Quickzips

Their fans are in for a shock if they are expecting a slow it down grind it out kind of game. Clearly they did not see the MSU game. Along with guarding the 3 point line the Zips need to crash the glass hard tonight. Teams that take and miss a lot of 3's can have a tendency to get a lot of cheap points off of second shot opportunities from long rebounds. Zeke may need to stay at home and play for the rebound a little more tonight as opposed to going for the block all the time.

What I took from this article is that Dambrot can recruit better quarterbacks then Ianello... True. Who can argue that McFadden and McAdams are the two best post-Getsy QB's we've seen on the UA campus? Wasn't McFadden pre-Getsy?

What I took from this article is that Dambrot can recruit better quarterbacks then Ianello... Funny...but at the same time sadly true. Anyways, let me be the first on here to officially welcome the three newcomers to our Zips family. Very much looking forward to seeing these three young men hone their craft in the blue and gold. Now I just have two questions: 1) Where does the extra scholarship come from? (my money would be on Michael Green transferring out at the end of the year) 2) What are the plans for the C position after Zeke runs out of eligibility? (my guess is KD breaks his tendencies a little more and goes after a JUCO)

The East's lone loss came to Georgia. Significant wins over Miss St, WVU, Dayton. I'd say thats a pretty good start for the MAC East. I'm glad we only have to play the teams in the West once a year. If the early returns are any indication the MAC, and particularly the MAC East is going to be VERY stout this year. If teams stay healthy and continue to build on this early momentum it is going to be difficult for the selection committee to ignore the MAC when looking for at-large teams. In the long run though, I still think the best opportunity for at-large berths will come from the Zips and Can't. The best shot the West teams had already died when Western dropped that game to South Dakota St. Miami is too banged up and plays too many ridiculously tough opponents on the road to have enough wins. OU's schedule makes even the worst KD schedules from the last 5 years look like a murderers row. Buffalo is probably still a year away with McCrae, but they could be the wild card in all of this. Zips and Can't have the talent and have schedules that are conducive to producing a high quantity of quality wins. Of course the big elephant in the room is what happens when we get to league play and have to go through three times with RPI's likely in the 300's (EMU, Toledo and NIU). Still way too early to tell.

Nitro and Walsh are two drastically different players IMO. Nitro is more of a one trick pony on the offensive end where the 3 ball is his primary weapon. We've seen occassional mid-range jumpers and drives to the basket, but that really isn't his forte. Not saying this is a bad thing. With the amount of slashers and post players we have on this team you need a guy who can knock it down from 3 in order to space the floor. I think that is a big part of the reason why he is going to continue to start and see a lot of minutes. Walsh is a more diverse offensive player. He is capable of bringing the ball up the court and triggering the offense on a regular basis. He's shown a nice mid-range game and some pretty impressive moves going to the basket off the dribble so far. While he is a capable 3 point shooter, there is more to his game than that. Without a backup PG on the roster Walsh becomes a pretty ideal choice. In all honesty, right now he is the 6th man and is bringing a lot of things to the court that GoZips has argued for Q being the 6th man. Both guys are going to see plenty of minutes. Particularly if Deji and Blake are redshirting our backcourt isn't all that deep. To some extent having to debate between two talented guys like this is a nice problem to have. There are quite a few teams in this conference who don't have one guard with the skills of either of these guys.

At some point te administration has to look at the mostly empty brand new stadium they built and the mostly apathetic, mostly non-existent fan base that their mostly clueless coach has run off and see that the negative economic impact he is having on the football program and university as a whole is far greater than the negative economic impact of firing him with a year left on his contract would be. I've been mostly behind Dr.P and his administration over the years, but allowing Ianello to play out his contract is one decision I could not possibly get behind. It would basically signal to me that the administration is waving the white flag in terms of putting together a winning football program. We might as well drop to FCS or D-II at that point. Any program that would allow this guy a third year is simply not serious about ever competing at any level in FBS. Not for MAC titles, not for bowl games, and certainly not for BCS games or national titles. The time has long passed for the administration to sack up, admit that they made a HORRIBLE mistake in ever hiring this guy and take prompt and sweeping actions to correct it.

