GP1

ZipsWin! asked this question on another thread, where is Big Zip? Either he is on vacation, or he has nearly bitten entirely through his tongue by now.

With all due respect Dr Z, I don't think Arnold Horshack would make much of a basketball player. Boom Boom Washington...maybe, but not Horshack.

Talent... They have talent, but not as much as the Zips. Coaching.... Ours had trouble managing the game late in our last two games. Theirs is in control late. Both are good coaches though. Luck... Too late in the year for luck, but it does take some. You didn't mention the "c" word....Composure. Looking at the stats, Cooper had a good game, but shot below 50%. What he does is make plays when they need to be made late in a game. He has a short memory and isn't rattled by setbacks. His coach has confidence in him and he has confidence in himself. Right now, is there any other player in the MAC you would want with the ball in his hands late than Cooper? Lots of teams can be good against the MAC West in February. Hell, everyone is good against the MAC West. It's those teams that win in March that get to call themselves winners.

A violation of ncaa rules by Bruce Pearl. Shocking.... This should be a huge news story as one of the schools in question, #3 seed Baylor, is in the Sweet 16. I wonder if the media will make an issue of it.

There is an old saying, "Everything that could have happened, did." OU is the best program in the MAC right now. With the talent we have, I should be saying that about us. They win games when it matters and the outscored us in three games this season 212-192. The beat us playing their game...they beat us playing our game. They have won games in the NCAA Tournament two of the past three years. We can't seem to win a post season game past the MACT. They are doing what good programs do. We are still in the "building process".

Nobody made the comparison. Smart may be bringing in better athletes than KD.

Smart learned a lot at Clemson and Florida where he gained experience working with teams with a ton of athletic talent. He knows how to take that athletic talent and do something with it. That is what a young coach really learns at big time programs. We don't have anyone on our staff with that kind of experience. Here is how you get players in game shape beyond just weight training. Instead of playing every player under the sun during the OOC schedule, get 7-8 guys in game shape by playing them more minutes. We don't need a nine man rotation. We need 7 good guys and two to take up minutes. Figure that out and the players conditioning won't be a problem.

8th grade is early enough to pick up a basketball and have skills at the college level.

They used the same Soviet Era courts last year. I would bet there is more of a connection between the lack of creativity with the ncaa/tournament/courts and the horrible tv ratings they are getting. I have an idea. It doesn't have to be either/or. Go back to playing on campus on the schools floors AND keep dangerous logos off the floor. I know this is a bit much for the leaders of the ncaa to grasp, but I firmly believe it can be done. In closing (until tomorrow at least because I'm going to go tie one on at an Irish pub near me), I would just like to say.....Mr. Emmert, tear down this wall of stupidity you and your overpaid/over bloated bureaucracy has built.

I do. My opinion hasn't changed. Somewhere I saw the statistics about who Bill Cowher beat when a writer was comparing him to Chuck Noll. Noll had to play the Browns and the Bengals four time a year when those teams actually knew how to put good teams on the field. Cowher feasted on an expansion team Browns and the Bengals as they are today four times a year. KD gets to pile up a bunch of wins against a horrible conference. I said it on another thread...20 win seasons are a a broad accomplishment because we have done it so many times. However, since we don't do much with them, it makes the accomplishment shallow. OU now has deep accomplishments in the last few years. To put it another way, we are the pretty girl with nothing much between the ears....Fun to look at, but there are lots of pretty girls so it could be easy to place your attention elsewhere (This statement could start a, Why Doesn't Joe Akron Go to Games? thread). OU is the pretty girl with a brain....the depth of this girl is more than skin deep and is a more desireable person. Think Joe South/Central Ohio is in love today? To me, the MAC Championship is like th AFC Championship game. It's something you have to win to get to where you really want to be. Cowher lost more AFC Championship games than he should because he couldn't open himself up to doing anything different (BTW, Noll never once lost an AFC Championship Game. Another interesting note, the NY Giants have never lost an NFC Championship Game.). KD has lost too many MAC Championships. Pooping our pants against average teams like NW in the NIT doesn't improve my image of where we are going either. Winning a game or two in the ncaa would be like winning the Super Bowl. We haven't done that yet, but Cowher did. There are some crude comparisons between the two. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether or not we think KD should come or go or if he is the guy to really get the program over the hump. He is protected by the University all the way up to the Board of Trustees. My personal opinion is we will continue on with our broad yet shallow accomplishments for as long as KD is at Akron. Which is going to be for a long time. Since this thread is about Zeke though, I'd like to keep it on topic. Some point to Zeke's comparisons to other MAC centers who have made the NBA. That's all well and good, but after three years, Zeke should be one of the greatest players to ever play in the MAC and I don't think his talents have been adequately developed. He wasn't some "project" coming out of high school. He was a high school All American so the starting point was very advanced. Is Zeke a good player? Hell yes! Is he as good as he could be right now? Hell no! I don't think the coaching staff as it exists today can get Zeke to the point where he would be one of the greatest players in the history of the MAC. Defensive POY is a cute award to win, but he should be winning the overall league POY.

