Quickzips

There is a pretty big difference in going from a bottom feeding MAC team to CUSA and going from bottom feeding MAC team to the Big East. Some of you guys need to take off the blue and gold glasses and look at the facts of our situation. We have very little fan support, even in our own community. Our stadium is on the lower end of what capacity should be for a BCS stadium. We haven't had a winning season in 5 years and have been to only one bowl game as an FBS program. We just came off a season where we were dangerously close to going 0 for. All of these things are serious red flags for the Big East. They aren't going to take us simply on the potential exhibited by new facilities and a relatively large media market that we have never been able to tap into. There are plenty of programs that are more attractive to the Big East than Akron. UCF is a quality program with a nice, new, big stadium that would give them a geographic rival for USF. Tulsa and UTEP are good programs that would give them a geograpic rival for TCU. Villanova is the defending FCS champion, is already affiliated with the Big East for basketball and is rumored to be looking at moving up. Even within the MAC NIU and Toledo would be more attractive options as they are in relatively large media markets and have had a much better history of success (and they are long shots at best for a Big East invite). You can even make a case potentially for Notre Dame. I highly doubt Akron is even on the radar for the Big East.

My best guesses. The capability? Yes. Will they? I don't think so, not this time around. The best way to counteract a team like that is to make them play to your strengths. Right now, the Zips still aren't entirely sure what their strengths are. Are they a run and gun team? Are they a defensive minded, grind it out in the halfcourt team? Are they an inside out team? Are they a live by the 3 die by the 3 team? Until we really start to come up with answers to some of these questions it is going to be hard to counterbalance the strengths of good teams like CSU and Detroit. God I hope so. Zeke has it in him to throw down some monster dunks. It is the highest percentage shot in any big mans arsenal, but too often we frustratingly see him turn an obvious dunk into an awkward layup. Part of Zeke's development is going to have to be recognizing when to go for that layup and when to bring down the hoop. Hopefully KD showed him some of the tape from the CSU game where he did a particularly poor job in recognizing the difference. I have pretty good confidence in his ability to make those hook shots. I suspect though that this week will be a bit of a mixed bag. We will probably see him go up strong a few more times than usual, but we will probably also see a couple of those tenative, awkward layups from 3 feet as well. He is going to have to if we want to have any shot at winning this thing. KD has been on him about it publicly (and I'm sure privately as well). If Nik doesn't go after the boards aggressively we don't have much of a shot in this one IMO. He has the physical ability in him, but often times rebounding is simply about wanting it more than the other guy. If Nik wants to impress pro scouts at any level he is going to have to show how bad he wants it. Unfortunatly I don't have a very good feeling about this one. I think he will. Steve is a smart veteran, and he works very hard at his craft. It isn't necessarily that his shot has been off this season, but he hasn't been looking for it. I'm sure he's aware of the fact that we need more scoring out of him and I look for him to come out firing a little more. Can he compete? Yes. Can he adjust? Yes. He's faced guards at least as good as what we have been seeing so far this season when he was at prep school and on the Puerto Rican National Team and he's produced just fine in those venues. He has the tools to be a good defensive player if he stops gambling on the steal every time. I think after a week of practice we will start to see him turn the corner a bit. I don't think it will be a night and day difference, but I think he will do enough to warrant some more playing time. To a degree I think he will. I think you will see more focus on perimeter shooting and less focus on force feeding the post early in the ballgame in an attempt to get McNees going. If Steve, Daryl and Nitro get established early then I think you will see us go back to the post game as Detroit's defense has to respect the 3 point line more. Not as worried about McCallum as I am about their big post man. McCallum is good, but he's still a freshman finding his way at this level. I think you will see a lot of McClanahan matched up against him, and I think you will see Nitro keep McCallum in check for most of the game much the way he did with Norris Cole (although Cole got hot at the end when Nitro was gassed from chasing him around for too many minutes). I'm much more worried about their star big man who is a double double machine. Zeke has shown the ability to keep guys like this in check (thinking back to Texas A&M last year). He will have to come up with a big game like that again tomorow. As far as Nitro, I expect to see a similar performance from him to what we've gotten so far this year. I don't quite see the "take over a game" ability in Nitro yet, but if he can give us 15 and 8 and play good defense on McCallum it will go a long way towards the Zips taking the upset.

