Quickzips

You might not be getting the attendance #'s from that one game, but I'd bet if you went on the road and beat a good program like a West Virginia, Ohio State, Pitt, etc. you would make up that attendance and then some just from the attention you would get from beating one of those big programs.

When are some of you people going to learn that it isn't just about at-large bids? KD has complained over and over about attendance, as have many on here. Care to take a guess as to how much having Arkansas Pine-Bluff, St.Francis and Greensboro on the schedule helps attendance? And even beyond hte simple # of butts in seats, attendance can also have a big effect on recruiting. How many top level recruits do you think want to come play in a half empty arena for most of the season. Bottom line, we want to keep building this program, we have to ball up and start scheduling like a program on the rise.

So now we are dumping on EA for stating the opinion of a majority of our fans that has been hashed out on these forums over and over and over for the last couple months? Guess when it is published on a major regional newspaper publication it stings more than reading it on these forums.Truth of the matter is. Greensboro, Malone, St. Francis, Arkansas Pine Bluff. They do NOTHING for this program. They provide no revenue from ticket sales, give us no help when it comes to at large bids, provide no help when it comes to tournament seeding, generate no excitement in the community, do nothing to help the team prepare for tougher opponents. All they are is an easy W on the schedule. You want to bring one of them in for an exhibition game, perfectly fine by me. You need to schedule one of them during finals week when you don't have as much gym time and your players are more focused on exams, I can live with that. Don't tell me you have to bring in four of them for regular season matchups though. There is no reason for it.

Gary Waters didn't even need to pull back the curtain at the convo last week. Attendance: 5105Thanks ZW. OSU is having trouble filling 50% of the seats at their home arena this season. There is no advantage to Zips for playing games at the Q, except for the MAC tournament. You only have to go back a couple posts to find that Wake and other ACC teams play road games at Greensboro because that is the arena where the ACC tournament is held. They feel that getting some experience on that floor prior to the ACC tournament will benefit them in the long run. Same thing applies to us playing a game or two at the Q during the regular season. Going into there with some familiarity with the surroundings come March can't possibly be a bad thing. If it gives us one of GP1's "ATM games" and maybe a chance to knock off a quality opponent as well, there is no down side. It isn't like we are going to have thousands of angry fans who would be missing out on watching this team in the palace that is the JAR.

ESPNU has him rated an "82" on their scale and has considering Georgetown,Miami(FL), and Akron.Let's clarify something here. "82" on ESPN's scale isn't THAT great. Pretty much any player who accepts a D1 scholarship and that ESPN has done an evaluation on automatically gets an "80" on the ESPN scale. If ESPN hasn't seen you, you get a 40. For comparison sake, Zeke got a 92, Euton has an 89, Egner has an 84, Green is an 80.

This is an ATM game for UNCG. The game is being played at Greensboro Coliseum which seats 20,000. My guess is 18,000 of those fans will be rooting for WF. I'm sure UofA could get a home game like this if they were willing to play it in Cleveland.Name the team that would draw 20k to the Q in a matchup with the Zips.Ohio State probably would.Pitt, Cincinnati, Michigan State, Indiana, Syracuse and West Virginia would all probably draw 15K plus.Xavier, Purdue, Michigan, Butler and Illinois would probably draw 10K-12K.Those are just teams within about 6 hours of Cleveland that might consider coming to the Q to play us.

