Putting out the Fire

[Quickzips]

Well, now that things are back on track in Zips hoops land a little bit, time to move on to the finale of our tour through the Horizon League. Tomorow night the Zips face off against the Flames of the University of Illinois-Chicago. Of the four Horizon teams we face this season UIC should provide the easiest matchup, but the Flames have been known as a thorn in the Zips side in the past. This years squad is sort of a mixed bag. They are currently at 4-4, but two of those wins came over Toledo (not at all sure how or why they ended up playing the Rockets twice), the first being a 6 point win at Toledo and the second a 1 point nail-bitter at home. However, they also have a nice 6 point win against Rhode Island on a neutral floor. They lost by two in OT last night to Valpo. They aren't a particularly big team with 3 players over 6'9" who combined average just under 30 minutes per night. The Flames will rely on senior guard Robo Kreps who leads the team in points, assists, three pointers and minutes played as well as Senior Forward and Minnesota transfer Paul Carter who is second in points and leads the team in rebounding and blocks. Kreps is a good spot up shooter, but he has the ability to drive to the basket and finish in traffic as well. Zips will have to work to stay in front of him. Carter is a very complete offensive player who is often at his best in transition as he can either take the ball to the hoop and finish or spot up and knock down an open 3 as the trailer. The Zips will have to take care of the basketball and limit UIC's opportunities to get out on the break. UIC isn't a particularly good shooting team with only one player in their rotation shooting above 44% from the field. In the end this is a game that the Zips ought to win. If they come out with the kind of effort they showed at Detroit they will beat this team by double digits. If they come out sloppy like they did against CSU and Kreps and Carter start to heat up, they could be in for a dog-fight. I'll say Zips by 9 at this point.

[Zipmeister]

The Zips will win this one by 14 points.

[RowdyZip]

The Zips will win this one by 14 points.

Zips are 2 point favorites in Vegas. This is a must win with the difficulty of the upcoming schedule.

[Dave in Green]

STAT ALERT! The following post contains statistics. Those who are allergic to statistics should avoid reading this post.

Pomeroy also currently projects the Zips to beat Illinois Chicago by 2 points.

IC's win over Rhode Island did nothing to pump up their standing in the Pomeroy ratings. Pomeroy currently projects that IC will lose all of their remaining games this season except for a home game against Youngstown.

Meanwhile, the Zips are currently ranked in the top 50 nationally in three team categories.

The highest ranking comes in turnover percentage, where the Zips are the 26th best team in the country at 16.7%. For comparison, BYU is #1 at 12.8% and Centenary is dead last at 29.3%. This is a nice improvement over last season when the Zips finished 147th in the country at 19.9%.

The Zips are currently ranked 30th nationally in steal percentage at 7.3%. UNLV is #1 at 4.8% and UNC Greensboro last at 17.6%. Last season the Zips finished 217th in this category at at 10.2%, so another nice improvement so far this season.

The third category is block percentage, where the Zips are currently ranked 44th at 6.3%. Oregon State is #1 at 4.0% and Southeastern Louisiana last at 22.2%. Last season the Zips finished 26th in the country with a slightly worse 6.7%.

Taken together, these stats tend to indicate that the Zips are taking better care of the ball so far this season. They are making fewer turnovers, allowing fewer steals and having fewer shots blocked.

[Blue & Gold]

STAT ALERT! The following post contains statistics. Those who are allergic to statistics should avoid reading this post.

Pomeroy also currently projects the Zips to beat Illinois Chicago by 2 points.

IC's win over Rhode Island did nothing to pump up their standing in the Pomeroy ratings. Pomeroy currently projects that IC will lose all of their remaining games this season except for a home game against Youngstown.

Pomeroy thinks UIC will only win one more game the rest of the year, yet we're only favored by 2 points?! Not terribly flattering.

[RootforRoo44]

STAT ALERT! The following post contains statistics. Those who are allergic to statistics should avoid reading this post.

Pomeroy also currently projects the Zips to beat Illinois Chicago by 2 points.

IC's win over Rhode Island did nothing to pump up their standing in the Pomeroy ratings. Pomeroy currently projects that IC will lose all of their remaining games this season except for a home game against Youngstown.

Pomeroy thinks UIC will only win one more game the rest of the year, yet we're only favored by 2 points?! Not terribly flattering.

Pomeroy is a joke.

2 point spread? Easy money right there.

[Dave in Green]

..... Pomeroy is a joke. .....

Show me a more knowledgeable and accurate sports statistician than Ken Pomeroy, and I'll drop Pomeroy like a hot potato and go with your guy.

[Dr Z]

Pomeroy is a joke.

He preys on the weak and innocent.

[RowdyZip]

http://www.horizonleaguenetwork.tv/live/1867

http://www.ncaa.com/gametracker/launch/gt_...artschool=&

For those of us not at Lee Jackson...

[Blue & Gold]

http://www.horizonleaguenetwork.tv/live/1867

http://www.ncaa.com/gametracker/launch/gt_...artschool=&

For those of us not at Lee Jackson...

