Quickzips

+1

Frontcourt depth shouldn't be a problem. We have Nikola, Zeke, Euton, Egner and Bardo still. Experience certainly isn't what it was, but I think we can work around that. Nikola and Zeke will get the most minutes obviously and I expect both of them to average around 25-30 minutes plus or minus a few either way depending on circumstances. Euton will probably average around 10-15 minutes with Egner taking up 8-10 and Bardo taking up whatever is left. You will probably see a little bit more Bardo unfortunatly until Dakotah and Josh get up to speed, but I wouldn't expect that to last long.

Wow. A freshman who was going to redshirt because he probably wouldn't be in the playing rotation as opposed to a Senior, who is probably our biggest scoring threat, and the most experienced player on the team besides maybe McNees? It doesn't make me wonder one bit. Brett's been a frustrating player here over the years. His talent has been obvious, and his experience is a given, but he certainly has had his share of problems on the court. He's been openly criticized about his lack of effort on the defensive end many times, he's often a black hole on offense and his shot selection has been questionable throughout his career. Despite being the "biggest scoring threat" on our team he barely averaged 10 points per game last season on a team that was desperately in need of a go-to scorer. Add to that the fact that Brett wasn't even on the floor (while Dakotah was) against Dayton on Tuesday and you (or at least I) start to wonder if this is as big a blow as some will make it out to be.

Euton is almost certainly the benefactor of this as his skill set most closely resembles Brett. I think if anyone can fill those shoes as a freshman it would be Dakotah. The kid is fundamentally sound and hustles a lot. I actually wonder if the team won't be better off with Dakotah instead of Brett anyways. Brett has had a reputation over the years for not hustling on defense and being something of a selfish offensive player. I don't see either of those traits in Dakotah. We'll see how this all plays out.

Anything that would be said here would simply be speculation and hearsay. The athletic department and Brett McKnight know what is going on, but I doubt either of them will say anything out of respect for Brett's privacy (as it should be). Whatever it is would appear to be pretty serious based on the severity of the punishment, but who knows. If Brett played for Can't I'm sure whatever is going on would only mean he was going to be pulled from the starting lineup for one game.

I said it yesterday and will say it again today, I fear we have seen the last of Brett McKnight in a Zips uniform. I don't know what it is that is going on in Brett's personal life, and I hope that he gets things straightened around, but this is not looking good for young Mr. McKnight.

Well, now that we've seen the Zips against their first real opponent of the year, time to go back to eating cupcakes. Can't sleep on YSU though as they just beat Buffalo (albeit a watered down Buffalo) last night in Youngstown. How they did it I really don't know as both teams shot the ball horribly (under 39%) and Youngstown had twice as many turnovers as assists. The 'Guins out-rebounded Buffalo handily but only scored 9 second chance points and had 8 less points in the paint than the Bulls. YSU has two seniors and seven freshmen (3 of whom saw playing time last night) on the roster and nobody listed over 6'9". The Zips may have a little bit of trouble on the boards in this one, but this is really a game that KD's guys should win handily. Of course, Youngstown has been known to play the annoying little brother that just won't go away role when matched up against Akron and Can't. Can't take them too lightly, but I expect a W on Saturday night.

Team chemistry is important. Shooting better than 36.7% from the field will be a better indicator of outcome. If they shoot at 50% against Dayton, they win. The little orange ball goes through the little orange ring..... It's a simple game. When you shot such a high percentage of your shots from 3 your shooting percentage is rarely going to get close to 50%. What is puzzling to me is that we actually shot better from 3 last night than we did overall. Tells me we need guys to work more on finishing around the rim.

It's a shame Steve is a senior. The kind of team that he fits on will be next years Zips team more than likely. That turnover and foul of his in the back court with 4:32 left was the beginning of the end. Late in the game I think Steve was out of gas. This is where KD has to trust Abreu and rest Steve for a minute or two. Brian Gregory was far more effective rotating his players. Not good. Steve played 35 minutes last night. Roberts got 30 and Abreu, 13. I don't think that is a recipe for us winning. Steve has shown in the past that he can play a lot of minutes and still be effective, but I think having him out there closer to 28-30 minutes per game makes a lot more sense. We can't have Steve running on fumes at the end of the game all season. I know Abreu is young and un-polished, but we need to get him up closer to 18-20 minutes per game. I think he showed last night that the game isn't too big for him at this level.

