pdt1420

I caught the 2nd quarter and dvr'd the rest, but Zeke looked frustrated out there. Despite the good first half stat line, I came away thinking that maybe this isn't the best future for him. At the end of the day, as appreciation for what he did for the program, all I want is for him to be happy in whatever he's doing. I'm no psychology major, but here are some factors that I think come into play. First, the d-league, at least this game, was not about defense which is obviously his strong suit. Many times he'd make a switch which would result in a dunk from the person he just left. You could see him look at his teammates and throw up his hands. Maybe I have blue/gold tinted glasses, but coming from Akron with our style of defense and teammates working together, this has got to be frustrating. Also, I'm sure that part of his renewed love for basketball during his time at Akron was related not only to what he was doing, but who he was doing it with. You grow more comfortable with your teammates... is the same happening in Maine? I also noticed in the offensive gameplan (if you can call it that) the game was mostly about dunks, or guards bringing the ball up, coming off of one screen and hoisting it. I watched the entire second quarter and saw maybe 4 entry passes to Zeke. Consequently, his rebounding attempts, which have never been spectacular, were pretty rough. Many times he would just lean into the guy who was boxing him out, and not make any move to get around him. I know he's no Varejao, but the effort just wasn't there and I think that was at least in part to the lack of team play/frustration/guards hoisting shots. Again, if he came out tomorrow and said he was quitting basketball because his heart wasn't into it and he wanted to do something with his degree, I'd wish him all the best. He doesn't owe us anything else on the court.

This one goes out to Ivo Baltic, the softest man alive.

That's it Stevie... jack one up from the parking lot. Somewhere DJ Cooper just gave you a hi-five.

Heart of a champion tonight. We need to take away lessons from this game. We've looked so much better with Diggs bringing the ball up. Diggs just needs to cut down on dribbling into traffic with nowhere to go with the ball.

DIIIIGGGGGSSSS!

Great comeback! Terrible last play.

Even when we do have good ball movement, terrible errors: dribbling off our own feet, passes under the basket off hands and out of bounds... and poor CB needs to dribble it back out even when he has a breakaway layup... kid cannot finish.

Frenchy was as scathing about the refs as I've ever heard. At one point following the Harney travel and the makeup 3 second call, he stated something to the effect of "these refs should never be allowed to officiate a game ever again".

+1, I voted for Zeke, but we had a mancrush on Dials. Created a whole bunch of Bill Brasky/Chuck Norris sayings for him when I was in school.

Well, I finally made it from out of town to a game so now I can post here. First off a huge thanks to LibraryMark for the great seats. I did my part of indoctrinating the youth by taking my 3 year old to his first football game ever. He toughed out the cold real well on a diet of Cracker Jacks and Peanut M&M's. I also brought my brother along and he was able to buy the next seat in the aisle about 10 minutes before kickoff... I think that says all it needs to about attendance issues. We were extremely proud of the product on the field and equally saddened by the butts-in-the-seat. We kept commenting on how we'd never miss a game if they had the stadium back when we were students. Its obviously due in part to the past 3 years of terrible football, but I tailgated at the rubber bowl all the time with no idea what our record was. Current students are missing out on the limited opportunity you get to tailgate and walk to an on-campus football game. To illustrate the issue we have with recent alumni, I went to a party Saturday and saw a fraternity brother and his girlfriend. We talked about the Zips winning and how I went to the game, and they made a snarky comment about how sad the attendance turnout is. I asked whether they attended any games this year and was met with blank stares. Even recent alumni who recognize attendance as a problem don't see themselves as part of the problem. They view it like OSU... whether I go or not there should be a full stadium. It doesn't work that way folks.

Didn't want to start a new topic for this one, but NIU is taking Purdue to the woodshed. You know what the difference is between the Big10 and the MAC? OSU.

Sierra Nevada Tumbler... really nice and will taste even better when the weather turns brisk.

I was there. Fantastic time. If I remember correctly, the switch happened a few minutes into the game, meaning we spent the first few minutes having to cheer when Can't State did something good. Hardest 5 minutes of my entire college experience.

Jake

For students, bleacher seats with backs. Best of both worlds.

Had a 3 Philosophers at Melt on Sunday... wooooowwww!

Kroll show... a lady who accidentally smothers pugs in her sleep is on a dog matchmaker show... she's from Akron.

Congrats on the new job. You know, it is flu season... cough cough.

So which is the ranking they use to put the number next to your name during the game? Because I so want to see "#24 Akron" somewhere.

My parents have really been following the Zips this year, been to half a dozen games. They're going to the game. I'm in Columbus now, and me, the wife, and the little guy are going as well. Hope more Zips fans make the trip.

As my eloquent father would say: What a chach.

Great win. Great crowd. I especially enjoyed the upper GA student section. They were very into it. On a second half Kretzer 3, with the ball in the air I turned to watch the student section reaction and I was not disappointed: nearly the entire section came out of their seat. Speaking of, I'm loving the fact that we have an above average 4 (Abreu, Zeke, Tree, Harney) and get to play the hot hand between Chauncey, Walsh and Kretzer for the 3 ball. Not like in years past where you hoped McClannahan was on or it was going to be a long night. Honestly I was never worried during this game. Disappointed when we got down 13, but at that point OU was shooting 71% from the field and 60% from 3 point. I kept telling myself that OU couldn't play better and they couldn't keep it up for the whole game. Plus there's this fact: OU is soft. S. O. F. T. Marshmallowy soft. Poor Ivo Baltic... maybe he could have contributed if they counted all his 3 point makes during pregame shootaround. Once the game started, Tree accosted him so physically I thought OU was going to have to cancel another day of classes. Keely: pffffftttt. Nobody on that team of wanted any part of anything within 15 feet of the basket. Content to jump passing lanes to get runout baskets and hope for a high 3 point percentage. Hey DJ, keep throwing them up from the parking lot. Lastly, props to speedo guy for making the security guard come tell you to put your clothes back on on 3+ separate occasions. I spit my diet coke on the gentlemen in front of me when, during 2nd half shootaround, you laid down in front of OU's basket, legs spread eagle, and beckoned to OU players "Hey... hey... come here... look at this."

So that crystallizes my view... I would not be in favor of dropping a level in the current structure, but I would be open to not being in the top level if there was a new level between FBS and FCS that other MAC/WAC/Sunbelt/Half the Big10 were in and competed for a playoff championship. I would be even more behind that if there was a mechanism in place to move up levels based on performance. If I'm honest, that's the caliber of teams I want to play against anyways. I'm tired of playing OSU just to hope for a close loss. I much rather enjoy when I see Indiana on the schedule because I know we could get to a level where we beat them consistently and then you have some bragging rights with the "big boys" that, yeah, I can regularly beat the schools that you always crowed about regularly beating.

Put Texas Southern in the Quick Win/Low hanging fruit category.

I'm warming to the idea of splitting off the "big boys" and not allowing them to play down divisions. Someone could educate me better on the European soccer league and how it actually works, but I'd LOVE a scenario where after every year or two the top four and bottom four teams of every division were promoted or demoted. Not sure how conference affiliations would work in that scenario, but it would be great to see.