Your kidding right? The Big East would actually want Akron football right now? How exactly is that conversation going to go? BE: Hello? Tom: Hi, this is Tom Wistricill, the AD at the University of Akron. BE: Ok. Tom: Yeah, look, I hear you guys are looking for 3 more football programs to strengthen your conference and allow you to play a conference title game. BE: Correct. Tom: Well, I think our University would make a great fit for you. BE: Ok, well what do you guys bring to the table? Tom: Well, we have a brand new 30,000 seat stadium that we just built on campus along with a six year old top of the line practice facility, we are located in a pretty large media and recruiting market in NEOhio. BE: Do you have a television contract in place? Tom: Yes we do with SportstimeOhio. BE: Who? Tom: They are a statewide cable broadcasting company. BE: Ohh, ok...well...what kind of success has your football team had recently. Tom: Well we won the MAC championship game in 2005 and went to the Motor City Bowl. BE: Ok, well, what have you done since then. Tom: To be honest, we've had losing seasons every year since then, we had to fire the coach from that 2005 season and this year we went 1-11 and lost to an FCS team at home. BE: Ha, ok, well what about fan support? How are your attendance figures? Tom: Well we sold out our first few games at our beautiful new stadium in 2009. BE: Ok, and since then? Tom: Well, it hasn't been pretty, at the end of this season we were struggling to get 5,000 butts in seats. BE: Ok, yeah, we'll get right back to you on that.

There are very few elite QBs in college football (see how few start on Sundays their first year or even get drafted). In terms of elite college QBs, these guys were elite for college with the exception of Krenzel and Flynn. You can't win with an average college QB...I take that back....You can win some games with an average college QB. The Zips are never going to get to where I would like them to be with an average QB. If you guys want 4-6 wins a year, stick with average. I want more. I guess you and I have different ideas of what an "average college QB" is. To me all of the guys listed were average college QB's. They were game managers. McElroy won last years title by relying on a superb defense and turning around and handing the ball to a Heisman winning RB. Leak was the starter at Florida, but split time with a Freshman who I think both of us consider a "winning QB" in Tebow. He had a lot of hype coming out of high school and never really lived up to it. Flynn only got to start as a 5th year senior and backed into a national title behind a very good defense. Krenzel was a lot like McElroy, very good defense, superb running back. Dorsey had just a ridiculous amount of talent around him (Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee, Jeremy Shockey, Andre Johnson, Ed Reed, Jonathan Vilma to name a few). Heupel was an erratic QB at best who threw nearly as many INT's as he did TD's in 2000. Only one of these guys (Dorsey) was a regular starter in the NFL and even he didn't last very long. I consider all of them to be rather average QB's.

"Having a winning QB in D-I football is immensly important." Sincerely, Greg McElroy-Alabama-2009 Matt Flynn-LSU-2007 Chris Leak-Florida-2006 Craig Krenzel-Ohio State-2002 Ken Dorsey-Miami(FL)-2001 Josh Heupel-Oklahoma-2000 All QB's who aren't going to appear on anyone's list of all-time NCAA greats. All with national championships. All within the last 10 years. Sure, that means that the other 4 national titles went to great college QB's like Vince Young, Matt Leinart and Tim Tebow. The point is there is more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to college football. You don't have to have an elite QB to do well. An average QB can win you a lot of games if you have talent around him on the offensive end and a good defense.

