Dave in Green

Good find. It's great to be able to watch the Zips players in action even if the "game" is loose and doesn't count for anything. Zeke's shooting was way off. I think I counted 0-5 hooks for the whole game. But I don't worry so much about his shooting in the regular season because he's improved every year. He led the team in scoring average last season, and shot 54% from the field and 70% free throws. I think he just wasn't hitting in this summer game. His defense was OK, and his rebounding was weak. He watches the ball a lot as it comes off the backboard but doesn't do much to position himself. On one play it was just him and a much shorter opponent on the side where the rebound came off, and Zeke's feet stayed locked to the floor with his hands at his sides as the shorter kid jumped in and took it away. He's just the polar opposite of Tree when it comes to going after rebounds. McAdams is easy to spot because he is the spitting image of Nitro except taller. His outside shot is sweet and deadly. I thought he looked good overall. Harney is also easy to spot with his flat-footed outside set shot. He looked smooth and relaxed while filling it up from both inside and out. The player I enjoyed watching most was Melo. That kid has some smooth moves. He appears to have Rico's deceptive quickness and ability to lull a defender and then beat him with a burst of speed. His passing is crisp and authoritative. He also makes good decisions on the fly. Melo looks ready to play backup PG right now. I think this is a brief description of that game (love the reference to "Carmel Blelemo") : Game 2. Leff Electric vs Team 330 Leff Electric Defeats Team 330 --- 77 to 76 Team 330 was led by Akron U. Nick Harney 22 pts. Akron U. soon to be freshman Deji Ibitay added 14 pts. Former Fairmount St. guard Jamar Wesley chipped in 14 pts. Team Captain John West added 14 pts. Ryan Special EFX Williams contributed 6 pts. Leff Electric was led by Unsigned Cleveland Ohio guard Dawan Cline who tallied 23 pts. Akron U. Reggie McAdams added 18 pts. Akron U. Carmel Blelemo and Ezekiel Marshall both contributed 11 pts a piece. Lastly Cleveland St. Walk On Khyler Fields chipped in 9 pts

Physicians have a name for it. Pharmaceutical companies are working on a medication to treat it. It's called premature speculation.

When I listen to what people close to Zeke are saying about him, I hear that he has been working hard on his physique, skills and attitude. Everything I hear leads me to believe that he fully understands the importance of his senior season -- to UA, to his teammates and to his own future. I expect to see a stronger, more confident and more aggressive Zeke this season. I don't expect to see a kid playing a game but a man investing in a future where the stakes are in the tens of millions of dollars.

Euton started playing basketball at a young age, and by the time he reached the 8th grade, he was seen as a basketball prodigy with an unlimited future. But in addition to starting early he also peaked early and never developed into the D-I star that many had predicted. Forsythe didn't touch a basketball until the 8th grade, and was a nobody through his junior year of HS, when he averaged a mediocre 5 points and 7 rebounds per game. He made a huge leap to elite status in his HS senior season, and was good enough not to redshirt at WV but to immediately be a productive center for Coach Huggins in the Big East until his season-ending injury. No one knows how big his upside might be because he started developing so late and has been developing so fast.

@GameChngr44 once again shows that she's all class. I agree that Cooper and the rest of the Bobkitties have the best winning attitude in the MAC. As talented as the Zips players are, they haven't demonstrated on court the attitude required to make the big breakthrough. The Zips definitely need to work on out-attituding the Kitties. I just don't know how much of OU's attitude came from within the players and how much was cultivated by Groce. We'll see what happens at Illinois and OU now that Groce has moved on. But please don't include me in the EVERYONE who has no idea what's going to happen with Zeke this season. I at least have an inkling.

Since WVU has officially announced it, I guess I'm now freed from my pledge not to say anything to anyone until something was official. I was told last week that the UA coaching staff believed that they were on the verge of landing a 6-11 player who would be Zeke's heir apparent at center. I was told that this player was not a project but would be a major contributor from day one. The player's name was not being shared for obvious reasons. All I have to say now is that I have a renewed sense of faith in some of my sources.

