Dave in Green

Clearly we are in agreement. Just checking to see how alert you were.

I don't worry about cold shooting spells from from a good all-around player like Linhart who continues to contribute to the team in so many different areas. I'd be more concerned if he was slacking off in the other areas. But I don't see that happening. His senior leadership is especially critical to such a young team, and as the season wears on, I expect Linhart to live up to everyone's expectations.

There's a brief comparison of this year's VCU team vs. last year's here:http://zipsnation.org/forums//index.php?showtopic=12037

That's pretty much hyperbole.If the Zips were K.e.n.t, and K.e.n.t. were the Zips...and you were a K.e.n.t. student...you'd have been dancing your ass off on The Q court under a sea of confetti last March and you know it. If you didn't, I guarantee the other 99.99999 percent of the students would have no problem with the celebration.The whole arrest thing makes for fun banter and easy Photoshop gags, but until we get a ring, that's all we'll have.Dambrot's on record as stating the K.e.n.t. program's success is what he aspires to emulate. If he can be a little envious of their success, why can't I? Note: The intention of Alexander's column was to speculate what UA needs to do to rise above our NIT rut. One option is the JUCO/transfer route. It could very well be that Alexander doesn't realize the Zips have indeed already found their way out of that rut with the most-recent recruiting classes. Getting the #8 center in the nation is, to me, a rut-buster extraordinaire. If Humpty isn't Newcomer of the Year, I'll riot. And we're redshirting guys like Parrish, Sullivan and McClannahan, who would start for 1/2 the MAC teams today.I see both sides. I want a ring. That's that.Let's be clear on this. Are we saying that we want to match the won-loss record of a questionable team by replicating their lower threshold for player character, or that we want to match their won-loss record with players of higher character?I will be crystal clear on the fact that I do not knowingly support teams that lower their standards to improve their records, and there's not an ounce of hyperbole in that. I'd rather root for a team of unquestioned integrity on the other side of the country than a bunch of ring-stealing pirates in my hometown.If the University of Akron lowers its standards in the interests of winning at any cost, you will not see me at any more games or in this forum.

Halftime score:Youngstown State (1-6) 31Can't State (3-5) 29

What I said was: "Humpty's numbers indicate that he is improving game by game in a steadily rising line up the graph."That's overall numbers, not any single specific area. Individual areas of performance are not as relevant as overall performance. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. What's most important is that all the positives and all the negatives taken together result in a net positive for the team.In any case, statistics almost never follow a straight line. They tend to move up and down on an event-to-event basis, with single-event aberrations not being statistically significant.What a good coach will be looking for from an inexperienced player is a general upward trend in overall performance.

There's no debate over whether or not freshman players will make freshman mistakes in the early part of their transition to D1 basketball. They all do, and everyone expects it. The mistakes are magnified with a point guard, who typically handles the ball more than any other position and has more leadership responsibilities to get everyone else involved in the offense.It's certainly fair to point out what specific mistakes are being made, and express hope for improvement. But the assumption should be that a good coaching staff working together with a good player will overcome those errors sooner rather than later. How do we know whether or not this is happening? By measuring progress. In some cases it's as simple as putting game numbers on a chart and seeing whether the positive numbers are going up and the negative numbers down or vice versa. So the relevant part of citing the early mistakes is not that they were made, but whether or not they are being steadily reduced.If any freshman's positive numbers were flat or falling and his negative numbers flat or rising, I'd start feeling some concern that he was not a quick learner or the coaching staff was not doing its job. But Humpty's numbers indicate that he is improving game by game in a steadily rising line up the graph. Under these circumstances, there is more good evidence to support optimism than pessimism when trying to project how this situation will continue to evolve.

Conyers' confidence should be going up, as KD's confidence in him is obviously going up. Conyers tied old reliable Nate for most minutes played (29), with Humpty next at 28. That's a great sign of confidence from the coach. Not all of what Conyers did shows up in the stats, but some does:* He led the Zips with 6 rebounds, followed by Linhart, Bardo and Brett at 4 each, and the Zips outrebounded the taller Aggies 30-26.* He tied Humpty for most assist with 4.* He hit 3 of 4 from the field.B. Mcknight also deserves some credit. It's obvious that shooting comes easier to him than defending. But from what I saw last night, he was showing more effort to stay with his man on defense than I'd seen in the past. I almost wonder if the greater effort he's putting into defense might be taking a bit away from his shooting focus. If he can get his defense to the point that it satisfies KD, maybe he can refocus on his offense. There's no question he can shoot. But to be a complete offensive player, he also needs to learn when it's better for both himself and the team to pass. When he gets the ball now, other teams know he can be safely double-teamed because he either never looks for or never finds the open man.The team stats for this game were once again mixed. The Zips not only outrebounded a taller team, they had almost twice as many assists (16-9). The Zips had a huge advantage on shots taken (61-38) thanks in part to their small rebounding advantage, but even more to a huge advantage on turnovers.Shooting percentages were not so good for the Zips -- only 60% from the free throw line and 41% from the field. Humpty was 6 of 8 (75%) on 3-pointers, and the rest of the team was only 7 of 28 (25%). The team's 36 3-point attempts compare to only 25 2-point attempts, of which they hit 12 for a decent 48%. But it's important to note that the Aggies' coach focuses his team's defense inside, and plays looser on the perimeter. When a team invites you to take lightly contested 3-pointers, there's nothing wrong with taking what you're given. Humpty had no problem with it, but the rest of the team was cold.The Zips are already a better team than many predicted for such a young one, and they appear to be growing at a good rate. The MAC season will be tough, but the Zips are at least showing the potential to be a contender if things go right.

