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Little National Love


mivid12

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Really nice Andy Katz shout-out:

If I had to pick two teams to latch onto from BracketBusters weekend that could make the Sweet 16, I'll go with Wichita State and Akron. The Shockers have found their groove after finally getting healthy and may just win the Missouri Valley outright. Akron has won 18 in a row, has an intimidating defender in Zeke Marshall and is getting zero publicity. That makes this team even more of a surprise come March.

If the Zips win at OU, I think this is very possible. That means they fear no one and will have beaten a quality opponent at their house and excorcised a nasty demon. :) I am already excited about the possibility. Zips just got bumped up a seed line to a #12 in Lunardi's latest projection and for those who don't think they could meet OSU, they are currently projected as a #5 seed. I'm rooting for an 11/6 matchup with OSU in Philadelphia. Too much? ;) Also find it funny that we think the Zps are getting tons of publicity and Andy Katz thinks they are getting none. From our perspective it's a tidal wave of ink. :)

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I'm starting to be floored by some of the stories I'm finding. Could anyone in their wildest imagination ever have dreamed that in a story entitled College Basketball Computer Rankings: Could Gonzaga Be No. 1?, that the main team used to compare Gonzaga with is Akron!

..... We have watched enough of this Gonzaga team to believe it is possible. The Zags are much better than we expected at the beginning of the season. That is partially because of a long-haired freak of a player named Kelly Olynyk. This partially because, if anything, Gonzaga is a better version of the Akron teams we so praised in the preseason.

There are stars, with little S's. And the total is much greater than the sum of its parts. The parts in this case are just that much better than the parts that Keith Dambrot's teams take the floor with. That is not to say that the Zips aren't any good (we are heading off the angry Akron mobs at the pass on this one. The Zips are rated quite nicely by these numbers). They just aren't to the level that Gonzaga has set this season. .....

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Here's a Little more from an ESPN Insider page:

• Akron/MAC: The Zips' claim to fame is the nation's longest winning streak and an overtime victory over Middle Tennessee. Why the best MAC teams continue to schedule so poorly in the nonconference is beyond me, but it correlates directly with a leaguewide at-large drought going all the way back to 1999 (Miami). Odds for at-large bid: 35 percent.
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You forgot Dana O'Neil gave us votes too(has us at #21). I missed it at first too...

Huh, that's odd, I didn't even look up that high because they list Wichita State as ORV on the main page (they got a #21, a #23 and a #25), but the Zips actually had a 21, two 24's and a 25 and they weren't called out. It's a conspiracy I tell you. :)

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Akron [22-4 (12-0), RPI: 47, SOS: 152] Akron's last loss came Dec. 15. That's not really an official selection committee criterion, but it is incredibly impressive. Unfortunately many of those wins have come over the MAC, which is not particularly good at basketball this season; only five of the Zips' 21 Division I victories came against teams ranked higher than 150 in the RPI.

New ESPN Bubble Watch in. I can't help but get the feeling that our chances of an at-large bid decrease with every meaningless MAC win (other than, hopefully, OU).

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