bigzipguy Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 Final from Kalamazoo: Buffalo 74 W. Mich 71. The Bulls roll on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 And maybe it's time to also put an end to the notion that our MAC West schedule is a bunch of easy wins. As I said earlier, even our best teams the last few years could not run the table against the West. And last year's team even lost a home game to a West team that wasn't even that good.Welcome to the MAC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 Pretty close game for the best team in the MAC.Meanwhile, Can't destroys EMU, 68-46. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kangaroo Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 And maybe it's time to also put an end to the notion that our MAC West schedule is a bunch of easy wins.Toledo, EMU, NIU and CMU are atrocious. Put it up on a chalk board for all to see. Those are four TERRIBLE teams, and we should beat them.WMU and Ball State are better. But they ain't the '76 Hoosiers. We should beat them too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quickzips Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 I have no problem with Zips fans enthusiasm in wanting to chalk up a few of the cupcakes from the MAC West as surefire wins. Now if the team starts taking that attitude....that is how letdown games happen. With the youth and inexperience of this team these guys need to treat every game like it is their last. Really, all teams probably should, but this team in particular is still developing that winning attitude and it starts by approaching every game with the same high level of intensity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Hip Zip Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 And maybe it's time to also put an end to the notion that our MAC West schedule is a bunch of easy wins.Toledo, EMU, NIU and CMU are atrocious. Put it up on a chalk board for all to see. Those are four TERRIBLE teams, and we should beat them.WMU and Ball State are better. But they ain't the '76 Hoosiers. We should beat them too.I thought EMU was poised to make a good run in the west then their all everything guard Medlock went down just prior to the opener. They have a couple of skilled big guys in Dobbins and Bowdry but without Medlock they have nothing in the back court. Ball State is a lot less scarry without Newell. I think we can sweep the west but will probably drop one of them on a bad night. Looking at the remaining schedule I think that we have a good shot to win 20. To me, this is Keith's greatest coaching job ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 I posted some of this in another thread, but I will include it here as well:You only have to look at last year to convince someone to look at the next 6 games cautiously.I'm sure we'd all admit that last year's team was a veteran bunch...much less vulnerable to "letdown" performances. So, what happened in those 6 games?Akron's 2008 Record vs. MAC West: 3-3Included:Loss @ Central Michigan (completely unexpected)Blowout 20-Point loss @ Western Michigan10-point loss to Nothern Illinois at Home (probably the worst game we played last year)Sure, the MAC West looks worse than ever. But, that Central Michigan team last year was about 100 places behind us in the computer rankings, and the NIU team that beat us at home ended up being one of the worst teams in D-1 basketball last year. My point is...I'll be very, very pleased if this team gets through this stretch with a 6-0 record. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kangaroo Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 hey...I'm a 42 year old Zips fan...I know as well as anyone that bottom-feeders can bite you in the a$$. I think EMU was 3-26 one year, and two of their wins were against decent Hipsher teams. The Browns beat the Giants. "That's why they play the game." "Games aren't played on paper." Etc.Those MAC West teams are atrocious. I can see us slipping up once. But that's it.2-of-8 cupcakes down. 6 to go. CUP CAKES! CUP CAKES! You hear me....CUP CAKES!Only in Akron are people fearful of overconfidence when playing teams ranked in the bottom 10% of a 330 team division. Can a brutha' get some swagger in the AK? Go out and pound these clowns like we should. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyzip84 Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 hey...I'm a 42 year old Zips fan...I know as well as anyone that bottom-feeders can bite you in the a$$. I think EMU was 3-26 one year, and two of their wins were against decent Hipsher teams. The Browns beat the Giants. "That's why they play the game." "Games aren't played on paper." Etc.Those MAC West teams are atrocious. I can see us slipping up once. But that's it.2-of-8 cupcakes down. 6 to go. CUP CAKES! CUP CAKES! You hear me....CUP CAKES!Only in Akron are people fearful of overconfidence when playing teams ranked in the bottom 10% of a 330 team division. Can a brutha' get some swagger in the AK? Go out and pound these clowns like we should. I hear what you're saying, Cap'n. But there sure is a fine line between "swagger" and "overconfidence". I guess it boils down to whether we trust KD to accurately read his players in this respect. Perhaps the busy schedule is actually a positive in terms of guarding against a let-down. Tonight's game, I believe, will provide the bellwether. If we take care of UT in a methodical fashion, comparable to the YSU game, then I predict a minimum 5 wins against the West this year. If we either eke out a close win or manage to lose, a 3-3 repeat becomes more likely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zip Watcher Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 I'm sure we'd all admit that last year's team was a veteran bunch...much less vulnerable to "letdown" performances. So, what happened in those 6 games?Akron's 2008 Record vs. MAC West: 3-3Included:Loss @ Central Michigan (completely unexpected)Blowout 20-Point loss @ Western Michigan10-point loss to Nothern Illinois at Home (probably the worst game we played last year)Keep beating the drum skip ... keep beating it. Maybe you can post this in all the football threads too?Have you completely forgotten that Wood went down in the Western game and didn't play in the Northern game?All everyone is saying is that all 6 games appear to be winnable. And anything can happen.Go Zips!