Quickzips

Three is the best we can hope for, and I wouldn't be surprised if two is the number. Q didn't play last year, and you know what they say. Out of sight, out of mind.

It speaks volumes to me that I have no idea who #24 and #25 on the list are already. If the top 10 doesn't include Tree, Q, Harney, McCrae and Pearson something is very VERY wrong with the list.

The thing that worries me about the C situation isn't so much having the talent to replace Zeke. By all measures we have two guys on the team who should be able to play C at the DI level. Can they be as good individually or in the aggregate as Zeke? That remains to be seen, but both guys seem like they belong on the court at this level. The thing that worries me is the adjustments the rest of the team is going to have to make to playing with a C who isn't Zeke. Not to point out the obvious again, but Pat and Big Dog (I hate that nickname btw) are not the shot blockers that Zeke was. Not even close. Most guys at this level aren't. The rest of the team is going to have to make adjustments for that. Sound defensive principles are going to be even more important this year. Guys can't go out there gambling for steals the way they did the last 4 years because Zeke isn't going to be back there to clean up the mistakes. It isn't just a matter of replacing the player. It is a matter of adjusting the system to fit the guys that you do have on the roster. I trust that KD can get the job done, but it is going to be interesting to watch.

I don't believe I've ever stated that we can be a powerhouse basketball program. I think we can and have been a very good basketball program, but to say that we can be a powerhouse, which I define as a perennial sweet-16 team or better is a little unreasonable. However, we have been on a steady upward trend for about 8 years now, and I haven't seen any signs of that slowing down. Most of that is on KD as you stated, but the results are hard to deny. Especially when you start comparing them to football. Really, there is no comparison. Football hasn't had anything close to the success that the basketball program has enjoyed over the last decade. Comparing the two is apples and oranges. I don't think the football team's lack of success can be entirely blamed on TW. There is no doubt that his hiring of Ianello was a mistake of absolutely devastating proportions but honestly, where were we before Ianello? In our best years we struggled to get to .500 when the MAC was at it's lowest point in decades with no top-25 programs and struggling just to find teams to fill our guaranteed bowl slots. Other than that we've been a sub-.500 ballclub basically since we entered D-I. There is nothing to indicate that a better coaching decision would have brought us any measure of immediate success, or that we would be in a significantly better position today with a different decision back then. Could we maybe be a 4 or 5 win a season program right now with a better coach 4 years ago? Maybe, but is that really all that much better than what we have now? 4-8 or 5-7 still isn't going to a bowl and it still isn't anywhere close to being a powerhouse in the MAC or relevant in any way on the national scene. I know Toledo has had some success, and BG as well, and I saw what Can't did a year ago. So, I don't necessarily think it is a matter of us just being in the wrong area of the country. Like a lot of other things in life, it is just a combination of factors holding us back. A history of poor coaching hires (Faust, Ownes, Brookhart, Ianello), a lack of any meaningful tradition (please don't cite Heisman to me, the guy coached here for a couple of seasons early in his career over 100 years ago, that is hardly a tradition), decades of poor football, a dysfunctional administration, fan apathy. It all adds up to a program that is stuck in the mud and going nowhere. And please do not read my initial post as stating that we should drop football or move down a division. My point was simply that people need to re-think their long term expectations for this program. You can't just look at NIU or Toledo or Ohio and see what they are doing in the same conference and say why can't we do that too? Nothing in this programs history gives any indication that we have the ability to achieve the levels of success that those teams have had. It takes more than 1 good AD or 1 good coach or a shiny new stadium to fix the problems with Akron football, and it isn't happening today, tomorrow, next season or any time in the next decade. There is no quick fix for the kind of bad that runs through every blade of artificial turf on Summa Field.

At what point are we going to stop kidding ourselves and admit that Akron simply isn't a good football program? Never has been and probably never will be. We've changed players, changed coaches, changed systems, changed ADs, changed stadiums, changed practice facilities. None of it has ever really seemed to matter. At some point you have to start looking for the common denominator and the only one I can see is the University of Akron. I honestly don't believe we will ever have a consistent winner on the gridiron here.

