Zip Watcher

Considering the situation next season with the Zips and how it relates to conference play, I don't see how this hurts the Zips.Teams now will have to consider either playing Jeremiah straight up .. playing a zone, or bringing the double team from the weakside baseline. It's going to take too much to double down, so they're going to have to double over. Assuming one of either Swiech or Bardo can move to the hoop without traveling or falling down, I think that guy has lots of open looks coming to him from inside 8 feet. J Wood is VERY good at recognizing the double and passing out of it .. and his interior passing has been good. If he's getting doubled across the lane, the weakside 5 man is gonna get some good shots. If they hit them .. then you've got J Wood being defended one on one .. and in its current state, I don't think the league has too many guys who can win that situation.

Agreed. Seemed like John was coming around. He contributed well to the team during the last 2 weeks. Seemed like a nice kid and I thought would end up being a good spot up shooter in the next 2 years.Best of luck to him in Texas.

Thanks for keeping us up to date!

Mollaut:Is this guy looking to walk on at Miami, or do you guys still have one available? At this point, he'd have to be paying his own way (not a big deal I imagine) to be a Zip. Are the 'hawks still filling spots for 07-08?Thanks for the link.

I'll clarify (restate) what I said above:Sullivan was the Lake & Geauga county POY in the PD. He was not the PD area player of the year .. he won top honors for those counties. I'm not sure where he landed on any All-Area PD teams.

Well, I can't find the guy at either Rivals or Scout .. so it's tough to gage what caliber of player he might be. All State Honors (special mention as a Soph & 3rd Team D1 as a Junior) are pretty good indicators I would guess.FYI, he was the PD's Lake/Geauga Player of the Year in 06/07.What's more? Dude's got his own website. You can be hit #25 if you click on this link quick enough:See some stats & other info @ Sullivan's website.

Both Roberts and Jeter would have to be walkons to be here next year. Then maybe one would use one of the opening scholi's after CM & co. graduate.There's another walkon that redshirted this year who you're missing: Leomeister. Didn't get the first name, but bigger kid, who was on the team and recognized at the banquet the other night. If you remember one game this season, CM had to change the jersey at half time and came out wearing #43 - Leomeister.

He'd be paying his own way in 07-08 due to the scholi limit, right? Then he'd use one of the 4 that open up for '08?Interesting stuff. We know that KD wanted Jeter the first time around.

Thanks mollautt .. I assume you're referring to McKnight here. Any other conference recruits play in that game?

what about shooting them with rubber bullets from 20 paces and then smashing their heads against the wall ... don't you think you're omitting some possibilities?

How tall was Charles Barkley? 6-5? 6-4? He sure wasn't 6-7.

Your words .. not mine.

My dislike of Columbus State has to do with the fact that they represent everything that is wrong with college sports today.That is it .. plain and simple. Uhhh .. NO .. that's certainly not it .. not even close .. at least not for me.The LAST thing I want is for UA to emulate OSU's athletic programs / departments / boosters. I'd rather completely suck and be positive representatives of the university / community than sell our collective souls .. and have semi-pro teams that don't fit the school & community, and pick and choose which rules apply to UA. If I want to root for the Cavs & Browns .. I can do that. If I want to watch student athletes develop over 4 years .. I can do it at UA.I'm not a UA grad & I can't stand Ohio A&M .. has nothing to do with recruiting against the Zips. It has to do with either being amateur athletes or being pro athletes. If you're going to be a college team .. have students play. This is what KD & Mike Thomas & Mack Rhodes are talking about when they say "we're going to do things the right way."FYI, these topics are fair game as long as they reside where this one does ... I might change the forum topic to be "Off-Topic, Smack & Jokes" .. just so folks can stop worrying about it being the right place for this or not.

To answer some questions from above:The Scholi limit is 13 .. and with the 3 frosh coming in (mcknight, steward, swiech), we'll be full.Returning players (10) on scholarship are:Seniors (4): Wood, Dials, Middleton, MilumJuniors (3): Linhart, Rybak, ConyersSophomores (1): McKnightRS Frosh (2): McNees, BardoShould he continue his progress toward a degree at the required pace, Conyers will be able to get a year back, and then fall back to being a senior when Chris McKnight is .. so that could change things.I know that KD likes to have a smooth rotation of players .. doesn't want to have classes of 5 & 6 guys to recruit .. I think he likes to bring in 3,3,3, and 4 ... so the redshirts sort of screw that up. But the reality is that he's had a veteran club & minutes would have been non-existant for Steve & Mike this year.Oh, and there is NO limit imposed on NCAA on the total roster size (as far as google can find), so having 4 walkons carry over this year to next and adding another appears to be fine. I think there may be a 15 or 16 player travel restriction .. but I'm not even sure about that. The Russel kid from Toledo is an intriguing thing if in fact rumors end up being true.The preferred walk on may mean the Copley kid gets a ride as a sophomore if the staff doesn't fill the 4 spots for the 08 incoming class?

