Quickzips

Just as I'm ready to choke someone over the first half the Zips open the second on a quick 9-0 run to tie the game. Man are we Jekyl and Hyde.

Sick. Which is also what I am about this first half. Tree is literally the only thing keeping us in this game. If I watch Evans slowly dribble the ball across half court with zero pressure on him down double digits one more time I'm going to ralph.

The horrible guard play has returned.

Game? What game? I thought this was a free-throw shooting contest?

Yeah, I sure wish the Zips would come out in the first half with a little more energy. They might be up by 50 at the half instead of just leading by 31.

What game are you watching? Zips aren't blowing them out, but they aren't getting embarrassed by any means. It usually takes more than 7 minutes to blow a team out.

It isn't always in the teams best interest to start the 5 best guys. Sometimes you need to move 1 or 2 of your best players to the bench to give your second unit a boost. Other guys just play better coming off the bench. They need to see the game unfolding a little bit from the sideline before they come in. Q is a perfect example, and it looks like Nyles may be in the same boat. It helps the team to let these guys sit and watch the first few minutes of the game. If that means Melo and Deji need to start then so be it.

I said in the offseason that Q should be coming off the bench. The guy won 6th man of the year his last season with the Zips for a reason. He is most effective in that role. That is what we need right now. We don't need to necessarily start our best players. We need to put every player in the best position for their game. Good win for the Zips. Time to get back on track and put together a nice little winning streak going into Hawaii.

Memo to Betancourt. You are NOT a 3 point shooter.

This team has all the looks of a group that bought into the hype too much. They think they are better than they are and don't have to work hard at it. MTSU is killing us on the glass, we aren't closing out on the 3-point line and our passing is extremely lazy.

We are going to have to play much MUCH better than we did last night to beat St. Mary's at their place. The Gaels aren't going to get flustered by our pressure the way Coastal did. This is a much better team and a much better program we are going against. Not feeling very good about this one right now.

Not really sure what to think about that performance. When the Zips looked good they looked really go. When they looked bad they looked pretty bad. The big 3 had decent games, but not great. Tree seemed to struggle with the double teams that Coastal threw at him at times. Diggs had his moments, but he also had 6 turnovers. Harney just never really seemed to find his shot. One thing that is really clear. We have no PG. Melo hasn't improved much from a year ago. Q is a secondary ball-handler who can run the point at times, but should by no means be relied upon to play 20-30 minutes a night at PG. Evans might be our best option right now, but he doesn't have the play making ability that you want out of your point. KD has to put the leash on Harney with the three pointers. There is no reason for a guy who struggles to shoot 30% from beyond the arch to be taking all those threes. 15 feet and in Nick. 15 feet and in. Pat Forsythe has to learn he isn't Zeke. He showed a few good things tonight, but far too often he was going for the shot-block and getting himself out of position for the rebound. You can get away with that when you are an elite shot-blocker like Zeke was. Pat is not Zeke. He needs to hold his ground and box out for the rebound. Deji Ibitayo needs to saddle himself to the bench and not come off it. Every time he came in tonight the energy of the whole team immediately died. He just isn't a DI player. I would much rather see Aaron Jackson get those minutes. Why are we burning Kwan's redshirt to only get him 20 seconds of playing time? I imagine the plan was to get him more minutes if we got a big lead, but I hope we aren't going to burn the redshirt on this kid just to play him 3-5 minutes a night. Kretzer and McAdams both had nice nights off the bench. We are going to need both of those guys this year with all of the guys we have that can attack the rim there are going to be a lot of open shots for Jake and Reggie.

Honestly, it was the kind of game Deji should excel in. Bluffton didn't do any of the things that Deji struggles against. They let him have a few wide open 3s. They rarely looked to initiate offense off the dribble. They never got out and tried to run against us. Not to mention Dambrot wasn't asking him to play PG, so he wasn't being asked to bring the ball up-court against pressure (save for a few times when he was the outlet man for Evans or Diggs bringing the ball up the court). I'll believe Deji is in for a Conyers like breakout season when I see it against competition that is actually putting some pressure on him. The guy has proven time and time again that he can't handle having someone up in his shirt or having to play close tight defense. Maybe the new hand-check rules this year will help him out and he'll surprise me. Until then, I'm not buying any of the Deji hype. As much as I don't want to see Jackson and Gladden rushed into service, Deji is not a reason to redshirt either of them.

The Zips will not play 12 or 13 guys. It just isn't going to happen. Someone is going to have to sit. All of these guys have a lot of talent. But someone has to sit out. When BJ and Aaron don't get in until the final minutes of the first half that is a pretty good indication that those two are going to sit. Kwan looked good at times, and settled down as the game went on, but his shot selection could use some work.

