Quickzips

The RMU game highlights what I've been saying all along about the Bobkittens. They are as over-rated a team as the MAC has seen in years. Grant you, RMU is a pretty good team, but OU was supposed to start getting top-25 consideration before too long here. They lost last night for a couple of reasons. The first was already pointed out, 3-26 from 3 simply will not get it done for a team that is as reliant on the 3 ball as the bobkitties. Second, and just as importantly, they lost the rebounding battle 38-21. Think about that. RMU nearly doubled them up on the glass. RMU did this with only one player over 6'7" receiving any playing time. In fact, 6'0" guard Velton Jones and 6'2" guard Coron Williams combined for as many rebounds (16) as all of the Bobkitties frontcourt players combined (Baltic, Offutt, Kelley, Jon Smith, T.J. Hall and TyQuan Goard). I won't even get into the fact that the bobkitties lost that game despite forcing an unbelievable 31 turnovers from RMU. OU is quickly going to be exposed for what they are over the next few weeks. A team with a few quality guards that relies way too heavily on the 3 ball and is woefully undersized and not very deep in the frontcourt.

Now we need to start getting some points in the polls. Not going to happen this year. If we had beaten 3 out of 4 from Valpo, Duquesne, CSU and VCU, and not gotten waxed by West Virginia and MTSU maybe, but as is we have too many losses on our resume to expect to be ranked at any time this year. Maybe if we go on a ridiculous run through the conference season, but I doubt it. This OOC season for me will go down as a "what might have been." The Zips had a chance to be in a very good position for an at large birth this year, but we squandered a few games, dealt with some critical injuries, had some unusual off the court issues and just generally did not live up to the potential that we all saw from game one against Miss State. Have to put that all behind us now though. It is conference season. We have everyone dressed, and we are starting to develop the kind of chemistry that has made past Zips teams so successful. Let's show the bobkittens, flushes, canadians and redchickens that this conference still runs through us.

Original post updated as of 1/2/2012. On a personal note. If the Zips could come away with both Gibbs and Johnson, who were reportedly spotted at the VCU game, along with a PF like Nigel Hayes out of Toledo this would likely go down as one of the best recruiting classes in Zips history.

You don't take out a guy with hot hand... KD finish the game with same players to close out that has failed in pass. My confidence in him is slipping...This tells me he is incapable to change for the better. Although big win for Akron... Please tell me this is a joke? Man this is a finicky fan base. We just pulled off a convincing win on the road against a really quality opponent and people are calling for the coaches head. Unbelievable.

Great way to close out an otherwise rocky OOC season. Shows what this team is capable of when everyone is healthy and in uniform. This team has as much talent as anyone the MAC, if not more. I don't know if anyone realizes this, but Marshall is one of the top 10 rebounding teams in the entire country, and we just went toe for toe with them on the glass for 40 minutes. With Zeke, Nik, Tree and now Harney this team has the big guys to play with anyone in the country. Let's hope we can stay healthy and stay out of trouble through the conference season. If we can, I expect big things out of this group.

Probably not up yet because the game is temporarily postponed. Apparently Marshall doesn't know how to bolt a rim to a backboard properly.

Called it! You called Michael Green leaving the program??? All this does is free things up so that we can put all 3 of our recruits for next year on scholarship. Not a big deal in the long view of things, although I don't know as I like us continuing to over-recruit and then rely on one or two guys at the end of our bench transferring out. Someone did. No biggie, I don't think he fit into our current scheme of things.

Called it! You called Michael Green leaving the program???

All updates from French. Michael Green has left the program. Nick Harney is off suspension. Alex Abreu will play tonight. Also, Josh Egner is out tonight for personal reasons but will be back for Marshall.

The OU Paper Tigers will be exposed sooner or later. This team hasn't had to face anything close to resembling adversity yet. They are far too reliant on their backcourt and 3 point shooting, and they have shown in years past that they can and will fold up like a cheap suit when faced with a real challenge. Their frontcourt is undersized and has absolutely no depth. They are going to get torn apart by the Zips, Buffalo, and probably even Miami, Can't and Ball State. D.J. Cooper is a heck of a good little point guard, but he's every bit as capable of shooting his team out of a game as he is winning a game for them. Eventually Cooper's running mates are going to go a little cold and we will get to see the old "one on one, chuck it up from 25 feet with 25 seconds left on the shot clock" D.J. Cooper.

Great piece of news to have heading in to VCU. BEST piece of news we could have heading in to VCU Bound to happen eventually.

