GP1

"I'll have another slice of Ianello."

When you look at the tournament in this light, it potentially makes for an exciting weekend in Cleveland. For the first time in a while, there are a lot of teams that could win the league with five and maybe six if things go right for EMU. Could this be the year that two "dark horses" make the finals?

I have a different take on this. Is Akron such an exciting place to live now that attending a Zips basketball game falls far down the list of things to do? My guess is it isn't. I'm more upset with the lack of community of support for the BB team. They may not be as good as in the past, but they are still pretty good and entertaining. There is a lot of value in the purchase of a ticket. Seriously, I just don't understand it.

Isn't it because they aren't allowed to talk about it?

This is a very serious illness. He needs to follow his doctors orders to the letter.

Link This ten second rule is a bad idea taken from the minds of coaches who can't keep up with the modern game. The reason the offenses move so quickly is because they know the personnel the defense has on the field and are taking advantage of it. Allowing substitutions in this manner is going to naturally slow down the play calling within the games and thus slow down the number of plays called in a games making them less exciting. We get enough slowing of the game with replays. Are they going to make teams huddle for ten seconds next? No evidence more injuries are caused. Better idea, keep the rules the way they are and force coaches to use smaller players who are in better condition to cope with the fast paced game. Players are at far more risk, long term, when they bulk up to 350 pounds and go through life obese, develop health related problems early in life as a result of the weight and die young. Why does the modern game have to change because Nick Saban can't.

33% shooting. Not going to beat anyone like that. Was WMU's defense that good, or were we that bad?

First of all, I have no idea how serious this is, but I always get a kick out of fan reaction to players getting suspended. It's always so over the top. 25 years ago, a guy had to do something pretty serious to get suspended. 25 years and 3,000 NCAA rules later, it could be something really serious, or something really silly. Normally, the less serious it is, the more people keep their mouths shut about what happened.

I think if the leagues get together and put on a quality event with good teams/games, ESPN will cover it. If they don't want to, there are now plenty of sports networks on TV that would be happy to televise the event and ESPN can continue to excite America with games like Wake Forest vs. NC State.

"we"? One guy thought he was a good idea and that guy still has a job at UofA....amazing if you ask me. The decision had far worse results than just hiring a horrible coach.

I hope this doesn't happen. ESPN looks out for the interests of ESPN. An agreement between the MAC and other MAClike conferences has the potential to produce better results if they would just stop letting ESPN lead them around by the noses. National TV should not be the consideration at this point because so many games are on national TV. Producing the best games possible should be the primary goal.

When did universities start to worry about losing money with college athletics?

I have a close friend who is a professor at USC (the one in Los Angeles). One of the reasons his department really likes him is so many kids take his 300 and 400 level classes (junior/senior level classes). Because of that, his department gets much more money from tuition than they would teaching entry level classes where money is split less in their favor between departments. My guess is something like that goes on at UofA. 10 students in a major just isn't sustainable for a department.

It was a nice event in the middle of conference season to add a little spice to the year. I'd like the mid major conferences come together and develop a format for a game like this in the future.Don't let ESPN have control over it. Schedule some good games and let ESPN decide if they want quality on TV.

Instead of "Holy Crap...", this topic should have been titled "Take It Any Way You Can Get It". Opportunity is knocking so let's hope he takes advantage in the remaining months of the season.

Printing press for money?...They don't need one because they already have a "building process". Where will the money come from?...The taxpayers of Ohio and on the backs of the students in the form of student fees they have to take loans out of the bank to pay. Pile on a lifetime of debt on others so everyone can go watch a game in a half full arena today.

Denver was looking bad and Seattle was looking good long before the Seattle defense started to play any meaningful minutes. This isn't to say that Seattle's defense wasn't good yesterday, they were very good. The performance of Denver made them look great. As bad as Denver played yesterday, I think a lot of NFC teams could have beaten them. One thing I hope football fans take away from the game as it relates to defense is the visionary concepts of Pete Carroll. 10 years ago, Carroll was considered to be a flake. The fact is, he was ahead of his time by playing old fashioned football with a unique twist. He was doing the same things with defensive concepts and player utilization at USC as he is with Seattle. USC always had unusually large guys playing in their secondary. Yesterday will change how teams draft and how they deploy their players for the next 5-10 years, which tends to be a trend cycle in the NFL. Seattle likes to keep everything in front of them, eliminates big plays and pressures at the line with a small number of really good d linemen. I love this style of defense because I think it is smart. Denver blitzed a lot yesterday and Seattle took advantage of it on third downs. Seattle didn't blitz much because they don't have to/want to and by not blitzing, they didn't give up big plays (when I say blitz, I mean rush more than four guys). Seattle didn't sack Manning once, but they applied pressure to a guy who doesn't respond to pressure well, has limited mobility and doesn't have the down field arm he used to have. Not to mention, Denver was one dimensional after the score became 15-0. Manning set a SB passing record of some kind (completion percentage or something, the screens help with that number a lot) and his receiver destroyed a record for receptions, but he never connected for a big play because Seattle has too many defenders who don't give up extra yards. I really could have cared less who won yesterday, but I think I'm glad Seattle won. Makes me feel good on some level and I don't know why. I don't think I would have any emotion of Denver won. The one thing I do like is smart. I think everything about Seattle's organization is smart and forward looking. EDIT: Linking to this article could have saved me some time.

