Zip Watcher

What he said.

Some followup comments:- I would say I liked what I saw .. to call things smooth or polished would be a stretch. But the energy and intensity was good on all parts. There's a boatload of upper level D1 guys on the roster.- They did pick up full court for most of what I saw. There was some running of inbounds stuff .. but for the most part, they did run the length.- Some fretting above about the front court. Nate will play 30+ minutes a game .. top returning player. I'd expect 20+ from both of the McKnights .. that leaves 40-50 minutes to be divided by Conyers, Bardo, Civetinovic, Swiech. Conyers and Bardo have experience .. Only 1/3 of the minutes in the front court are uncertain or inexperienced guys. 1/2 the backcourt will be first year guys.- Bardo's a center. A big center. Maybe the biggest in the conference aside from Polk @ BG. Mike's going to help the Zips this year. Ultimately, after seeing a grand total of 1 1/2 hours of intrasquad scrimmage .. I think I have to agree with KD's comments earlier: if 1 new guy contributes, they'll be ok. 2 contribute .. they'll be pretty good. If 3 step in and help .. look out.Go Zips! Go Zeke! Go Trevor! B) Keep in mind how hard it is to judge a team against itself .. long way to go here.

I'm your Huckleberry ..I went down to the scrimmage this morning. Nice way to warm up and get the hoops energy flowing. Thanks to the coaches for allowing us to watch them work.Some brief thoughts:- I'll go so far as to say that never has there been a Zips team this deep. In thinking about rotations, I think there's a clear 10 guys who could contribute, with another 1 or 2 that might be able to step up if needed.- Sullivan was the only guy not playing. Appeared to be nursing a foot / ankle ailment. Was working on the side most of the time, and then came out in a walking boot.- Don't lose too much sleep on the PG spot. Entertaining to watch the two guys go at it. I'll say that one of them appears ahead of the other to me. Both are lightning quick compared to recent past PG's ... not ready to label either of them Rashon Brown Jr., but the upside of these 2 guys is clearly evident. I think it's safe to say we'll see a little more dribble drive than we have lately.- Conditioning appeared good .. I didn't see anyone sucking wind too bad .. Brett looks much slimmer, McNees looks thinner .. Conyers looks stronger, and Bardo is just a big Big BIG dude. Probably a full inch taller than Swiech.- It's a real treat to watch the staff coach this team. KD & co .. coach. They teach .. they encourage. There's not any element of embarassing a guy in front of the team. I like that. You can see in the energy of the players and how they respond that there's a good deal of mutual respect. Sure guys screwed up, it's early and they're 18 .. but they were coached through it, not berated about it.- I'm not going to speculate about redshirts specifically, though there's probably 3 that I see. Different than Rasor.Impressions of the new guys:- Humpty: as advertised .. very quick, good on the dribble. His decisions need to catch up to his athleticism, but he certainly can make a play.- Steward: I think things would have been very different last year if he hadn't gotten hurt. It's clear he's got a good grasp of the system. Super quick also.- Cvetinovic: I think he might drive the coaches nuts, but it's going to be hard not to play the guy. He has a nice game. Does lots of things really well, maybe nothing spectacularly, but lots of things well. Complete player, good ball sense & athleticism .. not afraid to mix it up. My favorite moment of the scrimmage: Nik has the ball near the line, gets bumped and does a side fadeaway & hits the shot with the foul. He pumps his fist as it goes down, only to turn around and be told by staff that it was a bad shot, and the decision should have been different.- Parrish: Farther along than I expected. About the size of Byron Thompson, maybe bigger, with the build and athleticism of George Phillips. Much stronger than Quade .. blocked a shot early, active on the glass. Not many minutes.- McClanahan: Smooth stroke, by my unofficial box score I think he was just under 50% from outside. Hit a nice leaner after splitting the double team. I disagree with Rasor on his size. He might be light (NOT skinny), but he's closer to Linharts's size than he is the PG's.- Swiech: Progressing nicely. Knows his spots, has some tenacity. I think he'll be able to help this year in spots. I'd be comfortable with him out there given the right situation. Lots of time, and he's big, and has touch .. keep at it big fella. A little bit more footspeed would go a long way with him.Good times .. nice to see the Zips in some action. I'm gonna put them on now .. B) B) Go Zips! Go Trevor! Go Zeke!

In the future plans for the futbol yard, is there space for a hill behind BOTH goals? Can their be Rowdies behind both goals the entire game?

Couldn't say it better myself.Frenchie's our legend. He'll be the voice of the Zips for years. A generation of new Zips fans will be raised on French .. both hoops & fb.Keep it up Steve.Go Zips.

