Quickzips

Great win for the Zips. This is the kind of game that we can really build on. I was honestly never that worried about the game. Even in the 2nd half when Can't got themselves back in the game. It was like watching a rerun of their game against Miami last week. They went down big in the first half. Came back to get the game close early in the 2nd, then folded once they got it there. Can't is not a good team this year. They are just not the same without Q underneath. This is a team that could easily be bounced out of the MACC in the first round. See what all that JUCO recruiting and lack of team chemistry does for ya?Obviously Brett McKnight is the story of the game. 10-11 from the field, 29 points, 6 rebounds. He carried the team most of the game. Not that there weren't other contributing, but if we can get that kind of a game out of Brett every night, or at least something close to it....watch out.Chris had another nice game. He finally seems to be over the rib injury and is turning into that consistent inside scoring threat that we really need out there.Nik had a pretty nice game. He was aggressive on the boards and played very much under control. His emotion is still huge, and it showed when he came out and hit that first shot, but he's starting to learn how to harness that energy.Roberts frustrated the hell out of Al Fisher (who by the way, might be the worst MAC POTY EVER). Fisher looks like a shell of his former self. It wasn't just the fouls, he turned the ball over, took some of the wildest shots I've ever seen down the stretch and generally did nothing to help his team win.We didn't do a great job on their big guy Simpson down low. But at the same time, he wasn't doing a whole lot to stop us down low either.Humpty didn't have his most stellar day shooting the ball, but he came up with that big shot to ice the game late and he took good care of the ball most of the game.McNees is a mystery to me. He's supposed to be a great shooter, but I just don't see it. Half of our problem early in the second half was that Steve was spending 15-20 seconds of the shot clock pounding the ball around 35-40 feet from the basket. Bardo was, well Bardo. I think your going to see KD go to him less and less down the stretch here. He played the least amount of minutes he has all year and the team looked better for it. He's nice to have out there when Can't went to Parks just to beat and bang around down low, but he doesn't add a whole lot to this team.Conyers has inexplicably found himself back in KD's doghouse.Nate had a very Nate like game. A few key shots, great defense on Singletary and Evans, some timely rebounding, and leading the team in requisit floor burns.Speeking of Evans, can you say overrated? The guy is a streak shooter. If he gets hot I hear he can really hurt you, but if they shots aren't falling, the guy is useless out on the floor. For all the talk about how he is supposed to be the best player the MAC has ever seen, he looks incredibly average. Maybe even below average.

I thought I read somewhere that 60 Minutes is going to be at the JAR following the Can't team tonight. They are supposedly doing a feature on prison basketball.

I agree. K.e.n.t. is WHITE HOT this season. There's no chance we can run with them. We can only pray that no one gets hurt.Come on Cap'n. The guy is a new member and he's just expressing an opinion. Ease up on the sarcasm a bit man.

One good thing for the Zips. Apparently Chris Singletary is suffering from a shoulder injury. He was held out of their game against Buffalo, and could miss this game as well. Can't's team this year is Singletary, Fisher, Evans and not much else. You take Singletary out of that equation and they get even thinner. I watched them last weekend against Miami and they didn't look very good. The key is going to be getting Chris McKnight going inside. Their interior game is virtually non-existant with the loss of Quantance. If Chris can continue his recent run of good games we have a real good shot at taking this thing. Then it is a brief stopover at YSU and a trip to the real basement of the MAC, the Western Division. Hopefully this can start our run to the end of the season. This team is right there, but like most young teams, they haven't yet figured out how to close out games.

With the recent decision to burn Brett McClanahan's redshirt, I'm kind of curious about our other two redshirt's (Parrish and Sullivan). How are they looking in practice and what can we expect from those two in the coming years?

I am exactly the opposite. I don't have a specific team in mind yet but I want the Zips to play somebody that is less regional than CSU if that makes sense. I think it can only help the program if they get exposure in areas where they are not all that well known. More exposure could mean being in the mind of more potential recruits. Don't get me wrong I'd love to see us play CSU but I'd like it to be a scheduled game and if Waters won't go for it I'd like to see that fact get some publicity in NE Ohio.Maybe right now I'd say somebody like UT-Martin, Long Beach State, or Boise State (they'd all make interesting opponents at home next year) would be who I'd most want but really I just want a televised game.I hate to take another cheap shot at the local media, but what the hell, they deserve it. If "exposure in areas where we are not all that well known" is your criteria for a bracketbuster game then by all means CSU is EXACTLY where we need to be playing.

