GoZips

Excellent interview. Tree already grown past the "you know, you know" stage of interviewing. Tree gives a good insight to how the kids view themselves, their abilities and their goals. He has the potential to put four great years in as a Zip. Just do it, Tree.

It is already time to work on Tree's free throw shooting. He was gawd-awful shooting free throws at practice time after time. I once quipped that Tree could not make a free throw if he was allowed to dunk the ball. Its all about basics. Tree has no set, practiced form. He willy-wobbles his shots. Some times he gets off his heels and some times he shoots flat footed. His arm motion is jerky when it should be a smooth stroke. He rarely finishes with a down snap of his wrist. All in all, he is a poor free throw shooter. But, take heart, Zeke was nearly a poor a free throw shooter as Tree is now. The UA coaching staff has made huge improvement in Zeke's free throw shooting.

They appear to be a mish-mash of practice jeresys. They look like what I saw at the several practices I attended. Probably the Zips are getting new uniforms for the upcoming season.

Looking at the box score it seems that Serbia's coach plays his six iron men.

On Gozips.com in the article on today's game there is a link to the game stats. Box score and play-by-play given. Tree badly needs to work on free throw shooting. This could hurt the Zps and/or keep him on the bench during tight games. Was a delight to be able to review today's action in detail. Egner appears to be a beast. Micheal Green gave a good account of himself. What's this? ONE assist for the team? We playing street ball? Rebounding still seems to be an issue. The stats should warm your hearts. The Zips played well. McGill is suppose to be a good team.

Carlton will be an interesting match up. Look over their previous box scores. Phillip Scrubb gets to the free throw line a lot. Their opponents commit a lot more fouls than Carlton does. Why? Wonder if its FIBA rules. Darn good thing the Zips have plenty of depth. They will need it with all those happy whistles. I smell a rat. Must be girls rules. No doubt Carlton will be the Zips sternest test thus far. Glad the kids get some rest as their legs must be like jello right about now. Be nice to blow these dudes out of the gym.

I am excited about the upcoming men's and women's basketball seasons. I am excited about the upcoming men's and, yes, even the women's soccer season. Volleyball interests me. Heck, if we had a tidily winks team I'm probably attend some matches. But, football ... blah. Way, way too much negativity for my taste. Tired of players leaving, poor recruiting, bad coaching, insipid reporting, and most of all ... losing. Football is the cornerstone sport of college sports. And, sadly, Akron has become the new Crap State. In my mind's eye it is make it work now or kick Ianello and his staff to the curb. He was a miserable and stupid choice to lead this program. He, like Brookhart, came to this team with zero credentials. Akron can not afford these kind of decisions. I mean no disrespect to Rob Ianello. I am sure he is a decent man, even a good man. But, Akron needs a hard nosed, no nonsense football coach; not a learn on the job rookie. It angered me so much last season that I did not renew my season tickets which I had held for more than twenty years. I did not buy season tickets this year either. As a fan I have only two options to voice my displeasure: bitching and not buying tickets. I choose to do both. For those of you "true believers" tell me where I am wrong.

Good game report on YouTube by coach Dambrot. Be sure to watch clear to the end. Last 30 seconds a treat.

Yeah, and I am still waiting along with the rest of you. Would be interesting to see both of today's stat sheets. KD eschewed the suggestion to run a couple of practices using FIBA rules. I think the trapezoid free throw area and the twenty-four second clock both helped the Zips develop. The trapezoid some what negates Zeke's height advantage. Not even sure if Zeke played a lot of minutes. I believe that most of the minutes thus far have gone to the newer players with two or three of the more experienced players on the court with them to act as teaching guides. The objective is to develop team chemistry and sharpen individual skills. I can hear Clint Eastwood, er, KD, yelling, "improvise, adapt, overcome". The next two games will test the Zips and give a much better read on where the kids are.

Degeh really interviews well. Impressive young man.

