Quickzips

I really hope the Nik that comes out in that article is the Nik that shows up on the floor from now on. Even if this does end up being his last year. The Nik that harnesses all that energy into positive contributions on the floor and takes a leadership role on this team is a very positive thing for the Zips. We can't, and Nik can't afford another year like he had last year where one bad call or one little mistake would send him over the edge to the point where you really couldn't even play him anymore. If we truly are looking at a more mature, more focused Nik Cvetinovic then we are in for a pretty darn good season.

http://www.cleveland.com/sports/college/in...nce_mens_b.html Elton predicts the Zips to be 2nd in the East behind OU. Also lists Akron/Temple as a non-conference game to watch. Elton does a fair job of describing why it is so hard to make these pre-season predictions, particularly this year, but I think some of his calls are way off. Two West teams getting a bye is very questionable and the idea that Scott Thomas from BG is amongst the top 5 players in this league is downright laughable.

Solid points, and I think you're assessment of B.McKnight is spot on. However, I'd be surprised to see him log lots of minutes at the 4. We're pretty talented there too. I look for a few things this year different from last year. First, I think we'll see an emphasis on getting outlet passes out and run more. Second, in the half court, we're going to see lots more inside out initiation of the offense, a la, when Wood was here. This means I think we dump to Nik & Zeke on the block and look to take advantage of the matchups. Zeke in a single team scenario, we're seeing the jump hook .. ditto Nik with the drop step & spin. But if the entry pass is completed and the handler gets doubled, either the weakside big, or the small forward is going to be left open. If this happens often, the 3 man ought to be seeing the ball in open space more this year than last. We know from the URI game that McKnight isn't the right guy to be initiating the inside-out with, but he could be the beneficiary of getting the ball with some room to work. Lots of ifs, buts & candy & nuts .. but there's some upside here. Go Zips! Yeah, I'm really not sure where McKnight fits on this team anymore to be honest. He's more of a half-court guy while it looks and sounds like we are going to play a lot more of a full court game this year. Not to sound blasphemous or anything, but I rather liked the way the team looked in the scrimmage without him. I know it is just a scrimmage, but the ball was moving in and out of the post pretty well, our defense looked pretty good and we were pretty efficient finishing around the rim. If Brett can't get his head on straight and get over whatever issues he's having off the court I don't know as I'll be that on edge about playing without him for significant periods of time.

I am quite surprised by that. Not doubting your source or anything, but it just doesn't seem to mesh with the numbers breakdown. A D-I team is allowed to have 13 players on scholarship and we currently have 12 scholarship players eligible to play (Abreu, Bardo, Cvetinovic, Diggs, Egner, Euton, Green, Marshall, McClanahan, McKnight, McNees, Roberts). As stated earlier in this thread, at most we are likely to get playing time for 10 of them, which leaves two players who won't see the floor much. If we have two freshmen who could use a year to develop, why not allow them to redshirt instead of putting them on the floor in limited minutes that they may not be ready to contribute in? If the injury bug hits, or some other unforeseen circumstances arise you can always elect to burn a redshirt later (see McClanahan '08-'09 season).

Pretty nice breakdown ZW. Only thing I would maybe disagree with is McKnight getting a lot of minutes at the 3. To me McKnight is just not capable of playing the wing forward position for this team. That position requires aggressive defense, a little bit of ball handling, good rebounding and the ability to take a secondary role in the offense. Outside of rebounding none of that describes Brett McKnight. He's well known as a bit of a black hole on offense, isn't a strong ball-handler by any stretch of the imagination and is only an average defender on his best days. Brett, to me, is and always has been an undersized PF. Personally, if we are breaking down minutes at SF I would rather see something like McClanahan-15, Diggs-15, McKnight-10 if that.

Can't say I agree with much of this post!! Play Egner- if this was the Hipsher era where we needed to save players and years of eligibility, Ok. But this isn't. I also am not concerned much with positions? Is he a 3 or 4 etc? Match-ups and defensive agressiveness many times determines the combination on the floor. I also cannot say we are "deep" at any position, but I do like the returners..and I do believe we have enough experience that we could develop more than one freshman. We all know KD likes to play 9-10 guys...I've aleady know my top nine--Play 'em! McNees Roberts Abreu Diggs McKnight Cventinovic Marshall Egner Euton I completely disagree with your top nine. McNees, Roberts, McKnight, Cvetinovic and Marshall will certainly be in there. They are established players and guys we are going to have to rely on. That is five. Abreu almost has to play due to our lack of depth at the guard spots. That makes six. McClanahan has been named the starter at SF and had a pretty nice night in the exhibition game. That makes seven. Bardo is a senior (we all know KD likes his veterans) and gives us some size at C when Zeke isn't in there. KD is going to play him. That makes eight. Now ask yourself, who should that ninth (and tenth I suppose) spot go to? Your options are A.) Quincy Diggs - The athletic wing who can handle the ball and break guys down off the dribble that we've been clamoring for for years. B.) Dakotah Euton - A big guy who has 3 point range, is a strong rebounder, sets good screens and is fundamentally sound. C.) Josh Egner - An athletic freak who is better at the defensive end than on offense and according to KD needs some work on fundamentals. or D.) Michael Green - A strong player with diverse offensive talents who is lacking in confidence and looks unsure of himself. Personally, if it is me and I want to fill out my ninth and tenth positions I'm going with A and B. If you asked me in the offseason I absolutely felt that Josh deserved some playing time this year, but with his ankle injury he is behind the rest of the guys. He won't be able to get by on pure athleticism all season long, he is going to have to know our sets and be able to play the brand of team ball that KD likes to play and I don't think he is going to be able to just pick that up on the fly. Giving him a year to practice and watch how it is done seems like the best idea for him right now.