I don't forsee a scenario where Thomas fits on the Zips for a number of reasons. First, the Zips have filled all of their available scholarships for 2010 with Green, Egner and Euton (in fact, we are banking on someone transfering out it seems in order to be able to give one of those three a scholarship). Unless he wants to walk on to the squad (doubtful), I can't forsee us having a scholarship for him. Second, the Zips entire guard rotation returns for 2010 leaving little if any playing time for Dontae. Third, if he indeed has an offer from Georgetown I find it much more likely that he would stay close to home and play for the national powerhouse than come here (nothing wrong with the Zips, just thinking like a lot of recruits on this one). On top of that, I don't think you can historically look at the Zips and say, "interior team." Fact is, up until this year, Akron has been a very perimeter oriented team with players like Dru Joyce III, Nick Dials, Cedrick Middleton and Nate Linhart (SF who played mostly on the perimeter). We have recruited well on the interior over the last couple of years and this years team is taking advantage of that, but it isn't like we are hopeless when it comes to playing a perimeter game. On top of that, we will be graduating one of our experienced interior players (Chris McKnight) this year, and his brother will be following that up the year after. Overall, I really doubt we ever see Thomas in Blue and Gold.

At this point, the only thing I really can't figure out is why we haven't seen it sooner? Was it simply a matter of not getting enough minutes thanks to KD's short leash, or did Jimmy just somehow put it all together just in the last month or so? If this kid had these kinds of performances in him all along, I just can't figure out why he couldn't get more playing time. If he had this in him all along, why not start him at SG, or give him some more minutes off the bench at SF the last couple years? Ohh well, guess we just have to enjoy the ride from here on in and let hindsight remain 20/20.

For those of you wondering who Sampson is and why this would be such a big recruit for us:ESPN rates him their #21 SF in the 2011 class (though I think he would be more likely to play PF) and gives him a 92/100 grade. They call him a super long combo forward who is a great ball handler for his size (more info if you are an insider ofcourse).Scout has him as their #16 PF in the 2011 class and a three-star prospect. Not much more analysis is available for non-insiders.Rivals has him as their #100 overall player in the class of 2011 and a four-star prospect. They list him as having offers from Ohio State, Michigan State, Xavier, Cincinnati and Dayton as well as the Zips.

Change Arkansas Pine Bluff to a road game against an A-10 team in the top part of their league (maybe Temple?), Greensboro to a home game against a C-USA team in the top 1/3 of that division (say Marshall?) and St. Francis to a road game against a BCS program that has a realistic shot at the tournament but isn't necessarily a top-15 program (Maryland, Louisville, Minnesota, Vanderbilt all come to mind) and I would have been just fine with this years OOC schedule.Austin PeayNeut-NC StateNeut-DrakeNeut-Howard@TempleNiagra@Texas A&MMaloneMarshall@MinnesotaUICValpo@WyomingRhode IslandThat would have been a nice, reasonable OOC schedule for this team. Three games against pretty good BCS programs in NC State, A&M and Minn., only a couple of really big cupcakes in Malone and Howard and a good mix of decent to good mid-majors in Austin Peay, Drake, Temple, Niagra, Marshall, UIC, Valpo, Wyoming and Rhode Island. Three Neutral site games, 3 road games and 7 home games. No real games where we are just a sacrificial lamb.

Couple more thoughts from yesterdays game:-Pretty good turnout all things considered. Snow storms were moving in, competing against a Browns game, during winter break, on a Sunday afternoon, against an OOC opponent that noone really cares about. I don't know the official attendance numbers, but it looked to be around 2,500 which isn't bad for that kind of game.-Brett McClanahan continues to disappoint. I think he gave us something around 0 points, 1 rebound and 2 fouls in about 7 minutes. Those are Mike Bardo type numberes right there. Brett seems to be getting the Conyers treatment right now. He's on a very short leash. Ironically, the guy KD replaces him with when he makes a mistake IS Conyers.-Best trend recently for the Zips, higher assist numbers. Our two PG's (Humpty and McNees) combined yesterday for 9 assists. The team as a whole has become much better at passing the ball. Part of having as much depth as we do is being able to keep everyone involved. This team is doing a good job of that right now. Of course it helps when guys are knocking down the open looks you get for them.-Free Throw shooting is still a problem for us. I can't help but be haunted by memories of 2007 when I watch this team step to the line. -This team is going to be very interesting in MAC play. The MAC is historically, and continues to be, a guard oriented conference. This team's strength is superior frontcourt play. I for one am very interested to see how that plays out in conference play.-I can't help but wonder what might have been with Ronnie Steward. He looks like he has a pretty decent command of things out there, but you can tell he hasn't played much in the last two years. He doesn't seem to be as quick as he was when he got some playing time the beginning of last year. Certainly doesn't have much confidence in his shot. I think at this point he just needs to stay healthy for an extended period of time and get back into playing shape. -Someone said it before, but absolutely terrible officiating at this game. The calls vs. no-calls were as unpredictable as I've seen all season. To start the second half at one point we had 0 fouls against us while Valpo had 8 against them. What do the refs do? Call four little touch fouls on Akron in one possession. The kind of little crap you could call on just about every possession if you wanted to. Hard to bitch about officiating in a 20 point victory, but I can't help but wonder how much this crummy officiating contributes to people not wanting to go watch a Zips game.

