Quickzips

I highly doubt we will see a starting lineup of McNees, Roberts, McClanahan, Cvetinovic and Zeke at the end of the season. In fact, I doubt that will be the starting lineup we take into MAC play or the Vegas tournament. This is usually the way KD works, starting the season giving more minutes to guys he is more familiar with. I'll honestly be surprised if Peterson and Oldham don't get some minutes early in the season. As the season goes on though I'm sure you will see more Abreu, Diggs, Euton, etc.

Having been to both I can tell you, it's not. It's not really even fair to compare the two, they are not really the same, close, but not the same. Especially since one doesn't even exist. I think the people that made a stink regarding the football golf outing attended the basketball golf outing. Thanks for checking in TW. I bet if the football team still had their golf outing they'd be undefeated right now! my point was that when a pointless event gets canceled everyone around here cries, but when a good event goes on no one gives a crap. Always go for the negative, you waste your time complain about parking spaces and ticket prices when there are a lot of positive things happening. Your complaining about my complaining makes me want to complain.

That isn't a vocational class, it's court ordered community service.

Columbus Northland standout PF Jalen Robinson has opened his recruiting back up after originally committing to Bob Huggins and West Virginia. He has an offer from the Zips.

Roberts got a year back for making sufficient academic progress towards a degree after his greyshirt/prop-48/whatever the heck they call it at the beginning of his career. This is his senior year.

Funny how I've gotten jumped on the last few weeks about not wanting to spend my hard earned money on the product we currently put on the field. Sounds like a lot more people singing the same song each week.

Hard to gather a whole lot from that, but if I had to give my predictions right now I think Abreu, Diggs and Euton will play while Egner and Green will redshirt. Abreu because we need the depth at guard and we need to see what we have in him for down the road. Diggs because, well, you don't go through getting a guy like that who can transfer without sitting out a year only to redshirt him. Plus he can fill a gapping need at SG and SF. Euton because he is apparently the most polished player of the whole bunch. May not be a lot of room for growth, but from everything I've read he should be ready to contribute now. Egner's ankle injury probably forced the decision on him, his athleticism is tantalizing, but if he is behind the curve due to the ankle injury you may as well just let him sit a year instead of asking him to rush to catch back up. Green sounds like he needs a year to catch up to the pace of the D-I game. The inter-squad scrimmage mentioned in the article seems to back that up. As far as the defensive comments, I can't remember one true freshman who came in here and got compliments from KD on day one about their defense. Heck KD even had complaints last year about Zeke's defense. Eventually they all pick it up, and if they don't, they won't get the playing time.

Personally, 19 wins would be a pretty big disappointment with this schedule. Any objective look at the schedule will give you 15 relatively easy wins against the pretty weak competition from most of the MAC West, a couple of East teams that are trying to rebuild and some OOC cupcakes like Milliken, Youngstown State, UALR, Stetson, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, etc. If we can't pick off another 5 games beyond that it would be a pretty down year for the team. The schedule is better than in previous years, but this is still a schedule designed to get us well over the 20 win threshold.