I'll give TW a little credit for recognizing the opportunity that was in front of him when Coach Bowden called, but let's not forget what a mess this coaching search was up until that point. TW had all but made us the laughing stock of college athletics in the way he handled this right up until the point that the phone rang with Coach Bowden on the other end. From the manner in which Ianello was fired, to being turned down by no less than 2 or 3 of our first choices, to the apparent lack of any type of real "search" this whole scenario was headed for a train wreck that would have made the Ianello hiring look like a feet of pure genius. TW got lucky in that a high profile coach with a history of success fell into his lap. He's not some super genius, and he certainly isn't the guy I want running our AD in the long term.

I still feel like OU is a bit of a paper tiger. You can argue SOS numbers all you want, but the fact of the matter remains that outside of Louisville they have only played 4 games against teams that currently have winning records. They squeaked by Lamar at home in OT. They barely came away with 2-point wins over Oakland and Marshall on the road, and they had their only truly impressive victory on the road against Northern Iowa. The bobcats are still a team that is woefully thin up front and relies way too heavily on the 3 ball. They are taking over 36% of their shots from 3 point land, and they only have two real "big" men in Baltic and Kelley. It is going to be very interesting to see what happens in MAC play when the 3 pointers aren't falling the way the Bobkittens want them too and they have to rely on their post game against guys like Zeke, Greene, McCrae, Watt, Jones, Cvetinovic, Treadwell, Stainbrook and Whitfield. The bobcats may be riding high now, but trust me when I say that they are going to hit some adversity soon. Let's not go annointing them until we see how they respond. Past bobcat teams have folded up the tent and mailed it in. Is this group any different?

Finally a hire in the football program that I can get behind. Head Coaching Experience - Check Proven ability to win at lower levels - Check Recognizable name for the community - Check Quite frankly I could care less if he bolts for a better job upon getting things turned around here. If he can lead us to a couple of 9 or 10+ win seasons first we will at least be an attractive enough destination that we will have a quality pool of coaches to choose his successor from. Either way, this is a long way down the road, if it ever happens. For right now, I'm going to enjoy this early Christmas present. It's a good day to be a Zip.

One of the more interesting statistical tid-bits from tonight: Tree - FT% for the season: .412 - FT's tonight: 2/2 Nik - FT% for the season: .542 - FT's tonight: 4/4 Zeke - FT% for the season: .659 - FT's tonight 10/13 Walsh - FT% for the season: .765 - FT's tonight 1/2 Chauncey - FT% for the season: 1.000 - FT's tonight 0/2 Diggs - FT% for the season: .903 - FT's tonight 0/1 Our three best FT shooters combined to go 1/5 from the line (3/7 if you add in Nitro who has struggled this year, but is historically a much better FT shooter), while 3 of our worst FT shooters combined to go 16/18.

Abreu looked pretty good walking around for a guy who had knee surgery yesterday. During the post game show KD said he didn't expect Rico back for the VCU game. I hope he's wrong. Based on what you said, with 10 days to recover and his current condition, KD is probably just sand-bagging. I expect Abreu will be on the floor or at least get in the game to see how he feels. It seems like from what I read that he's determined to play in the VCU game. I hope he gets his wish. He seems like a very good point guard and it will be great prep for our conference season to go against a guy of his caliber. I don't know why KD made Abreu wait so long to have the surgery. The only thing I can figure is that KD felt we might need him to beat YSU? I doubt that, but what else could it be? Anyway, we are a different team without Alex. With Alex, we can be awfully good. Without Alex, meh. Frankly, w/o AA we can be just awful. Even if AA is good to go for VCU, he's not going to be his usual self. Which is disappointing for everyone. I expect that it also had something to do with Alex's mom being in town the last week or two. As for Egner, French stated on air that he was all kinds of sick. Tried to take warmups but just couldn't go. This team has only played at full strength in two out of 12 contests. Quite frankly, we've been spoiled the last few years in terms of not being hit with the injuries/suspensions too badly (save for Brett McKnight). Seems as if some of that is coming back to bite us this year. Let's hope everyone can get healthy and on the straight and narrow soon.

I have no idea how we scored 40 in that half with the way the lids were on the basket for most of that half. Zeke's been hitting his FT's and playing tough defense, but he looks kind of tenative again on the offensive end. Diggs has had a big half in the role of facilitator. Walsh has found his shot, and continues to put in some impressive performances on the boards for a guard. Zips have given up WAY too many wide open 3's off of inbound plays. When I say wide open I mean WIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEE open. KD is not going to be happy about that. Just doesn' seem like the effort has been there for most of the game so far. Not sure if we are feeling the affects of 4 games in 7 days or if we are just taking this team too lightly.