Well, I think the venting from the tough loss against CSU has pretty well died down. Time to move on from that one, put aside the Thanksgiving leftovers and move on to a tough matchup against the Detroit Titans. This game represents our third Horizon league opponent in a row and the second team in a row that we've seen boasting potential NBA talent. The Titans are 4-3 this year, but their 3 losses were all close games against quality teams (@New Mexico lost by 9, @Syracuse lost by 11 and @Mississippi State lost by 6). Freshman Guard and Coach's Son Ray McCallum gets most of the press clippings for Detroit, but he isn't alone out there. 6'10" F/C Eli Holman is a legit NBA prospect who is averaging a double-double so far this season and shots an astonishing 67% from the field. If the Titans have one weakness it may be depth as only 7 players see more than 10 minutes per game and 4 of their starters average 33 minutes plus. Unfortunatly the Zips may not be able to take advantage of this as our bench has come up rather short so far this young season as well. I really don't feel very good about this game. Detroit is a team that is ready made to give the Zips fits as they hit the offensive boards pretty well and they have guards who can attack the rim. The Zips will have to try and control Holman inside first and then hope that McCallum and Co. don't get too hot. I hope I'm wrong, but I feel another double digit loss may be in order for our young Zips.

Nobody wanted McCollum coming out of high school. Bowling Green offered at one point, but pulled their offer relatively quickly. Other than that it was Lehigh or NAIA ball. Despite McCollum they don't seem to be having much more success than the Zips this year as they are 2-3 with losses to Can't, Penn State and Monmouth.

Skip I'd like you to do something for me. Go back through some NCAA statistics and find for me another team whose "point scorer", "go-to guy", "we need a basket guy" averages only 10 points per game on under 40% shooting. Go ahead, I dare ya to find even one. For all this talk about how great an offensive player Brett McKnight WAS, he really wasn't anything all that special. All he WAS was an undersized, out of shape PF who couldn't consistently finish around the rim and often put his own individual glory ahead of what was best for the team. This team has a lot of issues right now, and not having our monster 10 point per game scorer isn't really all that high on the list.

After a couple of days (and a lot of turkey) I'll chime back in here with my thoughts. First off, I still feel that we absolutely need to give our bench guys a longer leash. This team is going to be in all kinds of trouble come conference play if the starters have been averaging 30 minutes plus all OOC season and the bench guys have never seen more than 8 or 9 a game. I am also very concerned about our rebounding effort. For all that we have talked about having size on this roster we are getting killed on the glass worse than I can ever remember under KD and it is truly puzzling. I don't think all of it can be traced to Zeke being so aggressive going after the blocks and getting himself out of position. A lot of it just comes down to effort, and we simply aren't seeing it on the glass right now. It is something that is relatively easy to correct, but the guys on the floor have to want to correct it. Now for what will likely be my most controversial thought of the day. I think we need to stop running so much of the offense through Zeke all the time. Zeke is still very much an unfinished product on the offensive end. Don't get me wrong, he is lightyears ahead of where he was at this time last year, but he still has a long way to go. Yet it seems like we are spending a considerable amount of time trying to force feed him the ball. I remember far too many times against CSU that we spent 15-20 seconds or more of the shot clock trying to get Zeke a touch in the post. Often times resulting in him holding onto the ball 15 feet from the hoop, not in a position to score the ball with a defender drapped all over him and 12-15 second left on the shot clock. Those kinds of possessions are wasted possessions. Zeke needs to get his touches, but they need to come within the flow of the offense. If it isn't there relatively early in the shot clock we need to move on and find another shot that is available. I think a lot of this is what is leading to the anemic start for McNees this year as he seems so focused on trying to find looks for Zeke that he has forgotten all about shooting it himself. I understand we are trying to develop Zeke into an all-American type Center and NBA draft pick, but I personally think we are doing a dis-service to Zeke and to the team by force feeding him the ball late in the shot clock in a position where he can't reasonably be expected to score.

