Quickzips

The only way I can see this kid on this team is as a walk-on. I doubt we are going to leave ourselves with only one true C on this team by essentially shooing Bardo out the door. I also can't imagine us asking Daryl to give up the scholarship that we just gave him last year. Maybe Candelaria is a backup plan in case Humpty walks away? I dunno, I just don't see this one happening.

At this point we really don't know anything for sure. This is going to be a very different offseason than last year. Last year the only real questions in the roster were who replaces Linhart at SF and how many minutes does Zeke earn/when does he take the starting C spot over? This year we are going to have question marks up and down the roster. There are certain guys (Zeke, McNees, Roberts, McKnight, Cvetinovic, Humpty) that I think it is safe to say will be in the rotation. The bigger question marks for a lot of them is what position do they play and for how many minutes (McNees at PG or SG? McKnight at SF or PF, Humpty starting or coming off the bench?) The real big question is what happens with all the newcomers. KD's history suggests that freshman don't always get an opportunity to produce over returning, known commodities. But KD's history also doesn't suggest that three players walk away from the program and get replaced by prep-schoolers and transfers. Something is obviously changing here. I can't imagine that KD carves out playing time for 5 newcomers when he has 6-8 returning, contributing players, but you never know. I do know one thing, fall camp is going to be VERY interesting.

Not really a fair criticism. Diggs got limited minutes for a veteran, guard heavy UNO team last year. UNO had 4 seniors and two juniors returning including a senior SG who transfered from Georgia who was playing 30+ minutes per game before getting injured in January. The rest of the regulars in the backcourt included a JUCO Point who played 27 minutes per game, a sophomore 2 guard who gets 33 minutes and a freshman Point who plays about 31 minutes per game. It looks to me like Diggs, as a true freshman, just got lost in the minutes shuffle for most of the year. You look at the games where he got minutes late in the season and he was starting to produce with them.

I suspect at this point that Quincy is only tenatively slotted in at SF. Of all the spots on the team for next year that is the biggest question mark. Last year we had Conyers and really nothing else. When Jimmy was out we usually went with a 3 guard lineup with McClanahan as the third guard. Well, now Jimmy is gone, and we don't have a true SF returning. Let's look at the options. Brett McKnight-Height wise he probably fits best here. He has the ability to shoot from distance that you need out of your wing forward as well as presenting mismatch problems for opponents with his strength and post moves. The problem? He's too heavy, lacks lateral quickness and is a below average perimeter defender. Brett is a tweener PF, and unless he drops some weight, gains some lateral quickness and re-commits himself to defending the perimeter he isn't going to be able to play SF for more than a few brief minutes at a time. Nikola Cvetinovic-Nik is a deceptive athlete who has the ability to play just about any position in small spurts. His natural position is probably PF, but he is capable of playing SF at times. Like McKnight, he's just not able to play the position for 25-30 minutes a game like we need. His outside shot is terrible, he's a little quicker than McKnight, but not to the point of being able to stay in front of some of the quicker wings that are popping up around the conference. Brett McClanahan-Undersized for a SF. He doesn't have the height, bulk or wingspan to play consistent minutes at the position and it showed last year. He is a better outside shooter than Nik is, but is utterly lost if you make him put the ball on the floor. He's only an average defender regardless of if he's at the 2 or the 3 and doesn't have the strength to match up against bigger SF's for very long. Really more of a 2 Guard than a SF. Michael Green-Total unknown commodity here. Not much information on him. At 6'6" 200lbs he probably is the closest thing size wise to a SF we will have on the roster. His game is described as an inside-out style with good rebounding and solid outside shooting. Could be a sleeper for the position if we don't redshirt him as I think most people are expecting. Josh Egner-Presumed to be a PF, but at a highly athletic 6'7" 200lbs I think he could also see time at SF. From everything I've read he has the quickness, hops and tenacity to play the 3 spot. I've gotten mixed reports on his outside shooting, which could be a problem there. Should definitly have the ability to guard opposing 3's though and could be the darkhorse for that position. Quincy Diggs-Described as a big, athletic 2 guard. The numbers indicate that his outside shot is only average (31.7% from 3 last season with N.Orleans). Not the strongest rebounder for his size. Like others have said, only ever seems to be listed as a 2 guard. So you guys tell me, who is our SF next year? Do we go with the out of position guys in McKnight, McClanahan, Cvetinovic and Diggs? Do we risk the inexperience of a Green or an Egner? Is there someone I am missing?

