The Hip Zip

A short look maybe, but not a long look. Betcha an orange soda 9+ minutes in and we have two field goals. It sure sounds ugly. Higgins is the guy that killed us at home last year. If he gets it going we have some problems.

Pains me to say it but I agree with the top two, though I'd place the Bulls at the top.Spots 3 through 9 are anybody's guess. Not much speration between any of them with Miami now crippled.

thanks to Root for the link and to Dave for the read

Just to make me a liar after I gave props to Creighton, they take a bad loss at Bradley.

Domain seized by the feds. ADTHE. net as well. I'll miss all those free broadcats

No such thing as a cupcake on the road, none. EMU's Brandon Bowdry is a beast, this guy will get a long look from some NBA teams, he's that good.

One of my favorite MVC schools is Evansville. I think they were somewhere similar to us in RPI too after last week's games. Back in our D2 days the Purple Aces always gave us all we could handle (and frequently more). Given their performance so far this year, I think this would be a good game, and the return trip next year would give all you heathens a chance to visit the Bible belt. (No Zach, that isn't a clothing item made from a book) Wow, just noted this post along with GJGood's I've been around long enough to remember the names of Billy Turner, Frank Thompson, Bobby Smith and Jerry Sloan. As I recall, both Evansville and the Zips both had a guy named Jerry Sloan playing for them. Those were the true glory days of Zip basketball. That team would have destroyed any of later day Zip teams. I remember being a young boy and the thought of those guys had me out shooting jumpers for hours at a time, I wanted so much to be as good as they were.

They are not too shabby this season. I got what I wished as well, an MVC opponent. I am very pleased but our boys will have to be on their best game to hang with the Jays. In my opinion, there s not one team in the MAC that Creighton couldn't take down. The MVC is just that far superior to the MAC, a fact that nobody in their right mind would dispute.

For those who do not know, there was an ugly incident that took place at CMU last night. Miami's Antonio Ballard , by all accounts a good guy, had a break away dunk in the last seconds of last night's game. By this point the game was out of reach and his dunk had no influence on the outcome. As he goes up, out of nowhere#10 Coimbra delivers a crushing hard foul to the back of Ballard who tried to break his contact with the basket support by putting his hands out. Result ? A career ending broken wrist. There is clearly no place in the game for this stuff. Nice group of kids you got up there Earnie ! Even though he's a Redhawk, I feel pretty bad that Ballard is now finished. He's a good guy who left it all out on the floor every night. He was also on pace to be the MAC MVP. It is my hope that some of the Rowdies give both #10 Andre Coimbra and coach Zeigler a very hard time Sunday night. Chants of "cheap shot... cheap shot..... would be appropriate. The guy is from Brazil so something could be cooked up based on that theme as well. My lungs are healthy, he'll hear me for sure. This guy would have been great in an AfroSheen commercial. I present to you, Cheap Artist #10 Andre Coimbra, The Punk ! Bum !!

Even more interesting is that he works under Anthony Grant, one of the finest young coaches in the country. Grant made his name at VCU before accepting the 'Bama job. Grant was then replaced at VCU by none other than Shaka Smart. A whole lot of Zip goin' on down there'. Also interesting is that Thunder Dan spent many years working with none other than former K S U coach Stan Heath. If memory serves the two had remained together at 2 or 3 schools.

Z has it right. That was the point of the hypothetical scenario. Just about every breath of a Zip on both ends of the floor is choreographed. I'd like to see some running and having a good time out there. A pleasing type of basketball for the players to play and the fans to watch. Face it, we have not been the most enertaining team on the map.

Zach's post got me thinking, which is often dangerous. What if.... In the locker room, before the CMU game Sunday, KD just threw his hands in the air and said " Screw it guys, it can't get much worse. I'm not calling anything tonight, I'll make the substitutions but I just want you guys to go out there and have fun" What would happen ???

On the money Zach

OK Ozoner, what now?

K.S.U. & Miami take care of business on the road over that great Mac Western leader Ball St. and CMU. Really bad news for Miami tonight though as Ballard hurt his wrist badly late in the game. Ballard was probably on track to be the MAC's MVP.

It may look that way at times because Zeke tends to overtly beat himself up on the court after every little incident he perceives as being an error on his part. I think he enjoys playing, but can't stand making mistakes. That attitude may make him more tense and wound up as the game goes on, which only leads to more errors. While some players might benefit from being a little more serious and less loose, Zeke is not one of them. I think Zeke would benefit by learning to quickly let loose of mistakes and adopt the attitude that he's going to make more great plays than mistakes, so the mistakes aren't worth distracting him from making a great play the next time the ball comes his way. After the game, Zeke can talk to the coaches about mistakes he made during the game and how he wants to learn to correct them during training and scrimmages. Thats fair enough Dave, I might have been a touch harsh. I want more than anything to see Zeke succeed, I really do. I want to see him improve and reach a higher level of play. Zeke needs a big boost of confidence for sure. He must realize that he has a God given gift, a gift that should allow him to become a great, great player. But to get there he needs confidence, he needs an inner fire and he needs to have the will to dominate. Until he finds that he's not going to be a great player. The good news is that he's only a soph. and still has time and a chance to become the great player that we are all expecting to see. The pressure on Zeke is high, we all know that but Zeke needs to know that a few mistakes are OK. He in himself is not going to lose us any games for us but he sure as hell can win us a few.

