Quickzips

Now we are starting off with Abreu, McNees, McClanahan, McKnight and Nikola to start the second half. KD is searching desperatly for something to work. Not something you want to be doing at this time of the season.

No idea what that starting lineup was all about, but clearly it hasn't been working. Good free throw shooting is about the only thing keeping us in the game right now. Second half better be a lot better. -11 is something you can come back from with 20 minutes left to play (Buffalo came back from -10 with a lot less time on the clock on Sunday), but the Zips are going to have to break out of this funk, and soon.

LeBron doesn't donate money personally. Doesn't matter what the cause. Look at his bike-a-thon's, the school technology support, heck look at what he's done for UA Basketball already. All other people's money. Usually Nike. Those of you who are still out there holding your breathe waiting for LeBron to make a multi-million dollar donation for a new arena might want to call an ambulance. It isn't happening, and I can't exactly see Nike riding in on a white horse to donate that kind of money either.

Sorry I've been away for a few days here. Dealing with starting a new job next week, and I'm trying to get all of my ducks in a row for all of that. I don't plan on doing a preview on the next couple games, as time is just not there right now. I will say this, if there is ever going to be a "must-win" scenario this early in the season, this is it. The Zips can't afford a losing record the first time through the East if they want any chance at a bye going into the tournament. As we've seen the past two seasons, that bye isn't a necessity, but it sure is a nice luxury. I think right now for the Zips to win games a few things need to happen. First, they have to stop turning the ball over. They were doing a great job of this earlier in the season, but Ohio and Buffalo turned us over like crazy. With a more aggressive PG like Abreu, you are going to get a few more TO's, but the Zips have to do a better job of protecting the ball. This team isn't built to withstand nights when we turn the ball over 18-20 times or more. We have to get back to protecting the ball and winning the turnover battle. Second, and maybe even more importantly, Zeke needs to stay out of foul trouble. He is the single biggest matchup problem for opposing teams that we have (and probably the biggest matchup problem in the conference), but the silly fouls are killing his value. At some point he has got to figure out that reaching over a guys back to try and deny an entry pass into the post is an unnecessary move and an almost automatic foul on him. He's getting one or two of them a night, and there is no reason for it. Third, the transition defense has to get better. Ohio really exposed how to attack us. Play solid defense in the post, wait for us to jack up a 3, secure the rebound, push the ball down the court and you'll get a wide open look at the bucket more often than not. Our guards in particular have to do a better job of getting back in transition. Finally, we have to stop settling for so many jump shots. We have three guys who are very capable scorers out of the post inside (Cvetinovic, Zeke and McKnight) as well as a few guys who are capable of scoring around the rim off the dribble (Abreu, Diggs and even Cvetinovic and McClanahan). There is no reason what-so-ever that we should be taking nearly 40% of our FG attempts from beyond the arch. It is a big part of what is killing us in transition defense as well, as those long rebounds off missed 3's are leading to too many easy run-outs. Hopefully the Zips can get some of these things corrected tonight. I know I'll be tunning in with anxious ears. Go Zips!

Turning this crap off.

I can't believe how bad we look right now. Going into the half down SIXTEEN. This is an absolutely terrible performance. If I'm KD I'm coming out of the half with Peterson, Egner, Euton, etc. in the game. These guys looked like they thought they could just show up and have the game handed to them. Terrible. Just terrible.

Did I just watch Mike Bardo post up and make a layup???

This is embarrasing. The Zips have come out with ZERO energy.

I've never seen a guy who can miss as many point blank, uncontested layups as Steve McNees.

Zips have decided to come out of the locker room with the lengthy scoring drought. Let's hope this one isn't too far out of hand before our guys wake up.

