GoZips

Bracket Board blog a site known for accurate forecasting has projected the Zips to face Nevada on ESPN2.Prediction

Can't at home against Western Michigan.Noticed that Chris Singletary's name was missing from today's box score. Folks on the MAB BBS say that he is suspended indefinitely for violating team rules.Got me wondering why it came a game to late to help the Zips.What crap was this clean cut upstanding young man accused of? I think I'm gonna puke.Don't fret. He will mostly be back by the time March ninth rolls around.Hell, I didn't even know Christian had team rules. Thuggery usually does not require them.

Great post, BIRDZIP

Zips position in the Bracket Buster pool not likely to change.Selection day is February third. Currently the Zips are approximately eighth among the teams with home games.As of this morning using the Ken Pomeroy RPI calculator (very, very close to the NCAA version, but updated daily as opposed to weekly) the Zips are at rpi #71.Schools near the Zips in RPI include Oral Roberts (rpi #56); Valparaiso (rpi #60); Cleveland State (rpi #61); Southern Illinois (rpi #72).Of these schools Cleveland State is the most likely to fall behind the Zips. CSU has three road games before the Feb third date. CSU already lost on the road theother night to then rpi #123 Wisconsin-Green Bay. One more road loss and CSU likely slides behind the Zips. Valparaiso only faces a weak Loyola, Ill at home.Thus Valpo is not likely to drop. Oral Roberts faces two weak conference opponents. Southern Illinois which ranks at #72 faces Creighton, Evansville and on the road at Northern Iowa. SIU is not likely to gain ground on the Zips.The potential opponent currently points to Wright State. That match up is unlikely. WSU assistant coach is Brian Donoher. He coached here. He knows cominghere has a high potential for a loss. Plus, it is unlikely that KD wants to travel to Wright State in an empty return game. Just above WSU is Nevada. That gamewould surely interest Zips fans. Two other possibilities are Marist and Davidson.Three straight wins against west division MAC schools will probably erode the Zips rpi slightly.At this point we can pretty much expect a TV game on ESPN-U.

Now its PaRRish with two "R"s.See the latest as Andy has THIRTEEN blocked shots to help Northmont capture a tie for first in their conference. Northmont is 14-1 now.Block Master

As of January 24th, Brett McClanahan is the leading scorer in the Charlestown, WVa region of the state with a 22.8 ppg average.

Big Win over Division-I Zanesville. Which is also a local rivalry."Senior guard Anthony Hitchens scored 14 points in the last six minutes, 10 seconds of regulation to force overtime, then added six more in the extra four minutesas Chillicothe's boys basketball team took home another marquee win Friday, this time a 59-58 victory over Division-I Zanesville."Read The Full Story

Actually, I asked because I do not trust Scout or Rivals. No offense to you CAP'N. I was just seeking written proof from a source other than those two notoriouslyinaccurate sources. I was not trying to step on your toes.The kid reads as if he has some talent. Could we recruit some FB coaches with talent?

After reading everyone's concerns or lack of them I realize that no one has mentioned the one dynamic of the game that KD has stressed for the future.Notice that KD has recruited quick guards. Roberts, Steward and Brooks are on board. Hutchens is coming. Light come on? Okay, KD has repeatedlymentioned that he wants a full court pressure defense. This crew along with McNees and Sullivan given him six guards to rotate. Linhart, CMac and Jimmy givehim the quick big men to help in half court traps. I look for KD to finally get the talent and depth to run a full time, full court pressure defense. Watch a couple of Bruce Pearl's Tennessee games. That will clear thecloudy picture. Tennessee is so talented that they run a half dozen different inbounding defenses. Drives opponents mad.Another dynamic is post play. Has anyone noticed that Brett McK looks a lot like J-Wood? BMac can play the post or the four spot. He is like having a young J-Woodthat can consistently shoot the three ball. I have to admit that at this stage Bardo has been a bust. He just is not tough enough. Hopefully Swiech has some onions.We do need a five man that can bust the opposition's back. CMac is not him; he's a four man. Under sized height wise, BMac looks like he can be the man. I thinkBMac already has the onions, so to speak, to be strong under the basket. Let us see what Swiech can do. Actually, we will often need a four and a five on the floor together that can work together to protect the blocks. Hambone and Scott along with Tillman and Williams, showed us the wayThe coaching staff is hot after tall, tall, tall, Zeke Marshall because he is tough in the blocks. Personally, I believe that Reggie Keely is a better fit for a Zips style team.But, the chances of getting him are a lot slimmer.Let us not over look Andy Parish. I have met this kid. He is HUGE. First comment out of my mouth was that he was J-Wood on steroids. He plays tough. We need that.Cvetinovic will be Linhart's understudy.

