Dave in Green

Big Dog 5-7 with 3 rebounds and 2 steals in 7 minutes. I see a new direction for this team.

Since my chauffer (@Hilltopper) wisely decided not to drive tonight, it's a rare missed home game for me. I was starting to think it was a good game to miss until Big Dog hit 3 of 4 shots in 2 minutes. Not pretty so far, but at least the Zips are finally in the game.

This is the 9th and last game in the dreaded 19-day Zips marathon. They've been dragging the last few games, and have had only one day off since their last game. They did not appear to be full of energy against Coppin State. That's why I previously posted that I wasn't expecting to see a sudden turnaround in this game. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see the Zips blowing out Marshall. I see them grinding it out and taking care of business, but looking shaky enough doing so that ZN.o will be hit with another round of "what's wrong with the Zips?"

Oddly enough, I wasn't looking at Bortles' stats so much as his overall ability to lead the team to a major upset over a tough Baylor team. Plenty of credit goes to the rest of the UCF players and their coaching staff. But even if his passing wasn't consistently pinpoint in this game, the total game plus intangibles were impressive.

Bortles raises his NFL draft stock with a solid game in leading UCF to the upset win over Baylor, and the Zips big season-opening loss to the Knights proves to be at least a little less embarrassing. I watched a lot of the game, and there was never any doubt that UCF can play with the big boys. It would be great for the Zips to reach UCF's level, but it's quite a challenging goal.

@skip-zip, if the importance of point guards to good teams is all you disagree with from my last post, we're making progress. I agree with you that Nyles is performing better now than the first couple of games. And if as you say teams can be successful without true PGs, then Nyles could be just what the Zips need. He's been a combo guard since HS. He's always been a high scorer who could also handle the ball. In junior college he played the 2 more than the 1 and had fewer assists than his backcourt teammate. But in watching last night's game, I noticed that the Zips' offense seemed to be more organized and disciplined when Melo was running it. That makes sense because Melo has always been a pure PG. He's more focused on running the offense and distributing the ball than shooting because he knows he's not a shooter. If you could combine the best attributes of Nyles and Melo, you'd have a pretty good all-around PG who could distribute the ball well, knock down timely shots when needed and also play decent D. It would be great if both Nyles and Melo improved to the extent that Q could go back to playing at the wing.

@Quickzips, @GP1 is correct on this one. I just went back and reread every word in this thread (I'm a glutton for punishment), and no one specifically suggested that UA should replace Coach Dambrot. There were just the usual complaints about some of his coaching moves that we see after every Zips loss, which grow even sharper when there are multiple losses in games that some fans expected to be easy wins. For example, it's been said in this thread that Coach Dambrot doesn't have an offensive game plan when in fact details of the Zips' offense have been documented right here on ZN.o thanks to Dr Z communicating with the coaching staff: That's just part of an extensive list of offensive schemes that those of us who've attended Zips practices see being taught to the players. How well the various offenses are executed in actual games is another story.

I think there's a simple explanation for that. There were plenty of other legitimate reasons to blame for last season's early losses. Tree and Nick were ineligible for the first 2 games (both losses). Alex suffered a severe ankle sprain that took weeks to heal and slowed him down for many early season games while Chauncey started the season with a bum knee that required mid-season surgery, during which time the team had 2 more early season losses. All of that together would have put the team in a bad position even if Q had been playing. Once all 4 of those players were eligible to play and healthy, the Zips rattled off 19 straight wins without Q. The loss of your only effective PG is going to affect team performance more than the loss of a player at another position just as the loss of your only effective QB would affect a football team's performance. It's pretty obvious to everyone this season that lack of effective PG play is the team's main problem, and the loss of Alex is the cause.

I'm leaning heavily on Abreu's departure from the team as a fact of life that's not going away. We all have to live with that fact for the whole season and should always keep it in mind when evaluating the overall performance of the team. It may not explain everything but it certainly explains some things. I'm confident that Coach Dambrot and the remaining players will compensate for this to the best of their abilities, and that they will do better as the season goes on. The fact -- not excuse -- remains that there is no way that the loss of a team's only quality, veteran PG can be fully compensated for.

