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Hey Folks, if there's a very bright cloud right now, it's the fact that this is the MAC. We've won this tournament in the last several years as a #5 and #6 seed. We've lost this tournament many times as a high seed. ANYTHING can happen. And recent history shows we haven't closed the deal when we are one of the favorites. And nobody is looking at us as a favorite right now.

This is an interesting thought. If the penalty for administering such a hit has now elevated to ejection status, it puts a big premium on getting the call right. It would seem that reviewing it would make sense, but it was previously an unreviewable call. Has that changed now? It's either going to take away from the fan experience even more by reviewing it, or they would simply anger fans by making a judgment call on a game ejection that is not correct. Either scenario is not going to be pleasing to most fans, I don't presume. I'm just thinking this through, but it is clearly an indication that there is an attempt being made to put safety above everything else, in a violent sport where obtaining any real degree of safety may be impossible, or could ruin the game completely. We'll see how it plays out.

Since this particular topic of utilizing our roster, minus Alex, is going on both internally, and externally among our fan base, let me add a few more questions to our discussions. 1) Does it really matter who starts for this team? 2) Someone mentioned that rotating different lineups at media timeouts is a good idea. Don't we already do that anyway? Or in some cases, even more frequently? 3) It was obvious that a lot of experimentation with personnel was going on during the game last Friday. Will a full week of practice iron that out? Or, will we see frequent shuffling of different combinations of players next Friday as well? I think we have been incredibly unfortunate with a everything that has happened with our guards over the last couple of seasons, which has culminated with a crisis situation now in 2013, at the absolute worst time. I think this may be Keith's most challenging week ever as our coach. If there was ever a time in his tenure when someone really would learn something valuable by attending a practice, this would be that week. Let me add that after several decades of following Zips Basketball intently, I have never...EVER...seen people in the Akron community talking about us as they have been over the last few of days. Yes, I know it's because of something very negative, but if we can rise above all of this and still get an NCAA tourney bid, we have a great opportunity to gain some new followers.

Psych majors get exposed to a TON of math, especially in the area of statistics.

I agree. We have been struggling hitting shots from the perimeter. That was the story tonight. Plus, we really hurt ourselves by spotting them too many points in the first half, which we had been doing against teams for awhile now anyway, even with Alex in the lineup. If this was a 45 minute game, I think we would have won. Once we settled into playing well, we just ran out of time. Carmelo had one turnover and 4 assists. Pretty darn efficient.

I'm being told that Chauncey and Walsh are starting in the backcourt together tonight. If it's true, I think it might be the best decision. Two seniors on the court, sharing some PG duties and providing experience. Big size on the perimeter on the defensive end. And if we get the "Good Chauncey" tonight, he could really produce and give the Zips and the crowd an emotional lift.

I think this is the important point. These guys need a big time "LIFT" from their fans. I bet most of them went to sleep last night feeling pretty sick. I know I did.

I have to say, I am not as devastated by the loss of Alex as much as I am devastated by the total accumulation of losses in personnel in the areas outside the paint. With Quincy and Alex now both gone, and problems with Chauncey and Walsh, some formerly minor players how have to play big. And the front line guys now have to play an even bigger role. Keep the faith.

I said this myself. Once the streak was over, our media attention was going to quickly return to the "same old same old". At least, as far as our success was concerned.

Wow. We finally just became the lead story on both Channel 3 and Channel 5. Too bad these jokers could never do this for all of the good things that happen at the U of A, and their athletic programs.

No. "Selling" would have been a lower charge. It's "Trafficking" (a much higher charge), because it's assumed that you are into big time selling because of the amount.

Great discussion. I thought it warranted some attention, especially from those who personally took part in both events. I don't know guys. I still find it pretty stunning, regardless of some of the differences in expectations, that the 1986 net-cutting celebration crowd was surely in the thousands, while the 2013 celebration prompted maybe a hundred or so people to stick around. I'm sure in both instances, it surely had great meaning to the players, coaches, and staff, even if it didn't mean much to the fans.

