Dave in Green

Oh yeah, those guys. That's why I couldn't remember who it was! Greene was listed as a forward and Sherman, Guyton, Porrini and Holt were all listed as guards. xu9697 is right about the Michigan Wolverines also having reasonable success with that kind of lineup. It just shows that not having one each of the five traditional basketball positions is not a major handicap. It pays to give your best players long minutes regardless of what position they play, although it might be a bit of a problem if your best five players were all 5-8 guards.

Basketball has really changed from when I first got interested in it back in the 1950s. Back then each of the five positions was clearly defined and compartmentalized. It used to be really simple to think in terms of one player as the center, one a power (rebounding) forward, one a small (shooting) forward, one a shooting guard and one a point guard. Now many of the players are much more multi-dimensional, and there are many more options available. My memory is failing me right now, but I recall seeing one college team this season that had a single frontcourt player and four guards on the floor for much of the game. Notre Dame essentially started what looked to me like a point/shooting guard and four forwards. The bottom line in any sport is to win, and there's no fixed formula for winning. Smaller college programs especially have to be a lot more flexible, because they can't always get one each of the traditional five positions. So you just take the best you can get, figure out which players work best together on the court, and go from there. One thing for sure about the Zips this season is that they have one pure point guard in Abreu and one pure center in Zeke. Beyond that, all the rest of the players can play multiple roles. The bigger forwards can play some center and the smaller forwards and shooting guards can all play wing. Some of the shooting guards can also function as PGs. I have to believe that KD is going to have a lot of fun, as well as a lot of frustration, in trying to figure out who goes where at what time to give the Zips the best chance of winning.

No wonder some of the kids playing football expect to be paid under the table for their college services after being raised in this type of environment: Adults bet thousands on youth football

Quickzips, just want to be clear that Tree doesn't look to be up to 240 yet. That was just one of his wishes in HS -- that he wanted to grow from 6-6, 210 to 6-8, 240 in college. From seeing him next to Q, I'm guessing he's now close to 6-8 and maybe 220-225. I don't see not having a backup true center as a major problem. True centers aren't that common in college. Many colleges don't even have one true center, and have to rely on one or more power forwards. Those that do have one true center have to rely on a PF when their center is on the bench. There were times last season when both Zeke and Bardo were on the bench and the Zips were without a true center on the floor. Thanke to the Serb returning for his senior season, the Zips do appear to have enough good-sized forwards that they can have a competitive lineup on the floor when Zeke is resting on the bench. The Zips will also have enough good-sized guards that having three guards on the floor would not represent a major height deficit from playing three frontcourt players and two guards.

Good stuff, GoZips. Just a couple of additional observations. Tree was walking around with Q early in the evening. Q is listed at 6-6 and looks it. Tree appeared to be a couple of inches taller than Q, and looked to be a little bulkier than Harney. That figures, as their listed HS heights and weights were 6-6, 195 for Harney and 6-7, 210 for Treadwell, and they're probably both still filling out. Tree has been quoted as saying he'd like to be 6-8, 240. It looks as if he may be close to 6-8, and his body type may be able to handle 240. Seeing Jeremiah Wood there reminded me of how much the Zips miss his playing style. If Tree can approach that, he would obviously be a big boost for the Zips. You mention Harney playing in the backcourt, and that's a new one for me. Everything I read about Harney's HS game is that he's an athletic small forward who's a good slasher who primarily scores within 17 feet, and that his jump shot is not as good as his work around the rim. He's also supposed to be a good rebounder, which is something the Zips could use more of. So Harney's HS strengths point more toward frontcourt than backcourt, and the Zips appear to have greater need in the frontcourt than the backcourt.

While I enjoyed the evening's activities and spoke with a number of people, I have to say I didn't really hear anything new that hasn't already been discussed on ZN.O. Maybe someone else did and will share it here. I did get a kick out of Steve McNees stretching out his remarks as if he didn't ever want to leave. He made it very clear that he loves UA, loves the locker room, loves the bus rides, loves his teammates, loves everything about Zips basketball. His parting comment was that he hopes KD will someday hire him as an assistant.

