Quickzips

You were only off by 27.

Zips are deep enough on the wings that we SHOULD be able to absorb this without having to rush Chauncey back before he is ready. Time for Deji, Reggie and Jake to step it up a bit.

Things that will hurt WMU in this game: The Broncos generally play about a 9 man rotation with two of those players seeing less than 10 minutes per night. The Zips will come at them with an 11 man rotation, and they will press full court the majority of the night. Even if Western is able to keep it close early, the Zips will eventually wear out the Broncos with their depth. The Broncos lack the size up front to compete with the Zips rotation of bigs. Whittington (6'10") and Paul (6'8") are the only real bigs in their lineup. Hutcheson runs 6'7" but is a little more of a wing than he is a big (think Jake Kretzer). While Whittington and Paul might provide a nice matchup for Zeke and Tree, they have nobody who can come off the bench and match up with Forsythe and Harney. The Broncos lack a solid PG option. They run with 6'2" sophomore Austion Richie at the point. He averages 3.7 assists per game on the season while turning the ball over 2.3 times per night. Not exactly a good assist/turnover ratio. This doesn't bode well against a Zips team that will get up in his grill and try to force mistakes. As a team the Broncos don't shoot the ball very well. Overall they are 42% as a team on the season. Three of their top 7 guys shoot the ball under 40% including their leading scorer (Hutcheson at just under 37%). By comparison the Zips are currently 28th in the country shooting 47.5% from the field with three players in our rotation shooting 60% or above from the field including our two leading scorers (Zeke and Tree). Western isn't a particularly good 3 point shooting team. Only Brandon Pokley shoots above 40% from three. As a team they shoot 31.5% from three. While the Zips have shown some vulnerability to opposing guards getting hot from three, there really isn't anyone on the Broncos to be TOO concerned about. And the most important thing to remember is February 6, 2008. That is the last time the Broncos managed to beat the Zips. They did it in Kalamazoo (this one will be played at the JAR). Since then the Zips have won 7 in a row including two MAC tournament knock-outs.

Actually, there are three things you can say about WMU mens hoops. The third? They will lose to Akron.

The Zips have 4 frosh in our rotation as well. Only difference is our rotation goes 11 deep.

Have you seen the rest of the MAC?

Foul him on the way to the rim? Harney Badger don't care. Show him zone? Harney Badger just don't care!

3 PGs 5 Wings 5 Bigs is ideal to me. Gives you enough depth at all three spots, even if you redshirt one of each, to put together a nice rotation. Most seasons you won't see most teams able to put that together for various reasons, but I think it is an ideal situation. BTW, next years Zips (this presumes that Justice is the odd man out and Evans takes his scholarship, also presumes that Quincy Diggs does not return to the team): 3 PGs (Abreu, Evans, Betancourt) 5 Wings (Ibitayo, McAdams, Kretzer, Gladden, Jackson) 5 Bigs (Treadwell, Harney, Forsythe, Cheatham, Johnson)

The more I think about it the more I like this move. KD is hedging his bets a little bit for 2014. He knows Alex will have used up his eligibility by then, and we haven't seen enough from Melo yet to annoint him the clear cut heir apparent. Why not bring in an experienced kid to push Melo for the backup minutes behind Alex next year and let the two of them fight it out to see who starts in 2014. And I don't necessarily disagree with the Hoover coach that we are a bit thin at PG. PG is too important a position for your team to not have quality depth. It is the one position on the floor handling the ball more than anyone else. Think about earlier in the season when Alex was injured and our only options were Melo and playing guys like Deji, Walsh or McAdams out of position. This team didn't look very good at that point. I think you really need to have 3 PGs on your roster.

The officiating was wildly inconsistent, but at this point you almost have to expect that. I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen what I consider to be "good" officiating in a Zips game. It's sad that it's come to the point where you pretty much just have to expect it as part of the game, but I really don't know what other solution there is at this point. As I stated earlier, the thing that impressed me most was that Zeke didn't let the poor officiating impact him mentally. He went to the bench (while Pat F. did an outstanding job filling in) and waited patiently for his opportunity to get back in the game. When he did he hit some big shots, grabbed some tough rebounds in traffic and played his normal tight defense. Two years ago, heck even last year, you didn't see that out of Zeke. A few cheap fouls lead to more fouls, rushed shots, poor positioning on the glass, etc. I really feel like I watched a huge turning point in Zeke's career last night.

