Dave in Green

Right, Coaches vs. Cancer breakfast. Lots of local coaches there.

McAdams is going to surprise a lot of people with his ability to do a lot of things really well. He's really a point forward -- a forward who can handle the ball so well that he can easily sub at the point. He was the guy who ran the offense for Elida in the HS championship game last season. Last season the Zips lost some games they shouldn't have lost when Rico hurt his knee and wasn't playing at full speed until several games after his surgery. Having both Melo and McAdams on the roster this season is a huge insurance policy that is going to pay early dividends. Unlike last season, the Zips are deep at the point.

ND's RPI benefits greatly from the Big East's average conference RPI. Note that 4 of the top 8 and 10 of the top 43 teams in RPI are from the Big East. The Big East puts a high priority on soccer.

Rico twisted his ankle yesterday during practice. I'm pretty sure it's a sprain, but don't know the severity or expected recuperation time. AFAIK, everyone else on the team is free of injury.

Link to an extensive official custom apparel catalog located on UA website here.

Zips need our help. They're currently not doing so well in the ESPN poll question: Which dark horse team has the best chance to win the Puerto RicoTip-Off? To vote, go to the following link, then scroll down to Special Topics in the lefthand column and click on CBB: 2012 Puerto RicoTip-Off. ESPN Polls

Irrelevant Notre Dame whips overrated Oklahoma to raise their record to 8-0.

That was a no excuses situation for OU on the Miami 7-yard line with 9 seconds left, no timeouts and trailing by 3. There's no problem trying a pass to win and throwing it away if no one's open. Worst case scenario is you intentionally ground it, take the 10-yard penalty and go for the 34-yard field goal attempt instead of the 24-yard attempt to tie it. Hanging on to the ball way too long, getting sacked and having the clock run out is inexcusable, especially so for an unbeaten and ranked team.

Lee, I completely understand the point about getting more game experience for the guy who is likely to be next season's starting QB, and it's a valid point. It's a tough call on what would be the biggest overall boost for the team going into next season. While there are valid points to be made on both sides, I think that the team delivering a second win this season is a little more important right now to the overall future situation than KP16 getting a little extra game experience this season.

Coach Bowden said before the season started: "Our goal this year is to win one more game than last year." Failing to make even this modest goal would be a terrible way to start his first season at UA, and it would be terrible for the players and fans, as well. I don't care who's at QB as long as the Zips win at least one more game this season. I'm for whichever QB Coach Bowden believes gives the Zips their best chance of winning this season. There's plenty of time to worry about next season after this one is done and gone.

If Q were still on the roster, the Zips would have 4 transfers in uniform this season -- Q (UNO), Gilliam (UMBC), Walsh (Xavier) and Forsythe (West Virginia). Not quite in EMU territory, but a big change from earlier KD teams.

Lack of depth is the thing I feared most going into this season. The Zips have failed to get the extraordinary good fortune they needed to avoid the kind of injuries that would deplete the team and make them less and less competitive against deeper teams as the season went on. At the beginning of the season we had a glimpse of what Coach Bowden could accomplish. But it will take more than a year or two to restock the roster to the point of being competitive throughout the season. It's hard for Zips fans to be patient. But that's really the only option.

@skip-zip, evaluating potential can never be entirely accurate because it relies on estimation, which is by nature based on impressions and opinion. Still, more data tends to produce more accurate estimations over the long run when properly processed. So even though viewing players in practice situations does not always accurately predict game performance, it does provide more data for consideration. Of course, all of the above does nothing to preclude the possibility that the sharpest basketball analyst with the most data might estimate wrong, while a casual fan with little data might guess right.

Evaluations prior to the start of the season are based on potential, and after the season on results. While it helps to attend practices to see with your own eyes how the new players stack up against the veteran players who are known quantities and how the vets have improved, it's not required in order to formulate an educated opinion. There's plenty of data out there to be studied and evaluated. I know several members of this forum who haven't attended any practices, but who reguarly state thoughtful opinions here. There's no doubt in my mind that this is the most talented group of Zips players I've ever seen, even with the unfortunate loss of Q. That means they have more potential than any other Zips team I've ever seen. Two of the most glaring weaknesses last season were the lack of a backup PG and center. Melo and Forsythe are both quality players who will keep the Zips humming along when Rico and Zeke are on the bench. Together with the returning veterans who now have at least a year of experience in the Zips system, this is a loaded team that has the potential to more than replace the Serb, Nitro and Q. This is a team that should win some games they aren't expected to win, and will probably lose some games they are expected to win. At the end of the season, I will be disappointed if they don't deliver an even better final RPI rating than the #60 they ended last season with. I fully expect them to come into the MAC tournament with a bigger chip on their shoulder than OU, earn an NCAA tournament berth and win at least one game there. They have the potential to do all of this, and we'll see as the season progresses how well they deliver.

Yes, but the news didn't really start popping until after 3 p.m. A lot of people would have had to know the news was coming to be checking on here a couple of hours earlier.