Bobcatattack is usually an interesting read. I'd compare their fanbase to the Browns fan base. When they win, they are rabidly delusional. To the point where their teams are ready to compete for a BCS bowl/Sweet 16/National Title/etc. When they lose, you pretty much need a suicide watch going over there. There isn't a bigger roller coaster ride of a fanbase in the conference than the OU groupies.

Can anyone confirm that the recruit at tonights Valpo game was 2011 PF Jakar Sampson from StVM? It looked a little like him, and the team colors he had on certainly matched. If so, it would be a really good sign for the Zips if he is indeed intrested. He has some high major offers and is highly touted by all 3 major recruiting services (ESPN, Scout and Rivals).

Absolutely the best game I've seen from the Zips all year against a pretty decent opponent. Valpo had no answers at all. There was a time when the Zips only hitting four 3s in a game would have been a recipe for disaster. Today the Zips only hit four of them, but they just dominated Valpo down low. Crusaders had no answers at all for Brett McKnight or Jimmy Conyers who is looking like the NBA prospect we all heard so much about when he first came here more and more each day. Cvetinovic, Zeke, Chris McKnight and even Bardo got in on the action too. Zips just punished them inside. Valpo tried that 2-3 zone that is apparently the story on how to beat the Zips and we just carved it right up. They played a little man and we beat them there too. Humpty was probably the best of our guards with 7 points, 4 assists, a steal, no turnovers and some really good defense. I'm a little concerned that Zeke didn't play much in the second half after he had a great score on the break and finished it off with the free throw. Seemed like he might have been icing those knees on the bench from there on. Hopefully it isn't anything too major. Definitly some revenge from last seasons Bracket Buster. The only thing to doubt in this one was the final score. Lets close out the OOC season with a couple nice wins over Wyoming and Rhode Island, then it is time to dominate the MAC.

Still getting 5-10 minutes a night like normal. Sometimes more, sometimes less. The depth of our frontcourt and the addition of Zeke has limited his minutes a little more this year. He's a 10 minute a night guy at best. Not someone you want to have starting, and not someone you want to rely on for major minutes. Bottom line, he's simply not talented enough to get more minutes on this team right now.I'm honestly more concerned about the disappearance of Brett McClanahan who I expected to be a major piece for us this year. I'm a bit leery of our matchups against some of the MAC's bigger SGs if Brett doesn't get out of his funk and earn some minutes.It seems like a repeat of last year. As time went on, his playing time dwindled. Even when Hitchens was hurt at the end of the year, he was playing limited minutes. I have my own opinions about his abilities, and I'm not sure what our coach is basing his decisions on, but at the very least I believe that when he's not hitting shots, his value to us on the floor really diminishes. I think two other things have happened so far this year that are affecting this situation as well.1) The emergence of Jimmy C. 2) McNees is shooting the ball really well from 3-point range.I suspect you are correct on Conyers and McNees having a big affect on Brett's playing time. Brett, for this team right now is a SG/SF. Well, the emergence of Conyers has limited the minutes he gets at SF. McNees' new found consistency is cutting into his minutes at SG. Combine that with the fact that we can play Nikola or B.McKnight at SF and Roberts at SG and the minutes just aren't there for him. Unfortunatly the only things that are going to change that are overwhelmingly bad things for the Zips (injuries or some of the players in front of him going into a big slump). Still, I'm disappointed with Brett's performance. The starting SG position was his to begin this season and he has let it slip away to the point where he's barely getting 5-10 minutes a game. Disappointing seeing that he's really the only guy that can give us any size in our backcourt.

