Captain Kangaroo

You use the word "performance" like Joe Dunn uses "No doubt about it."

Maybe the Zips and Herd stink equally?

Tree just sent me a tweet saying "I told ya so!"

I think that pretty much sums it up. I give Ibitayo credit for never giving up. He always plays hard. That can't be said for some of his counterparts. Kretzer's shooting form looks bad. He needs to watch himself on tape. His hands/arms are flailing to the side on his release. It doesn't look like the Kretzer I have seen in the past. Harney is frustrating. Does he like playing basketball? I wonder. When Tree walks up the court in the second half, is he A.) Tired B.) Pissed at his teammates c.) Pouting I hate when I see Tree pack it in, because once he's given up, it gets really ugly, really fast. When we had lesser talent, the Dials, Middleton, Roberts, etc. era, we were a better team. That crew would have won at least 2 games in Hawai'i. This group has great talent, but collectively doesn't play to it's potential. How many times does that sports psychologist need to intervene with this team?

Keith Dambrot So for every person here who said the Zips quit in the second half, said the Zips are lacking character, that the Zips are not mentally tough...give yourself an extra glass of egg nog. You saw the same thing as our Coach.

What disgusting, loser, anti-Zips fans wrote this (below). This stuff from so-called "fans" makes me angry!!

+1 We ride the wave. When things go badly, we fold.

You can blow smoke up the team's butt, or you can call a spade a spade. Neither of the above type of Zips fan is better than the other.

Lazy, uninspired and unorganized. Add in the inability to make a free throws, and you get whipped like we did tonight. How can you give the opponent 7+ points per game by bricking 50% of your free throws? That's pathetic. A second consecutive embarrassing 2nd half by the Zips. How long until someone posts "All that matters is what we do in Cleveland"? I love that one. The past great OU, Can't, Miami, <whomever> past MAC teams don't lay eggs like that in a tourney where the opponent's names are recognizable, but whose game is mediocre. Great MAC teams win. We aren't a great MAC team. To quote Bill Murray: "That's the facts, Jack."

I agree. I was talking to a friend today and we discussed how much better Harney plays when he starts. Merry Christmas to us.

Here. Interesting that WMU has 29 commitments...when you are only allowed to sign a maximum of 25. I would think if you have an obscene amount of commitments by Christmas, you probably aimed low on your talent level.

There's always next year... Only in Cleveland and Akron are they looking forward to the next season when it's only 1/3rd of the way through the present season. Presently, Q is our second best player. And 3rd best isn't anywhere near him. So I would like to enjoy this season because you are only one surprise 5lb bale of weed away from any season going in the crapper.

Poor shot selection lead to many easy run-outs. Lazy defense. It got out of hand quickly. Iowa State is a really good team, but we didn't bring our A-game. Or our B-game for that matter.

Embarrassingly lethargic second half for the Zips. Poor shot selection. No defense. I give Tree a pass because he's dead-tired. The other guys need to pick it up...but our effort and shot selection is steamrolling in the wrong direction. Too bad. There is a lot of time left.

That sucks. Super guy. Great coach. And he had a bright future ahead of him. Absolutely horrible news.

Did they hit an outrageous 23-foot shot at the halftime buzzer over the outstretched arm of a 6' 9" forward in order to achieve that deficit?

Regarding the ISU game: I think you will see a lot of Forsythe, unless he screws up or gets in foul trouble. And you probably won't see much of Cheatum unless Harney is ineffective. Like he was last night.

I think you need to watch tape from last night's game. There is "Detroit" foot speed, and there is "Oregon State" foot speed. Big Dog couldn't handle the Oregon State quickness. Forsythe could. Tree could. There was a noticeable drop in our interior defensive presence when Big Dog entered. I'm as big a Big Dog fan as the next guy. He has soft hands, and good (different than "quick") footwork. But he is slow. And his vertical is about 2.5 feet less than Forsythe's. With a motivated, aggressive Forsythe the Zips can play with anyone. The same motivated, aggressive Big Dog doesn't have nearly the upside at this point in his career. Especially on defense. Especially against marquee OOC opponents. Could Big Dog have a big offensive day today? Sure, if he makes quick decisions and is aggressive. He will have a big size advantage on any ISU defender. But he's gonna struggle to get up and down the floor.

@Zipmeister Forsythe had a great game. His first great game in a long long time. He was motivated, active, and aggressive. The drop off when Cheatum or Big Dog entered was very apparent. Cheatum lost his man on multiple occasions. Big Dog was too slow to guard anyone. Forsythe played great straight-up defense, and help defense. He was a difference-maker. It will be interesting to see if Big Dog's size can compensate for his foot-speed issues vs a comparatively small, fast Cyclone team. Cheatum just needs reps. If Harney plays in a fog again, it is to Kwan's benefit. Maybe not the Zips benefit in the short term. But getting Kwan up to speed with some increased PT will only help as we get deeper into the season. To beat Iowa State we need Harney to contribute. This should be an up-tempo game, which plays to his strength. Attack the rim, Nick.

One more: 0 Betancourt

Congrats to the staff and team on a marquee OOC win! The Zips were the better team. We actually looked 12 points better than Oregon State. And the funny thing is...we were far from playing our best game. McAdams, Kretzer and Harney were off for a great portion of the night, but Evans, Tree, Ibitayo(!?) and Forsythe (?!) were a force. And we got the ball to our 81% FT shooter when we needed to. No problems with the press(?!) I was very concerned when Ibitayo entered the game with 1 minute remaining. But we never threw him the ball, so his FT shooting didn't come into play. Who'da thunk I'd be hoping Tree would go to the FT line? His FT shooting has really improved. Thank God, because refs in 2014-14 are burning through several whistles per game. The whistle companies have to be making record profits this year? Iowa State is crazy athletic. Looking forward to seeing how we match up against them. And if our guys that had off nights tonight can get back on track tomorrow.

KD's gotta channel Ward Cleaver!

While not a "bowl," the Towson Tigers are in the 1-AA finals vs. NDSU. Former Zips RB coach Reno Ferri is the Tigers RB coach. Their running game features 4 backs who average 5+ yards/carry, including Terrance West, who set the 1-AA all time single season rushing yardage record this season.

They multiply Ibitayo's FT % by 2.39.

Won a prestegious award HS Stats Mr. RHS? Seems like a talented, well-grounded kid. I like him. Edit/Addition: I heard from a Coach that he selected the Zips over Northern Illinois.