I would agree with that. I have heard KD in his post game interviews say this very thing more than a few times. It worked against David Kool. But not against that Cotton kid from Wisconsin GB. Diggs may indeed be the answer...but he was supposed to be our athletic "Ken.t equalizer," and he was totally ineffective Saturday night. Couldn't disagree more about Diggs off the ball on Saturday. He gave us some good D on Sherman, and had a few key rebounds. He didn't play big minutes, but when he was out there he made some good contributions. With Brett McKnight as effective as he was, and Roberts playing a solid game .. Diggs wasn't going to play huge minutes. Agreed, Diggs was a big part of the win Saturday despite not scoring. When KD inserted him back into the game in the 2nd half and put him on Sherman was huge in cooling Can't off and giving us the opportunity to make a run at it. I don't know about putting Diggs on Cooper too much though. On paper it sounds like a good idea, but you have to consider what that does for the rest of our lineup. I think you could get away with it if we don't have Abreu in the game as well. If Abreu is in the game, and Diggs is matched up on Cooper then Alex is likely going to have to guard someone who is 6 to 7 inches taller than him. I like Alex and all, but that may be too much to ask of him at this juncture. In the end it will all come down to personnel on the floor for both teams. I wouldn't be surprised to see Diggs on D.J. for a few minutes here or there, but I don't expect to see it too much. Another guy to consider who I haven't mentioned to this point is 6'8" PF Reggie Kelley. Kelley was a monster against us in the JAR last year, but has struggled off the bench so far this year. Still, he's shown that he's capable of putting up some big numbers. The Zips don't want to see him get it going early.

I think the main difference in this years team and last years team is the lack of a second option at guard who can break teams down off the dribble and score seemingly at will. Cooper is still there with that kind of ability, but they don't have a guy like Bassett at SG who can impose his will on teams anymore. What made OU so dangerous last March was that you had to account for both Cooper and Bassett's ability to break you down from the perimeter which was a very tough task. Only having to deal with Cooper makes the task significantly easier. I actually wouldn't be too surprised if we take the approach of letting Cooper have his but don't let the rest of their role players beat you.

Everyone enjoy the weekend just a little more after taking down the Golden Felons? I know I did. But now its time to focus in on the Ohio Bobcats. This one must have been circled on the Zips calender after the heartbreaking OT loss at Quicken Loans Arena in last years championship match. After entering the season as the near unanimous preseason conference favorite, the Bobcats have struggled. They went 7-7 against a relatively weak OOC schedule that featured only two road matchups and lost at home in their MAC opener to rival Miami in triple overtime. Don't be fooled though, the Bobcats still have some talent and are a dangerous team. Any conversation regarding Ohio's roster has to begin with talented Sophomore PG D.J. Cooper. Cooper is an early PoTY candidate and the sparkplug for everything Ohio does on offense. He is equally adept as a scorer (19.2 points per game) and as a passer (7.7 assists per game). He leads the team in shot attempts having doubled up his next closest teamate (240 for Cooper as opposed to 119 for DeVaughn Washington). Cooper is not without his faults as he is prone to turning the ball over (3.7 per game) and takes way too many 3 attempts (104 on the season) for a player who shoots as poorly from downtown as he does (just under 29% on the season). Still, this will be a tough matchup for Alex Abreu. I expect the Zips to play off of Cooper and dare him to take long jump shots unless and until D.J. proves he can hit some of them. Beyond Cooper, the Bobcats rely heavily on a trio of forwards. 6'5" Senior Tommy Freeman is a known commodity at this point as a nearly exclusive 3 point shooter (90 of 114 field goal attempts coming from 3 so far this season). Despite his lack of offensive diversity, Freeman is second on the team in scoring (11 per night) as he is very good from outside (45% from 3 for the season). McClanahan will likely draw the assignment on Freeman and will have to be very mindful of his 3 point ability. 6'8" Senior DeVaughn Washington is third on the team in scoring (10.7) and provides the kind of long athletic forward that traditionally gives the Zips fits. I expect to see Zeke matched up against Washington in critical situations much the way KD used him on Justin Greene against Can't. Rounding out the frontcourt is 6'8" sophomore Ivo Baltic who has made significant headway in his second year in the league. Baltic gives Ohio a lot of what Cvetinovic gives the Zips as he can score around the rim with a variety of moves and is pretty adept at getting his hands on errant passes (.8 steals per night). If the Bobcats have two glaring weaknesses they are backcourt depth and size down low. 6'3" freshman Nick Kellog starts at SG and has been steady but unspectacular so far (7.5 points, 1.1 rebounds, 1.5 assists per night). 6'4" freshman Ricardo Johnson comes off the bench for the Bobcats backcourt but only provides about 2 points per game in a little over 11 minutes. In terms of size, the Bobcats only list one player over 6'8" and that comes in 6'10" freshman Ethan Jacobs who has played sporadically and only tallied 4 total points in 7 appearances this season. I look for Daryl Roberts to have a big game coming off the bench for the Zips and I expect Zeke to abuse the smaller frontcourt of the Bobcats. Ultimately this is a game that the Zips ought to win. We're at home, riding a bit of a winning streak against a team that has struggled to find it's identity to this point. The Zips can't take this one for granted though. Ohio still has the ability to sneak up on people and may be better suited now that they are back in the underdog role as opposed to playing the favorite role.