Once again, you shouldn't try to fool a really smart person with a small number (2) of data points. I'm about to provide you with 774 data points as to why the first round of the ncaa tounament is a joke. Nothing but a money grab for the ncaa and in addition to Soviet Era courts, is further evidence as to why the organization is a joke. Going into yesterday, the following applied to the "little guys" who don't really belong in the tournament except for a few accidental wins: #15 and #16 teams were a combined 4-216 (.0181818 winning percentage) in the tournament since 1985. If you want to round that up to 2% to make yourself feel better, be my guest. #14 teams were 18-108 #13 teams were 27-108 Combined #13 and #14 you get 45-216 for a winning percentage of .208 #12 teams were 59-128 The bottome five seeds have a combined record of 108-668 (.162 winning percentage). DiG...That's the big picture. The first two days fo the NCAA tournament are a waste of time and the tounament should be made meaningful again by reducing the number of teams to 32. The best four days of the Tournament are next weekend when the teams who really don't belong are out of the hunt. I'll get interested then. Until then, I'll find better things to do with my tiime other than sitting around my house on a Friday and Saturday night watching meaningless games.

A damper? It puts out the flame. OU is now the successor to Ke-nt as the most recognizable MAC basketball program. Everyone is talking about them today. Nobody, except us, is talking about the Zips today. Same thing happened two years ago. Like it or not, OU is right now the best basketball program in the MAC and their on the floor accomplishments prove it. We are going to have to become the next big program after OU, not Ke-nt.

Those are three data points, not the big picture.

If by continuity, you mean getting the same results as losing to teams like CSU, VCU, Duquesne, Valpo, etc....no improvement over big accomplishments such as winning the MAC/getting into post season and being one and done....with more talent than ever, then put me down as someone who is against continuity. I'm less concerned about who a coach brings in and more concerned about what a coach does with a player once he gets on the floor. We are doing a good job of bringing them in, but getting the same results on the floor...that has to change.

The ncaa regulates whether or not a school can serve salmon on bagels. The leaders of the former Soviet Union have nothing on the ncaa's leaders. There are three games on right now with the exact same court in each. Am I the only one that finds this fact at least a little strange?

The Zips went 15-2 at home this season. I don't think seating arrangemnts are a problem.

I totally agree. Little by little, the program has gotten better. It's time to stop taking baby steps and have a year where the whole season comes together. That's what this program needs next season.

Excellent job of doing the opposite. I'm going to say something as well that I hope others will be at least be open minded about hearing and not go crazy. I'm not certain KD knows what to do with the abundance of talent he has. Don't go crazy anyone, but there are two guys starting for this team that shouldn't be. It's pretty obvious. Under KD the accomplishments of this program have been broad, such as the number of 20 win seasons and making a lot of MAC Championship games (relative easy league to do it in). With that said, I don't think the accomplishments are deep. We make the MAC Championship six years in a row (broad) and only win two (shallow). We get into the NCAA (broad) and lose the first game twice (shallow). We can't seem to make it out of the NIT first round against an average Big Ten team....Gonzaga does the opposite and beats the pants off of an average Big East team in WVU yesterday. Can't went through a period where they accomplishments were both broad and deep. VCU...Butler...etc. I'll go even further. A basketball team is more than just the head coach and players. There is a team full of people with various responsibilities beyond HC and players. If anyone is feeling a little sensitive right now and wants to lash out at me, just calm down and keep an open mind. I'm not certain KD has the assistant coaches to deal with a program that is as talented as this team is. Look at the resumes. McFadden has been here seven years with no meaningful experience elsewhere. Weigand, same story. Entirely too long for two assistants to be at a midmajor. Thomas has two years in the NBA (college at EMU), but not enough experience coaching at the D1 level. I'm sure all of these people are wonderful individuals. However, this is a business. Our business model has changed in the past three years, but we have kept most of the same mid level managers around. We are getting the same results. Doesn't make sense to me. A departure of at least one long term assistant might be in order if the program wants to continue at this level of talent. I think this program needs some fresh ideas at the assistant level.

Only part of what is wrong...

Thanks. It's not just these numbers though. A lot of what he does can't be measured. Specifically, his betterment of those around him is hard to quantify. It's there and visible. Hard to measure though.

I love the idea. Especially given the unlimited supply of funds the University has to build things. We could call it: "Building Process Arena/Residence Hall/Pizza Parlor/Party Bus".

The debate as to the importance of Zeke to this basketball program reminds me of the old 1980s hair band song, "You Don't Know What You Got Til It's Gone". The presence of Zeke makes everyone else around him better, including the coaching staff. In my opinion, he'll go down in history as one of the most, if not the most important player during the KD era. 50 years from now, he might even go down as one of the top five basketball Zips of all time. Right now, there is nobody on this roster who can take his place. He is going to be extremely difficult to replace.

What if we had one that was sort of like a Transformer? Instead of a building opening up into a largely immobile machine, we could have a six story residence hall/pizza parlor that transformed into a basketball arena on game day. We could call it "Building Process Arena/Residence Hall/Pizza Parlor".

I think they should just paint a basketball court on the top floor of one of the new parking decks and buy a $60 million retractable dome to cover the court on game days. In the world of stupid ideas, you have just been checkmated....I win.

Horrible call, but not as bad as the Soviet Era court on full display during this bad play.