Diop and Hollins would be close to a worst case scenario for Zeke. Both are simply journeymen C's who occassionally carve out minutes on crummy teams with little depth on the front line. Neither one has anything close to an offensive game, and are little more than average defenders. Unfortunately I think if Zeke left for the NBA right now this would probably be the career he is looking at. His offensive game is way too raw, and despite being a good shot blocker, he has a lot of work to do in other areas on defense if he wants to be a truly elite defender at the next level. Right now any half way decent NBA coach would drag him away from the basket and make him defend the pick and roll all night long where he would be mostly a liability. If Zeke is going to make it to the level of a Tyson Chandler or Marcus Camby in the league he will have to work on his lateral quickness on the defensive end. On the offensive end Zeke needs to continue to work with our guards on scoring off the pick and roll and continue to try and develop that little mid-range jump shot. He is probably never going to be a guy that you can regularly dump the ball to in the post and let him go to work ala Shaq or Dwight Howard. But if he becomes more adept at scoring those cheap buckets off the pick and roll and he perfects than little 12-15 foot jumper he could still be a guy that averages 12+ points a game in the league, and is not a liability on offense. The last thing he needs work on is avoiding fouls. He will never reach his full potential until he can regularly avoid foul trouble. This is probably going to mean learning a little bit of discretion in terms of when to get up and go for the block and when to stay down and defend, which in turn should also help with his issues on the glass. In short, the potential is there for Zeke, but there is still a lot to work on. Leaving for the NBA after this season would be a pretty big mistake, and I don't think it is one that Zeke is going to make. For the most part the coaching staff has him on the right track on a lot of these issues, but there is still a lot for him to improve on.

I would expect at this point that he is redshirting. KD has a lot of tough decisions on playing time to make already with how deep this team is. It is hard enough trying to find enough minutes for a 10 man rotation, adding Blake in there as #11 would make it that much more difficult. Makes a lot more sense to redshirt him. I would expect you will see Blake take over a good bit of the minutes vacated by Brett McClanahan's graduation next year.

To me it honestly has to be a combination of both things. I don't think there is any doubt that Dambrot has fundamentally changed the type of player he is looking for. If you had told me two years ago that we were going to have three transfers on the roster this year I would have told you you were out of your mind. Dambrot has re-tooled the roster into one that is not just competitive in the MAC, but has the size and athleticism to compete with the big boys. At the same time, you can't just wake up one morning and say, "hey, I think I'm going to start recruiting more players with top level athleticsm" and BAM that type of player starts lining up at your door. Without a foundation of success you aren't going to get talented athletes like Diggs, Harney, Treadwell, Walsh, Abreu and Zeke who also seem to buy into the program and aren't simply out there playing for themselves. The more you prove that you can put together a consistent winner the easier it gets to sell guys like that on coming to Akron.

I think someone hit the nail on the head in another thread when they said Zeke's ceiling in the NBA is a Tyson Chandler type. I don't think the comparison to Aldridge is a very good one. Aldridge is more of a PF and a much more polished offensive player. Chandler on the other hand is a C who provides a defensive presence around the rim and is adept at getting easy buckets from put backs and off pick and rolls. Despite some injury issues over the course of his career, Chandler has carved out a pretty good NBA career for himself, and was a big key to Dallas' Championship run this past spring.

GP1 going BIG! I'll take the risk. The question is, "Who beats them?" WVU, one MAC team and an unexpected loss. Other than that, they shouldn't lose more than 3 games. Thats kind of what I was thinking about when I first read this note. Honestly, I don't think there is a team on our schedule that the team I saw last night can't beat. I'm not saying they will go undefeated, but a 28-30 win season is certainly not out of the question.

Not to side track this thread, take away from the big W tonght or open up the huge can of worms that is conference re-allignment, but I've long felt the same way. Put a football team out there that is regularly winning 7-8+ games and build a decent arena for hoops and Akron is probably a legitimate target for a conference like the Big East right now. That said, those are two VERY big hinderences to our attractiveness to other conferences.

Ok, time for some knee jerk analysis:First off, if the Zeke Marshall we saw tonight comes to play every night there isn't a team on our schedule that we can't beat. I'll take the foul out with under 3 to go as long as he is staying aggressive and poised and isn't getting passive and sloppy like he has in the past. He looked significantly better on offense as well. Not as much hesitation or fumbling with the ball. Zeke was decisive and confident all night, and it was a sight for sore eyes. Of course his biggest contriution is still on the defensive end where I don't think he gave the Bulldogs more than two or three decent looks in the paint all night.Right there with Zeke for player of the game is Quincy Diggs. Q had his full game working tonight. He was active in the passing lanes. He was finishing at the rim on the break. He hit some mid-range shots. He knocked down a 3. And he even stepped to the line to close out the game with 2 key free throws. Not far behind Q and Zeke was Alex Abreu. He had a little bit of trouble to start the game, but once he settled down he was a nightmare for the Bulldog guards. Dee Bost is going to wake up in a cold sweat tonight dreaming about Alex picking his pocket over and over and over. Nick Harney is going to be a big time player for this team. As long as he keeps his academics in order he will be a difference maker. Bold and entirely too early prediction. This kid is going to win multiple conference POTY awards. Serb had a relatively pedestrian game on paper, but he had some big moments when they counted. A few big offensive boards, and some nice buckets in the post late in the game that helped seal this one up. I think we can put that 3 point shooting back in the closet for a while though.Surprised we didn't see more of Gilliam tonight, but as Coach said in the postgame Q was on such a roll it was hard to pull him from the game. What I did see was pretty nice though. We will see a lot more from Chauncey as the year goes on.Brian Walsh may not be a PG, and he may not be a SG, but I've got no problem having him on the floor for 20+ minutes a night. Having a 6'5" guard who can hit from mid-range, knock down the 3 or finish around the rim. Been a while since the Zips could say that.Brett McClanahan.....well let's just say it's a good thing he is an established veteran on this team. There will be better days ahead for Nitro. We will need his 3 point shooting as the year progresses.Egner and Tree didn't get enough minutes to make a real impression on me. In general it was a great game for the Zips. Any time you can get two otherwise disinterested announcers to stand up and take notice with some of the compliments the ESNPU guys gave us you know you've done something right. We will have to clean up a little bit of our own sloppiness at times (a few too many turnovers still, a couple silly fouls here and there), but all in all it is a good night to be a Zip!

