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A couple of questions about your ideas on Hester. Why do you feel he will not be eligible to play until the second semester next season? He has been on campus and enrolled since last fall. He has been participating in all team practices and activities since the beginning of the 2017-18 school year. Why do you list Hester as a starter, presumably at the point guard position? From what I've observed he is more of a 2 guard or even a wing.

There is more to it than size, but size definitely matters

oh not this crap again

First of all, thank you for putting this together. I don't think it's too early with only a couple weeks in this season. I'm interested to see who stays in the off-season, and who departs. I think there are one or two players who might be asked to leave, and one or two players who might leave on their own, neither of which is source based but more of a hunch. Regarding the projected starting lineup, I would flip Poke and Sayles. I think Sayles is going to start most of next year. I also think Toles and Parrish will get a fair amount of starts, which could be promising because I think the starting lineup you are projecting is pretty strong. Next year is night-and-day compared to this year depth wise already: 4 C/PF and 8 SF/SG/PG. That's great depth with talent (hopefully) throughout the roster. A couple questions I have... - Is it confirmed that Poke will be allowed to continue to play basketball? - Do you think we will redshirt someone from this year? - Why do you think a transfer is more likely than a freshman recruit? Common sense answer to this one is because we are so young, but I don't want to assume. Edit: Speaking of transfers, looks like we just offered this guy on 2/14. http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/shane-gatling

I'd love to see Neftali Alvarez get that final scholarship. True PG, highly touted, seems like he'd fit perfectly.

Jackson goes by his middle name, Christian. Christian Jackson. Not Loren.

I'd be ok playing a tournament on Mars if it meant getting out of the MAC. In all seriousness, if we left the MAC and weren't able to easily travel to that conference's tournament, I'd be ok saving the money and traveling to the NCAA tournament games. That would be an equally awesome trade-off for me. Far-fetched, but it could happen.

I would expect the last scholarship to go to a freshman. Currently, we will have 0 freshman next season. LePear is coming in as a Sophmore I alao agree that Hester seems to be more of a typical 2 guard, but we already have a pretty good one in Ivey. If he is the best option for point, I could see him starting there even if it is not his best fit. I would love to see Utomi move to the 3 spot, but I fear he is doomed to play a majority of his minutes at the 4 for at least one more season.

Just wait, watching Loren Jackson caught on a switch with a 7 footer will be even better.

Wood: 6-6 Tree: 6-7 Rome: 6-7 Since I stand a whopping 5-8, I consider the above heights pretty close to 6-8. Lol

I think we all wish the best for K-lac. I moved from my regular spot at the JAR to a spot where I can watch the bench and he's always engaged and supportive of his teammates. He also just seems like a good kid, so he's easy to root for. He's been thrust into a very tough position this year and could end up as the number 4 big man on the team next year. If someday he develops into a 12 to 15 minute, 6 to 8 point 4-5 rebound guy, I'll be perfectly content with that.

It's called development. I said he has a foundation of moves (referring to his post moves), which he does. Did you see him split the double team for the layup yesterday (I still would like to see a replay; I don't believe he traveled)? We have never had a freshman big man with offensive post moves like he has. He doesn't quite play up to DI speed yet, but again, he should continue to develop and I think he will be a force. He peeves off every single big man he plays against, and you don't do that unless you have some sort of physical ability and talent, raw or developed. Poke might not be the answer long term, but he plays hard and gives us another body to spell KLac. Sayles is the one I have my eyes on to be a star PF, with Riak hopefully being a stud center. Let's see what Groce brings in this year and next year.

Scheduling P5 teams like Kentucky, Illinois, etc., is perfect. Beatable with name recognition. I fully expect to win some of these, too.

This is the kind of schedule WMU and NIU would have in their big years. All winnable. Really like it

There is a lot of truth to this, but Wood, Treadwell and Romeo could all rebound and defend in the paint. What they lacked in height they made up with athleticism and high basketball IQ's. We have nobody who can do that right now. Our interior defense is nonexistent and we give up a lot of back door cuts due to inexperienced players and no rim protector. I am continually amazed that more MAC schools do not feed the ball into their bigs like Ball State did against us.

I agree with most of this, but aside from a big freshman, our next tallest guy is 6'6" right now. I think by saying, "we need some tall guys," that could be referring to anybody taller than 6'6". We have two 6'9" guys hurt and a 6'10" transfer that's sitting out. That will definitely help. We need the depth inside. KLac commits some stupid fouls, but I also wonder if his game is altered by having to play less physical due to our lack of depth at his position right now. He can't play as freely. I also wouldn't says he'snot helping us at all. He had two big blocks yesterday that helped keep us in the game. His offensive production leaves something to be desired, but he has the foundation of moves to be a force in years to come. We definitely just need more skilled depth. We're throwing out a makeshift, majority-freshman roster game in and game out, hindered even more by injuries. I fully expect to see a big step taken next year with the transfers, a full year's worth of recruiting, and current player development. We've been blown out in a couple MAC games, but have given the majority of the MAC everything they can handle. We have to keep everything in perspective this year. Most of these MAC squads are in their 4th+ year of their coach and system, and we're everything they can handle most of the time with a decimated roster and in the first year of a new coach/system. It sucks to lose to Can't, but it's promising that we were a couple baskets going our way from knocking off the team that returned 95% of its MAC Finals roster, a roster that beat us in those finals, with what we have at the moment. Great effort yesterday, and we'll get them at home. Go Zips, and be thankful every day that you aren't a Can't fan/grad.

I thought the effort was really good today. I saw a good team play, some unselfish passing and some really good effort. Unfortunately, this team folded in the last 5 minutes at the same time Kent got hot from the 3 line. I think if this team shows this effort the rest of the season we could still get some wins. I thought that Groce made a bad sub in the last 5 minutes taking out Parish and putting in Smith. Having Smith play forward and Klac playing center puts us at a disadvantage offensively since neither can score with any consistentcy. (They had a total of 2 points with one shot between them) Parish made a big 3 the last 5 minutes and was playing well. As soon as Smith came in a Kent player blew past him and made a layup. I would like to see Klac post up his man. This team does not get him the ball in the post. I did like how we spread the floor when Utomi was playing center. It opened up the paint and Duvivier and Jimond had some nice drives even though Jimond could not finish. This team may stand a chance at Bowling Green with this effort. Go Zips!

Win them all and go to a BCS bowl. ?

yes......signing day is Wednesday...Hopefully, Jared and group won't keep us in suspense hope that the zips announce Mr. Biros, Mr. Tojaga, Mr. Rittacio.....and several guys named John in Portuguese (Joao !!!).....