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Whether we're getting the ball inside or not at different parts of the game, what's becoming more and more apparent is that this team has a green light to shoot a lot of long range jumpers......and keep shooting them until they fall. We're even shooting them frequently in transition. The key will be to find the open guys and/or the guys who we really want to shoot them. And at this point, there's more than just a few guys who have the capacity to shoot them well on a given night.....or even different periods within the same game. This seems to have everything to do with the reason why we've been going through so many big scoring runs and big scoring droughts in recent games. Fasten your seat belts for a wild ride the rest of the way, because I don't see the coaches putting the brakes on all of this. In fact, I even heard Keith in a postgame recently comment about something to the effect of "we had even more 3's that were good looks and just didn't fall".

Regarding Big Dog: Read the bottom of the Ohio.Com game story. It's being called a "sprained ankle that had previously been an issue for him". Also a few more comments from Keith, including that it's "not good".

Shockingly Low. Maybe the prognosticators are expecting a rabid crowd tomorrow night in the massive Stroh Center.

What seems to be creating so much worry is the last-second win last year at BG that saved us from a 40% shooting night. It won't happen again, and there's no Richaun Holmes to keep an eye on all game. Easy double digit win. And please let this be the game where we keep our foot on the gas pedal the last few minutes. Zips 78 BG 62

I've been watching the RPI, as I have posted many times in recent weeks. It's not as high as this, but it's a good sign. I'm still figuring we have to get under #30 to lock up an at-large, but that's probably impossible with another loss. And I'm still not convinced that we can get through the next 8 games unscathed.

This had me jump out of my chair more than any other single call, if we are thinking of the same one. And it wasn't because of the call itself, but what transpired afterwards. I remember a ball getting knocked out of bounds under the basket, and the official under the basket called it for Akron. Then the guy at MIDCOURT ran down there to talk to him, and suddenly the guy under the basket decided to change his call. I was very close to that call, and I couldn't see any way that anyone other than the guy standing feet away from the action, right on the out-of-bounds line, could have seen what actually happened.

I've probably never seen players try to tuck the ball like that so much in one game. Obviously, they had a fear that it would get knocked out. But more importantly, they figured out at some point that the travels weren't getting called. I have news for you. If a guy is running towards the basket, stops his dribble, tucks the ball under his arm, and still has time to re-gather the ball with his hands and shoot? No way. He most likely took far too many steps.

FYI....We're at #56 in the RPI this morning. It's actually pretty exciting to see us a few spots ahead of Wisconsin, the defending national runner-up, who just blew out the Suckeyes a few nights ago.

I'll disagree with you here. They may have had a bit more "ball movement" than they did in the first game, but most of the time it's drive-and-shoot, or drive and dish to a shooter. If you look at what the Zips did last night.....That's Ball Movement !! There may have been some plays were the ball rotated between every guy on the floor in a matter of a few seconds. It was fun to watch.

His foot movement and drop step have been outstanding at times. It's simply easier to bail out and take the easier shot (the hook). His mindset offensively is just not where it was at this point last year. Not even close. It wears on you. Your minutes dwindle, you know your coach doesn't think you can get the job done, then you sit on the bench and watch your replacement score 20 points. At this point, with 8 games remaining in his career, I'll consider it a bonus if we have any more decent offensive nights from him. It's sad when we think that he appeared to have developed into a legitimate All-MAC player.

I talked about this the entire way home. What was he thinking? All he had to do was LOOK, and he would have seen that he was the ONLY GUY standing under the basket. He never looked. He just turned away from the basket immediately and passed it out. I'm telling you. That's a guy who has no confidence left in his own ability to finish. He doesn't want to shoot. And honestly, we might be better off at this point.

I think it's the sign of a team that has progressed to the stage where everyone is understanding how they can best contribute to victories. With the way we're playing, and the schedule, these guys have a chance to finish this thing as the best team Keith has ever had. We need the fans to come out, attract some new fans, and create an environment that helps these guys get over the finish line.

I know this is a home game, but with the OU away game out of the way, I believe this could be the most difficult matchup out of the remaining 9 game run. If we can get past this one, I believe my target of finishing 26-5 starts to become a real possibility.

