The Hip Zip

I agree, I do not dig the confrontational approach and general negativity of a couple that post here. I just used the "ignore poster" feature for the first time. It should brighten the place up a bit.

I don't think that keith has it in him to not play to win and I prefer to keep the guys sharp. There are a lot of off days to rest ahead while the lower seeds play the opening round. I do not see it as a viable option at all to rest the guys now.

Plenty of highlights:McNees geeting the zips off to a good start and getting the crowd into the game and loud early.Ronnie Stewart's play at the point : Ronnie is getting better, no doubt about it. He seems cool as ice out there and despite his inexperience he really takes charge of the offense and makes good decisions. His dribble drive and off balance scoop shot last night was a thing of beauty. He needs some work fighting through or around picks on defense though. The Bulls hot a couple of wide open 3's from the corner because Ronnie was late getting to the shooter.The play of Chris McKnight: Chris has become more consistant and a real force the last quarter of the schedule. Jimmy Conyers : Nothing more be said other than he has come frome nowhere to become the Zips best player. Jimmy brings the goods every night. He plays so much bigger than his size.Zeke: Took another step forward tonight : Buffalo ran a lot of offense designed to bring Zeke out towards the point in the Akron man to man. Despite this he had a decent defensive game and and some key blocks and rebounds. He also attacked the basket well on offense but was unable to finish on a couple of easy ones.AK Rowdies : Good show last night ! The bull crap signs just about had me on the floor.Negatives:The Zips lost intensity in the 2nd half and got beat to the punch on Buffalo's offensive glass several times. We need to rebound better.From behind the bench it appeared that Keith and Humpty had some issues last night. They had some words and Humpty walked to the end of the bench. His minutes were cut back after that.Officiating: How on earth the MAC would pair Larry Scirotto and James Ferrari on the same crew is beyond belief. I watch the officials pretty closely and IMO these are the two poorest officials that work our conference. Actually, they got off to a good start as they let the guys play in the early going. The game had some flow and the Zips took advantage by running out to a 24-4 advantage. They then reverted back to their usual level of incompetence. This resulted in 46 fouls being called of which several should have been no calls and some just bad calls. The 2nd half had no flow at all and was not at all fun to watch because these guys blew their whistle on nearly every other trip down the floor.

Curious, why? Ball State beat both Buffalo and Miami.I may have been a bit harsh bit still think that they are overrated.Beating Miami is not that tough of a trick. I just think that this is poorest Mia. team in recent memory. I have watched more than a couple games where Miami just had horrible shooting, especially from behing the arc. Kenny Hayes is not quite the same player that he was before his injury and they miss Bramos's ability to knock down the 3 ball. The caught the Bulls when they were in a real funk and not playing well at all against anybody. The same could almost be said for their win vs. OU. I really don't think OU truly started playing really good ball until the Western game and then OU came up here and probably played their best game despite the loss. The OU win vs a pretty good Wright State team indicates that the Cats are a very dangerous team right now. I think if you or Buffalo had Ball St again that the either would beat them handily either at home or a neutral floor.I really think that this is the most wide open MAC tourney of them all. I would not be surprised at all to see a lower seeded team get hot and make a hell of a run.

When I was there last, the parking was pretty easy, right by the arena. Thinking back, I don't think the students were on campus though. I wouldn't be suprised if the women's game will have better home attendance than the men's...Being a weekend game there will be an abundance of parking close to the arena. It is not an issue at all.

My wife and I have arranged to make the trip. It's not a bad drive at all and Anderson is a fun place to watch a game,

I think he ranked the top two the only way he could at this time. We have the chance to prove him wrong and change that beginning with tonights game.For the record, Ball St in the 3 spot is a joke and I think your Bobcats should be pushed up a spot or two. Groce takes a lot of flack in Athens but he's done a great job to get OU to bounce back after a period when they could have easily folded. I don't think that anybody would enjoy drawing the Bobcats in Cleveland.

That was my thinking. I also think it's getting kind of stupid in this thread. Later..................

Exactly, It sounds too easy but we've had about 5 that were half the way down and spun back out. Everything VCU tosses up to the rim falls in. Yeah they are probably a bit better than us but the title to this thread is laughable.

Btw, did anyone notice that Dambrot sat him for a few minutes after i posted this? He brought him back in and first shot: Buried a 3.I noticed that, that is when they went on their run. McNees back in, run over.

Also to be fair to our guards, we would have about 6 assists if we didn't blow some point blank looks

2nd half score :McNees 6VCU 0

No turnovers in the first half so what exactly do you mean ?

Count me out of the group that thinks VCU walks on water. They are a little stronger inside but if we were knocking down a few jumpers it would really soften up that defense.

BG is putting a big hurt on Valpo. Next Saturdays game won't be a walk on the beach.

Most of the MAC teams drew very well in their games. Toledo is an obvious loser and I don't like Western's spot. Other than that, all of the other games can be won. The Wright/OU tilt should be a very good game.

Thanks Mike, you have mail

Thanks Dr. Z !I really like Tom quite a bit. As you said, he's made himself very accessible to the fans. That's not just a catch phrase, he really does take the time to read and respond to the fans email. He was involved in getting this thing together for us and he should be praised for the effort. Jacki Windon gets the most credit though, she's been just terrific and a real pleasure to work with. I will try to post some pictures but I have to admit that I am old school and not much of a computer guy . I'll give it my best shot though.

Thank you Zach, I especially appreciate that you made it a point to note that it was included in every article that Mr.Gaffney has ever written. I promise to be more diligent in my search next time. Silly me.

I was on Ohio.com for a few, on the phone with the beacon for a few and got nowhere. I would be delighted if Zach could provide me the email to either Mike or Tom. I must be quite the dummy because if it's so easy, I missed it.No biggie, just an upcoming inner city school visit and many of the Zips will be coming out. I helped to put this thing together so I wanted to see if the press would be interested in covering the event. This would make for a nice little story.

If so,I might have a nice little story for you

Wow, that brought back some memories. Don't forget Gannon, we had some really good games with them.

That is a great deal at the current $200 for a very memorable night. I sit just 3 rows back of the bench but may consider this offer myself.

That surprises me Dave. Not that Butler is on top but the wide gap in first place votes. It would be my guess that the majority of the voters do not live in the western time zone and may have some bias. I have seen both play about 5-6 times this season and I stick with my statement that Gonzaga could beat them. It would be a great game, that's for sure.

While I appreciate Go Zips loyalty to MAC hoops I will take exception to both the opinions on Butler as well as the idea that the MAC is a better conference as a whole. Though it is all just spectulation, I do think that Butler would win the MAC and quite easily at that. They present many matchup problems with their size and would dominate the glass vs. just about anybody in our conference. If Austin Peay and EMU can come into the JAR and steal wins what makes you think that Butler could not do so as well?As far as the conferences as a whole, I'm sorry but they have us beat there as well. I'm not going to the trouble of looking it up but I know that the Horizon RPI is superior to that of the MAC. If we have an edge at at all it may be in the bottom third of the conference as our bottom feeders may well be better than YSU, UIC and Loyola. Wright St, the two Wisconsin teams and Cleveland St would all be very competitive in the MAC.I will agree that the Zags could beat the Bulldogs but as the above poster pointed out it's pretty hard to even consider the Zags to be a mid- major anymore. I would be thrilled to see the Zips schedule the better third of the Horizon to see how it would all play out on the floor. Our victories over UIC and Valpo mean very little.Some home and home series with Butler, CSU, Wright St and Detroit could all be scheduled with minimal travel and could help settle the score on the floor and that is where it counts.