Quickzips

+1If the Zips come out and make the Aggies (who just last night knocked off #16 Minnesota on a neutral floor btw) sweat or even, gasp, win I'm a definite believer.If the Zips come out and piss down their legs, then it's back to the drawing board.

Like I said, probably catch some flack for the opinion. Doesn't matter to me either way. I don't care what the context it is used in, it isn't an appropriate or necessary analogy.

I'm probably going to take some flack for this, but can we please stop the soldier/warrior analogies? I know everyone does it, but it is just disrespectful to the men and women of our armed forces who actually do put their lives on the line defending our nation. The Zips soccer team is very good, and a program to be proud of, but these guys aren't soldiers and they aren't warriors.

Now that is more like the team I was expecting to see this year. The first half wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible. Second half, well, if that team comes to play every night it is going to be a very good season. We finally started working the ball into the post in the 2nd half and Niagra had absolutely no answer. They threw some double teams at us, we kicked it out to McNess or...gasp...Conyers for open threes. If the double team didn't come our guys were making nice moves and getting easy buckets. On top of that, we finally hit our FT's. Very good performance for the Zips and a solid win.Conyers looked good again tonight. I'm hoping this is the breakthrough we've been waiting on for four years from Jimmy and not just another blip on the radar. If he can give us 20-25 minutes a night of that kind of hustle on both ends of the floor then we might just have our SF issues figured out.Zeke had a nice game. Fouled out, but I won't get on him too much for that. He does need to learn that we don't need 18 foot jump shots with 25 seconds on the shot clock from him. If he cleans that up it will keep a little more of KD's hair in place. 6 blocks, 6 rebounds, 12 points and I don't know how many turnovers he caused. It was like Niagra forgot he was out there, started to drive the lane, then realized he was just waiting to swat the shot and they were dumbfounded. He's still making mistakes, but he has to get minutes for us because when he's out there he's a game changer.Humpty had a rough outing. I don't doubt he'll get it turned around, but he looked like he was still a little too amped up from the other night.McNees with another one of those McNees kind of nights where he just murders a team from 3 land. The run in the second half was really triggered by him knocking down 2 or 3 triples in succession. Roberts and Cvetinovic are our most consistent players out there. Neither one is particularly flushy, but at the end of the game you look up and they've given you double digit scoring, solid defensive minutes and not very many turnovers. I think you'll continue to see KD ride those two.Paging the McKnight brothers. Paging the McKnight brothers. Anyone seen these two lately? Sadly, it doesn't look like these guys have the desire to take their game to the next level. I have a feeling you will see both of them coming off the bench for much of the year as Cvetinovic is playing much harder than both of them right now and has earned the minutes. Good to see some Ronnie Steward. Really, at this point any minutes he gives you are a bit of a miracle.Not much out of McClanahan or Bardo tonight. I don't think either one saw action in the second half as KD really trimmed down his rotation. Still waiting to see some of that vaunted Mike Bardo defense I keep hearing about. I counted about 3 to 4 minutes of action for him and saw his man get 2 easy dunks and a layup IIRC. At one point Chris McKnight had his guy bottled up on a drive but Bardo decided to leave his man to come over and help out anyways. Long story short, Bardo's man gets the pass and throws down an easy dunk. Wonderful.All in all, a good game for the Zips. Can't complain about a 12 point win over a quality opponent. Let's go down to College Station and steal one from the Aggies.

Spoken like someone who has absolutely no clue what parking is like on this campus on a day to day basis. Honestly, I haven't even read the rest of your post after that. You lost all credibility with that one point right there. Parking has been a nightmare on this campus all year. It is not unusual to have a student miss a good chunk of a class because they have spent 45 minutes or more circling multiple lots just hoping that they spot someone backing out of a parking place. This deck is an absolute necessity and whatever complaints you have about it are without any type of valid reason.Parking IS that much worse today. We're at record enrollment and the parking has not kept up with that at all. It's at the point now that if you don't get to campus by 8-8:30 in the morning you can plan on spending at least 45 minutes trying to find a spot and that includes the furthest lots from campus like the Polsky deck. The deck addition is a necessity. I've been here for the last 7 years, 4 as an undergrad and now on my third of law school. I've never seen parking as bad as it was this semester.

If he is good shouldn't he play?If he were good he would have a scholarship somewhere and wouldn't be a walkon. Not saying he is bad, but he's certainly not within our 9 or 10 best players and with the guard depth we have already it is hard to see a walkon getting much of any time on this team.

Walkon. Won't see playing time unless we are in a blowout or there are some real injury issues.