Quincy Diggs .390 (ESPN) Brett McClanahan .389 (ESPN) Brett McKnight .385 (ESPN) Same stats here (CBS Sports) ...and here (Rivals) The 2011 Post Season Media Guide does NOT include the Notre Dame game. Quincy took and made one three point shot against the Irish. That elevated his percentage. McClanahan took a couple of shots against the Irish and his percentage went down. Brett fired up over two hundred three balls over the course of the season. Diggs shot forty-one three balls. Huge difference. Diggs by virtue of rarely shooting long shots gains a minor statistical advantage. He is NOT the best outside shooter on the Zips. I will concede that percentage wise with a small sample he "appears" to be ... blah, blah, blah. Truth is; Diggs had a terrible stroke and any one who follows the game would and should cringe when he took those long shots. My original intent was to give Quincy credit for his work over the off season for improving his game. Some of you find busting my ass more to your liking than recognizing this kid for his hard work.

I don't know who we will be playing, but I hope we schedule Carleton, Saskatchewan, and Dalhousie or teams of their caliber. I fear we will instead schedule teams like Chabot, Ohlone, and Siskiyous. Regardless, the extra practice time should be beneficial. Well, the schedule turns out to have a little of both with a tendency towards the weak side. The last game against Carleton could be interesting. The first 4 against Sheridan, Quebec, McGill and the Champlain hasbeens should be name the score outings for the Zips. I'm interested in the game against Carleton. They have won seven of the last nine CIS (the Canadian NCAA) national championships. They had an 87-game winning streak going from 2003-2006. How we do against them will tell us a lot about our team. The four games preceding this one are pretty much just to figure out a basic depth chart. It would appear the Carleton Ravens lost to LaSalle but beat Illinois State recently. I don't know if I'm impressed with 7 of the last 9 CIS. My son's T-ball team was pretty strong, too, but we couldn't have held a candle against the little leaguers. Quoth the Ravens: "Never Scored"... Watch how they do against UCF later today. That will provide us with a good way to compare how we stack up against a good mid-major (finished with an RPI of 69 last season). UCF defeated Carlton 93-84. UCF played their five starters an average of 30 minutes each. Twenty-eight minutes was the minimum time logged by a UCF starter. Thus, Zach was correct pointing out that Carlton is a pretty decent Canadian team.

For the record -- I never cringed when the guy that lead the 2010-11 Zips in 3-point shooting percentage (39%) launched a 3. I was actually sort of happy. Could you please produce the statistical record that states that Diggs lead the Zips in three point percentage? I have in my possession the 2011 Post Season Media Guide. In it I find that player who averaged 39.2% was Brett McClanahan. In second place was Brett McKnight at 38.7%. Quincy Diggs shot a respectable 37.5% on 15 of 40 attempts. I stand by what I stated before. Diggs had a terrible shot which over the off season he has greatly improved. Diggs never had a "green" light to fire up threes. He averaged a trey shot about once every fourteen minutes of play. Alex Abreu with similar minutes on the floor shot 37.4% and took a three ball shot about every 7.7 minutes on the floor. Alex had the green light. Perhaps Quincy's three ball percentages would have improved if he shot more often. I think that this coming season Q will have more threes and more shots per minutes played because he improved his shot over the off season. We tend to expect players to improve as they progress through their years playing college ball. Diggs should live up to that expectation.

Egner has been being groomed to back up Zeke in the post. Thus, he was not likely to get a start (just yet) at the power forward. Using the four man core KD hinted at (Q, Alex, Bret, and Zeke) there needed to be a starting power forward. Nick Harney repeatedly showed his intensity and constantly improving skill set. Thus, he was the likely choice to start at PF. Looking at the points scored one can draw the conclusion that the reserves saw a ton of action. Primarily Chauncey Gilliam (dying to know how many offensive rebounds he snatched), got a chance to show case his shooting skills as did Blake Justice. I still want to see the stat sheet. A play by play would be even better. I am not sure if we can glean much from playing Carlton or any one else as KD is likely to rotate line ups and let the newbies get a lot of minutes. KD has stated several times that he is not really concerned about winning or losing. This is probably the truth. The Zips need to bond as a team. Tree needs to man up. I hope he got to play at least ten minutes as he needs the college level "banging" to toughen him up. He has great size and a teachable skill set. What he needs is "heart", grit, guts, attitude. You get the drift. How did Brian Walsh play? Who backed up Alex on the point? Did Bret operate from the wing with long range bombs or did he drive the lane? How many minutes did every one get? How many team blocks? dunks? steals? turnovers? rebounds? Have to believe that KD went easy on Sheridan.