I like that thinking. The best thing about last season is that it ended and could be quickly put out of mind, at least for those who chose not to dwell on it. College football can be a lot of fun as long as you're not mired in a long losing streak. So far the Zips record for the 2011-12 season is 0-0, so things are looking good.

To be fair, GoZips' original post expressed both strong words of cricitism and strong words of support for Q. But the nature of sports forums is that people tend to be provoked and react more strongly to negatives than positives. Posters who come on strong on sports forums are going to get strong pushback, which tends to produce stronger comebacks, ad infinitum. That's when good moderators are most appreciated. Honestly, this one isn't worth fighting over.

I can verify that GoZips revealed to me during the NCAA tournament the good news about the Serb, with a request not to share the confidential information until it was made public. I may not agree with every detail of every assessment GoZips makes. But he is without question more knowledgeable than the typical phony blowhards you run into on every sports forum who spend more time promoting their own self-perceived greatness than sharing good, factual sports information with other forum members.

Amazingly, Alabama Governor Dr. Robert Bentley ( R ) has reappointed Bobby Lowder to a fifth consecutive 7-year term to the Auburn University board of trustees. Lowder was confirmed by a 3-2 vote, which means that by the end of this term he will have effectively micromanaged Auburn athletics for 35 years. There's a pretty serious backlash in the state of Alabama by those who have grown weary of how, under Lowder's guidance, Auburn has been embroiled in one controversy after another, including multiple major NCAA investigations and penalties. Many believe Lowder will not even be able to serve out another term as he's likely to be going to prison for his role in the failed Colonial Bank. Some of this outrage is expressed in a letter to the editor published in today's Opelika-Auburn News: Letter: Lowder must be stopped

No one has a lock on reality in this forum.

Everyone has made some good observations about Q. They may differ slightly, but that's to be expected because we all see things differently due to our personalities, backgrounds, and experience. The key point is that we all appear to agree that Q has an immense amount of talent, and we all want him to continue to grow until he fully realizes his great potential. Since no one is perfect, it's fair to try to point out areas where each of us thinks Q could improve. Instead of trying to pick a word or phrase out of someone's post and pounce on it as a negative, why not try to take more of an overall view of what that person is saying and see that it is mostly positive. If someone disagrees with what they think someone said, why not ask them about it instead of jumping in their face? For example, I disagree if anyone thinks that Q needs a major attitude adjustment to realize he is on a team and not a one-man show. Q made a good attitude adjustment throughout the course of last season, and he began making more passes and dishing off his drives instead of always shooting. In fact, there was a period when he was almost too reluctant to shoot. So while it's fair to say that he needs to continue to work on decision-making about the best time to shoot and the best time to pass, I don't see him as a totally selfish player, and I think GoZips' choice of words may have overstated that point. It's important to remember that Q is probably the best one-on-one player the Zips have, and we don't want him to stop playing to that strength. The fact that KD turned him loose in the MAC tournament to signal to clear out the lane and then drive when everyone on the defense knew exactly what he was going to do was a huge show of confidence from KD, who doesn't often turn players loose to go one-on-one. The fact that Q was able to beat the defense when they knew what he was going to do shows that KD's confidence was well placed. Truth is, there will be times when Q will be called upon to be a one-man show, and I think we're all pretty confident he can deliver. Sometimes being a one-man show is the best thing a player can do to help his team. The critical factor is knowing when to try to do it and when not to. That comes with experience and maturity. Q is getting there. Some fans just may be a little more impatient than others about seeing Q develop into a potential NBA draft pick. To reach that status, he will have to greatly improve every aspect of his game. Few college players even have the potential to be an NBA draft pick, and only a handful fully realize their potential. It's pretty amazing to think that the Zips have two players on the roster who even have a shot at the NBA. If you want to talk about putting Zips basketball on the map, how outrageous would it be if Zeke and Q both fully develped their potential over the next two seasons and ended up being selected in the 2013 NBA draft? The odds are way against it. But at least the potential is there.