Zips had the opportunities tonight and they didn't bring anything close to an offensive game. Can't turn the ball over as much as we did tonight, give up as many offensive boards as we have, miss as many point blank looks as we have and expect to win the ballgame. KD needs to re-think some of the things he is doing out here recently. For the life of me I cannot figure out why we have all of a sudden decided to play zone. Every time we've gone to it this year we've given up all kinds of points. It is painfully obvious that it isn't working and yet we go to it a couple times a half every game??? We are going to have to find some resemblance of a bench at some point here. For the second game in a row the starters played almost the entire second half. Diggs wasn't having a bad game, but rarely sniffed the floor in the second half. Abreu didn't even see a minute. Egner and Euton got one or two minutes a piece. I know these guys are young and new, but at some point KD is going to have to start trusting these guys. Are starters looked spent at the end and it showed with a lot of shots that weren't even close. And for the love of god can someone tell me what is going on with Steve McNees? If Steve can't or won't take some shots then why is he out there? He isn't exactly a dynamic passer. I don't know what has happened to him, but this is not the Steve McNees we've all come to know and love. Ohh yeah, and Nikola, remember against YSU when you were finishing strong around the glass and not just slopping up shots hoping to draw fouls? Could ya get back to that please?

If the Zips could ever stop turning it over this game is there for the taking. 23-21 CSU with 3:50 left in the first half despite the fact that the Zips have an astonishing 11 turnovers. Vikings aren't doing anything fancy, Zips just aren't making good decisions with the ball.

Zips REALLY sloppy early. Way too many turnovers, not boxing out on the boards. CSU is gonna slaughter us if these guys don't settle down and start running their stuff.

Game is now up on channelsurfing.

Not exactly a big surprise that Brett won't be back in uniform for the Zips. Hope he gets his life figured out. That said, the Zips have already started the process of moving on without him and that process is going to continue. We need a couple of young guys to step up a bit, but we still have plenty of talent to go pretty far in this conference and we are going to be just fine.

This right here shows just how difficult it is being a Zips fan. There are a lot of programs, big and small, in this country that, if they went 0-10, would have hours long radio programs on multiple stations dedicated to the team. What to do with the team, how much longer should the coach get, who should be the next head coach, what positions do we need to be recruiting for, whose to blame for this debacle, etc., etc., etc. What do we get in Akron? Apathy. We're all begging and pleading and bending over backwards to kiss the royal hinney of the folks who give us 2 minutes of air-time every once in a while. Look, I understand the argument that the population of Akron and NEOhio doesn't generally care about the Zips and as such advertisers won't pay to put on Zips programming. I happen to believe that isn't entirely the truth. In large part, the media sets the tone for what people care about. It is why we care about what porn-star Charlie Sheen is beating up and what Jessica Simpson's engagement ring looks like. I look around the JAR and the Info. and the rest of this campus and I see advertising dollars being spent on football by companies like Infocision, Summa, First Energy, Giant Eagle, ComDoc, Hattie's Cafe and others. A smart salesman shouldn't have too much of a problem convincing some of these companies to part with a few more dollars for a radio show that can set the agenda and peak the interest of NEOhio sports fans, thus making their initial investment in the athletics programs more rewarding. All it takes is a little creativity, vision and the desire to start the trend.

I don't disagree. The problem with the "building process" in college athletics is (especially with UofA and the MAC in general) nobody ever defines the measurables as they relate to a winning timeline. If you were building a factory, your boss would force you to have a measurable time period in which you would have certain aspects of the factory completed and producing products. We never get that at UofA. For example, we had a building time frame that did not take into account results on the field. Call me crazy, but I want to see my team win and I don't care where they win or where they practice as long as they win. The fieldhouse had to be completed by a certain date and it did. Same for the Big Dialer. What was the time period for the team winning a minimum of six games on a regular basis and how were they going to do it? It's like we built a factory and had no idea what we were going to do with the building and production line when it was completed. Not only do we not know what to do, we hire people from different industries to run our factory (CoachI is a pro style coach in college). The mismanagement of this football program has been almost criminal for the past 20 years. We get soccer right. We get basketball right. We can't find our ass with both hands when it comes to the football program. It's what happens when you focus on the "building process" and not the "winning process". I've had enough losing. I don't think the problem is a lack of a defined time-table as much as it is a lack of an overarching plan to begin with. If we are using your building a factory analogy, in order to put a timetable into place for actually building the brick and mortar factory you need to have hired a design firm, drawn up blueprints, hired the contractors, etc., etc. Then you can start saying, "alright we are going to have the foundation laid on 'X' day, then we are going to finish the structural componenets by 'X' day, then we will have electrical, plumbing, drywall, etc., etc. done on 'X' days." We've never gotten much past the point of hiring the design firm (coaching staff). At that point it seems like we are just content to throw a bunch of crap (coordinators, conditioning programs, recruiting strategies, offensive and defensive schemes, etc.) against the wall and hope something sticks. At least it always looks that way from where I sit.

