Zips vs. Valpo

[ZachTheZip]

Akron looks to get revenge after a bad loss in last year's Bracketbuster game. Valpo has trouble rebounding the ball, which is good news for the Zips. They're 2-7 against D-I teams, but they played a fairly tough schedule, almost entirely on the road. Akron should extend their winning streak on Sunday, but to look past this team can be fatal like it was last season.Valpo message boards

[eguins]

Akron looks to get revenge after a bad loss in last year's Bracketbuster game. Valpo has trouble rebounding the ball, which is good news for the Zips. They're 2-7 against D-I teams, but they played a fairly tough schedule, almost entirely on the road. Akron should extend their winning streak on Sunday, but to look past this team can be fatal like it was last season.Valpo message boards

THEY ARE A LOT BETTER THAN UIC.Trust me, their record may be bad, but they are a lot better then their record indicates, as you guys experienced last year. I believe they only lost at UNC by 11 points.They are mainly a JUCO/New Recruit team because they graduated almost everyone from last year, or so I thought. In my eyes, Valpo will give you a much tougher challenge than UIC. However, they are probably the two bottom feeders in the HL this season.

[ctmjbowes@sbcglobal.net]

Equins, why don't you just "adopt" the Zips as your team? We can fill the "1A" spot in your collegiate fan life, after your beloved Penguins. It's clear that you spend much time with us here on these boards. Why not just become one of us? Change your avatar/nick to something like Zipquins or such. Pull up a chair, get comfortable. Then you won't have to say so much of "you guys" and can say "we" and "us" instead.

[Zipmeister]

Akron looks to get revenge after a bad loss in last year's Bracketbuster game. Valpo has trouble rebounding the ball, which is good news for the Zips. They're 2-7 against D-I teams, but they played a fairly tough schedule, almost entirely on the road. Akron should extend their winning streak on Sunday, but to look past this team can be fatal like it was last season.Valpo message boards

THEY ARE A LOT BETTER THAN UIC.Trust me, their record may be bad, but they are a lot better then their record indicates, as you guys experienced last year. I believe they only lost at UNC by 11 points.They are mainly a JUCO/New Recruit team because they graduated almost everyone from last year, or so I thought. In my eyes, Valpo will give you a much tougher challenge than UIC. However, they are probably the two bottom feeders in the HL this season.

Yes, a LOT better. Many people on this board are pretty sure that UIC could contend for the MAC West crown, and I must admit that they might be better than Northern and Toledo. Sagarin currently has the Flames ranked as #257, but Valpo is way up there at #229. These guys would probably win it all in the MAC.

[UA Fan]

Equins, why don't you just "adopt" the Zips as your team? We can fill the "1A" spot in your collegiate fan life, after your beloved Penguins. It's clear that you spend much time with us here on these boards. Why not just become one of us? Change your avatar/nick to something like Zipquins or such. Pull up a chair, get comfortable. Then you won't have to say so much of "you guys" and can say "we" and "us" instead.

What a gracious invite. Welcome aboard, Penguiroo !

[Dave in Green]

Zips fans totally underestimated Valpo last year. Is this deja vu all over again?"Fairly tough schedule" is putting it mildly. Four of Valpo's losses this season have been to top 25 teams -- North Carolina, Michigan State, Purdue and Butler. They will play the Zips tough, and the Zips will need to bring their A game to win.

[cms133@uakron.edu]

Zips fans totally underestimated Valpo last year. Is this deja vu all over again?"Fairly tough schedule" is putting it mildly. Four of Valpo's losses this season have been to top 25 teams -- North Carolina, Michigan State, Purdue and Butler. They will play the Zips tough, and the Zips will need to bring their A game to win.

Wow, Michigan State and North Carolina...sucks to have both of the NCAA's last year finalists on your schedule not to mention Butler and Purdue. Why do they have teams like this on their schedule and then play MAC teams like Toledo, Ball State, and us? Are most Horizon League teams like this? Not that I'm complaining, the tougher the OOC teams are the better IMO.

[johnnyzip84]

Equins, why don't you just "adopt" the Zips as your team? We can fill the "1A" spot in your collegiate fan life, after your beloved Penguins. It's clear that you spend much time with us here on these boards. Why not just become one of us? Change your avatar/nick to something like Zipquins or such. Pull up a chair, get comfortable. Then you won't have to say so much of "you guys" and can say "we" and "us" instead.

What a gracious invite. Welcome aboard, Penguiroo !

