Quickzips

The really good news here. If Willie commits to UA, we will be 60% of the way towards having the Jackson 5. Antino Jackson Aaron Jackson Willie Jackson Wonder if Tito and Jermaine have anything left in the tank.

This game is actually making me miss the old Miami games when Charlie Coles was on the sidelines for the Redhawks. This has been just a brutal game to watch.

Anyone who still wants us to play big more often with the twin towers on the floor needs to go back and watch the last 2 minutes of that first half. With Pat and Isaiah on the floor together with Kwan, Jake and Noah the Zips were an unmitigated disaster against Miami's zone press. An 11 point lead gets slashed to down 1 at the half in the blink of an eye. You have to have ball handlers on the floor against the press. This is basketball 101. There was no reason to stick with that lineup as long as we did. Just because you have two big guys doesn't mean you have to have them on the floor together.

At some point these young Zips have to stop wetting the bed every time they play away from the comfy confines of the JAR.

Zips didn't deserve to win this one. I think at one point they were about 8 of 25 from the free throw line. That is pitiful. Even Shaq and Ben Wallace would have been laughing at us for that performance at the line. Very nearly a total waste of Reggie's huge game. Not feeling very good about this one. The W is nice, but we should have won this one by double figures, easily.

New coach. Same result. Zips are 21 of their last 22 against BG. Dakich, Orr, Jans. It doesn't matter. KD owns these guys.

Maybe the most complete game the Zips have played all year. If one guy from Western doesn't go video game from the 3 point line for about a minute and a half this is a 30 point drubbing. Zips served an early notice on the MAC. We may be young, but the road to Cleveland still goes through Akron. Bring on the Rockets.

I think a big part of the issue with all the 3 point shooting last night was the fact that Pat was in foul trouble almost from the opening tip. I'll give Johnson credit, he played a nice game, but Pat has been our catalyst inside all year long. With him out it is only natural for us to become a little more reliant on the perimeter game. BJ going down early didn't help either. He had been coming on as a bit of a slasher presence lately that we don't otherwise have on this team. Overall I thought the Zips played reasonably well. Johnson easily had his best game of the season, wearing a path to the FT line all night. The Jackson's also showed up big when we really needed them. Aaron in particular brought some energy off the bench that we haven't seen from him yet. Noah's injury was scary. I was actually somewhat surprised to see KD put him back in in the second half. My guess is he has a nice welt on his leg this morning. Speaking of Noah, even before the injury he wasn't having his best game. 11 for Coppin State turned him over repeatedly. As I mentioned on here a few weeks ago, Noah has a tendency to over-dribble at times. He especially got himself in trouble dribbling with his back to the basket out beyond the 3 point line. Needs to learn from this one. The MAC has quite a few talented lead guards that will make him pay for that.

Akron rarely puts players at or near the top in very many statistical categories. It has been that way for the duration of KDs tenure. His teams have always relied on balanced scoring and team rebounding. As to who wins the conference tournament, way too early to predict. There are a lot of quality teams in the conference this year. Toledo, Akron, EMU, Buffalo, BG, Can't, CMU and WMU have all had pretty solid OOC seasons so far. I think the conference schedule this year is going to be a real slug-fest for a lot of teams. Going to be a very interesting year.

There is a temporal component to KDs comments that is kind of missing. At the end of last year I think his evaluation would have been perfectly correct. Johnson was playing reasonably well and seeing increased minutes while Pat had all but played himself out of the rotation at times. When they first arrived on campus, frankly, I think Pat would have been considered the better prospect overall. Either way, I'm just glad we have a reliable big man in the middle who is picking up the slack after Tree's departure. There have been a lot of guys who have stepped up this season that weren't necessarily expected to (Deji, Kwan and Nyles come to mind as well), but I don't think anyone has had a greater turn around than Pat. It really has been a pleasure watching him this year. As to Johnson, my thoughts on him are pretty well documented around here. Not much need to re-hash that again. For the sake of the team I hope Dave is right and he is just dealing with some lingering issues from his injury that have spilled over into a confidence drain, but I'm not buying it at this point.

I'm actually starting to wonder if Williams doesn't come in and play more of the 2 guard early on in his career. The more I read about him he seems to have more of a scorers mentality and I think he could fit really nicely as a scorer/secondary ball handler next to Noah. With Evans and Deji graduating at the end of the year there will be plenty of minutes open at 2 guard, but with Noah and Antino there won't be many PG minutes available. A lineup of Noah, Williams, McAdams/Kretzer/Gladden, Kwan and Forsythe could look really good out there.