With all due respect to the Captain, playing #21 Nevada might not be something that excites Joe Akron all that much, but I have to believe that a win over the #21 team in the country would have at least caught his eye a little bit. It may not have at that point, simply because the Beacon was so abysmal in their coverage of the Zips (they are getting better, but still have a ways to go). But I suspect that a win over Nevada would have given us at least a little boost in attendance. Hopefully Rhode Island can keep winning over the next couple weeks, cracks the top 25, goes down to the Zips and then we can test that theory too.

Still getting 5-10 minutes a night like normal. Sometimes more, sometimes less. The depth of our frontcourt and the addition of Zeke has limited his minutes a little more this year. He's a 10 minute a night guy at best. Not someone you want to have starting, and not someone you want to rely on for major minutes. Bottom line, he's simply not talented enough to get more minutes on this team right now.I'm honestly more concerned about the disappearance of Brett McClanahan who I expected to be a major piece for us this year. I'm a bit leery of our matchups against some of the MAC's bigger SGs if Brett doesn't get out of his funk and earn some minutes.

Also, I think it's important to remember that in conference, the Zips should be able to dictate play inside. They're more physical and have more bodies than most any team in the league as far as post play goes. That can help make sure our shooters are open, committing like they did last night to punching it in.A lot of the pre-season rags that I saw listed the Zips as having the MACs best frontcourt. I believe that is starting to play itself out. Now that KD has apparently settled on his rotation (starting Conyers, B.McKnight and Zeke with Cvetinovic and C.McKinght coming off the bench) the frontcourt is starting to gel. Brett looks like he has finally rounded into playing shape after a tough summer, and I have to give credit where it is due, he isn't forcing as many shots and is actually putting in more consistent effort on defense and on the boards. Conyers has been a very pleasent surprise with his efficient shooting, good FT%, aggression going to the basket and major boards while also being capable of guarding multiple positions. Zeke has made some of those freshman mistakes and is still looking for consistency, but he's still a gamechanger around the rim on defense and he has to at least be accounted for on offense. Chris gives us a veteran presence coming off the bench who can score around the basket, hit some outside jumpers and crash the boards and Nikola's energy off the bench is something few teams can match up with. He has added some nice drives to the basket to go with his nifty post moves and is a pest on the defensive end. I don't think there is another team in the MAC that can come close to matching up with us in the frontcourt. If Hitchens, McNees and Roberts can give us some more consistency at guard with a little help from Steward and McClanahan we are going to be really good.

Well, Zeke banged up his knee pretty bad tonight. Trainer thinks it could possibly be a hamstring pull...won't know until tomorrow when he goes in to see him at 7:30 AM. I think right now, Zeke's body is beat up and the 2 days he is going to be home is GREATLY needed....he just needs a few minutes away from everything. Give him a minute for his body to catch upwith all the work he is doing and then it is a wrap!Hope Zeke's knee/hamstring gets feeling better over the holiday. Having him cleaning things up around the rim is huge for us. Give all of our best to the big fella.

Jez Cap'n, why couldn't you have thrown down the guantlet for Conyers about 3 years ago? 19 rebounds. JAR record. Not a bad performance for the Zips. Struggled a little with the 2/3 zone early on, but figured it out. Zips dominated the glass led ofcourse by Conyers. Brett McKnight's back looks to be feeling better and the shots are falling for him. Good performances from Roberts, Humpty and Nikola as well. Zeke seems to have hit a bit of a freshman wall. We're going to need him to fight through that. Anyone seen Brett McClanahan lately? Is he still even on the team?