The talent certainly seems to be there, and I think it is pretty well established at this point that KD knows how to get the most out of his guys. Still, there are questions that remain to be answered. Quite frankly, most of these likely won't be completely answered until well into the season. Off the top of my head: What is up with the PG situation? This to me will be the biggest thing to keep track of all season. Abreu's stupidity really put a damper on the end of last season and I really feel like that is carrying over into this year as well. There are a number of options to go with, but all of them have question marks. Is Melo's conditioning going to be a problem again this year? Can he become enough of a scoring threat that opposing defenses at least have to account for him? Will Evans' JUCO success translate to the DI level? If we need one or both of them can Diggs or Harney handle heavy minutes at PG? How do we adjust to life in the post-Zeke era? Right behind the PG issues this is the next biggest question. They are almost 1A and 1B. The PG question is a bigger one to me simply because of the responsibility the PG has in triggering the offense. Still, Zeke added a dynamic to this team the last few years that is rarely seen in the college hoops, let alone in the MAC. The biggest adjustment will have to come on the defensive end where we can't afford to gamble as much on the perimeter anymore. I just don't see us being able to take the attitude that it is alright if we gamble and miss because Zeke will be there to clean it up at the rim. Forsythe and Big Ike aren't the shot-blockers that Zeke was (who is for that matter?). What will be the impact of the return of Q? The guy was easily our most diverse weapon two years ago, and I still feel he would have made a huge impact for us last year. He can play and defend at least 3, and sometimes 4 positions depending on matchups. The early reports are that he has been looking good in the offseason, but you have to imagine that a year off will have left at least a little bit of rust. On top of that, there are really only 2 other players on this years roster that Q has ever even played with (Tree and Harney). Building that rapport with the other guys may take some time. Will Harney finally find some consistency? I know Tree is widely looked at as our best player, but I'm telling you. If Nick could ever find some consistency he can give Tree a run for his money for that title. It is scary to think about what the two of them could do on a night in, night out basis if Nick puts it all together. With his size, length and athletic ability he is such a mismatch for other teams in this league, and a lot of the OOC opponents as well, but he has a bad tendency to either get real passive or start falling in love with his jumper. If I were KD the first thing I'd be working on him with practice is that jumper. If he can't find some consistency with it then he needs to drop it from his arsenal all together. I really feel he could be a 15-20 PPG scorer for us without ever taking a shot from longer than about 12 feet. He is just that good moving toward the basket. What impact will the newcomers have, if any? There are at least 8 players returning who have been in KD's rotation at one point or another in past years. Given that I have a hard time seeing a lot of room for the freshman (and Evans). The big gaps are obviously at PG and C, which lends support to the idea that Evans and Ike are most likely to see minutes of the 5 newcomers. That said, the early reports are that B.J., Aaron and Kwan all have a lot of talent as well. I will tell you one thing. I wouldn't want to be KD having to decide who is going to play and who is going to redshirt out of this group. In a lot of respects it is a good problem to have (can you ever have too much talent?), but it still is going to be a very difficult decision. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised to see a slow start to the season. I am trying to temper my expectations just a bit going into St. Mary's, Hawaii, etc. I just think the adjustment period to no Zeke and no Alex is going to be too great for us to really hit the ground running. That said, I'm at the point with Zips basketball where pretty much nothing surprises me. I'm just ready for some hoops.

I think Javon McCrae might have something to say about that. While I agree that Q and Tree are definitely in the top 10, maybe even top 5, McCrae's overall body of work, on an individual basis is a little better. I expect him to be preseason POTY and I expect that he will be one of the frontrunners for that award throughout the year. Not sure how Toledo can be tops in the MAC. MAC West I'll give them, but the MAC overall? I just don't see that yet. I think they will continue to improve, but they are still a year or two away from really competing with the big-dogs of the MAC East. As far as Akron goes, there is no doubt that we are going to be rated a lot lower in the preseason rags than most around here think we should. The preseason rags are only going to look at who we lost and who we have coming back. While there is some talent coming back we lost our leading scorer (who was the conference's leading shot blocker and one of our best rebounders as well) and our starting PG. The preseason rags are going to penalize us for that in their overall rankings. Nothing we can do about it. That is the way they operate. At the end of the season, I have every expectation that we will, once again, be in the hunt for a MAC East title and that we will make another deep run in the conference tournament.

Not to sound like I'm on a crusade against Deji, but we've heard all of this before. He looks like he's in great physical condition, he playing well in practice, the coaching staff wants to find more playing time for him. Then when the lights are on and the games really matter he looks completely lost. I don't know if it is psychological, if the kid just isn't a gamer or what, but I will believe in Deji when I stop reading about all the hype on him in the offseason and practice and start seeing it on the court.