This game was over at the end of the first quarter when Seattle kept the ball almost the entire quarter and tired out the Denver Defense, but most importantly, kept their defense rested. The less a teams defense plays, the better off that team is in the long run. Seattle converted on almost 60% of third downs. That is an obscene number. I saw a story once that said NFL teams spend 75% of their practice time on red zone offense and third downs. Trent Dilfer made this point really well after the game. Fans over analyze games too much. Games have stopped being about overall stats and about what teams do at critical times of games. The amount of practice time teams spend on certain aspects of the game is enough to tell fans what is important. Seattle executed at the critical moments of the game. On defense, Seattle didn't get caught up in blitzing because they didn't have to. They have four guys who can get pressure without blitzing and that is a DC's wet dream. Pressure is better than a sack because it creates turnovers and turnovers lead to scores, which Denver did twice yesterday. Special teams were great as well. Not only a kick return for a TD, but they kept Denver's KO returner inside of the 20 on the first KO of the game and later in the first half. Denver on the other hand was terrible, with the exception of Demaryius Thomas who should have been the game MVP. If the MVP is the award for best performance, he had it. Broke a Super Bowl record for receptions against a good defense and had over 100 yards. Too bad they don't give the MVP to a player on the losing team anymore. Denver was not prepared and threw in the towel too early on their running game. Any team that becomes one dimensional is easy to stop and half the defenses in the NFL would have looked like Seattle's yesterday after Denver threw in the Towel. Manning's first INT was not forced, but rookie throw on his part. The game was over after that point because it forced Denver completely out of their game plan. I was so bored by halftime, I started switching back and forth between the game and Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown on CNN.

Test

Did it have an impact on the remainder of the game?

Storming the court has become a cliche and nobody should worry about it. Everyone does it and it is now encouraged at a lot of schools.

After many, many, many years of watching sports, I've seen a lot of horrible teams come out early against great teams and put up a fight for a few minutes until the wheels fall off. Sort of like the boxer who comes out swinging wildly early in a fight hoping to get an early knock out against a better fighter only to fail at it and get knocked out mid way through the fight. You seem to be stuck on this whole subbing thing. Sort of an intellectual hurdle you are having trouble getting over. It's really about 2-3 key players and what coaches do around them. Subs are important as they relate to their interaction with the key players. When subs play and their impact on barriers the team needs to overcome is more important than the amount of time they play. But, since you are our residential numbers guy with a lacking aptitude for putting numbers into perspective or action, I'll put it into some really understandable. The Zips season will boil down into two sections: Tinkering and Thinking Bigger. The tinkering part of the season involved KD mindlessly tinkering with his line up and it resulted in the Zips going 11-8 beating their usual bunch of nobodies while getting losing to the likes of MTSU, SC (twice and getting smashed once), getting smashed by Iowa State and getting smashed by Toledo. We won 58% of our games during that period. Post tinker, or Thinking Bigger, has given us three wins in four games (75%). We smashed a team we should smash in Ball State, won at CMU on the road and beat a very good EMU on the road. Losing a rivalry game last night was disappointing, but a couple of plays here or there and they win. I'm sure a lot of the apologists will call it "settling on a rotation". They can call it whatever they want to make themselves feel better. I called it a coach who was sick and tired of getting is butt kicked and decided to go all in. I'm all in with KD going all in after taking my advice.

I'm with KD on this one. Since the EMU game, KD has taken my advice (still brings tears to my eyes to know the influence I can have on the team from long distance) and gone down a road that can lead to more than just winning the MAC.While it is fun to win the MAC, we would like to see more and he wants more. One loss on the road to a rival is not cause for panic.Heck, there were lots of "upsets" at the top of the standings yesterday in the MAC. League play is difficult. Keep thinking and coaching bigger KD.

Couldn't it just be that Ball State is a terrible team and was going to disintegrate even if we had Moe, Larry and Curly on the court along with two other guys? Big picture Dave, big picture.Sometime a good team beats a horrible team because the horrible team is horrible.

Great game even though I had to suffer through the awful lighting in OUs arena. The one thing I really like is watching a guy with a good outside shot. It's been a long time since I've seen a guy the size of Brown get as much elevation on his jump shots.He's really fun to watch.