Dave in Green

@Quickzips, if it was the UA compliance office that inadvertently violated the NCAA rule and not the players, do you not think that the NCAA could come up with a more appropriate punishment to fit the offense? For example, in the case where the student-athletes are actually in compliance but a clerical error screws up the formal paperwork, it seems to me that a reasonable punishment might be to fine the university for creating a minor paperwork headache for the NCAA. This is quite different from the students not actually being in compliance and the university trying to cover it up, which obviously merits a more serious punishment.

Does the "papers please" scene from Casablanca make more sense now?

I'm not familiar with all the NCAA rules -- who is? But I believe it's possible that if Egner plays in even a single game, his ability to transfer this season might be compromised, if that's the course of action he's considering.

The NCAA is concerned that student-athletes are well prepared to face life after college. I'm absolutely certain that's what's going on here. One of life's most important lessons is that life is not fair. Many times in life we are faced with situations where innocent people are punished despite doing nothing wrong while connivers game the system and escape with no punishment. Part of the maturation process is to learn to come out of such situations a stronger, wiser person. Tree and Nick should feel flattered and honored that they were selected by the NCAA to receive this advanced life lesson at such an early age.

True dat.

I've personally heard no evidence that anyone deliberately did anything to try to get any Zips players to miss games. To the best of my knowledge a technical error was made somewhere in the bowels of UA that may result in two players having to temporarily sit out despite having done nothing wrong. If it was the result of an honest mistake, then there was a lesson learned and everyone involved can move on a little wiser. If it proves to be a deliberate act, then UA has an internal problem that needs to be appropriately dealt with at higher levels.

@GP1, I really like your idea of playing every team in your division every year. Of course, it would help if the MAC could stick with an even number of teams -- 12 would be perfect. An even dozen MAC teams could each have five games every season against every other team in their division, two or three against teams from the other division, and four or five OOC games for a nicely rounded schedule. Good thinking.

Anyone who had the facts shared with them in confidence would no longer be considered trustworthy if they spilled the beans.

No.

My understanding is that Tree and Nick have done nothing wrong. If they are forced to sit out, it would be due to a technicality totally unrelated to anything they have done and for which they have absolutely no blame.

Outside shooting was always Green's best skill. He shot lots of 3s in HS and scored lots of points. Even in Zips warmup drills you could see that he had a nice 3-point stroke. He just couldn't work his way into the Zips lineup due to so many more talented players ahead of him. Good to see he's found a place where he can show his skills. I'll bet he likes the weather there more, too.

Good rule to stop the cheaters. There was never any doubt about the legitimacy of Pat's situation.

Thanks! I'm mostly a basketball fan, but am blown away by the accomplishments of Zips soccer.

Trying to answer a couple of questions, the only official word I've seen on Rico is that he would miss the two exhibition games. He didn't appear to be limping too badly tonight. And the final score was 106-67. Also, I should add that Deji showed me a lot tonight. He played more minutes than anyone but Zeke, and all aspects of his game looked good, from ball handling to shooting to defending to rebounding. Deji appears to be a flexible player who is capable of stepping in and filling many different roles. It's always good to have a qualified "uitlity player" on the roster. And, speaking of Zeke, he appeared to be more focused on rebounding tonight than we've come to expect, and ended up with 13 boards.

I hope you folks are too busy celebrating to report a final score.

Justice was the big surprise in this game. He looked like a different player from the one we saw against Tiffin. He showed a lot of confidence shooting, handling the ball and on defense. He looked like someone determined to work his way into the rotation. Didn't really see anything to change my thinking about Forsythe, Kretzer, McAdams or Melo. They're all ready to play key roles as freshmen. Same with the veterans in that there's not a lot new to report about their abilities to perform. A couple of interesting sidelights included Chauncey ditching his knee support at halftime and playing with more fluidity in the second half. Also, Tree appeared to be off in the first half and only played 5 minutes, so I'm guessing he might have some kind of bug that was slowing him down. Finally, the highlight of the night for me was a defensive play by Harney. He's not noted for taking a charge, and is more likely to step out of the way. But tonight he planted himself and got knocked on his fanny by a Malone player. All the Zips coaches jumped out of their seats and cheered, and KD made a point of lying down flat on the floor in front of the bench to acknowledge Harney's self-sacrifice. All the Zips players were smiling and laughing for several minutes. So now we know that this Zips team is capable of blowing D-II teams out of the arena without difficulty. How will that translate into performances against tougher opponents? I'm optimistic, but understand that there are skeptics. On to Coastal Carolina.

I believe that KD and his staff go out of their way to help all Zips players find the best situation for their particular circumstances. If a Zips scholarship player finds himself at the end of the bench due to being outperformed by other scholarship players, and if that player really wants to play basketball somewhere, I'm confident that he will get a lot of help to find the best possible situation for his skill level. Dakotah Euton had a great season at Asbury University last year, earning a spot on the 2011-12 KIAC Men’s Basketball All-Conference Team, and Michael Green will certainly be enjoying his time in Hawaii (right, Z.I.P.? ) playing for giant killer Chaminade.

After watching Egner play a number of HS games, I was really impressed with his potential to help bring a new level of athleticism to the Zips. I was convinced that Egner would bring more to UA than his HS teammate Mark Henniger would bring to Can't. To date, neither player has been able to fully translate their starring HS performances at the college level. Unlike when Egner was signed, the Zips are now loaded with players who are both athletic and skilled. If Egner was not injured when he sat out the Tiffin game, then it's certainly looking more as if he might end up in a similar situation as his fellow 2010-11 Zips recruits Dakotah Euton and Michael Green.

