Quickzips

Anyone who thinks this isn't going to have a negative impact on OU next season is dreaming. Ask Can't fans how well things work out when you return almost your entire roster, but replace your head coach. Even if everybody from their roster stays (doubtful), I can't see them having the same kind of season they had this year. Groce plays a very particular brand of basketball that requires a very particular brand of players. He built that team around guys that fit his system. You can't necessarily say that all of those guys are going to fit in with the new coach. This is a blow to OU, no doubt about it.

I'll chime in again here on the Reggie redshirt situation. This is strictly my view on things, with no real inside information. Reggie is going to be a wing on this team. He has some skills that could allow him to play PG in a pinch, but with Abreu and presumably Betancourt getting the bulk of the minutes at PG, I doubt you will see Reggie bringing the ball up the court and triggering the offense for us too much, particularly next season. I also feel like Q, Walsh and Deji would all see PG minutes before Reggie would at this point. On the wing you already have 3 established players in Q, Gilliam and Walsh who will each play 20+ minutes per night. We lose McClanahan who was barely seeing 10 minutes per night by the end of the season. I expect that those 10 minutes will go to Q while the 10 minutes or so per night that Q played at PG will go to Betancourt. For clarification sake, here are the minutes from last season and the minutes I expect to see this year from our PG's and Wings. 2011/12 Abreu-30 Diggs-25 Walsh-25 McClanahan-19 Gilliam-17 Other (Harney/Ibitayo/Oldam/etc.)-4 2012/13 Abreu-30 (same as last year) Diggs-28 (10 less minutes at PG (to Betancourt), 13 more minutes per night on the wing (from McClanahan)). Walsh-25 (same as last year) Gilliam-23 (6 more minutes per night (from McClanahan)). Betancourt-10 (from Diggs' PG minutes) That still leaves 4 more minutes on the wings. Which leads to two questions: 1) Is it really worth burning the redshirt on Reggie for 4 minutes per night? 2) Who of the above listed 5 do you take minutes away from to get Reggie more run? For me, the answer to 1 is a resounding no. I've watched us make that mistake with Euton, Egner and Ibitayo the last 2 seasons. I don't want to see us waste another redshirt season this year. Particularly given how deep this team is. I think you can fill out the remaining minutes on the wing with some combo of Harney (in a big lineup), Ibitayo or Justice and be perfectly fine. In regards to 2, I don't see anyone you can take minutes away from barring an injury. Abreu is the catalyst for this team and will likely get all the minutes he can handle. Diggs is the reigning 6th man of the year and our most diverse player on both ends of the floor. Walsh is probably our most consistent player all around. Maybe you take a few minutes away from Gilliam, but personally, I don't think I am the only one on here who wanted to see more of Chauncey at times last year. Betancourt gives us a true PG to give Abreu a blow as needed. Outside of Abreu and maybe Diggs it wouldn't hurt to find a few more minutes for each of those 5. So to my mind, unless Reggie comes into camp and is just an obvious world beater and we are going to be a significantly better team with him on the floor right away, I think you almost have to redshirt him. Then in 2013/2014 you will be without Diggs and Gilliam and Reggie should be in line for plenty of playing time. Anyways, that is just my .02. Feel free to disagree. We have another 7 months to find out.

Egner: Best case scenario he plays 15 minutes a night split between backup C and a few minutes at PF. He gives us some energy and defense off the bench, along with a few fouls. Not much different than a shorter, but more athletic Mike Bardo. Worst case scenario is that he doesn't see the floor most of the season (for a 3rd straight year), leaving us pretty thin in the frontcourt and he transfers out at the end of the year. Ibitayo: I can actually see a role for him next year if he has his head committed to defense. He could do well in this league as a defensive stopper coming in against guys like Kellogg, Holt and Offut. He will have to also develop his outside shot some more. KD simply does not play guards/wings who can't stroke it from 3. Best case scenario, he sees 15 minutes per night as a defensive specialist. Justice: Very curious to see what he can provide to this team, but I don't think we will ever get the chance. There just aren't enough minutes to go around at the 1/2/3 spots for us and Blake by all accounts seems like the odd man out. I wouldn't be surprised to see him pull a Michael Green and transfer out in search of playing time around mid-season. Betancourt: As others have said, we need him to be able to play 10-15 minutes per night as Abreu's backup and do it right away. Q as our backup PG is a less than ideal situation for us, and Carmelo is touted as a guy who should be able to contribute meaningful minutes right away. A lot of reports say that between Carmelo and Alex, Melo is the better player. If that holds true I will be VERY happy with our PG situation for the next 4 years. McAdams: Redshirt. I don't buy for a second that redshirting him will cause him to transfer right away. There is a reason he chose basketball despite bigger offers in football. If he really wants to make his mark in hoops he is going to have to wait a year for playing time. He isn't going to get much behind Walsh, Gilliam, Q and possibly Ibitayo/Justice. Kretzer: Redshirt. Much like McAdams, he is going to have to wait his turn.