I'll believe it when I see it. Deji has mad athletic ability, but his entire body of work to this point screams great athlete, average to below average basketball player. Frankly, if some of the younger guys (McAdams, Gladden, Jackson, Kretzer) can't beat him out for playing time I don't think it would be a very good sign for our future.

Williams is a real nice get for the Zips. It will be nice to finally have a PG on the roster with a little bit of size (and no, Quincy Diggs and Nick Harney don't count). Of course you always worry a little bit when a kid commits this early. Two years is an awful long time for a 16 year old to change his mind (sometimes multiple times). I won't count my chickens before they hatch by any stretch, but it sounds like he's a pretty solid verbal. As for Jalen Hudson and the 2014 class. Something tells me that if he wants to be a Zip we will find room for him. He's a pretty talented kid, local, and you don't just turn that kind of talent away if he has legit interest in playing here. KD has over-recruited each of the last 3 years. It is the nature of our program right now that players are transferring out opening up additional scholarships almost every year. Way too early and entirely speculative prediction. Hudson lands in Akron. The Zips also add another PF with some size. Deji Ibitayo transfers out at the end of the season.

To be fair, at least one of the "highly touted" players you list came here as a walk-on (Peterson). It is pretty rare for a walk-on to come in and have a major impact on any team. He did finish up his eligibility here, and by all accounts was a well respected member of the team. What is really strange to me about this team going into next year is that we look to be so well set up at the 2, 3 and 4 spots (I don't think it is much of a stretch to say best in the league at those 3 spots combined), but it could all mean very little if we don't get some solid PG play and a little bit out of our centers. PG is obviously the bigger concern simply based on how much responsibility is on the PG's shoulders. I think we can play and win in this league with either a 3 guard or 3 forward rotation and no true C out there. We've done it before. It isn't ideal, but it isn't a disaster either. Shaky PG play throughout the season is a lot harder to overcome. I'm willing to give a little bit of the benefit of the doubt to Forsythe that he will be better now that he will be asked to do more and the system will be more designed around him, but I am not going to be completely comfortable until I see him perform at a high level for 5 or 6 games. Some of the mistakes he was making last year I can't simply contribute to the system (the constant shuffling of his pivot foot towards the end of the year being the most glaring example). I hope Pat is working his tail off to get better and not just sitting back and taking the approach that everything will fall into place just because Zeke is gone and KD has to adapt the system to his strengths.

PG and C are the two biggest concerns for me. I don't feel at all comfortable with relying on Melo at the point. He may have a decent command of the offense (to say he is a better pure PG than Abreu at this point is laughable), but he isn't a threat to score at all. KD's teams ALWAYS rely on balanced scoring and when you put one guy out there that can't put the ball in the hoop you throw the whole offense out of sync. Melo's defender can sag off of him and double as needed, and can go under picks all night long without any fear that he is going to get beaten with a long jumper. On the flip side, Evans has a reputation as a scoring PG, but he is largely an unknown commodity at this point. JUCO success doesn't always spell DI success. Even if he can score at this level, will he be able to run the offense and get others their shots with any amount of effectiveness? I don't want to have to rely on Q to play PG for 25-30 minutes a night and I certainly don't want to have to rely on Harney to man the point ever again. At C, Forsythe really didn't do enough last year to prove that he can take over for Zeke. I know Zeke got most of the minutes, and the gameplan was designed around his strengths more than Pats, but by the end of the season Pat was an out and out liability on the floor with his constant travelling on the offensive end and his tendency to get out of position on defense. I'm not comfortable with him having to play big minutes for us at this point. Ike Johnson comes in with a good bit of press from high school, but he will still be a true freshman and there are concerns over his conditioning. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see some "smaller" lineups this year. Perhaps with Kretzer, Harney and Tree in the frontcourt at the same time with no true C on the floor.

So if I understand this correctly: Home games Coastal Carolina Oral Roberts Middle Tennessee Cleveland State Coppin State Road games St. Marys South Carolina Diamond Head Classic Iowa State Boise State, St. Marys, South Carolina, George Mason, Oregon State, Hawaii That is a reasonable enough start to a schedule. You would always like to see another quality home opponent, but I fully understand the difficulty getting quality opponents to come to the JAR.

