skip-zip

I clearly remember Keith being livid during this game on the road last year. Especially a couple of unbelievable calls at the end. We lost, and it cost us some RPI points at a very critical time. I just hope that made us ready to take this game as seriously as all the rest, and we can get the job done. They are good enough to beat us. If we're flying out there (which I haven't heard), that tells me that we aren't messing around this time.

I agree with you Zippy5. Buffalo had 3 players foul out last night, and deservedly so. That means that our competitor was disregarding the rules, which would have provided a disadvantage to us if they were not enforced. If that means that our game has to last 10 minutes longer, I'm all for it.

Did I just hear that something like 7 top ranked teams lost yesterday? If so, that should help Creighton get back into the Top 10. I think that really helps our cause that 2 of our losses are to Top 10 teams. I noticed that there's no movement in our RPI. It seems like every game we win our SOS drops again. Add a Victory....Lose SOS. We're definitely feeling the effects of the down year for our conference. We have to keep winning. No letdowns. One at a time.

I agree with you. But those timeout contests are part of what pays the bills from sponsorship and are already planned out. Maybe they should just do those in the 1st half, and save the entire 2nd half for the loud, thumping clapping music and our great MC firing up the crowd?

I said it a little bit ago. It's pretty incredible. And a testament to his work ethic. If I could wish for something, I'd like to see him as a 6'-10" guy with old Guard skills be able to beat people off the dribble to the basket. He might not have the quickness as a big, like some of Buffalo's big people, but I'd like to see him attempt it more. He might be able to get past some of the "less nimble" post defenders in our league. But by far, his shooting accuracy and rebounding alone have been the two elements that have turned him from a guy who was good enough to start, to a guy who's a major contributor.

I'll share some observations from last night: 1) The crowd was announced as the largest of the year. And it looked like the largest of the year too. But I still hate all of the empty Blue seats. I think some "outsiders" are finally jumping on the bandwagon with this team. The "Blue Hairs" just haven't gotten the memo yet. 2) Speaking of the large crowd, it shouldn't take 3 straight Kwan 3-pointers in the middle of the 2nd half to get people on their feet making some noise. That crowd could have really rocked that place and influenced the game much earlier. Maybe taking pictures of LeBron and sending them out on Facebook should have been banned until halftime. 3) Speaking of Kwan, when the F**K did that guy finally develop a jumper? I mean, I know the guy is a gym rat. People who are around there talk about it all the time. But he's always been that way. I know we all love to talk about how Conyers and Deji emerged during their last years, but nothing like this. His game made an unbelievable leap during the off season. 4) I know it's hard to "teach" defensive effort. But I am convinced after last night that the biggest reason we don't get stops is because we aren't as committed to guarding people as some teams in the past. It happened so many times last night, especially with Hamilton, that people just didn't make the effort to get on people. It's almost like watching an NBA game now. And although all of the scoring might appear exciting, I'm feeling a little bit frustrated that I don't see the effort on that end of the floor that had become the trademark of so many of Keith's teams in the past. 5) They can talk all they want about Buffalo being talented but in consistent. And that they have only performed well in spurts. But I'm going to be very concerned when the road game at Buffalo comes up. The way their guys....all of them...can dribble and get to the basket is downright scary. And if they also shoot well from the outside on the same night, the are hard to beat. I'll pray that they don't do that again against us. We could have very easily lost that game last night.

I've mentioned this many times. If that's the way they want to play us, it actually opens up the entire floor. I'd love to see it !! But if I were Buffalo, I wouldn't advise it. They have the personnel to play him straight up. If they choose to double at times, they probably do it only when he puts the ball on the floor.

I think this is a long part of our history that we are talking about so many "Centers" (at least post players) who were undersized for the position they were playing. Or at least undersized for many of the guys that were guarding them. Tree, Wood, Holmes, Romeo. They were all "blue collar" guys. They all succeeded by outworking people. Come to think of it, we may be bigger than ever in the post right now, combined, with Kwan and Big Dog starting together. I don't know of I can think of a time when we had 6-11 and 6-10 starters. Maybe that also adds to the mystery of why we aren't rebounding better than we are, and getting more stops. I think some of our current guys can still learn some things from some of the guys in the past who played that way.

Cullifer? Patterson?