You lose 100% of the games you never schedule. Can't beat good programs, or even compete with them if you don't schedule them. It is that simple.If that is true, then Duke, North Carolina, OSU, CSU have all lost to us because they never scheduled us.Quick call that in to the RPI people.edit* It's funny that you guys think we could even compete for an at large bid. 20 wins with 6 losses to Duke, Pitt, UConn, OSU, Michigan State, and Kansas, get's us the same thing we have right now. No bids and getting ready to start the MAC Tournament. Until we are good enough to compete and beat top 30 teams, we need to have an easy schedule with some bench mark games so that we don't get beat up going into MAC play. It's gotten us to the Championship game 3 years in a row, and taking away poor Ref work, should have been two Dance Invites.It isn't simply about earning that at large bid. In that respect you are probably right, we probably won't get an at large with a 20-6 season with losses against Duke, Pitt, UConn, OSU, Michigan State and Kansas. What playing those teams does for us, outside of the potential that we could actually beat them, is generates at least a little bit of excitement for the program. Let's face it, no one gave a crap when we played Malone, UNCGreensboro and St.Francis in consecutive games, and the attendance numbers bore that out. No one is going to care next week when we go on the road to take on Wyoming. If a team wins 26 games and no one is around to see it, did they really win 26 games? Well, yeah, but it certainly doesn't do anything to help the program. I don't know about you, but I think it sucks that we can't draw more than 1,500 fans for our OOC games. That is truly a shame. Now let's say you do go out and schedule a couple more games, on the road, against teams like Duke, Pitt, UConn, OSU, Michigan State or Kansas. Nobody that I know of has yet argued for the Charlie Coles method of scheduling all of your OOC games against powerhouses like that, but just a couple more. Now you can say, hey we went out and played some good teams. Teams that you want to see. And if you should beat one of those teams (see CSU over Syracuse last year), well then the flood gates open up. ESPN highlights, check. Increased attendance, check. Actually being able to win a game in the NCAA's, check. It isn't all about the at large bid. Playing a couple more teams on your OOC schedule that are worthwhile opponents has far reaching benefits.

I sure hope so. There is absolutely no excuse not to upgrade the OOC schedule the next few years when your core players are mostly Seniors (B.McKnight, McNees, Roberts) and Juniors (Humpty, McClanahan, Cvetinovic) with a talented Sophomore (Zeke).

You lose 100% of the games you never schedule. Can't beat good programs, or even compete with them if you don't schedule them. It is that simple.

No offense, but these rankings don't make us look good at all. Second best in NEOhio is absolutely nothing to brag about. Heck I'm sure Can't even isn't bragging about being "best in NEOhio" when that simply means they rank 108 in the country. All this really shows is the absolute abysml level of play in the MAC.They might not make us look good if I had written "NEOhio," but I didn't. I said we were rated as the second best team in all of Northern Ohio, and I could have said we are the 2nd best in the entire Northern half of the state of Ohio.NEOhio, Northern Ohio. Doesn't matter. My point is the same. These are pretty pathetic numbers. If we were up in the range of Dayton, Xavier and Cincy they might be something worth keeping an eye on. As it stands they are just an indication of how bad our scheduling is and how much this conference absolutely blows.

I wouldn't count anything as automatic against UIC. Them and Rhode Island are the two toughest remaining games on our OOC schedule. This is a team that just beat Oregon State from the PAC-10 and demolished an admittedly bad NIU team that the Zips have had problems with over the last few years. At this point in the season I think we are capable of beating anyone left on our schedule if we show up focused for 40 minutes on both ends of the floor. I also think we can lose to a lot of teams left on our schedule if we leave our defense in the locker room for stretches of the game or go through one of our patented scoring droughts.