Spoken like someone who has absolutely no clue what parking is like on this campus on a day to day basis. Honestly, I haven't even read the rest of your post after that. You lost all credibility with that one point right there. Parking has been a nightmare on this campus all year. It is not unusual to have a student miss a good chunk of a class because they have spent 45 minutes or more circling multiple lots just hoping that they spot someone backing out of a parking place. This deck is an absolute necessity and whatever complaints you have about it are without any type of valid reason.

How do you study or take tests if your first 11 games are on the road?!I'd never seen a "body bag" schedule for a basketball team until now.Not only are they on the road, they are on the ROAD.Games in Colorado (2), Texas, Ohio, Arizona, Michigan, Oklahoma, Georgia, Missouri, Kansas, Oregon, Mississippi and Alabama (2) all before they have a home game. This is the kind of schedule that I think even Charlie Coles would have to say, "yeah, we're going to scale back a little bit."

Humpty is our starting PG and our best all around player at the moment. Kid willed us to victory over Drake and was our best player over the course of the weekend. I'm really not sure why he didn't enter the season as the starting PG. Does he play a little too fast at times and make some mistakes? Sure. But there is no one on this team more electric than little Humpty. He's our quickest player, our best 3 point shooter and his quickness bothers opposing PG's. We're going to see a lot of McClanahan at the 3. I was really hoping Brett McKnight or Conyers could make up for the loss of Nate at the 3 so we could finally have some size in the backcourt with Nitro at SG. Apparently that isn't going to happen. Conyers continues to choke when the lights come on, Brett McKnight is still more of a 4 than a 3 and so McClanahan looks like he will get more minutes at the 3. I'm really hoping Green can come in next year and play some minutes at the 3. Maybe Nik gets some run there?Zeke needs to continue to come off the bench. Didn't seem like he was comfortable in the starting lineup. He'll still get his minutes, but for the time being KD is best served to bring him off the bench.Rotation is coming down to 8-10 guys. Humpty, McNees, Roberts, McClanahan, B.McKnight, C.McKnight, Cvetinovic and Zeke with Conyers and Bardo getting 5-10 mop up minutes a night. Starting lineup is probably going to be Humpty, Roberts, McClanahan, C.McKnight and Cvetinovic. No idea on if this changes if/when Steward comes back.Cvetinovic may have a chance at unseating C.McKnight for the starting 4 spot once Zeke is ready to start at C. KD refered to him as our most consistent player. Again, I wonder if we couldn't play him more at SF with a lineup of Humpty, McClanahan, Nik, one of the McKnights and Zeke.Free Throw shooting is going to be a problem for this team this year. As a team we only shot about 50% for the weekend. Not good at all. Hopefully guys like Roberts and the McKnights can get their stroke back in line with their career percentages. Seems like everyone is a little off right now.

Memorial is still standing, but to be honest, I don't understand why we would do this. It isn't like the JAR is off campus and Memorial is on campus like NC State is dealing with. On top of that, though Reynolds doesn't appear to be the greatest arena ever, it does have pretty good capacity and could still be a passable DI arena if need be. You can't say that about Memorial (although some would argue you can't say it about the JAR either). It isn't like we're trying to get all nostalgic and going back to the good ole days when we were a national title contender or something. I don't know, I just don't see what this idea would accomplish.

http://www.ohioverticals.com/blogs/kent_state/Update. Singletary out 2-6 weeks, possibly longer.

Apparently Zips fan favorite Chris "Suckerpunch" Singletary has a meniscus injury that is going to require surgery. No timetable for when he might be back for the Golden Thugs.

I expect an entirely different Zips team in Daytona. I think Dambrot will have his rotations a little more cleaned up. I expect at least 1 if not 2 or 3 changes on the starting lineup (I can't imagine KD starting Carroll all weekend and I would expect Humpty to be inserted into the starting lineup instead of Roberts or McClanahan, you may even see Zeke get a start). I also expect that a week of tough practices and the wakeup call that was Sunday afternoon will have the Zips much more focused. Maybe I'm a bit optimistic, but if the Zips show up and play 40 minutes every night I think there's a pretty good shot we can go 3-0 for the weekend.

I'm sorry, are you implying that a true freshman in his first collegiate game is supposed to take over and be the leader on and off the court for this team? I've seen a lot of lofty expectations for Zeke, but that one would take the cake. I'm hoping this is just sarcasm.