Quickzips, great point about comparing Nik and Q. The Serb really played under control this past season without becoming too mechanical and predictable, and it would be great if Q could do the same. The risk in trying to "settle down" a player like the Serb or Q is that if you take too much of the gambler out of them, they become too predictable and defensible. I'm willing to accept a few dumb mistakes if they're offset by many brilliant moves that leave defenders on their heels. Absolutely agree that those are the Zips five best proven players. Until someone else proves themselves worthy, those are the five players who should get the most PT. They don't necessarily need to be the five starters. But they deserve the most PT until someone steps forward and earns more.

Classic us vs. them. Circle the wagons. It's only bad when the other guys do it.

Great analysis, CK. It's an absolute delight to watch a player improve on a steady upward curve almost game to game. Q went from brief flashes of brilliance in his first game as a Zip to a go-to guy by the end of the season. Of course he was still making a few mistakes at the end of the season. But the sloppy plays were more than offset by the great plays. If Q didn't get any better than he was at the end of last season, he'd still be a strong contributor. If he continues to improve this season at the same rate as last, the sky's the limit. His raw skills alone are impressive. Add maturity and better decision-making, and Q could be all-MAC. Whether he starts or comes off the bench as the sixth man depends on the chemistry of this season's team. If the Serb returns and joins Rico in the starting lineup, adding Q as a starter puts a lot of spark on the floor at once. Who provides the spark when the starters head to the bench? You need at least one player on the floor at all times who can stretch the other team's defense. I've always believed that who starts games is not as important as who finishes games. It's more important to have your best players on the floor in crunch time than at the beginning of the game. Starters don't always necessarily get the longest minutes, either. You could have a starter who only averages about 15 minues of PT and a sixth man who averages 25. I'm really looking forward to watching KD experiment with various lineups this season. I expect the rotation to remain flexible well into the season as KD figures out which combination of players on the floor at various times during the game gives the team their best chance to win.

Boom! Report: NCAA hands OSU "notice of allegations" Beano: Urban Meyer to coach Ohio State in '12

Some of us prefer to be uplifted by thinking that, until proven otherwise, the Zips have the potential to be much improved this season. Others elect to make life miserable by assuming the worst and moaning about it for months in advance.

We'll see how the results match up with the predictions.

Reminds me of another 5-7 running back who was considered too small for the big schools and ended up at NIU. I can't find his high school playing weight, but after redshirting his first season at NIU, Garrett Wolfe bulked all the way up to 172 pounds by the start of his senior season. So it's not unreasonable to think he may have weighed about the same as Williams in HS. As great as he was at NIU, most of the experts said he was too small to make it in the NFL. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the third round of the 2007 draft, and while he hasn't had an all-star career with the Bears, he's still on their roster four years later. His NFL playing weight is all of 186 pounds. Odds are against Williams coming close to Wolfe's college career performance. But you can't automatically dismiss all small running backs, especially ones with speed. If Williams has physical durability and heart, and if he follows a good weight conditioning program to bulk up a little with muscle, he could do some good things for the Zips. He didn't seem to have any problem getting by the big Ohio State defensive line recruits in this all-star game.

If the Zips start winning, Ianello's biggest detractors will be riding on the bandwagon as if they'd been there all along. I'd like to see if anyone continues to crusade for dumping Ianello if the Zips start winning. But the main thing I want to see is the Zips winning, whoever the coach may happen to be.

From what I found, Pittis was hired for the 2007-8 season an assistant coach at Mt. Union responsible for coaching the junior varsity team. A year later he was hired by UA as graduate assistant for video services responsible for coordination of the program's video analysis for the 2008-9 season. Can't find anything on exactly what he's been doing the last two seasons, other than he doesn't show up in the formal list of assistant coaches. His photo shows up among the graduate assistants.

