Dave in Green

@Jalapeño Zippy, a couple of points: Gilliam did not have a couple of early TO's. The box score shows he only had 1 turnover for the whole game. Also Tree did not have 5 offensive TO's. He had 5 offensive rebounds, and was the only Zips player to have no turnovers. Tree has actually moved up in the national standings for offensive rebounding percentage. He was ranked 5th nationally and now he's 3rd. Only 2 D-I players in the country grab a higher percentage of offensive rebounds when they're on the floor than Tree. Another note from the game is that Egner was dressed and looked healthy in warmups. He didn't play, but then neither did his old Jackson HS teammate Henniger for the Felons. Egner is having a tough time earning PT with 9 other guys playing so well right now. It's odd to look at the box score from last night and see 9 players in double digit minutes with the leading scorer (Harney) having the fewest minutes at 14! It's pretty amazing balance when you see minutes played of 31, 29, 27, 22, 21, 21, 18, 16 and 14. The Serb played 27 minutes, but will not be here next season. Tree is likely to get the Serb's minutes next season, and Egner is the most likely player to get the backup frontcourt minutes that Tree has claimed this season. Hopefully Egner can raise his game another notch between now and then.

Among my favorite comments from the Can't forum game thread: Their bench players are better than our starters. And this exchange: Man, I hope this is not the beginning of the end. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After looking at Akron's roster, next year looks to be their best year too. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It helps to build with four-year guys.

Zips were down by 8 at the half, and things didn't look good. The early second half didn't look much better as the teams just kept trading scores. With 13:21 left in the game, Can't had expanded its lead to 9 and there was no sign that the Zips could stop Can't from scoring and score enough to catch up. Then, boom, the hammer fell. Over the next 10 minutes, the Zips went from a 9-point deficit to a 15-point lead -- a 24-point turnaround in 10 minutes. For an extended period during that run, there was only 1 player with 1 full year of experience with the Zips on the floor -- Q. The other 4 were Harney, Tree, Gilliam and Walsh. None of them were on the court for the Zips last season. They ripped Can't to shreds. They can't take all the credit. At times, Rico, Zeke, the Serb and Nitro also played important roles. But the sight of so many players on the floor at once with so little experience in Zips uniforms tearing out the Golden Felons' hearts was a sight and experience I will never forget. You really don't want to shortchange anyone, because this is really a team of 9 starters who all contribute more or less in every game. Whoever didn't have a great game tonight will have one the next game or the one after that. But you just can't keep your eyeballs in their sockets over Harney and Tree because they have so little organized basketball experience but they're so otherworldly. Honestly, I look at Harney standing there with the ball 10 feet from the basket with 2 Can't players between him and the bucket, and I tell myself there's no way he can get around them. And somehow he teleports himself past them and lays the ball on the rim so gently that it takes a couple of seconds to slowly roll in. The Can't players, who we formerly considered to be so athletic, have no chance at stopping Harney, and he drops 21 points in 14 minutes. Then there's Tree. He must have been born with a basketball gripped between his hands, and the doctor who delivered him couldn't pry it loose. When he's in the game, you know he's going to get the rebound, and no one is going to pry it loose from his hands. In just 16 minutes he grabs 9 rebounds. And his 5 offensive rebounds keeps him firmly in the top 10 in the country in offensive rebounding percentage. You want to see Harney and Tree play longer minutes because of how spectacular they are in their brief appearances. But toward the end of their brief stints, you see them breathing heavily and realize they've given it all and are running out of gas. They aren't used to playing long minutes of intense D-I basketball. They'll get better as the season goes on. But before they become full-time stars, they'll need to work hard on endurance training in the off-season. Like Zeke, they both have NBA potential. But there's a lot of hard work ahead. Gilliam also deserves a lot of credit for his performance in this game. I think it was his most complete performance as a Zip, both on offense and defense. He's especially effective when running with Q, Harney and Tree. These guys can all run and pass. And when they get out on a fast break, they can be spectacular. That 10-minute second-half run is what I've been hoping to see since I first saw this Zips team practice many months ago. This is what they are capable of doing now. They will be capable of more by the end of the season. They need to work hard and they need to get more consistent. But when they're on, they are the Sweet 16 team that GoZips predicted many months ago. I also want to add that I was honored to meet Q's parents tonight. They came in all the way from Dallas, Texas, to see their son play in the big game against Can't. I told them how very much I enjoyed watching Q play, and Q rewarded his parents and all of us with a great performance, especially during that magic 10-minute run in the second half.