We are now two weeks away from the exhibition opener, so I figure it is about time to get a prediction thread going here. I'll start it off. Milliken-W-If this one is a loss, zipsnation will go into total meltdown mode @Dayton-L-Too early on in the season, on the road against a tough team, need some more time for the new guys to gel. Youngstown State-W-YSU will be motivated to show they belong on the same court as us, unfortunatly they don't. Cleveland State-W-Close game, but the Zips are a better team and pull it out in the end. @Detroit-L-Zips always seem to give away an early season road game and I think this is it. @UIC-W-Zips bounce back, but the game is closer than it really should be. Zipsnation inches closer to the panic button. @Temple-W-Zips get back on track in a big way taking down one of their marquee OOC opponents. @Minnesota-L-With some newfound confidence the Zips make it close, but a fourth straight game on the road against a quality opponent is too much to overcome. Bethune-Cookman-W-After four straight on the road a home cupcake will taste pretty good. UALR (Neutral)-W-Zips open the Holiday Hoops Classic with a convincing win. Stetson (Neutral)-W-No real challenge here for the Zips. Miami (FL) (Neutral)-W-Zips close out the Holiday Hoops Classic in style with a win over a low-level ACC school. Arkansas Pine-Bluff-W-Zips improve to 10-3 by munching on some more home court cupcakes. Oral Roberts-L-Trap game for Akron as the guys get caught looking ahead to MAC play and a matchup with Can't State. Can't State-W-After an embarrasing loss to Oral Roberts KD gets the boys back on track and avenges the recent disappointments against our closest rivals. Ohio-W-The revenge tour continues with KD and the gang making up for last years heartbreaker in the conference finals. @Buffalo-W-Too much turnover this year for Buffalo, the Zips are a better team and prove it. @Miami-L-Charlie Coles slows the pace down and the Zips drop one on the road to the Redhawks. Bowling Green-W-Zips just have too much talent for the Falcons, come out of the first trip through the MAC East at 4-1. @NIU-W-The Huskies are overmatched by the Zips. Central Michigan-W-Chippewas are much improved, but can't quite keep up with the Zips at home. @Eastern Michigan-L-Zips drop their yearly road matchup against an inferior West division team. EMU avenges their heartbreaker in Cleveland last year. @Toledo-W-Toledo's new coach knows how to beat the Zips, too bad none of his players do. Western Michigan-W-Without David Kool the Broncos are a shell of their former selves. Ball State-W-One of the better West Division teams, but really, that is just like saying they are one of the hottest girls at fat camp. @Bowling Green-W-Zips push the winning streak to four in a row as the Falcons just can't stay with the Zips. Not going to try and predict a Bracketbuster against an unknown team. Miami-W-Zips split the series with the Redhawks in another close, low scoring game. Buffalo-W-Zips building confidence by this point, Buffalo is in rebuilding mode. @Ohio-L-Zips split the season with the Bobcats who are both looking at a first round bye in the conference tournament. @Can't-W-Zipsnation gets what they always seem to want with two wins over the flushes helping KD's gang get back on track headed into the tournament. Zips finish up the season 24-7 or 23-8 depending on how the Bracketbuster plays out with a 13-3 mark in the MAC and a first round bye.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/ne...=rivals-1139749 Hard to know what to make out of the East this year. So many teams with so many question marks. You look at the guys who are no longer around that were big contributors from last year and it is actually pretty astonishing. Bassett, Van Kempen, McKnight, Conyers, Hitchens, Evans, Singletary, Simpson, McKee, Pierce, Betts, Hayes, Fletcher, Polk just to name a few. Can't and Buffalo I think have been hit the hardest by the losses as both teams lost at least 5 key players from their rotation. It makes it very difficult to make any sort of reasonable predictions about the conference race going into the season. I do think that Akron and Ohio will probably end up as the top two teams, though I could just as easily see Can't re-loading again and challenging for the East title. I expect to see Buffalo, Miami and Bowling Green bringing up the rear in whatever order. Buffalo just has too many people to replace. Bowling Green was clearly the worst team in the East last year and I haven't seen where they've added much for this year. Miami really took a step back last year and now that they lose their best player overall in Hayes and their best post-player in Fletcher I really can't see them getting much better. Really tough to say though.

If Abreu and Diggs are ready to go I think we are going to have ourselves a very good season. I've never really been worried about our frontcourt with Brett McKnight, Zeke, Cvetinovic and even Bardo returning. But I've been concerned about our lack of guard depth and the giant question mark that appears to be our SF position. I don't think Brett McKnight is a SF and never have. To me he has always been an undersized PF. Also, I don't see any short or long term impact coming from Brett McClanahan at SG or SF. If Diggs can take substantial minutes at SF and Abreu can step into the role as our third guard along with McNees and Roberts we are going to be just fine.

Way off the mark. I have been buying season tickets for years. I mean years. I did not have to. I could have paid general admission price for every game and gotten a good seat. And I would not have had to pay for all the games. I bought season tickets to support the program not just have tickets. The program has over the long haul been a loser but I still bought season tickets. When I see cheap tickets flying around because the athletic department badly miscalculated support for the team, I feel almost like I am being punished for continually supporting a bad program. They got my money,too bad for me. I want to see what the cost of season tickets will be next year. Lets at least throw a bone to the real 'true fans' who spend the money and go to all the games, I still love the ZIPS and will continue to support them in good times and bad. I still believe that Icoach will turn this team in the right direction. Believe me, I want to see wins as much as anyone. We can't get any worse. I hope we are on our way up. GO ZIPS! I could settle for not getting a ton of wins if we were at least competitive and entertaining to watch. We're not. We aren't anywhere close to competitive. We are un-imaginative, un-inspired and downright boring. I'm not going to spend any of my money to go watch that. I'll save it and add another basketball game to my schedule this winter.

Don't go there man. I'm a big fan of this program, and do my best to support Zips athletics, but the reason I am a fan is that I'm looking to be entertained. There is absolutely nothing about this team that is entertaining. As a 25 year old recent law school school graduate who just got married and is still trying to find a job in one of the worst job markets in years, money is tight. I can't justify shelling out any amount of money on a product that has all the entertainment value of watching paint dry. If that means I'm not a "true fan" in your book then so be it. You are entitled to your opinion and I am entitled to mine. I won't be wasting any more of my income on this team until I see some signs that we are putting an entertaining product on the field.