I don't know who we will be playing, but I hope we schedule Carleton, Saskatchewan, and Dalhousie or teams of their caliber. I fear we will instead schedule teams like Chabot, Ohlone, and Siskiyous. Regardless, the extra practice time should be beneficial. Well, the schedule turns out to have a little of both with a tendency towards the weak side. The last game against Carleton could be interesting. The first 4 against Sheridan, Quebec, McGill and the Champlain hasbeens should be name the score outings for the Zips. I'm interested in the game against Carleton. They have won seven of the last nine CIS (the Canadian NCAA) national championships. They had an 87-game winning streak going from 2003-2006. How we do against them will tell us a lot about our team. The four games preceding this one are pretty much just to figure out a basic depth chart. I don't believe the trip is meant to sort out the depth chart. Two guys (Harney and Treadwell) are prop 48 guys who only played HS ball for 1 year and have not played in over a year. They are very raw talents. As I understand, they were prop 48 kids because of lack of discipline and not lack of intelligence (and are coachable from what I hear and read). So you have 2 high ceiling kids that have little experience and undisciplined....they need coaching and playing time. The other freshman on the team can use the coaching time and experience as well. Since you can only take advantage of the "International" trip extra practice/coaching once every 4 years, this was a good time to avail themselves of the option. This trip is all about getting a chance to coach and teach kids who are new to the program and getting a chance to bond as a team. Nick Harney is soaking up knowledge like a sponge. He is a probable starter at the small forward.

Sounds like Akron has athletes. ........ But, can they play basketball?

I just had my BP checked this week. It is 138 over 70. I do not think a coronary is a major concern. Blowing a gasket is.

I really appreciate your practice updates that you give. I wouldn't get them anywhere else. But as the wise Mr Iverson once said "what are we talkin bout here ya'll, practice?... not a game, practice!?!" One of my favorite parts of last year was watching Q progress and eventually turn into a guy that Dambrot was calling clear outs for at the end of halves in the MAC tournament!?! I did see Q's potential early in the season, so maybe you are seeing the same potential in all the new guys. If there are four more guys that are going to contribute Q's kind of effort to this up and coming team/season, I'll be very surprised. Until I see these guys perform in a game time situation I'm going to be a little hesitant to start "crowning their a$$es". I'll be happy if KD can knock off a big OCC opponent. That will make me even more excited for March. Note that I am refering to athleticism, NOT their entire skill set. Right now Quincy is clearly ahead of the newcomers in understanding and playing the game KD's way. Note, too, that Mr. Diggs has gotten better over the off season. Remember how one would cringe when Q launched a three ball? Well, his stroke and accuracy have greatly improved. Which helps open his inside game. His defense has improved, as well. I have not written much about Quincy's game because there was just to much other stuff to cover. He is going to have a good season so long as he stays focused and continues to listen to the coaches. Personally, I still want Q as the sixth man because he can play the point, the two and the wing.