With the next five games being CSU, Detroit, UIC, Temple and Minnesota we ought to be able to stay pretty close to the top. I can't help but wonder whether, if the Zips can pull out some upsets against say Temple and/or Minnesota if an at-large is necessarily out of the question this year. Kudos to KD for actually putting together a halfway respectable OOC schedule this season.

Maybe im crazy but I would no doubt rather tailgate, hammer 12 beers, and watch football (even terrible football) than stay inside. Especially when it's my team! I know that most college students would find any excuse to drink, so what gives? Where are all of the students? It really doesnt make sense to me and i'm someone who plays WAY too many video games. All of the students are inside drinking, watching TV, playing video games, and, well...doing what college students do. They don't care about the game because nobody has given them a reason to. Not the University, not the athletic department, and certainly not the team. They can get drunk and keep themselves entertained in other ways and until someone steps up and gives them a reason to care about the football team they will.

I'm surprised that anyone was at InfoCision last week to even notice the low attendance. Seriously, what it all comes down to is winning. This idea of build the new stadium and they will come doesn't work in today's instant gratification, countless entertainment options society. On a Wednesday night in mid-November, if the choice is between staying at home where it is warm and watching TV or playing video games or going out and watching an 0-10 team get what will probably be another severe beatdown, 99% of people are going to stay home, and you know what, those 99% will be making the right decision. Those who disagree with that 99% are simply blinded by their blue and gold goggles. Find me a team, any team, in any sport, in any corner of our country that has been as consistently anemic as Zips football but can still fill a 25,000+ seat stadium. You can't do it. That team doesn't exist. The bottom line is winning breeds interest and butts in seats, losing breeds apathy and empty stadiums. I don't know how to make it much simpler than that.

These next couple of weeks are going to be a huge challenge for the Zips. Probably one of the most challenging parts of an OOC schedule we've seen under KD. We play 4 out of our next five on the road. Our only home game being Wed. against a very tough Cleveland State team. Then we go out on the road against another top level Horizon team in Detroit featuring an incredibly talented freshman guard in Ray McCallum. Then it is off to the scrappy UIC team which just took a game from Rhode Island yesterday. If that wasn't enough we then head off to what could potentially be two road matchups against top-25 teams in Temple and Minnesota. The Zips have a lot of growing up to do over this five game stretch. If they can come out of this with a 3-2 record or better I think it will be a pretty big success for us. Of course after we get done with that we get a chance to take on one home cupcake in Bethune-Cookman before it is right back out on the road for the Las Vegas games.