PTI of this love fest. I have a question. Where is the proof of information that this kid reneged on his verbal and has now verbaled to the Zips?

CANT ... 69 AKRON ... 67 clock: 00:08Think about that. Do not dwell on the scuffle, the childish behavior, the fans or anything else. Dwell on the fact that the supposedly superior, much higher RPI'dCant State was leading a home basketball game at home by TWO POINTS with eight seconds remaining in the game.Cant nearly lost a home game against an opponent that on paper was clearly inferior to their vaunted mega power house.What did the Zips do right? A freshman point guard still learning how to play at the college level commits turnover after turnover. His coach sticks with him. Not becausethere were no alternatives, but because this was the time under fire to grow the player. That growth can not occur in a forty point blow out. It can only occur inwithering fire. A glaring weakness the Zips have uncovered is the inability to defend the paint against teams running a double post (Cant, Ohio). This needs fixing now.The players played through a nasty mugging without the help of officials. In fact, the officials precipitated the mugging. Still the entire team took the pounding withoutlosing their "cool". It was a Cant player, Hambone I think, that lost his cool and started an altercation by forcibly shoving a Zip player who had hard fouled him.Now why did the Zip player hard foul? Consider that with 5.9 seconds remaining a hard foul was the only sure way to get the clock stopped immediately. A soft foulcould easily been ignored by the official in the interest of getting the clock to run out. The hard foul was the proper play. Hambone then started the altercationwith his push back. The official was responsible to end it right there. He failed to do so. The Akron coaching staff is just now starting to trust its own bench players. Jim Christian takes a much more trusting approach with his bench. Sadly, the Zips staffneeded to be at that point prior to this game. They were not. It needs fixed. Trust the bench. Play eleven deep.Over all the Zips who were picked to finish fourth are currently about third behind Cant and Ohio. Miami thus far has self destructed. If the Zips are to gain the topspot and guarantee at least an NIT bid they need to continue to grow. That means running the table the rest of the way. Weeks ago comments were made about Brett McKnight and Darryl Roberts possibly being impact players. Is there any doubt now? They both are.This team should only get better as the season progresses. A trip to the NCAA tournament is the lowest goal this team should work toward.That's my two cents. What's yours?

You want to be completely honest?Cant is just a tad better than we are. Plus, they were playing at home.MARTY made some excellent points. Let us resolve to fix the problem. Perhaps Darryl Roberts needs more minutes than Cedric is getting because Ced is hurt.Brett McKnight can give the Zips the second big man down low. He is a beast that needs to be unleashed. KD needs to sit a kid down when the kid is not performing. That is why we have a deep bench. I see a great future for Steve McNees, but, last night was atime to be reflecting on the bench.Bardo desperately needs more minutes. He has to improve through out the season for the Zips to have any chance in the MAC tournament.Play the kids. They did good against BGSU. They contributed against Cant. Do not be afraid to play them. Their hearts are in the game.

CAP'N ... excellent post. I pretty much agree with your analysis.I would like to add that the Zips appear to have great difficulty with teams that post up two big men. Example: Ohio and now Cant.Also, by his own admission, KD does not go deep enough on his bench in the second half of games. It is worth pointing out that Dan Hipsher lost his fan basebecause the only two players he trusted were his own two sons. One a great player with a permanently bad back and the other a stiff.