Zips woke up from finals at halftime, and scored 43-26 in the second half for a 78-61 final. If they'd played the first half like the second, the game would have been a laugher.Humpty scores a new high of 23 points and makes more fabulous moves than freshman mistakes. Conyers is once again everywhere -- smothering on defense, passing wizard and high-percentage shooter on offense and a force on the boards at both ends.I'm beginning to like the way this team plays together a lot more.

I'd give KD credit for being able to sort the solid jucos from the questionable ones, if he is so inclined, and focus in only on those who would be a credit to the University.

Niagra seems to be a pretty fair rebounding team. Buffalo is the only team that badly outrebounded them prior to playing the Zips, and Niagra still won that one. They were only outrebounded by two at Villanova.The Zips outrebounded Niagra 34-32, and had a better free throw percentage, 75% - 57%. That's what it takes to win these kinds of games, and it looks as if the Zips are learning how to do it.

Now is the time to make mistakes and learn. The only thing that matters is winning the MAC tournament. Everything leading up to the MAC tournament should be about learning what to do and what not to do. From listening to the radio broadcast, there were plenty of lessons to be learned tonight.

Sports = frustration ;)I think that everyone now understands why there was frustration expressed about Swiech not getting on the floor. Everyone now knows that he does have potential. We just don't know exactly how much potential he has or how far he will develop with experience. Judging by the Urbana game, he has the potential to do some things better than anyone else on the team. It will be fun to watch him develop, especially when playing man-to-man in the paint against an opposing player of his size and weight.

Maybe we can use this thread to all agree on the spelling of his last name.If you Google "Steve Sweich" and "Steve Swiech", you get about an equal number of hits. Even when you focus on the hits that you think would be most authoritative, you see it spelled both ways.My eyesight isn't what it used to be, but at the Urbana game it looked like it was spelled Swiech on the back of his uniform. So that's the way I'm going to spell it unless someone comes up with a copy of his birth certificate that shows it spelled differently.

Lots of credit to KD for not throwing a totally inexperienced Swiech in against Pitt, but giving him a chance to start building his confidence against a greatly outgunned Urbana. Once he starts feeling comfortable playing against weaker opponents, that's the time to start increasing the challenge by playing him against stronger ones. Then it just becomes a matter of how he grows with the increasingly tougher challenges.

Always remember that for every action there is at least one effective counteraction. If there are three defenders on one player, that means at least two others are open. Zeke can take advantage of the situation by immediately passing to one of the open players for a high-percentage open shot. When the defense adjusts and stops collapsing on Zeke, that will open him up for more shots. Some players never learn this. The great thing about Zeke being an intelligent person is that once he learns all of the counters, he will be able to quickly adjust to every situation and can become virtually unstoppable. It really doesn't matter whether he scores himself or gets an assist for someone else. The bottom line is for the team to win, and teams with tall, athletic, smart centers have a big advantage over everyone else.

Funny, I thought I saw a number of blocked shots to go along with a bunch of rushed shots, steals, etc., due to intense defensive pressure from the Zips and limited abilities of Urbana.Finally seeing Swiech play had to be the highlight of this mismatch game. My perception from watching him in warmups that he is slow was blown away. He really hustled back and forth down the court, and does not appear to be a major speed liability. He's at least in the same speed range as Bardo, who is above average for his size. Swiech demonstrated the nice shooting touch he shows in warmups. Even more impressive is his ability to finish around the rim. His slam lit up the Zips bench like a buzzer-beater winner against Can't. His teammates were all on their feet jumping, yelling and smiling. If Swiech could slam two or three like that in every game, it would be demoralizing to the opposition. He is definitely an offensive force around the rim, and a rebounding presence at both ends.Swiech appeared less skilled at the defensive end, but not for lack of trying. He showed pure hustle the whole time on the floor. His enthusiasm and good foot speed led to a few problems, such as fouling one of the Urbana small players while chasing him around outside the 3-point line. But those kind of mistakes are so much better than playing lazy defense. I see a good potential upside for Swiech as he gets more experience as long as he listens to the coaching staff and learns from his rookie mistakes.The most annoying part of the game to me is that several Zips had lazy, careless passes stolen by an obviously less talented team. Crisp passing is an essential basic that separates good teams from bad ones. A stolen pass should be more embarassing to a player than shooting an air ball.

