ZipGB8

Those officials let a lot of easy calls slip on both ends. But they tried to make up for it by calling hand checks outside the arc or early in the 2nd half. There were a few travels on Can't's end that weren't called, especially the one on Heninger's one post move. I agree that KD took this game lightly in the post game interview with French because it's easy to figure out what went wrong in this game and with where Can't is in the standings, we know we should be ready for them when they come to the JAR. Also if we win the next 2 games on our schedule, our confidence is right back up. If Nyles and Reggie could get out of their shooting slumps, we should be alright. We brought our A game to beat Ohio, we can do that again to beat Can't next time. In the past 5 seasons, we have shown we have had trouble with Buffalo, we have to keep our head up for them as well. But in the past 5 years, KD certainly has gotten his team ready for the MAC Tournament. We shoot the ball better, we turn the ball over less, we don't commit dumb fouls, and our free throw shooting improves. Just a lot more focus on the court by that time. The Can't loss was more of a mental loss than anything. However I will say that there hasn't been much leadership on this years team than the past few years. That does make a difference.

I agree that there needs to be more sense of urgency come later in the season from Harney and Diggs. Diggs took some good shots but made a couple bad fouls and made some sloppy passes. At least he got in the weight room in the off-season. You gotta get Forsythe in the weight room and he will get better. Harney is shooting 20% from threes and he took a couple bad shots early in the shot clock when we should have gone inside more. When games are close in the final minutes you gotta work it in and try to get to the line. We should have also been pressing way earlier than 3 minutes left in the game. We missed way too many bunnies and shots in the paint throughout the game. We needed to fight more on D to get those possessions back.

My thing is the game wasn't over yet after Goodson's prayer banked in, and the entire Can't bench stormed the court, even redshirt freshmen and walk-ons came all the way down to the Akron side when there was still time on the clock. Must have been an embarrassment to see that on Time Warner. When a team leaves the bench before the game is over, especially after they have been warned to stay back a couple times already in the game, that should be a technical foul or something should be called. Just saying. If a player on your team makes a free throw in the middle of the game, you can't just have the team come off the bench and congratulate them. Classic home cooking for a jittery rivalry game. Frenchy was saying on the radio that officials seem to lose restriction control during rivalry games. Can't has become more and more ghetto. You're storming the court after a mid-season regular season game and you're in last place in your division?

Fatigue may be a factor in this game tonight, especially after seeing how energized OU was in their game. They won that game in the first 10 minutes by making 3's and open shots quickly. They ran the fast break well against a slower WMU team, who doesn't fast break a lot. Ritchie and Hucheson were probably the quickest out there. For the Zips to win: We can't have 17 turnovers. We can't shoot 13-29 from the line again. We can't have those media timeouts messing up our rhythm. The MAC refs can't be inconsistent and call ticky tack fouls. Some of them keep thinking that the 10,000 fans are there to see them. We have to defend the perimeter well and fight threw screens like there's no tomorrow. Dambrot needs to stop taking out Zeke when the other team is trying to make a run. Walsh and Harney need to step it up offensively. Walsh has not had a good shooting game since the game at Miami in my opinion. Dambrot needs to out coach Christian on the defensive end like he did in the game at OU. Contain Cooper in the half court when he's driving tot he basket. Make OU work the shot clock more. On a side note, I do want to say that Dambrot needs to rest Zeke and Tree for at least 10 minutes I would say, but Forsythe has to stop looking out of sorts on offensive, such as putting the ball on the floor in the middle of the lane and giving the help side all the time in the world to help out. And also Kretzer needs to stop it with those cross court passes and let people come to the ball. Both him and Pat were the reason for at least 4 of those 17 turnovers last night.

The only thing with that is, when OU runs high ball screens around the key with Cooper handling the ball and getting guys like Offutt and Baltic open for shots, Cooper gets his assists because it makes Zeke or Tree come out and defend too far. This is why I think we need to mix it up with a 2-3 zone more often to keep them unbalanced. But I know Dambrot coaches with his gut and he like man to man with Zeke and Tree in the game because of toughness and because they alter shots. If you have Harney guarding Cooper, Cooper will get around it somehow or continue to throw up 3's from Wadsworth. Harney isn't exactly the quickest perimeter defender, he doesn't fight threw screens as quickly as Melo or Walsh. But I guess it's whatever would keep the coach happy.