Our friends over in the Colonial Athletic Conference (CAA) continue to update and monitor the possible Bracket Buster pairings.Bracket Buster Pairing 1/20/08By analysis I have found that Ken Pomeroy's RPI projections are fairly accurate compared to NCAA's official RPI ranking. It is closeenough to use for evaluating and updated daily verses once a week .Ken Pomeroy RPI & His Ranking System

Interesting. Dr. Z you are one person I would never want taking my back in a fight. Your crap and crass remark about my comment and the Zips shows your truecolors. In fact, I doubt that you are even a Zips fan. Your post on the football recruiting thread adds to my suspicion. You make fun of the recruiting with thecaricature you posted. I challenge you to prove you are a true Zips fan. I strongly suspect that you hate the Zips.Before whining about twenty-three turnovers, you cry baby, check the box score. Cant had nineteen turnovers of their own. Twenty-three minus nineteen leaves adifferential of four. Hardly an indication that the Zips self destructed.Cant is just a slightly better team than are the Zips. I hate to admit that, but it showed. Akron appears to have trouble with teams that have two good big men downon the blocks at the same time. Look back at the Ohio game with Tillman and Williams. This needs to be fixed ASAP.BTW ... Lamont Simpson was one of the officials. He officiated the Dayton game. Post game review of that game film showed that he made eighteen calls in that game.All of them against Akron. Now there is an official that all Akron opponents want calling their games against the Zips.

If we complain we will be called "cry babies".The reality is that the officiating was one sided and the Zips got mugged. No calls, bad calls, wrong call, on and on it went. Cant got back in the game in the first tenminutes of the second half by playing bully. They fouled, clawed, hacked, intimidated and in general had their own way. During this time the officials called SEVENfouls on Akron and just ONE on Cant. In a hard fought contest that just is not humanly possible. Saint Cant playing the Akron Evils. Get real. The officiating was a sham and an embarrassment. The league office is corrupt.Fact. Cant is a bit better than the Zips. Cant is a whole lot better when they have three officials aiding their cause. Grow some nads KD and forcefully go to thecommissioner with the game film. I personally saw at least three blatant rabbit punches by Singletary that were not called.Hambone gets credited with five blocks and was called for maybe one foul when attempting to block shots. He pounded Middleton to the floor ... no call. BULLSHITAs for stone throwers flaming Akron for having had a walk on who was involved in an armed robbery ... well, Hambone's girl friend sat next to me at the game. Shewas holding their baby daughter (a little cutie). The vulgarity needs to stop. Flipping "the bird" needs to stop. What value is there to a pregame warning when a minute or two later the Cant students are passing a female up through the student section while she has both arms extended in a one finger salute. The officials (cops and event staff) obviously watched her. Sheshould have been ejected from the field house.Hey, Rowdies ... no F-bombs, please. Let us have some class. Yeah, I'm a past flamer. mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.We lost because we got out hustled, out played, out coached, and worst of all, we lost our composure. Still, I do not blame the Zips players. The officials broughtthe bad ending on by their corrupt, inept cheating. It is evil for an official to favor one team over the other. Had the officials made better calls the incident at theend would not have happened. Notice, too, that while the officials "punished" both side, Akron received three times the penalty as did the Flushes. Think about it.One last thing ... the "WE SUCK" banner was fantastic. They were so stupid they did not even know they were being flamed.

NAV ... great job.... looks good ... hope we do have an RPI of 58 ... that would help a lotZippy5 ... ESPN is planning to televise fourteen games Bracket Buster weekend. If NAV's match ups hold the Zips would be in line for a game on ESPN or ESPN2.I like a match up with VCU. They are having an excellent season. Like Akron, they are also under rated. We will not get a match up with Creighton for reasons I will not discuss. I would also like to get Nevada, George Mason or Siena, in that order.

Hey, hey ... all they are doing is matching home teams to away teams by the current RPI. If you read the text they acknowledge that in-conference and teams youhave already played this year will not be candidates.Home teams will not match up with other home teams. Like Akron, Cleveland State has a home B/B game this year.What to look for are away teams close around the Zips position. Such as VCU or Nevada as potential match ups.It looks now like the Zips are likely going to get a good TV game out of this. Selection day is February third. The Zips have four games to play before that date.There is a high liklihood that the Zips will win at least three of these games. That gives them a probable 17-4 record going into the Bracket Buster. Numbers likethat command attention. Plus, ESPN loves Akron games as their ratings soar.