No question. That eliminated a threat that otherwise would have probably produced a couple of wild games. I've touched on this a couple of times. This isn't a "scrappy" team like we've had in the past. I know I watched Antino one game recently get fired up and show some leadership after a few hustle plays, and started hugging and high-fiving his teammates. We need a lot more of that. But you might be misunderstanding the high screens. They are intended to free up the guy with the ball to shoot. The only way a defender is going to get beat to the basket is if he gambles and tries to go over, instead of under the screen. That's simply a costly mental error if you're facing a quick ball handler, and would probably prompt Keith to jump on someone.

I only wonder why Mr. Blue and Gold would not let us Geriatric, Wheelchair-bound people in our 50's or older go back beyond J. Wood? Romeo (a post player on a team that had no "Center") is the only "big man" in Zips D-1 history that holds a Conference MVP award.

This is really hard for me to get involved in when you specify the word CENTER. Some of the guys who really played Center were guys like Pat and M. Bardo. But on teams where we never really had a Center, like the years that J. Wood and Romeo excelled, we often didn't have a Center. But those two guys as post players had much of the responsibilities that a Center would have.

The Big Dog only played 27 minutes on Tuesday, and enters this game with a 4-day gap between games. That could be just the "break" he needed to give us a monster performance on Saturday.

Just think, it took us until March 2nd before we lost our first conference game. And there's another amazing similarity to 2013 with that season opening with a road loss to Coastal Carolina riding our backs the entire season. The Buffalo road jinx was definitely starting to take hold that year, and the Kent loss the night after "Package-Gate" was a crazy situation. But, my point about this season being different is because everyone else in the conference might be a much "lesser" team. That's at least what the first 7 games might be telling us. The 2013 season certainly didn't have Akron against a bunch of .500 teams. Maybe a few will improve soon and change the landscape.

It's all good . The personal crap on here is stupid and immature. But, disagreeing on things is fine. In the end, we all know that we all want the same thing...success for the Zips. I'll readily admit that losing a few conference games is still the "probable" outcome. And I've stated why. These are college kids. They won't always perform like you want them to perform, regardless of their talent and the strength of this team. However, we've never had a situation like this before. We're nearly through half of the conference season without a loss. And even more importantly, we now know that there's probably not a formidable challenger out there. We're not talking about going on the road to play teams that are fighting against us for the top spot. We'll be going on the road to battle teams that might be barely at the .500 mark. And that's the best teams we will face. With all of the concerns aside about our SOS (which I agree with), this situation, this year, is a unique opportunity to do the only other thing we can do right now to raise our profile....post such a huge number of wins that people will not be able to ignore.

If enough of them show up, it should look something like this.

I would take that in a heartbeat. I think any of us would. I like how a couple of people's responses to the thought of getting near that 30-win mark is to post stats that show that odds are heavily against it. Of course they are.

Come on Kreed. How can you say that when we are 17-3 and have already climbed to 40 in the RPI in late January? And will likely be favored in every game the rest of the way? Yes, the tournament has been biased towards us. And Yes, we could be playing more/better OOC games, and winning them. That's a MUST for the growth of this program. I say it repeatedly. But we're in a really good position right now. Probably better than ever. And nobody is counting any more losses quite yet.

Agree. I think we can possibly hit 4k for this one. If this game were a month from now, and it mattered in the conference race, then we could possibly approach a sellout.

Hamilton's last second shot last year gives me just as many nightmares as Penno's shot 10 years ago. I'm looking forward to this one. I haven't been told anything about ticket sales. But with the weak crowd for an OU game, I'm thinking that it might still just be a bit too early in conference play to see a sellout. The idea that the race is a runaway right now, instead of a match-up between two giants of the conference may not help either. I'll hope for the best. If this win streak gets to about 15, I think a significant number of outsiders might get on the bandwagon.

As far as college goes, it's Big Business for some schools. For the rest (like us) it's survival. The need for outside money has been increasing dramatically for years. That's why we already have "naming rights" contracts on so many things, and why we have several people dedicated just to pursuing yearly corporate sponsors. You're right. It's a surprise it has taken this long. And the ways to generate revenue will have to continue to get more and more creative.

And good for them. They took the risk and were rewarded. That's America. But regardless of the "worth" of those teams, you're ignoring the fact that many of them operate at a LOSS. You don't own a sports team, for the most part, because you thought it would be a tremendous money-making venture.

Yes, the people who took the risk and shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars, up front, to make all of this possible. Many of which LOSE money, and only did it for the joy and challenge of owning a sports team.

When players collectively are demanding over 100 Million in yearly salaries on some teams in the NBA, something has to happen for the owners to be able to stay afloat. That's why I have very little interest in NBA basketball anymore.