Not going to get too excited about one game against a vastly over-matched opponent, but the Zips did everything you want them to do in this one. It looks like you can pencil Gladden and Jackson in as red-shirts. Evans and Johnson will play. Cheatham is right on the edge. All 5 guys can play. But so can just about everyone else on the roster. I have no idea how you defend the trio of Tree, Harney and Q. Those guys can beat you in so many ways. As long as the PGs can get them the ball those guys combined could average 50+ this year. Like what I saw from Nyles Evans. He isn't a pure PG, but he brings some different things to the game. He looks very good on that full-court pressure, and he has one of the better 3 point shots on the team at the moment. That said, right now he is a bit behind Betancourt in terms of setting up the offense. Johnson gets up and down the floor reasonably well for a guy his size. He's never going to be John Wall or Derrick Rose, but he isn't an anchor out there like a lot of people were expecting. Overall a good night for the Zips. Take the 55 point exhibition win and move on to Coastal Carolina. We owe those guys one.

Dave, you know I love you man, but are you really trying to compare Johnson to Shaq? That is getting WAY ahead of yourself there.

I know all of these guys want to play immediately, but as a team and as individuals everyone has to think big picture. Is it worth it to burn these guys redshirts if they are only going to play 5 minutes a night? Probably not. I don't want to see us burn the redshirt on a guy like Gladden or Kwan only to watch them get a couple of sporadic minutes here and there and more or less waste a year of eligibility. I would much rather see them sit on the bench and learn for a year and have that fifth year back later on down the road when more minutes are available.

Surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet. According to the MAC pollsters this should be a banner year for the Zips men and women. Both teams are picked to win the East Division with the men picked to win the conference tournament and the women picked second behind CMU. Both teams also have two players on the preseason all-MAC East teams (Diggs, Treadwell, Tecca and Luburgh)

Playing PG in practice is a different animal from doing it in an actual game when the lights are on. I'm with Cap on this one. If we are going to count on Q to play 20+ minutes a night at PG this is going to be a long year. Q is an above average secondary ball-handler, but he isn't a PG. I'm getting a very uneasy feeling about this season.

For my money I'll still take the guy with a ring and an MVP trophy. Look, the MAC isn't a very good conference. If McCrae were everything he is made out to be you would think that program would have something more to show for it than they do. We're talking about a conference that hasn't had a single NBA draft pick in over a decade. If he is truly that good, and he is really going to be the guy to end that streak he should have at least one title by now. He doesn't. The guy is the Al Jefferson of the MAC. Good player who can put up big numbers on a mediocre to bad team, but he does nothing to elevate the team and get them to the next level. No thanks. I'll take Tree every day of the week over him.

Tree in two seasons has two finals appearances, a tournament MVP title and a trip to the NCAAs already under his belt. McCrae in three years has only made it out of the quarterfinals once and has never made it to the finals. Part of that has to do with the players around them, but McCrae has never elevated the rest of his team to the level that a truly elite player should. To me he will always be little more than a stat-stuffer on a bad to mediocre team. Something tells me Buffalo may actually be better a year from now when he is done and graduated.

Today's entry of Nick Kellogg at #12 is a complete joke. Maybe if John Groce were still in town, but the kid was an absolute flop last year under Christian. Even under Groce he wasn't much more than a 3 point marksman (for his career over 75% of his shots have come from 3). If a guy who averaged 8 points, 2 board and 1.5 assists while shooting 41% from the field and 34% from beyond the 3 point line a year ago is the #12 player in this conference we are in for an epic bad year.

Tree is more dominant at what he does. There are very few guys with his strength, athleticism and touch around the rim at this level. He gets off his feet better than anyone else in the league and there isn't anyone out there that can pry a rebound away from him. Q has a lot more diversity to his game. He can play at least 3, sometimes 4 different position and you can ask him to do everything from running the point to playing off the ball, setting screens, defending the opponents best scorer and then some. There is a lot of value in having a guy like that who you can plug into different roles depending on the circumstances. For my money I think I would still take Tree, but I don't think it is as far off as you might think.

And Diggs and Deji. If I'm looking at it right: from left to right - Kretzer, Forsythe, Evans, Cheatham, Treadwell, Harney, Jackson, McAdams, Johnson.

I can go 3 that are no brainers ahead of Harney: Demetrius Treadwell Rian Pearson Javon McCrea There are a handful of others that I can make the argument for: Quincy Diggs Majok Majok Julius Brown Shayne Whittington Will Felder Glenn Bryant Will Regan Jarod Oldham Jesse Berry As for 17 players, I have no idea. You've got to get into a lot of speculating about what some of the newcomers like Willis (OU), Weatherspoon (Toledo) or guys who have been backups but are going to see their role expand due to graduations like Taylor (OU), Skeete (Buffalo) might do to even get close to it. Let's not forget that Harney has shown that he can be a high quality scorer in this league, but not a whole lot else. His defense is below average. He doesn't board the way you would expect a 6'8" guy with his athleticism to, and he tends to be pretty streaky when it comes to scoring. And let's not forget his terrible percentages from beyond the 3 point line. As for Q, I sure hope he is on the list, and I think anyone who is well versed in the MAC would have him at least in the top-10, but I'm not holding my breath. Like I said, out of sight, out of mind. That might just work to our advantage a bit though.