We are going to learn a lot about Buffalo this year. Either a change in coaching will serve them well and they will take the next step after Reggie took him as far as he could or they will tank without him ala Toledo a few years back. Western doesn't concern me. Hawkins has taken that program as far as he can which is a top 1-3 team in the MAC West that can only realistically hope to get to the semi's in the MAC most years. Look for them to have to make a decision much like Buffalo and Witherspoon in a couple years. Toledo has to be the big sleeper in all of this. They were a mess a couple years back, but one good coaching hire seems to have them on the right track. The APR penalties are done with now. They have a full slate of scholarships (that they seem to be using quite well) and they are eligible for the postseason again. More than that they actually seem to be investing the resources necessary to become relevant not just in the MAC, but in OOC as well. Beyond that Ohio, Can't State, Akron. That is pretty much the Big 3 of the MAC for the foreseeable future. Miami, Central and Ball State are all in rebuilding mode and early on in the process at that. NIU is a perennial doormat with no end in sight. BG has made it well known that they have no interest in fielding a competitive men's team any time soon. Eastern will continue to be hamstrung by their style of play.

Just to follow up on a few of my comments: It was not my intention in any way to imply that Kwan needed to add on extra weight to be able to play at this level. My only point is that guys who suddenly go from SG size to PF size usually need some extra time to adapt to that change. There are exceptions, but for every Anthony Davis (former Kentucky big-man and 2012 NBA #1 draft pick) there are 3 or 4 Cameron Blacks (BG center who really should have red-shirted a year). Unless Kwan shows up big time in the pre-season I would really rather see him red-shirt a year. It isn't like we are hurting at PF right now anyways. I did not mean to imply that Gladden and Jackson are similar players. By all accounts they are not, and the tape on them from high school seems to confirm that. My only point is that they are likely going to be playing on the wing for the Zips, and that the Zips have a lot of proven wing players returning. In that sense I do think they will likely be in competition for whatever playing time might be available after Q, McAdams, Kretzer and Harney get their minutes. I doubt that there will be enough minutes left over to justify burning the red-shirt on both B.J. and Aaron, which is why I think one will play and one will red-shirt. I expect it to be one of the more interesting battles in camp.

I can't see any way in which all 5 of the newcomers see playing time this year. Not with seven (if you want to count Q) guys coming back who have been in the rotation. If these 5 guys are all good enough to play minutes and push one or two of Melo, McAdams, Q, Kretzer, Harney, Tree and Forsythe to the bench then the MAC doesn't stand a chance in 2013-14. It is going to be a blood bath. I've not seen any practices, but just in what I know of these guys and what I'm reading on here I think this is how it will play out. Evans will get playing time. You don't bring in a JUCO PG to sit him on the bench. You especially don't sit him on the bench when your starting PG from a year ago is no longer on the team. Cheatham will redshirt. In most instances guys who have gone through the kind of growth spurt he has need time to develop. Maybe on some other teams he could do that while still playing some minutes, but not here. And especially not when he will be competing for playing time with Tree and Harney. Ike will play with the caveat that his conditioning has to be good enough for him to warrant minutes. His weight has to be a major concern for the coaching staff, and I expect them to monitor it quite closely. With the way the college game is played today you can't have a boat anchor out there. If Ike can keep up with the tempo he will at least see backup minutes behind Forsythe. Gladden and Jackson will battle it out for the last spot in the rotation with whoever shows up better in practices winning out. There isn't room in the rotation for 2 more wings right now. Not with McAdams, Q, Kretzer and Harney already in place. I'll give the edge to Gladden at the moment simply because I think his skill set is something we don't quite have in any of the other guys right now, but I could easily see Jackson beating him out. KD loves guys who go at it hard all the time and bring some intensity to the game, and Jackson seems to fit that build. And as one more aside. Deji plays sparingly if at all and transfers out at years end. Good kid. Plenty of athletic ability. Not a D-I basketball player.

I have to believe the most likely scenario for Quincy has him starting at the 2 guard. Maybe not right away. It could take a couple of games for him to blow off the rust, but I think he will get there eventually. He has proven he can handle the 6th man role in the past, and I would have no problem with him playing it, but we have so many question marks at the guard spots going into next year that I would really rather see him in the starting lineup. As for playing him at PG, I am on record here in other threads that I don't like the idea of doing it for more than 5-10 minutes per night. Just because he can do it, doesn't mean it is the best situation for him or for the team. Frankly, if we are having to play him 20, 25, 30 minutes a night at PG we are in big trouble as it means that neither Betancourt nor Evans is panning out.

