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GP is right. Just enjoy this, like the rest of us. I haven't gotten to experience this in 23 years, since I was a student. It's a great feeling.True....It's very likely that we'll be a better team over the next few years. But, our last few teams were also better than this one and look what happened?. And as we all know by now, anything can happen in the tournament. We've gone from playing maybe our worst stretch of basketball over the last few games of the regular season, to needing a few miraculous plays to advance out of the first round, to winning it all. We were the fortunate one this year to have everything go right in a very short stretch of time. Next year, that could be someone else.Have a great night everyone!....we just became the lowest seed ever to win this tournament....wow. And enjoy the tournament selection show tomorrow. It will be sweet to see our name show up on the bracket. And waiting for Thursday's game will be even more exciting.Enjoy.

No problem uakronkid. I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that if we can pull this off tonight, we will definitely be the lowest seed ever to win this thing.Go Zips!!!

MD...I don't know dude. I don't pay too much attention to what other teams are doing rotation wise, and I love our depth. But I don't even think we play 9 players for 16 or more minutes each. Might have to look that up.

That's correct Johnny....BG has the auto NIT bid for the MAC. I really don't believe that we can get one as an at large with 12 losses and a 200 SOS. As far as tonight.....More than anything else, I am hoping that after 2 unsuccessful trips to the championship game, it's just finally going to be our time regardless of how much we have left in our tank after the last few nights. The odds are simply in our favor that things will finally break our way.

johnny...the rebounding is by far the major difference between this team now, and where it was a few months ago. And at that time, I remembered pointing out that rebounding problems are often a personnel issue more than anything else. Which makes it hard to change. So, Nik getting a lot of Bardo's old minutes has probably been the biggest factor. And having a healthy Chris McKnight for the remainder of the season after the rib injury has impacted that as well. But, it sure looks to me like there's also been a much greater effort by the players to concentrate on getting into better positions when shots are in the air. It's been an impressive transformation....but the real test comes tonight.

Sorry Uakronkid...I posted that information having already looked it up.Once again, NO #5 has ever won the MAC tournament. On a few occassions a #4 has won it, including most recently the 2007 Miami team .

It's pretty amazing to me that you can be someone who has this level of interest in MAC athletics to run a live blog, and you are watching somewhat of an improbable, cinderella-type run to the NCAA tournament by the #5 seed (would be the first time in MAC tournament history), and you don't know, or don't take the time to find out if that school had ever been there before?? One other thing...We've only just completed the semi-final games.....and I am already tired of hearing about Doug Penno this week.

Hang on there WooT....first and foremost, we want to win. And when you do it with quality people, its a bonus. But, don't lose sight of the goal here. I wouldn't be at all satisfied if we were recording losses to Can't, but had "good kids".

Hilltopper, as I've said many times....I'm still amazed that Toledo didn't utilize their advantage in having guards that could drive to the basket at will during the first game against us. I don't think we'll see another team like that this year, but I hope our coaches took notice for future reference. I'm with Dr. Z on the officiating. It's bad too often, to both team's disadvantage. I stopped with the complaining a long time ago.

I agree...I've seen the first glimmer of real hope in the ladies team since I have been around the program since the early 80s...but...Some tell me how they went from having a lead with just over a minute to go.....and lost by 8???

Two points here catch my attention....First, gozips19 talks about C. Mc. being productive. What I believe he is alluding to, and just didn't say it, is that he provides leadership. If there was any real difference between this team and the teams of the previous two years it's that they often lacked someone to depend upon to carry the team, when needed. Chris appeared to be that guy on this team, but unfortunately didn't covet that role as effectively as a Dru, Romeo, Nick, or Jeremiah did. I had really high hopes at the onset of the season that Nate would develop into that guy, but he never really stepped up his contributions enough offensively. And that's not a knock on him. I know how hard it is to suddenly change the role a guy plays on a team when he spent so much time in the program not having to play that role. Quickzips makes a good point as well, as much as I hate to question our fine coaches. But it's true...we seem to be better offensively when we look for opportunities to create open shots earlier in possessions. It was actually comical to hear French and Keith have an exchange in a postgame interview about this very subject a few games ago. It's been sometimes unexplainable to me, but we seem to have the depth right now to be able to play at this faster pace.

As long as there is media in this country, there will always be a million different POY honors handed out.

I agree Zipswatcher. It sure beats watching the video of Nate getting punched (oh...I'm sorry...it was a close-fisted "shove"). Which I had been doing the previous two days.