I can't understand why a kid who has shown so little in his two years of college ball so far is garnering so much interest from so many big name programs. Is there really that big of a shortage of SG's who shoot below 40%, can't hit a FT to save their life and have nothing resembling a jump shot in their arsenal?

The number one thing the Zips need to do for next year is finally develop a true go to scorer. Watching Lehigh take down Duke last night I was salivating about how good this team could be if we just had that one guy like CJ McCallum who we can count on for 15-20 per night, night in and night out. It would be particularly nice to find a guy like that who can close games out. I don't think Abreu is that kind of guy. Although he can score the ball, the Zips are much better off with him in the role of distributor. Walsh is a nice complimentary scorer who could peak out around 12 per night for you in the right situation, but he isn't a guy that you can pencil in as your go to scorer. Diggs could be that guy, but he needs to start and trust his jumper more if he is going to take on that role. Too many times he will pass up an open jumper to try to take the ball to the hoop against double and triple teams. Based on his history at UMBC, you would think Gilliam could take on that role, but I don't know as he has the confidence in himself to let it fly the way you need him too. Harney and Treadwell might be those kinds of guys at some point in the future, but they are still too young, too raw and (particularly with Harney) too inconsistent. Zeke, well, I won't flog that equine any more than it already has been. I'm actually very curious about guys like Justice, McAdams and Kretzer. All of them come into the program with reputations as great scorers. Probably too young to rely on them as a go to guy, but I will be more than a little disappointed if we can't develop at least one of these guys into a 15 point per night kind of guy. All I know is that at the end of the championship game, you knew darn well who OU was giving the ball too. They were going to win or lose that game as Cooper went. I had no clue who I wanted to see the Zips run the offense through, and it didn't seem as if anyone was fully ready to step up to the plate and take responsibility for the outcome of the game. I would have much preferred to have been in OU's position, despite my utter disdain for everything D.J. Cooper related.

Addition by subtraction for the Bronco's. Stain was a headcase who didn't fit in with that team on or off the court. Poor locker-room guy, slowed down an offense that was built more to get out in the open floor. Kudos for Hawkins for realizing that this kid is a cancer to his program and removing him from the equation.

Zeke is and always will be a victim of unrealistic expectations. Expectations were never really properly managed for him. Reminds me a bit of the 2000 presidential debates when Carl Rove and his staff lowered the expectations for George W. so much that they could legitimately have claimed victory if he was simply able to stand at the podium without soiling himself for the duration of the night. That should have been the approach with Zeke from day one. Instead he was thrust into this role of program changer that he was never really cut out for. You take an 18 year old kid with only a couple of years of organized basetball under his belt, a diverse set of interests off the court and a rail thin build and ask him to carry an entire program on his shoulders and to dominate his entire conference from the get go and you are bound for disappointment. Would I like to see him scoring 18 a night, pulling down 8 boards, blocking 4.5 shots and leading the Zips to undefeated seasons? Of course, but that isn't realistic and it never was. Time to start facing the facts that, while Zeke can do a lot of good for the Zips, he isn't going to single handedly make us into the "Gonzaga of the East."

Pretty well sums up my thoughts as well. I wasn't really sure how to put it, but I had the exact same thoughts listening to KD on the postgame last night. He didn't sound like the guy we had 3 or 4 years ago who was hungry and motivated. He sounded like a guy who was complacent and frankly un-caring. I don't know if the pressure is starting to get to him or what, but I want some of that fire in the belly we saw from KD 1.0 back. This, "as long as we played hard and did a nice job, I can be satisfied with the results either way" participation trophy mindset I am starting to see from KD 2.0 is troubling.