Agreed. If this team builds on last nights performance and continues to play well that signature win (or two) is going to come this season. The opportunities will be there (Miami, Temple, Minnesota). Zips have to figure out how to close.

My thoughts: Dayton is a pretty good team. Last year that was the kind of team that the Zips were losing by double digits to. They are long, they are athletic, they drive the basketball relentlessly and they play pretty tight defense. We are going to be watching Chris Wright in the NBA next season. Kid has a great all around game and is a joy to watch. Zips did a nice job overall in managing Dayton's full court defense. They didn't necessarily press, but they did extend the defense to full court for most of the game. Despite this the Zips had very few turnovers and got quite a few assists. Handling that kind of defense has been a problem for the Zips in the past, but didn't hurt nearly as much tonight. I still hate that we live and die so much by the three ball. I would kill, KILL for a guard who can break our opponents down off the dribble and finish in traffic or pass out to the open man. This team would be incredibly dangerous if we can find that kind of guard. Individual player thoughts: It was a tale of two halves for McNees. In the first he looked out of sync and his shot wasn't even close. In the second he got his shot going and looked a lot better. He seemed to tire a bit down the stretch, but he was out there a lot of minutes. I'm afraid that our lack of depth at the guard spots is going to wear him down some at times this year. Daryl Roberts had a nice three early in the game, and a big three late to end the game, I have no idea what he contributed in the middle. After all this time Daryl is still an enigma to me. He's our best FT shooter, but he rarely tries to drive and draw contact to take advantage of that. He's shown a nice mid-range game at times, but rarely goes to it. I don't know if it is coaching or if it is just Daryl, but I always get the impression that we could get more out of his game than standing behind the 3 point line waiting for wide open looks. Everyone who saw that kind of performance coming from Nitro please raise your hand. Got 'em up good and high? Good. Now all of you with your hands up have identified yourselves as either a member of the McClanahan family or a compulsive liar. Wow. Just Wow. Nikola was up and down on the court. He had quite a few nice assists, and was single handedly responsible for keeping the game reasonably in hand in the first half by getting to the stripe (where btw, his form looked a lot better), but for some reason he has forgotten how to finish shots near the rim. I remember two years ago being so excited to have a guy who could finish shots around the rim. Now he just seems to slop the ball up there hoping to draw fouls every time. His defense was horrendous all night. I counted at least half a dozen times in the first half alone where he stubbornly refused to switch off when he got matched up with a guard on the perimeter, usually resulting in an easy bucket or a cheap foul for Dayton. Zeke was effective when he was in there. Unfortunatly the fouls continue to be an issue for him. Our guards have to do a better job of stopping our opponents dribble penetration or this will continue to be a theme. On offense, his shot didn't look quite as good as it did against the D-III cupcakes, but it was lightyears ahead of last year. Need him to stay on the floor more. Abreu played pretty well for a freshman. The game and the environment didn't seem to big for him. He was particularly effective on the pick and roll. I actually would have liked to see a little more of him in the second half as his ability to make the correct play off the pick and roll was a big part of getting us back in the game. Defense still needs some work. Diggs was probably our worst man on the floor all night. Got called for one travel and could have had three or four more. Seemed tenative in taking open shots all night and his matador defense lead to an easy hoop just before the half for Dayton. He did have a couple of assists, but they were nothing special. Just handbacks to McNees who drained the long distance 3. On a night where we really could have used an athletic wing like him, he disappeared. Not a good sign. I said it in another thread, KD will come to regret burning Egner's redshirt. He isn't ready to play at this level and it was painfully obvious last night. It must have been obvious to KD as well as I don't think Josh got on the floor at all in the second half. Euton was a pleasent surprise. He played the pick and pop game to perfection, knocked down the open looks he got, was aggressive on the boards and even drew a nice foul on Dayton on a good strong post move. This is the freshman forward I'm looking forward to seeing this year. After five years you would think KD would know by now that he can't play Mike Bardo that many minutes. I understand the foul trouble with Zeke, but we should have gone smaller in that situation. Playing Bardo anything more than 5-7 minute a game is a recipe for a Zips loss. Everyone has to be thinking it by now, but I'll go ahead and say it. I've got a sneaking suspicion that those Zips fans who made the trip to the JAR for the Milliken game witnessed the last game of Brett McKnight's Zips career. Not playing last night, and KD burning Euton's redshirt tells me that something more is going on here than is being reported. I hope I'm wrong, and Brett can get whatever his issues are straightened out, but I don't feel good about this one. Finally, I think KD got outcoached a little last night. The decision to go zone in the first half and stick to it for extended time was a poor one. The decision not to foul at the end of the game with Dayton struggling from the line was questionable. In the end, I don't think he did anything to cost us the game, but there are a lot of little things we could have done differently to put us in a better position to win. I'm looking forward to seeing this team live for the first time Saturday night against YSU. See y'all at the JAR.