I love the picture GoZips88. It's interesting the PD writers see us in the finals, considering that no team lower than a #4 has ever won this tournament. Could they be saying that they think we are a team of destiny?Interesting note: The highest attendance ever for a MAC tournament game was NOT a championship game. It was the Akron/Can't semifinal two years ago. Even the Akron/Can't championship game last year did not draw as big of a crowd.

Hilltopper....if it's the same guy, someone needs to kindly tell him that he needs to choose another profession. If that clock had started when it hit the guy's hands, that buzzer would have gone off before he could even turn to face the basket.

And.....someone please explain to me how a guy can catch a pass at half court, turn, and shot a long extended arm half-court shot in HALF of a second?If that had gone in, a totally wild sequence of events would have taken place. I would have truly added by my heart problems :blink:

I don't see any chance at the NIT. And that would become a 100% certainty if BG does NOT win the MAC tournament and takes one of those 32 spots.I guess either of the other two tournaments would have to take a look at any 20-win team. But with an SOS up around 200, how much will those 20 wins really mean to them? Hope for the best.

Deeustin..I'm not sure what your motivation is sometimes, but a nice attempt at an I-told-you-so comment when the guy hits his first 3-pointer in his last 22 attempts. And especially when his attempt at late game heroics turned into a disaster at a critical juncture at Can't State just 3 days ago. Nice job trying to ruin an otherwise exciting day to be a Zips fan. I don't always mention every player that played on the floor on a particular night. But in this case, it was a gutsy performance, he made some big plays at the end, and had a pretty efficient night handling the basketball. He's also had other performances that have impressed me this year, and they have been documented here. I cheer mightily for the guy, as much as you may believe otherwise. On the other hand, I have also not been shy to point out the out-of-control play, poor decision making, turnover problems, and deteriorating shooting effectiveness during the course of the season. As a long-time friend pointed out to me late last night, he definitely has the talent to contribute to this team. But, he's struggled with figuring out what he can, and cannot do throughout the course of the year. And I believe that is true. And I think that when he decides to focus on accomplishing those things he does well, he'll be able to contribute some solid basketball play for us on a more consistent basis in the coming years.

MD Zip...thanks for the clarification. I didn't think Villanova was as low as a #8......The improbable is always possible. And heck, we're talking about the MAC title here...not a national championship. Go Zips!Get these guys rested for Thursday....one game at a time...that's all we can ask. Someone has to win these games...right? It might as well be us. We've had too much bad luck in Cleveland already. It's our turn.

uaZipsMan....a Cleveland State upset pretty much takes care of our coverage for the next couple of days. I've been there...1986 all over again.

OK...and lets just settle one other issue for future reference.........For those who think that it's "not a big deal" to have to play an extra game in this tournament.....you got your answer tonight. I'm not an "I told you so" sort of basketball guy, but ANY team, even the best team in the country, is capable of playing a bad game. And you have less of a chance of that happening if you play 3, rather than 4 games.

Where do I start?1) Thanks to the Zips....I can't fall asleep now because my heart won't stop beating out of my chest, and I need to get up early. But for some reason, I don't care.2) No matter what happens now, it was a great accomplishment for this team to get to 20 wins, even if it took what should have been a "practice" first round tournament game to get it done. It seemed so improbable about an hour ago. 3) Thank God there is a two day gap between 1st and 2nd round games (although, French alluded to the fact that we were originally against the new format). 4) Why in the world didn't Toledo attack us this way the first time? They have the talent to penetrate on our guards at will. And it seemed as if coach Boals, in his post game interview, was well aware of the fact that Toledo had the ability to do that to us. 5) I thank God that Can't State can't laugh at us because they are playing on Thursday, and we are sitting at home.6) Before we give Nate so much credit...and I love the guy.....he almost was the goat for that silly and unnecessary late turnover. 7) This is the most important point......sometimes good programs win titles in years where they are not at their best, and most experienced. Could this be the year for us? (yes...people that I am around in basketball sometimes say that...and I just repeated it to keep this thing alive).OK....just a little more motivation. Think of the 1983 NC State team, who won a close opening round game and eventually recorded the improbably win over Houston in the final. Or, the 1985 Villanova team who I still believe was the lowest seed ever (I think a #6 or #7) to win a championship.A team of destiny...the 2009 Zips....Let's go with it!!!!!

I agree with you Dave. If for no other reason, the longer everyone makes a big deal out of the situation, the more attention he will get from the league, the refs, and the opposing coaches to be wary of his dirty tactics.

Johnny...I thought it was McNees too. I don't know who else it could possibly be.

Folks....come on. We all know that right or wrong, coaches get judged by the media on winning championships. And we blew a decent 2nd half lead against Miami two years ago, and completely fell apart against Can't last year. Until we get another chance, and the result is different, this is how it's going to be.