Like we are proud of an accomplishment that 90% of the basketball world and 95% of our fan-base and potential fan base will care nothing about. The next 3 weeks hardly anyone in the country is even going to know that this tournament is going on. The casual Akron fan certainly won't know. You aren't going to get him to the JAR for a home game (if we get one), the way you were getting him there at mid-season for games against lowly MAC West teams. Quick, without looking it up, tell me who won this tournament last year? Tell me who made it to Madison Square Garden? Anyone remember off the top of their heads? Didn't think so. And regardless of how far the Zips make it in the losers bracket, nobody is going to care come this time next year.

The old guard of Zips basketball under KD 1.0 is officially gone. With Serb and Nitro graduating the "tough, high basketball IQ, undersized and below average athletic ability" type of players that KD 1.0 brought in are pretty much all gone and the transformation will be complete. Those of you wanting to look more like Can't will have gotten your wish. Now for the bad news. OU is around with the same mentality that brough KD 1.0 so much success, and we haven't proven at all that we can beat them. Be careful what you wish for. Remember, Can't came into this year returning 4 seniors and all but one player out of a rotation that was within an eyelash of beating a KD 1.0 team for a trip to the NCAA's. How did that work out for them? I think your rotation for next year will look something like this: Starters: PG-Abreu (28 minutes) SG-Walsh (24 minutes) SF-Gilliam (18 minutes) PF-Treadwell (24 minutes) C-Marshall (30 minutes) Bench: PG-Betancourt (12 minutes) SG-Ibitayo (8 minutes) SG/SF-Diggs (26 minutes) SF/PF-Harney (20 minutes) PF/C-Egner (10 minutes) Redshirts: McAdams Kretzer I expect to see an improvement from Abreu as his knee and back will have a chance to heal over the summer, and he should come back in better condition. Walsh, Gilliam and Diggs pretty well are who they are at this point in their careers. I don't expect to see much improvement, or much drop off from them. Treadwell and Harney will have to take a big step forward as they will have much more responsibility without Serb around to lean on when their inexperience leads to a bad night. Zeke will be the key. It is going to be his senior year. We are going to be relying heavily on him. He is going to have to develop his scoring touch and continue to work on staying out of foul trouble. As he goes, so will go the Zips. I expect Betacourt to come in and have an impact, as he will give us another true PG for when Alex isn't on the floor, and will allow Q to play more as the secondary ball handler where he is better off. Ibitayo will be relied upon to come in for a few minutes each night and play tough defense on our opponents best perimeter player. Egner will be expected to be Mike Bardo with less height and more athletic ability.

I don't know what game you guys were watching, but I saw a really below average effort in the second half particularly. Those guys far from "laid it all out on the floor". Abreu did. Quincy and Tree did at times. Serb was non-existent in the final MAC game of his career. Zeke was well below average. Walsh and Gilliam were inconsistent at best. Harney yet again had the look of "I would rather be anywhere else but here." In general the second half was a mess. We were throwing lazy and dangerous passes that had no shot of reaching their target, slopping up dumb shots and we had no desire to try and fight through a screen. I know this team has a lot of interchangeable pieces, and we like to switch a lot on screens, but having guys like Zeke and Nik switch out and guard Cooper all night was a terrible idea. I am not proud in any way of our effort last night. That game was right there for the taking, and the Zips didn't come out of the locker room after half time caring enough to take it.

Not In Tournament. You guys can care about this one all you want. I've been very consistent in my opinion, and I won't change now. This tournament is the losers bracket of college basketball. Playing in it is a bitter disappointment and a sign of a team that has underachieved. The only reason it gets any attention at all is because CBS has the broadcast rights for the real tournament, and ESPN needs something to show while that is going on.

