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Keeping tabs on the Zips non-conference opponents


ZachTheZip

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As Gonzaga is up by 20 in Tip-Off Marathon, here's the games on slate for today:

Can't State at West Virginia, 10:00am on ESPN

Middle Tennessee at UCLA, 11:00pm

Rio Grande at Cleveland State, 7:00pm

Notre Dame College at Youngstown State, 7:05pm on ESPN3

Where are all the put downs for CSU scheduling a softie two days after a tough games?

Is Gary Waters as dumb as you posters think Dambrot is? Or is "Grins" just as wise?

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It starts.

The MAC East is already a combined 8-1 on the year, while the MAC West is 2-6.

The East's lone loss came to Georgia. Significant wins over Miss St, WVU, Dayton. I'd say thats a pretty good start for the MAC East. I'm glad we only have to play the teams in the West once a year.

If the early returns are any indication the MAC, and particularly the MAC East is going to be VERY stout this year. If teams stay healthy and continue to build on this early momentum it is going to be difficult for the selection committee to ignore the MAC when looking for at-large teams. In the long run though, I still think the best opportunity for at-large berths will come from the Zips and Can't. The best shot the West teams had already died when Western dropped that game to South Dakota St. Miami is too banged up and plays too many ridiculously tough opponents on the road to have enough wins. OU's schedule makes even the worst KD schedules from the last 5 years look like a murderers row. Buffalo is probably still a year away with McCrae, but they could be the wild card in all of this. Zips and Can't have the talent and have schedules that are conducive to producing a high quantity of quality wins. Of course the big elephant in the room is what happens when we get to league play and have to go through three times with RPI's likely in the 300's (EMU, Toledo and NIU). Still way too early to tell.

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If the early returns are any indication the MAC, and particularly the MAC East is going to be VERY stout this year. If teams stay healthy and continue to build on this early momentum it is going to be difficult for the selection committee to ignore the MAC when looking for at-large teams.

It had seemed to me that a number of lower-conference or lower-profile teams were knocking off the bigger names this early in the season, so I went back through ESPN to look at the scores to date. There were not as many as I had thought (though there were a number of OT games or very close games that almost made the list). Best part of the list, though, is that, of the teams that have played the role of David, 3 are from the MAC and 2 others are on our schedule:

Nov 9: Akron 68, Miss St. 58

Nov 11: Loyola Marymount 69, #20 UCLA 58

Nov 13: Cleveland St 71, #7 Vanderbilt 58 (58 was a rough score early on)

Nov 15: K-ent St 70, WVU 60

Nov 15: Dayton 67, Miami 72 (maybe borderline here)

Nov 15: Pepperdine 66, Arizona St 60

Nov 15: Middle Tennessee 86, UCLA 66

Nov 16: Long Beach St. 86, #9 Pitt 76

And all but Miami won as the away team.

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Bulldogs hold on to beat #16 Texas A&M 69-60, but they sure are a hard team to watch.

Does anyone know if we received any love from the ESPN commentators during this game?

I've got it dvr'd & I'm planning on watching it sometime today.

Yes, the Zips were mentioned several times during the game. Mostly along the lines of how Miss. St. wasn't ready for us and "Our rangy 7 foot center" who controlled the paint. BTW, I wasn't impressed with either team last night. I think the Zips would have beaten A&M by 20.

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Is anyone else sick of hearing how good the schedule is this year? After the soccer match last night driving home I listened to Steve French tell me how good Valpo and Duquesne are. I don't care how good they are there is absolutely no reason why this team shouldn't beat their ass and after seeing the way Can't took WVU to the woodshed I have no qualms about saying we need to beat them too. In fact -- I don't think this team shoudl lose prior to the MAC. This team can't let up or even have a the thought in their mind that any of these teams can beat them. They need to develop a killer instinct and take on all comers.

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Is anyone else sick of hearing how good the schedule is this year? After the soccer match last night driving home I listened to Steve French tell me how good Valpo and Duquesne are. I don't care how good they are there is absolutely no reason why this team shouldn't beat their ass and after seeing the way Can't took WVU to the woodshed I have no qualms about saying we need to beat them too. In fact -- I don't think this team shoudl lose prior to the MAC. This team can't let up or even have a the thought in their mind that any of these teams can beat them. They need to develop a killer instinct and take on all comers.

I agree...but at the same point, you want to stay grounded...there's a difference between being confident that you're going to win, and being too confident to a point that you don't think you need to play hard in order to win...

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Is anyone else sick of hearing how good the schedule is this year? After the soccer match last night driving home I listened to Steve French tell me how good Valpo and Duquesne are. I don't care how good they are there is absolutely no reason why this team shouldn't beat their ass and after seeing the way Can't took WVU to the woodshed I have no qualms about saying we need to beat them too. In fact -- I don't think this team shoudl lose prior to the MAC. This team can't let up or even have a the thought in their mind that any of these teams can beat them. They need to develop a killer instinct and take on all comers.

I believe people are touting the schedule because it IS that good. Early season results have made an already decent schedule look like a very good schedule. Currently, the Zips are merely 2 pt favorites over Valpo. Why? Because Valpo has started the season looking to be much improved with Bryce (sp?) Drew as HC (son of longtime Valpo coach Homer and the same guy who hit that game winning NCAA tourney shot a while back) AND they are playing at home. Everyone knows the home court advantage is at least a +/- 5 point swing in NCAA hoops. I don't think you're necessarily over-estimating the Zips abilities. But I do think you might be under-estimating teams like Valpo, Duquesne, MTSU, Marshall, etc. I'm looking at how these teams are performing THIS year, not over recent years.

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