After seeing Dambrot's quote regarding Diggs in Rasor's blog, have to modify some things a bit. Starters: PG-Alex Abreu SG-Steve McNees SF-Quincy Diggs PF-Brett McKnight C-Zeke Marshall Primary Backups: PG-Humpty Hitchens SG-Daryl Roberts SF/PF-Nikola Cvetinovic PF/C-Dakotah Euton

http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/zips/2010/04/z...om-new-orleans/ The telling quote from this So much for Diggs being our bigger guard.

For my money this is how things would stack up: Starters: PG-Alex Abreu: KD is making a statement with the defections and the additions of Abreu and Diggs. That statement is that the backcourt play last year was not acceptable. If you are going to make that statement, you have to go all the way. Abreu has the prep and international experience to be able to throw him into the fire from day one. Judging by his assist numbers against relatively good competition to date he will probably get to campus as our best facilitator off the dribble anyways. Give the kid a shot. SG-Steve McNees: Everyone knows by now that KD loves him some Steve McNees. It has been hashed out here over and over again that Steve really is more of a SG than a PG (in actuality he is a combo-guard, but whatever). Moving McNees off the ball and putting him next to a passing PG like Abreu would fit his talents very well. SF-Brett McKnight: Easily our biggest returning offensive threat. Brett has a lot of holes in his game (defense, passing) but he's the only known commodity as a bulk scorer for us. Add to that the fact that all of our other SF options are either true freshman with little experience at this level (Green) or guys playing out of position (Cvetinovic, Egner, McClanahan) and Brett is the obvious choice. PF-Nikola Cvetionovic: Experience is a big issue here as neither Euton or Egner have played at this level before. I expect both to be good in time, but Nik has shown that he deserves the opportunity to start. He's solid on defense and has some tricky post moves on the offensive end. If he improves his free throw shooting and comes into the preseason with his head on straight he should be the starting PF. C-Zeke Marshall: Does anyone really expect Bardo to push Zeke for the starting spot? Didn't think so. Zeke started to pick his game up at the end of the season and will be given every opportunity to build on that to start the new year. Primary Backups: PG-Anthony "Humpty" Hitchens: At this point in his career I really think the best fit for Humpty would be to take over the Cedrick Middleton role of sparkplug coming off the bench. His raw speed from baseline to baseline makes him tough to defend. He's more of a scoring PG than a facilitator, and he will always have the propensity for maddening mistakes, but sometimes you need to just put the ball in your most electric players hands and watch the results. SG-Daryl Roberts: Even despite the injuries and inconsistent play last year KD stuck by Roberts, and I don't think that will change in his senior year. Daryl started coming back around to his 2008-2009 form in the conference tournament. Some time to let the injuries heal up and I think he will be just fine. SG/SF-Quincy Diggs: Again, you can't make the kind of statement that yesterdays news makes and not have Diggs play. I would like to see him play more SG for matchup reasons, but his size and our glaring lack of experience and depth at the SF position means he will probably play more 3 than 2. PF/C-Dakotah Euton: I envision Euton as something of a Rob Preston type for us. A big guy who can come in and bang around on the glass but has the ability to step out and knock down the 3. Euton on the floor will open things up big time for Zeke, Nik and Brett to work their magic down low. End of the bench: SG/SF-Brett McClanahan: Brett regressed quite noticeably (which is ironic b/c he wasn't all that good as a freshman) last year. Unless he has a major breakthrough over the summer and picks it up I don't expect to see a lot of minutes for him next year. C-Mike Bardo: At this point in his career we all know exactly what Mike is and what he brings to the team. He's an unskilled big body to take up a few minutes in the middle, give our primary bigs a breather and make things tougher on opposing bigs by distributing hard fouls. Redshirts: SF-Michael Green: Easily the least heralded of our incoming freshmen. Hard to imagine him getting a lot of playing time unless Brett McKnight just can't make the transition to SF or injuries arise. SF/PF-Josh Egner: I know this is going to cause some controversy on here, but I really think Egner would be a nice candidate for a redshirt. He has a lot of potential, but is still very raw as a player. He's a kid who could probably benefit the most from a year of intense coaching to hone his skills more than anything before letting him loose on the MAC.

Ok, with yesterdays news the 2010-11 Roster seems to be shaping up. PG's: McNees, Hitchens, Abreu SG's: Roberts, McClanahan, Diggs SF's: McKnight, Green PF's: Cvetinovic, Egner, Euton C's: Bardo, Zeke So now the questions. Who starts? Who comes off the bench? Who redshirts?

I'm not sure I understand this. Are you openly lobbying KD to take on low-character players from broken families? I may not agree with everything KD does, and I am suspicious of this signing as I stated above, but I don't think that high quality players on the court and high quality players off the court are mutually exclusive. I am actually quite interested in this Diggs kid. Looks like he got some more playing time for New Orleans late in the season and was making the most of it. Looks like a kid who could help out. Any idea on how the NCAA would treat his transfer based on the New Orleans program shutting down? Would he still have to sit out a season?

Looking a little more into him it looks like Abreau has some skills that could really help us. He looks like more of a pure point than anyone on the roster at this moment (presuming the S-clan defections are true) but also has enough ability to score to keep defenses honest. I still don't like the idea of another 5'9" (although the Gozips PR is the only place I've seen him listed at 5'9", everyplace else has him at 5'10", not much of a difference, but...) guard. The MAC is trending towards bigger and quicker guards. I hope I am wrong, but I just feel like we're going to end up with another short guard who has the skills to play at this level but whose size perpetually holds him back. Presuming the transfer news is true I think we still have one more scholarship available. I would like to see it used on a 6'3" to 6'5" SG who has the ability to break down a defense off the dribble. That is presuming we don't hold onto it to use at another time.

Great, we run off two undersized PG's and replace them with an undersized PG? Not exactly the kind of signing I was looking for.

Certainly makes sense for Swiech and Sullivan. Neither of them were ever going to see significant playing time here. Might as well find someplace where they can. I suppose you can debate how much sense it makes for Steward. He was slowly working himself back into the rotation, but it was pretty tough finding minutes for him. After all the injuries and all he has overcome it will be tough to see him go if this is true. On the other hand, this certainly opens up the possibility of more recruits that has floated around here the last month or so. Be interesting to see what KD will do with the additional two scholarships.

Best wishes to the Hitchens family as they deal with this difficult period. It is never easy when a member of the family is taken from you far too young.

I have a gut feeling that if we sign someone else it will be an unheard of kid whose name hasn't been brought up on here yet. I know I've tossed around a lot of names, as have others, but I just have a feeling that whoever we end up getting will be an off the radar kind of guy. No real information to back this up, just gut feeling. Personally, I'm just as interested in who, if anyone is going to be transfering out. I saw Humpty coming out of a classroom in the CBA just last week, so as of this point I don't think he would be one of the transfers, but you never know. Hopefully we find out some more information soon here.

After their pathetic showing last season, I would think getting rid of as much dead weight as possible would be a positive for them. They need to just blow it up and start all over again. Since running Stan Joplin out of town they have been in an absolute tailspin. Joplin was a pretty nice coach who took them from doormat to consistent West contender with appearances in the conference tournament finals and the NIT. Let that be a lesson for the small but rumbling faction among us who are looking to run KD off.

Couple of things that struck me last night: Attitude: Butler didn't come out cocky, but they didn't come out scared or intimidated either. They understood the magnitude of the game and the challenge of the opponent and they readily accepted it. You never got the impression that Butler didn't think they belonged there or even that they felt like they had to prove themselves. They never panicked. Duke blocked a shot on the way to the rim, no problem, we'll get 'em on the rebound or the next possession. Duke got an easy one off an inbounds play, no problem, we'll get the points back and then shut them down their next possession. The Zips rarely give you that kind of an attitude when faced with a big game. Guard Play: Nobody from Butler really stood out (with the exception of maybe Mack) in the backcourt the way that Armon Bassett or David Kool did against us, but their guys were still darn impressive. They are all tough, athletic and the know their roles and play them well. Part of it is also Stevens ability to know what roles each of his guys fits into and molding them for that role. To answer one of Captain's earlier questions. No, there is no way that Steve McNees would be playing major minutes at PG for Brad Stevens. Coaching Demeanor: A couple of times you saw Stevens discussing things with the refs and he was almost constantly communicating with his players, but there was never the over the top, nearing a technical displays of emmotion and arguing that you see a lot from KD and, quite frankly a lot of other coaches. The same can be said for Coach K although he is sometimes a little more emotional. Thinking about it, you look at the great coaches at the pro level and at the college level so many of them adopt this cool demeanor. Roy Williams, Coach K, Phil Jackson, Greg Popovich. Guys who have been around a long time and won consistently. Not really sure if you can make anything out of that or not, but it is interesting.

Abell is a guy that I would really like to see in a Zips uniform. This article lists him at 6'3", others have him at 6'4". Either way he is bigger than most of the guards we have now, everything I've seen and read says he is an athletic, multi-dimensional scorer in the mold of an Armon Bassett. Also love that we are looking into Kentucky a lot more. Lot of good talent down there, and with Calipari pretty much ignoring in-state recruiting right now it opens things up for someone like us to come in and snipe off some good talent. George Fant from #7 Warren Central is another one on the Zips radar who has high major potential.

Heck of a game. Butler had a couple shots to win it at the end, which is more than most people expected from them. Gotta hand it to them, they weren't intimidated by Duke from the start. Didn't worry about a couple of big shot blocks or a few calls going against them. Duke probably had the more talented team, but you wouldn't know it by watching the attitude of the Butler players. Nothing for the Bulldogs to be ashamed of, they showed they belonged on the biggest stage of all. Most of that team should be back next year. Should be interesting to see if they can make it back again.

I've talked about Durant on here before, but he is really the guy I would like to see us get. Size, athleticism, ability to penetrate and either dish the ball off or finish at the rim. If he is at all interested we should really go hard after this guy.

Not a whole lot of information here. His projected starting backcourt is almost assuredly wrong. Even if Humpty is still around, and presuming we don't bring in a JUCO, Dambrot has committed himself to riding McNees as the starting PG. I don't see that changing at this point. Brett, Nikola and Zeke are a good bet to start up front though. Probably the best thing from the article:

As I've said before, I think you can pretty well cross out McNees, Roberts, McKnight and Bardo as potential transfers. They are all seniors and only have one year of eligibility left. Unless they are talking moving down to NAIA or something like that they wouldn't be able to transfer out, sit a year and have any eligibility left. The only one who is in a little different spot is Bardo just because of his academic situation and the fact that he is unlikely to see any more significant playing time than he got this year.

I would expect Cvetinovic to be tried out more as a SF/PF with Euton getting a large chunk of the backup minutes at C. I still think we will see a lot of McNees at PG next year and I expect that the 4th recruit will be a bigger SG who is more able to get off his own shot and can defend some of the bigger perimeter players we are seeing in the conference. I also have a feeling you will see more Egner at SF with McClanahan going back to his natural SG. Also, don't rule out Michael Green. I think everyone is expecting him to redshirt, but we have been surprised by these kinds of under the radar guys in the past.

I have no doubt that the East will be the better division still, but I think the opportunity does exist for the West to close a little ground. Ofcourse a lot of things depend on the quality of recruits coming into the East this year and how fast they adapt. But just looking at a statistical perspective, everyone in the East is going to have a lot to replace. Miami: 29 PPG, 10.5 RPG, 5.5 APG Can't: 42.9 PPG, 21.1 RPG, 7.1 APG BG: 23.7 PPG, 16.3 RPG, 2.7 APG Buffalo: 53.3 PPG, 20.5 RPG, 11.9 APG OU: 23.9 PPG, 10 RPG, 3.9 APG Zips: 19.9 PPG, 11.5 RPG, 2.8 APG that we know of thus far. Those are some significant numbers to replace. Particularly for Can't and Buffalo accross the board, Bowling Green in terms of rebounding and Miami in terms of assists.

The MAC East is in store for some big changes this offseason. Miami: Already losing their best player in Kenny Hayes and their top big man and MAC lumberjack of the year Adam Fletcher. Reports are that Junior Guard Rodney Haddix and Sophmore Guard Kramer Soderberg are also leaving the program. Can't: Losing six rotation players including Chris Singletary, Tyree Evans, Anthony Simpson, Frank Henry-Ala, Mike McKee and Brandon Parks. A lot to replace there. BG: Graduates almost all of their servicable bigs including Otis Polk, Erik Marschall and Marc Larson. Buffalo: In full on rebuilding mode with the loss of Rodney Pierce, Calvin Betts, Max Boudreau, Sean Smiley, John Boyer and Byron Mulkey. Ohio: Looked to be returning the most with only Van Kempen leaving, but now the equation has changed as do-it-all SG Armon Bassett has decided to go pro. Zips: Also looked to be returning most of the roster while only losing Chris McKnight and Conyers. Now it appears we will see anywhere from 1-4 additional transfers in a "Cavs retool their roster after being embarassed by Orlando" kind of moment. That is a lot of talent out of the MAC East heading out the door. Conyers, Singletary, Pierce and Hayes were All-MAC first team. McKnight, Betts and Bassett all made honorable mention. Not to mention a lot of good role players in there like Van Kempen, McKee, Evans, Boudreau, Polk, Smiley. Does this open the door for the MAC West to try and chip away at a little bit of the East dominance next year?

According to Dave in Green's scholarship/walk-on list, the 3 players are scholarship players and the one maybe is a scholarship player and has had more PT this year than the 3 confirmed combined all year. I'm not trying to be a troll. I heard something, and saw someone say "very interesting offseason" and i was putting my take on it. You asked, I answered with what I know without giving out the names. If the moderators think I'm being a troll, fine...I'll delete my account from ZN and just read as a guest and never comment on here again. I'm a student at U of Akron so this is how I find out my information. My major is sports-related and I have friends in my classes that are even closer friends to the players. I talk to a football player 3 times out of the week about their practices and workouts and he told me what he thinks about Coach Ianello and the rest of the coaching staff. Do I expect you to believe me, of course not. Can you respect that I tried to give you some info(even if it's not the players' names) while being told not even to mention it to anyone? Well, that's up to you, but I hope so. We are all fans of our Zips and I know that everyone that write on here is to talk about Zips(well, we have the occasional Can't, ohio, and buffalo fan comment), and the last thing I would do is give some false information that once the official report comes out, would embarass me and ruin my little reputation already as a fan. All I ask is just please give me a chance, and if I fail, ignore all my posts or just burn my account away...I'll leave that up to the moderators. In one of my classes alone, I have a softball player, a baseball player, a soccer player, and a women's basketball player in my one class along with someone that works in the AD's secretary office as an aide...that's all i have to say...see you all at the baseball game today...cause that's where i'll be at when 3pm gets here. mes, I respect what you are coming on here and trying to do to a degree. My posts have not been intended in any way to accuse you of trolling or to try and run you off. But you have to understand, that I don't know you from Adam, the same way that you don't know me. I learned a long time ago that blind faith in everything you read on an internet message board is not exactly a great way to go through life. Until we see some hard facts from the athletic department I pretty much have to take a skeptical approach to this information. It is nothing personal against you, just my approach overall to internet message boards. I have found over time that very few people who claim to be "insiders" actual have any useful and truthful inside information.