Dave in Green

Isn't that true of everything?

PR or not, the important point is that needy people are going to get a nice meal on Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the update. Everyone can follow Nate's progress here: Team Link

As I recall, it was rumored right here on ZN.O that McKnight has had a back problem for the last couple of years that requires surgery. But for some reason he was not going to have the surgery until after he graduated and finished playing for the Zips. I suspect that everyone here supports the notion that it's not a good thing to be unexpectedly forced to replace an experienced, proven senior with an inexperienced, unproven, true freshman after the season has already started. Some are just focusing on how bad the results might be while others are looking more at what good could potentially come out of it. It's your classic optimist-pessimist discussion. Everyone knows it could go either way, and some are simply laying down their markers on whether the glass is half full or half empty.

Not to mention all the nice green leaves on the trees.

UA was awarded an "A" because minority candidates were given a fair opportunity to compete for the position even though a white coach was ultimately selected. It's only discriminatory if legitimate candidates are deliberately excluded based on their race, ethnicity, religion, etc., and not their character and abilities. We should all be proud of UA for doing the right thing.

Don't forget that the Zips play a fair amount of time with 3 guards and a forward and center or 2 forwards, and don't always have 3 frontcourt players in the lineup. There's 200 minutes of PT available (40 minutes times 5 players). Assuming that the starters (Zeke, Nik, McNees, Roberts and Nitro) average only about 25 minutes per game each, that's 125 of the 200 minutes right there. Adding 20 minutes each for Abreu and Diggs (they're currently averaging 17 minutes each) takes it up to 165 minutes. That leaves about 35 minutes per game for Egner, Euton and Bardo, or an average of less than 12 minutes each, unless they can prove that the team has a better chance of winning with them getting more PT.

Burning Euton's redshirt and adding him to the active roster in place of McKnight is a straight one-for-one swap. It doesn't change the frontcourt numerical depth and should have little effect on Bardo's PT in the long run.

It reads like a play-by-play interspersed with comments by disgruntled fans on ZN.O, kind of a merging of an AP wire story and an angry sports fan forum. It's great that fans care enough to take the time to create a website like that and do the work of producing alternative sports news/opinion. Well done website.

When the team is not embarrassed, fans are not embarrassed.

Then why would I have to admit this is a little bit of a reach when I already did?

Announced attendance is for tickets sold (including season tickets), not butts in seats. If jupitertoo's math is more accurate than some of the other claims he's made on ZN.O, 7,671 - 1,027 = 6,644 no-shows. Actually, 6,644 no-shows would not be accurate without factoring in the number of people in all the suites who would not show up in a grandstand seat count.

ZW, I'm disappointed that your eagle eye missed the following:

It's never good to lose an experienced senior who was being counted on to play an important role on the team. I don't want to belittle Brett McKnight in any way or overly build up Euton. We won't really know until the end of the season what the total impact will be. But we can look at a few things based on McKnight's performance last season versus what Euton did in his senior year of HS against tough, national HS competition (and, yes, I do understand that HS performance does not directly translate into college performance). * McKnight shot .397 from the field and Euton .500+ * McKnight hit .276 of his 3s and Euton .407 * McKnight shot .765 from the free throw line and Euton .800+ * McKnight averaged 4.5 rebounds per game (19.4 minutes) and Euton 9.4 (unknown minutes) My own estimation from the above, as well as the small hint we got from the exhibition and Dayton games, is that it's likely that Euton will shoot at least slightly higher field goal, 3-point and free throw percentages for the Zips than McKnight, and that he could also snag more rebounds. In other areas, both players have similar reputations for not being able to jump too high or run too fast. But in HS, Euton had a reputation for hustling all the time, while McKnight has been criticized by some on ZN.O for lagging behind -- especially on defense. In HS, Euton had a reputation for being a team player who was as likely to hit the open man with a pass as to take his own shot. McKnight's shoot-first style has been discussed at length on ZN.O. In HS, Euton had a reputation for playing reasonably good defense despite guarding players who could run faster and jump higher. Defense has never been discussed on ZN.O as one of McKnight's strong points. Finally, we have the anecdotal story about Euton's AAU team playing Jared Sullinger's AAU team tough, and Euton holding his own against Sullinger in the paint. No, Euton is no Sullinger. Sullinger is a beast who will probably lead OSWho deep into the NCAA Tournament and be playing in the NBA next season. That's not the point. The fact that Euton could come close to holding his own against Sullinger in a single AAU game is simply one of many small but positive data points in favor of Euton's ability to contribute to the Zips as a true freshman. Basically, we're comparing the known and unknown here. We know McKnight's strong and weak points at the Zips level of competition. We don't know Euton's, and that can be both scary and exciting. We can mope and moan that this will kill the Zips chances of making it to the post-season, or we can hopefully anticipate seeing signs as the season progresses that the team will be as good or better come tournament time with Euton having a full season of experience. I'm going to take the optimistic position here and say that Euton offers more possibilities than McKnight, and that he will adjust fairly rapidly to college level basketball. If I'm wrong, I'll post my apologies to all the pessimists at the end of the season.