First time I've seen the Zips in person this year. Game had its ups and downs. I felt like the Zips came out and played down to the level of their competition. They were very sloppy for most of the game, especially in the first half where they were turning the ball over like crazy, giving up 2nd, 3rd and 4th shot opportunities and just generally not hustling at all. Really, they were darn lucky to get out of there with a win. I said it earlier in the week, YSU always gets amped up to play the Zips (and Can't State for that matter). They have something of that little step-brother, I'll show you I belong attitude when they walk in and you can't sleep walk against them. The Lithuanian kid is a baller and gave us all kinds of problems on the offensive end, and when their 3 point shooters got hot in the 2nd half we were in for a dog-fight. Reminds me a lot of what we did to Dayton on Tuesday night. In the end the Zips pulled it off, but it wasn't pretty. They'll learn from this one, but they will need to grow up pretty quick as they have a much better Cleveland State team coming in on Wednesday. If we come out with that kind of effort against the Vikings we will be handed a double-digit loss at home. No doubt. The story of the night was McClanahan's big night and game saving three. The crow tastes pretty good to be honest with you. Nitro had a great all-around offensive game tonight and displayed a diverse set of talents. Three point shooting, pull up jumpers, dribble-drives for layups. If Brett can pick his defensive effort up just a little he will be an All-MAC candidate before this season is over. Nikola had a very nice night on the offensive end, but got abused on defense. Can't complain with the 27 points, and after calling him out earlier in the week for not finishing around the rim he definitly picked it up. I don't remember many sloppy shots or misses around the rim for Nik. It is so nice to see his Free Throw shooting looking better again. On defense, well......Nik got abused by the big Lithuanian kid for the Penguins all night. Not sure if it was just an effort thing or what but 44 was driving around Nik like he wasn't even there. He also got burnt pretty badly on the boards (as all of the Zips not named McClanahan did). I was impressed by his demeanor tonight though. Sure he argued with the refs a bit, but he didn't let it affect the way he was playing on the floor. Last year that blocking foul that was called on him late in the second half would have sent him into a tailspin. Last night he managed to shake it off and still be productive on the floor. Maybe he has matured a little bit. Zeke's game was up and down. He scored a career high, but there is still a lot of work to be done. On offense, he needs to be a little more patient. When he took his time and set up his shot it seemed like those little hooks were falling. When he rushed them they were missing badly. I know KD wants him to develop a jump-shot, but it isn't there right now, and he shouldn't have the green light to take that shot right now. On defense, he still needs to work on not going after the shot block so many times. If I'm a Zips opponent I tell my guys to crash the offensive glass hard any time Zeke is on the floor as he goes after too many blocks that he has no chance of making and gets himself out of position for some easy rebounds. There is a fine line somewhere in there that Zeke needs to find. If anybody knows where last years MAC Tournament Steve McNees is hiding could you please contact him and tell him we need him down at the JAR. GoZips said it well earlier, we need the gunslinging 2 guard McNees back. This dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble 35 feet from the basket McNees who looks scared to shoot the ball is difficult to watch. I don't know what is going on with him right now, but he looks tenative and out of sorts on the offensive end. We need him to get back to playing his game and knocking down those big 3's. Roberts had a quiet but effective night. He was more aggressive going to the hoop which I was very happy to see, and his free throws late were clutch. Sometimes you forget he is out there, but there is hardly a night where you can say that he did anything to lose the game for us. I suppose that is nice to have, although I still feel like there is more to Daryl's game that we just aren't seeing. I actually thought Abreu did a relatively nice job at the point tonight. He wasn't dynamic, but he was effective most of the night. I think the biggest thing he gives us is the ability and the willingness to get into the teeth of the defense, flatten them out and make good passes. When he's on the floor we see a lot less of the pass around the 3 point line for 20 seconds hoping for a guy to get open for an entry pass offense. I like that. He still has some work to do, but there is definitley some talent there. Quincy Diggs was horrible tonight. Of all the newcomers he seems to be struggling the worst. The lazy perimeter pass he made followed by getting posterized on the run out was, quite frankly, embarrasing. He has a LOT of work to do. Euton wasn't particularly effective last night, but I would have liked to have seen more of him and less of Bardo. I think we could have used his rebounding abilities a little more. For what we needed last night though, playing Egner a little more was the ticket. Josh is still a bit of a bowling ball out there, but he had a better night than he did in Dayton. He needs to work on finishing around the rim, and like most of our big guys, his free throw shooting needs a lot of work, but the talent is definitley there. Mike Bardo is such a frustrating guy to deal with as a Zips fan. I want to like him, I really do. From all reports he is an upstanding kid, a great student, and an ambassador for Zips basketball. But on the floor....yikes. Overall, you'll take the win, but it didn't taste as good as it should. I guess we just have to move on to the Vikings and hope that the baby Zips can learn from this one.