You've kind of missed my broader point which is that we've seen small stretches of "turning the corner" by Zeke in the past. Problem is they've never lasted. Three or four games is simply too small of a sample size to say one way or another. If you judge by the first seven games of this year Zeke hasn't turned any corners. If you judge only by the last 4 he probably has. I for one want to see a good 10, 12, 15 game stretch in which Zeke plays to his full potential before I'm going to be a believer. I've seen far too many threads about Zeke "turning the corner" over the past two and a half seasons. If he had truly turned a corner every time Zipsnation believed he did he would have gone in circles about half a dozen times.

MSU - 5 fouls in 24 minutes Valpo - 5 fouls in 11 minutes WVU - 5 fouls in 19 minutes MTSU - 5 fouls in 23 minutes That's 4 out of 11 games this season that Zeke has fouled out of and averaged less than 20 minutes per game. Those were also 4 of our toughest opponents. Listen, I love seeing what Zeke has done over the past 3-4 games as much as the next guy, but lets not lose sight of the fact that in that span the Zips have played such juggernaughts as Youngstown State, Florida A&M and Arkansas Pine-Bluff. You aren't likely to see any of those teams in the sweet-16 any time soon. In fact, I would be pretty surprised to see any of them make the big-dance this year. I've said it all along, when Zeke can put together an extended streak of good games (1/2 a seasons worth or more) in which he scores at a reasonable clip, rebounds the ball and stays out of foul trouble, I will start to buy into the idea that he has truly "turned the corner". Until then, I will continue to consider this another in a line of intermitent solid performances from a player who has yet to fully develop.

Gotta love Zipsnation. A guy strings together a couple good games in a row and suddenly he's the second coming and there is no way we are ever going to keep him here for the long run. Don't get me wrong, I've been impressed with Tree's play the last few games, but let's not annoint the young man yet. Ohh, and the idea that he will "replace" Zeke one day is somewhat laughable to me. Two entirely different players and entirely different styles of play. Zeke is a defensive minded center whose offensive game is getting there but still needs some work. Tree is an offensive minded PF whose defensive game still leaves a good bit to be desired.

Really high praise towards the end of that clip from KD directed towards Zeke. Not the kind of thing you hear every day from coach. I'm really hoping Nitro can break out of this funk he's in soon. I have a feeling we will need his shooting before the year is out. Hopefully Nik can share with him whatever secret remedy he conjured up for today's game. Very nice to see the Serb finally put together the type of performance we expected out of him, albeit against an overmatched FAMU squad.

Not surprised we aren't seeing him today. Tree didn't play the first game "back" from his suspension either. Not that we needed him tonight. KD is making sure the message gets through to this young man.

All great stats Dave, here are a few more from Nik: FG% - .405 FT% - .529 Turnovers/game - 2.4 Points/game - 8.1 Those are unacceptable numbers. When your starting PF is shooting 40% from the field and turns the ball over almost as much as your starting PG you are going to struggle to win games. I don't care how many boards he grabs or how many 3's he hits. If these types of performances continue I would not be at all surprised to see Tree starting at PF by the time we reach MAC play.

Hit the nail on the head with a lot of the problems with these two this year. In past years we could play the scrappy, slow it down style of play that these two are best suited for. This year, having Nik and Brett in the lineup is like trying to driver a Ferrari down the road with a big sheet of ply-wood sticking up from out of the roof. What is most puzzling to me though is that Nik's inside game seems to have regressed a lot. I don't know if it is a by-product of him trying to become a better perimeter shooter or what. I've watched far too many times this year where his moves in the post have been so painfully slow that he's gotten shots rejected by defenders coming from far away on the weak side. As far as the zone/man defense goes, if you all remember back to last season we started to turn things around when we started switching defenses up and playing a little zone mixed in with some man. Often times we would switch from zone to man mid-possession. That is what I would like to start to see from this years team. Play enough zone throughout the course of the game to keep teams off balance and limit some of the foul trouble for Zeke.

I will remain cautiously optimistic about Zeke until I see him consistently stay out of foul trouble. And by consistently I don't mean 3 or 4 games in a row. It is going to have to be 10-12+ games without being saddled to the bench with foul trouble before I start to truly believe. Everything else about his game has come a long way, but he still has a bad tendency to draw too many silly fouls. He avoided it the last two games. Let's see what he can do the remainder of the year. On a related note, I noticed that either KD, Zeke or both finally figured out yesterday that it makes no sense to have Zeke hedging on a guard 30 feet from the basket off the pick and roll. Zeke has picked up as many silly fouls that way as any other over his 2+ years here. Last night I don't know as I saw him move above the 3 point line on defense all night. Keeping Zeke closer to the basket and not sending him out chasing guards on the pick and roll is going to be a big help for him. His length becomes easy for an opposing guard to exploit for cheap fouls in those situations.