With all of that said, the NCAA committee seems to pay more attention to the conference's national ranking status and I believe the MAC is 18th out of 32 which sucks. It took all those times for teams in the Missouri Valley to win against big school teams to go from mid-major to high major and all those wins for Gonzaga and St. Mary's to carry the West Coast from mid-major to high major as well. Their needs to be like 3 or 4 teams from the MAC with 20+ wins every year and be close to national rankings for the overall conference rank to rise up. So basically that factors into how high your seeding can be in the NCAA Tournament. If you're the conference tournament winner from the Atlantic Sun or Southland or Summit League conferences, you will probably be a 15 or 16 seed. If the Zips win out from now, they will be 27-5 and regardless of the record, they will probably be a 13 seed, maybe a 12 seed depending on how the RPI's are of other conference tournament winners and how many at-large bids are handed out to non tournament winners. Like if VCU or some other Atlantic 10, Mountain West or Conference USA, or Colonial Athletic school misses out on at-large bids because of RPI or strength of schedule, we might get lucky and get a 12 seed. If Akron in 2000-2004, when the MAC was ranked 14th or 15th in conference ranking, would have finished 27-5 and winning the MAC Tournament, they would probably get an 11 seed at best. But I think with in recent years past other mid major schools getting 25, 26, or 27 wins and winning conference tournaments, we could get a 12 seed. That's of course if we win out. Especially if we got a good amount of Top 25 votes and came close to being ranked, there is justice for a 12 seed. The NCAA benefits higher ranked conference teams because they say "but wait a minute, their strength of schedule makes up for their disappointing record. I mean look at Michigan State in 2009-2010 when they were 19-14 and barely made .500 in the Big Ten, they got a 10 seed in the tournament and still made it. They didn't have a tough SOS, they just had key injuries. The NCAA cut them slack because they made it to the national championship game the previous year. There could have been at least 4 other schools with 22-25 wins that could have been given the at-large bids. Like Dayton that year who won the NIT.

It's not just the teams and how good they are. It's the buzz that's created around campus and the community. Ten years ago, Zips athletics would get decent turnouts from the students at the Rubber Bowl for football and maybe a few hundred students to the men's basketball games, with at least 1,000 more for the Can't games. But I never really understood the subpar student following for home basketball games since Dambrot took over. Isn't his home record 150-14 over his 8.5 seasons or something close to that? They should have at least 5,000 in attendance as a whole every home game just because of that. The Zips every year have many likable players on the teams that most of the fans should want to come out and support. Most other MAC teams might have a couple of them at most. In the late 90's/early 2000's Miami and Bowling Green to name a couple had big attendance for their home games consistently. Can't may have as well but even they are dropping off in attendance, especially in non-conference games meanwhile they still get a sellout pretty much in the Akron games. The one thing I do like about the Zips over the past 5 years or so is they are marketing well and making more effort to get their games on ESPN2 and ESPNU as well as STO. That should get more notoriety to the students as well as the NCAA.

I've been going to Zips games long enough to know that in the past whenever they are on national TV or are in big games against top teams or high ranked RPI teams, they come out jittery, have trouble controlling the pace of the game, and take a while to get their mental toughness together. Dambrot is smarter than you think. When he keeps saying as Abreu goes, the teams goes, he is basically saying that Abreu is really good and keeping the mental toughness where it needs to be and everyone else follows. I have no doubt in my mind that Harney, Walsh, and Chauncey who are your most experienced guys that can give you enough offense to stay in the game, play much better when Abreu is on the floor. I really like that this year, Dambrot has been coaching with his gut a lot more. He's been using 1st unit/2nd units, he's been doing more of keeping 3 forwards on the floor/3 guards on the floor combos. He knows his players in and out. He knows Chauncey plays better with Abreu on the floor, he knows Zeke and Tree play better when they are getting more rebounds throughout the game, he knows Harney plays better when they play at a faster pace. I'm a firm believer than in tough conference games or in big games in general, the team that has the shows the best leadership and takes the most risks will usually come out on top. And OU has players who aren't scared, they believe they are better than you from the get go. It's all about mental toughness as I said. The team that makes the most 3's and gets the most rebounds will win this game.