I want to see Swiech play, too. But not if the coach doesn't think he's ready.I trust a good coach to do the right things for both the team and each individual player, which includes not embarassing a player by throwing him into a situation for which he's not prepared.Any objective analysis of KD's actions and results as Zips coach leads to the conclusion that he's a good one,I'm confident that when Swiech demonstrates in practice that he's prepared to play and contribute to the team, it won't be long before we see him in a game.

I'm always interested in seeing which team does the best job of making halftime adjustments, as this is often a good sign of the quality of the coaching and the hearts of the players. For example, Miami played Pitt fairly even in their first half, but Pitt obviously made better halftime adjustments and blew out Miami in the second half.Last night, the Zips appeared to be overwhelmed by a much stronger, faster and more skilled team in the first half. But the Akron coaches seem to have made all the right adjustments at halftime, resulting in a major improvement in second half performance. In fact, I think it's fair to say that the Zips played Pitt almost even in most areas during the second half. This is really an amazing achievement considering that Pitt is an elite team with a fair chance of playing for the national championship, and we were playing on their floor.I hope our team watches tape of their first half performance to learn from all of their mistakes, and their second half performance to see what they are capable of accomplishing when they do things right. At the end of the season they may look back on this game as a key turning point in beginning to understand their full potential.

ESPN360.com looks like a great option! I just went to their website for the first time. It recognized that I was connecting via AT&T DSL, and popped up a message that I was therefore eligible to view at no charge. All I had to do was install their movie viewer, which took just a few seconds to download and install. It has options to watch full screen in either 4:3 or 16:9 format. Right now I'm watching the UCLA-Southern Illinois game live in full screen 16:9 on a 22-inch LCD monitor, and it's not much different from watching on a small TV.Thanks for the tip. Along with being able to follow the Zips, there are other live sporting events on their schedule that look interesting.

Lots to like about the way the Zips played in this game, both as a team and as individuals -- defense, rebounding, free throw percentage, protecting the ball, etc.For me, the single most surprising performance was by Cventinovic. I was not at all prepared for the level of play he showed in all aspects of the game. One of the rarest combinations in basketball is a big man with strength, speed, coordination and intensity on both offense and defense. Nik appears to have all those qualities, plus all the major skills -- defending, dribbling, passing, rebounding and shooting. I wouldn't be surprised if he could play any of the five positions in a pinch, from center to point guard.I would have been impressed to see all of these qualities in a junior or senior. But from an unheralded freshman in only his second real college game? Wow! Way more than expected. And that's just for now. How much better can he get with experience?I hope to see a lot more of Mr. Cventinovic over the next four years.

I can't wait to see Zeke leading the team on the floor and Zeke's Mom leading the fans in the stands. It is so heartening that you have chosen this university for all the right reasons.

I guess I should say that I have nothing personal against Huggins. I certainly enjoyed watching his Zips teams play while he was in Akron. Everyone pretty much knew at the time that he was driven to bigger things. So although it was painful for us when he left, it was not a big surprise.History has shown that his departure was a mixed blessing. Over the years he has achieved a great winning record at other schools. But he has also been plagued by some of the same problems for which Can't State is regularly ripped on this forum. That's what I meant with my comment about Huggins being a better fit for Can't than Akron.My highest regard in sports is reserved for those who are able to compile winning records while maintaining the highest character and integrity.

I think Huggins' coaching style would fit better at Can't. I'll take KD's balance of winning and integrity any day.

I also witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly in this game, and there was definitely some of each. ;)Maybe it's because I've been following sports for more than a half century, but I've learned over the decades not to worry about that which doesn't count. I've seen many pre-season phenoms fold and many pre-season busts blossom. If the coaches and players get what they need out of practices, scrimmages and games that don't show up in the standings, that's more important than "winning" those practices, scrimmages and games that don't show up in the standings that count towards league championships and post-season tournament bids.What really matters most in the long run is the organization. If the coach is good, he'll get the most out of the team regardless of the individual abilities of the players. If you believe in the quality of the coach and the talent of the individuals, then it's a waste of time to lament the results of a single game that doesn't count in the standings.