The reason I said this was Zeke's breakout game is because he was a different player on both offense and defense. When he grabbed rebounds, he was not tentative. He had fire in his eyes. He locked the ball in a death grip and dared anyone to try to take it away from him. When he went to the bucket, he had fire in his eyes. He slammed it down with anger, daring anyone to try to stop him. I've attended every one of Zeke's home games, and this was not the same old Zeke simply playing a little better than usual. This was not just about having slightly better stats than usual. It was about a fundamental change in attitude. You could even hear the change in his tone of voice in the postgame interview on radio. This is the breakout game I've been waiting for from Zeke. It tells me that he finally gets it, and is ready to move to the next level. The next step will be consistently playing at this new level of intensity. +1 This absolutely was a "breakout" game for Zeke for all the reasons Dave mentioned. Zeke finally came out with that attitude of, "You know what, I'm bigger, longer and more athletic than any guy you are going to throw at me. I'm going to use those tools to put my stamp on this game." It was never more evident to me than that two hand jam over Manns in the second half. 9.5 times out of 10 when Zeke gets the ball in that position on the block it is either going to be a hook shot, a turnaround jumper, a pass out or some other weak move. Last night, there was none of that. Zeke caught the ball blasted around Manns and threw it down with authority. Having a guy with the physical tools of Zeke is a luxury that no other team in this conference has. If he can bring that kind of intensity every night I don't see very many teams in the MAC that will be beating us.

Thought I would bring this thread back up after Buffalo dropped their MAC home opener to bottom-feeder Bowling Green in double OT. Buffalo to me is still an absolute paper tiger. They have a drastically inflatted OOC record and haven't been tested at all yet. At this point I'm more worried about BG who seems to be finding some chemistry and playing well of late.