Good thoughts, Quickzips. First, you ask if the Zips can have more than 9 players in the regular rotation. Last season 9 players averaged 15.3 to 30.5 minutes a game. Adding a 10th player to the rotation only reduces everyone else's PT by 11%, or, say down slightly to 14 to 27 minutes per game. If KD is going to demand that the players put out more effort with a pressing defense this season, it might make sense to reduce everyone's PT by about 11% and keep them all a little fresher. Of course, this is all dependent on the number of players who can be major contributors in the rotation. While it remains to be seen which of the newcomers is up to playing against top DI competition, there's a distinct possibility they all are. In that case, a 10-man rotation makes a lot of sense. Coincidentally, 10 Zips players in the Tiffin game had 15 to 25 minutes of PT, and an 11th player had 7 minutes. I'm guessing that the 10 players who had double-digit minutes represent 9 of the 10-man rotation (minus Rico) that KD sees right now based on the season drills and practices leading up to the game. I'm guessing that KD was looking for signs that each of those 10 players either fit or didn't fit into a regular season rotation. If someone playing longer minutes shows signs that they can't deliver, they could be shuffled out and, in the case of true freshmen, redshirted. Based on everyone's initial impressions, it appears as if Kretzer may be the biggest question mark of the 10 double-digit-minute players even though he looked pretty darned good. Saturday's exhibition game will provide more clues. If anyone's going to redshirt, that will be their last appearance of the season barring injury. It's important to have ball handlers/distributors, scorers, rebounders. defensive forces, experience and energy players on the court all the time to keep the pressure up on the opponent all the time. KD has a history of trying different lineups for much of the early part of the season to see which combinations produce the best results together. So it's entirely possible he might try something like you suggest with Walsh. We know that the Zips are now solid 2-deep at center (Zeke and Pat) and PG (Rico and Melo). I think it makes sense to be 2-deep at all the other positions, as well. I think the talent level of the Zips roster may be deep enough now for a 10-player rotation. But I reserve the right to change my mind at any time.

The two teams combined for 153 field goal attempts -- 79 by the Zips and 74 for Tiffin -- in 40 minutes of play. That averages out to a shot every 16 seconds. There wasn't a lot of standing around.

A few morning after thoughts: Tiffin is a decent DII team with more height than typical on the roster (6-11, 6-9, 6-8, 6-7, 6-7, 6-6, etc.). But Tiffin is still a guard-oriented team. Joe Graessle (6-3 guard #33) demonstrated why he led the GLIAC in 3-pointers last season and set a Tiffin school record. Tiffin is somewhat similar to OU, so it was a good first test to see how the bigger Zips could apply their new defense against a bunch of quick guards. It worked pretty well in the second half. But the way Tiffin's guards got open looks in the first half suggests that OU will once again be a big challenge for the Zips, who are bigger but a little slower than the Bobkitties. Tree continues to demonstrate more of a leadership role for the Zips. His intensity is as great as last season, and his motor looks even stronger due to better conditioning. He sets a great example for the rest of the team, and I expect there will be times when he will take over games this season. With 12 rebounds in 23 minutes, 6 at the offensive end, he appears to be ready to once again challenge for national leadership in offensive rebounding percentage this season. The biggest challenge to Tree in that category might come from his new teammate. Forsythe had a remarkable 12 rebounds in just 15 minutes, with 7 of those coming at the offensive end. Having 7 offensive rebounds in just 15 minutes is extraordinary, and reinforces that his high offensive rebounding percentage in the 7 games he played last year for WVU before his season-ending injury was no fluke. In Tree and Forsythe, the Zips have two of the best offensive rebounders in the country. No surprise that the Zips demolished Tiffin, and will do the same to Malone. John Carroll and Coastal Carolina also do not produce significant challenges for this Zips team. But with all the new players the Zips have to sort out, it's good that they have a pair of exhibition games and a couple of weaker opponents in their first two games before facing off against Oklahoma State in PR. This season's Zips team has huge potential and will get great results if they apply themselves.

Elton definitely has a different view of the world than his peers. Indiana's Cody Zeller was a near-unanimous selection on the AP pre-season All America team, falling just one vote shy. Of the 65 sports writers voting on the team, 64 voted for Zeller. Only Elton did not. He explains why here.

Egner didn't play, and Justice saw only a little time. The Zips roster is loaded with talented players, and PT is going to be hard to earn. At one point there were four freshmen on the floor who weren't at UA last season (Melo, Kretzer, McAdams and Forsythe), and they looked strong with few freshman mistakes. I can't imagine any of them being redshirted. They all looked as good against Tiffin as they've looked in practice. It turned out that Deji backed up Melo at the point, and did a decent job even though he's really more of a 2. McAdams did run the offense for awhile, and did a nice job of bringing the ball upcourt and dishing. I really expected Melo and Forsythe to fit right in from day one. But McAdams and Kretzer are exceeding my expectations. I didn't realize they would be so polished from day one. Add them in with the veterans, who all played well tonight, and this is one impressive team. For those who doubted how talented Forsythe is, tonight was just the tip of the iceberg. Forsythe is a complete player -- a 6-11 guy who can do it all. He rebounds with a lot of the ferocity of Tree, blocks shots with a lot of the range of Zeke, takes the ball to the bucket with a lot of the confidence of Harney and shoots free throws with a lot of the form and smoothness of Walsh. KD said on the radio broadcast that Forsythe and Zeke could be on the floor together at times this season, and that will be a nightmare for Zips' opponents. It's really a great time to be a Zips' basketball fan.

While it's true that a typical 3rd string PG rarely gets to play barring injury, a point forward can be very effective in helping break an opponent's fullcourt pressure defense. I recall a few situations where the Serb helped take pressure off the Zips guards by dribbling the ball upcourt, and by all accounts McAdams is a better ball handler than the Serb.