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopper Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 I'm sure we'd all admit that last year's team was a veteran bunch...much less vulnerable to "letdown" performances. So, what happened in those 6 games?Akron's 2008 Record vs. MAC West: 3-3Included:Loss @ Central Michigan (completely unexpected)Blowout 20-Point loss @ Western Michigan10-point loss to Nothern Illinois at Home (probably the worst game we played last year)Keep beating the drum skip ... keep beating it. Maybe you can post this in all the football threads too?Have you completely forgotten that Wood went down in the Western game and didn't play in the Northern game?All everyone is saying is that all 6 games appear to be winnable. And anything can happen.Go Zips!!Details, Details, Details... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 Zipwatcher....I'm sorry, but I don't recall seeing where any of us were arguing the fact that these games are "winnable". Of course they're winnable. The range of Sagarin ratings among the MAC West teams range from 212 to 302 as of today. My disagreement was with someone's assessment in an early post in this thread which indicated that we SHOULD win them ALL. Other posters share some of the same honest sorts of concerns, and have referenced some of our difficulties in the past as well....despite the fact that I'm certain all of us as die-hard fans want nothing more than to win these next 6 games. Yes, I'm very aware of Jeremiah's absence, but it's an obvious letdown when you lose a game to a team ranked somewhere around #300 in the country...At home. This is just another indication of the kinds of things that often go wrong in the world of college basketball when you anticipate consistently good play over such a long stretch of games. As fans, I think these posts all indicate that we're excited about the next few weeks. After a 2-3 start that by no means has us out of the East race quite yet, we're facing the challenge of sending our young basketball team into unfamiliar territory with the hopes of winning 6 games in a row, half of which are road games, during a portion of the schedule that was particularly difficult for us just as recently as last year, with a much more experienced team. Let's hope for the best. And lets hope that some of these West teams can knock off some of those guys ahead of us in the standings.Captain...We may not think alike on some things.....but I'm COMPLETELY on board with you about taking the "let's go pound these guys" attitude. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 Skip, are you saying that there's a team in the West that we shouldn't beat? Because we absolutely should beat them all, and beat them all by a very large margin. Sometimes teams do things they shouldn't, and then I become disappointed. We should have swept the West last year, too, but didn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdt1420 Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 I don't know if I agree with all this talk about going 6-0, and how all the west teams are inferior. Granted two of our conference losses were in overtime, but we're sitting at 2-3 with a young developing squad, and while looking at West teams, including the West leaders, some fans think we should steamroll them all?!If we go 4-2 or 5-1 against the West, I'll frankly be happy. As happy as the K.S.U win made me, I don't think that beating a bad Can't team (after they came back on us and were leading) and beating a weak YSU team makes me think that we're back to being a MAC elite this season.We may win the whole damn thing, and I'll be ecstatic, but I won't go crazy about this team winning two games it should have won and thinking we'll run the table.Just my two cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kangaroo Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 I don't think that beating a bad Can't team (after they came back on us and were leading) and beating a weak YSU team makes me think that we're back to being a MAC elite this season.MAC Elite? Any mediocre mid major should run the table against this:Western Michigan 7-12Northern Illinois 6-11Central Michigan 5-12Toledo 4-15Eastern Michigan 3-17Ball State is @ the JAR, and they've lost their best player.Anything less than 5-1 against these guys is grounds to jump off a building. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdt1420 Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 I don't think that beating a bad Can't team (after they came back on us and were leading) and beating a weak YSU team makes me think that we're back to being a MAC elite this season.MAC Elite? Any mediocre mid major should run the table against this:Western Michigan 7-12Northern Illinois 6-11Central Michigan 5-12Toledo 4-15Eastern Michigan 3-17Ball State is @ the JAR, and they've lost their best player.Anything less than 5-1 against these guys is grounds to jump off a building.If they're all that bad, then the MAC isn't even a mediocre mid-major conference, and any truly mediocre mid-major team, would thump everyone in the east too, which we aren't.I expect 4-2 or 5-1... we're better than those teams, but I'm not ready to say that this team of freshman and sophomores is light years ahead of everyone in the west.Should 4-2 happen, please don't jump... I need football