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Everything will be fine. Sometimes it's like taking a big crap. It builds up and builds up then once it's over you feel a lot better. Let's hope Tree is sitting on the can right now.

I agree with A. Iverson on this one. Let him miss a couple of practices and clear his head if that's what he needs to do. Who knows?.... We are only talking about practice.

Isn't it nice to see the MAC East standings posted on TV and not have the easy task of looking straight to the bottom to see the Zips logo? I was so sick of that....

Agreed, but when they start to go south for a MAC school, they really go south. It's hard to reverse the downward course once one starts down that road.

Article George Thomas published this article as late as around 7 PM last evening. A lot can happen in 14 hours, but he would have found out there was at least a problem while reporting. There is still no article about this. I have serious, serious, serious doubts.

Haven't found a media outlet with this story.

Confidence and momentum. They were riding pretty high when they played us as they were on a three game winning streak. They were on a two game losing streak going into last light. Not only had they lost two in a row, they lost them in a bad way. OU Schedule with results YTD When a MAC team goes south, they can land pretty hard.

I like this play.

Then why aren't they? My guess is even Raquel Welch gets old. Show this photo to 90% of the posters on this board, they say, "Look at that piece of ass". Show the same photo to an 18 year old, they say, "Who's that lady in the clown mask?". Makes me think is one of my favorite Sopranos scenes. Paulie nails it right at the 2 minute mark Video. One of the great myths of college athletics is you have to pander to the memories of old people. The reality is, you have to get young people to want to come to your school and young people are impressed by the present, not the past. They are impressed by winning. The more they win today, the less the old people care about the past.

Excellent point. A 12th grader doesn't care about something that happened six years ago when they were in 6th grade. The recruiting competition is for that person. Some of the seniors they have on their team, that is now going 3-7, may have been impressed, but what are they doing now. It's as bad as the guys I see at Wake games wearing their Orange Bowl shirt from eight years ago, or how ever long ago it was. Nobody cares anymore. We don't live in that kind of society. The Zips basketball team was built on winning and bringing kids to UofA who want to win foremost. It certainly isn't the great weather, arena or any of the nonsense we are supposed to believe is important. Winning is important and cures a lot of problems. It's the strongest of foundations.

Or, you recruited the wrong horse. Zeke may not have been a natural, but there was ability there that never seemed to get developed to the fullest. Visit My Website It's was almost impossible for him not to play in the NBA. The LBJ one is interesting. I credit the maker with his basketball ability. He has something about him that can't be taught. A true natural. LBJ is also a master with the media, with the exception of "The Decision". He always says all the right things and presents in a positive manner. I'm not saying he doesn't stay in touch with KD and they might talk basketball, but the amount of development would surely be in question.

I've never seen anyone make a grass field by an airport runway sound so sexy...

Worrying about national perception is one of those things that I find difficult to do being a Zips fan. In fact, I could care less. I understand that an ncaa win and bcs wins bring some positive perception to the program. How much and for how long? I guess that depends on how many there are, how far apart they are spread and other factors going on around them. I mostly worry about sustained success. All of the other bling will happen if we have sustained success. We beat MSU two years ago. Are we in a better position today than two years ago?...We'll find out the results to that question at the end of the year. For me, it's always the App State question. Is App State better because they beat Michigan in 2007. I've posted this before. The answer is a resounding NO. They have become progressively less successful since that day. They are now sitting at 3-8 for the season. Bling wins are pretty, but if the foundation isn't under them, they are worthless. If a BCS win was the foundation for the future of App State football, that foundation was sand. Our foundation is strong: good preparation, good recruiting, good game day execution, good game planning, good effort. What is my biggest worry about Zips MBB? I've been posting for years. The lack of player development. It has always been an area KD has struggled with and I don't think that is unfair criticism at this point. Good players don't take big leaps in ability under him. Specifically, a player almost never takes a big leap between his freshman and sophomore years. We are seeing that now with our point guard situation. Big time players and big time coaches make the leap between year one and two a large leap. I understand the AA argument, but even if he was on the team, we would have still needed better production out of the #2 PG.

Article I don't think we have had a discussion on this so here it goes. The NCAA is going to be more strict on hand checking this year. I agree with a lot of articles that fouls early season will be up until teams adjust. How does this impact Akron? At first blush, I think Akron will be the kind of team it impacts the most on the defensive end. The Zips have played very aggressive, tough and physical defense inside and outside under KD. There will be some adjustment here. If you are seeing the adjustment, how are they adjusting? If they aren't, what do they need to do differently?

When I saw your comment, I thought it couldn't possibly be true so I did some research. Went back ten years and in that period, you may be right on the money. We have a large list of ooc teams we have lost to in that period and I wouldn't advise anyone to go down the road I just took...too depressing. Miss State lost in the first round of the NIT that post season.