Perhaps you're both right .. but one is in a time vortex. A quick tally reflects that Jacq has 14 TD's, as stated in this thread. However, if you go to GoZips.Com, you'll find that the season stats do not include the 2 TD's thrown @ EMU. Hence, the reporting of 12 / 10 instead of 14 / 10. The MAC site does correctly reflect 14 & 10.Go Zips!!

I'm merely referring to sentiment on this board. The staff has confidence in Steve, and I hope fans will find some patience with a first year player.

Thanks for the update Win ...But after one 3 hour practice at the start of his RS Freshman season, we've given up on Sweich? :puke:Are you all serious!!? Give me a break.Maybe we should see some games first.I've got mine on .. I suggest you get yours .. B) B) Go Zips! Go Zeke! Go Trevor!

Moderator Note: I HEAVILY edited the "Football Country" post above for obscenities ... this is a public board that does involve younger viewers .. let's keep it clean folks.Go Zips.

Zippy is most certainly a female kangaroo ...why she would need to be male just to intimidate opponents is beyond me.after all ...Zippy sleeps with the light on because the dark is afraid of the Zips!

Not a bad line for the big fella:After 2 games:TotalsMIN PTS 2FGP 3FGP FT RO RD RT AS PF BS ST76 51 16-33 5-6 4-9 14 14 28 3 4 2 4Average:38.0 25.5 48.5% 83.3% 44.4% 7.0 7.0 14.0 1.5 2.0 1.0 2.0

French is our legend .. great announcer for the Zips.If he doesn't have one .. he ought to have the "lifetime contract" in place. At this point, he's as much the voice of the Zips as Joe Tait is for the Cavs .. it would be weird to have anyone else.

Fixed. Thanks for the heads up.

Good discussion & posts!My thoughts:1. In agreement with Quickzips on this one. We're not looking for Nate to transform himself into a 20 point guy. We need him to be himself: a defensive stopper, unselfish player who plays within the flow of the game. In Fairbanks last year he tried to force the issue too much .. but by conference play, he was back to being a key defender and playing within the flow. And his points went up as a result. Is he the leader of this team? I think by example yes .. but maybe not vocally .. that role may fall to the McKnights.2. McNees @ the 2 is a very good situation. He'll have better legs under him for shooting and won't be relied upon to guard the other team's quickest player. I think simply the fact that he'll be guarding the 2 and not the 1 this season will make him a better defender and better able to be left out there in crunch time. I'm told his commitment in the offseason was fantastic and we can expect big things.3. I think we'll be fine here this year. We've got 2 guys coming in with high level experience in HS. Ronnie has a year in the system and a full spring / summer of practice under his belt. Between the 2 of them .. I think KD will find a mix that works. It also helps that both Steve & Daryl spent time at PG last year too .. while it's not a preference, matchups could permit one of those guys at the PG spot periodically.4. I think this question has 2 sides to it: (A.) Can the big men step up against Pitt and VCU .. and whoever the Zips face in the postseason this year? .. and (B.) Can they contribute in conference play. These are 2 different scenarios. To win at Pitt and VCU and go deep in the postseason, the Zips will need solid contributions from Mike & Steve. Mike is a known commodity who will rebound and defend well .. his offense needs to pick up .. but that will be a gradual process. From what we're told (me and Roger Brown) Steve's offense isn't a question mark, as much as his grasp of the defense and the quickness to play in the Zips defensive schemes. A freshman will have bumps in the road. As for conference play, I think they're ready .. and I also think the Zips will be successful even if they're not. Aside from the big guy @ BG who is still very foul prone .. there's not much in conference in the way of a dominant big who's much bigger than Chris McKnight. So in conference, KD can slide CMcK down to the 5 and add a scorer to the floor. Again, I think the bigs are key to moving upstream and competing nationally (especially in 09 & beyond), but not essential to compete at a high level in conference.5. I've made this comment before: I think this is the McKnight's team .. while Nate's the senior lead by quiet example guy .. B & CMcK are the vocal and energetic leaders. Chris made HUGE strides on the court last season. His last 5-10 games against good competition showed that. Brett demonstrated an ability to score the ball and took Jimmy's minutes from him mid season. It sounds as if they had a good summer conditioning wise and the court competition was fierce. Bottom line for me is that the longer we can have them both on the floor, the better the Zips will be. Think Woody & Rome when they were both healthy. That's a difficult matchup for most teams in the league. Something to consider here is that they hopefully won't be relied upon for as much help defense this season. With the leap forward in athleticism and quickness on the perimeter, I expect the dribble drive to be prevented a bit better this year, so they'll be asked to do a little less, perhaps.I expect big things. Let's hope everyone's healthy.Go Zips!

Fixed.