I'll tell you what man. If other schools in conferences such as Horizon League or Colonial Athletic or Northeast Conference can get top 25 votes just for being the best in their conference then the Zips should. The Horizon League at least is ranked around where the MAC is and whenever Valpo or Butler (previous years) reel off 8-10 straight wins and separate from other teams in their conference, they get a few votes. There are even Atlantic 10 teams who are like 4th or 5th in the conference that will get Top 25 votes even when their RPI is outside the Top 50 or when they have weak non-conference schedules. It's the ranking of the conferences that count more than strength of schedule when it comes post-season time. Sometimes it takes other schools from the conference to have consistent 20-25 win programs to bring the conference rank up. We all know about the George Mason Final Four run in 2006 that earned the Colonial Athletic at extra at large bid to the tournament and then when the conference played roulette in recent years, their ranking dropped. Or the Atlantic 10 for example, when they had more than 2 teams show that they could beat ranked opponents consistently each year, they became a high-major when they were mid-major for years. But the one thing that I gripe at when it comes to the tournament selections, is the quality wins vs. key losses list. Not every mid-major school can play the higher ranked teams they want too each year. Few schools get lucky with that. And the ones that do usually are the ones that kiss up to ESPN and ESPN2 and will play a Duke, North Carolina, or Florida every year, and boom, they get more sympathy. That's why I blame that conference shifting stuff on why mid major conferences can never get their rank up. Like this year, Butler decided they're too good for the Horizon League, well they just allowed the HL to drop back to 17th when they were 14th.

Ever since Dambrot took over the team, our entire offense was capable of doing so many things, especially pushing the tempo more and being able to find the open man easier. Dambrot knows how to recruit compared to most coaches in the MAC. I always thought Charlie Coles at Miami was next best over the past 8 years or so. The problem was his system was too conservative and tactic oriented that players took a while to come out of their shells. The score was always low. But he knew how to get guys in all areas and keep it balanced. Dambrot has always recruited on depth instead of 1 or 2 big stars and making the system around them. As long as Dambrot makes sure he fills the holes each year and recruits the guys who are worthy of decent playing time and can be productive in the offense, we should easily be in the top 5 teams in this conference year in and year out. We have 11 guys deep right now. Ohio has 9, Can't has 9, and thats about it. The rest don't have much bench and are rebuilding a little bit and have to rely on their top players to help them win. Miami, Western Michigan, Bowling Green, Ball State, and Buffalo have many underclassmen and are still figuring out where they're at with their rotation. I would even say that Western Michigan and Toledo have good potential with what they have right now and they could top out the MAC West. Anyway, there was a good stretch of 5 years where we shot in the high 30's from 3 as a team and had at least 1 or 2 guys stroke above 40%. We have Abreu, Walsh, and Gilliam who have potential for those numbers. If they take more of those in the game, like Gilliam did yesterday, things will come around. In those days with Hipsher coaching, we relied too much on someone stepping up to score a lot and trying to win off of that. He also didn't have his players conditioned well enough to help put winning streaks together and match up with the rest of the conference. There weren't too many win streaks except for the 97-98 team, which was the best starting 5 we had under him in my opinion. Fans got tired of seeing too many of those instances where we would win by 15-20 against a good team in the conference and then lose a few games in a row by 10-15 against the worst teams in the conference. If Akron were to move conferences, the only one that makes sense would be either back to the Atlantic 10 or Conference USA, but those conferences are already way too filled and they need to weed out a little bit. I hate when conferences get more than 12 schools because then it forces more schools to move out because they probably feel like they're being pushed away and then that creates more conference shifting, which leads me to believe more and more schools don't care about tradition as much anymore but just about getting on the radar and getting more money from the NCAA.