It used to be the Marshall win one for the MAC bandwagon. The league treated them incredibly favorably years ago to get in the MAC and it created a situation where they dominated the league. To pretend leagues don't show selective favoritism to various teams on a year by year basis is foolish. It's good business to do this for the league. Horrible for the likes of UofA. It isn't just the commissioner though. A school has to have an AD willing to fight battles to keep his/her school from being exploited in favor of the NIUs of the world. Ours doesn't seem to be effective at fighting that battle. As it relates to the football program, the only thing he has shown himself to be good at is running it into the ground. The best job this guy should have in athletics is loading t-shirts into the air gun on the back of an ATV at minor league baseball games.

You're forgetting the most important part. If the team does all of these things, better things will follow.

That's the rub for me. I don't think we have done nothing in the post season. To me, the MAC Championship is a pretty good accomplishment. There is another side to this. What about the team that gets in the ncaa tournament on a fluke and wins a game or two? Does that make that program great or does it make it a program that went on a nice run. I would love to have VCUs Final Four run, but that doesn't make them a great program. They weren't even a great team that season. Here is an article on their run. A lot of things went their way. Again, I'd love to win an NCAA game or two. However, I also like to look at their body of work throughout the season. We are less than a handful of games into this season and there is no reason for fans to be talking in cliches about the "program taking a step backward", etc. Now isn't the time for overreaction. I prefer to take the season as it comes and make a decision about the condition of the program after completion of the season.

Interesting use of the word "growth" as it relates to fan expectation towards the program. The Zips lost to CCU last year and it didn't signify a downward trend in the program. In fact, they had a great year last year. I prefer the word condition. What is the condition of the program? For example, the condition of our football program has gone from terrible to bad by breaking the four win barrier. The condition of our basketball program is still very good. We are attractive to recruits. We have a good coach. We get good press as it relates to games. We have a good and growing fan base. UofA is an attractive campus for athlete-students. Etc.... There is a lot to work with so the team needs to take the available tools and make improvement upon it. The foundation of the program is very strong. It wouldn't take much to change the condition of the MBB team from very good to excellent. A win in the NCAA tournament would do that. So would going undefeated in the MAC. I don't understand the fascination everyone has with an NCAA tournament win being the sole source of success or failure of any basketball programs. There are a lot of ways to establish greatness.

Then this needs to change. ADs are at the center of the sleaziness of college athletics. Cross divisional games should be schedules in one of three ways. First, an established rotation without any concern for tradition. Second, a lottery.This would be extremely hard to match up schedules and I don't see how it would work. Third and my favorite. Do it the old NFL way. If you come in first place one year, you have to play the top team from the other division the next year. If there are two cross divisional games, the first place teams have to play the #1 and #2 finishers. If you come in last place, you play the last place team from the other division. If there are an odd number of teams in the league, figure it out, but don't give the top finishing teams cupcakes the following year. This method attempts to creates necessary parity that college athletics has never tried to achieve. I don't care how they do it, they need to get the politics out of the scheduling process.

"The most dangerous team is a team with confidence and momentum." - Bill Cowher I think we have some momentum. The Zips are 3-1 in their last four games so there is some momentum there. Confidence? This is the wild card for the Zips right now in the Cowher Theory. Do they feel good about themselves after their wins or do they look at their wins as something the squeaked by with against bad teams. Can they draw any confidence from the loses to Michigan and NIU...tall order. The words of Master Yoda come to mind going into this game. "Do, or do not. There is no try." If they go into the game with a good plan and play well and lose, so be it. If they don't have that confidence, Master Yoda would say to them as he said to young Skywaker after Luke tells him he couldn't believe he got his spaceship out of the swamp, "and that is why you fail". I see this game as a Zips victory, or one in which they get blown out. Not much middle ground for me.

Huge, huge, huge win for the Zips yesterday. The margin didn't matter. This is all about recruiting as we badly need to increase our overall talent. Four wins says we are no longer a horrible MAC program kids should shy away from. We may still be bad, but we are moving in the right direction with four wins and that is something more meaningful to sell to kids. Nobody wants to play for a terrible program and a kid can now be sold the idea that we won four this year and six or seven wins next year shouldn't be unrealistic. "Mr. Recruit, how would you like to play in a bowl game next year?"...sounds pretty good to me.

@Dave. No, I was in a hurry so I skimmed. Anyhow, conference structures to rotate cross divisional games is great. My question is, if the conferences were doing such a great, ethical and non-favoritism job of scheduling, why all of the sudden are they discussion structured rotation? Wasn't the old way of ADs working through these problems working great for everyone?

I would like to ask permission from the moderators to be the first in the 2013-2014 MBB season to make a comment about the Zips not getting an at large bid to the NCAAs this year.

The sec doesn't have a true rotation as some traditional rival games are still being held. Also, my post above about South Carolina still holds true. This sec schedule doesn't take place until 2014. OH, speaking of South Carolina football, I have a tailgate to get to in Columbia (The Screen Door To Hell). See everyone tomorrow.