Things are heating up. Earlier this week, Lee Farkas, former chairman of the bankrupt Taylor Bean & Whitaker, one of the nation's largest mortgage companies, was found guilty on all 14 counts of fraud. Farkas was responsible for over $3 billion in fraud, representing one of the most significant prosecutions to arise from the nation's financial crisis, and will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. Taylor Bean's failure contributed to the collapse of Alabama-based Colonial Bank, the sixth-largest bank failure in U.S. history. Both Colonial and Taylor Bean were applying for TARP money when their multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme was uncovered by federal investigators. During the trial, Farkas said under oath that all of the questionable transactions were approved by officials of Colonial Bank. Up until its failure, Colonial was run by founder and chairman Bobby Lowder, who has been characterized as a micromanager who had his finger in every aspect of Colonial's business. Louder is a longtime member of Auburn University's board of trustees who has micromanaged Auburn athletics, and who has presided over a number of major rules violations in Auburn's football program over the years. With the Farkas/Taylor Bean case resolved, speculation s that the feds will be going after Lowder/Colonial. It's believed that some of the wiretaps of the Taylor Bean/Colonial Bank case may involve conversations relating to Auburn football program and illegal payments to players. It's further speculated that the NCAA's current investigation of the Auburn football program is awaiting information that may come out of the Taylor Bean/Colonial cases. Moving on to the Alabama gambling scandal case, Ronnie Gilley has just pleaded guilty to 11 counts of conspiracy, bribery involving a program that uses federal funds and money laundering. Gilley could be a key witness for federal prosecutors attempting to prove VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor, two sitting state senators, two former state senators and others tried to buy and sell votes for a gambling bill before Alabama lawmakers last spring. It's believed that some of the wiretaps in this case may also have captured discussion about Auburn's football program, as McGregor is a big Auburn booster and close friend of Lowder. One of the theories is that McGregor's gambling establishments had machines set up to pay off Auburn football players in an illegal pay-for-play scheme. This is taking a long time to play out in the courts, as the bank fraud and gambling bribery cases are much bigger than the possible Auburn football element. We probably won't know for many months whether or not the football scandal will eventually come out of this.

Shhh! Don't want to mention Akron weather when recruiting a player from the south.

What are the chances that an incoming QB would be promised the starting position over a veteran without having seen the incoming QB take a snap at the DI level or how much the veteran may have improved over the off-season? I'm not picking on you, but how familiar are you with the recruiting process? I never said "PROMISED". Let me put it another way.... You're a big time high school QB with state titles under your belt, were recruited by a number of big programs, and you just tore up JC for a year. Then, one of the worst D-1A schools in the country comes calling, and tells you that if you come to this horrible program, you might also have the additional priviledge of sitting on the bench behind one of the worst QBs in D-1A. Would you go there? Think about it. Ha, ha. I'm not concerned about being picked on by anyone on ZN.O. I already have an all-star squad of pickers in my wife and her six sisters. Anyone here who wants to join that team will definitely not be promised a starting position, but will have to earn it. But seriously, there are only three basic options on what to tell an incoming recruit about his chances of becoming the starter at his position ahead of a returning veteran: 1. Promise him he's going to play ahead of the incumbent. 2. Tell him he's definitely going to sit on the bench behind the incumbent. 3. Tell him if he wants the starting position, he is going to have to earn it by outperforming the incumbent. Now there are many ways to go about stating option #3. I'm assuming the Zips coaching staff did it the smart and classy way -- something like this: As you can see from our recent record, Mr. Recruit, the UA football team has not been performing at a high level. UA has made a strong commitment to reverse that by investing in the best football facilities in the MAC and bringing in a new coaching staff to turn things around. When you go 1-11, you have to look at all options to improve the team. No returning player is guaranteed a starting spot. Every new player joining the Zips will have a fair chance to prove they should be a starter at their position. As a QB with aspirations to someday play in the NFL, you'll be pleased to note that we've now gone to the pro set. This will give our QBs an opportunity to showcase their abilities in an NFL-style offense. The NFL is well aware that the MAC is a good conference for future pro QBs, thanks to former MAC QBs like Ben Roethlisberger, Byron Leftwich, Chad Pennington, Bruce Gradkowski, Charlie Batch, Omar Jacobs, and the Zips own Charlie Frye. We're impressed with the abilities you've shown in HS and JC. We think you have the potential to become a great MAC QB and future NFL player. We'll give you every opportunity to prove yourself. You can look at the stats from last season and see that the Zips need improved performance in every area, including QB. There's a great opportunity for whichever QB steps up and earns the Zips starting job next season, and we think you have the ability to do that. Are we close to being on the same frequency here, Skip, or do you see it differently?

What are the chances that an incoming QB would be promised the starting position over a veteran without having seen the incoming QB take a snap at the DI level or how much the veteran may have improved over the off-season?