Dave in Green

@Dr Z, I admit the game is too difficult for me to grasp more than a small part of how to be successful at it. But with your winning formula, you should jump in and grab your share of the millions paid to coaches for whom the game comes easy.

It's true that Big Dog was a high profile player on a powerhouse HS team. Some pegged him as more of a football player, and he got football offers from Kentucky and Louisville. But he wanted to focus on basketball, and Coach Dambrot's connection with his HS coach helped swing the deal to UA despite interest from Xavier and others. Part of the deal was his desire not to redshirt. There are plenty of skeptics about whether a football offensive lineman can be an effective basketball center. It's a bit of a roll of the dice, but I think from what I've seen so far that it's a smart gamble. It's also true that Kwan was a lower profile player on a so-so HS team. The fact that he gained so much height so quickly greatly changed his profile from a wing to a power forward. As far as I can find, interest in Kwan started getting more widespread late in his HS career after he sprouted, including from Cincinnati and Dayton. But he made only one campus visit, and that was to UA. He made his decision without visiting any other campuses. Part of his reasoning is stated here: In other words, Kwan is not a pure center who would sub for Pat or Big Dog. His game is complementary to theirs. Kwan is and wants to remain a face-up power forward. He's the heir apparent to Tree, who will gain another season of eligibility at the end of this season. Having Kwan as a redshirt freshman backup to the fifth year senior Tree next season makes a lot of sense when looking at the Zips over the next five seasons. Sometimes we fans tend to focus on individual player talents from game to game whereas Coach Dambrot is more focused on team chemistry over the long haul. For example, a player might be good at playing one-on-one defense but have trouble adapting to the concept of team defense and miss assignments. Fans might miss that but good coaches don't. Regardless of anyone's personal opinion about how talented an individual player might appear, I trust that Coach Dambrot will make the best decision for the competitiveness of the Zips this season and beyond.

@akronzips71, I notice that unlike Coach Dambrot you have a pattern in your player evaluations of overlooking defense. Does DUH stand for Defense Unknown Here?

Great video. Quinn was right in saying that he didn't think the GK was expecting the SOG, as you can see in the video that the GK takes a hop forward before stepping back and jumping. Even with that it appears that the ball almost brushes his fingertips. Had he anticipated Quinn's shot and not taken that hop forward, he may have been able to stop it.

No point spread yet, but TeamRankings does project the odds of the Zips beating CC at 92%. By the way, stat guru Ken Pomeroy offered high praise for TeamRankings' preseason rating system in his blog:

One day left before we learn the Zips' redshirt plans. Any freshman who plays tomorrow night is not on Coach Dambrot's redshirt list. All indications are that Big Dog will play. It's questionable if any of the other three freshmen will. Kwan has obviously become a fan favorite with his unique skill set of size, speed, ball handling, rebounding and outside shooting. BJ and Aaron have also looked good, but are they good enough to take PT away from the veterans? Defense is the key. As everyone here knows, Coach Dambrot rewards those who perform best on defense with more PT. All of the HS scouting on Big Dog praised his defensive abilities, and he gave a hint of that against an overpowered D3 Bluffton team with four blocks and no personal fouls. Kwan, BJ and Aaron also received praise for their defense in HS. The question is how that will translate to D1 college play, where the players are bigger, faster, stronger and more skilled. Over the course of their college careers, I think that all four freshmen will impress Zips fans and help keep the program on an upward trajectory. But any freshman who doesn't play tomorrow night will only have his redshirt burned if something happens in the next few games that convinces Coach Dambrot the veterans need more help.

I give last season's Coastal Carolina team credit for being a sub-.500 team that played their best game in an emotional effort at their new arena opening to beat in overtime a decimated Zips team that they would have had little chance to beat at full strength. This season's CC team is ranked by TeamRankings as #248 in the country while the Zips are #80. Why shouldn't Zips fans feel confident? It would be a shocking result if the highly motivated Zips don't soundly defeat the Chanticleers at the JAR.

@LZip, most teams would have trouble at Coastal Carolina if their two starting forwards were ineligible to play and their starting point guard and backup wing were hobbled with ankle and knee injuries. CC had a season record of 14-15 against teams that were playing at a lot closer to full strength than the Zips were in that game.

Oops, still working on my soccer terms.

Really, it's a little surprising that Ole Miss would reward Coastal Carolina's game in Oxford last season with a return game in Conway this season. I can understand why a big school wouldn't want to risk playing at the JAR against a dangerous Zips team. But it's unusual for a big school to play on the road at any small school, even one like CC that doesn't represent much of a challenge for Ole Miss. This is the exception and not the rule.

Goal! Quinn on a beautiful long shot. Zips win 2-1.

Second OT.

Zips lead PSU in shots 24-9 and shots on goal 8-4.

Going into overtime at 1-1.

I was just going to report the sad news that the Zips were trailing 1-0 at the 80th minute. But in the 82nd minute, Quinn scores on a penalty shot as a PSU player gets a red card.

In addition to all of the above, there were still more elements working against the Zips in last year's CC game. Rico had a badly sprained ankle and limped around for only 29 of 45 minutes in the OT game, and Chauncey had an injured knee that would a few weeks later require surgery. Both were hurting and neither had a good game. The result was that Jake and Reggie, true freshmen playing in their first game against a D1 college opponent, were on the floor 42 and 34 minutes respectively. With the current full and healthy Zips roster, it's payback time.

Considering the drawing power of Coastal Carolina in Akron, a sellout -- or even a near sellout -- is the first baby step toward making a case for a new arena. The Zips need to cooperate by putting on a show for the fans and winning impressively.

Lunardi starts this season's bracketology off by taking the traditional approach of giving last season's MAC champion a #14 seed, with the Zips playing #3 seed tOSU in Buffalo. This dates way back to May 15, so probably not a lot of thought given to the actual composition of the teams.

I'm guessing that ESPNU gets to make the call on starting time. Checking online, the currently posted ESPNU schedule only goes out 7 days to Nov. 12. So we're a couple of weeks away from seeing the official ESPNU schedule for Nov. 29. Hopefully there'll be an announcement sooner than that.

You'd think that the Zips getting blown out as a #12 seed last season and losing Zeke and Rico would hurt the Zips in this season's bracketology. But Jerry Palm's first take on CBS Sports is outrageously positive -- Zips represent the MAC with a #11 seed playing #6 seed Iowa in San Antonio. Respect for the Zips basketball program continues to grow.

Don’t call Isaiah Johnson by his first name. He prefers Big Dog.

One thing's for sure -- it's a lot easier to talk tough about playing through injuries when it's someone else's body. Whatever KP16's physical problems may be, I suspect we may not find out for sure until after the season. Sometimes coaches and players don't like to get too specific about injuries being played through. If he requires surgery, he's probably more than just dinged up.

@Z.I.P., the poll you linked to shows VCU with 50 points, so the 56 must have been a typo.

@Hilltopper, what meds are you on? It was the Ball State game. Your memory is supposed to be better than mine.

It's usually the case when you play a team you're favored to beat that a win doesn't gain you much because it's expected, but a loss really hurts.