I really like that we're playing fast against teams that are thinner and less talented than ourselves. I think that was the key tonight. Late in the game, OU started to look deflated every single time they scored, and we went right down and scored quickly to answer. Josh Williams!! Wow. I think it really did him some good to spend a lot of time on the bench this year. If he's really ready to contribute, we become a team that has TONS of guys who can have a big night, anytime. I got the same feeling that Kwan can do the same, when needed, after a similar performance a couple of games ago. This could be the deepest scoring team that Keith has ever had here. Pat is going to give me a heart attack. His inability to finish easy opportunities at the rim has gone from bad to pathetic. As much as we may have felt encouraged by Ken+ looking very beatable as we get set to play them twice over this next month, that CMU game on Friday is really going to be tough. I think it's time for a an OU/Ken+ crowd a little early this year. We need at least 4k, and the kind of noise we had at the NIU game.

These two points are exactly why I am somewhat hopeful. We're at #67 RPI right now, without the Ball State win included, and without the potential additional 9 to 10 wins that might still be on the table. That puts us in quite a bit better situation than we had with the 2007 team. I scoffed at a few people for talking about "if we win out" back in early January. It wasn't going to happen. But now, with only 10 games to go, and the final 3 all at home, our chances of closing impressively aren't so remote.

Maybe this is a good time to review our REAL tournament chances again? Since we are now sitting at 17-4 at the end of January? I still think we are IN, no matter what, with only 3 conference losses. So, we can only drop 1 more. That would be 5 losses in the regular season, and a record of 26-5 in the regular season, which might even have us at, or near, the Top 25 in both polls. That should do it. Now, we just have to win the games, and only stumble once more !!

The bracketology is really cool for entertainment purposes. But, that MAC representative will change every week, based on who has the best record. I'll be surprised the day that any of these national prognosticators take a really in-depth look at what is happening in the MAC.

I said this earlier. NIU is a "roughhouse" kind of basketball team. They will win games that way, but they probably don't have enough basketball talent to make a title run.

Amazing that you can hold a team to 60 points when they hit 13 3-pointers. Keith commented about our high (18) turnovers that we created today, and that we are possibly starting to resemble the "Old Akron". I'd love to see this team mold themselves into that kind of team. I didn't like the trend of giving up so many points. That was a really solid road win.

It seems that possibly Aaron was more in the plans for this year than the way it's worked out. He's been reduced to the "giving someone a rest" role. I was really hopeful for him. He's a great kid, and gives sooo much effort. I don't think it's always wise to judge a loss based only on the numbers that are lost, which obviously isn't much. But only time will tell if his lost minutes might cause us to stretch a few other guys into more minutes, resulting in less energy, and possibly more foul trouble.

I find it a little humorous that anyone here is even talking about how they'd possibly want a guy of Hurley's character who left the conference after a couple of years, as a substitute for the loyal guy with character, who's been to the Final 4 or better for 9 straight years, has been in 7 title games, and has won 3 championships. I think everyone here knows that Hurley being coveted by larger programs, as opposed to Keith, has everything to do with age. Northing more. When I think of people who I'd want to run the Zips program, plenty of people surely come to mind, of course. But, Hurley is not even a thought.

You're not even in the same Solar System on this one. Zips fans got on Hurley because he spent 40 minutes a game crying about every call, jumping out on the floor, "interacting" with opposing players, shouting at the fans behind his bench, etc. Keith had only his 2nd technical the entire season. And he actually recently went YEARS without a single technical called against him. Nobody here wants to see Keith turn into Hurley. And I think we are all exaggerating a bit about the "get a technical every game" thing. But, this one was very timely and very beneficial.

Clark. It's not a bad idea really. Think about it. If we sacrificed 2 points a game to create that kind of atmosphere, and produce that kind of effort from our players, it seems to be very well worth it.

I think they are a very big and physical basketball team, which is what is probably carrying them right now. They found their niche to compete in the league, and they are going with it. And they have a little more talent than they've had in the past. We'll see where they go from here. I do think they are going to do much better than in the past, but I'll still be shocked in the end if they make a serious title run. But as we all know, anything can happen in the MAC tournament.

I'll believe that Northern is a legit contender when I see it. And I haven't seen them. I will see them for the first time tomorrow, and I still don't believe it.