Ohio fans are such egotistical lunatics. One of their fans is over on MACbbs running his mouth that the Bobcats will get a higher seed than the Zips would if they win and that Akron is an undeserving champion. This despite Akron having a similar record overall, a better conference record, a better RPI and a MUCH better SOS. His theory is that Marshall, Louisville and Lamar are helping the Bobcats look better in the eyes of the committee. He conveniently ignores the fact that the Zips put up every bit as impressive a win over Marshall as the Bobcats did. Plus we beat Detroit who has already punched their ticket out of the Horizon. Throw in a win over Miss. State and I don't see how OU would get a better seed than we would. At best either team is looking at probably a 13 seed. I wanted to win before reading this crap. I want to pound D.J. Cooper and his porn star tats into the Q hardwood after reading it. New prediction: Zips 81 OU 52

Anyone who is thinking that fatigue is going to be a factor tonight is out of their minds. How soon we forget that the past 3 tournament championship have gone to a team that didn't even get a bye (including twice for us). 3 games in 3 nights for a bunch of 19 and 20 year olds is nothing. OU won't be fatigued, and they will be ready to play. This one all comes down to the perimeter quickness and 3 point shooting for OU vs. the interior play and depth for the Zips. I really like the Zips in this one. I just hate teams that rely so heavily on deep, deep 3's. 3 point shooting comes and goes. Points in the paint, rebounding, defensive effort. Those are the things you can rely on, and I think the Zips have the edge in most of those categories. I think this one will look a lot like the first matchup did. The Zips will force things through the post with Nik, Zeke and Tree early and pull away late as foul trouble mounts for the Bobcats. Zips 75 OU 67

Would you expect anything less this time of year? Still wasn't as bad as last years finals. I'm pretty sure that is as close as I have ever come to full on cardiac arrest.

In Porrini's 2 years at Can't his record vs. the Zips was 1-5. I'd be a little bitter too if I were him.

One of the few Can't players over the last decade that I actually have some respect for. Postgame last night he went through the entire Akron roster and hugged every guy, then stuck around to shake hands and congratulate them all over again. Real class. Too bad his attitude couldn't have rubbed off on some of their other guys.

WMU wasn't going to win that game with the anchor slowing them down. They were down like 15 at the time of the foul, and Stainbrook was laboring up and down the floor. They came back to get it within a 2 possession game, but ran out of time. As for the call, I agree, it was a pretty weak Flagrant 2 if it was even a Flagrant at all. But as others have said, Stainbrook has a reputation as a hot head who will throw elbows, mouth off, shove opposing players (and sometimes his teamates). He's put the target squarely on his own back with his behavior. If I were Hawkins I would just cut ties with him and be done with it. That program is going nowhere fast if he is their most important player for the next two years.

Stainbrooks two biggest problems, like a lot of guys his size, are his attitude and his conditioning. Watch him try to play more than about 1:30 at a time and he starts walking up the floor (and he doesn't get up the court that quick when he's fresh). He's also been known as a cry-baby who isn't above coming to blows with his own teamates and coaches if he isn't getting his way. Best way too attack him is run, run and run some more on offense and deny him the ball as much as possible on defense. I would actually have Zeke front him in the post and try to deny him entry passes the whole game (if we see them). Make Western's guards try to throw over the top of those 7'6" arms to get him the ball. When he doesn't get the ball he gets frustrated and the Bronco's implode.

Pearson on 2nd team is a joke. He should be easily on 1st team. Without him Toledo has another year winning 4 games in front of 20 fans. Personally don't think Greene had that impressive of a year to deserve 1st team over Zeke. Trey Zeigler being on any of these teams is laughable. He made it purely on reputation coming out of HS. The kid is a complete and total bust. The only way he will ever get better is to find some decent coaching. Looking at the all-freshman team is kind of scary if you are a fan of the MAC in general. The last few years the all-freshman team has been fairly well loaded. This year your "best" guys are Sullivan (nice 3 point shooter who offers absolutely nothing else) and McBroom who I actually think will be a pretty good player in this conference. Of course, if this were newcomer of the year you would then have guys like Tree and Harney on the list, and all of a sudden the prognosis for the MAC looks a lot better. For what it is worth my teams would have been: 1st Team: D.J. Cooper Rian Pearson Julian Mavunga Mitchell Watt Zeke Marshall 2nd Team: Michael Porrini Quincy Diggs Scott Thomas Javon McCrae Justin Greene 3rd Team: Alex Abreu Zach Filzen A'uston Calhoun Nikola Cvetinovic Jarrod Jones

Not a single team in there that I wouldn't want to see us playing. This is the type of tournament we should be in. For observation sake: 2011/12 RPI and records: Providence: 15-17 (155) NC State: 20-11 (53) Souhern Miss: 22-7 (17) Akron: 20-10 (62) Ok State: 13-17 (120) Xavier: 19-11 (59) Tennessee: 17-13 (75) Penn State: 12-19 (158) Not a bad field at all. Now we just have to win a few of those games.