I disagree with playing Egner right now. His athleticism is un-questionable, but he still looks like he needs quite a bit of work. It is one thing to do that against the second string of a D-III team in the second half of a blowout. It is a whole other issue altogether putting up a performance like that in crunch time of a big game against Dayton, Temple, Minnesota, Ohio or Can't State. Josh was flying around out there, no doubt, but I never got the impression that he knew what position he was supposed to be in. I think he needs a year of practice to be able to pick up the nuances of the game that will make him a great player. I think if he played to open the season you would see a lot of lines like 2 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and 6 fouls in 8 minutes. I also disagree with the idea of playing 2 of the 3 forwards. We are plenty deep at the 3, 4 and 5 spots right now with McClanahan, Diggs, McKnight, Cvetinovic, Zeke and Bardo. There are barely enough minutes out there to try and develop one of the freshmen. Trying to get playing time for two of them is going to split the minutes up in such a way that neither one will get a chance to truly develop, hence wasting a scholarship year for two guys. Contrary to what some might say, this is not a re-building year for the Zips where we are just trying to feel out what we have in these new guys for down the road.

You won't see all five newcomers out there again. this game counts as a regular season game and so you can't play them without burning their redshirts. Like ZW said, check to see who didn't get in among Euton, Egner, and Green and you know who's redshirting. My best guess would be that Abreu, Diggs and Euton play, Egner and Green sit. I just don't think there are enough minutes to go around to try and work two of Euton, Egner and Green into the rotation with McKnight, Cvetinovic, Zeke, Bardo, Diggs and McClanahan already in the mix at the 3, 4 and 5 spots. It would be doing a dis-service to both guys if we tried to play two of them and were only able to get each one 4 or 5 minutes on the floor each game. Get one of them on the floor a good 10-15 minutes a game and let the other two sit and learn for a year.

3-point shots are worth 50% more than 2-point shots. Keep shooting, Steve. I understand that, but to a certain extent when your opponent knows that such a large percentage of your shots come from beyond the arch it makes it easier for them to defend you. If Steve had any kind of a mid-range game that opponents had to respect it would open up even more space for him to knock down those 3's.

Just looking at the box score this morning and a few things are standing out to me. Roberts played more minutes than anyone on the team (31) and put up a very pedestrian line of 5 points on 2 of 9 shooting, no rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and a turnover. With our lack of depth at the guard spot we will need better out of Daryl. McNees took seven shots last night. All of them 3's. This has been a trend for him over the years. Granted he hit 5 of them, but I can't help but wonder how good he could be if he ever added some mid-range shots and dribble penetration to his game. We shot 54% from the free throw line. That is horrible. I suppose we should be used to it by now, but once again this season, free throws will likely lose us a game or two. Zeke went 6 of 7 from the field. That kind of efficiency is what we really need from him night in and night out. It remains to be seen if he can do it against actual D-I big-men. Abreu had 5 steals in 17 minutes. If he can keep that kind of pace up he is going to cause a lot of headaches for opposing guards. Very quick hands.

