skip-zip

It's Radford I've actually been there. It's right down the road from Virginia Tech. I stayed at a hotel right by their campus several times about 20-25 years ago, traveling down that way on business. They got a couple of inches of snow one night, and cars couldn't move. I had to walk a mile back to the hotel. Here, we get 6" of snow and everyone is flying up and down the streets. A different world down there.

So would I, if we WIN. Of the two of them, Gonzaga would have the greater impact, I agree.

It's a "no brainer". And I could add to your list. But for some people, it's always back to the "don't schedule them, because we can't win them" attitude. I'll go with Busch Light 16 oz., in the can. But you're right. We haven't given him anything to change that.

It doesn't matter what OU's schedule looks like, or where Georgia Tech is "projected" to finish. The only thing that matters to me is that they scheduled a very prominent school, from the biggest b-ball conference in the country, on the road, in OOC play, and WON. Why? Because if this was our win, it would catch Joe Akron's attention more than all of the wins against Coppin State, North Carolina A&T, and Arkansas Pine Bluff over the last 10 years.....combined!! Joe Akron couldn't care less what OU or Akron's OOC schedule looks like. Nor does he know anything about what you, or the prognosticators have said about Georgia Tech. The only thing that matters to him is that Akron knocked off a big basketball program.

Take the risk, and you might just reap the rewards. There's nothing to lose.

No, please don't post that. There's too many people here who think that it's senseless for us to make long road trips to play high profile basketball schools. We'll just lose by 30. Or someone will get injured. Or, we're better off spending our entire 30 game schedule just getting ready to the play the tournament in Cleveland. Or, just replace the wooden bleachers in the JAR and just try to get those schools to come here. Why would we want to go to Atlanta just get a paycheck and get our a$$es kicked?

This might be the best manipulated picture I've ever seen. At least right up there with the old picture that looked like Lloyd Carr, and not an Ohio Hwy. Patrolman, was spraying teargas at the idiots in Cowlumbus.

I chuckled a bit when I saw that too. Although, I think that's a pretty incredible record of consistency. I'd compare that to a Shortstop who fielded 122 straight ground balls without bobbling one of them. Pretty amazing.

I said earlier that I would probably camp out for a week on our campus to get a front row seat to be a part of something like that happening on Akron's campus. That would almost be the pinnacle for me, with everything I've invested in being a supporter and fan of the Zips for several decades. And I probably wouldn't have slept at all last night. I'd be too excited, knowing that the entire country was going to see us. It's definitely a day of jealousy for me too.

Since the "pollsters" are usually so biased against "non-power" teams, I would expect WMU can probably be even more competitive than their ranking indicates. They've beaten two Big 10 teams, and ran through the MAC. They deserve the opportunity. It all depends on the matchup. But no matter who it is, it's still just one football game. Anything can happen, and they are a very good team. What should scare some people is that they've appeared to be sleepwalking through some recent wins. I hope they'd be ready to step on the gas when the competition warrants.

I'm trying to decipher if you are lobbying that we're better off with Ivey at the 3, or Williams at the 3 ? I don't think that either is the ultimate solution. I think it's the best option they see right now. Both of them should clearly be at their best advantage against defenders at the 2 spot. Here's the deal. Right now, this team already has guys who can "hit shots", and you have Big Dog. Like I said earlier, it's reminiscent of the team in J. Wood's senior year. So, you can operate on the hope that you're going to be a great 3-point shooting team, and hopefully that brings the doubles off of Big Dog (I'll tell you that he will get doubled a lot this year, regardless)......Or......You produce more guys who can score around the basket, which helps Big Dog in multiple ways, including decreasing his workload. I think that will be the key to this season.

I think we desperately need a bigger small forward to emerge, especially with the way Kwan plays on the offensive end. Taking some of the burden off of Big Dog in the paint is going to be the biggest challenge that this team will probably face on the offensive end this year. But you're right that plenty of teams in the MAC are smaller in the backcourt, and many of them play with 3 guards.

I was only rooting for Louisville because I like seeing those teams that break out in any given year and challenge the "traditional powers" for top billing. It's always fun to watch. I'm definitely rooting for WMU to make it to a major bowl game.

