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I wish you were right, but do you really think that having wins over teams ahead of us in the standings outweighs the fact that we finished behind them in the standings? I really think our hopes rest solely on whether someone thinks that half of the teams in the MAC deserve post-season bids.

I have my KEYS TO THE GAME for this one. So, pay attention. This was developed with some real thought. PLAY AS GOOD AS WE PLAYED AGAINST THEM LAST MONTH.

All things considered, I thought yesterday's game was one of the better officiated games we have had at the Q. If we hit our 10 missed lay-ups, no one would have noticed the officials.. WHAT?! No kidding. As I said earlier, I normally don't even think to mention it. I normally pass it off as typical MAC officiating. But, this one was especially horrible.

What you see happening is typical of slow-moving guys in the post. It's a little nudge immediately followed by a re-established position. And it often repeats itself several times until the offensive player realizes that he still can't get a shot off. So, it turns into either a much harder "nudge" right before the shot, a clear out with a forearm, or a complete lunge in order to attempt to draw the foul. Yes, he can do a better job of "looking like" he's in great postion, as Captain suggests. But it doesn't change how the rule should be interpreted. I think the bigger issue is that the MAC officials simply don't want to allow a guy of his superior height to stand in there and block shots all game long. But the reality is, if these guys didn't get away with the pushes, these shots would be getting blocked repeatedly. I've had plenty of discussions about this as well, between very knowledable basketball minds, and I really believe they just don't know what to do about his superior size, and feel compelled to call some of those on him. And it frustrates me that his advantage actually seems as if it's being held against him.

I am NOT one to jump on opportunities to criticize the officials.....BUT... Since they brought it up in the interview, those fouls on Zeke when offensive players are initiating the contact with Zeke to clear space to get off a shot are COMPLETE BULL !!!!

It's no secret that teams can wear down when trying to fight back from a large deficit. BUT, this was far from a typical scenario. 1) The team with the lead was shooting poorly, to say the least. 2) The team with the lead was shooting early in the shot clock on several occassions, and not making the team trying to come back have to work nearly as hard on the defensive end as they could have made them work. 3) The team with the lead was having to extend the playing time of too many of its own players because of foul trouble. If I have to come away from a crazy game like this with two conclusions, I'd have to say that we just did an awful job of managing a 20-point lead, and that we were simply just the better conditioned team. We got about 3/4 of our rebounds in this game from guys OTHER THAN Zeke and Nik. Guys like McKnight and McClanahan pulled Herculean efforts out there. What a game.

No way. Need to win the MAC to extend the season. He didn't say the Big Dance. Did anyone think our defense was a tad less effective in the second half compared to the first? I doubt many on here (e.g., AZ 71) care about anything less than that Big Dance thing. However, I agree that the team should definitely be in SOMETHING now. With so many teams in the post-season (120+) you would think any mid-major with 20 wins would have it made. Shrug. Been there done that with a better team and more wins than this year. The MAC gets no respect. The DANCE is the one that counts, I would take the NIT in a heartbeat, but that is out of reach I think. Those other tourneys are really not worth much of anything. When I was listening I thought that Nik had played his last game as a Zip. Hopefully, at least three more to go. The NIT was certainly out of the question even before this tournament started. I said this in another thread...we are going to be viewed by ALL of the selection committees as the 6th best team in the MAC, with 12 losses and a poor SOS. Even if we make it to the title game and lose, we do nothing more than add a 13th loss. I'll be shocked is that draws attention from anybody.

I think I am more exhausted than the players.

I know. We got absolutely no credit for beating the bottom 4 West teams...especially when we could only beat 2 of them. Hahaha. Yes, actually beating all of those teams certainly wouldn't have hurt. Without those two losses, this season is completely different. I'd give us a nod for the CBI or .com tournaments with 22 wins already. Even though we blew them out, the Milliken game is a blemish on our schedule/record as well. The RPI doesn't even consider it a win and neither do I. As a D-III program, they have different rules and standards by which to operate their program. So, it wasn't a fair fight. I hope to not see any more of these glorified scrimmages on our regular season schedule in the future. Let's get win #20 by beating the Sweaters today. Go Zips. Correct me if I'm wrong, but without those two losses, aren't we the MAC regular season champs right now?

I know the facts speak for themselves...plain and simple. But, my real source of laughter continues to come from the denial, justifications and blind loyalty of OSWho fans. I've seen explainations that absolutely have me rolling on the floor. I know it's predictable. But it's still hilarious. Thank you for the comedy, Cowlumbus State fans !!!

My opinion........too many losses, and too low SOS to get an invitation to any tournament. Among the tournament selection committees......They will see us as the 6th best team in the MAC based on our seeding. And I don't think they will view the 6th best team in the MAC as deserving of any kind of post-season play.

Tough to see us sitting behind two teams that we beat just a week or so ago, with one being beaten quite easily.