Last time I saw Tim on the court was a month or so ago at the Rec ruining the opposition. Just like this John Carroll game, you don't realize how talented Akron basketball is until you watch them play against guys who thought they were hot stuff in high school etc, etc... Yeah, I wasn't close enough to get in on that game... Although, it would be fun to see how one could fare against a legit Div. I basketball player. Tim is an awesome basketball player, just as any players are that can make it on Coach D's squad. Well said, and this couldn't be more true. This is a pet-peave of mine. The general Akron-area population is almost entirely ignorant about how good Akron's basketball players are. Most folks I talk to seem to think that if you started on your high school team, then you could play for Akron. I simply don't understand this incredibly ignorant sentiment. Did you know: The chances of playing D-1 athletics is less than 1%?! If you take 100 high school basketball (or football ) players, statistically speaking, less than one of them will be good enough to play at the D-1 level. Only 7% of high school athletes will play on any collegiate level (so those players from JCU were definitely the absolute studs of their respective teams) let alone the D-1 level. I think Akron athletics would get more respect in the community if people realized this, but, unfortunately, they don't seem to. John Carroll is the kind of team where any decent high school starter can play. The Zips just blew them out of the water. We were bigger, stronger, more athletic, better shooters, better ball-handlers and better defenders. There wasn't any phase of the game in which JCU matched up against us. Our walk-ons would be all-stars for that team. Not trying to take anything away from JCU, their results over the years show that they are very good for what they are. But the talent gap is blatantly obvious. It takes a lot of talent to get to put on a Zips uniform and even more to earn significant playing time in it.

I would hate to see Nik leave after this year, but I can certainly understand why he would do it. Basketball was a tool for him to get stateside and receive a quality education. Unless he is looking to go to grad school, it sounds like that goal will have been complete. Heading back home where there will be opportunities for him to play professionally would make some sense. I hope it doesn't happen, but if it does I can certainly understand why. Luckily for the Zips we are incredibly deep at the forward spots heading into next year with Euton, Egner, Treadwell, Harney, Diggs, Gilliam and Green.

I was wondering when the Abreu/Humpty comparisons would start to come out. From what I could tell last night I don't know if it is really a fair comparison. Sure they are the same size and play the same position, but they seem to play it very differently. Humpty always had that scorers mentality. He always wanted to put the ball in the hoop wherever he was and, quite frankly, it got him in trouble on quite a few occasions. Abreu looks to be more of a true floor general who is under control and looking to make the best basketball play at all times. I'm excited about the potential that Alex and McNees on the floor at the same time has. If Euton develops properly I really like the idea of him and Zeke on the floor together. I think they compliment each other very well. Zeke being longer and more athletic and bringing major shot blocking to the table. Euton being more fundamentally sound with good perimeter shooting that can draw double teams away from Zeke and a guy who crashes the glass hard. When Nik plays under control he is a matchup nightmare for a lot of teams. His deceptive quicks and his strength at the 4 spot are something that a lot of teams lack. If he has his head on straight this season, as all the reports seem to indicate he does, I'll be looking for a big year from him.

My post-game thoughts: McNees was...well McNees. He shot the 3 ball lights out, ran the offense pretty well, even had one of his best nights passing the ball that I can remember. He's such a constant on this team it is almost weird when he is not on the floor. Roberts was kind of invisible. Don't really remember much of him. McClanahan had a bit of a rough first half, but turned it on in the 2nd with a shooting clinic and ended up with an impressive double double. More of that 2nd half performance and he might be in line for a Jimmy Conyers award. Cvetinovic was a beast in his time out there. JCU had nobody to match up with him. His free throw stroke even looked better going 9 of 11 from the line. Zeke had a nice game. You would still like to see him board more, but when you are always looking for the shot block (which by all means he should be doing) you can get yourself out of position sometimes. That little baby-hook from the baseline is getting almost automatic which should be a big concern for our oppoenents. Abreu started off shaky, but turned it on as the game went on and he got more comfortable. He's got a nice stroke from 3, great handle on the ball and he plays the passing lanes very well. He's got some learning to do, but you can see the potential. Diggs is the kind of player Zips fans have been clamoring for for years. Long, athletic, good handle and looks like he wants to take his man off the dribble. Still needs to learn the system a little more, but I think he will become a favorite of Zips fans. Euton might not have been as flushy as some of the other newcomers, but I rather liked what I saw. He gets himself in good position for boards and seems to have a nice bag of tricks on the offensive end. Like the rest of the new guys he has some learning to do, but I think you'll see him in the rotation this year. Bardo was Bardo. Made things difficult for JCU inside, grabbed some boards, didn't make much of an impact on the offensive end. After four years here it is pretty clear what his role is, but he plays it pretty well. Not sure I like the idea of playing him and Zeke on the floor at the same time. I have to believe that if McKnight was dressed that wouldn't have happened. Egner had some nice moments in the second half, but got by mostly on athleticism. He's going to need to learn to play the system better against higher caliber competition. Might need a redshirt, but his athleticism is tantalizing. Speaking of redshirts, Green certainly looks like he is headed towards one. He was the last scholarship player into the game and had the pre-2009/10 Jimmy Conyers look when he got in. Oldham was a pleasent surprise at the end of the game. Might have our next walk-on superstar for the fans to clamor for at the end of blowouts. Peterson ran the offense in the last few minutes of garbage time. Didn't do horrible with it.