Looking at last season, the Zips had 9 players who averaged more than 15 minutes per game, and 3 of them are no longer with the team. I think it's likely they play at least 9 deep again this season. The 6 veterans who are virtual locks are Zeke, Rico, Gilliam, Walsh, Tree and Harney. The two newcomers who are almost certain to join them are Forsythe (skilled player and only other true center besides Zeke) and Melo (skilled player and only other true PG besides Rico). That leaves 1 or possibly 2 openings for significant PT, and 5 scholarship players vying for that time -- Egner, Deji, Justice, Kretzer and McAdams. The math says there just isn't enough PT available for several of those players. They'll all get a shot to show what they've got in practice and in the first couple of exhibition games. If Kretzer and McAdams are both performing too well to redshirt, they'll still have to outperform Egner, Deji and Justice to earn PT or they will just burn a year of eligibility glued to the bench.

Major traffic jam even with Q's unfortunate absence. The problem for weaker teams is that there aren't enough qualified subs to rest the starters. The problem for stronger teams is that there are too many qualified subs for the available PT. The second problem is a new one for the Zips, and another sign that this program is moving up.

One of the effects of adding Forsythe to the roster is that it moves Egner from backing up Zeke at center, a real stretch for Egner, to backing up Tree at PF, a position he can fill much more comfortably. Of course, we all know that KD will keep shuffling players around trying different combinations to see how they work together in different situations, especially early in the season. Toward the end of a close game against a team with a big front line where the Zips really need defensive stops and rebounds, the combination of Zeke, Forsythe and Tree could be really effective. I wouldn't expect to see it on a regular basis. But it's an option that few teams could effectively counter.

Assuming that Zeke averages about the same number of minutes per game as last season (26), that would leave 14 mpg for a backup center. From what I've seen so far, I believe that as Pat adapts to the Zips' system he will make a compelling case for playing more than 14 mpg. But I think at least at the beginning of the season while Pat is making a case for more PT, he probably will not be on the floor very often alongside Zeke. The most important time for the twin tower approach would come in post-season play, when the Zips are likely to go up against bigger, stronger teams than during the regular season. In the big games, I'd expect to see Zeke playing 30+ minutes as long as he avoids foul trouble. If Pat has proven himself by then, he could be up to 20+ minutes. That could put them on the floor together for 10+ minutes. All speculation at this point, of course. As for rebounding, we all know that Tree is a beast. He ranked #11 in the country in offensive rebounding percentage last season at 16.7%. In 7 games at WVU last season prior to his injury, Pat had an offensive rebounding percentage of 20.6%. That would have made him the #2 player nationally in offensive rebounding percentage had he played a full season at that rate. When Tree and Pat are on the court together, they are going to own the boards.

@LZip, the UA statement on Q said that his status with the university would be reevaluated "after May 12, 2013." His coaches and teammates want him back. But UA says the only way that happens is if he returns for next season, not the tail end of this season. @Kangaroo Craig, I'm not authorized to speak on behalf of KD. But I think I can safely say that you will see Zeke and Pat on the floor together at times this season, and when they are, the Zips are going to present a problem for other teams that no other MAC team has ever dreamed of. I think it bears repeating at this point for those who have not actually seen Pat Forsythe on a basketball court that he is not your typical mid-major 6-11 plodder who just occupies a lot of space. He's quick, agile, athletic and skilled. If he really wants it, he has future NBA potential. I'm still in a state of shock that the Zips will have two potential future NBA centers on the floor together this season. No guarantees, but the potential here is pretty stunning.

Huge.

Good coaching will get the most out of the talent available. Going into this game it was clear that Coach Bowden was getting more out of the talent available at UA than the previous coach. This game was a reminder that the Zips are not deep in talent. As the season wears on and players are sidelined or slowed by injuries, the deeper teams are going to look better and better compared with teams that are thinner in talent. Some of the Zips players looked like walking wounded limping onto the field, and it's a credit to their competitiveness that they had the heart to keep trying their best. BG had no shortage of bigger, fresher players to throw at the Zips. This is not the last time we will see this happen, especially in the second half when depth plays a bigger role than in the first half. I do appreciate Coach Bowden trying to take all the blame. Some of his second half coaching decisions may not have been the best. But this game was not lost on coaching decisions alone.

There were signs of improvement in the previous games that led to some optimism for this game. It turns out that today's game was a reality check on just how far down the Zips were and how far they have to come back to win games like this. They obviously lack size and depth. It showed up today the way they were pushed around in the second half, and the way that players who couldn't play at full speed were forced to play because there were no healthier backups who could have done better. They're performing better in every way from how they've done the past two seasons, yet wins are going to be hard to come by until the roster is strengthened. But no one can accuse the players of not having heart. They're giving all they have to give against long odds.

Kudos to tOSU QB Cardale Jones for tweeting what we all know is what you get when you turn college sports into big business and continue to label the players as "student athletes." Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL classes are POINTLESS. ESPN

You are correct. To summarize, UA announced that Q was suspended from the university through the end of the Spring 2013 semester for a violation of the university's Code of Student Conduct, and that his status with the university would be reevaluated after May 12, 2013. KD has stated in the media that he hopes that Q returns after the suspension to get his degree at UA. Forum member GoZips reports that Q's coaches, teammates and friends want him back on the team. Forum member I speak truth reports that Q understands that he made a bad decision, that he must now suffer the consequences, that he has accepted the responsibility for his actions, and that he looks forward to finishing his career in Akron next year.