Found a little more circumstantial evidence. @JMUXL said in one of his tweets about Forsythe leaving WVU for UA that "Shmidty said he made it official today." The WVU basketball equipment manager is named Bubba Schmidt. The equipment manager would be the first to know if a player was cleaning out his locker. Again, nothing definite here, but lots of little clues fitting a pattern. It's now being accepted as fact on some of the WVU fan forums that Forsythe is transferring, and the fans seem genuinely disappointed. Some are speculating that he might not have to sit out a year if the move to be closer to his father is related to his father's health. It's a real longshot, but having Zeke and Forsythe playing together for a year would be pretty sensational if everything works out for the best.

Here's a good story and video interview with Forsythe from last month about him coming back from his injuries and playing in a Pro-Am league against highly touted Pitt center Steven Adams, who is currently being projected as a lottery pick in the 2013 NBA draft: Back In Action And here's a real personal interest story about the problems Forsythe experienced throughout his childhood and how he overcame them (note that the writer accidentally reversed Patrick's name with that of his father, David): Forsythe’s story one of resolve Based on the story above, it sounds as if the family environment fostered by KD and UA would be perfect for Forsythe.

Forsythe played at WVU as a true freshman. He did not redshirt. But he was recently granted a medical waiver after missing most of his freshman season due to a stress fracture. So, in effect, last season could be considered to be the same as if he had redshirted in terms of having five years of eligibility in order to play four seasons. Source: Pat Forsythe Granted Medical Hardship Waiver If he voluntarily transfers from WVU to another D-I school, he's going to have to sit out a season. That means that he would not be eligible to play with the Zips this season should it turn out that he really is coming to UA. That would use up his second of five years, and he would be eligible to play for the Zips for three seasons. Again, if this all comes to pass, it would be huge for the Zips. A player with Forsythe's size and skill set who was ready to play as a true freshman at a quality school like WVU is a rarity. To have a genuine major-major talent be able to step in at center the first season that Zeke is gone would be a recruiting coup of epic proportions for KD.

The Justin Miller on Twitter (@JMUXL) says he got the news from his father. If you search for UXL, the first hit is UXL Sports & Fitness in Brunswick, OH. A Bruce Miller is listed as co-owner of UXL. Obviously not confirmed, but I'd say odds are good that Bruce Miller is Justin Miller's father, and that he probably has a pretty tight connection with the Forsythe family from Pat's early basketball days in Brunswick. Good find, Zach.

Here's an older article with some perspective on Forsythe being a late bloomer in HS who suddenly captured the attention of the big-time coaches: Brunswick’s Pat Forsythe gets big-time offers

I expect to see a different Zeke this season. He's no longer the skinny little kid he was when he first arrived. Tbis season, Zeke will be a 22-year-old man. He's still adding bulk, and it's all muscle. He's starting to get more of an attitude. At least that's what some who know him better than I do are saying. Anyway, Zeke's Mom will be back on the forum before long and straighten us all out.

Someone who should know left a subtle hint on how serious Zeke is about an NBA career right here.

One intangible about Zeke is that he tends to have his strongest performances when he's playing head-to-head against other good bigs of comparable size and ability. For example, when ESPN's Myron Medcalf recently named Zeke one of the nation's 10 best shot blockers for next season, he said: Mississippi State’s Arnett Moultrie had one of his worst games of the season against the Zips due to Marshall’s defense. The 6-11 Moultrie was a first-round NBA draft choice, the 27th player picked this year. In college, Zeke only gets to go up against NBA caliber bigs like Moultrie a couple of times a year. In the NBA, he would be doing it almost every night. Does Zeke just have a hard time getting motivated against lesser opponents? Would Zeke rise to the occasion in the NBA and be motivated to shut down the opponent's best big every night? Hard to say what the answer is. But you can bet that NBA scouts will be focused on how Zeke performs against the best college bigs he goes up against. This is one of the intangibles that could earn Zeke a higher draft rating than his overall college performance might seem to merit.

Nice comment from CBS: Still a work in progress, but there's plenty to work with. Most of the mock 2013 drafts have Zeke a mid-to-late second-round pick. He really controls his destiny here. If he doesn't show progress for the Zips this season, he could fall out of the draft completely. If he gets it in his head how many more millions he could make in the NBA versus the computer business, and if he wants it bad enough, Zeke has the tools to become a more dominant player and even move up to a first-round NBA draft pick. It's going to come down to desire and motivation.