+1 We might even get Tressel to write you a "forward" once you're aboard

[Dave in Green]

UA vs. Valpo is the FanMatch game of the day on the Pomeroy Ratings site, though not a particularly high CPHE factor (chance of pleasurable hoops experience) compared with top rated games on other days. Interesting read on what FanMatch is all about:Pomeroy Site Link

[RowdyZip]

Zips 84Valpo 70

[RootforRoo44]

It's time to get rowdy for this one.THERE IS NO REASON WHY ANYONE WITHIN DRIVING DISTANCE IS NOT AT THIS GAME. I'm sick of seeing empty stands, no excuses get your a$es in the seats and let's support a winner.If you all can bear to watch Soccer (dont get me wrong, it is exciting in it's own way) you should be able to enjoy some great basketball!BTW, any students reading this: COME ON OUT and sit down in the lower stands, dont worry about being a Rowdy i'm sure there will be room for anyone. If you're intimidated by the Rowdies, come sit on the North side where most regular students sit. It's going to be a good time so come on out. What else are you going to be doing on a Sunday?!

[mes102]

It's time to get rowdy for this one.THERE IS NO REASON WHY ANYONE WITHIN DRIVING DISTANCE IS NOT AT THIS GAME. I'm sick of seeing empty stands, no excuses get your a$es in the seats and let's support a winner.If you all can bear to watch Soccer (dont get me wrong, it is exciting in it's own way) you should be able to enjoy some great basketball!BTW, any students reading this: COME ON OUT and sit down in the lower stands, dont worry about being a Rowdy i'm sure there will be room for anyone. If you're intimidated by the Rowdies, come sit on the North side where most regular students sit. It's going to be a good time so come on out. What else are you going to be doing on a Sunday?!

I wish i could go...no car...an hour away to the southeast of Akron...I don't know anyone around here that wants to go...trust me...i would go...and bring friends to take up the space(don't even go to college if that's alright)...only problem is ushers won't allow anyone on floor seats without bands...i know you got that taken care of...i would love to be there today physically, but i can't so i will be there spiritually..

[RootforRoo44]

The Zips are looking pretty good today...i dont know about anyone else who is here but this is an impressive performance. 54-32 Zips, early in second half.

[Quickzips]

Absolutely the best game I've seen from the Zips all year against a pretty decent opponent. Valpo had no answers at all. There was a time when the Zips only hitting four 3s in a game would have been a recipe for disaster. Today the Zips only hit four of them, but they just dominated Valpo down low. Crusaders had no answers at all for Brett McKnight or Jimmy Conyers who is looking like the NBA prospect we all heard so much about when he first came here more and more each day. Cvetinovic, Zeke, Chris McKnight and even Bardo got in on the action too. Zips just punished them inside. Valpo tried that 2-3 zone that is apparently the story on how to beat the Zips and we just carved it right up. They played a little man and we beat them there too. Humpty was probably the best of our guards with 7 points, 4 assists, a steal, no turnovers and some really good defense. I'm a little concerned that Zeke didn't play much in the second half after he had a great score on the break and finished it off with the free throw. Seemed like he might have been icing those knees on the bench from there on. Hopefully it isn't anything too major. Definitly some revenge from last seasons Bracket Buster. The only thing to doubt in this one was the final score. Lets close out the OOC season with a couple nice wins over Wyoming and Rhode Island, then it is time to dominate the MAC.

[Hilltopper]

Seeing Zeke steal the ball and drive the length of the court for the layup and one was sweet. No sense in burning him out with too many minutes before conference play is a smart move by KD. Valpo's 7 footer fouled out with 15 min left in the game. Another solid performance by the Zips.

[tpsjugglerdude]

Seeing Zeke steal the ball and drive the length of the court for the layup and one was sweet. No sense in burning him out with too many minutes before conference play is a smart move by KD. Valpo's 7 footer fouled out with 15 min left in the game. Another solid performance by the Zips.

Umm....Valpo's 7 footer is a redshirt and didn't even travel with the team.

[mes102]

Two tough opponents in Wyoming and Rhode Island before MAC starts up. Wyoming has a lot of youth and play very well in the first half at Tennessee and is a very good shooting team from the paint...can't shoot perimeter though...should be an interesting first half...Rhode Island will be our toughest opponent possibly the rest of the season...with a record of 9-1 and plays at Drexel(Dec.29) and vs. Oklahoma State(Jan. 2nd) before coming to Akron...here's who they have played: at Brown W, 78-57 vs. Holy Cross W, 92-75 vs. Stony Brook W, 75-58 at Davidson W, 75-65 at VCU L, 82-80 vs. Providence W, 86-82 vs. Quinnipiac W, 83-74 vs. Northeastern W, 79-76 at Boston College W, 80-69 vs. Fairfield W, 89-84 I hope we have a "soccer" like crowd for this game....

