skip-zip

I guess we normally don't start a postgame thread after every basketball game, but this one was HUGE. Maybe the biggest win of Dambrot's career. And now we've virtually locked up a bye. And without Jeremiah. It's a great night to be a Zip. I don't suppose we'll see Moullat on here tonight, after his prediction of the blowout We almost got victimized again, by what Dambrot called the Miami Basketball Gods. How did Linhart's shot in the final minutes not go in? How did Bramos get that wild 3-pointed off the glass to drop, and the reverse layup drop? Those were both miracle shots. Cedrick's back...and we need him. And he got to hit two free throws at the end of the game to seal it. SWEET REVENGE.Nick...providing his usual floor leadership and emotional leadership...right when we need it the most.Chris McKnight....I'm telling you guys, we could not win games without Jeremiah if it wasn't for the way he has stepped up.Someone wanted to debate with me a couple of game ago that Quade getting a few baskets and a handful of rebounds is not enough. I say it is. And he did it again tonight. Keith gave total props to the Akron fans after the game. Some people suggested that this may be the only time the you could ever hear Miami's players getting booed as they entered the gym on their own floor. I want to know what happened at the end of the game, if anyone has more insight. A Miami trainer chasing one of the refs out of the gym?? A Miami assistant jawing with a plain dealer writer both at a timeout, and after the game?? Is this CLASSLESS or what?? We HAD EVERY RIGHT TO PROTEST HOW THAT GAME ENDED IN CLEVELAND LAST YEAR, and everyone from Akron handled the situation with TOTAL CLASS. Maybe certain things just speak for themselves.

How quickly some people forget....Doesn't anyone remember that we had NO DEFENSE from the mid-90s until the mid-2000s under the LO regime?We've done quite well defensively over the last 5 years. And if we had not lost John Mackey last year, I think we would have done a much better job defensively in a few of those conference games that got away from us. Holding Miami (OH) scoreless, and giving up only two touchdowns against Ohio State showed me that we definitely had some things going right defensively at certain points last year.I must say, I am with those who are not quite ready to throw this defense out the window. It's performed admirably for us. And remember, with the rush linebacker, and the rover, this defense can "play" like a 4-3 on just about any down, if the coaches choose to use it that way. And sometimes they do. Personally, I think the 3-3-5 allows us to get more defensive backs on the field, which has been a strong and deep position for us in recent years. So, this might very well be the right thing for us to do right now. We'll see.

This team seems to get on a roll when we are hitting shots. When we aren't, it seems like everything falls apart.Ronnie James Dio singing the anthem? Now that would be a show.

I would prefer to see him sit until the OU game. That game will likely be the one that we need to win in order to lock up a first round bye. This bracketbuster game really means nothing now that we are surely no longer in consideration for an at-large bid.

Johnnyzip....or we'll need guys like Quade and Bardo to block some shots in there. Otherwise, without Jeremiah, we have very little in the way of post defense. And the rebounding problems are REALLY concerning me in a game like this. I think we'll need to shoot over 50% to win this one.

I think the B. McKnight thought was that he could give us some quick offense at the beginning of the game...something we had not had in awhile. I think it's time now to drop the idea that this guy is ready to do great things. Chris is once again going to be a big key. With Jeremiah, or without Jeremiah. With Bardo's limited offensive skills at this point, he is the only legitimate threat to score in the post. This game, or the game at OU are MUST WIN if we want that 1st round bye.

As always, this is ONE basketball game in the course of a 30-game season. One team can play the best game of the season, or vice versa. You just never know.But..the fact is, we are hard to beat at home, regardless of whether we have our best player out, and two other starters hobbled. We'll see what happens. District Baller...just keep in mind...you are not North Carolina. You're a team from a "nothing" conference (in the grand scheme of things). playing in a tough environment. OD is no elite team, and they beat you guys. Just be thankful that the game time will mean that some of our crazy fans will still be asleep at gametime, or hung over from the night before.Good luck.