Kwan has NBA potential. No doubt about it. 6'9", long, with good outside shooting and a nice mid-range game. If he continues to develop he will at least get a tryout at the next level. Right now this teams biggest asset is its diversity. Unlike in years past where we were primarily reliant upon 1 or 2 good interior players and a whole bunch of 3 point shooters to space the floor, this years team can beat you in a variety of ways. Noah and Deji can break you down off the dribble or beat you with perimeter shooting. Jake and Reggie have to be accounted for on spot-up jumpers. Kwan has a nice mid-range game and can stretch a defense out to the 3 point line, Pat and Isaiah can make you pay out of the low post. Nyles and Antino are sort of X factor kind of guys who can do a lot of things as well. Almost all of these guys are solid passers as well. When you put it all together and add in some good ball movement (which we've had most of the year) you get a pretty darn lethal team. There are going to be stumbles along the way. There always is with a team this young. What is encouraging is their early ability to learn from mistakes. I'm thinking particularly about the Pine-Bluff game where we turned the ball over early and often in the first half but we made the adjustments at halftime and came out and put a hurting on them in the second. This team has the potential to be real special if they continue to work hard at it and grow as a group.

Need to work on our end game situations, but that is somewhat to be expected with such a young roster. It also doesn't help when you have a guy on the other side who is just hitting ridiculous 3s from NBA range and beyond. Noah is the real deal, but I thought his defense was lagging a bit in the second half. Deji was the real difference maker. Have to say, he is starting to make me eat a little bit of crow recently. He took over for about a 3 - 4 minute stretch there in the middle of the second half. Seems to have really worked on his game over the summer and is relishing that 6th man role. Not sure I trust Antino Jackson that much yet. His shot selection was really shaky tonight and he made an absolute bonehead foul that almost resulted in a 4 point play late (as it turned out the 3 rimmed out and Bryant missed all 3 FTs). You can see the talent there, but he needs to get a handle on the pace of the game at this level.

All you need to know is that they are coached by Tim O'Shea and they are playing on the road.

So far, pretty darn good. It is really rare at this level to see a freshman come in at PG and look as poised, confident, and in-control of his team as he has. Add to that playing for Dambrot, a guy who has a history of having something of a short leash with freshman, and it is even more impressive. Really makes you wonder what might have been if we had him (or someone close to his caliber) manning the point last year. If I have one criticism so far, there are times when he does over-dribble a little bit. I'd like to see him pass the ball a little more, but that will come with time. Outside of that, my only concern is in how well he is going to be able to hold up to carrying heavy minutes over the course of the season. Freshmen who are asked to play big minutes have a tendency to wear down as the season goes on. We'll see how well Noah can handle it.

That is all fine and good Dave. I think everyone understands that Johnson is injured. I understand that you can't blame him for being a little out of shape. The problem that I have, and I think I speak for many others on here as well, is that we saw a lot of the same conditioning problems from him last year. Would it have made a difference if he had a full healthy offseason? Maybe, maybe not. Unfortunately this isn't a situation where he needs to just get a little bit better with his conditioning. He was maybe 60-70% for the majority of last year. Right now. I would be generous to say that he is 40-50% of where you need to be to compete at this level. It is going to take a monumental effort over the next 2 1/2 years for him to get there.

Haven't been around a lot lately, so not posting much. First game I've actually had a chance to see all year. Ok, now for the big question. Raise your hand if you thought going into the week that, without Tree, the Zips would take 2 of 3 and come out of it with wins against the PAC-12 and SEC. If your hand is up right now I've got some real-estate deals to discuss with you. Excellent property. Oceanfront view. Located in Boise Idaho. Priced to move. Seriously though, excellent game by the Zips. We have a real find in Robotham. Plays the game the way a PG should. Under control. Picks his spots. Scrappy on defense. Keeps his teammates involves. Love everything about this kid. If he keeps his head on straight for 4 years he will be an all conference player before it is all said and done. (Sad that I have to use that qualifier). What is more startling to me is the play of guys like Evans, Forsythe, and Cheatham. They look like completely different guys out there from what I saw last year. Sign of a really good team when you lose your best player and have guys step up like that. The biggest thing hurting this team long term is lack of depth up front. Forsythe and Cheatham can't play 35 - 40 minutes a night all year. Gladden is clearly not ready to play at this level. Johnson is still an absolute boat anchor out there. You can play him against the couple of teams a year that you will see that try to slow the game down and play it in the 40s or 50s, but against 90% of the teams in the NCAA he simply can't keep up. I'm afraid he never will be able to. It is about a lot more than just the injury. He was a boat anchor before the injury.

Melo just never looked comfortable at this level. At least not for any consistent length of time. Particularly the case when it came to shooting the rock. I don't know that I've seen many guys who seemed that petrified at the thought of taking an open shot. He had some gritty performances, particularly in that 2013 tournament, but just never put it all together. Wish him the best of luck in whatever is next.

Lot to like in the video Dave. Seems like he has the athletic ability and he's got the long arms and big hands that you want to see in an undersized 4 man. He's clearly still a bit raw, but he seems to have enough of the fundamentals down that he could contribute early in his career here. I don't think he'll be a 3 - 4 year developmental project.