Definitely makes me feel better going into 2013-14.

All three would be big helps. Of the three I think Harney's 3 point shot is the least important. In fact, I could make an argument that instead of working on his 3 point shot Harney should continue polishing the rest of his game and more or less eliminate the 3 pointer from his repitoire. I'm honestly most concerned about C and PG going into next year. I have no idea what to expect from either position. If we get the Forsythe that we saw against Princeton we will be just fine at C. If we get the Forsythe we saw the last 2 months of the season we are in trouble unless Ike Johnson is ready to play big minutes either way. Either way, I really think 2.6 blocks per game is a wildly optimistic for Pat. Consider that Zeke Marshall, the best shot-blocker in the history of the conference, didn't average more than 2.8/game until his senior season. Pat F. is not anywhere close to the shot-blocker that Zeke is. 1.5-1.8 per game is more realistic if everything falls into place. At PG I really think Nyles Evans will work himself into the starting PG role before long. Maybe he doesn't play 35 minutes a night, but I do think he will get the bulk of the minutes. Melo just has such a long way to go with his shot, and I'm not sure he can get there in one offseason, no matter how many 3's he puts up. I guess the good news is that those two being such different styles of PG will keep opponents on their toes if we can find the right balance between them.

Well, after the emotional roller-coaster that was, well really the entire Zips basketball season, but in particular the last 3-4 weeks of the season I felt like I needed a few weeks away from Zipsnation. It is tough as a fan not to become emotionally invested in your team at a very high level. After the extreme highs of the winning steak, the top-25 ranking and the conference title, and the lows of the Abreu suspension and the "what else could possibly go wrong" NCAA appearance it was time to take a break and re-charge. I'm not going to go too much into what happened in the tournament here. That has already been hashed to death from what I can see, and I don't really have anything to add to the conversation. Instead I want my triumphant return to Zipsnation to take on a more positive tone. First, a final note on the 2012-13 team. This is going to go down as a team I think a lot of us will remember for a lot of years. Partly for what they actually accomplished, and partly for what might have been. Make no mistake, this was a team that was very, very talented, but was never afforded the opportunity to fully live up to that potential due to circumstances outside of their control. Injuries happen. Illnesses happen. Suspensions happen. And on occasion all of those things happen in seemingly a matter of minutes in a way that can de-rail any program in the country. Despite all of it, the Zips still came home with another MAC title and have now securely established themselves as the top program in the MAC. I won't go too much into individual players other than to say that the 3 seniors will be sorely missed going forward. Each one of them represented themselves, the team and the University very well during their tenure with the Zips, and I only hope that the younger guys on the team learned some things about how to play and act as professionals on and off the court. Now to the future. I feel like next years team is going to have an entirely different look. Primarily due to the absence of Zeke Marshall, but for other reasons as well. Zeke's absence will change a lot of things the Zips do, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. Let's face it, there are few players out there that protect the front of the rim the way Zeke does. His presence changed the way the entire team was able to play for the better part of 4 years. Dambrot is going to have some adjustments to make with Forsythe and Johnson in the middle next year, but I trust he can adapt and move forward. Beyond Zeke's absence the big story going into next year for me will be PG play. Betancourt showed some flashes of ability to be a starting PG at this level, but he has a long way to go, particularly as a scorer, before I will be completely comfortable with him running the show. I'm not as concerned about his conditioning, as I think a complete offseason knowing what he needs to do to get ready to play major minutes will help him. I'm mostly concerned about that shot, which has a long way to go before it can even be considered average at this level. On the flip side we have Nyles Evans coming in who is more of a score first PG by all accounts. That combination is going to have to make up for the absence of Alex Abreu (who I would guess has less than a 1% chance of re-joining the team). The real wild-card is the Quincy Diggs situation, but I have to be honest, I've never been a big fan of Diggs at PG. He can do it for maybe 5-10 minutes a night, but if we are relying on Q to come back and play major minutes at PG, particularly after a year away, I think we are in big trouble. Speaking of Diggs, I do think his