So, he's your guy in that 3 spot? If that were to happen, then a rotation of Antino, Josh, and Noah will be filling the 2 spots in the backcourt. That still leaves us pretty small. It doesn't look like we're headed in that direction right now, but what happens if a "real" SF doesn't emerge from this other group? It might be our best option.

I see what you're saying, but I think this is the dilemma that the coaches face right now..... Where's that 3rd guy going to come from? That guy in the 3 spot? Like I said, right now, I'm pretty convinced that they are thinking that we're better off filling that role with another Guard, rather than from someone like Daniel, Emmanuel, or Aaron.

Even if Ivey replaces one of the guys in that trio of small guards who start, it's still a 3-guard offense. He might play like someone much bigger, but he's still a Guard. But the real question is....do you see Keith replacing one of those 3 guys? I love Ivey's game, but he may not yet have the stable play that we'd want in a starter. As long as he can come in at any time, and we can play him more or less minutes based on how he's doing that night, I'm fine with that. The way I see it after 2 games, the only thing that's going to make us venture away from a 3 Guard offense this year is if someone like Aaron, Emmanuel, or Daniel get to the point where they can give us 20 minutes per night. If not, our best option for depth of productive players remains in the backcourt.

I think you hit just about everything there, Kreed. He's actually a really good defensive player, and I see a lot of effort in that area from him. But honestly, rather than classifying him as a "streak shooter", I would probably argue that Kwan is much more "off" than "on". If his jumper, especially from longer range, gets better this year, then I will concede that he made a liar out of me. It just appears that the coaches have more confidence in him than most of us do when it comes to his shot selection. I don't understand why, but hopefully we'll find out that they were right.

LeBron? Welcome to Zips Nation

I don't think anyone will disagree with this point. The big question is whether the burden of everything he'll need to do for this team is too great. I love your post above about Kwan's defense. That's why I brought it up in my post. Whenever someone feels a need to be critical of the way he might venture from his position role on the offensive end, we really need to remember how valuable he will probably be to us helping to defend in the paint this year. I'd also have to bet that he's probably not taking a lot of shots that the coaching staff doesn't want him to take. I'm sure they are confident that he can make them, or he'd be getting yanked from the game.

Ya think that giving up 90 points made him a little angry? He'll get guys to play defense. He always does. And I would disagree with you on one point. I'll take 60 point games, as long as they are all victories.

I think we all saw this coming. The big man is going to have to carry a heavy load this year. Although, don't discount the fact that Kwan can still be an asset under the basket on the other end of the floor. I'm not sure that there's too many ways around it. Hughes could possibly develop fast and become a presence. But, it sure looks like our strategy this year will be exactly what you are seeing now....with a heavy reliance on a lot of experienced perimeter players, and Big Dog down low. It remind me a bit of J. Wood's senior year.

I think you've missed some of the analysis here. Beat Buffalo, and we would have been able to tie OU on 11/22 (and win the East on the tiebreaker) Unfortunately, we would have needed to beat Buffalo, OU and one other game to tie Miami.

Yes, either one of those wins would have made our head-to-head matchup with OU the decider as to whether we finish ahead of them. But here's the strange part. Since Miami could still get to 6 wins, and we are still at 3, we would have had to beat Buffalo, BG AND OU to stay even with them for the Detroit bid, and would have only gotten the bid on a tiebreaker. Winning 5 straight MAC games after their dismal start is pretty remarkable. Heck, if any team in our league wins 5 straight that's quite an accomplishment. And YES, we'll surely have a lot of Zips fans in Oxford next week.

Great post. I'm thinking that everyone should be more hopeful this morning that we have a chance to win in Athens next week. I actually started posting about this in the OU game thread already.

I said it a couple of weeks ago, and I still can't believe it. They've won 5 straight since their loss to us. . Now, just a little over a month since we beat Miami in Akron, we have their MAC East title in our hands next week, along with our own bowl eligibility. A Note on Bowl Eligibility: 7 MAC teams got bowl bids last year. Only 7 MAC teams still have a chance to get eligible this year, including Akron.