Good point, Dave.

Don't fool yourself. They will absolutely hang a banner. Nobody will know the details, even a few years from now.

Not true. If OU can tie us, it would be a shared title. And they would surely hang a banner in their arena. The tiebreakers are simply used for tournament seeding purposes.

It was truly an amazing, and unexpected accomplishment. That team had everything working against them, didn't they? One point that you left out was also that probably our best player (Merchant) got booted from the team early in the season.

That's not correct. We DID cut down the nets in the JAR after we returned from clinching the regular season title in the season finale at Ken+ on a Friday night. This is why I pointed out that last night was the only time since 1986 that we clinched a regular season conference title on our home floor.

Funny that a couple of you mention that a weekday night game might have caused the early fan exit. But, we beat Austin Peay to clinch the 1986 title on the MONDAY. I have no doubt that expectations are much higher now for most fans, but I was still quite shocked at the low number of people who stayed for the celebration. Thanks for all of your thoughts so far.

Of course it does. We LOVE beating Ken+ But, I think the only thing that matters on Friday will be whether we share the title with OU, or win it outright. But, we'll remain the #1 Seed with the tiebreaker advantage over OU.

I wanted to start this thread this morning, mostly to get some thoughts from some of my fellow old timers who were a part of both of these seasons, which are the only two times in D-1 when we clinched a conference regular season title in Rhodes Arena. It's not at all intended to be another "things were better way back when" discussion. On the night we beat Austin Peay back to 1986 to clinch the regular season OVC title, nobody left the arena. I remember hanging on that railing upstairs along with everyone else in the student section, screaming as every player and coach walked up the ladder to cut down the nets, including one of the assistant coaches who decided it was a good idea to sit on the hoop. I stuck around for this celebration last night, too. I'd guess that 90% of the people in the arena were gone. The loudest sounds seemed to be coming from people folding chairs and cleaning the aisles. It was really an empty feeling for me, recalling what I experienced 27 years ago. Yet, the crowds who attended both of these games were probably quite similar in size. I'm left wondering, why did everyone leave? Have we become that spoiled at being a consistent, yearly winner, which was not the case when we won the 1986 title ? Did anyone even know that we were clinching a title with a win last night, before they walked out? (the PA Announcer said it) Did the end of the winning streak really drain everyone's enthusiasm? The crowd seemed uninterested most of the night. Was it the fact that the 1986 championship was such a surprise? Were the fans and students in general much more "into it" back then? Have regular season conference championships really become that meaningless? (you needed to win the tournament to qualify back in 1986 too) I'm interested in hearing some thoughts from those who shared these two events along with me.

Try this: We have 10-15 opportunities EACH YEAR to record a big win during the course of the season. So far, in the Dambrot era, we've had just 2 opportunities to score a big win in the NCAA tournament. Even though one of those opportunities provides for a bigger impact, I still have to ask why someone would disregard the much more plentiful opportunity, and focus completely on the very rare opportunity. Since we've really never recorded any national attention-grabbing win in our D-1 history, you have to start somewhere. I'm sure Butler and Gonzaga both won some big games prior to making an NCAA tourney run.

Unfortunately, if it starts to snow later today, you can subtract at least 1,000 from the "actual" attendance.

The sad thing is that both 2007 and 2013, despite the SOS difference, will have one thing in common in that they both will end up without any chance of an At-Large bid after winning all but a handful of their games. It's quite a confirmation of my already entrenched beliefs. Even though it's been 6 years, we still haven't made a big enough leap in scheduling philosophy to change our fortunes. We've lost one basketball game since mid-December, yet we're out of the NCAA tournament at-large picture completely. When are we going to take the necessary risks, if we haven't done so already?

I understand what you mean. There's no greater stage to make something happen than the tournament. But at the same time, waiting for the tournament in order to make a move on the national stage would be a pretty narrow focus.