Cleveland State Game

[GoZips]

Both schools and the two newspapers gave more than adequate accounts of the game.I wont recap the stats, etc., here. Instead, I'll give my courtside evaluation of the game.First off, unfortunately, referees are best when no one notices them. This was not casethis evening. I pray they were Horizon League officials. If they were MAC officials wewere more than badly treated. Let's assume they were from the Horizon so I do notblow a gasket. They were the epitome of "homers." We were credited with what, fourblocked shots? More like nine with most being whistled as fouls. Ugly.Cleveland State has a great defensive scheme. They just go out and mug theiropponent. Ask Nick Dials whom they mauled all night or Dru who took a shot in theback so hard he tumbled into the back court. No blood, no foul. Once Dials drove thewide open lane and took a whack on the arm so hard it reminded me of a karate chop.No foul, naturally. Shame on the refs.Toward the end of the game (CSU had three fouls) the Vikings had to mug, as in foul,repeatedly just to be able to play the foul instantly game. Fortunately the Zips knockeddown most the opportunities. Hey, Dru, I know its tiring to get battered all evening,but, shoot free throws like they are important. Ced knocked his down.CSU is close to becoming a good team. They start just one senior and only have twoon their roster. Good thing we play them at home next year. They start a big, toughfreshman who did a good job inside most of the night. Fortunately, he had little help.The butts in the seats tally officially was 2718. Not a chance, 1500 tops. A good 500 ormore were in gold and blue. Akron fans were louder than the CSU fans. Then again,they had more to cheer about.I sat right next to a 14 year old CSU fan I'd love to have as a Zips fan. He knew allCSU players and their strengths. Of course, he had no clue as to any deficiencies.That makes for a true fan. He was a pleasure to listen to as he optimistically gavea play by play account of CSU on offense. Every shot was "money in the bank", or, "count it," especially the treys (CSU was 3 of 16). Still, he provided me some joybecause of his faith and love of his team. He took the loss in stride. He was alreadylooking forward to his next game (Butler in a couple of weeks).I hope Akron has a number of young people with such zeal and lack of guile. It suremade up for the poor officiating. Zips won a tough one.

[Captain Kangaroo]

It was a physical game. No doubt about it. I wish Travis would have mixed it up more. He seemed to settle for too may fadeaways against the CSU goons.CSU isn't a very good team. They really lack shooters. I'm sure some of that was due to our D, but even their open looks clanged off the rims at odd angles...like if you were watching a girl's game. Stupid move keeping Gansey on the bench too...overall I wasn't impressed by CSU's coach."Ced knocked his down?(FT's)" Ced was an uncharacteristic 3-7 from the line last night. He came back to earth for an evening, as did the Zips in general.Linhart played a tough game. He got the crap beat out of him pretty bad but it never seemed to affect him. He does need to work on his ball handling a bit...he struggled bringing it up the court twice. It's just a confidence thing...dude can handle the peel fine.As pretty as the NIU game was, this one was as ugly. Still, a 12 point win on the road against a rival is a big win. My Joe Dunn rant of the day: After the game, while interviewing Dambrot he says "The MAC hasn't received 2 NCAA bids in some time and it looks like they won't again this year." Ok, Joe. We're 11-3. OU is 10-2. NIU has wins vs Kansas State and DePaul. Can't and Buffalo are very solid.Unlike last season...where...let's face it...there were two decent MAC teams in Buffalo and OU...and, like several other seasons where the MAC has truely been 2-deep for tourney consideration (whether we want to admit it or not) there exists in 2006 a legit chance for two MAC teams to get NCAA. Can't State's Kennedy is on the selection committee. That bodes well for us. Assuming the MAC's upper echelon continue their strong play we will get some GREAT opponents for the bracket buster games. If the MAC fares well in the bracket busters and the favorites make it to the MAC finals at The Q there is every reason to expect we can get two teams in the NCAA's this year. To write it off as a lost cause at this time is absurd.Zipboy with the center court floor seats? Man, I wish I were half as well-connected as that guy.

[zipboy]

It was a physical game. No doubt about it. I wish Travis would have mixed it up more. He seemed to settle for too may fadeaways against the CSU goons.CSU isn't a very good team. They really lack shooters. I'm sure some of that was due to our D, but even their open looks clanged off the rims at odd angles...like if you were watching a girl's game. Stupid move keeping Gansey on the bench too...overall I wasn't impressed by CSU's coach."Ced knocked his down?(FT's)" Ced was an uncharacteristic 3-7 from the line last night. He came back to earth for an evening, as did the Zips in general.Linhart played a tough game. He got the crap beat out of him pretty bad but it never seemed to affect him. He does need to work on his ball handling a bit...he struggled bringing it up the court twice. It's just a confidence thing...dude can handle the peel fine.As pretty as the NIU game was, this one was as ugly. Still, a 12 point win on the road against a rival is a big win. My Joe Dunn rant of the day: After the game, while interviewing Dambrot he says "The MAC hasn't received 2 NCAA bids in some time and it looks like they won't again this year." Ok, Joe. We're 11-3. OU is 10-2. NIU has wins vs Kansas State and DePaul. Can't and Buffalo are very solid.Unlike last season...where...let's face it...there were two decent MAC teams in Buffalo and OU...and, like several other seasons where the MAC has truely been 2-deep for tourney consideration (whether we want to admit it or not) there exists in 2006 a legit chance for two MAC teams to get NCAA. Can't State's Kennedy is on the selection committee. That bodes well for us. Assuming the MAC's upper echelon continue their strong play we will get some GREAT opponents for the bracket buster games. If the MAC fares well in the bracket busters and the favorites make it to the MAC finals at The Q there is every reason to expect we can get two teams in the NCAA's this year. To write it off as a lost cause at this time is absurd.Zipboy with the center court floor seats? Man, I wish I were half as well-connected as that guy.

I had to call in some favors for that one. Even more fun was getting into the halftime reception in the CSU booster room. For a minute, I thought the assistant AD was going to boot my a$$. I know UAM would have down in Akron