GP1

Wouldn't it be a lot better if the MAC just had 10 teams and they all had to play each other. That would only make three non-conference games. Every other year, it would guarantee five conference home games and each team could have up to seven home games with non-conference games. Every other year, they may only have six home games, but that is OK with me as long as six is the minimum. This whole last minute scheduling is a complete circle jerk. 10 teams and screw everyone else. If the BCS teams want cupcakes, let them pay through the nose for them.

If there was ever a fan that has earned this trip, it is ZipsWin! I'm glad to see you are going.

I know you won't like this answer but AMTRAK can get you out and back for $193 (before taxes I think) each way. 45 HOURS to do it each way so you'd probably have to be on the 3:45AM train that leaves in about 8 hours. Haven't checked Greyhound .$7.50 per hour in travel time savings.

Portland is almost sea level. They will actually have more oxygen there than in Akron.

You are one of the biggest BB fans out there. Shame on you for even asking. Pay the freaking money and go enjoy yourself.

To answer the question, yes it is winnable. On any given day, the Zips can beat any team in the tournament.I'm not so concerned about the Zips traveling west. I'm concerned that Gonzaga can take a bus from their campus to Portland.I like that the game is on Thursday and not Friday. I'm a big believer in momentum and the Zips have it right now. Hell, I'd like the game to be sooner than Thursday so we don't lose any momentum. I don't like that I heard a guy on ESPN radio say just last week that this is the best Gonzaga team ever.I like that I believe we have the best Zips team ever.This game is going to be a good test for the program. By the end of this game, we will know whether we are ever capable of being the Gonzaga of the east, or if we are just the best team in a bad conference. Either way it turns out, it will be a good dose of reality. I really don't mind being the best team in a bad conference. Let's just be UofA. Last night was a lot of fun and we need more of it in lieu of the pushing boulders up hill like we have been for decades.

I agree completely. If the Zips get blown out this week, the effect of last night will be over within a week. The Zips need to play really well this Thrs/Fri. I'm not saying winning is a must, but they need to play well. A win would be HUGE!After last night, I think the Zips will be much more entertaining for the average sports fan to spend their money on. They were fun to watch last night. They have some really young scorers on that team and they will be worth the money.

Sorry if my opinion breaks the usual paradigms on this board about the Zips defense. When I say it was average, I'm not saying it was bad. It was just feh. The Zips offense was playing so well last night I felt no threat when the Bulls pulled within 10. In fact, with 10 minutes to go in the first half I told my wife I thought the game was going to be a blowout. The Zips offense was rolling last night and it had nothing to do with great defense. Maybe average defense, but not great. Buffalo's inability to hit shots made the Zips defense look better than what it really was.

Last night, Buffalo couldn't throw the ball into the ocean if they had both feet in the water. The best defense the Zips played last night was early in the game. With 10 minutes in remaining, the game was over and from the close up looks on their players faces on ESPN, you could see they were finished. After the Zips offense burried them, they were done. KD could have put five of us knuckleheads out on the floor to close the game out at that point.

OK, we bring in two teams from the east coast and more people get to see the MAC. So what does that do? Has the conference been improved by adding them? NO. If so, how? All it does is allow more of the country to get a look at a bad conference and realize they really don't like what they see. Adding more bad teams like Army only reinforces the fact that it is a bad conference.In addition to what I have already posted, the MAC should also:A) Stop the week night games. The MAC playing on national TV is like Dollar General sending out video tours of their stores and then expecting people to come in and shop after seeing, for free, the crap they are selling. TV games are fine, but play all games on Saturday in the afternoon.

If this is true, the quality of UofA's defense is wildly overstated on this board.

i wouldn't argue against that....but last night, the D was a notch above...dare i say championship style DFor the first 5-10 minutes of the game, the defense was great. Beyond that, it was average. I know there is a lot posted here about the Zips defense and against most of the MAC it is probably great, but against a good team like Buffalo you need offense. Akron scored last night with a quality half court offense and making shots when they were presented. They scored some, but not a lot, off of turnovers.You can play average defense when the other team is shooting the ball off of the side of the backboard from the corner. Buffalo's offense was so bad at one point I started laughing out loud. I think they only made 32% of their shots and they had some really good looks at the basket. I can't remember the last time a team played as bad in the MAC finals as Buffalo did last night. Buffalo is a good team that was just not ready to play for whatever reason. The best team won last night.Late in the first half, KD went for more offense/less defense and it worked. #13 makes Akron a better offensive team (at least last night) and it appeared KD noticed this at half and went with more offense at the beginning of the second half. The game was over half way through the second half.Make no mistake about it 1940s basketball lovers and apologist for bad entertainment, UofA's offense won the game last night. Have any fantasy you want about defense winning championships, but points win championships and the Zips produced points last night putting pressure on Buffalo that they couldn't respond to. Next year, if Akron can continue to have strong offensive performances, the people of Akron will go to the games. If they revert to low scoring defensive games then people will not. Most of all, people want to be entertained at a sporting event. Defense is not entertaining. Watching the Zips score points and execute on offense was fun to watch last night. That is what the people of Akron will respond to.