Would giving "benefit of the doubt" considerations to a school that has committed hundreds of violations over the last decade really make sense? Is anyone really naive enough to think this was some tiny little isolated incident committed by players that had no other implications when we're talking about a school who repeatedly breaks the rules? As Zips fans, aren't we tired of competing against schools that seem to have such a disragard for standards, in addition to spending their way to superiority? The pompous idiots deserve everything they have coming to them. I can't stop laughing As my daddy once said.....If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck....it's probably a duck

Of course, there's always the risk of a slide backwards. And I like being in a position to create this kind of excitement every year. In fact, I'm getting quite used to it. And I think KD is going to be our coach for a long time, so if we want to make it to another level, I think it will only happen because our current coach takes chances on different kinds of players and possibly more creative strategies.

Funny. I forget that we even played Miami because the other 3 games were so memorable. I think it's important to note that there are still 6 guys on this team who played in that tournament.

A lot more on the line here than a CBI game. At least in this case, actual attendance should mirror announced attendance since there won't be all of the no-shows from corporate season ticket hollders. A good indicator might be the last time I remember us playing a first-round MAC tournament game at home, which was the thriller against OU in 2003. Does anyone know the official attendance for that game? UPDATE - I found it. 2,174 I sure hope we can do better than that.

I have a prediction.... If Steve scores 65 points next week, we'll be

I mentioned that also. I'm really surprised that we let the onslaught continue like it did. KD mentioned that we beat them the first time playing man. Maybe so. But it's a different game, and they possibly had a different game plan. We should have taken away something that was really hurting us, and taken a chance that they couldn't find another way to score. I also thought we should have fouled immediately on the Ken+ possession where Holt hit the 3-pointer to put them up by 9 with about 50 second left in the game. Not only did they score, but they took a good chunk of time off of the clock. Instead, with well over a minute to play, we could have fouled them when we were only down 6, and given ourselves a chance.

Ken+ might not make it that far. Buffalo can beat them in the quarterfinals. Look at how well Buffalo played against them this year, including a 25-point blowout in Buffalo. And either way, those are two pretty physical teams to put up against OU on Friday. I'm really liking how this looks.

If he's becoming the poster child of Ken+ athletics, that's a good thing. He's like the gift that just keeps on giving.

Ken+ simply did a great job of spreading the floor and beating us off of the dribble. They have a lot of guys who can do that. Then your big guys are forced to help or foul. And if they miss the shot? They have guys who can jump over you to get the rebounds. This subject comes up repeatedly on this board. It's a personnel problem. This is why a guy like Quincy can shine agianst a team like Ken+. From a coach's perspective, should KD have left Zeke in the game at the 12 minute mark? At that point in the game, it shouldn't have been a big deal to sit him for a few minutes. If he had picked up foul #4 right after that, which was very possible considering the way Ken+ was attacking the basket, it would have put him on the bench for most of the rest of the game. Instead, we were virtually able to give him a normal rest and return a fresh guy to the game at the 8 min. mark with only 3 fouls. However, I will question why we didn't swtich to a zone at that point.

I just wanted to see us show that we really are among the better teams in the league, and I think we did that. After Tuesday, I wasn't sure what we'd do tonight. I think we even played more physical than we usually do against Ken+. Their athletic guys got the best of us in the paint in that 2nd half, and I am sure they know that, and will adjust if we play them again. I was just glad to see us compete in a tough road environment, and I'm hopeful for what could happen next week.

I think this is what it's all about right there in that highlight. I really hope nobody is running for the hills, as Zipwatcher suggests. As I pointed out in an earlier post, we've now shown that we can play well enough to beat anyone in the league, especially since the tournament games are nowhere close to road games for us. Unfortunately, we've also shown that we can collapse completely in any game. And when it happens as recently as 2 games before the tournament, it's pretty alarming. So tonight, win or lose, I'll also be looking to see if we can simply do some of the things we were doing during the good period of this year. Of course, I don't like that the game in Akron in January was so close, and that Ken+ has played well since then, has had a major contributor return to their lineup, and have the game at home. But, how much better have we become also? Closer to the team that destroyed BG and Miami? Or more like the team that played OU, NIU, and EMU ? I hope that tonight's performance is good enough to restore everyone's hope.

You're right, minus one thing: For Can't and us, the Q is more of a home court than neutral. We have a tremendous advantage there when we bring some big crowds. Let's just hope people show up, we avoid OU, and we play our game against any other competition. Oh, I certainly think we have a little advantage playing this tournament in Cleveland. And Ken+ has a little bit of the same advantage. But after spending last year's championship game listening to about 50 pretty loud O H I O chants coming from the crowd during the course of the game, it becomes obvious that the advantage is nowhere close to a home game.

I don't know. Wasn't it kind of crazy to think we'd pull off two huge road wins after a string of 7 wins already and wrap this thing up? We're not as good as we maybe thought we were a couple of weeks ago. But, we still might be good enough to beat any team in this league on a neutral court in Cleveland. And that's all that really matters right now. This game will be really tough. We needed quite an effort to beat these guys at home, adn that never gets me too excited to play that same team later on the road. And have we played well there any time in recent memory other than that dramatic season-ending overtime win 4 years ago?