The Zips were far from great against a team that had just lost its starting QB. But the players showed a lot of heart and enthusiasm, and the coaching staff made a few good calls. That all added up to making for a more interesting and entertaining game to me, and not a total waste of time to be sitting out there in that cold, empty stadium. Progress may be coming in baby steps. But it still beats continuous regression, with each game being worse than the one before it. I'll keep coming back for more as long as they continue to show me they're still trying.

You are absolutely correct in the sense that in those circumstances a 1-point lead is no worse than a 2-point lead, and a 3-point lead protects you from losing to a field goal. Going for the 2-point conversion should be automatic in those circumstances.

First of all, I feel badly for Brett, his family and the team. He obviously made a mistake and let everyone down. I'm pretty confident that, unlike Can't players, a police report is not involved. Whatever it was, the main question for Zips fans is how it will affect team performance this year? Losing a senior established as the 6th man and go-to shooter is not good. Even with McKnight on the roster, the Zips were not picked to win the MAC. What would the predictions have been if this had been factored? Assuming the worst that Brett is gone for the season, we are fortunate that we have a freshman available in Euton who is a similar type of player. Second, the timing is good that Euton only missed one game against a DIII opponent before being thrown into the fire. There's no doubt that this will have a short-term negative effect due to Euton's lack of college ball experience. The most important question is how good can Euton get by tournament time? He appears to have a good fundamental skill set, which means his focus has to be on physical conditioning, learning the Zips system and integrating well with the other players. I hope to see Euton get lots of PT against YSU, as he should be able to make some good contributions against a fairly weak opponent.

How about if they just make shots without the harmony??? What are the other factors??? Nothing esoteric here. Team Sports 101 starts with a definition of team: A group of people organized to work together. By definition, the better they work together, the better they are going to perform as a team. Effectively passing the ball around to try to find the open player with the highest percentage available shot would be an example of good basketball teamwork that would lead to higher team shooting percentages. Eventually, someone has to make the shot. That's individual play. Team chemistry is simply the sum of all interactions between individual players that affect team performance.

All other factors being equal, good team chemistry will lead to higher shooting percentages than bad team chemistry. All aspects of team play tend to improve when teammates work together in harmony.

I would certainly hope that KD believes the Zips will be good enough to play a tougher schedule in Zeke's junior and senior years. KD said after the Millikin game that it's his responsibility to help turn Zeke into an All-American, and he's not going to make any All-American teams playing a weak SOS. I hope that the next two season's schedules are a notch or two tougher than this one, and that the Zips will eventually rise to the challenge.

I had previously said that I wasn't smart enough to predict whether or not Nitro could pull a Conyers-type surprise, but that he should be given a chance to prove himself instead of automatically writing him off based on the past two seasons. As for Egner, this was a really tough game for him as a true freshman. He was going up against extremely long and athletic DI players after having played one exhibition and one game against DIII midgets. I think it opened his eyes, and that he's the kind of player who will work hard to correct his deficiencies as the season wears on. The Zips will need the qualities Egner brings to the game later in the season, and I think come tournament time we will be glad he didn't redshirt. I continue to marvel at Euton. When he jumps, his feet barely leave the ground. Yet he positions himself so well that he manages to get a fair share of rebounds. He's not fast on his feet, but it looks like he hustles all the time to avoid being a liability. His outside shot form is unusual, but accuracy is what counts, and there's no doubt that he has great eyes. Euton has strong fundamentals, and it remains to be seen what a good physical conditioning program can do for his athleticism. I think by the end of the season we'll also be glad he didn't redshirt. But we have to face reality here than none of the Zips are great all-around players. They all have strengths that will contribute to the team at different times in different areas, and they all have weaknesses that can be exploited by opponents. In some games we'll rave about some players' performances, and in some games we'll wonder why KD ever signed them. When you don't have complete players, there's safety in numbers in the sense that you can call on different players with different skills in different game situations. So I think not redshirting Egner and Euton makes sense. Most important is how this group of players gels as a team. Last season's team chemistry was not the best for a variety of reasons. It's early this season, but team chemistry already looks better to me. I like the way this team plays together, and I think they like playing together. Team chemistry will play a big role in what this team can achieve this season.

I'm with you on the rest of the team needing to help Zeke more on defense. But Zeke also has to take the mindset that not getting into foul trouble is more important than trying to plug every single hole in the defense. Zeke and the whole team have to work together on this. The Zips can still be competitive without Zeke on the floor. But they cannot win the big ones against big, fast opponents with Zeke playing only 19 minutes. As a team, the Zips have to find a way to keep Zeke on the floor for 30 minutes.

I hope there's a lesson here for Zeke. If he focuses too much on defense, he risks getting in foul trouble. If he stays in the game and focuses more on offense, he becomes the inside scorer the Zips otherwise lack. I think it's best for the team if Zeke becomes a little less aggressive on defense to avoid foul trouble and uses the extra PT to become more assertive on offense. With all due respect to Bardo's effort, which is beyond question, you can see the handwriting on the wall. As the season goes on, and they gain experience, the more skilled Euton and Egner will be taking more of Bardo's PT, especially when Zeke is sitting. Both freshmen have way more inside and outside offense to offer than Bardo.

Chris Wright is a beast.

Classic understatement! Zips need Zeke in the game. He has to learn that he is too valuable to the team to commit silly fouls, like sticking his leg out when someone drives by.