GJGood

The Zips in recent years have been able to get a lot of very good players from the Houston area. They also ended the Houston Cougars season in the NIT last season. Akron clearly had a presence and some name recognition in that area under Coach Dambrot. Do you think Coach Groce and his staff will try to take advantage of, and continue, that pipeline? Do you think they should try?

The two teams I think we match up worst with are Ball State and Buffalo. If they end up at 1 and 4 I hope we end up at 10 or 11 so that if we pull of the road upset we are on the opposite half of the bracket from those two in Cleveland. Just my opinion.

With high school tournament basketball now heating up does anyone know anyone in the central Ohio area that the Zips may be looking at? I will probably go out and see a couple of games but if I good see a potential future Zips player that would make it more worthwhile.

I am OK with the schedule overall. I do wish we had a home FBS non-conference game though and that we had 6 home games overall. I guess that is the tradeoff for playing three P5 schools though. My only other question is if we are going to put FCS schools on the schedule why do they almost always seem to come from the MEAC? No offense to that conference but I'd like to see us play and defeat schools for various regions of the country just to get our name out there. I know we played JMU one year but why never a Patriot League or OVC team from the FCS? Just curious.

I was thinking a lot about that game too as a point of comparison. I believe that game was 114-111 Xavier in 3OT in the JAR and that Ball had 44 points. Anybody know the last time a Zips player had 48 points or more in a game? I don’t seem to remember one since I started following the Zips about 25 years ago.

I went with Toledo for no reason other than I think that we will be due to see three or four guys have really good games at the same time instead of just one or two trying to carry the team through a game. It seems to me that the topic of ‘who is the first team the Zips lose to at home?’ could also be started if it hasn’t been already.

How much would it effect our metrics like RPI if we played a cream puff or two each year on the road as opposed to at home? I don't know how these metrics work but I am sure this is some sort of home/away factor built in. I think playing lesser talented teams actually can help a team to a degree in terms of confidence and getting more players valuable experience. To me, though, going on the road and winning in an unfamiliar environment would pay more dividends long term than playing all of the worst teams on your schedule at home. I remember in my high school days the coaches always thought nothing built a team better than a road trip early in the season that resulted in a win. Those coaches were baseball/ football coaches but I would think the same would apply to basketball. I guess what I am saying is if a team the Zips are playing is a creampuff that as long as they are not the creamiest of creampuffs I'd like to see it occasionally be a home and home series so the team can rack up more true road wins before the start of MAC play. I don't know, maybe I am way off base here but I just see a game at a place like UT-Chattanooga or Georgia Southern being better for the growth of the team than playing them at home. Ideally you would then want the tougher teams coming to your home arena.

I am not sure who may be looking at him, and I am certainly not paid to evaluate talent, but I was impressed by Trey Psota of Bay High School in Bay Village. He never seemed to miss a tackle in the games I saw him play and he seemed to always be around the ball. In addition to his middle linebacker play he was also the workhouse running back for a team that went a few games deep in the playoffs. Anybody have any thoughts on him?

I see a team up and down all year that gets to 16 wins in the regular season, one in the MAC tourney and then maybe one in a CiT or CBI. I can see a big jump up next year and then maybe even another jump the year after.

My guess is Mobile if the Zips win Saturday and Montgomery if they do not. Its just a guess and I hope I am wrong and we can end up with a P5 opponent somewhere but I just wouldn't count on it happening.

I guess I didn't mind the colors but I am still not a fan of the script Akron. I was waiting to see how this team would respond when pushed in a tight game. I was happy with the response last night. I still expect a pretty up and down season though. For me the goal this year is simply to make a national postseason tournament.

According to Wikipedia it is short for Moccasins. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chattanooga_Mocs

I think I would love to see the full roo on the gold chrome helmets from a couple years back

I have seen a few places that say the MAC Champion would usually go to Mobile. So my guess is that if Akron pulls off a near miracle and wins in Detroit that they will be headed to the Dollar General Bowl. That bowl often times doesn't take the champ in cases where the matchup would be a rematch or if the same team had been there in the past couple years but I don't think Akron as MAC Champ would have to worry about those scenarios. If the Zips lose in Detroit my personal hope is that they end up in a bowl that is not one of the MAC primary bowls. I remember at one point seeing a bowl projection that had a MAC team going to the Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl. In terms of getting to a new recruiting area I think that would an interesting destination, although I don't know if that bowl will even be in play because I haven't followed which conferences will be able to fill their tie-ins.

I don't think it is the case. It would be nice, though, if at least the MAC Champ had a designated bowl to go to and would be playing a P5 conference team.

This is true but I do seem to remember at one point winning your division would automatically put you in a bowl if you had at least 6 wins. I don't think the MAC specifies any certain bowls for winning a division though.

yes, that prognosticator is saying the Zips would be the team that slides into the spot left vacant by the Big 10. The Big Ten is likely to leave some spots open in their bowl lineup because they will likely have multiple teams in the New Years Six. I'd be more inclined to think they'd send a MAC school to Detroit than New York for a bowl but I'd love it if it happened.

I started following the Zips about two years before Hipsher was hired and if you thought watching Hipsher's teams was difficult be thankful you weren't around to watch the Coleman Crawford years.

Has anyone noticed the similarity between 2005 and 2017? In 2005 the Zips lost their third to last game and most everyone thought they were out of the running for the East title. That third to last game was also their last road game on the schedule. The Zips then went on to win their last two games at home to win the East. Those last two opponents were Ohio and Can't State both at home with the clincher being the win over KSU (in a snowstorm) in the finale. I don't predict a snowstorm but how ironic is the similarity in the scheduling?

True.... and then take into account the rule change allowing FCS/1-AA wins count toward the win total for eligibility as well...

I have seen it happen in cases where a team was 6-6 and then went to their conference championship game only to lose to become 6-7 but they would still get a bowl invite due to playing the extra nonscheduled game. If the Wikipedia excerpt above is correct then I stand corrected. In any case it would be unlikely to have a 5-7 or worse division champ in most seasons.

Agreed but a 11-2 Toledo should be playing a higher profile opponent than an 8-5 Ohio. It seems to me that the best bowl matchups involving MAc schools now go to those teams who have to fill slots because other conferences did not have enough eligible teams.

I still say the MAC should have a designated bowl destination for its champion if not in the New Years Six and that this bowl should be against a power 5 conference representative.

What if there are more than 80 bowl eligible teams nationwide and the Zips are eligible but not selected? Just wanted to throw that out there.