[ZachTheZip]

Zips get press in the LA Times?

[Zipmeister]

A solid 20 point win over the Valpoites who were looking to add the Zips to their win total which includes victories over both Indiana - South Bend and Concordia University (WI).

[ZachTheZip]

ABJ Article

[The Hip Zip]

Just an outstanding defensive effort again ! I can not remember a game where we were more dominant inside going back over several years. It was very nice to see us win without depending on the 3 ball.One of the poorest officiated games I have ever watched at the Jar. When mild mannered homer Drew throws off his jacket and charges the floor you know it was bad ! Thank God we don't see Jerry Sauder much anymore as he spends most of his time over in the Horizon where the ref assignments were made as part of the return bracket buster aggreement. Between him and Dan Fouser, who also made the trip, the 2nd half was almost unwatchable. I don't know who the other ref was but he was just as bad.Despite it all, another great performance by the Zips and especially Jimmy C and Bret.

[Hilltopper]

Seeing Zeke steal the ball and drive the length of the court for the layup and one was sweet. No sense in burning him out with too many minutes before conference play is a smart move by KD. Valpo's 7 footer fouled out with 15 min left in the game. Another solid performance by the Zips.

Umm....Valpo's 7 footer is a redshirt and didn't even travel with the team.

OK, Their center fouled out.

[Quickzips]

Couple more thoughts from yesterdays game:-Pretty good turnout all things considered. Snow storms were moving in, competing against a Browns game, during winter break, on a Sunday afternoon, against an OOC opponent that noone really cares about. I don't know the official attendance numbers, but it looked to be around 2,500 which isn't bad for that kind of game.-Brett McClanahan continues to disappoint. I think he gave us something around 0 points, 1 rebound and 2 fouls in about 7 minutes. Those are Mike Bardo type numberes right there. Brett seems to be getting the Conyers treatment right now. He's on a very short leash. Ironically, the guy KD replaces him with when he makes a mistake IS Conyers.-Best trend recently for the Zips, higher assist numbers. Our two PG's (Humpty and McNees) combined yesterday for 9 assists. The team as a whole has become much better at passing the ball. Part of having as much depth as we do is being able to keep everyone involved. This team is doing a good job of that right now. Of course it helps when guys are knocking down the open looks you get for them.-Free Throw shooting is still a problem for us. I can't help but be haunted by memories of 2007 when I watch this team step to the line. -This team is going to be very interesting in MAC play. The MAC is historically, and continues to be, a guard oriented conference. This team's strength is superior frontcourt play. I for one am very interested to see how that plays out in conference play.-I can't help but wonder what might have been with Ronnie Steward. He looks like he has a pretty decent command of things out there, but you can tell he hasn't played much in the last two years. He doesn't seem to be as quick as he was when he got some playing time the beginning of last year. Certainly doesn't have much confidence in his shot. I think at this point he just needs to stay healthy for an extended period of time and get back into playing shape. -Someone said it before, but absolutely terrible officiating at this game. The calls vs. no-calls were as unpredictable as I've seen all season. To start the second half at one point we had 0 fouls against us while Valpo had 8 against them. What do the refs do? Call four little touch fouls on Akron in one possession. The kind of little crap you could call on just about every possession if you wanted to. Hard to bitch about officiating in a 20 point victory, but I can't help but wonder how much this crummy officiating contributes to people not wanting to go watch a Zips game.

[MDZip]

Can we get Jimmy Conyers another year? Or at the very least have the Captain call out, say, Brett McClanahan?

[Dave in Green]

..... -Brett McClanahan continues to disappoint. I think he gave us something around 0 points, 1 rebound and 2 fouls in about 7 minutes. Those are Mike Bardo type numberes right there. Brett seems to be getting the Conyers treatment right now. He's on a very short leash. Ironically, the guy KD replaces him with when he makes a mistake IS Conyers. .....

Nitro is in exactly the same position this year that Conyers was in for the past three years. Conyers was backup for the team's most consistent player, Nate Linhart, who averaged more minutes last year than any other player. That does not leave much time for the backup to establish confidence in his game. Conyers never adjusted to playing short minutes behind Linhart, and has only blossomed this year with Linhart's departure.Nitro may or may not be able to adjust to playing with both poise and intensity in brief bursts off the bench. He's unlikely to get many minutes as long as Conyers makes it so tough for KD to pull him off the floor. But even if Nitro spends most of his time on the bench this year, he'll have his chance to pull a Conyers over the next two seasons and become a major force for the Zips. He certainly has the physical ability to be the next Linhart/Conyers-type.