Yeah, no question that not everyone believes researching facts is time well spent. As for "semantics," there's really no debate about the meaning of GoZips' exact words:

No interview with Bobby Bowden, but a nice win for Tony Stewart. As for Almendinger, this has to be the first time that a Roger Penske driver has ever been suspended for violation of a substance abuse policy.

Great to hear Grand Marshall Bobby Bowden on TV just give the command to the NASCAR field at Daytona to "Start your dadgum engines!" Will be interesting to see if he's interviewed during the race, and gets in a mention of his son coaching the Zips. Those Bowdens are everywhere!

@skip-zip, if you're referring to the old rumor that GoZips predicted here that the Zips would be a Sweet 16 team in basketball, I thought we killed that one a long time ago. Try a search for all of GoZips' old posts where he used the word "sweet." GoZips predicted that the Zips men's soccer team would make the Sweet 16, and he mentioned that the goal of the men's basketball team was to make it to the Sweet 16. He never predicted that the men's basketball team would make it to the Sweet 16, nor did anyone else on ZN.o that I'm aware of.

It will be interesting to see where the Zips end up in the College Sports Madness preseason rankings as they are slowly rolled out from bottom to top over the coming weeks and months. Following are the teams (including Cleveland State) that have already been ranked below the Zips for the 2012-2013 season in the Top 144 Previews: #129 Jacksonville State #130 Cleveland State #131 Penn State #132 Boston University #133 Sam Houston State #134 Cal State Fullerton #135 Charleston Southern #136 Princeton #137 George Washington #138 Manhattan #139 Savannah State #140 Indiana State #141 LSU #142 Denver #143 Texas Southern #144 St. John's

Heard that the Zips may have a walk-on replacement for Oldham -- Darius Hoisten, a 6-5 forward out of Garfield HS. Hoisten averaged 17 points and 10 rebounds a game his senior season. Don't know anything about him other than that he has been seen in open practices with the Zips. If true, welcome aboard, Darius!

Everything in that article fits with my understanding of UA's reasoning for wanting Tressel and Tressel's reasons for coming to UA, which I picked up from various good sources. So the article doesn't in any way change my opinion of the situation, which I've stated in previous Tressel threads. On balance, it's going to be a longterm win-win for both UA and Tressel. Akron Magazine

Two years ago, Cheatham was a raw, skinny, 6-3 kid who wasn't getting much attention from any colleges. Two years later, he's 6-9, 200+ pounds and popping up on the radar of schools like Dayton, Cincinnati and Xavier. Cheatham visited the UA campus Friday and his HS coach says he received an offer from the Zips, which is believed to be his first offer. Cheatham is currently ranked by Rick Bolus in the third best 25 of Ohio’s Top Rising Prospects For 2012-2013. But Bolus ranks only three bigs above him who are 6-9 or taller. It will be interesting to see if he moves up in the Bolus rankings this season. All reports say that he plays more like a wing than a power forward, which is understandable considering how small he was just two years ago. In this respect, he's similar to Cameron Black (Can't Roosevelt, BGSU), who grew from a 3-point shooting wing into a 6-10 power forward/center over his last three years of HS. Scouting reports say that Cheatham needs to develop an inside game to take advantage of his growing height and weight. The Zips coaching staff obviously believes in Cheatham's upside or they wouldn't have offered him. One clarification to my earlier post: Cheatham is built more like Harney than Tree. He's muscular, but not built like a Tree. He doesn't rebound with ferocity but is more of a finesse player ..... so far.

Turns out that Kwan (not Kwame) Cheatham is on a growth spurt. He may have been 6-6, 190 pounds in the previous link I posted, but he's listed at 6-8, 200 pounds in a more recent listing on Rivals. And he's the fifth player listed among Ohio's top 75 HS prospects here. Better yet, someone who actually saw Kwan last week on the UA campus says he looks more like 6-9, 220 pounds now with a muscular physique similar to Tree. Best scenario is a cross between Tree and Harney -- tough rebounder with smooth moves to the hoop.

A 6-6, 190-pound "scoring minded inside-outside wing that likes to shoot the three pointer" sounds more like a wing than a power forward to me. TripleDoubleProspects.com