At this point there is absolutely no reason Ianello should get another season. The team is indifferent to him, the fan-base doesn't support him (and never really has) and the administration cannot possibly be pleased with him. Giving him five-years would be insane. That is Can't State territory right there. We should have higher expectations than to let a lame duck coach hang around year after year after year. Short of a miracle 5 game winning streak to end the season Ianello really needs to be gone. He was a poor hire in the first place, and he hasn't shown any signs that he will get better. As far as Rasor's allegations that the negativity of the fanbase, particularly on this board, is going to scare off potential recruits that is just hogwash (want to use a stronger word there, but Cap'n did send out the warning last week about language). You know what scares off recruits? Losing, and looking absolutely hopeless while doing it. The comments on here are, quite frankly, mild to say the least. Go take a look at a Buckeye's forum after their drubbing at the hands of Wisconsin. Now admittedly, I haven't read any of them, but I can still guarantee you that the stuff being written over there is far worse than anything that ever gets posted here (and there is probably 20 times as much of it). Recruits aren't going to stop going there just because of some message board fodder. To be honest, any recruit who would say, "I'm not going to Akron because their fans on zipsnation are mean," I don't really want here anyways. If you are that thin-skinned, you don't belong playing D-I football.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fb4kljaA7U Just went back and watched Alex's highlight real again and it is just getting me that much more amped up about what he could do for this team. I know it is just a highlight real, but he seems to have everything you could want from a lead guard. Good handle, sees the floor very well, has the ability to find and hit his open teamates, can finish around the rim in traffic, has the ability to step out and hit the open J, not to mention some quick hands on defense and a pretty sick cross-over dribble. Then you take a look at some of the scouting reports on him and read things like this. I sure hope this kid pans out as well as he is being advertised. If he does then the Zips will have gotten an absolute steal.

All big positives there if you ask me. Many thanks for providing the insight. All I've read about Abreu has me salivating about the thought of him running our offense for the next 4 years. I like that we're looking to run more and play a little more zone. KD has determined that it is time for him to make some changes to his style and this goes along with that. I think we've got the horses to play that type of game, it remains to be seen if we can implement it or not.

A bigger, stronger more confident Zeke will be a big help for the Zips. Last year was just getting his feet wet. This is the year we need to see him start and assert himself as the anchor of this team. Can't wait to see the "new" Zeke.

I've played against Deji for the past several years. He's long and plays good defense, but he has NO jump shot past 5 feet out nor can he hit a free throw and doesn't handle the ball well. You'll just have to wait to see what I mean. Nice guy though. And he plays hard. Not sure why your coach would have picked up a shooting guard that cannot really shoot very well? Probably because we've went through the last few years with undersized, not very athletic SG's who could shoot very well but couldn't break anyone down off the dribble and weren't always the greatest defenders. It's worked out alright for us, but we have a tendency to struggle when matched up with SG's who have better size and athleticism. We needed a change of pace and Deji would seem to fit the bill. Plus, we have another SG in Blake Justice coming in next year who is characterized as one of the best pure shooters in the state of Ohio. We may just be hoping for the two of them to balance each other out.

Damn, KD's not getting me very excited about this year. Can't wait to "make good strides", maybe the Rowdies can come up with a chant or something. KD is notoriously pessimistic with his predictions for his teams. Especially early in the season. I'll be the first to admit that there are quite a few question marks for us right now, but I'm still pretty amped up about this season. We've got a full year on our blue-chip center, senior leadership and some exciting young pieces to add to the puzzle. Should be another interesting year at the JAR. I can't wait.

Wow...that's huge. Can't believe the kid would leave, and lose another year of eligibility? Actually, he'll only lose 1/2 a season (eligible Spring '12)...but still. He must have HATED Athens? Apparently he is done with basketball all together and will be focusing on academics.

The losses just keep piling up for the OU Bobcats. This time Providence transfer forward Alex Kellogg is leaving the program only days before the opening of practice. Kellogg never played a minute for the Bobcats after sitting out his transfer year last year.

Practice opens tomorow and it is disturbingly quiet on here. Guess everyone is still too wrapped up in calling for Ianello's head. Anyways thought there was some good information out there for those of you who might be interested. October 29th at 6:30pm the team will host a "Halloween Hoops" for both the men's and women's teams. The event is free to the public. Our newcomers have apparently chosen numbers. Gozips.com lists Alex Abreu as wearing #11, Quincy Diggs in #22, Michael Green picking up the #32 from Jimmy Conyers, Josh Egner will go with #33 while Dakotah Euton will go with #45. Chauncey Gilliam and Brian Walsh are also both listed on the roster, but have not picked numbers as both will sit out the year due to transfer rules. I for one could care less about football right now. It's officially basketball season for me and I'm certainly looking forward to it.

In keeping with the recent rush on commitments SF-Marcus Crider committed to Providence.

It could. Athletic departments hand down so many rules to players, they all should have their own law student assigned to them to keep them from breaking them. For all we know, he overslept and missed an 8 AM class. It's definitely worse than that, trust me. I'm sure it will come out eventually...just not from me. If you know something and are at liberty to say it, just say it. If you don't know anything or you aren't able to say what you know then best to keep quiet. This "I know something you don't know, but I'm not allowed to tell you" stuff helps nobody and only encourages more needless conjecture.

Anyone else struggling to figure out why this thread is in the basketball forum??? Seriously, we all know football sucks right now. Coach Ianello's first season can be characterized as nothing more than an absolute, dismal failure. We are the laughing stock of the MAC, a conference which is the laughing stock of D-I or FBS or whatever the heck they call it now. I for one was never very enthused about football season this year to begin with and I've been ready to move on to basketball since about week 2. If y'all want to keep beating up on Ianello and his band of not-so-merry men that is fine by me, but can we at least do it on the football board?