Disagree on a lot of fronts here. The problem with Zeke last night wasn't so much of his focus on defense as it was our guards lack of ability to keep anyone in front of them. We played matador defense on the perimeter all night long. Dayton's guards and wings drove to the hoop relentlessly and with little resistance. When that happens it puts a lot of pressure on your bigs down low which results in foul trouble. Could Zeke have made some better decisions at times and avoided some of the foul trouble? Sure. But at some point our guards are going to have to step up and protect the big fella instead of taking the mentality of, "it's ok if I let this guy by me, Zeke will clean it up." Completely agree with the assessment of Bardo. After five years I'm still not sure what he brings to the table. It isn't so much that he's a bad defender (although for the life of me I still don't see the great defense that KD and others rave about with him), but the problem is that when he's on the floor the Zips are essentially playing 4 on 5 on the offensive end. Short of not leaving him wide open under the basket our opponents don't have to pay any attention at all to him. If you notice, during our patented 8 minute scoring drought in the first half, Bardo was on the floor for a good chunk of it. I hate to continuously criticize the guy, because by all reports he's a good kid who works hard, but playing big minutes at this level is just not for him. As far as Euton and Egner, I can agree that I'm looking forward to Euton getting more time, not so much Egner. Last night confirmed my worst fears from after the Milliken game. KD is going to regret burning Josh's redshirt bigtime. It is one thing to look good against a bunch of D-III cupcakes, it is a totally different thing when you are up against a quality opponent who has athletes that match if not exceed what Josh brings to the floor. Josh looked completely lost last night and made little to no impact in the minutes he was on the floor. He needed to sit and watch this year, and now he won't have the opportunity. As far as Dakotah goes, burning his redshirt was absolutely the right idea. I personally want to see him on the floor with Zeke more as I think their combined skill sets really complement each other well. He set some very good screens last night, was aggressive on the boards and wasn't afraid to let it fly when he got the opportunity. Really looking forward to seeing more of him.

Not sure what our last substitutions were about. We need a defensive stop so we put in Abreu? The guy coach has complained about not playing hard enough on defense and Diggs who has been abused? Zips played 'em tough tonight, but yet again it isn't enough. I'll give these guys a pass because it is early in the season and we have so many new faces, but at some point we need to man up and put a signature win up. The opportunity was there again tonight and the Zips couldn't convert.

Zips getting it done on the offensive glass and have it down to 2 again.

Back to the first half look, confused on defense, not making good rotations and taking forced off balance shots.

Can you say choking?

Nik back in, but immediatly gets burnt by Wright. Zips are crashing the boards a lot harder this half. Euton is getting a lot of run and making the most of it. Out of all the freshmen he has probably been the most impressive.

Cvetinovic hurting. Not a good sign for the Zips, can't hardly walk off the floor.

Bardo gets Chris Wright's jock strap force fed to him but Nitro has his back with a 3 to get us the lead. Where in the heck has this McClanahan been the last two years?

Someone told McNees he's allowed to knock down those 3's. Tie ballgame. Zips will not go away.

ARRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Another foul on Zeke, this is ridiculous. Our guards have to do something to keep their guys out of the lane. We can't play all of this half with Bardo too.

Zips looking more competitive so far. I think we might just be able to take that "bust" label off of McClanahan. Right now he is making Conyers senior year turnaround look pedestrian. Can't say I saw this one coming. Zips are going to live and die by the 3 ball though. If we can get 'em to keep falling we might have a shot at this one.

NITRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Ok, let's see what we can do with the big fella back. Zips are getting killed on the boards and Dayton is unafraid to drive to the basket at will. Zips need to toughen up a bit here. This isn't John Carroll or Milliken, these guys are a real D-I team. If we are gonna win this one it is going to have to start on the defensive end. We can't give up 40+ in the second half again and expect to have any chance to win this thing. Defense has to get better. Guys have to start trusting each other out there on the defensive end.

And it looks like a good decision to burn Dakotah's redshirt already. Grabs a nice board (something our other bigs are struggling with) and then comes down on the other end and knocks down a big 3.