GP1

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.....

You ever tested the Laugh-O-Meter at a Big Sky game? How about the Mid-Eastern Conference? Perhaps you have seen a ton of SWAC games? Point is, we all know that the MAC is not nearly as bad as those conferences. Why would you even try to argue such? Maybe it isn't as bad, but it is closer to those conferences than major conferences. The Laugh-O-Meter does not get tested much watching those conferences. The MAC is the only mid major conference I will watch long enough to test the meter.

Exaggeration is a common way to make a point in internet debates. But for the sake of accuracy, the MAC is far from the worst conference in the country. The MAC's final regular season conference RPI average was exactly .5, which placed the conference 16th of 33 D1 conferences (actually, 32 conferences plus independents). There are 15 conferences with higher ratings and 17 ranked behind the MAC. I don't know about the rest of the folks reading this, but I don't have to be told that the MAC is the worst conference in the country to make the otherwise valid point that there are about 100 D1 teams in the country, mostly from the big power conferences, that would be likely to beat the Zips in any given game, and that the top teams could be expected to beat the Zips pretty badly. That's just reality. I could really care less what the RPI rankings say. I think the Great GP1 Laugh-O-Meter is a much more accurate indicator of conference quality. I know what I see and I know I laugh a lot when watching MAC games. The MAC is horrible.

It's a lot easier to do at St. V when you have the best high school player in the world playing for you. The risk was very limited.

Sorry for the Monday morning reality check, but the Zips couldn't beat any of these teams on their best day. All of these teams are near the top of their respective conferences. I saw Vandy take apart South Carolina in Columbia this year and they would destroy the Zips. Maryland finished near the top of a real conference as did Wisconsin and Purdue. UofA finished second in the worst conference in the country and was destroyed twice by the regular season champion. The Zips lost to a bad OU team in the MAC Championship. There is no way they beat either of these teams. Next year, I need everyone to do me a favor. I asked a similar favor after football season when I asked everyone to stop posting as if it is the 1950s and it has taken a little. Next year, I need everyone to go to a top level conference game somewhere driveable from NE Ohio...meaning the Big East or Big Ten. Go with an open mind and really think about the Zips position and college basketball and ask whether or not they could really be even competitive in one of those leagues. If you come to the conclusion the Zips fall short, it doesn't make you a bad fan. I go to both ACC and SEC games here in the south and I can no longer convince myself what I watch at a MAC basketball game is even similar.

I just pulled that one out of my ass, so I guess my ass would be the source.

Why can't we just tell everyone KD coached LBJ in high school and get into these tournaments?

If Akron fired a 24 win coach we would be the laughing stock of division one basketball. Get a freaking clue, man. Good point Can't State sucks. In addition, this is the next level....this is as high as it gets. UofA WILL win more MAC Tournaments under KD because as often as he gets there, he is bound to win one now and then. KD will and should be the coach for a long time.

I watched the game from in a bar last night and could not hear anything. I will say this, the crowd looked great on TV.

I'm surprised someone would pay to watch a basketball game and focus on how long a player is spending in the lane. I don't think I saw a single three second call all year in college basketball. Enjoy the game.The number of fouls called is always a funny fan argument to me. Are the refs supposed to keep track of the number of fouls called and make certain an equal number called on each team? Maybe if they don't foul, they won't get called for fouls.

I don't feel so good.....sort of queasy....feeling light headed......tongue starting to get hard..........

Oh the cynicism.....I like it. A lot of decisions college coaches make are not a pure as the newly fallen snow.If KD wants to get a fat bonus again next year with a more difficult schedule, better players have to come in.

I read it as beefing up the schedule. It's the only thing I can think of right off that he's been vocal in the past about not wanting to do (except on his terms anyway).The last thing on the list KD is going to do is beef up the schedule. Beefing up the schedule could shatter the 20 win illusion. My guess is bringing in better talent is what he is going to do. Better talent could take the team from 24 wins to 26 against the horrible schedule they play. The illusion is reinforced at that point. Then we can hear the growers say, "See, we won more this year than last year. The process works and the team is growing."This year was a big year for the "growers" and there is nothing to reinforce their beliefs at this point. UofA played an abnormally large number of OOC games at home and will not be so blessed next year. They had, with the exception of one player and the addition of a HS All American, the same team coming back. It would have been one thing to lose to Can't last night, but getting beat by OU is nonsense. The talent has to increase if they are going to play more road OOC games and maintain the same number of wins.

The Zips scored in the range of points KD is comfortable. That's not bad execution of a game plan to me.Defense is another thing. If the Zips score more points last night, they win. Too much has to happen for defense to win a championship. I hope everyone has learned that lesson now.