Well, we certainly will not have Wood back that soon. Remember, we have the depth to run with people, but KD chooses to play a little wiser than that. Teams that play that out of control have not had good luck against us. But, VCUs athleticism on the boards concerns me without J. Wood in there. We're just not a good rebounding team without him.

And if we can beat Miami and get that 4th seed...guess what?...It means that Miami is likely the #5 seed, which means that we'd play them in the quarterfinals at the Q. We'd be in a similar situation as last year in that we'd have to beat the same team 3 times in one year. But, it would be kinda sweet to beat Miami in Cleveland and erase some bad memories. The #3 seed is ideal. It would mean that we'd be set up to play Can't State in the finals. People have been wanting to see a MAC final between Can't and Akron for years.

Marty, I guess my point is that we are now pretty safely separated from BG (two game advantage, and the head-to-head tiebreaker), which was the only team left that could still conceivably get into the top 5 with Can't State, WMU, OU, Miami, and Akron. Sure, we would technically be in the #3 spot right now. But, we still have road games at BOTH Miami and OU. I was just making the point that our win today pretty much assured us of #5, at the very worst. My thought process now is that, if we can tack another loss on EITHER of those two teams at their place, we probably secure at least the #4 spot. And that's where we ultimately want to be.

WOW...gutsy win. And we didn't play well. This probably assures us of no lower than the 5th seed since we now have a 2-game lead, and the tie-breaker advantage over BG. Win that game at Miami, and we could still get in for the #4 spotOur inside-out game is GONE without Jeremiah. It's killing our field goal shoointg. But I understand he might be coming back sooner than anticipated. Good news.We can't rebound without J. Wood either. Thank God for our defense. Got some help from Cedrick. Good news.Chris McKnight coming along nicely.....he will ABSOLUTELY BE THE KEY GUY GOING DOWN THE STRETCH.Bardo?....seriously needs some passing and catching exercises. But, thanks for the two key free throws.

I'm sure starting B. McKnight has something to do with the fact that we have been getting off to slow starts offensively. I don't expect it to affect the normal rotations and playing time.Beating these guys by 36 last time should mean a win today. I hope. I wasn't impressed with them at all. But, if they have gotten better, and we lose this one, we could very well slip down to a 6-8 seed by season's end.

I've spent some time on Virginia Tech's campus over the years, both traveling to that area on business, and going to some football games. And believe me, it's hard to imagine a tragedy like this happening there either. It's such a peaceful place.These kinds of events certainly make a silly basketball game seem...well...silly.My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this tragedy at NIU.

This NIU loss is even bigger now.Both Miami and BG lost last night. We could have had a 2-game lead on both of them, which would have really put us in the driver's seat for the #4 spot in the tournament. Now, both of those teams are playing us at their place in the next couple of weeks, and we have only a 1-game cushion.This is going to get interesting now.

I'll take 8 points and 5 rebounds from Quade any game I can get it. That's a good night.

I've made several comments on another thread. But....if we want to save this season......We need to feed C. McKnight in the post. And Bardo. I don't care if they shoot, they MUST touch the ball. I can't fault Chris. He is doing his job, but Bardo needs to get involved too, or the offense doesn't flow.Besides that...it's nearly impossible to beat a team that is shooting like that. They even made contested shots. And buried half of their 3-pointers. Not much you can do. Quote me on this...there is NO WAY this team can win 3 games in Cleveland without J. Wood. Prior to the WMU game, our entire offense ran through him, and he changed the way teams defended us. Besides the inspired effort against Ball State, you can tell that this team is lost without him.