You know what I find funny, last year when everyone was waiting for Brett McKnight and Daryl Roberts to ride in on their white horses and save the day NOONE even put a second thought into the idea of them redshirting or whether or not they would be able to produce enough to justify them playing last year. Those guys hadn't even practiced with the team until mid-season, let alone played. I don't know how the McClanahan experiment is going to play out for us, but I also fail to see how his situation is much different than Brett and Daryl's situations last year. I also agree with Cap'n and others here that the MAC is WIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDEEEEEEEE open this year and we need to do anything that we can to put ourselves in position to win this thing in March.

Really surprised noone has started much in terms of a 2010, 2011 recruiting thread yet. Yes we have Zeke coming in next year, and that will be our only scholarship presumably, but there is still a lot of work to do with this team. You still have to surround the big guy with talent. Right now it seems like we have enough PG's (Humpty, Steward, Sullivan) and C's (Zeke, Bardo, Swiech) for the time being and I would imagine that we should be pretty good at PF (C McKnight, Nikola, Parrish). The glaring weakness over the next few years seems to be a wing player who can create some offense (unless McClanahan becomes that guy or Brett McKnight develops some consistency). Is there any chance that we could land Casey Prather? Who else is out there that could be that kind of guy? Any inside information around here on what we can expect next from KD and Coach Boals on the recruiting trail???Also, in 2011, I see from scout.com that we have offered 5'6" three-star PG Stevie Taylor out of Gahana Lincoln HS (I believe this is the same HS that Nate attended). I see a lot of chatter on him from Miami and Ohio's boards. Any word on what our chances are with him?

I can't believe only 2 comments on this game so far. It was a pretty nice road win, and definitly a game that this team can build on. Come on Zipsnation, wake up. This team isn't THAT bad.

Very interesting move by KD burning McClanahan's redshirt this late in the season. I'm not sure I like it. Our problem all year hasn't been a lack of guys willing to jack up 3's, it's been a lack of an interior offensive presence who can loosen up the defense and make those 3's a little easier look. I don't exactly think Brett helps that problem too much. Guess we will have to see. As for the game. It got ugly for a little while there, but the Zips have fought back. As usually Brett McKnight is a black hole often trying to fight through double and triple teams instead of making the pass out to an open man. Our foul shooting has been erratic again. Defense fell apart for a few minutes there late in the half, but otherwise has been alright. Hitchens is having a pretty nice game. We need to stay aggressive attacking the basket in the 2nd half. BG's only real defense when we've driven to the basket has been to foul us. Wear a path to that freethrow line if we can and make Lou Orr have to make some decisions as his guys get into foul trouble.

Two things are apparent to me right now.The MAC is wide open. More than ever this year's MAC is going to be all about who can get hot for four days on a neutral court in Cleveland. Yesterday's game in Miami along with the Buffalo/BG game, Ohio and Can't's rollercoasters and the generally suckitude of the West makes that very apparent. We have just as good a chance to be that team as anyone else. There are two things that this team needs. An inside post presence, and a consistent sharpshooter from the wing. Luckily, we should have both of those coming in next year with Zeke in the middle and McClanahan on the outside. I don't want to give the impression that this year is a lost cause, far from it. And ofcourse Brett and even Zeke aren't sure things (no recruit really is). But we should be able to fill our two most glaring needs within the next year.

You can probably take Buffalo out of that #1 spot pretty soon. BG is thomping them by nearly 20 headed into the half.

12, or 13 overtime periods?If thats the case I think we'll have to burn a few redshirts and KD and Coach Boals may even have to suit up by the 7th or 8th OT.

Whoa Whoa Whoa there CK. What do you think Charlie suddenly went Mike D'Antoni firing up shots every 7 seconds or something?

Until such a point that fair rankings are possible, I reserve to right to unfairly rank everyone. Fair enough. I hope you realize that wasn't a cheap shot at you.

My current MAC Power Rankings.1.) MAC East2.) MAC WestBeyond that, we really don't know enough about any one team to really fairly rank anyone at this point.

In theory what you guys are talking about works. In practice it's idealistic and unreal. As long as one school is out there willing to forego some kind of buyout provision coaches are going to expect that as the norm and other schools will have to forego buyout provisions in order to attract the best coaches. Not to mention the fact that there really aren't enough GOOD coaches out there to go around. Basic supply and demand says that the price for a GOOD coach goes up as a result and part of that is giving them the freedom to walk away whenever they want.

Are you for real?Yeah, I REAAAAAALLLLLYYYYY doubt anyone one here outside of maybe GP1 is going to be calling for KD's head any time soon.

The problem with Bardo is that he has no offensive game. He is to the Zips what Ben Wallace is to the Cavs. You don't have to pay any attention to him on offense. If he somehow scores on you, you'll live with it. Setting screens is not nearly as effective if noone is afraid of you scoring off of them. The problem with the McKnights is that they either A) settle for outside jumpshots or B ) try to do too much with the ball when they should really be passing out of the post. Not to mention C) Chris is still coming off that rib injury. I just can't see a lineup of Bardo, Chris, Brett and any two of our guards being that much more effective at scoring in the post.

