UAZipster0305

And we beat Middle Tennessee head-to-head. If we can win three in a row against NDSU, Ohio, and Buffalo, look out!

Agreed. Perfectly analogous to a football team taking a time out to avoid a penalty for delay of game. In a sense, they are penalized for having unnecessarily burned a timeout. I would feel differently if a timeout reset the shot clock.

Let's hope that was our let-down game. Very sloppy, but that's bound to happen over the course of a a season. However, if we play like that against NDSU or OU, we are done...there will be no hanging-in or coming-back. That Randall kid can play! Good showing from CMU...they'll be tough in a couple years.

Funny how quickly he disappeared though.

Unfortunately, journalism anymore isn't about being objective, it is about making a sale (newspapers, teevee advertisement time, etc.), and the shock value of poor journalism can generate a lot of sales attention. My advice to ZNO: don't click on the link to patronize the corresponding site, and send the editor an email stating you will no longer be visiting the Plain Dealer's site as a result of this poor journalism.

Oklahoma State beats Kansas in Lawrence. That will help our RPI, and if we beat OU, we will have the longest win streak in the country.

What a come back!

FRS has about every basketball game except ours! Sounds like we are playing really poorly.

Crickets...everyone must be at the game...?

Just thought I'd start the game thread. Also, does anyone have an online link for the game? I don't have ESPNU and the MAC is not streaming the game. HELP, I HAVE TO WATCH THIS!

We're at home, we win. 68-64

Fun topic...I'll jump in: *You've talked about joining the Big East even after its meltdown *You use terms like BUGS, Sweaters, Bobkitties, Canadians, Columbus State, and piss yellow and your friends immediately know who you are referring to *You watch all Super Bowl commercials because you want to see UA's annual advertisement even though you could just as easily find it online *You have a soccer team that always advances in the NCAA Tournament with All-Americans and future professionals at all starting positions, yet it's considered a down year *You have great track, rifle, and tennis teams yet constantly talk about the 2-22 football team *You are apologetic about the basketball team's early season losses in the OOC to no name programs then chastise Joe Akron for not showing up until the MAC Tournament *You know exactly who Joe Akron is but have no idea where he is or how to motivate him *You think we have a rivalry with a program referred to as the Suckeyes *You complain that local retailers do not carry enough Zips merchandise but then when you do come across it, you post to ZNO about how great it is without ever making a purchase yourself *You contribute to the beer thread on ZNO but not the football game threads

He'd be a disgrace to Al "Four Touchdowns in One Game" Bundy.

The win against WMU is considered a quality victory as well. Victory(ies) against Ohio would certainly count. Potential games against WMU and Ohio in the MAC Tournament would help. We have potential for as many as 6 top-100 RPI wins if we don't win the MACC. Pretty good, but still likely not good enough for an at-large NCAA bid, IMO. That loss to Coastal Caroina really hurts.

I've been critical of KD's approach to the OOC; however, his coaching in switching to the 1-3-1 zone changed the entire game and won it for us. Kudos! That was some MACtion! Tense, but very entertaining game. Zeke got the shaft on the technical foul call.

Solid road win. Very convincing.

Can't down big at the half to BUGS, 35-22.

For those of you interested in scouting our MAC East competition, the Ohio-Miami game is also on ESPN3.

See, the only thing that matters is winning the MACC.

If we want serious consideration for an at-large bid, we can't lose games to teams in the 75-100 RPI range that are NIT or CBI bound without a conference championship. Relative to our MAC competition, the Detroit game was an opportunity for a decent win, and losing to a team in this range demonstrates that we are not worthy of competing in the Tournament unless we win the MACC. The OK St. and Creighton losses were acceptable though we should have won the former. They are both excellent teams that are at-large worthy of making the Tournament. My logic is, we aren't at-large Tournament worthy if we lose to other teams that aren't worthy and don't beat the ones that are. I'm sure the selection committee will see it this way as well, especially considering the bias towards more major conferences. Hence, if our goal is to have a resume worthy of an at-large bid (and it should be), then the Detroit loss was a bad loss. If we didn't lose such games every year to inferior programs in the OOC, I think Joe Akron would be much more likely to support the team during the MAC schedule and the following year's OOC. It's no coincidence that annually, the Zips get a lot of support during the three days in Cleveland. We can schedule games against the likes of Coastal Carolina and Detroit and still have Joe Akron's interest. We have to consistently win those games though! The OOC is not the preseason!!!

No. Wins against Coastal Carolina and Detroit along with the above description would have. Because of our OOC results, "Thinking Bigger" has to involve a MACC this year. End of story.

EJ Thomas is a world-class venue for what it is utilized for. Few (if any) schools in the nation have such a facility. Other than graduations, there is no competition between events hosted at EJ and those at a stadium or arena. Can you imagine a rock concert at EJ or a symphony in an arena? I can't either. The loss to Creighton did not kill our RPI. Granted, that would have been a great win (especially on the road); however, the losses that hurt our at-large chances were those to Coastal Carolina and Detroit. Both were winnable games. Even the game against Oklahoma State was winnable. Bottom line: yes, this team is winning, but it's not doing so by playing beautiful, tournament-caliber basketball (at least not yet), and we've lost a couple games we shouldn't have when we need to be flawless to receive such consideration. If we had won 2 of those 3 games and were playing excellent, fundamental basketball, I'd agree...let's have the at-large conversation (like we do every year). Unfortunately, the team and KD need to have a sense of urgency about the at-large prospects in November rather than January. Why start off the season saying that all that matters is winning the MACC? That's only true if we give away a couple wins in the OOC schedule. Sadly, because of the expectations, that's exactly what happens. This team still has Sweet 16 potential, but at-large resumes are built on results, not potential.

With more losses than wins, it's impossible for the winning percentage to be over .500. I calculated it myself, and it came out to 0.464.

Not at all actually. Just making a point, and I think I did so in a fair and constructive manner.

Most locals are clueless, but that's the reality we have. If the BCS Championship is mythical, why bother at all? I think that is a crux of STZ's argument. If we can't play for a National Championship, what is the point? We'd have that opportunity at the D-1AA level. The bowl games are nothing more than a last ditch opportunity to jockey for a variety of subjective poll rankings that don't matter and aren't remembered five minutes after they are released for the final time for the season.