Thank you

[Dave in Green]

Zips are cold from the field.

[Dave in Green]

Zips have more fouls (6) than shots made (5). UIC doesn't look that great. Zips just look bad so far.

[Dave in Green]

Zips down 32-20 at halftime. That was some ugly basketball. Wide open shots clanking off the rim, balls bouncing off of hands and out of bounds, little to no interior D, outrebounded 23-17, 11 team fouls to just 3 for UIC. Zips are in a deep hole here.

[Dr Z]

Another sloppy game by both teams.

[Dr Z]

Zips pull their butts out of the fire...and win. Any win on the road is a good win?

[FromdaBurgh]

While I agree with u Dr Z...and WIN is a WIN.... I'm going to say that WE DID NOT WIN...UIC LOST and there is a huge difference!! We played SLOPPY, LAZY and had no offense whatsoever,...can't go into Temple playing sloppy ball like this.

I guess SOMEBODY must have been good and Santa decided not to give us a lump of coal!! OMG!!!

[akronzips71]

While I agree with u Dr Z...and WIN is a WIN.... I'm going to say that WE DID NOT WIN...UIC LOST and there is a huge difference!! We played SLOPPY, LAZY and had no offense whatsoever,...can't go into Temple playing sloppy ball like this.

I guess SOMEBODY must have been good and Santa decided not to give us a lump of coal!! OMG!!!

I'll take it, but that SUCKED

And why was Zeke on the bench at the end? Shouldn't you have the best tall team out there?And they sat Abreu also. Again, Bardo at the end in a close game? We escaped with our lives. barely

[FromdaBurgh]

Dont know if you heard Coach D's post-game interview ...but Zeke has a really, really bad cold. I know that he is sluggish and weak...AND he said that he also has a bruised knee (which I didnt know). But I spoke to Zeke last night and he sounded HORRIBLE!!! Soooo..that is why he didn't play alot...and when he did play he looked "out of whack".

OK..somebody go and get my baby some CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP pleassseeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL:)

[akronzips71]

Dont know if you heard Coach D's post-game interview ...but Zeke has a really, really bad cold. I know that he is sluggish and weak...AND he said that he also has a bruised knee (which I didnt know). But I spoke to Zeke last night and he sounded HORRIBLE!!! Soooo..that is why he didn't play alot...and when he did play he looked "out of whack".

OK..somebody go and get my baby some CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP pleassseeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL:)

That is CHICKEN SOUP Hold the noodles.

We'll make you Jewish yet, even if it is Akron - home of the T.A.G. (Typical Akron Gentile).

You can tell I graduated a LONG time ago.

[UA Fan]

I turned the game off in the 2nd half when I heard the Zips shooting stats. Glad for the outcome, to say the least.

[Dr Z]

While I agree with u Dr Z...and WIN is a WIN.... I'm going to say that WE DID NOT WIN...UIC LOST and there is a huge difference!!

I Agree with you. Most the time if I post that the opponent lost the game, some Zip fans will start to argue what great defense we played and how our great play made IUC look bad. Hope Zeke feels better.

I will say one thing. Winners win, and losers lose. I like being on the winning end. The Zips are finding a way to win when they play bad.

[RowdyZip]

Great comeback. Now all we need are the Soccer Zips to prevail on PKs.

[Blue & Gold]

Dont know if you heard Coach D's post-game interview ...but Zeke has a really, really bad cold. I know that he is sluggish and weak...AND he said that he also has a bruised knee (which I didnt know). But I spoke to Zeke last night and he sounded HORRIBLE!!! Soooo..that is why he didn't play alot...and when he did play he looked "out of whack".

OK..somebody go and get my baby some CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP pleassseeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL:)

I did not hear the post-game interview so thank you for the update. I hadn't hear that Zeke was under the weather so was wondering why he didn't see more PT than he did. We really could have used more of the big fella than we were able to get today. We were fortunate to win that game without him.

[Dave in Green]

I was watching the basketball and soccer webcasts side-by-side. I may not do that again, as it was extremely stressful today. Fortunately, good final results in both.

Turns out both Vegas and Pomeroy were correct in predicting the Zips would win by 2.

It's a good thing Nik didn't catch what Zeke has, as he kept the Zips in the game with great shooting (8-11 from the field), defense (4 steals and only one personal foul) and ball handling (only 1 turnover).

After cold shooting nights, McNees and Nitro both hit their last and most important 3-point attempts, which tied the game prior to Nik hitting the winning shot.

It's pretty hard to win a game with cold shooting, too many fouls and not enough rebounds. No style points for this win.

If the Zips play like this in either of the next 2 games, they'll get blown out big time.

[RowdyZip]

Turns out both Vegas and Pomeroy were correct in predicting the Zips would win by 2.

Pretty incredible, especially because it required Nik to miss two FTs and Zeke to miss the front end of the 1 and 1 with 2.4 seconds left. I bet that pi$$ed somebody off...