You're right. We should consider ourselves fortunate to have so much discussion about the #11 guy on the bench. It shows we really don't have any legitimate stuff to grouse about. Nice reminder of how far we have come as a program under KD. There was a time in Zips hoops history where Bardo would be about our #7 or 8 guy on the bench. The talent and depth is only expected to get better in the coming years with Treadwell, Harney, Walsh, Gilliam, Ibitayo and Justice in the mix.

Absolutely. Anyone who thinks this is not the scenario right now is fooling themselves. We're going to be playing without a senior front court player who was maybe going to average anywhere from 20-30 min. per game, and replacing him in the rotation with a new freshman. There's going to be a few guys that are going to have to do more right now, including Mike, and hope that the new guys can develop enough at some point to help pick up some of the load this year. Brett likely would have seen closer to that 20 minutes per game than 30. The past two years he's only averaged around 20 minutes per game as his conditioning has never been solid enough to support much more. He's had knee and back problems throughout his time here and 30 minutes a night was never going to be much of an option for him. His averages last year were 10 points and 4.5 boards in just under 20 minutes per game. I think the big question here is do you think an improved Nikola and Zeke combined with Euton and Egner can cover those stats and those minutes. If your like me and believe they can then this isn't all that big a deal. If you don't believe that they can't then this is a huge hit. Boy, I couldn't agree with you more on that point. Regardless, I think it's tough to try to make anything positive out of losing one of your best players in his senior year. As you said, it all does indeed come down to whether one believes that the other guys can pick up the slack quickly enough. Of course, it CAN happen, but I'm certainly on record as saying that situations where you're forced to COUNT on freshman to fill too big of a role for departed players is not where you want to be. I look at it this way. We need to make up for 20 minutes per game, 10 points and 4.5 rebounds to be at least as good as we were last season (on paper at least, spare me the games aren't played on paper argument). Last year Nik and Zeke put up the following numbers. Nikola: 20 minutes per game, 6.7 points, 4.2 rebounds Zeke: 17 minutes per game, 5.1 points, 3.9 rebounds If you assume the worst out of our freshmen and that they will only manage around 2 points and a board a piece in about 5 minutes each per game all season (for comparison Bardo played 9 minutes put up 1.5 points and 1.7 boards per game as a freshman) then we still need to fill in 10 more minutes per game, 6 point and 2 boards. A more experienced Zeke should be able to get pretty close to that on his own and an (allegedly) more under control Nikola can certainly pick up the rest.

Nate Linhart is listed on tonights roster for the NBA D-League's Erie Bayhawks opener. Bayhawks draftpick Jimmy Conyers is not as he was cut on November 10th. Congrats to Nate on making the team and best of luck to Jimmy in whatever future endeavors he pursues. Edit: Linhart started the Bayhawks preseason game against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants (gotta love D-League team names) and put up a nice line of 11 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists a three and a block in nearly 33 minutes.

Absolutely. Anyone who thinks this is not the scenario right now is fooling themselves. We're going to be playing without a senior front court player who was maybe going to average anywhere from 20-30 min. per game, and replacing him in the rotation with a new freshman. There's going to be a few guys that are going to have to do more right now, including Mike, and hope that the new guys can develop enough at some point to help pick up some of the load this year. Brett likely would have seen closer to that 20 minutes per game than 30. The past two years he's only averaged around 20 minutes per game as his conditioning has never been solid enough to support much more. He's had knee and back problems throughout his time here and 30 minutes a night was never going to be much of an option for him. His averages last year were 10 points and 4.5 boards in just under 20 minutes per game. I think the big question here is do you think an improved Nikola and Zeke combined with Euton and Egner can cover those stats and those minutes. If your like me and believe they can then this isn't all that big a deal. If you don't believe that they can't then this is a huge hit.