Bracket party in case you were wondering is mentioned here.

After watching the game last night, there is no doubt they are the best team. At least they have the most athletic talent of any team with a lot of upside to a lot of the players. There are some real potential offensive stars on this team and we saw that last night early when they hit a couple threes and the great offensive display they put on at the start of the second half.

Charlotte ObserverGood slide show included.

A lot has to be said about "growing as a team" and "fighting for each and every win". Id put this Akron team up against anyone believing that they had a shot at the victory.This team is all heart, and who knows...sometimes that's what's more important.WOOOOOOOOOO GO ZIPPPPPSS!!!!As a famous man once said, winning is 50% talent, 50% luck.Lol don't make me check your references on that..who is this famous mystery man?"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity"Winning is what happens when the zips believe and play to their potentialAnother famous guy (so famous I don't know his name) once said, "I'd rather be lucky than good". This famous guy was a fool. GP1 would rather be lucky AND good. Championships are a set of many circumstances that all seem to fall in place at the right time and that happened for the Zips this weekend.

Actually its Cvetinovic.That's why I'm just going to stick with #13.

Enjoy it while it lasts and don't worry about next year. If it happens, great. A few years ago, we won the MAC football championship and we all though we had nothing but championships in front of us. Anything can happen in the MAC. Today is a time to have fun with winning something finally.

First, let me say great job to the MBB team. Please let their next game be in Greensboro.It seems as if Akron is a better team witih #13 in the game then when he is not in the game. The first half was almost unwatchable and the style of play that would lead to blown games. However, from the start of the second half until 15 minutes remaining in the game, Akron played a great offensive game that put the game away. #13 was in the game almost the entire time. Buffalo never recovered from the early second half run the Zips put on. Looking back on the game, KD was a genious for going with offense in lieu of defense. I think he may have learned from past failures.Make no mistake about it, Akron did nothing special on defense during this time period. In fact, their defensive effort was average and Buffalo missed a few pretty good looks at the basket. Buffalo was put under such pressure to score they could not recover and pressed the remainder of the game.IMHO, this five minute period will be looked back upon as one of the most important time periods in UA basketball history.Let's enjoy this one. Championships are not easy and "you never know when you're gonna get it next".

I have a really good feeling about tonight. There was no reason for the Zips NOT to win the past couple of years and we lost. There is no reason for the Zips to win tonight so I think they will pull through. I know that thought has no logic, but that's the MAC.I'll be at Mac's tonight watching the game, eating BBQ and drinking Labatt Blue. Last year I watched the championship game there and girl at the bar kept pulling up her shirt. Let's just say nobody complained to the manager. Go Zips!

I've said this before and I'll say it again. Championships are a lot like gumbo in Jimmy Buffett's song I Will Play for Gumbo" when he writes about gumbo:"It's a little like religionand a lot like sex.You should never knowwhen you're gonna get it next."I have a funny feeling something special is about to happen in the next say 30 hours but I'm scared to actually type it.

Did Nate take a hard foul on anyone later in the game? If not, he has nobody but himself for the lack of respect the rest of the league shows him. Lack of respect gets you punched in the face. Romeo never got punched in the fact.....J. Wood would have kicked the asses of half the Can't team had he gotten punched in the face. Nate is a guy who is a four year letterman and still has not passed 1,000 points (less than 8.5 points per game if you figure 30 games per year). Players don't respect a guy with statistics like that. Some of you can think what you want, but they don't. I think half the good press he gets on this board is more sympathy than respect. He has a chance to regain his manhood this week in Cleveland. Can someone please break the cycle of losing?

To be the best, you have to beat the best.Don't worry about where we are in the brackets! We need to make it to Saturday some how, some way and win the freaking game.

Below is a list of teams the Big Ten would want to get rid of and replace with a MAC school:That concludes the list.Belolw is a list of MAC schools the Big Ten would consider adding for more than 10 seconds:That concludes the list.Why get rid of some garbage only to add even worse smelling garbage?

JT MentionedJason Taylor gets a mention in this article by Ed Bouchette of the Pitt Post Gazette. If you like local coverage from various newspapers about NFL teams, Bouchette is an excellent writer. He is far better than Cook, Collier and that old bitter crank Bob Smizik (all writers for the Post Gazette).There are some good lessons from this article as well. A lot of fans like to talk about "building" teams. This article serves as evidence of how a team should be managed after the "building". The Steelers were built in the 1970s and they have maintained the same philosophy since then. In the MAC, we have been "building" our programs for 60+ years which means there is no real guiding philosophy behind the "building" which would be better described as "floundering". The MAC needs to stop the "building", get to a manageable size, decide wants to be and be the best at whatever it decides to be. To me this is so simple yet simplicity seems to alluded the league.