@Quickzips, nice summary. Hard to argue against anything you say. As we've already discussed, the killer schedule is the result of two factors. First, part of it was already in place before anyone knew Alex would be gone. Second, the really crazy part that has hurt the Zips is the result of a tradeoff for getting invitations to quality tournaments and extra ESPN TV time against big name opponents, which I think we all have been asking for. We're feeling the worst part of the killer schedule right now as the Zips struggle to adjust to life without Alex (and Zeke). But by the end of next season it may turn out that the deal with ESPN has returned more positives than negatives for the overall program.

Especially for Zips football, basketball, soccer, etc.

The fundamental definition of a wing (or swingman) is someone who can play both the 2 and 3 positions, which both Jake and Reggie can do. There's nothing in the definition of a wing that says they must to be able to create their own shots, though many of the best all-around wings can. Realistically, Jake and Reggie are solid but not great wings who are important to the team but not capable of taking over games on their own.

The best thing about this game was that they let them play and there weren't that many fouls called, so the game was over in less than 1 hour, 45 minutes. While there was uninspiring team play at times, some of the players showed progress. Melo had one of his better games. If he can get 5 assists to 1 turnover, I don't care if he doesn't score. He made some brilliant moves and passes in the paint to our bigs that led to sure points. More of that, please. Nyles continues to struggle with the PG mentality, getting only 2 assists and missing 5 of 6 shots. But at least he also committed just 1 turnover. It's still too early to write off Melo completely, as Q shares Nyles' struggles adjusting to the PG mentality. Deji had one of his best all-around games, finishing tied for Zips 3rd best scorer and rebounder in this game. He also had a steal, a block, an assist, no turnovers and just 1 personal foul. You can see his confidence growing along with his PT. He even got to play the last couple of minutes when Coppin State started making it close, and knocked down 1 of 2 free throws when it mattered. His cringeworthy factor is approaching zero. Obviously Reggie and Jake had good games, with each hitting half of their 3-point attempts. When they're hitting 3s, the Zips are in good shape. When they're not, the team has to adjust and let others carry the load. Overall the Zips looked a little tired and lethargic after their recent NBA-type game schedule. I don't expect a lot of difference in the Marshall game. Then they get a week off to prepare for the MAC season, where we all hope to see a more organized and consistent approach to winning. As Coach Dambrot said in the postgame interview, this team is still suffering the effects of the lost of Abreu at the point, and it's going to be a challenging season all the way to the end.

Coach Dambrot addressed this issue in tonight's postgame interview when he specifically stated that Jake and Reggie are not the type of players who are good at creating their own shots. Their style of play and physical abilities make them best at knocking down open 3s. Having said that, in the midst of raining 3s tonight, Reggie at one point took advantage of a charging defender by stepping around him and moving in for a nice open 15-foot jumper. This may be about the most we can hope for.

It's fair to question the coaches' decisions, it's fair to question those who question the coaches' decisions, it's fair to question those who question those who question the coaches' decisions, etc., etc., i.e. be prepared to take what you give ad infinitum.

What would you expect from a piece written by Ted Glover, who's been outed as a fictional tOSU booster created by Gordon Gee.

When considering Jake's game play so far this season, it should be remembered that he was having back problems going into the season and there were some questions about how effectively he would be able to play.

My first question would be whether Jake and Reggie shoot almost exclusively 3s because they want to or because Coach Dambrot instructs them to do so. If the latter, then the request to develop other shots needs to go to the coach and not the players. It's not unusual for teams to have players who predominately shoot 3s. Creighton has a player who leads the country in percentage of points scored on 3s at more than 92%. Closer to home in the MAC, OU has always had 3-point specialists who got most of their points from beyond the arc. But it's true that occasionally being able to fake the defender and move in for a mid-range shot or drive all the way to the bucket can help loosen things up. If you almost exclusively shoot 3s, you'd better be darn good at it. Jake and Reggie are respectively hitting 37% and 39% of their 3s, which is the equivalent in points scored of hitting more than 55% and 58% of 2-point field goals.