Dave pretty well hits the nail on the head. The level of talent on this team is higher than at any point under KD. 5 years ago a guy like Egner would have at least been relied upon for 15 minutes a night off the bench. Today he isn't even going to sniff the rotation. I liked Josh, and wish him the best of luck, but Tree, Harney, Pat F., etc. are simply at another level in terms of physical abilities and basketball talent. I really have to wonder how many of those bigs from KD's past would have seen significant minutes on this years squad. Is Nik Cvetinovic a starter in Tree's second year? How many minutes do the McKnight brothers get on this years squad? Do Romeo and Wood see some of their playing time decreased? Does Mike Bardo ever get on the court? Matt Futch? Rob Preston? Seriously, this is probably the best group of bigs, top to bottom, that the MAC has seen in a decade.

First game I've had an opportunity to make it too all year and it was a good one. I'll be honest, I can't remember the last time I've seen the Zips get so little from their wing players and still win the game. Chauncey, Walsh, Deji, McAdams and Kretzer were absolutely invisible out there today. I don't know if it was Princeton's size or what was going on, but to see that kind of a display from our wings was a bit concerning. As poor as we were on the wings we were every bit as good if not better in the post. Harney, Tree, Zeke and Pat are a tough load for almost anyone to handle right now. Dave already said it, but it bears repeating. The Zips are an entirely different animal this year with Pat F. in the rotation. Teams can't rely on foul trouble from Zeke to open things up for them inside anymore. Pat was a huge factor in the win tonight. Speaking of Zeke, I feel like I am FINALLY watching the light come on for the big fella. I said it at the beginning of the season. Zeke will have finally arrived when he can start consistently turning a majority of those free throw opportunities into and-ones against quality opponents. He did so tonight. Not only that, but for the first time in his Zips career I felt like the foul trouble didn't have a negative impact on his mental performance. Two years ago, with four fouls there is no way Zeke would have been able to get his head back in the game enough to make that 16 foot jump hook with one second on the shot clock. Tonight he swished it without so much as moving the net. Abreu is still the straw that stirs the drink for this team. Tonight was probably one of the best all around defensive performances I've seen him turn in to this point. Particularly when you consider that everyone Princeton threw out on the court was a good 4-5 inches taller than him. He seems to really be benefiting from the full court pressure defense that the Zips are running this year. What was most impressive was his ability to step up to the free throw line late in the game when we really needed him and can two crucial ones. He hasn't always been able to do that in his career here. Tonight he called for the ball, got it, and calmly sank them both. I have some concerns with Harney's conditioning. Nick was completely gassed out there down the stretch. You could sense that KD really wanted to use him more late in the game, but he just had nothing left. Anyone know what happened to Melo in the second half? He was noticeably absent with Deji playing the backup PG minutes. Did he suffer an injury or was it just a matter of needing more size against a very big Princeton backcourt? Finally, a note on the atmosphere which I thought was well above average for an OOC game over the holidays. The only complaint I have is with the Rowdies. I know it is Winter break, and that always bodes poorly for student turnout, but even the ones that were there were pathetic. Sitting on their hands at various times throughout the game and generally only getting into the action if there was a free throw attempt by Princeton or the jumbotron was on them during a timeout. As a former member myself, I must say it was pretty embarrasing.

In no way was I trying to imply that the coaching staff relies on Rivals, Scout, ESPN or any other publicly available recruiting service. The original post that I was replying to made issue with this class based on who else offered these guys. I was simply making the comparison, based on the publicly available information on Rivals, of the offers this class had compared with what I consider to be one of the best recruiting classes of the KD era. I also understand that recruiting is hit or miss and is dependent upon a lot of variables, many of which come down to the personality and work ethic of 17 and 18 year old kids. 13 scholarships to give, on average you should have 3 open scholarships each year. If you hit on 2 of those each year you have a pretty nice rotation. Some kids will unexpectedly "hit" early (see Jake Kretzer this season), others will only "hit" late in their careers (see Jimmy Conyers). Overall, I think KD has done a better job than much of the conference over his tenure here at finding more hits than misses.

