Dave in Green

It can simultaneously be a shame that the public will no longer be able to stay in this unique, historical place, and a positive that UA saved it from possible destruction for lack of being able to attract enough of the public to keep it in business. These are not mutually exclusive propositions.

You missed the point. The point was that some talking heads had it right about who was going to be drafted and who wasn't (including Zeke) because they had better league connections. They knew better than others how NBA teams were going to speak before they spoke. Of course it matters whether or not what people say matches up with what happens. You learn who to trust more and who to trust less for future reference. It's like sales people. Most of them promise more than they deliver. A few deliver what they promise and can be trusted slightly more.

Thanks for the warning. I wept tears of joy when I saw all the numbers at that link. We already know that players who don't perform at a high level in professional sports tend to have shorter careers, and those numbers just help quantify it. Zeke's NBA playing time and career length will be directly related to his performance, just like every other player. If no team thinks he has a chance, he won't get an undrafted free agent contract. If he does get a contract, it won't last long if he doesn't show that he's progressing into a useful contributor. If he becomes a useful contributor but his development flattens, he'll quickly get replaced by a higher level contributor. Zeke certainly does have the physical ability to be a go-to starter in the NBA. He now must demonstrate the will, mental toughness and work ethic it takes to develop his full physical potential at an NBA level.

According to Sam Amico, the five teams that have already contacted Zeke with interest after the draft are the Philadelphia 76ers, Orlando Magic, Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs. If no other teams contact him, then he will likely end up signing a free agency agreement with one of those five. All other things being equal, I like the Spurs organization best for developing players like Zeke, so I'm voting for them. But all the circumstances for each team are not yet locked into place, what with trades, free agency, etc. So one of the other teams could end up offering the best overall opportunity for a center with Zeke's skills.

Disappointing, but not a total surprise. Some mock drafters have good connections with NBA teams, and they tend to get it more right than those who don't. But there was agreement among virtually all that this was going to be the most unpredictable draft in the last decade. Thinking back on past NBA drafts, things used to be a lot different. Consider this Wikipedia entry: Looking at it optimistically, Zeke would probably have been an early 3rd round choice prior to 1989, with no say in which team he went to. The NBPA was smart to negotiate a 2-round draft, which gives players beyond the 60 selected an opportunity to try to find the best fit. Zeke is one of five quality players, including St. Mary's PG Matthew Dellavedova, Temple SG Khalif Wyatt, NC State SF C.J. Leslie and Illinois State PF Jackie Carmichael named to this Lost Lettermen list: And Bleacher Report lists Zeke as #1 on this list: In addition to the Lakers, Amico also reports on twitter that Zeke has been contacted by the 76ers, Magic, Blazers and Spurs. If Zeke picks the right organization with the right circumstances and shows well in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, he still has a fair shot at the NBA. A lot of those Summer League games are streamed online, so we'll have a chance to see just how well Zeke adapts. After that it may be clearer whether playing in Europe or with the D League (for one year, anyway) makes the most sense for both Zeke and the NBA team that's most interested in him.

So, 8 of the first 30 are centers, and some team is going to be called extremely smart and fortunate to draft Jeff Withey early in the second round. Zeke is going to start looking better and better to a lot of teams the closer they get to #60.

San Antonio passed on Withey at #28 and picked a small forward. That improves the odds that the Spurs may be holding out to go after Zeke at #58, as they definitely have a need for a big rim protector.

Seven centers in the first 22 selections. There are only a few centers left ranked ahead of Zeke, and 38 draft picks to go.

Two hours before the draft, The Big Man Blog divides the centers in the draft into five tiers: Zeke is ranked in Tier 4 along with Colton Iverson, Marko Todorovic and DeWayne Dedmon -- not a glowing endorsement but better than not NBA caliber. As long as Zeke gets a fair chance to prove himself, the amateur talent evaluators can say anything they want.

Ed Isaacson's (@nbadraftblog) final mock draft now has Zeke going #48 to the Los Angeles Lakers.