Saw the game from court level and near the bench. I was also near some Can't fans who were bitching about every call against them in the 2nd half. The refs did try to call it both ways, however the typical MAC refs turned up the hand checking and ticky tack fouls in the 2nd half. There were a few bad calls I saw. There was the one where Goodson double clutched in mid air and Walsh and Tree backed off of him and was never touched and they called the foul on Tree. The refs helped Can't out because they couldn't convert after 4 off. reb's. That travel call on Abreu was horrific when Holt clearly reached in as he was driving. Those are the calls the home team always gets though. I agree, the refs never let either team gain momentum throughout most of the game, except for when Can't pushed the ball more at the end of the 1st half and went on that run. Kretzer unfortunately had to play more because Harney was in foul trouble and couldn't keep up on the full court presses. Most of the 3's Kretzer took he was open so you can't fault him for that. Also Can't was fronting Zeke and Tree from the help side the majority of the game so they kept more shooters in there because of it. Luckily Abreu and Chauncey saw that and got the Zips back in the game. I also give credit to Walsh and Gilliam for taking it to the basket more to allow the defense to collapse. Clearly, Dambrot made half-time adjustments but it wasn't easy to balance out the playing time as much. I also noticed when Abreu and Gilliam were on the floor together, ball movement was much better and shot selection was better. We forced a little in the 1st half but part of that was because of Can't smothering D inside. Gilliam and Kretzer I believe will improve their shooting percentages as the season goes on.

They definitely do because the NCAA thinks there are certain conferences such as the Summit, are hastily assembled with the "left-overs" of teams that could not find ways or reasons to fit into other conferences. That's the way the Horizon league was when they were the mid-continent. But schools like Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Butler helped gained the respect for that conference. When conferences in the mid-major and low-major level attain more than just 1 20-win team, the NCAA opens their eyes for some reason. The Mountain West for example keeps getting respect because of Gonzaga, St. Mary's, San Diego, and Portland. If you don't consistently have 3 or 4 20-win programs, the at-large bids will float somewhere else. The Horizon league has the potential to earn a 2nd at-large bid in future tournaments if they can keep up the programs they've had in the past 4 seasons or so. From like 1999-2004, the MAC was ranked in the middle of all the D-1 conferences, like 14/15 out of 31. In the past 3 or 4 seasons, they have been 17-19-ish out of 32. With 12 teams, if they could not have 4 or 5 of the teams consistently having 12-19 type records, they would rank higher. The "major" level on the conferences is usually determined by level of competition or talent. And the NCAA probably uses tournament history in the schools to help solidify some of their views. The CAA has George Mason in 2006 to thank for their added at-large bid of the past 4 years and the expansion of the teams to increase probably of it.

We won the regular season for the 1st time ever and went to the MAC Tournament final 5 times under him. Can't State gave it to Jim Christian twice even when in those years other coaches were deserving. Dambrot can't even buy one. I bet the only reason why Murphy won it was because of how EMU finished the season in comparison with their pre-season predictions, which was to finish last in the MAC West and 11th overall. I mean like is this their way of saying, "Oh EMU won the MAC West (even though an ugly overall/under.500 record) when they were predicted to finish last, Cinderella story under new coach, blah blah blah!" The Zips would make sense in the Atlantic 10, Horizon, or Ohio Valley, except that they are in the midwest and they developed several rivals within the conference right now. If they were in the Atlantic 10, who would their rival be? Dayton? Duquesne? In the Horizon, the rivals would be bunched up and the recruitment in the area would be intertwined with CSU, Youngstown St., Wright St., and Detroit. The OVC is a low-major so that would be a step down. Just some thoughts I guess.

Can't State did their part by knocking out OU's chances. So even if Akron loses at Can't Friday, they will still get the bye to the semi-finals, but we just won't win the regular season nor get the #1 seed. Can't will be playing on senior night, last home game of the year and with their win tonight, they will be going for a possible 2 seed in the tournament, which will be an extra bye. They need Buffalo to lose against BG as well to help them out, should Can't beat Akron. I am just not sure if Akron will pull it off but Can't did go 9+ minutes tonight without a field goal so their offense can get out of sync. But if Akron keeps playing this lazy D, especially with all the easy buckets they've been giving up the past 3 games, it's gonna be over quickly.

This is a wild finish... Next games will be important for these teams and why. Akron - needs 1 more win to get #1 seed and clinch regular season title, don't need to worry about dropping below a #2 seed Buffalo - looking to beat BGSU because with the Akron tie breaker won, they can get the #1 seed and a share of the regular season title (senior night for them as well) BGSU - looking to beat Buffalo and earn a #4 seed, which would equal a bye to the quarterfinals, and are looking for an OU loss at Miami Can't State - looking to beat Akron to hang on to a 1st round bye and a possible #3 seed in the tournament with an OU loss (senior night and the Akron rivalry will fuel them)

Can't State did their part by knocking out OU's chances. So even if Akron loses at Can't Friday, they will still get the bye to the semi-finals, but we just won't win the regular season nor get the #1 seed. Can't will be playing on senior night, last home game of the year and with their win tonight, they will be going for a possible 2 seed in the tournament, which will be an extra bye. They need Buffalo to lose against BG as well to help them out, should Can't beat Akron. I am just not sure if Akron will pull it off but Can't did go 9+ minutes tonight without a field goal so their offense can get out of sync. But if Akron keeps playing this lazy D, especially with all the easy buckets they've been giving up the past 3 games, it's gonna be over quickly.

