 turnovers, no assists and wouldn't have even scored. Last night, contrary to what some people thought they saw, he didn't register a turnover, dished out 3 assists, and as I pointed out, could have gotten more if his teamates would have helped him out, and actually knocked down a couple of his 3's. Was it a great performance from Steve? No. But some people on here have made it out that he was the reason we lost that game. That is as far from the truth as it could be.