Statement win to open the season. Love it. Some things to clean up, but you can never complain whe you go into SEC country and get a double digit win. 1-0 baby!

This is the type of game that the Zips need to win in order to start taking that next step from top-level MAC team to consistent NCAA contender. I just wish it was coming a little later into the OOC schedule as right now I have no clue what to expect out of this group. There are certain things I will be looking for. I'm very interested to see how our guards handle themselves after the embarassment of 23 turnovers against John Carroll. I'm also interested to see if this group continues to suffer from the lengthy scoring droughts that seemed to plague our last few seasons. Finally, I'm interested to see who KD is going to put on the floor at the end of the game if this one is tight. In the past you could pretty well bank on McNees and Roberts in the backcourt with some combination of McKnight, McClanahan, Diggs, Cvetinovic and Zeke up front (depending on if we were trying to close out a game and needed defense or if we were trying to rally from behind and needed scoring). I'll take the Zips by three points, but I really have no clue what to expect tonight. God I'm amped up for this one! Wish I was in Mississippi right now.

If we turn the ball over like this against Miss St. we are going to get run out of the gym.

Thanks, working for me now. Not sure what the problem was.

Anyone else having major problems with the live stream? MAC-Sports keeps telling me the stream cannot be found.

Surprised this thread hasn't been started yet considering the expectations for this years group and the downright crummy performance on the gridiron again this year.Let's be honest here. John Carroll is not likely to have much of a chance in this one. Like most exhibition games, this should be more about KD getting plenty of playing time for everyone, trying different combinations, and seeing what he has against a different opponent as opposed to intersquad scrimmages. Here is what I will be looking for out of this years squad:Is Zeke Marshall ready to take the next step? We've seen glimpses of the potential that made Zeke the most heralded recruit in MAC history, but we've yet to see him put it all together, particularly on the offensive end. You can expect Zeke to look good against an overmatched John Carroll team. The question I have is with his comfort level. Will we see a more decisive, aggressive Zeke on the offensive end of the floor, or will we continue to see the tenative, unsure Zeke when the ball is in his hands?Can Alex Abreu handle the pressue of being the man? Alex had some of his worst games of the year last year when he was inserted into the starting lineup and asked to play more minutes. Physically he did not look ready for it. Does Alex have the conditioning and the mental fortitude to handle being the trigger man for 25-30 minutes a night? Without another true PG on the roster he better be. How will the new guys fit in? These exhibition games usually give you a pretty good indicator of where all the newcomers are at. If a guy plays early and gets 15-20+ minutes you can expect that he will have a chance to be in the rotation during the season. If a guy doesn't get minutes until the second half and sees mostly garbage time, you can expect he is in line for a redshirt. You have to expect that Walsh and Gilliam will play, as neither are eligible for a redshirt. But what of Nick Harney? Demetrius Treadwell? Blake Justice? Do we have anything in Josh Egner? Let's be honest, Egner's redshirt year was wasted for the most part last year. He showed some potential at times, but didn't get enough minutes to make a fair evaluation. In the little time that he played he showed great energy, but had a tendency to look like he was right on the edge of being out of control. Without Brett McKnight and Mike Bardo there are plenty of minutes to fill in the frontcourt. It would be nice if Egner could step up and take a good chunk of those minutes.Is Michael Green worth the roster spot? In the little we saw of him last year before the redshirt came, Green looked a step slow and a pound light to be playing at this level IMO. Reports on him have been positive so far this offseason, but the SF spot looks to be one of the most competitive on the team. If Green gets any playing time at all this year, he is going to have to earn it.Can Quincy Diggs live up to the potential? We all saw those moments last year when Q made you salivate with what this kid is capable of. But we also saw the moments that made us all pound our heads into the wall. The physical part of the game is not the issue with Q, it is the mental side of things. Can he eliminate the mental mistakes and the tendency to get frustrated and lose his cool, or will his head keep him from reaching hs full potential?Senior leadership. The Zips lost a lot of it this offseason, but the presence of Nik Cvetinovic and Brett McClanahan gives me reason to believe that we have enough guys in the locker room to take care of business. Nik passed up the opportunity to make a living in his home country, with his family and his fiancee by his side to return for his senior season. This group of guys better not let down one of the more well liked Zips in recent history.