Yeah, hoping my brackets for the big dance go a little better, but come on, who actually had NIU and CMU advancing?

Currently the MAC West "Champion" EMU is in action against the absolute worst team in the conference and one of the worst in the country, NIU. With 2:05 to go in the first NIU has a 15-8 lead in this barnburner. You heard that right, 18 minutes, 23 combined points. 8 total for the "Champion" of our West division. And we wonder why the MAC is perennially overlooked for at large bids.

As much as KD deserves this award this year, I doubt he gets it. More likely one of the MAC West coaches (probably from Toledo or EMU) will take the honors simply for overachieving. That is how this award usually works. The team that noone expected to do as well as they did will get the coach of the year award. The highest scoring upper-classman on one of the top two or three teams will get PotY, and the Zips will be left with nothing more than an NCAA berth to drown their tears in. Ohh well, guess we will have to try and suck next year so that we can exceed expectations in 2013-14 and KD can finally get some recognition.

My predictions for the tournament: Round 1: Monday evening (campus sites) NIU @ Eastern Michigan: I think NIU has the right coach in place long term, but there is absolutely no talent on that team. EMU moves on. Ball State @ Western Michigan: In the battle of the underachievers I will take Ball State. Injuries and internal turmoil have taken too much a toll on the Broncos. Plus the Cardinals will have the best player on the floor in Jones. Miami @ Toledo: Sad to see Charlie Coles go out this way, but I have to take Toledo. I said it a few weeks ago, but if you are looking for a surprise team in this tournament keep an eye on the Rockets. Their coach has them on the right track, and Pearson can carry this team a lot farther than they otherwise might have gone. CMU @ Bowling Green: Chippewas packed it in some time around mid-January. Falcons are another dangerous team to watch this week. BG in a rout. Round 2: Wednesday (Quicken Loans Arena) Ball State vs. Eastern Michigan: I have to take Eastern again here. While Jones will be the best player on the floor, I think the Eastern zone will limit him to some degree. Eastern is the deeper team and will move on. Toledo vs. Bowling Green: I'm sure the MAC would like to have this matchup on Friday or Saturday evening, but alas these two teams will have to settle for Wednesday night. Pearson will keep the Rockets in the game, but in the end I think BG's size inside and depth will take the matchup. Falcons move on. Round 3: Thursday (Quicken Loans Arena) Eastern Michigan vs. Can't State: As much as I want to root for EMU in this one, I can't see them pulling the upset. Can't simply doesn't lose to MAC West teams. Thursday will be no different. Bowling Green vs. Ohio: I'm calling this one the first big upset. Ohio struggles on the road against teams that play zone defense. Energized by knocking their cross-town rivals out of the tournament the night before, Louis Orr's bunch comes out and stiffles the Bobcats. Round 4: Friday (Quicken Loans Arena) Can't State vs. Akron: Zips have beaten the Flashes twice already this year. This one is no different. Can't goes the way Justin Greene goes, and even a healthy Justin Greene has troubles matching up with Zeke Marshall. With Greene on a bum ankle, the Flashes have little hope of making it out of the semi's. Bowling Green vs. Buffalo: Bulls couldn't have asked for a worse semi-finals matchup. Though they have beaten the Falcons twice, those wins came by 2 and 4 points respectively. Bowling Green has the size inside to match up with Buffalo, and their zone defense could cause problems for the Buffalo bigs. Still, I think Buffalo has too much firepower to lose to a Bowling Green squad playing their 4th game in 5 nights. Buffalo in a close one. Finals: Saturday (Quicken Loans Arena) Buffalo vs. Akron: As it should be, the 1 & 2 seeds and the two best teams in the conference all seasons match up for the right to go to the NCAA's. The Zips have to hate this draw, as Buffalo is the only team they have not beaten in conference all year. Experience will be the deciding factor in this one. Akron has proven that they can win in March at the Q when everything is on the line. Reggie Witherspoon's group has proven time and time again that they cannot. Zips will take this one in a close, exciting game that will show up quite well on ESPN2.