So what happens to OSU when Matta leaves for Kentucky?

I don't think I'd like to see DHip on an opposing bench anytime soon. It would be like playing Miami an extra 2 times. Say what you want about the roster / player problems while he was here, the guy could coach from the bench when he wanted to. In drawing up a play to get a good shot, he's an expert.Life's all about learning from the past & making your best of second chances, isn't it? We should all know that. And if DHip finds a way to better communicate w/ players and keeps his offensive-minded brain sharp .. he could become a pretty tough guy to beat. I don't see him as a threat to UA's ascension to NCAA elite status if he goes to BG, but I'd just as soon have BG continue to suck. Besides, I don't see them ditching Dakitch to just bring in a very similar style coach. I think they're going in a different direction altogether. There's a new AD there & he needs to put his stamp on something .. and it will be basketball. He's gonna have 2 searches going at once & it will be interesting to see what he does.My bet's on Cuonzo Martin or Jay Price for the BG job. Just a hunch. I think Martin would probably be ready for this step.

With all credit to Mike Rasor for finding this and linking to it, I think this is an article the Nation needs to read.Keith's thoughts & plans.You got 'em? Keep wearing them!

Dan Hipsher won't be unemployed very long. He's an asset to a high major program as an offensive coach / strategist. I'm sure he'll land somewhere soon. It's good that Arkansas pulled the trigger this week. Final Four is when most of the gigs .. both head and assistant coaches .. settle out.On a related note .. rumors swirling that Dakitch will end up at New Mexico as one of Alford's assisstants.

Not saying he wasn't a factor at all. I'm saying ANY 7' guy would have done the same thing on those teams. Anyone 6-10" or so on those teams in that spot would have provided those same things.

To me, this game presents an absolute no risk scenario for the Sucks. Now if they go up there in 3 years when Waters has the CSU thing turned around .. different story. But for now, they'll go there well before they go to the JAR.

zipboy & I will be called nuts for the next 6 months for this ..I agree that Jimmy can become that guy. He showed glimpses .. on a few occasions .. of being that guy. I think it was the Can't game at the MACC where he dusted by Singletary 2 times to get to the rim and both times passed the ball out for a worse shot than the one he had created for himself. Two times he came out of that game in the second half to have KD tell him "Shoot the Ball!!" Most everyone will agree that he's got the physical athleticism needed .. his man defense demonstrated that clearly in the last 2 weeks of the season. I think he was just a bunch too tentative on the offensive side of the ball. The summertime will do wonders for Jimmy.Cedrick can get to the rack when he wants to. He's not Rashon by any stretch .. but at least in conference, he can get to the rim pretty consistently.I think Jeremiah will be generally unguardable in the league next year. One on one, there's no one that can check him at this point. The big kid at BG may grow into the guy that do it .. but maybe not until 08-09. My only hope is that the Zips don't fall in love too much with the one on one in the block. Good to have it and use it to beat people down .. but the all around thing works best if you can keep it going. Those of you who have the Can't game @ the Q still on your DVR, check out the pass that J Wood makes out of the TRIPLE team to hit Joyce for a wide open 3 during the big run in the 2nd half. Awesome stuff ... really should be amazing to see the inside out next year with Wood.And by the way, SGM .. Edwards was a stiff. Always was. If you want to talk about a big guy being key in the conference, at least pick a guy from the list of really good big guys (for example: Hunter, Stacey, Kaman, Gates, Stempin, VanHoose ... heck, even John Whorton was better). Edwards was never anything more than the weak side guy in Jimmy C's rotations, cleaning up the misses and feasting on open shots because teams would double Gates or Gerwig .. drop Bruce Weinken or Nick Meyers in the same role & the results would have been similar. Edwards did improve from the start to his senior year .. but he was far from a "HUGE" factor. He was tall and played on some damn good teams.I'll take my chances with Swiech or Bardo. I think Swiech probably had more points in the month of January this year than Edwards had in his HS career. Just a hunch.Keep those shades handy Zips fans ...

I disagree. High step and swing can sound good: watch this1990 pregame video Man! I got goosebumps just watching that on my little computer screen!!! Too cool! If that doesn't give you pumped up nothing will! Holy Big Crowd Batman!

All in good time. The Top of the World is one which will get us one or 2 good RPI games and yet also be a completely winnable tournament for the Zips. Let's go after the Shootout when Ronnie & Jimmy & Steve have more games under their belts.

There's another of those exempted pre-season tourneys in Alaska.Go HERE.

SGM,Went to the link yesterday .. but when I tried to go back today to read further .. it doesn't load.Can you check it out?Thanks.ZW