Sunday morning thoughts: Feels so much better to come out of a Can't game with a win. This rivalry was getting a little depressing the last couple of years. To take it to the flushes last night and come out with a hard fought win feels great, and gives me a lot of confidence going into the rest of the conference season. Abreu had some nice plays down the stretch, but I thought he was pretty ho-hum for most of the game. He wasn't penetrating the way he had been in previous games and he wasn't up in his man's grill getting steals the way we have seen in the OOC season. Still, it was nice to see him finish drives at the end of the game when it matters. So nice to have a guard who can finish plays at the hoop for once. He got a taste of what this rivalry is about last night and he's only going to get better as time goes on. I really wasn't impressed with McNees at all last night. He hit a couple of threes and he had one nice drive and dish to Zeke late in the game, but his defense was pretty poor and most of his shots (including his free throws) were extremely rushed. I just can't figure out why he continues to shoot free throws like they are a catch and shoot three. Someone needs to tell him to slow down, take his time and line up his shot. You've got that opportunity when you are at the charity stripe, take advantage of it. Nitro really struggled last night. He was getting abused by Sherman on the defensive end, and his 3 point shot simply wasn't falling. Still, he found a way to contribute to the comeback win with a nice drive to the hoop. I'll chalk the poor offensive performance up to simply a cold shooting night, but his defense on Sherman concerns me. If there was one guy who had the worst performance of the night for us it was certainly Nikola. Nik was frustrated all night. He was forcing shots, he was in foul trouble most of the night, he wasn't finishing around the rim and his free throw shooting seemed to regress. About the only good thing I can say about this performance is that he didn't have a total meltdown and he did help to get Can't's big men into foul trouble. What more can you say about Zeke that hasn't already been said? He was aggressive, he was crashing the boards, he was finishing around the rim, he was getting putback, he took Can't's best post player out of the game for the most part. The Zeke that showed up last night will run roughshod over the MAC. Let's hope that Zeke continues to show up night in and night out. Roberts had a very quiet night last night, but came up big at the end when we needed him. His free throw shooting late in games is so important for the Zips. I thought he also played better defense than the rest of our guards. Diggs didn't do much on offense, but I felt his defense on Sherman late in the second half was a big key to the comeback. Sherman was abusing Nitro big time while Can't opened up that 9 point lead. When KD inserted Quincy back into the lineup it seemed like he was able to cool Sherman off quite a bit and open up the opportunity for the comeback. Quincy has all the tools to be an elite perimeter defender ala Nate Linhart. Let's hope he can continue to develop into that role. If Zeke was player 1a in getting us this win, Brett McKnight was player 1b. Can't had no answers for his inside/outside game. The only thing that saved them for a little bit was when Brett went into black hole mode early in the second half and started forcing shots. Luckily for the Zips he calmed himself down and got some good shots down the stretch during the comeback. Kudos to Brett for coming out and setting the tone. I actually thought Bardo had a pretty good night last night. He did what we asked him to do. Came in, didn't allow too many easy buckets around the rim, played some decent defense, and actually had a nice block on Sherman and drew a good charge. It was the ideal game for him last night. A few more overall thoughts. I think the key to the Zips comeback was getting out in the open floor and pushing the tempo. For most of the game the Zips were content to walk the ball up the court and they were struggling to find good shots. When the comeback started, the Zips were grabbing the rebound and getting out and running. It opens up so many more things for this team when the Zips are pushing the tempo. I was also very impressed with Zeke in the post-game interview. Despite his huge night, he was able to identify the things he did wrong like bricking two key free throws down the stretch, and blocking a couple shots out of bounds. When your best player is always looking to get better like that, you can't help but have a good time. Finally, big kudos to the fans last night who were into the game and loud, particularly at key times. The sixth man effect was really there last night. Would love to see more of that when we AREN'T playing Can't.

Very entertaining game. I thought for sure the Zips were out of it when they went through that cold streak out of the second half locker room. Big time credit to the guys for chipping away at it and getting back in the game. The story of the night is obviously going to be Zeke. He did basically everything right tonight. He frustrated Greene on defense, he was aggressive on offense, he crashed the boards, he picked up some blocks. It was so refreshing to see the possession in the second half where he got the ball on a post up on the right block and instead of going to that hook shot he loves so much he swept across the lane and threw it down with authority over I believe it was Manns. I've been waiting a year and a half to see that kind of aggression from him. I want to see more of it. Ohh, and it is now 10:24pm......................

Yes. For me, it's too early for this game. I REALLY enjoy NFL playoffs, to schedule this game at the same time is a mistake IMO. I know the schedule of it sucks, but it is still the rivalry game. I'll take the Can't State/UA rivalry game over Wild-Card weekend in the NFL any day of the week.

Are you people all in a coma or something? The flushes are coming to town TOMORROW NIGHT and we have all of 5 responses on the subject?

His tweets aren't any worse than some of our current athletes. I will say that eventually he and all the Zips using social networks will hopefully realize that everything they say is public and will be read by prospective employers and if they make it big young people looking for role models. Some are smart enough to keep their profiles private so they don't say something that their coaches (yes, of course they monitor that stuff) might not like. The University needs to monitor some of our guys twitter accounts more. There are some pretty terrible things posted on some guys accounts. Not the way you want the University to be represented. I understand the freedom of speech issues that go into this, but some of these guys need some lessons in accountability.

I think the issues for Steve are multi-faceted. Probably the biggest thing right now is confidence. He hasn't looked confident stepping into his shot all year, and I think it is why you've seen him pass up quite a few open looks. Beyond that I think he is struggling to get adjusted to playing more without the ball. If you look at McNees' shooting over the years a lot of his best shooting nights has come where he has taken a lot of shots off the dribble as opposed to being more of a catch and shoot guy. This year the ball isn't in his hands as much and we are asking him to be more of a catch and shoot kind of guy which he is struggling to adjust to. Either way Steve is going to have to get used to this new role rather quickly as Alex has firmly entrenched himself in the starting PG role and the team is clearly better off with him in that position. I think right now we are going to win more games with Alex running the offense and Steve struggling than we would with Steve running the offense and hitting shots but Alex sitting on the bench. Of course we will be that much better if/when Steve breaks out of this slump and adapts to playing off the ball.