recruiting updates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 Seems like we're getting into semantics here. Statistically a team might be favored to win each of 6 individual games. But statistics also say the favored team doesn't always win. So if a team is favored in 6 games, chances are something might happen to turn 1 or 2 of those likely wins into losses. Likewise, a team favored to lose 6 individual games has a fair statistical chance of winning 1 or 2 of them for various reasons.We all want and hope for the Zips to win every game. Some people are putting the emphasis on the statistical fact that the Zips are favored in all 6 games against MAC West opponents. Others are merely pointing out the realities of statistics. I don't see a problem with any of the above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdt1420 Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 Seems like we're getting into semantics here. Statistically a team might be favored to win each of 6 individual games. But statistics also say the favored team doesn't always win. So if a team is favored in 6 games, chances are something might happen to turn 1 or 2 of those likely wins into losses. Likewise, a team favored to lose 6 individual games has a fair statistical chance of winning 1 or 2 of them for various reasons.We all want and hope for the Zips to win every game. Some people are putting the emphasis on the statistical fact that the Zips are favored in all 6 games against MAC West opponents. Others are merely pointing out the realities of statistics. I don't see a problem with any of the above.Ewww.... stop hugging me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 uakronkid...I love your unbridled optimism. But if you were predicting a sweep of the MAC West last year, at the very least you should have respected how strong of an effort it would have taken to beat Western Michigan on their home floor. They only lost one home game all year, and it was a narrow loss to a Big 10 team. And they had already recorded wins at home against the likes of Davidson and Southern Illinois before they played us. Then, if you couple that with a couple of sub-par performances, it doesn't take much to end up with a 3-3 record over a stretch of 6 games. PDT1420 has a good idea here. I'll expand on this a bit, and see where this discussion goes....6-0 ---- Very,very pleased (as I said in an earlier post), despite some who might insist that these teams are all made up of 9th grade level talent 5-1 ---- Alright with me...for sure. We're still in the East race.4-2 ---- Good, but I think someone at the top of our division will win more than 4 against the West, so this would put us in a tough position for the 2nd half.3-3 ---- "ok" at best...and that's only if we won all 3 home games, and the losses were all on the road.2-4 ---- Would shake my head in disappointment. Would ask dance team to get new uniforms again to try to turn our luck around. 1-5 ---- Only the lady flipping the soup bowls on the unicycle would draw a good crowd over the final few home games. 0-6 ---- So unlikely, I might bet everything I have against it happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdt1420 Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 6-0 ---- Very,very pleased (as I said in an earlier post), despite some who might insist that these teams are all made up of 9th grade level talent 5-1 ---- Alright with me...for sure. We're still in the East race.4-2 ---- Good, but I think someone at the top of our division will win more than 4 against the West, so this would put us in a tough position for the 2nd half.3-3 ---- "ok" at best...and that's only if we won all 3 home games, and the losses were all on the road.2-4 ---- Would shake my head in disappointment. Would ask dance team to get new uniforms again to try to turn our luck around. 1-5 ---- Only the lady flipping the soup bowls on the unicycle would draw a good crowd over the final few home games. 0-6 ---- So unlikely, I might bet everything I have against it happening.Here, Here!!!(Is there an emoticon of a Ben Franklinesque smiley face rapping his fist on a table in approval?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 Dave...after reading the two recent posts from uakronkid and captain, I wanted to also point out the difference between being favored in 6 INDIVIDUAL games vs. the odds of winning ALL 6 games.You beat me to it...thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kangaroo Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 6-0 ---- Expected5-1 ---- I'll take it4-2 ---- Very disappointed3-3 ---- Jumping off a bridge2-4 ---- Jumping off a bridge while kissing a picture of Rosanne Barr1-5 ---- Chugging Drano, barfing, then eating the barf.0-6 ---- Wearing the T-shirt of each individual MAC West team to work for the next 4 months, then chugging drano, then jumping off a bridge while kissing a picture of Rick Chryst. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZippyRulz Posted January 29, 2009 Report Share Posted January 29, 2009 Crisis averted...now your picture of RC can remain safe in its place on your living room wall beside Rosanne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted January 29, 2009 Report Share Posted January 29, 2009 Captain...some of your references kill me. That's hilarious. But please, I'd keep it a secret that you have a framed picture of you and our fine conference leader hanging above the mantle on your fireplace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w00t Posted January 29, 2009 Report Share Posted January 29, 2009 The MAC West is a joke, and we drew their "best" team (sub .500 overall record) at home this year... we should expect to go 6-0 against them. The East is already 5-0 against them head-to-head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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