Zips break the 100 mark on Michael Green's first collegiate FG. If tonights playing time is any indication the rotation will be made up of Abreu, McNees, Roberts, McClanahan, Diggs, McKnight, Cvetinovic, Euton, Bardo and Zeke. Trying not to get too pumped up about this performance as JCU is totally overmatched, but the Zips look pretty sharp. This may not be as much of a re-building year as people think.

Abreu has such quick hands. JCU can't get a pass off if he is anywhere near the ball. Took him a bit to settle down, but he's looking pretty good now. Garbage time as KD has all the freshmen and walk-ons on the floor.

Just turned it on. Looking a little sloppy, but much more athletic than in recent years. It feels SO good to be leading and not getting blown out. Damn iCoach I'm getting the impression that the guys are getting a little bored with this game.

Abreu, Diggs and Egner are going to have to learn that showboating doesn't fly with KD. Doesn't matter how much you are up by. Team looks about as good as can be expected right now. Some of the new guys started out a little slow, but it seems the nerves are settling down. Zeke looks really good, but then again he looked really good in the exhibition game against Mount Union last year. I'll temper my enthusiasm for a little bit at least. McClanahan is showing that 3 point stroke we've heard so much about in the second half. Cvetinovic has been a beast as well, but you have to remember that JCU has no size inside. If we have one weakness it continues to be FT shooting. Hard to imagine how a team that relies so heavily on the 3 can continue to be so horrible from the charity stripe.

Game is available online. http://www.channelsurfing.net/watch-ncaa-c...-sports.php?w=8

If I remember correctly they can, but don't hold me to that.

When I first read it I took it more as "we don't really want to play them in exhibition because they are pretty good and there is some potential there for an embarrasingly tight game and/or loss." However, I could see how it can be taken as a slap at John Carroll. Honestly, the most interesting part of the article to me was the expectation that Abreu, Diggs and Euton would get the most playing time of the newcomers. I'm anxious to see which one of these new guys we will play and who is going to redshirt. Unfortunatly I won't be able to make it to the game tonight. Hope you guys can take some decent notes for me.

There are some middle school teams that would probably give some MAC West teams a run for their money. Seriously though, can't take these games TOO lightly. I don't want a repeat of a couple years ago when we were all on the edge of our seat against an NAIA team in the exhibition opener. Not a fun feeling.

This is my only disagreement with what is a very well-written piece -- OU and K.e.n.t. were better than the Zips last season. I think it is very fair, for pre-season purposes, to rank the Zips behind them. Preseason rankings don't mean a whole lot to be honest (has the preseason MAC favorite ever won the conference tournament?), but to be fair, Mike has a point. OU was a middle of the pack East team all year that we beat twice. They had one player get outrageously hot at the right time and buzzsawed their way through the conference tournament. That one player is now gone, as well as the player they were counting on to replace him, their only legit big man, and the player they were counting on the replace that big man. Color me un-impressed. As far as Can't goes, they were, by all indications, a better team than us last year. But you look at what they have this year and it is hard to say they will be able to repeat that. Singletary, gone. Evans, gone. McKee, gone. Simpson, gone. Henry-ala, gone. Parks, gone. Now I know Can't always seems to be able to re-load with some obscure JUCO that comes out of nowhere and keeps them going, but you can't always count on that. Especially when you just lost six guys out of your rotation and your four leading scorers. As far as the rest of the article I think it is pretty well done. I particularly like the point about running end-of-game plays for McNees this year as opposed to Brett McKnight. Brett just hasn't shown the ability to consistently hit those big crunch time shots for us. McNees has a much better track record with them. Unless someone else emerges from the newcomers that is even better in those situations, Steve should have the opportunity to take those big shots at the end of games. I'm also very concerned about our wing defense. We've been spoiled a bit in the past with Nate and Jimmy being able to take on our opponents best perimeter player. I don't see that kind of potential at all from McClanahan, I know Brett McKnight doesn't have it. I'm hoping that Quincy Diggs can become that guy for us. By all accounts he has the length and athleticism to be a lock down defender if given the opportunity.

Conyers has to be having nightmares about that. Things didn't work out to well for Jimmy the last time he had to battle Nate for playing time.

That would be a welcome surprise. He was playing the worst of any Zip at the end of last season. I like Nik...I hope the "light" turned on for him. I've been hoping to hear this kind of report on Nik myself. He was, quite frankly, out of control at the end of last season. Turning the ball over, drawing offensive fouls, rushing shots, not getting back on D, complaining to the refs. It seemed like our worst fears for him had come true in that he had let his emotions get the best of him for good. Hopefully he sat down over the offseason and had a chance to reflect on that and can come into this season and harness all of that energy and emotion into helping the Zips win. We've seen it in spurts before. He's certainly a matchup problem for a lot of 4's in this league on nights when he puts it all together. But his game requires him to play right on that edge and when he crosses over it, things can turn pretty ugly pretty fast.