OU wins it in the end and goes to 3-2 while Miami falls to 1-4. Buffalo and BGSU are both 2-2, so one of them will also be 3-2. If the Zips win, they have a 1-game lead over OU and either Buffalo or BGSU. A Zips loss would be tough to take, leaving them tied with 3 other teams for the East lead at 3-2. Let's not let that happen.

We're way far apart on the proposed capacity for this speculative Akron arena. Most recently mentioned number in this thread is 4-6k. Earlier, someone mentioned 12-15k. KD is on record as saying that 6-8k would be about right to grow the Zips basketball program. Maybe we can all at least reach some kind of consensus range that would work in Akron. I'll throw out a starter, and let's see if we can at least agree on a range. I'd say that 6k is the absolute rock bottom minimum for a JAR upgrade, as the JAR already seats 5.5k, sells out the occasional game already and has absolutely no room for growth if the Zips get even a little bit better and more popular than they are now. I'd say that 10k is the absolute max for a city the size of Akron, and that might be a little generous. So 6-10k strikes me as the target range for an Akron arena. Is everyone OK with eliminating anything lower or higher? Anyone think the range should be limited even more, i.e. 7-9k, etc.? Is KD's 6-8k estimate an insider's view that reflects knowledge he may have of the actual range being considered?

According to the PD story, which I have no reason to believe is not true, his basketball stats were a little better than what I'd seen at another source. Pretty impressive how quickly he went from a good basketball player to perhaps an even better offensive lineman. Also nice that he did it to honor his good friend.

I agree that it's a lot of fun discussing the possibilities. This is one of the kinds of discussions that makes ZN.o so interesting because different people bring different perspectives, and we all learn something. It should be a fairly straightforward process to benchmark arenas in similar-size markets. You simply look at the cost of adding and maintaining an ice rink to a multipurpose arena, and that will tell you how much money the ice rink portion would need to generate in order to carry its weight. If a lot of arenas across the country are making money on ice events, that suggests the odds might be good in Akron. If a lot of arenas are losing money on ice events, that should be a caution signal. Not having an ice rink does not mean an Akron arena could only be used for basketball. It only means that it could be used for every other type of event that doesn't require an ice rink. I see no reason why Zips basketball fans should oppose a multipurpose arena with an ice rink as long as the ice rink doesn't compromise basketball seating and doesn't cause an economic drag on the arena that causes it to be financially unsuccessful.

The reason Curtis Black took up football so late in his HS career is because he was previously focused on basketball like his brother, Cameron. While he wasn't a big scorer in basketball, he was a strong rebounder. In one of his junior season games playing center/power forward at Can't Roosevelt, Curtis grabbed 21 rebounds, and he averaged nearly 10 rebounds per game. His playing weight for basketball was 290 pounds, so he didn't have to bulk up too much to become an offensive lineman on the football team. The fact that he performed at a pretty high level on the basketball team is pretty impressive for an offensive lineman of his size.

The actual wording makes it sound more like a wish than a plan: Also, Coach Michael Sadjadi and the rest of the Zips staff recently met with University of Akron Athletic Director Tom Wistrcill to discuss the future of the program and a possible move from club sport to NCAA scholarship program.

As Rico said after the OU game, the Zips have 9 players who could all be starters. If they're all good enough to be starters, they're all good enough to play long minutes. Simple division of 200 game minutes by 9 players = about 22 minutes average per player per game. With Rico being the only true PG and Zeke the only true center, it's understandable that they'd average closer to 30 minutes each per game. Subtracting that 60 minutes from 200 leaves 140 minutes for the other 7 players, or exactly 20 minutes apiece. So it seems reasonable that whether those 7 players (including Harney) get a little more or a little less than 20 minutes per game depends on how their individual performances on both offense and defense are contributing to team results in any given game.

Even if it's not always true, it's not a bad rule of thumb that the Zips are likely to do better when Harney ends up playing 20 or more minutes in a game. Harney is effectively the replacement for B. McKnight as the Zips' designated frontcourt shooter off the bench. Like McKnight, Harney fires it up a lot, and when he's on he can score points in bunches. Even better, Harney shoots more high percentage shots than McKnight, and has a better field goal shooting percentage than McKnight ever did. You want Harney to take a lot of shots. When his shooting is on, you want Harney on the floor a lot because he's going to score a lot of points. When his shooting is off, the Zips are deep enough to give more PT to other players to see if their shooting is on. It'll be interesting to apply CK's Harney 20 Rule to the rest of the games this season and see how it works out.