The PM feature is lame. I think the overreaction to a very mild post about the game yesterday was odd and filled with a lot of pent up anger. I have been more than supportive of the BB team this year and I think they can do much better than what they did yesterday. They have a lot of talented players and should do better than what they did yesterday. I think KD is in agreement.I will continue to call them as I see them, not as others think they should be seen. I hope that ZW's response to my post does not make any other posters hesitant to express their views on this board even if they may be different than the mainstream.Go Zips!At this point it seems entirely clear that the beef is between you and ZW and has nothing to do with the rest of us or the Zips in general. It see no need for it to be aired out publicly on this forum.

Guys, this really sounds like something that needs to be taken care of with the PM feature.

1) No disagreement there. If this game isn't a wakeup call I don't know what is.2) I disagree with this one. Not with the Tim Carroll part, but with the proposed starting lineup. I don't think the 4,5 spots are necessarily the problem for us at the moment. Chris and Nik are holding those down pretty well. Now Zeke is doing well himself, but there were still some freshman mistakes (most notably the hand in the face 3 pointer with 20+ seconds left on the shot clock) that need to be cleaned up before we insert him in the starting lineup. The problem we have is at the guard spots and SF. Personally my starting lineup would be Humpty, McClanahan, Conyers, C.McKnight and Cvetnovic. That gives you a second unit of McNees and Roberts (who combined are probably our best PG), B.McKnight and Zeke with Bardo grabbing a few minutes here and there. I think those units give us a good 5 on the floor at all times.3) If I continue to have one complaint about KD it's this self fulfilling prophecy crap when it comes to at-large bids. The team I saw yesterday has a chance to beat anyone in the country if they come to play for 40 minutes (although as we saw yesterday they can lose to just about anybody if they decide the game is only 25 minutes long). Man up and schedule some good games. If you have to go on the road so be it. When you do play cupcakes, make sure you actually beat them. Otherwise stop whinning about crappy attendance and some conspiracy theory that we can't get an at-large. If you want your program to take the next step you actually have to make a move.

One thing I noticed. When Humpty and/or Zeke wasn't in the game. Austin Peay's guards penetrated our defense at will. If Humpty was in he was quick enough to stay in front of those guys. If Zeke was in the game they didn't seem to want to deal with his length once they got to the rim. If they were both in the game, Austin Peay wasn't even trying. Take those two out of the game and our defense was terrible.Worst culprit on defense has to be Brett McKnight. I know I keep harping on this kid, but if he doesn't get his head out of his ass and start putting in some effort on defense he's going to find himself on the bench. We all know you're a great one on one offensive player Brett. Let's start playing a team game on offense and show at least a little bit of hustle on the defensive end. There is a reason Tim Carroll is starting instead of you. It's because your not playing at all to what your potential is. Not at all the performance you want to see from a supposed MAC PoTY candidate.

Terrible way to end a game that was pretty much dominated by the Zips. When we put our head down and wanted it we were blowing that team out of the JAR, but we kept letting the off the hook. This team will have to develop more of a killer instinct. You can't just take a double digit lead into the last 5 minutes of the game and then start walking the ball up the court, taking stupid shots, making ridiculous turnovers, missing free throws and falling asleep on defense. Even bad teams will beat you if you do that. If the Zips had put their minds to it and played 40 minutes of basketball we would have won that game by 20+, instead we only showed up for about 25-30 minutes of the game. Can't have it. Simply can't have it.Some individual thoughts:The starting backcourt of Roberts and McClanahan has gots ta go. They are both SG's and neither is particularly adept at running the point. You either have to start Humpty with one of them or you have to start McNees and Roberts together. It just takes too damn long to trigger the offense when you have Brett and Daryl as the two guards.Zeke with a double double to open his Zips career, but his game was not without mistakes. He's going to have to learn that long jump shots early in the shot clock are not shots we need him to take. Has to go up a little stronger when he gets an opportunity for a dunk as well. He'll learn though. Please tell me Tim Carroll starting the game for us isn't going to be a long term thing.Terrible officiating. Especially in the first half. Zips couldn't breath on an AP player without the whistle coming out. AP was mugging our guys and they let the play. Sadly, this is something we will probably have to deal with a lot again this season.Going to take a much better effort than that to beat NC State and Drake next weekend. I would really hate to be one of those players this week. Practices are going to SUCK.

AP doesn't look like a very good team early in this season. I think the Zips should roll in this one. I'm going with a 75-58 Zips win.

Most likely suspects would be Swiech and Sullivan. Both look to be at the back end of a logjam of depth at their respective positions. I think Swiech would probably benefit most from a change of scenary. Sullivan seems to have potential, but I don't know if it will be enough to get minutes over Humpty, McNees, Roberts, McClanahan and if/when he comes back Steward. Both have enough eligibility left where transfering makes some sense. Guess we will see here.