Agreed, or at least it adds in a regulation. Like if these conferences want to keep expanding to the point where there is 20 teams in it, they need to regulate the at-large bids. The more bids that go to the power-6 conferences, the less mid-majors have a chance. And each year, there is about 10 mid-major schools who are deserving of a tournament bid, especially for beating a Top 25 team or a Top 50 RPI team. And it's unfortunate that those schools don't get too many chances to play them because of their general non-conference scheduling. I even think the Atlantic 10 with 14 teams now should have more than 1 at-large bid outside the tournament winner. They should have about 3 at-large bids. The Mountain West as well produces 4 or 5 20 win teams every year and some of them get shut out. The Big East with 16 teams has about 8 teams get to the tournament every year and at least 2 of them barely make it to .500 in their conference. You hear UConn, WVU, Northwestern, and South Florida being considered, even though those teams are slipping and their non-conference SOS are way less than most other Big East teams, but because of the conference they are in, they get looked at first. Creighton, Long Beach State, Harvard, and New Mexico are good mid-major/non power-6 schools that are deserving to be in the tournament but might not get in if they don't win their conference tournament. So I agree that the tournament should not expand. There would be more games played, more courts to be used, and it would just encourage more conference shifting. This all started in 2005 when teams began to realize that unless they were in the power-6 conferences they would have to win 25/26 games to get a bid.

The senior night thing is huge. I don't want to see anything slip away but KD needs get the offense back to being organized like in the first 8 or so conference games where we showed good shot selection, didn't make careless passes, and controlled the tempo. I think the Zips need to do 3 things well tonight: 1. Push the more more often than not. Take Buffalo's bigs out of the game defensively, get them fatigued and in foul trouble. I think Dambrot knows that when Buffalo is playing well defensively, McCrea, and Watt react well to it. 2. Cvetinovic and Marshall need to be more aggressive on offense and have good point production. Our bench can't keep bailing out their slow starts. 3. Put pressure on Buffalo's guards. In the OU/ORU games, the Zips seemed to struggle defending around the perimeter. And from Buffalo's message boards, they think we will most likely lose at Can't on their senior night, especially from how we played at OU. So they think if they win out (which means they sweep the Zips in the series) then they will get the #1 seed. It would be nice for us to get the #1 seed, play less games, and have OU, Buffalo, and Can't battle each other out. Can't may be slipping and OU may have been a tad bit inconsistent this year but we all know from the past 5 or 6 years both those teams play well on a neutral court.

See, I agree with Bob Keeshan here. (lol) Hipsher's team in 97-98 I think you're thinking of, the year we won the MAC East with Schindewolf, Weinkein, the backcourt of Ball and Bosley who were dynamite from the foul line, and Andrick, they just lost the sense of urgency and lacked toughness when it mattered. But anyway, I agree, just because the Zips in the past few years and this year have lost tough battles to higher ranked mid-major teams, doesn't mean the program should be criticized. Sometimes when you recruit more talented players they play the role of the super athlete rather than the athlete who plays hard every game and takes on the leadership/team ball role. Sometimes having talent solves the problem of keeping you in the games but not necessarily helps win the important games. That penetration and pass game worked so well when we had Nick Dials, Dru Joyce, Steve McNees, and Darryl Roberts. When you have guys who can move well without the basketball it helps too. Nate Linhart was a good example. Dambrot will say the team has a problem playing together sometimes but I also think a lot has to do with who is on the floor at the same time. I'm telling you, the team plays better when Diggs, Walsh, and Abreu are on the floor at the same time. And Cvetinovic and Marshall on the floor at the same time is good as well. They play a two man game nicely, especially in the Toledo and Bowling Green games.