124 is about right for this team going into the season. We've got one proven high level player (Tree), a couple of proven solid role-players (Jake and Reggie) and a whole lot of question marks. Basically the rest of the roster is: Veterans who haven't lived up to their potential: Betancourt Ibitayo Forsythe Second year players who we haven't seen enough of yet: Cheatham Johnson Freshman and Redshirt Freshman Antino Jackson Robotham Aaron Jackson Gladden Ohh, and then there is Nyles Evans. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter where you start the season. It matters where you finish it.

Exactly how many PGs do we want to have on the roster for next season? Betancourt Evans (a PG in size only) Robotham Antino Jackson Abreu I get it that our PG situation was a mess last year, but we only have so many roster spots with which to try to fix it, and there are only so many minutes at PG to go around.

If the 2014-15 Zips are going to rely on Deji then I have a feeling many around here will start referring to the 2013-14 Zips as the "good ole days".

I get what you're saying Dave, except for one thing. I personally would not use "accomplished player" to describe either Johnson or Forsythe. Pat has largely been a disappointment since he got here. He had a few good games early in his first year, but floundered as the season went along. He had every opportunity to lock down the starting C position last year, and he couldn't do it. In fact, there were times when you had to wonder why he was even in the rotation. Despite Pat not playing well Isaiah averaged less than 14 minutes per game last year. He only scored in double digits twice (and failed to do so at all in the conference season). Overall, his 2013-14 average stat line reads 3.8 points, 2.8 boards, .9 blocks, 49.5% from the field, 59.5% from the line and only 13.4 minutes per game. His biggest flaw is well known, and that is conditioning and athleticism. To put it mildly, he is a boat-anchor in this era of teams that are looking to play more of an open court, spread the floor kind of game. Not exactly my definition of accomplished. Now, is Kwan an "accomplished player"? Of course not. So that leaves (in my mind anyways) three players with serious question marks that you could potentially put in at the C position. With that being said, I can't make my decision on who I want in the lineup based solely on history. There has to be something more that goes into it. We all know that for KD the effort that each of these guys puts in during the offseason, and throughout the season in practice (and specifically on the defensive end of the floor) will be a big factor. To me the other big factor is who fits the best with the rest of my lineup. If I'm KD and I look up and down my roster the first thing I notice is my all-MAC, player of the year candidate at PF. I want to do everything in my power to maximize the impact he can have on the game. In my opinion, the best way to do that is to surround him with other players who can space the floor. Whether those are guys like McAdams and Kretzer who are great long distance shooters or guys who can slash to the hole from the wings (or both) those are the guys I want on the floor. I want Tree to have as much space to operate in the post as I can give him. I simply can't see doing that by having him log big minutes with Johnson or Forsythe on the floor.

I disagree with almost every part of that lineup. 1) Playing Tree and Johnson together for significant minutes is a problem in my mind. Tree is most effective from about 12 feet in, but he needs space to operate down there. Johnson is almost exclusively a low-post scorer. When he is in the game you can almost count on two extra bodies clogging up the lane for Tree (Johnson and whoever is defending Johnson). It limits the effectiveness of our best player (Tree) to put him on the court with a guy like Johnson. I've taken some flack for it on here before, but I still maintain that Kwan at C gives us the best compliment to Tree. 2) Deji by no means "found himself" last year. He had a couple of good games here and there, but he was wildly inconsistent overall. To the point that he was benched for a good part of the season. He is going to have to take a major step forward for him to start for the duration of the season. 3) I'm never a fan of taking a 6th man of the year and putting him in the starting lineup because of it. Take a look at the Spurs with Manu Ginobli if you want to see what having a great 6th man, and keeping him in that role, can do for you. I would rather see Reggie start at SG as our designated 3 point shooter in the starting lineup and bring Jake off the bench. On top of that, with the injury history that Jake is building up, I expect that we will want to monitor his minutes pretty closely. 4) I actually think Aaron Jackson will be solidly in the rotation by the time the season roles around. In fact, I can see him as probably our second our third man off the bench. 5) As Dave said, I think you very well may see Antino push Betancourt for PG minutes. Melo is going to have to show he can score the basketball enough to at least make defenses account for him. If not the two freshmen are going to push him out of the rotation. If I had to put together a rotation right now: Starters: PG - Robotham SG - McAdams SF - Gladden PF - Treadwell C - Cheatham Rotation: 1st off the bench: Kretzer 2nd off the bench: Johnson 3rd off the bench: Aaron Jackson 4th off the bench: Betancourt/Antino Jackson 5th off the bench: Forsythe 6th off the bench: Ibitayo Odd Man Out: Evans and whoever of Betancourt/Antino Jackson doesn't take the backup PG minutes

That is the one glaring issue that Harney's departure brings up. The only real bigs on the roster are Tree, Forsythe, Johnson, and Cheatham. If one or more of those guys goes down or misses any significant time we become a pretty small team. Just a thought, but I wouldn't mind seeing some 3 guard lineups with Kretzer at PF and one of Tree, Forsythe, or Cheatham at C. I think you could go a little more up-tempo with a lineup like that.