Here are the recently updated potential Bracket Buster pairings. Note that the post immediately after the pairings describes the dates and sequence of the actualpairings.Pairings as of January 20th

Great game support by the AK-Howdies. One more out burst like the performance against OU and I will retire the AK-Howdie label for the foreseeable future.Several posters including OU people lauded the Rowdies as having a direct and positive impact on the game. That is what home court is all about. The AK-Rowdies are needed both home and away. Be at all the games especially Cant, OU and Miami.I hope that Will, who ever he is, continues to grab the mic and go on the floor to rile up the fans. That was the BEST out pouring of Zips fan support EVER. Even with the noise canceling microphones the fans could be heard on ESPNu those last three minutes. Odd that a few big name schools get their fan noise heard bythe TV audience while the vast majority of fans never get heard on TV.I am proud to be a Zip.

ZIPS 88, excellent questions. My view is that Bardo is a work in progress who actually managed to give several decent not excellent minutes. Bardo's lame attempt toscore under the basket boosted fan dislike for him. That hurts. He is better than that.The one person in the rotation capable of working down low with J-Wood is Brett McKnight. Brett is tough as a box of rocks. He just has not seen enough playingtime (are you listening KD?). Brett has the muscle and the grit to go shoulder to shoulder with Tillman and Williams. Better still; Brett has the SIZE to post up anddefend against these two excellent big men. It is game experience that Brett lacks which is why KD did not utilize him.Quade Milum is a fine and developed finesse player. Physical games shut him down. Quade has to look beyond throwing down alley oops.Chris McKnight probably could match up against Tillman and Williams given the floor time. However, in the game Jimmy Conyers was playing effective defense and the coaches elected to keep him in for his defense. Jimmy appears to have confidence problems shooting the ball away from the basket. His put backs are fine.Time and experience will improve Jimmy's shots.

GP1 ... please explain your question.To me, Humpty fits our style to a tee. He is a tough, hard nosed kid who plays his butt off.He will certainly help the Zips keep a four guard rotation along with Roberts, McNees, and Ronnie Steward. Then, too, Alex Sullivan gives the Zips a large guard.I think the guard positions are well set for the next few years.We need a banger, hopely Steve Swiech, to replace Jerimiah Wood.From what I have read, the Bedford kid, Reggie Keely at six-seven fits that role quite well.

The only "ugly" part of the game that I saw was the uneven foul calling by the officials. No one has mentioned the numerous, well, way too numerous times the crowdexpressed its manifest displeasure about the bad calls or "no calls". Odd that people praise OU for their defense when it was mostly a group mugging. It quicklyreminded me of the days of Larry "let's kill them" Hunter (former OU head coach). While Elton Alexander mentioned coach Dambrot's tirade in his article, Elton failedto explain why KD exploded.Frankly, the first half was an officiating travesty. The three officials need to be reviewed and warned. The second half they called a much more fair game. But, thedamage had largely been done. You just can not allow all that hand and body checking.Let us face the fact that we, the Zips, are the bastard, orphan step child of the MAC. We are the least liked, most dissed and unwanted program in the conference.It is high time to become the Broad Street, or is it the Brown Street Bullies.I support KD all the way. I wanted to see Dials, McNees or Linhart lay a body on the OU guards like our guys were being hacked. I am sure the whistles would havecome fast and furious. The officiating was, in a word, UGLY. That the Zips survived with a win is a testament to just how good they are becoming.

Two ESPNU game replays. First one is at 2 AM. Second is at 1:00 PM tomorrow.Maybe Spagetti Warehouse could set up a couple of TVs. Continue the coaches luncheon with a party.

Finally found some "skinny" on Brett McClanahan the Zips 6'5" recruit from Nitro, WVaBrett Knocks In 25 in Win