Do you have an accompanying list for the Washington Generals? Yeah, just look up Can't State alumni.No, No, NO! Can't State alumni make up the Stark County Correctional Institution Intermural team. Get it straight.

Not quite. This is more of a normal everyday kind of injury that can happen from time to time. Nothing about Deji screams that this is going to be a chronic issue, or that it could be career ending. On the other hand, Ronnie's issues with compartment syndrome were pretty rare by all accounts, and for a while there they were chronic and looked to be career ending. As far as what to do with him now, if we truly don't have someone on our roster capable of playing 10-15 minutes of backup PG per game right now then I think you have to wait it out on Deji and try to get him ready for that role by the time conference play rolls around. However, I really doubt that we can't find someone to take those minutes from the combination of Walsh, Diggs or maybe even Gilliam, Nitro or Justice. I doubt very much that we see Deji this year. Use the redshirt, let the knee have plenty of time to rest, and welcome him back to the fold next season.

The more I've thought about it I'm not sure there is going to be that much delineation between the SF and SG spots on this team. I think any or all of Nitro, Walsh, Q and Gilliam can probably play either position, and there will probably be times when 2 or more of those guys are on the floor together and you really won't be able to tell who is playing what spot. Each one of those guys obviously brings their own unique skill set, but those skill sets lend themselves well to playing either position. We've seen Nitro play SG and SF in the past, as well as Q. Gilliam's ability to score in a variety of different ways lends itself to either position. I don't know as much about Walsh, but he certainly has the size at 6'4" or 6'5" to play some SF in the MAC (although it sounds like we will see him split more minutes between PG and SG).I am very curious to hear how things are progressing with Deji and Blake. This team is so deep right now, that I don't know as we NEED either of them right now, but I am wondering if either one is stepping up in practice to the point where KD will have to seriously consider playing them. Deji is a particularly interesting project to me. A 6'3" guard with a 6'9" wingspan is not something you see in this conference a whole lot (or really in college hoops to begin with), and he could really add another dimension to this team if he is ready to see some minutes this year.

You really have to wonder how much of an impact having Harney and Tree will have on coverage from the Cleveland media the next few years. Maybe it is just me, but I can't particularly remember articles like this from Pluto or anyone else the last few years. Maybe having a couple of local boys will do some good when it comes to the Cleveland press. Can't hurt.In terms of on the court performance it still sounds like Harney is ahead of Tree in terms of development. 30 and 9 in a scrimmage is nothing to sneeze at. If Nick can give us some performances like that against real competition when it counts, and with all of the other talent we have, man is this team going to be good.I am a little concerned by the issues at PG. Abreu is only a sophomore, and he struggled at times last year in the starting role. I've never fully bought the idea of Walsh as a PG (starting or backup), and it looks like he needs to pick his game up a bit if we are going to use him there. I know some on here will point to Q as a backup PG, but Q is not without his faults either. His decision making will have to improve quite a bit for me to be comfortable seeing him get some extended run at PG.I am a bit puzzled by the leadership comments. Particularly with Cvetnovic on this team. Nik is a senior, and from my vantage point has always had some of the better leadership characteristics of any of the Zips in recent years. I don't know who this was really directed at, or if this is just a general barb on the part of KD trying to motivate his guys to get just a little extra out of them or what.

Wouldn't have been Carmelo Betancourt would it? I can't believe you wouldn't be able to discuss him, as his name has been associated as a Zips verbal for quite some time now.I'm going to hope it is 2012 6'9" 240lb Centerr Kevin Larsen.

If that number holds into the season, Zeke will be pretty close to what I consider his ideal playing weight. Ideally for him I think 245-250 is where you want to see him. Zeke is never going to be a bulky, imposing type out there a la Shaq or Dwight Howard, and quite frankly, you don't even want him to try. His biggest assets from a physical standpoint are his athletic ability and his length. If you start trying to get him to 280-300 he will lose a lot of that athleticism. At 245-250 he should be plenty strong enough to not get pushed around so much in the post while still maintaining the athletic ability that makes him such a special prospect. Also very glad to hear that Gilliam is continuing to pick it up from what I thought was a very solid Canada trip for him. Everything we've seen so far tells me he should be one of the newcomers who sees significant minutes in the rotation.