presence or absence next year is going to be significant for the Zips. Let's face it, we are a bit thin on the wings going into next year without Walsh and Gilliam. Right now we have Reggie McAdams and a whole bunch of question marks. You would hope that B.J. Gladden and Aaron Jackson can come in as freshmen and have the kind of impact that Reggie and Jake Kretzer had this season, but there are no guarantees of that. At this point I have to say that I hope (and believe) that the Deji Ibitayo experiment is over. He will make a nice D-II or D-III player for someone out there, but his length and athletic ability just can't overcome his lack of basketball skills and basketball IQ at this level. Blake Justice is a lost cause at this point as well. To have a veteran like Q come back, even if he needs a few weeks to blow off the rust, would really stabilize us on the wings. More than anything next year I'm looking forward to the continued development of our star forwards from the Cleveland area. Particularly Tree. If this guy stays on track and stays humble and hungry there is no telling what he can accomplish. I truly believe that he could average 18 and 10 each night, even in Dambrot's system. He is just that special a player. Harney is even more intriguing. The biggest thing I want to see from him is consistency. He can be an absolute nightmare for opponents when he has his head in the game, but he has yet to demonstrate that he can do it night in and night out. As far as the MAC goes next year, I really think the programs to watch (other than the Zips) will be Toledo and Can't. Toledo is finally going to be able to get out from under the APR violation penalties and compete for a conference title for the first time in a long time. They have a good coach, some nice veterans already in place, some high-level transfers and a good recruiting class coming in. Can't returns a lot of players from a team that arguably under-achieved last season, but still made it to the conference semis. I'm still not sold on Rob Senderoff as a coach for them, but if he can make some adjustments in year 3 they can be dangerous. Buffalo is the big wild-card to me, as they have arguably the best player in the MAC in Javon McCrea, but they will be under a new coaching staff. Sometimes a new coaching staff can light a spark under a veteran team like that, other times the veterans ignore him and the whole thing falls apart. I think OU will take a serious step backwards without Cooper, Offutt, Kelley and Marshmallow Fluff. They don't have anyone coming back on that roster who has looked like anything more than a nice role-player at this level. Way too early predictions for 2013-14: Rotation: PG - Evans/Betancourt SG - McAdams/Jackson SF - Diggs/Kretzer PF - Treadwell/Harney C - Forsythe/Johnson The largest playing time off the bench will go to Harney followed by Kretzer and Betancourt. Gladden will see spot time at SG/SF. Cheatham will redshirt as he continue to grow. Ibitayo will be on the roster but won't see much playing time. I still expect to see an announcement that Blake Justice is transferring sometime this offseason. Regular Season Record: 24-6 MAC Tournament Prediction: #1 seed. Semifinals victory over Buffalo. Finals victory over Toledo. NCAA Tournament Prediction: #13 seed, and, unfortunately, another first round exit (I just think we are going to be a little too young next year).

We simply don't have the athletes on the wings to play with a team like this. Walsh, McAdams, Kretzer and Gilliam are just a step and a half two slow. Could really use Q and Alex right now, but I'm not even sure how much of a difference that would make.

Anybody watching us get our tails handed to us by VCU right now that still wants to move to the A-10 is nuts.

2nd half against OU was the best I've seen us play defense. This half against VCU is the absolute worst. I mean ever. Nobody is fighting through screens, we're slow on our rotations, weak close outs on shooters. Just terrible. VCU isn't doing anything all that creative. They are just beating us up all over the place. I can't believe that Zeke's senior season is going to end in a blowout like this, but I have little of any hope that we can turn it around. This is what happens when you come out against a good team and don't give 40 minutes of consistent effort. Only guy who is putting forth good effort at both ends right now is Tree, and he simply can't do it all. Zeke has had a few moments, Harney has had a couple. The rest of the team is brain dead out there right now.

Forsythe is important IF Zeke gets in foul trouble. Other than that, maybe 5 minutes. Deji I wasn't expecting to play anyways, but if Walsh is out to his loss hurts a little more. Like I said in the earlier post, Walsh is easily the toughest of the three to lose. He's been in a bit of a slump lately, but our backcourt is already a little thin already, and he's a veteran that we rely on.

Walsh and Forsythe have the flu along with Deji with back problems. Walsh would easily be the biggest loss of the 3. How much adversity does this team have to go through in one season?