NBA Draft day, and final mock drafts are still appearing. Hoops Analyst ranks Zeke #47 in his final Top 60 list with the following comments:

@GoZips, don't go trying to sneak a bogus number by me. McAdams is listed at 6-7, not 6-6. In my mind, Q is a college wing. He can play both the 2 and 3 positions almost equally well, and can also serve as a reasonable backup at the 1 spot. The most important point is that he is flexible enough to fill whatever role the Zips most need. For the coming season, I think there's general agreement that the team's greater need is for Q to fill the hole left by the loss of the Zips' starting 2 (Brian Walsh). But if the dire situation should arise that Melo and Nyles Evans can't adequately handle the point, it's especially good to have Q standing ready to bail the Zips out of a bad situation.

Holy crap! I never imagined seeing Zipmeister going all statistical on us. I think there was a missed decimal point there, as my math shows an average annual 2.34% arrest rate for NFL players (640/27,328 = 0.0234 = 2.34%). According to FBI statistics, the estimated arrest rate for the United States in 2011 was 3,991.1 arrests per 100,000 inhabitants, which translates to 3.99%. So that means that the average US citizen is about 1.7 times more likely to be arrested in a given year than an NFL player. The difference is that the NFL player will get way more publicity than the average citizen.

NBC Sports gets it a little wrong, seeing Q as more of a frontcourt than backcourt player. The reporter, Raphielle Johnson, appears to have modest knowledge of Zips personnel. But I appreciate the attention to Zips basketball. Link.

@Sergeant Zip, it's funny that I've visited that website before without seeing that reasonably positive evaluation of Zeke. It seems to be a little at odds with the rest of the rankings on that site. They rank Zeke only #16 among all centers in the draft and #76 among all players. Zeke's name does not appear among the 60 players they have in their mock draft. We'll see what happens in a little over 24 hours.

Coincidental to this discussion, ESPN Insider has just posted a good evaluation of Zips basketball recruiting, which I just started a new thread on in the basketball recruiting forum here.

ESPN Insider has just posted a college basketball piece entitled: 10 teams to watch in recruiting -- How top programs from non-power leagues are shaping up heading into 2014. Conveniently, the first team mentioned and the only one visible without being a paying Insider member happens to be the Akron Zips. Pretty impressive that the Zips are considered one of the country's top 10 teams from outside the power conferences. Here's the first part of the story:

Awesome George Thomas story on Zeke: Link.

I think all these 3- and 4-star recruits may indicate that OU is starting to reap the rewards for that Sweet 16 run. Can't enjoyed that recruiting advantage for years after their Elite 8 run, but have recently shown signs of finally running out of momentum. The Zips are also recruiting at a higher level than in previous years. But it's awfully hard to attract multiple 3- and 4-star recruits without having demonstrated the ability to win NCAA tournament games.

@akronzips71, I remember our conversation on the bad video feed. It was definitely the game at Can't. I was there and said that the colors didn't look to be as distorted in the building as you were seeing on TV. There are so many things that can go wrong with a broadcast. The quality of the cameras changes from game to game, and the video producers have varying levels of expertise. The problem is compounded when it's an internet feed. Watching an internet feed from a computer into a TV can introduce more problems. I've watched some games through the internet on my big plasma screen that were almost as good as broadcast HD TV, and others that were total garbage. It's a real crapshoot. I think that's what Dr Z was referencing with his GIGO description -- if you feed a garbage internet broadcast into your TV you'll get garbage out no matter how good your TV.

Sam Amico's latest mock draft has Zeke falling from the 54th to the 58th selection, but to a great destination -- San Antonio Spurs

Duquesne's RPI over the last five seasons (most recent first) has been #218, #99, #95, #122 and #75. If they stay where they were last season, they would hurt the Zips' SOS. If they go back to being a top 100 RPI, they would make a decent OOC opponent on par with the top few MAC teams.

No report yet on how Zeke's workout with the Cavs went today. But the PD just posted a Terry Pluto piece entitled Akron Zips' Zeke Marshall out to end Mid-American Conference drought in NBA Draft 2013.

@Zip2Go, that's great news. I see that the Spurs have scheduled a workout with Nick Minnerath on Thursday, the day of the draft. That doesn't leave a lot of time to come to a team decision!

Sporting News features Zeke in the lead of a story on mid-major player poaching: