Quickzips

This should be an interesting matchup. OU played us close at their place. Logic says we should beat them at home, but OU has started to put it together a bit with the MAC West cupcake schedule. Bobcats and Zips are really contrasting teams. OU's strength is in their guard play as they have one of the better young backcourts in the league. Up front they are not very talented, very experienced or very deep. The Zips on the other hand are built around a number of strong frontcourt players like Conyers, the McKnights, Cvetinovic and Zeke. The backcourt has some talent and some depth, but has lacked the ability to put it all together on a consistent basis. Zips will need to keep the tempo slowed down in this one. A 90 point, up and down the court at breakneck speeds game is exactly what OU wants. We might not need to go Charlie Coles style, but we can't get sucked into playing a run and gun style either. Not saying we can't beat them at that game, but they can beat us at that game. If the game is set up in a half court set working the ball down into the post I don't think OU has a chance against us.

As I've said many times before. I don't want a Miami style guantlet of OOC games. I also hate our current method of scheduling a murderers row of cupcakes. Somewhere in the middle is where I'd like to be. Give me 2 or 3 of what GP1 calls "ATM games" and a solid blend of quality mid-majors with a couple of cupcakes for an exhibition game and maybe one game during finals week.

Much too difficult to try to predict this kind of stuff. Even at this late juncture in the season. Right now outside of (and I hate to say this) Can't it looks like just about any team is capable of winning any particular game. Even Can't has an L to one of the East's weaker teams in BG, at home nonetheless. Personally, I think the East will probably take 3 of the 4 byes with only the West champion getting one. As far as the Zips are concerned, I think they should easily go at least 3-2 down the stretch. I think Buffalo and OU at home should be wins, Miami on the road is probably a loss with the way they are playing of late, and they are typically a tough matchup at home for the Zips. That leaves the home game Can't and the road game at BG as toss ups. I think we at least split those two. Who knows though. Much too early to tell.

The Zeke Marshall journey Chapter 1 has certainly been a bit of a rocky road. There have been a lot of obstacles in the way for the young man. Not the least of which is the fact that he is still skinny as a rail (not going to change that any time soon, but to ignore the fact that it is an issue would be a dissservice). You also have to consider a lot of different things when analyzing Zeke's season. He has had some knee problems throughout the year that held him back some. Then you have to consider the adjustment period that the players around him are going through. How many of these guys have ever played with a 7 footer before? I think I could cut off all the fingers on my right hand and still use it to count that one. We've seen it quite a few times with passes that a 6'7" 6'8" guy like Linhart, Chris McKnight or Nikola catches with ease but that a guy the size of Zeke struggles to get to. All in all, I think he is doing alright. Not spectacular, not subpar, but alright. He has a lot to work on. His shot selection has still been shaky at times, and despite what others see, he is still rushing shots at times. On defense he is sometimes too intent on blocking shots and gets himself out of position to grab some easy boards, leading to second chance points for our opponents. What encourages me most is that he has learned and adapted in some areas. His free throw shooting in particular has looked much better of late. He's still a project, but I'm glad he's our project. He will make a big impact for the Zips in the coming years.

Somebody call the Mt. Pleasent Police Department. Zips just robbed the Chippewas.

Unbelievable, Zips have no business being anywhere near this game and yet they now lead by 4.

ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tied up at 52. Central trying to give the Zips this game. Do our guys want it?

Steve McNees is 4-4 from 3 tonight, looks like he is going to have to take the shots here down the stretch if we wanna pull this off.

About the only good thing you can say about this game for the Zips is at least we are only down 6 w/ under 4 to go. If Central were any kind of a decent team they would be up 20 on us right now, minimum.

Cvetinovic fouls out, at least he does it hustling for a steal I guess.

Have to wonder if this team has just lost some confidence in KD.

Central has taken 15 more shots than the Zips right now. 20 offensive boards for Central, 15 turnovers for the Zips. You won't win any games with that kind of an effort.

This is embarrassing.

16 offensive boards. Unacceptable. If I'm KD right now Patterson, Swiech, Sullivan, Carroll and Steward are playing the rest of this game. He wants to send a message with suspensions and crap, go all out. If you aren't going to give an effort, you'll sit your ass down.

Any time we want to try putting a hand in one of their guards faces would be good by me.

Insult to injury, Cvetinovic down. Is it too late to get B.McKnight's uniform off the bus?

Here we go with the turnoverfest, long scoring drought.

To call this a basketball game is a stretch.

This is horrible. Keep Zeke in and let him play. Constantly taking him out is destroying his confidence.Catch 22 for KD right now. Central is killing us on the boards right now. Zeke is a big guy, but he goes for the shot block and hence is often out of position for the rebound.

This is ridiculously bad shooting. Luckily for us both teams are having trouble.

I agree with most of what you have to say about Zeke except the part about rushing up wild shots. I think it's important that he use quickness to his advantage against the slower bigs who guard him. He absolutely needs a quick release, which is not the same as rushing up wild shots. As for wildness, I commented during the game that Zeke's shooting percentage is going up, and he only infrequently has a bad miss in more recent games. Most of his misses now are at least finding the rim and bouncing around, with a possibility of falling through. So I would say that the instances of Zeke rushing up a wild shot are now pretty rare, and no longer a serious issue.As for the photo of Nik's block, it would clearly demonstrate to MAC refs that they were correct. Please note the proximity of Nik's thumbnail to the shooter's middle fingernail. Only MAC refs have the eyesight and confidence to call that a foul. Likewise, in the photo of Zeke's attempted block, can there be any doubt that Zeke's little fingernail brushed the shooter's ring fingernail a fraction of a second after this photo was taken?Flagrant stuff to be sure if you're a MAC ref.Personally, I think there is a difference between having a quick release and rushing a shot. Having a quick release is a good thing. It means you are getting the ball to the hoop before a defender can get in good position to make a play on the shot. Rushing a shot is a bad thing. It means you aren't really gathering yourself, your out of control and you aren't really getting off a good shot. I've seen Zeke rush a lot of shots this season where taking an extra second or two to gather and make a good move would yield a much higher percentage.Yep, based on what you and I said in our last posts, we are in full agreement that there is a difference between having a quick release and rushing a shot. We agree that Zeke was rushing his shot a lot early in the season and getting some bad misses. We apparently disagree that he's still doing it as much. I see him learning and improving from game to game, and turning his previous rushed shots into quick releases. When he takes an extra second or two to gather, the defense collapses on him and the shot becomes much more difficult. He must both shoot quickly and be in control. Practice and experience will continue to make him better and better at this, just as he has gotten better since the beginning of the season.I do agree that Zeke is rushing less of his shots lately, but he's still rushing his shots at times. I saw quite a few of them at EMU. Not as much against NIU. We need more of the NIU shooting and less of the EMU shooting.

I agree with most of what you have to say about Zeke except the part about rushing up wild shots. I think it's important that he use quickness to his advantage against the slower bigs who guard him. He absolutely needs a quick release, which is not the same as rushing up wild shots. As for wildness, I commented during the game that Zeke's shooting percentage is going up, and he only infrequently has a bad miss in more recent games. Most of his misses now are at least finding the rim and bouncing around, with a possibility of falling through. So I would say that the instances of Zeke rushing up a wild shot are now pretty rare, and no longer a serious issue.As for the photo of Nik's block, it would clearly demonstrate to MAC refs that they were correct. Please note the proximity of Nik's thumbnail to the shooter's middle fingernail. Only MAC refs have the eyesight and confidence to call that a foul. Likewise, in the photo of Zeke's attempted block, can there be any doubt that Zeke's little fingernail brushed the shooter's ring fingernail a fraction of a second after this photo was taken?Flagrant stuff to be sure if you're a MAC ref.Personally, I think there is a difference between having a quick release and rushing a shot. Having a quick release is a good thing. It means you are getting the ball to the hoop before a defender can get in good position to make a play on the shot. Rushing a shot is a bad thing. It means you aren't really gathering yourself, your out of control and you aren't really getting off a good shot. I've seen Zeke rush a lot of shots this season where taking an extra second or two to gather and make a good move would yield a much higher percentage.

Interesting that KD is looking into Illinois so much all of a sudden. Still, what I can find on this kid indicates he is a "6'2" forward." Not exactly sure where we have room on our roster for a forward who is that small. If the kid can play the 2 guard then great, but otherwise I have to wonder why we are offering this kid.

I've been computer-less for a few days after a power cord issue. Definitly missed a lot of discussion on here. Personally, I'm trying not to get too high or too low on this team. The EMU game showed probably the worst of us, NIU one of our best. The law of averages says that our team overall lies somewhere in between.Personally, I believe this team needs to play with a bit of an edge. Tonight they came out focused and maybe even a bit angry after the EMU game and it showed. Against EMU they looked disinterested. The body language was absolutely horrible. Particularly Nik who looked frustrated all night and Roberts who I thought looked like he would have rather been anywhere than on the court. Zips fans got the rare opportunity these last two games to see the exact value of one of their players. Without Humpty, the Zips backcourt was below average on both ends of the floor and it made things much more difficult for us inside without a guy like Humpty who has the ability to slash into the lane and collapse a defense. With Humpty our backcourt looked quite good. Humpty was even bringing the ball up the court more than I remember at other times this year. Definitly something I think we need more of.KD needs to keep his rotation cut back to 9, Humpty, McNees, Roberts, McClanahan, Conyers, B.McKnight, C.McKnight, Nikola and Zeke. Do Bardo and Steward deserve 5-10 minutes a game? Probably, but trying to get 11 guys minutes is just too much to ask. At this point in the season a 9 man rotation is probably in the best interest of the Zips.Zeke needs to start the game. He didn't look good at all the few games he came off the bench. Some guys are able to come off the bench and even excel in that role, it doesn't look like Zeke is that kind of guy. He needs to be on the floor from the get go and his leesh needs to be a little longer. Tonight KD left him in after the first timeout despite turning it over on a possession because he was dribbling the ball down low too long. That little bit of confidence from KD seemed to give Zeke some extra confidence in himself and he played much better. That said, he still has a way to go, particularly on the offensive end. He tends to go back and forth between rushing up wild shots and taking his time too much and getting the ball stripped. Loved seeing his aggression on the boards tonight though.