This is one reason I don't like beginning conference play w/ the Fellons. I don't know their team yet & thus don't really know what to expect from Saturday's game. Thanks for the summary! Well done, again. The MAC has put all the big rivalries on opening weekend, and it really doesn't make sense to me. Students are not back in classes yet, there has been no buildup in terms of the MAC schedules and everyone is still coming off the holidays. I much prefer putting the big rivalries (Can't/Akron, Miami/Ohio in particular) at the end of each round through the conference. Provides for a lot more buildup and puts those games at a time when you will hopefully have maximum interest on campus. Another thing to add regarding Can't, they have had a lot of problems this year against zone defenses. The zone seems to frustrate Greene and without quality shooters to bust the zone their offense can go stagnant. KD mentioned in the post-game after ORU that the team would be working on some more zone looks during this little stretch off. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see us go zone a lot more than we are used to in this one.

Me thinks that sooner or later he is going to pressure D.J. Cooper for the title of top PG in the conference. He still needs to get a little more comfortable shooting the rock, but the mechanics seem to be there for him to turn into a quality shooter. This kid is going to be special for the Zips, no doubt about it.

Well, it's Wednesday afternoon of Can't State week and there is very little discussion of the impending matchup with the boys from the Portage County Correctional Institute. Guess I will get the ball rolling. The Zips have to be out for some revenge this year after having been embarrased by Can't over the past two years. Can't comes to town with a ton of new faces. Only Rod Sherman and Justin Greene made any significant contributions to Can't's 2009-10 team. Greene is the catalyst for this team leading the flushes in points, rebounding, blocks and minutes. The 6'8" Junior is athletic and talented and everything that the Zips hate seeing in an opposing frontcourt player. He shoots 55% from the floor and 78% from the line and attacks the boards quite well. If Nikola and Zeke aren't on their game on the defensive end of the floor this guy is going to have a field day on the Zips. The good news for the Zips is that Can't is still without their second leading scorer and best three point shooter as Carlton Guyton remains suspended indefinitly pending the outcome of his felony auto theft charges. That puts the burden more on Rod Sherman to step up. The senior has been through this matchup plenty of times before, and should be looked to by the younger players to set the tempo for Can't. He is playing more off guard this year, but is still averaging 3.9 assists per night. His three point shooting has improved markedly this year, and he is still plenty capable of taking the ball to the hoop and finishing with authority. The good news for the Zips is that nobody else has really emerged as an impact player for Can't. Michael Porrini is probably their third best player and is a pretty creative passer, but he's prone to turning the ball over (3.1 per night, 15 total in his last two games) and isn't much of a shooter (37% from the field, 26% from 3, 65% from the line). Randall Holt has not stepped up the way Geno Ford envisioned in his sophmore year and he is having a terrible year shooting the ball. If I'm KD I want our guards to play off him and dare him to shoot. If he starts getting hot then we'll talk about guarding him. In the frontcourt Can't hasn't seen anyone step up to provide some assistance for Greene. 6'11" JUCO Center Justin Manns, 6'6" Freshman Forward Robert Johnson and 6'9" Freshman Forward Darius Leonard are all part of the rotation, but only put up about 10 points and 9 rebounds per night between them. 6'6" JUCO Forward DeAndre Nealy and 6'8" Freshman Forward Mark Henniger (Jackson High School teammate to the Zips Josh Egner) have seen sporadic minutes, but produced little. Without Guyton this Can't team is not very deep and will only play significant minutes for 7 or 8 players. This Can't team isn't nearly as diverse, deep or talented as in years past. If the Zips can keep the rebounding differential somewhat reasonable and force Can't's young guards into turnovers and easy runouts at the other end they should be able to get some revenge for the beatings the previous two squads have taken.