That's correct. Goddard is not on scholarship. And Jimmy just has not developed much since he has been here.Jeremiah's breakdown was inevitable. He was completely carrying the load in the paint, and was taking an absolute pounding. Same with Dials playing the point. I'm going to go back to something I've been saying for awhile now. Yes, I know I am frustrated right now.....But....I do believe it was a mistake redshirting Bardo and Swiech. Sure, maybe they are not "far enough along in their development". But, someone HAD to see that Jeremiah was going to be the only post player coming into this year with any kind of experience. Bardo would surely have been much better prepared for the role he has right now if he had played a little bit last year. And Swiech, if for nothing else than knocking a few people around, and grabbing a few key rebounds, could have really helped this team.We had the nucleus to be a great team this year, if we had only done a better job of bringing along the supporting cast.

zipsbandman....Quade actually played well tonight. But we need Conyers and Bardo, and it's becoming more apparent to me every game that we are just not going to get big contributions out of them fast enough to save this season. Heck, when Linhart went down at the end of last season, we made Jimmy a starter. I was expecting so much more out of him this year, and I'm really dissappointed.

Agent Zero...maybe you aren't aware that our best player is OUT, our 2nd best player is gutting it out playing on a hip flexor injury, and our 3rd best player has a bad knee, that he is trying to play on, that will require surgery at the end of the season, and he is hardly able to play at all. Before you come on here saying that this reminds you of how NIU played against you guys at home last year, please consider that we are absolutely descimated by injuries right now.

First of all, you can't beat anyone that shoots 65%, and 50% from 3-point range. They were making everything. Even some circus shots that were highly contested. That happens. But it takes a lot out of a team when no matter what you do, they still make shots. Yes, we're playing without 2-1/2 starters right now. But...our weaknesses are now exposed. It didn't start tonight. It was there in the WMU game, and we hid it for a game against Ball State.1) There is nobody that is now enough of a threat in the post to warrant attention. So, now our perimeter people are getting guarded more closely, and we end up shooting something like 25% from the 3-line. It's not a surprise that teams are going to defend us that way without our big man in there. 2) Our rebounding is suffering without Jeremiah. It's pretty obvious. 3) Without Jeremiah, C. Mc. and Bardo have to pick up about 10-15 points, and 10-15 rebounds. I've been saying it all along. Well, C. Mc. is doing his part, and Bardo is contributing just about nothing. Enough said.

This will be probably the only game we have left where we might get a chance to rest some people. Lets hope for a quick start tonight so we can get the big guns out of there.

And upon further thought....maybe the biggest disadvantage of this time slot is that the crowd might be smaller than it could have been. This could be a factor since this is our only real threat of having our home win streak snapped between now and the Can't State game on March 9th (Buffalo and NIU are the other two games).These next couple of weeks will be a real test for KDs coaching skills. Lets hope he can light a fire under some of these guys.

Bleacher Bum and GoZipsGo...that would truly make for a great story.The problem is...what else can Goddard really contribute besides a couple of 3-pointers, and then a return to the bench? I'm sure KD is well aware of how much of a liability he could be if left on the floor for extended minutes. But heck. I'll take those couple of 3-pointers, if he can come in and hit them.

I guess this is good news and bad news. I am glad to hear that we are going to make it onto The Deuce.It just ticks me off that we appear to be the "unimportant" game on the ESPN2 slate that day. If that were not the case, we'd at least have an afternoon game.

We're not smoking anything...just optimistic.I only object to what someone said about having most of the people still around that took us to a 26-7 records last year. Let's not forget that Dru and Romeo were not only great players, but were great leaders. Now we have Ced at 1/2 strength, Nick a little banged up, and Jeremiah out. Being entirely realistic, I think we all know that we now need some BIG contributions from some guys who have not really shown us that much yet. This won't get done with Dials and Linhart. We need C. McKnight to continue to give us somewhere around 10 pts. and 10 reb. per night. We need Bardo to at least be a huge defensive presence and grab some big rebounds. We need Quade and Jimmy to give us 100% every night. Multiple 3-pointers from Steve Mc and some solid ballhandling will be a necessity. And a few baskets a night from Roberts would be a huge plus. Oh...and we'll need Jeremiah. Even if he is not 100%.