Those schools that do the "identity crisis" cheer always amuse me. Are they worried they'll forget which team they should be root for?

Hey Win! .. what did KD say when you told him that?!

Given that Humpty may well not be our best PG option going into the season, even with his background .. that position will be fine this year.This team will score a ton of points this year. The defense will make or break the season.

This sounds good, but I think it's not factually accurate. There are a few ways to avoid the grounding call:- Throw to a receiver (which JD will debate that Jacq did)- Get outside the pocket and throw it past the line of scrimmage ..You don't need to have both of these conditions for it to be a fair play. This one was certainly debatable .. not as clean as you'd like to believe it was.

I think there were 3 game changing personal fouls .. 2 by the same player. Just senseless stuff .. clipping a guy that was behind the runner on the play before Johnson got hurt REALLY hurts us. Generally I guess it's hard to expect the players to demonstrate self control when the head coach doesn't .. the team is a reflection of it's leader.Hopes and prayers for Andrew .. looked like bad hit in the pile .. guy just bent his neck back.I sure hope this game doesn't cost the Zips a bowl appearance heading into the Info.Go AJ .. Go Zips.

No matter how you spin this ...today's was a BAD BAD loss .. the lack of focus and discipline is disappointing.

And what does Cleveland fan have to do with us?

Perhaps the biggest difference is the lack of soap & hot water in Amherst. Just a guess. :D :D

Perhaps. I'm not sure, but there may have been language that required the BE to take UC if they met certain qualifications. Not sure .. but I think I remember that. When I was there in the early 90's .. FB was a total afterthought. You went to one game a year (vs. Yale) and you hardly ever made it into the stadium. :CK_brew: :cheers: Students generally didn't give a rats a$$ about FB. Make no mistake: CT is a hoops crazy state. There's a lottery for student tickets for ladies hoops. There's waiting lists al la the GB Packers for general public season tickets. Both women's & mens.The Renschler field thing is rooted in a couple of areas. #1 .. UC is the flagship U of the state, no question there. The law makers like to have things centrally located. The roads in and out of Storrs simply wouldn't support a crowd of 50k on a Saturday. Also UTC was willing to donate (or at least offer at a very cheap rate) their closed airfield (it used to be a cargo airport) for the site. #2, UC plays about half it's hoops games in the Mall in Hartford. Again, see the lawmakers for this. When Gampel Pavilion was built, they purposely limited its size to prevent UC from moving all the home games to campus. So the U, the students .. the community are sort of used to the whole distance to sporting event thing .. I can't tell you how it plays out for FB .. but it worked ok for hoops. It was a nuisance. Maybe the thing to discuss here is the pure interest in college FB up there. I can tell you it's not nearly what it is here in the Midwest. Even HS football isn't that big of a deal. The area is way more diverse in its interests than Ohio. So I don't really think there are many folks up there bummed that there's only 2 FBS teams .. I think it's just not as important to folks. In the next 5 years: 0% Mainly because wheels aren't even turning there for a move to FBS. They'd have to be committed to a plan today to be 1-A in 3 or 4 seasons, and they wouldn't get right in the BE.In the long run: Well less than 50% .. I simply think they like their current affiliations. They're in a very good hoops league that they can be competitive with. They play FB against UVM, UNH, Maine .. local teams .. and I think they aren't looking to change that. It just seems to me that the Minutemen will continue to play FCS with a near High Major hoops conference. I think one thing that could change the equation is if the A10 were to combust (not sure why that would ever happen). And I think it takes more than Temple leaving the A10 to make it happen. I think a departure of hoops-rich schools like Xavier, Dayton, GW .. etc would cause a re-look at the strategy.Remember, I have no inside knowledge of the knuckleheads in Amherst, but am only an observer from as far as I can be from there. I will tell you that their hoops facility is first rate. Woody tore it up when there.Go Zips!

I would.UConn is a charter member of the Big East .. there wasn't really a "dice roll" involved there. They had the inside track to join in football if they ever upgraded to 1-A. They've been in the BE for all sports since its inception.And as a UConn alumn, I can tell you that there won't be an initiative coming out of Storrs to add U*Ass anytime soon. They don't belong on the same field / court .. besides the fact that there's not really a lot of momentum in Amherst to move up to FBS .. UC anyway isn't going to clamor for them to be in the BE.And one other thing .. you are aware that U*Ass is in the middle of nowhere, right? It's farther from Boston than Athens is from Columbus, and almost as far as Toledo from Cleveland. As the bird flies, Amherst is closer to Albany than it is Boston. And with the 300 schools in Boston, including BC, BU, Northeastern .. it might be a stretch to label U*Ass as a big market grabbing team.Just my $.02Go Zips!