The fact of the matter is that if we want to get more low post scoring, KD is going to have to get Swiech and Nik in the games more. We've tried every combination of Brett, Chris, Bardo and Nate imaginable and we still haven't been able to score the ball down low. Swiech and Nik need to be seeing playing time. Neither one of them can redshirt at this point and they at least give us a chance to solve what at the moment is probably the Zips two biggest problems (low post scoring and rebounding).

Make no mistake about it, a playoff system is a HORRIBLE idea for mid-major programs. You think it is bad with the BCS, just wait until you see a playoff system. Want proof of what the NCAA can do to screw mid-major teams with a playoff system go take a look at what they have done to our soccer team over the last few years. Mid-majors might not have much of a shot at this point for a National Championship, but just the fact that there is some legitimate talk that maybe Utah should get a share of the national title shows that we are working in the right direction. Who knows. Give it another couple years and the schedules may work out to where one conference picks up some huge OOC wins, gets 4-5 teams ranked in the top 25 and has their conference champion get a 1 or 2 ranking in the BCS. That is NEVER going to happen with a playoff where the seeding is subjective and essentially made up, but with the computer rankings in the BCS it isn't entirely impossible for a mid-major to make it into the national championship game. Anyone who is a fan of mid-major football needs to be fighting this playoff idea with everything they have. It's just another idea to keep the little guy down.

This team is going to continue to be the rollercoaster ride that any reasonable Zips fan should have expected this year. There was plenty to like about that game, but also plenty to dislike. I can't say enough about what Conyers did last night. The guy has FINALLY worked his way into the rotation and he seems to have the confidence to stay there. As long as he keeps attacking the rim on offense, getting up for some rebounds and playing good defense he needs to stay in the starting lineup. Nate showed almost the entirety of his Zips career in one night. He started off smoking hot going in for 8 points in what seemed like no time. Then he picked up two quick fouls. Then he disappeared for fifteen minutes or so. Then he took some wild off the mark shots. Finally he wrapped it all up with some nice defense down the stretch. What can you say. That's Nate. Bardo continues to baffle me. He plays decent defense when he stays down low in the post, but gets himself caught trying to defend the perimeter too much and allows some very easy drives. His offense is still nonexistant and there is hardly ever an effort to even get him a touch on offense. If he would keep his butt parked down inside, defend the post and rebound I'd be more comfortable with him out there. Humpty didn't have his greatest game, but it wasn't a bad game. There weren't as many freshman mistakes, but he didn't score a lot either. The dilemna with him is you can either try to limit his mistakes and risk limiting his production or let him produce and deal with the mistakes. Not sure which is the best way to go right now. Brett did have one of his best games IMO. He was actually putting in the effort on the glass and on defense and he passed out of double teams on a couple of occassions. If he can keep that up his minutes should increase. Roberts had a couple nice 3's and hit some FT's down the stretch but did little otherwise. McNees was stroking the 3 ball early, but his range betrayed him as the game wore on. He's still just a streaky catch and shoot guy that can play a little PG in a pinch. Chris McKnight is obviously not back in shape yet. He's not attacking the basket like you'd expect from him and he looks very tenative out there. Other than that, like someone else said, our offense against the zone is abysml. I know a lot of MAC teams don't play much zone, but you wonder if some guys will start to after watching the tape on us. I really like this team when we are playing fast and aggressive. We force a lot of turnovers and we can actually get ourselves some good shots. When we try and slow things down and play a halfcourt kind of game we get tenative on both ends of the floor and it leads to bad shots and missed offensive assignments.

Thought this fit appropriatly into this thread. http://miamiohio.scout.com/a.z?s=348&p...2%2f824396.htmlBig blow for Miami. Hayes was their #2 scorer and was leading them in assists.

I have no problem taking an closer look at KD and what he is doing with this program (even though I'm perfectly happy with him as our coach). I just don't think he can be compared to Waters. Waters is an entirely different person in an entirely different situation at CSU. If people want to have a conversation about the relative strenghts and weaknesses of KD, fine, but leave Waters out of the discussion. It's not fair to either one of them.

The reference to the pointlessness of this thread was more directed at the fact that comparing KD and Waters is an exercise in futility. It doesn't get anyone anywhere. They are two different men with two different philosophies about how to play the game of basketball and build a winning program. It doesn't mean either of them is wrong or that one is better than the other. We can compare number of postseason wins, appearances, wins over ranked programs, where the teams were before they took over, etc., etc., etc. until we are blue in the face. It doesn't get anyone anywhere. All it does is make for a bunch of angry fans.