Just got back from the game. My thoughts.First, you have to remember that this is a DIII school, and as the Mt. Union fan sitting next to me reminded me, not a very good one. Everything we saw tonight has to be taken in that context. Still a very good showing.Zips had a lot of trouble last year beating zone defenses. Tonight was a totally different story. Mt. Union came out playing a 2/3 zone. Zips were patient. Moved the ball. Found the soft spots in the zone and busted them. Three point shooting from McClanahan early on was deadly. Roberts, Humpty, McNees and even Conyers got into the act. Very encouraging to see.Zips defense was smothering all night. Mt. Union got nothing off inside. It wasn't just when Zeke was on the floor (more on that later). The entire game they clogged the lanes up and made life miserable for the Mt. Union players. Once the three pointers started dropping it was all over for Mt. Union. They started to abandon the zone and we just murdered them inside. Nikola, Chris and Zeke punished them inside all night long. Our offensive rebounding was amazing. We really attacked the offensive boards very well. I don't have an official count, but we probably had 15 or more second chance opportunities and we converted a lot of them. These guys work really hard on the glass. It's a sign of a very good team.Thoughts on individual players/combinations:Not real sure I like the starting backcourt of Roberts and McClanahan. Neither is really good at initiating the offense. First two possessions were very bad turnovers. We settled down after that though. Really have to have Humpty, McNees or maybe Sullivan on the floor at all times to run the point.I might be the only one, but I am a little disappointed in Brett McKnight. I keep waiting for him to stop trying to play 1 on 5 on the offensive end and to show some consistent effort on defense, but it is never really there. He was slow on his rotations all night and he forced shot after shot after shot. He's still a black hole on offense. Once the ball gets into him in the lane it is rarely ever coming back out. Regardless of how the defense converges on him. Brett needs to figure this out quick, because that 3 spot is clearly our weakest position right now. On the plus side Conyers looked better tonight. He didn't look like he was panicing when the ball came to him on offense and he continues to be a pretty good wing defender. He may push Brett for playing time if Brett doesn't pick it up.Humpty needs to learn what to do with the ball once he penetrates into the big boys. Again tonight he had a couple of times where he knifed into the lane, got in too deep and slopped up a crazy layup attempt that ended up bouncing off the bottom of the rim. He's either going to have to get the shot off earlier, learn to pass out of those situations, or pull the ball back out and reset things. He's an incredible athlete, and he can make those drives just about any time he wants too. He just needs to get better at decision making once he gets into the lane. Chris McKnight is clearly the leader of this team. Was one rebound away from a double double tonight when we shut him down in the second half. He's not without fault. In particular he took a few too many 3's early in the game. But once he realized those weren't falling, he got his butt down low, got under the basket and made some very pretty plays. If he can bring that kind of effort consistently it will go a long way for this team.Nikola was Nikola. Energy, energy, energy. Had some pretty post moves and played within himself all game. Rock solid and you can put him at any of 3 positions really without much of a problem. My choice to replace Nate as the "glue guy" for this team.McClanahan looked a lot more comfortable. He was stepping into his shots and knocking them down with confidence. Defense looked pretty good although he still relies on his hand a little too much at times instead of moving his feet to stay with guys. Not a whole lot to report out of Roberts and McNees.I hate to say it, but watching Sweich, I really think he would be a lot more helpful in Mt. Union Purple and Black than he's ever going to be in Akron Blue and Gold. Had some decent minutes in garbage time. He can rebound. Thats for sure. But he's still too foul prone to really make an impact for this team.Hmmmm....I think I forgot someone...................Ohh YEAH!Zeke! So far, two big . Anyone who had any delusions about this kid redshirting please go get your head examined. I know it was just Mt. Union, and they had no one who could match up with him, but....damn. For those of you keeping track of stats at home that was 14 points on 5-6 shooting, 4-6 from the line, 2 dunks, 2 jump hooks, a putback layup off a missed free throw from Chris McKnight, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 8 (yes EIGHT) blocked shots in 14 minutes.. The series in the second half where he swated three Mt. Union shots on one possession was a thing of beauty. Not only does he block shots, his presence alone alters a lot of shots. I can't tell you how many Mt. Union shots didn't even hit the rim b/c their guys were so worried about Zeke coming in and getting the block. He also looks a lot better on the offensive end than I expected. That jump hook in the lane is going to be deadly. Really only made one mistake on that 18 foot jump shot that he rushed after it deflected away from Humpty. Other than that there is really nothing to complain about. This kid is going to be real special for us. I can't wait to see how well he develops.Feeling real good about this team right now. I know it was just Mt. Union, but good teams crush inferior competition. Tonight we crushed the Purple Raiders.