GP1

Isn't the real question, Tom or Thomas? Here is the roster for the OU dance team. He is only a sophomore so we have two more years to debate this important issue.

Good point! I said the same thing about Norther Iowa. They beat some big conference teams this year and while it was an upset against Kansas, it wasn't that big of an upset. Any team can catch fire for one game and win one first round game. You have to be good to win two NCAA games in a row, which is why the Sweet 16 is a great accomplishment even for teams that don't go all the way.

I think you are right. We won't even know how our MAC season is going to go until we play the first game. Back when JD took over, he felt really good going into the PSU game...right until the game started. They played terrible and were run out of the stadium. They later rebounded, but the first few games were horrible. One year later, the win the MAC. I'm not certain what spring ball will tell us. The defense will look good because defenses mature faster than offenses. The offense will look bad because the defense is more mature. My prediction for this spring season is.......Lots of hand wringing by the fans, little learned about the team.

I respectfully disagree. It starts with Akron making key shots in key games in the MAC Tournament. Scheduling improving results is one of those arguments I find hard to buy because too many things can happen between the OOC portion of the schedule and the MAC Tournament. To me, it is no different than saying if we build a new football stadium we should win....the logic is strange. What if we build a stadium and the players play worse?......Wait a minute, they did. What if we schedule stronger and the players play worse? Players making shots and generally playing better is an argument I find easy to buy. Make shots. Grab rebounds. Make foul shots. Play solid defense. The Zips need to execute better in big games next year. If they execute well in the MAC Tournament, they should win. The success OU experienced is explained that easily. The PLAYERS need to take responsibility and do whatever they need to do this off season to improve their on court performance. Before anyone goes insane, I do think they need to schedule better, but that is for financial reasons and not on court performance.

There was a sentence in the original post I was going to nominate for a 2010 Sentence of the Year Award. I had to do with the Zips dripping in egg from head to toe in front of 877 fans who care the most. Where did it go?

One other thing about NIU. They had wins this year against East Carolina (CUSA), Boston College (ACC/Big East), Iowa State (Big 12) and Iowa (Big Ten). If you don't play them, you can't beat them. Nobody should be surprised about their win yesterday.

Great stats. All of these teams have a tradition of being fast paced teams that score a lot of points. If you force the fast pace with offense, you force other teams into your style of play which may make them uncomfortable and your defense is better. Score a lot of points and other teams fold. Seems simple to me. Another key note, players win games. These schools also turn out one NBA player after another. Talent certainly helps offensive efficiency.

I spent 15 years watching Bill Cowher lose big game after big game with his defensive mentality. It wasn't until he had players who could make key offense plays at key points in games did he finally get over the hump. All defense does is get the ball to the offense. If the offense can't score, it doesn't matter what the defense does. If the offense is struggling, it is up to defense to hold them in the game until they figure their offense. If the offense never figures it out in a 40 minute game, they are not going to win. Northern Iowa won yesterday because they had a good team whose offense made key shots at key points in the game. They got a lead on KS, put pressure on them to score and KS didn't respond to the pressure enough to win. The last time I checked, NIU's offense made a huge three pointer with 35 seconds remaining. NIU's big guy had a huge put back late in the game. None of that had anything to do with defense. NIU is a good team in any conference. They only lost four games all year. They play in a much better conference than the MAC. While the game was an upset, it isn't as much of an upset as it looks on the surface. The truth is, NIU was seeded to low. BTW, did everyone notice the KS player doing his best Adam Morrison post game "look at me crying" imitation. The guy still had his warm-ups on top to bottom so I guess that was the only way he was going to get any air time. I'm so sick of watching these guys cry and even worse yet, the network putting it on TV. His coach should have kicked him when he walked by. BTW, I told you guys how many years ago not Adam Morrison was a crybaby and would never pan out in the NBA. How is career going? Man, some of you really defended that stiff.

This is a darn savvy introspection. Especially coming from a young person. There is hope for the Zips. What does the fact that he is young have to do with anything? Some of the more stupid posts I see on this board are from posters who want to relive the 1950s.

I have no doubt that Keith is driven to win championships. I have no doubt he wants to win every game the Zips play in. I have no doubt his style of play is designed to win against a lot of bad teams and falls short in big games and against good teams.

Amen (for the most part)! OU took charge of the game last night and won. They set the pace with offense. The defense looked good because the pressure to score they put on GTown was so great GTown was desperate to score and was taking low percentage shots (three point shots). Even when GTown went on runs, they were never able to close the gap because the gap was so big and OU's coach was able to manage the game. There is no doubt OU played the best game in school history yesterday. There is also no doubt they did it with offense. UofA is not going to be anything more than a MAC Champion once every six years by focusing on defense. They will never win an NCAA game with defense. We need to get some guys, or stop destroying the ability of guys, who can launch the little orange ball through the little orange ring. It's so simple. If we can do that, there is no reason we cannot win a championship at least every other year. I know this is difficult for some to get their arms around because most are Cleveland fans and have never won anything. It isn't 1950 anymore where teams are playing with talentless slugs.