This made me laugh. You should use this as your tag line. It is more than obvious that we miss Chris, Jimmy and Humpty much, much more than any of us thought we would. I want to see Alex on the floor as much as possible and it's time to give Egner minutes right now. The players and combinations we are putting on the floor ain't gettin' it. Look at it this way, K.S.U is in a transitional year, Geno will tell that to anybody that listens. So what does Geno do? He gives Henniger meaningful minutes in just about every game. We are getting beat inside so why not try Egner? I want to see if he can get some boards and help us get a stop or two.I would have no problem with us starting Nic/Egner/Diggs across the front line. I don't even think that Zeke enjoys playing the game. It's more like he's playing because he was expected to play, not because he WANTS to play. I want to see Diggs be able to play without having to look over his shoulder at KD. It's time to see what a couple of these guys are made of. There is nothing to lose. BTW: My TV blushed last night.

I'll know more after tonights game but the way things are looking I would like to see just about anybody from the MVC.

Please upload to youtube and post immediately! No can do.... It is forever gone but I wouldn't put it past her to do again. I have to be on guard because this years team really has me pulling my hair out. In fact, we are only in January and there are no hairs left to pull. If I observe her being especially quiet while watching a game I'd have to suspect that something may be up. She is a pretty passionate fan in her own right and often does quite a bit of yelling herself. Believe it or not, her all time favorite Zip is Mario Collins, followed closely by by Joe Jakubic.

I dunno...this year's Zips squad doesn't seem to be capable of blowing out any team...at least one that doesn't rhyme with "schmilliken." Are you suggesting that we put St. Louis on the schedule ? Visit My Website

Same here, my wife just doesn't understand how yelling at the TV or radio helps anything. I always tell her that the Zips feel the vibe no matter where they are playing. She hid the camcorder on me one night when the Zips were being televised. Afterward, even I had to admit that If my performance had been reviewed by mental health professionals I would have probably been safely locked away in a rubber room. It is a passion.

That's what they get for firing a perfectly good coach in Stan Joplin. Or for recruiting point shavers. Point taken, although it’s debatable how much blame Joplin deserved for a problem that permeated the UT athletic department. Besides if you listen to most Rocket fans, Stan was fired primarily for having a mediocre record and not getting enough butts in the seats. Probably, though Toledo Tom had the very same problem with the football team. The gamblers in Detroit found more than a couple fellows on the Toledo campus who were willing to lay down for the cause. Tom managed to hold on for a couple more years but when the losses started to pile up he was gone as well.

Hey, You have to give EMU some credit. Their defense has improved since CMU hung 50+ on them in football

I'm a little concerned with this one. The Huskies have a habit of playing Akron really tough. They have won two of the last three in this series including a major upset when we were about an 18 pt favorite at home in '08. Another thing that bothers me is that the oddsmakers are giving the Zips no respect opening the line at Akron -2. It will be interesting to see if we have an answer for Silas. He leads the MAC in scoring and can go off for 30 + anytime he hits the floor. The supporting cast is certainly not great but Toler can also score and Rucker and Landers are not bad players. I have watched them play a couple times but they were over matched and on the road. At home and in conference the Huskies can be a dangerous foe, no doubt about it. Both teams come in to this one healthy and ready to go. I believe that the key for an Akron victory is to continue what we saw in crunch time against BG, RUN THE OFFENSE THROUGH ZEKE !!! I am also very interested to see how KD hands out minutes. Roberts is returning to form and playing very well. Will Roberts steal minutes from Nitro ?? It could happen. His minutes have been increasing and he responded with a great game vs.BG. Like it or not, I think we will see more of Steve and less of Alex at the point as well. Steve is KD's quarterback and that's all there is to it. With every game now being a big game, I think that KD is going to keep his battle tested guys on the floor longer, though I think that Diggs needs to be played as well. I'd actually enjoy seeing Diggs mtched up against Silas for a few minutes. He's pretty darn quick and could become a nice shut down defender for us going forward. I'll be watching the battle of the boards too. We have been getting beat to the ball a lot on our rival's offensive glass. NIU is a decent rebounding team so we have to keep that in check for sure. Pace will also be a big factor. NIU loves to get out and run while KD wants to keep them in a halfcourt set. He stated after the BG game that we have to keep the opposition under 70 to have our best chance to win. The team that dictates the pace of play will have a big edge. This will be a very interesting and important game for us. I'd love to say that we will go up there and pound NIU but I can't. I expect a very close game that could go either way. I'm really happy that we all get to watch this one on STO so you all can come back and say I'm full of crap. GO ZIPS !!!

Wow, Miami and Buffalo are my top 2. I honestly think that this might be the Redhawks year. Their trifecta of talent, Mavunga/Ballard/Winbush, is hard to ignore. I have Ball St about 4th and BG nowhere close to the top. Always a fun read though. Thanks for the link