Nobody believes that Keith Dambrot is the best college basketball coach in America -- not himself, his wife, his children or even his dog. A lot of people, including me, believe that he's the best college basketball coach for UA. Any coach as good or better than Coach Dambrot but without connections and loyalty to UA would be gone to a higher-paying school the minute the Zips had a successful season or two. A string of coaches would likely produce more who are worse than Coach Dambrot than better, given the level of resources UA allocates to the program. Nope, the only way the Zips get 7 consecutive 22+ win seasons and 7 consecutive trips to the conference championship game is with Coach Dambrot. If it was easy, a lot of coaches would replicate that. Try making a list of all the D1 coaches in the country who've done it, then give them a call and see if any would be willing to come to UA and sit in Coach Dambrot's plush office at the JAR for the same salary. Is it worth playing musical chairs with coaches for a chance at one who might possibly lead the Zips past the first round of the NCAA tournament one season only to move on to a better job offer with the possibility that his replacement puts the Zips in the MAC cellar? Is it fair to criticize Coach Dambrot for things we perceive he could do better? Heck yes. The only thing not open to criticism is perfection, which means that everything is open to criticism. But there's a huge difference between educated, constructive criticism and sour grapes potshotting. An honest discussion requires that each of us acknowledges that we are fans and not great experts on all the technical intricacies of college basketball. We also must acknowledge that we don't have access to all the facts about individual members of the coaching staff and the players. At that point we can begin having a reasonable and respectful discussion about what we think might be happening and what we think might be ways to improve things.

Great example of what Tree was tweeting about.

I agree with you. Good athletes with good speed and quick reflexes plus a high-level coach who's taught them what to anticipate and how to react can make the Zips look lost on both the defensive and offensive ends. South Carolina's players were able to easily separate themselves from Zips defenders for easy buckets, and on offense the Zips couldn't break free for open shots because the South Carolina defenders reacted so quickly. Speed and quickness in basketball have become increasingly more important in recent years, and the new rules on hand checking are only magnifying that. Steady players with average speed are becoming more of an endangered species regardless of their other attributes. I'm not an X's and O's guy, but HS Stripes is. I'd be interested in seeing how he analyzes this from a more technical view. The TV announcers brought up a couple of points that haven't been mentioned here. First, they said that consistency is the most difficult thing to achieve in college basketball, and that made the Zips' record of 7 consecutive seasons with 22 or more victories a remarkable achievement. The other really important point they made is that this was accomplished with limited resources. The announcers understood that UA's investment in the basketball program, from coaching salaries to facilities and everything in between, is probably less than almost any program in the country that has been more successful than the Zips in the Coach Dambrot era. That's a point that needs to be acknowledged when asking why the program can't take the next step.

Come on Skip. I'm well aware of all the negatives. Are you aware of any positives? Relax your laser focus on the negatives for a few minutes and go back and read the perception of the Zips among basketball fans, writers, coaches, selection committees, etc., outside of Akron during last season's 19-game winning streak and national ranking.

The success of the Covelli Centre is a good starting point for a model that could be optimized to work in Akron, assuming that a second arena wouldn't pop up as it did in Cleveland and screw things up. But as the previous article pointed out, the interested parties in Akron and at UA are far from having a consensus on how to best make this happen. Youngstown probably went through a similar process before arriving at the Covelli Centre plan.

@Balsy, some good thoughts there. We're all posting on this forum because we're Zips fans. We're all on the same side. The enemy is not us. We just have different perspectives and different thoughts on what might be wrong and what might be done to help correct the problems. Primal screams may work for some fans to relieve the frustration of seeing the Zips perform at a lower level than expected. But what's more interesting and productive is thoughtful analysis from many different perspectives. My observation from reading ZN.o for nearly a decade is that no one poster has all the answers on any issue, but the collective work of all forum members taken together can produce some pretty insightful observations. Some of the things we're debating right now will be proved out over the rest of the season. For example, there's a wide variety of opinion on just how good is that South Carolina team that just destroyed our Zips. That will be easily resolved as the rest of the season plays out, and I'm sure I won't be the only one checking how well the Gamecocks do in upcoming games. As far as what's wrong with the Zips, I think we had a pretty good handle on some of the problems before the first game of the season. We knew that the Zips played pretty good defense prior to Zeke's arrival, that they learned to rely on Zeke to protect the rim for 4 seasons, and that with Zeke gone they're having to re-learn how to play better team defense. We also know that we lost our best PG and had no one this season who had shown that they could play PG at a consistently high level. After a few games we learned that the guy many consider the Zips' best player and a key to this season's success became so frustrated that he wasn't sure he was enjoying basketball. Those 3 problems alone would be enough to account for most of the Zips' mediocre performance, and there are likely other, smaller problems as well. Unless the 3 main problems are corrected, focusing on the lesser problems will probably not make a huge impact on game results.