Quickzips

My rotation would be: Starters: PG - Evans SG - McAdams SF - Harney PF - Treadwell C - Forsythe Order off the Bench: Diggs Kretzer Johnson/Cheatham Ibitayo Betancourt I would love to be able to bring Evans off the bench as an instant offense guy, but we need better minutes out of Betancourt for that to happen, and that isn't coming any time soon. McAdams needs to start to keep some 3 point shooting on the floor for spacing. Harney has proven time and time again over his career that he is better in the starting lineup than he is coming off of the bench. Treadwell is the most obvious starter for us right now. As long as Forsythe can defend, grab some rebounds, score on some put-backs and the occasional post up and not turn the ball over he will be the starting C. I know a lot of people are clamoring for Diggs to start, but we need him coming off the bench. He's so versatile and he's proven he can excel in that position. The whole team tends to play better with Q coming off the bench. Almost like Diggs, Kretzer is a great glue guy coming off the bench. Johnson and Cheatham need to split the backup C minutes this point. Neither one of these guys is ready to play every night regardless of matchups. Johnson is a liability against stretch bigs who like to run the floor and play the pick and pop game. Cheatham is kind of a tweener who will get eaten alive by a bigger stronger C (he really should be playing PF). Take a look at the matchups and decide which one you want to play which night. Ibitayo has played better of late, but he's still not much more than a 15 minute a night kind of guy. You can't play him in close end of game situations because of his FT shooting and he isn't a good enough ball-handler and distributor to play him very many minutes at PG (which is where we need the most help right now). Betancourt can (and arguably should) be out of the rotation right now. I don't know what has happened to this kid, but the player we all thought we were getting early last year is nowhere to be found. I suspect losing his fellow Puerto Rican is impacting him a lot more than we may well know.

Very hard to root for the Zips after the second half performances the last two games. I don't think I've ever seen a Dambrot coached team come out of the halftime locker room with as little energy as we've had the last two games. I guess I could give a pass against Iowa State who was a top 15 team and we were coming off a hard fought game the night before. No excuse for this one. The Zips just flat out went to sleep in the second half.

I look at it this way. If the Zips come out of today with a W that will put them 2-1 for the tournament with wins over the PAC-12 and SEC and the only loss coming to a top-15 program out of the Big 12. I think if you asked any Zips fan to give a realistic best case scenario headed into this tournament that was probably it (or close to it). Then we get to go out over the weekend and play the same SEC team we already beat on their floor. If we come out of that with a W then we get to come back home for two straight very winnable home games against Coppin State and Marshall to end the OOC season. Win those two and our OOC record winds up at 10-3 with the worst loss being @MTSU (not a bad loss by any stretch of the imagination). We would have two wins over the SEC, one win over the PAC-12, two over Horizon League opponents and one against CUSA. I can make a strong case that, despite all of the hand wringing that has gone on around here, that this would be our best OOC showing under KD.

Zips are gassed right now. Slopping up lazy shots, not crashing the boards and playing matador defense in transition.

Harney has played his worst two games of the season. Not sure why he even made the trip.

Running us out of the gym now.

Pat F. can't guard Niang right now. This thing could get out of hand quick if we start letting that guy go off.

The guys who got to the line were Pat F., Deji and Q. Q hit 1 of 2, Pat F. and Deji boinked both of those. Sounds pretty close to par for the course for the Zips (save for maybe the miss by Q). Zips haven't been a good FT shooting team in 10 years under KD. It isn't going to change this year. We have to figure out ways to win games despite it.

You were expecting us to shoot well from the line???

Not sure what to think of that first half. The pace was about what we want, but the Cyclones have all but made us into a jump shooting team. We've got to figure out a way to get Tree some better looks down low. Iowa State isn't going to come out of their game plan of doubling him in the post. We have to figure out more creative ways to get him the ball in a position to score.

I would agree. Pat will get all of the minutes he can handle. When Pat comes out I expect us to go without a C. You might see a few minutes of Kwan depending on the situation. I don't expect you will see much of Isaiah at all. He's going to be a liability on defense against a team like this.

The backup C minutes are going to depend a lot on the matchup. Against a team that runs with a bigger low post C you will probably seem more of Johnson. Against a team that runs a lot of 3 forward or 3 guard sets without a true C you will probably see more Cheathum and/or more of the 3 forward/3 guard sets that we can run. In a lot of ways we are kind of lucky to have this kind of versatility.

Unfortunately that doesn't really clarify what happens to the losers of the Zips/Cyclones and S.Carolina/Boise St. games today. The winners clearly meet in the championship. Do the losers go on to game 9 or game 11 or do they get mixed back in with Hawaii, George Mason, Oregon State and Saint Marys???

