johnnyzip84

It sounds like Syracuse is his fallback. Hope we can land 1 or 2 impact transfers at DB (especially corner). I still think Malachi Freeman might be the most difficult guy to replace in 2014.

Non-Story in the Pittsburgh Trib-Review about Chandler entering college early. At least he gets tomorrow and Tuesday off! Hmmm maybe it's because UA can't comment on any 2014 recruit without risking an NCAA violation?

K.E.N.T. giving the Rockets all they can handle, up 63-59 with 7:41 remaining at Savage Hall. Of course we all know next Saturday will be a battle, regardless of tonight's final score.

Good article The Blade seems to cover MAC sports about as well as any news source. The widening gap was only a matter of time. It does put ambitious coordinators at "big" schools in a bit of a dilemma. If they are not willing to consider a temporary pay cut to start their own HC careers, they will have fewer and fewer opportunities as the gap continues to grow. I thought the following quote was especially telling:

At WMU and at U@B would both be strong possibilities (as things stand). There are still a lot of games to play though.

This result was not exactly a feather in Rob Murphy's coaching cap. What is up with him burning timeouts like he does, forcing his team to play the last 4 or 5 minutes of a game without any? Horrible game management.

Louisville Courier Story We'll just have to see how the Cards fall...........ba-dump bump

+1 Nice story!

Most definitely. I'll probably be staying with family Friday night, but will be planning to tailgate as early as we can get in. I'm looking forward to this one as much as any game next year. Hope it's far more enjoyable than that 35-0 drubbing in a rainy Pitt Stadium back in the late 90's.

I didn't think this warranted a new thread, but turnover margin obviously plays a huge factor in teams that have success. I remember commenting on some thread last year about how the Zips were getting very adept at forcing fumbles, but were for some reason having trouble recovering them. I believe GP1 responded by stating the recoveries would increase as the defense improved their collective ball pursuit (paraphrased). This story provides some statistics that suggests the Zips indeed have room for improvement in turning these fumbles into turnovers. If I'm Coach Amato, I probably have this as a priority in 2014. Edit: Full SBNation Story The writers attribute this to "luck". I think luck is only part of it. Players can be coached to be more alert and be more likely to be in the right spot.

MAC hoops 2013-2014 is like a box of chocolates. That's the way to bounce back and prove the doubters (including myself) dead wrong. Special kudos to Melo.....fantastic game for Betancourt.

Here is a list from SBNation. The Zips made the list TWICE. The win over UT is #82 and the close loss in the "Big House" is at #17.

We used to complain about the low RPIs in the MAC West. Pomeroy has EMU at 95 and UA at 153, so here is an opportunity for the Zips to improve their RPI. I know, I know. It doesn’t matter so much this year since at at-large bid is out of the question. But it’s better than playing a team with an RPI in the 200s, right? The real issue here is team psyche. A 2nd consecutive beat-down, compliments of a MAC West squad, might have lasting consequences. Win or lose, I hope to see more effort so that the game is at least competitive. Yes, my expectations eased a bit in 2014, but I think I’m just being a realist.

What are the three most important aspects of home that is on the market? Location, location, location. What are the three most important aspects of a basketball game? Matchups, matchups, matchups.

I think the Zips will win 20, but it will not be easy. 22 seems a little unrealistic to me at this point. Of the 14 games remaining in the regular season, I only see 5 games (CMU, BGx2, NIU, BSU) that I would be willing to count as highly probable wins at this point. Winning 4 of the other 9 games will be necessary to get to 20 (without counting on a MAC tourney play-in game victory to get there). That will be challenging. The Michigan road trip may be crucial. Beat EMU there and the pressure is off. Lose to EMU and suddenly the CMU game might not be so easy. If anything, things aren't boring this year!

Continued thoughts and prayers, Coach. I hope I can emulate your perspective when faced with similar circumstances.

I'm willing to concede that I exaggerated, but only slightly. I revise my prediction upward to 1-2 Zip wins in 10 games against Toledo instead of 0-1. The criticism of Pat's lethargic play is warranted. Q took some highly questionable shots, and Jake seems to try to extend his range every game. And I agree with those who think we need to give the majority of our minutes to our best players. But I still think UT is a bad match-up. In talking to a few Rocket fans at BW's after the game, they revealed UT has been vulnerable to dribble penetration all year. When you don't have the ability to take advantage of an opponent's primary weakness, it's pretty tough to defeat them. Adding two high level transfers to a team that already had a special player (Pierson), an emerging point guard (Juice) and a tall, strong, and willing big man (Booth) is a recipe for a quick turnaround, skip. Todd K is a very good coach as well. Having said all that, EMU and WMU will still have something to say in the West race.

While there might have been some odd lineups out there at times that I didn't agree with, I don't think much in the way of strategy or tactics would have changed the results. Our big weaknesses, turnovers and FT shooting, were joined by an unforeseen lack of defensive rebounding to form a triumvirate that sealed the Zips fate. I echo the opinion that UT has a team that could represent well in the NCAA tourney. If the Zips played them 10 times this season, I'm not sure they would win even 1. It's just a horrible match-up. Juice is fantastic. He's a more athletic version of AA. The Rockets have all the necessary pieces. That's not to say UT has the MAC won - far from it. But if somehow the Zips scratch and claw their way back to an 8th straight MAC championship game (unlikely IMHO), we all better hope someone else has eliminated UT. Many Zip fans have bitched and moaned for years about the lack of quality in the West. There's no need for this talk anymore. We got a taste of that today, and we'll probably get another helping in Ypsilanti next Wednesday. It'll be interesting to see if KD can keep the team's morale and effort up over the next 7 games, 5 of which are on the road.

While there might have been some odd lineups out there at times that I didn't agree with, I don't think much in the way of strategy or tactics would have changed the results. Our big weaknesses, turnovers and FT shooting, were joined by an unforeseen lack of defensive rebounding to form a triumvirate that sealed the Zips fate. I echo the opinion that UT has a team that could represent well in the NCAA tourney. If the Zips played them 10 times this season, I'm not sure they would win even 1. It's just a horrible match-up. Juice is fantastic. He's a more athletic version of AA. The Rockets have all the necessary pieces. That's not to say UT has the MAC won - far from it. But if somehow the Zips scratch and claw their way back to an 8th straight MAC championship game (unlikely IMHO), we all better hope someone else has eliminated UT. Many Zip fans have bitched and moaned for years about the lack of quality in the West. There's no need for this talk anymore. We got a taste of that today, and we'll probably get another helping in Ypsilanti next Wednesday. It'll be interesting to see if KD can keep the team's morale and effort up over the next 7 games, 5 of which are on the road.

Lakewood (Fla) WR Donterio Fowler is supposed to visit this weekend. Source

I couldn't agree more. Even a casual observer should have noticed the Redhawks improving over the last few weeks just by virtue of their scores. Now you add a really solid player like Bill Edwards to the mix and they are suddenly a pretty dangerous team EVEN IF the Zips play reasonably well on Wednesday. The addition of one quality player can make a huge difference on a basketball team. I expect a dogfight.

FIFW

Frenchy and KD alluded to this on the post-game interview last night, but one Redhawk to be aware of is Bill Edwards who had not played a single game this season before scoring two dozen in that OT loss to WMU.

Nice!

Regardless of the circumstances, you just can't resist taking a shot at KD, can you? They were calling for an isolation (1-4 clear out) for Q, but he and Tree had some mis-communication and Tree came up to set a screen (not planned).