Catching up on some leftover stuff from visiting the Akron Zips practice on Monday:
–Humpty Hitchens said his ankle feels much better. He did not practice Monday, but coach Keith Dambrot said that was just to take care of him. Hitchens said he should be fine on Thursday. "What I learned after that Tournament game," Dambrot said, "was that he's so fast when he's fresh we may as well get him fresh."
–Coach Keith Dambrot knows how good Gonzaga is, and can be. "They're beating the Pac-10 on players," he said. Two of the trees on the frontline are transfers – from Kansas and Arizona. "They're not really a mid-major," Dambrot said.
–Does Dambrot think this draw is too challenging? "We were going to play somebody good regardless," he said. "The hardest part of it is the trip. But we've been through enough stuff, it doesn't matter."
–Dambrot thinks Joe Carr, the psychologist he brought in to talk to the team prior to and during the MAC Tournament, made a big difference. "He calmed me," Dambrot said. "We're such good friends that he makes me look at things a little differently. H's not always right, but at least he makes me look at things different."
–Concrete example of the positive effect: Dambrot said he did not feel a lot of nervousness when his team fell behind against Miami. Instead, he and his team stayed calm and came back.
–Concrete example II: Carr talked with Chris McKnight at length about doing all the little things, especially rebounding. McKnight had two double-digit rebounding games after averaging ?.? for the season.
–Miami coach Charlie Coles said this about Akron after their regular-season game: "People better get 'em this year, because you won't be able to next year."
–The trip will be long, but Dambrot is confident his team will play well. Of 35 games this season. "That's an amazing number of road and neutral games, to win as many as they did," he said. "At times they've played better on the road than they have at home. Sometimes at home they probably play outside themselves a little bit. They have friends and family here. On the road, they play better as a team."
–The key to winning the MAC? "Our guard play was tremendous," Dambrot said. Backup Steve McNees earned some Tournament MVP votes for the way he stepped in for Humpt. "And Darryl (Roberts) was just as good," Dambrot said.
–Some coaches have very strict substitution patterns. Not Dambrot. His go totally by feel, or as he said "total gut." If it seems like organized chaos, well it's because it is. "I have a basic idea how I want to go to begin with, but then I go by feel," he said.
–This is why Akron should be able to stay in any game: The Zips gave up 58.9 points per game this season, 19th best in the nation.
–But Gonzaga sounds like a confident team heading into Thursday night
–Not many folks who voted here think the Zips can pull off an upset.
–Gonzaga coach Mark Few concedes: "We're capable of losing in the first round." The same link has a nice rundown on Gonzaga's state of mind and state of the team as the game approaches.