Let's take a look at this in comparison to another fairly large class that had good success at Akron throughout their careers under KD (for this comparison I am using data compiled from the rivals.com database): Comparison Class: Player 1 had offers from Akron, Bowling Green, Hampton, Robert Morris and Wright State Player 2 only had an offer from Akron Player 3 only had an offer from Akron This Class: Player 1 had offers from Akron and Middle Tennessee State Player 2 had offers from Akron, Can't State, Ohio and Xavier Player 3 only had an offer from Akron Player 4 had offers from Akron, Miami (OH), Ohio and Toledo Player 5 had offers from Akron, Charlotte, East Carolina, NC Greensboro, NC Wilmington, VCU, Wake Forest, Winthrop and Xavier The comparative class had just over one offer from another school per player and had a grand total of one other offer from a MAC school. All other offers came from schools in lower conferences. This class averages close to three offers from another school per player. Five offers from other MAC programs are included. It also includes offers from the A10 (two), ACC (one), CUSA (one) and some other very good mid-majors such as Middle Tennesee, VCU and Winthrop. Now, for the revealing: The comparative class: Player 1 - Romeo Travis Player 2 - Dru Joyce Player 3 - Jeremiah Wood This class: Player 1 - Nyles Evans Player 2 - Aaron Jackson Player 3 - Kwan Cheatham Player 4 - Isaiah Johnson Player 5 - B.J. Gladden Ask yourself this. Knowing what you know now, would you have passed on Romeo, Dru and J.Wood simply because the best offer (outside of Akron) between them was from Bowling Green? If the answer to that (as it should be) is no, then you start to see a little bit of the picture of why everyone is excited about this recruiting class. KD is the coach that brought us those 3 guys who nobody else was really interested in nearly a decade ago. Now, 10 years later he will be bringing in a class of new athletes that has seen interest from other significant programs.

I don't think Deji transfers. He is getting more and more playing time as the year goes along, and with Walsh and Gilliam out of the equation next year he should be in the hunt for a possible starting spot. As far as the rest of the equation. IF Quincy Diggs is not back our returning scholarship players for next year are: Abreu Betancourt Ibitayo Justice McAdams Kretzer Treadwell Harney Forsythe (Forsythe is already on scholarship having taken over Q's scholarship IIRC) That leaves 4 spots available, which means we still need one more scholarship. My best bet is that Justice transfers out. Now IF Diggs returns the situation gets a lot more complicated.

PG - Nyles Evans SG - Aaron Jackson SF - B.J. Gladden PF - Kwan Cheatham C - Isaiah Johnson The Zips have recruited an entire starting lineup and a pretty good looking one on paper for this class. This is not a good sign for those who were hoping to see Quincy Diggs back next year. I also have to imagine that this spells the end of the line for another one of our current scholarship players. Based on the current roster and available playing time my money would have to be on Blake Justice. Finally, and someone can correct me if I am wrong here, I BELIEVE this is the first time in the KD era that the Zips have gone to the JUCO well. Not sure what to make of that, although I suppose you can also say that we offered Evans out of high school.

I really hope that KD is coming to the realization that having Alex, Walsh, Gilliam, Kretzer, etc. chucking up 30+ 3's a game is not the way this team is going to win ball games. This teams strength is in the post with Zeke, Tree, Harney and Pat F., followed by timely perimeter shooting from our guards and wings. Get the ball to Zeke and the rest of the bigs early and often.

After a couple weeks out of the country and segregated from my Zips I got to catch the first half of todays game before heading off to a family holiday obligation. I understand it hasn't been all sunshine and puppy dogs while I've been away, but the Zips team I saw in the first half today sure looked good. Any time you pummel a cross-town rival by 30 it is a pretty resounding show of strength. Hopefully this can serve as a springboard game for the Zips.

Disagree. I think we will match Zeke up on McDermott early and often and let Tree work on the 6'9" Echinique. I understand that McDermott will occassionally step out to the 3 point line, and that limits a certain amount of Zeke's effectiveness, he is shooting sub-30% from out there early this season. If the Zips game is the one game he gets hot and burns us from out there you tip your hat to the young man and move on. But I think you have to put best on best. Zeke is our best frontcourt defender by a pretty wide margin, and he always seems to bring a little extra when matched up with a quality opponent. Let's see if the big fella can give McDermott the Justin Greene treatment. This is also one of the few games I could see us playing the twin towers up front for extended minutes.

Agree 100%. Zeke will be ready for the NBA when the number of free-throws is cut in half because he is getting more and one trips than two shot trips.

Penn State isn't a very good Big 10 team, but when you are putting your walk-ons in to close a game against a Big 10 team you have a pretty good squad.

I know KD likes beating teams with the 3 ball, but when you have a decided advantage over your opponents frontcourt you need to punish them down low early and often. Zips did that early in this second half and have turned up the defensive pressure. Good gameplanning coming out of the second half locker room.

You got any lotto numbers I could play?

Anyone find a non-ESPN3 link for this game for those of us whose carrier doesn't support ESPN3?

Been very busy with work this week. I haven't seen any of the games, nor had much of any time to get on here for updates. Just getting caught up now. Looks like we missed a big opportunity yesterday against OkSt, but apparently bounced back today against Asheville. Anyone care to give me the readers digest version of this week in Zips hoops?