Harney had one of his lesser games against Buffalo. He managed to hoist up 12 field goal attempts in 16 minutes and only hit 4, and was 0-3 from 3-point land. He also had 4 turnovers and racked up 3 fouls in 16 minutes. Not sure that playing Harney more minutes last night would have helped that much. Several Zips had good games and several Zips had not-so-good games. But that's the way it usually is with individual players. Bottom line is they didn't get it done as a team.

GoZips doesn't read ZN.o any more since he was suspended from posting for a month, and says he will probably not return to this forum. If you have any message you'd like to get to him, PM it to me as I speak with him occasionally and will be happy to pass it on. By the way, in all my conversations with GoZips about Zips basketball, he always has only the best to say about Q. GoZips was the first one to say that Q would be the perfect 6th man on the team because he's the only player on the Zips roster who can legitimately play three different positions, and he provides a huge spark off the bench. Whenever I speak with GoZips, he likes to remind me about how well the Zips have been doing since Q became the 6th man and averages the second most minutes per game of any Zips player while playing at multiple positions.

It's the MAC. Everyone beats everyone else. Buffalo earlier this season beat Dayton in Dayton by 29 points. Dayton is currently ranked #27 in RPI. Buffalo can blow out good teams on a good night. So can OU. So can Can't. So can the Zips. None of them can do it every night. One MAC team will get hot at the Q and earn an NCAA tournament berth. Let's hope it's the Zips.

Funny that the original video was removed. It was a little clearer than the one that's up on the other site. When I look at the player's feet, they appear to be inside the court sideline all the way. The Marshall coach jumped up just before the player went by him, and appears to be standing at least partially over the court sideline. Looks as if it could easily have been called interference from the bench impeding a player's progress on the court. Best call would have been no call.

What about primary PG responsibilities such as running the team, ball distribution, etc.? If you compare Rico's sophomore season statistics to date to Joyce's sophomore season stats, there are a lot of similarities. StatSheet.com

Justice is primarily a 3-point shooting guard and Ibitayo is primarily a wing guard. Both might be able to play a little PG. But Bettancourt, like Rico, is a pure PG. Good read on Betancourt here: Inside Puerto Rico Basketball

Talk about video for Marshall, below is a link to one of the all-time great flop videos. But it wasn't a player taking a flop. It was Marshall's coach. This is a pretty amazing video to watch. Be sure to watch it in full screen: Marshall Coach’s Flop Leads to Victory

Carmelo Betancourt is the incoming PG in the "AA/Dru Joyce mold."

I hear that Egner's back problem was not as serious as originally feared, and that he will be back in game shape pretty soon.

@Carol, there's a simple reason why offensive rebounds are harder to get than defensive rebounds. The fundamental point of basketball defense is for defenders to stay between offensive players and the basket in order to better contest their shots. In most cases, when a shot misses, the defensive players will be closer to the basket than the offensive players, and therefore have a big advantage in snagging most of the rebounds. When a team gets a lot of offensive rebounds, it generally means that its players are breaking down the defense and establishing good position near the basket. That means they're not only more likely to get offensive rebounds, but they're also more likely to score due to being in better scoring position.

Cowlumbus would be way too good to be possible. I believe that Portland, Oregon, is the furthest site from Akron, so that's where I'd expect the Zips to end up if they win the MAC tournament. Been there, done that in 2009. It's a long flight. If the Zips were to wind up at a site that's even close to being drivable, I would be shocked.

That didn't take long. Harney played 20 minutes against OU and had a really solid performance -- 10 points, 5 rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal with no turnovers.

Most interesting point to me was Zeke saying he is trying to put more focus on rebounding. The first and most important rule of rebounding is that you have to want the ball real bad. You have to have a mindset that the ball is your private property, and everyone else is a thief trying to steal it from you. You have to get angry and assertive about it. With that as a foundation, the coaching staff can help with technique, such as learning how to observe the way balls bounce off the backboard, how to "read" a shot and estimate where the ball is going to bounce if it misses, getting into the best position and properly timing your jump. Some people get the concept of rebounding early and some never get it. Tree is an example of someone who learned early and does it extremely well. He locks onto the ball with so much ferocity that he makes the other players around him look like scared little kids. If Zeke can learn to rebound like Tree over the next year and a half, Zeke will guarantee himself a first-round NBA draft pick.

The real Dr Z does not love articles about statistical analysis. You, sir, are an imposter.