Everything I have been telling you guys for years has come true tonight. Defense had nothing to do with OU winning that game. They put up a tremendous amount of pressure on GTown to score by scoring a lot themselves. They had nearly 50 at half and nearly scored 100. If you use offense to put pressure on the other team, you will win. You have to hope for too many things to go right if you are expecting defense to win a game for you. I hope tonight was another step forward for some of you in getting away from the 1950s.

I like good ideas. This is a good idea.

Well.....I guess we have to call it something.

Want to make college basketball more exciting? Want to make the conference tournaments more exciiting (let's face it, the major tournaments are meaningless)? Want to make the regulare season more exciting? Step one...Go back to 32 teams. This makes the conference tournaments mean something. Step two...At large bids must have a .500+ record in their conference. I have no interest watching Kansas play whatever garbage team gets the 96th bid into the tournament. If you want to watch that, you have too much time on your hands.

The players aren't going to change and exhausting time trying to change them is a waste. He needs to treat them like adults and demand performance on the court. It is a different generation, and let's face it, KD is a coach at an average mid major program....not exactly John Wooden. That's the kind of respect a coach at his level gets. How can they focus more on defense? Are we going to become a Coles coached Miami? Good luck filling the seats with that style and getting good players who want to play that style. If KD really wants to take it to another level, he needs to loosen up a little and be a little creative.

I've never been so uncertain as to how the Zips will be next year. I'm not even sure what spring ball will tell us because it is such a short period of time. The need to go back to the days when spring practice lasted much longer. It was five games into the start of JD's first year when the kids finally caught on. Actually, it took that long for JD to figure out Biggs was his best shot at winning. If the Zips are going to take a big leap forward between now and next year, it has to take place this summer when the coaches are not allowed to coach. Is there any leadership to lead the team in summer practices? Is PN16 that guy? There are more questions now about the program than I can ever remember. There is enough talent to win in this horrible conference, but will they? I think they are going to either win the MAC next year or have a four win season.

Are you saying nobody is willing to go ugly early and avoid the rush?

I don't want their schedule, but I don't want ours. There has to be another way to line pockets and win.

Even with my concerns over the Laugh-O-Meters ability to predict the game Saturday, it is still very accurate. Have not run the Level 4 diagnostic on it yet..... Could you try a positive approach for a month, perhaps a day...even a minute? I don't think any Zips fan thought that the MAC Championship game would be anything other than close. But, for you to say that you would predict the way that it worked out is a LAUGH. I'm sure you knew that the Zips would have to score a 3-pointer to send it to overtime and then would lose in overtime. And if you mean that you predicted a loss, than that is a huge laugh. Had the result gone the other way, I could just as easily say I predicted a win. I think you misunderstand the Laugh-O-Meter. At no point did the LOM register a laugh at the Zips on Saturday. It registered several at OU. The Zips should have won based upon the LOM results. If that isn't positive, I don't know what is. I apologize...I did misunderstand. No problem. This should give you a general understanding of how the Laugh-O-Meter works.

If you just look at starters, maybe, but I doubt it. The problem MAC schools have when Vandy rests their seven foot center is, they substitute with another seven foot center who is ready to be the starter next year when Ogilvy departs. Zeke should play more, but he can't play the entire game.

All good points. I've been reading this board for a long time now. My understanding is we are getting kids who are good scorers in high school, but they get here and they can't throw the ball into the ocean. How does that happen? Another thing. Most of us know Jim Boeheim is the coach of Syracuse. He plays a 2-3 defense because he is convinced college players can't shoot anymore so he forces them to play to their weakness. Is the secret to get shooters and play a 2-3?

There are a couple of ways a fan could read this portion of your post. One would be the conferece could move forward to respectability. If so, how? The other way would be we have a long way to go before really sucking and are moving in that direction. If so, how do they stop it? I really don't blame a lot of the problems the MAC/UofA has competing at the highest level on them. Although they do have some blame. The truth is, the NCAA makes deals that so favor major schools in major conferences, it is hard for us to compete so for every step we take forward, the bigger conferences are taking five steps forward.

Even with my concerns over the Laugh-O-Meters ability to predict the game Saturday, it is still very accurate. Have not run the Level 4 diagnostic on it yet..... Could you try a positive approach for a month, perhaps a day...even a minute? I don't think any Zips fan thought that the MAC Championship game would be anything other than close. But, for you to say that you would predict the way that it worked out is a LAUGH. I'm sure you knew that the Zips would have to score a 3-pointer to send it to overtime and then would lose in overtime. And if you mean that you predicted a loss, than that is a huge laugh. Had the result gone the other way, I could just as easily say I predicted a win. I think you misunderstand the Laugh-O-Meter. At no point did the LOM register a laugh at the Zips on Saturday. It registered several at OU. The Zips should have won based upon the LOM results. If that isn't positive, I don't know what is.

Even with my concerns over the Laugh-O-Meters ability to predict the game Saturday, it is still very accurate. Have not run the Level 4 diagnostic on it yet.....