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this thing set up so that the loser of our game this afternoon will face the loser of the other semifinal game (South Carolina or Boise State) while the winners of those two games face each other? I don't think SMU's value is dropping. They lost one game on a neutral site to an SEC team. Hardly time for them to push the panic button.

Iowa State leads the country in scoring and assists. This will be a huge challenge for the Zips defense. They are a guard/wing oriented team with no one over 6'9" on their roster. The challenge is on for Diggs, McAdams, Deji, Kretzer and Harney tomorrow.

Deji and Pat F. are figuring out what their roles are on this team. Every team has featured players and role players. Tree and Q are featured players. Harney can be, when he wants to. Nyles is slowly nudging his way into that conversation. Those are the guys you are looking at to get you big scoring numbers, to shut down the other teams best man and to generally carry your team. McAdams and Kretzer are role players. They know what their roles are and the usually play them quite well. They have to come in and hit 3's, play solid defense, don't turn the ball over and score just enough to keep your featured players clean of the double teams. Deji is slowly starting to figure out that his role is also to hit some 3's, but he gives you an added dimension in that he has the physical tools to not only be a solid defender, but a lock down defender. He isn't there yet, but you're starting to see his confidence grow. Pat F. has figured out that we don't need him to be Zeke. The funny thing is that the more he figures that out the more he starts to play a little like Zeke. He's blocking shots from the week side, playing good defense and hitting his open looks when he has them. Probably the most important thing is that he's cut the silly travel calls WAY down the last few games. We don't need either of these guys to be 15 PPG players. As long as they keep giving us what they are giving us now we will be in really good shape.

18 hour turnaround and then we get our first (and probably only) shot this year at a top-25 team. It would be an awesome time for KD to get off the shnod against the top-25 programs. Cyclones are a MUCH better team than this OSU group was tonight. Going to take a huge effort. Go Zips!

I BELIEVE!

At this point it doesn't matter who it is. We just have to keep scoring. Beavers are in comeback mode. We can't let them cut this to a one possession game.

It is basically the Nyles and Tree show on the offensive end today. Gonna need someone else to score if we are going to pull this off. Harney? Diggs? Where you guys at?

Beavers are trying to extend that zone defense and really pressure our ball-handlers. Now is when we will see if our backcourt really is making progress or if we are going to stain our legs again.

Beavers look out of sorts. Time for a nice little 6 to 8 point run to really kill their spirit.

Zips got up early but the foul situation played a big part in letting OSU back into it. Hopefully they let 'em play a little more in the second, but I'm not holding my breath. Much like the Detroit game, Tree comes up big in the first half. The difference, this time around he is getting some scoring help from Evans. Unfortunately I think this thing comes down to a FT shooting contest at the end, and I don't like our odds if it does.

I'll weigh in with my two cents on some of these issues: Nyles and Q help this team much more coming off the bench than they do starting. The W-L columns speak to that. If keeping these guys in the roles that are best for the team means that Melo has to start, play 3 minutes and then plant his butt on the bench the rest of the night so be it. I've never been a Deji fan and never will, but right now he is playing valuable minutes. His FT shooting is absolutely puzzling, but he's hitting the occasional 3, he's playing fairly decent defense, he's avoiding the boneheaded plays that plagued him the last few seasons and we're getting 10 or so solid minutes a night out of the guy. Unless we are going to burn the redshirt on B.J. or Aaron we need Deji's minutes at the 2 guard. I understand that there are some people on here who are apparently close to Kwan who are upset about his playing time. I hate to be Debbie Downer, but you guys should have known what you were getting into when he signed here. Dambrot's history shows that he rarely gives freshmen a lot of minutes and this team returned two quality players at his position (no, Kwan is not a C, he's a PF who can occasionally play C) from last years team, one of which is a conference MVP candidate. Kwan's time will come, but you guys need to have some patience. If McAdams has to start logging serious minutes at PG this season is over. Reggie does a lot of things well. He's a solid defender and he's right there with Jake as the best catch and shoot 3 ball man on the roster. He's not a PG. His ball-handling skills make him a passable secondary ball-handler, but he is NOT a PG. Can we please bury that idea somewhere deep in the Zipsnation graveyard and never bring it up again. As far as the PG issues go, I really think we all need to take a step back and take a deep breath. This program was successful in the past without having a true PG on the roster (I'm thinking specifically of the Dials/Middleton days through the McNees/Roberts days). We got spoiled the last couple of years by having a true PG like Abreu running the show, but Alex isn't on this team anymore and we don't have anyone else on the roster who is capable of doing all of the things that he did. It doesn't mean we are doomed to a sub-par season or that the program is going crumble around KD. It just means the team has to adapt their play and we as fans have to adapt our expectations out of the PG position.

I have no idea who those guys were on the floor in Zips uniforms in the first half, but I'm sure glad they changed uniforms in the halftime locker room.