DistrictBaller seems to possess a better understanding of what is happening with the Zips than a number of folks who claim to be fans. DB's assessment is accurate. Fortunately this will be the final time I have to state this: You are negatively criticizing a team you have not laid eyes on. How about teaching the rest of us where you get this wisdom. Consider this: Last season Diggs was easily the best athlete on the team. This season Q would be lucky to rank as fourth best. Fifth is most likely. Figure it out. Oh, wait, you have not seen a single practice. Consider this: Keith Dambrot has a track record of putting winners on the court. So, why do you expect less of him for 2011-12? Consider this: You folks who never stopped by to watch a practice rate Demetrius Treadwell as a stud player ready to kick butt. Truth is; Tree isn't even ready to claim a spot in the eight man rotation. The potential is there. The reality is that he is simply not tough enough yet. Consider this: The Zips graduated four players, but, only one starter and one secondary player worth his salt. The other two failed to produce at the level they should have. Sorry, its the truth. Consider this: If you knew what is going on you would be pulling your hair out trying to decide whether or not to red shirt either or both the Freshmen. Consider this: Coach Dambrot knows what he is doing. Do you? This is the most talented and athletic group of players ever to suit up in Zip uniforms. Almost none of you have a clue about Reggie McAdams and what a coup that was. And, DB, Dambrot did not wise up and change; he finally was able to recruit the kind of player he prefers. We about to see the style of play Keith Dambrot wants. And, we are going for a wondrous and fun ride for the next four or five years, and hopefully longer.

Last chance to see the kids practice is tomorrow (Wednesday) at 8:15 AM start time. And, you have to bring your own beverage. Was suggested to Tom Gaffney of the ABJ and Akron's SID to post the game stats in their articles. Neither was planning to do that until they were asked. The game stats will give us fans an opportunity to see starting line ups, who comes off the bench first, and the player's overall performance.

Today's scrimmage (Monday, Aug 8) went fast and furious. These kids love to bang heads. The officials were kind and only called hard fouls. I think it gave the kids a chance to play hard. It is clear now the top eight players in the rotation (excluding the Serb). But the rest of the players are right on their heels. You let up for a second and you will be out of the rotation. The competition is fierce. A couple of players stood out. Bret McClanahan was a scoring machine inside/outside. He also was in form on the defensive side of the ball. Alex Abreu cemented his starting role on the point. Blake Justice may contend for minutes with Brian Walsh who also came to play. Blake just fills up the basket ala McClanahan. Blake is basically a two guard who is now going to learn the point. Chauncey Gillam seems to love rebounding weak side. Quite an asset. His style reminds one visiting college coach of Jamie Bosley. Nice complement. Nick Harney plays his butt off Keith Dambrot style. And Nick learns quick. Zeke is better every time he steps on the court. As KD sez, throw the f..in ball inside 'cause the big man is always open. I agree. The Zips are tall enough to lob passes in over the top effectively. Tree is another hard worker who is rapidly growing out of high school into a college player. He needs to get into better condition if he wants PT. He needs to be ready to go come October. Finding a back up for Zeke is an issue. While Josh Egner plays tough, he lacks the size to match up to a seven footer. KD challenged the players to always be in the ball holder's face and contest every pass. With the athleticism of this team that makes watching them play a lot of fun. They are good and have the potential to be great. It is entirely up to them. Last chance to catch a practice is Tuesday morning at 9:30. Wednesday practice will start and end early as the team will then head for Buffalo, er, Canada. One last point: CJ Oldham is playing like an experienced college player. He not likely to rot on the bench. Frankly, CJ could start for a couple of MAC opponents.

After Sunday practice assistant coach Charles Thomas gave MES, Go Zips, and a local college coach a guided tour of the 80% completed men's player lounge. Well done in blue and gold with grey marble counter tops. Refrigerator, microwave, sink (w/running water, both hot and cold). The chairs curved around the projection screen recline to a full horizontal. I nearly fell asleep in thirty seconds trying one out. Nice, large weight room with new thick rubber mat flooring is also nearly complete.. This is the same weight room the players used before. Now with a mirrored wall, fresh paint and more equipment. Going to be a fine place to relax, do school work and even sleep as well as watch film, play computer games, etc. I'm jealous already.

I stated this before and I will restate it now. If you have not seen this team practice do NOT criticize them. You are talking out the wrong hole. You are going to flat out enjoy this coming season. Thus far, I have spoken to MES, Dave In Green, Hilltopper and several coaches from other schools while attending practice. No one, and I mean NO ONEis selling this team short. All this said; here is today's news: KD was on a holy terror after entertaining prospective recruits Friday and Saturday. He was wound tighter than a Saturday night tick on a hound dog's back. KD laid into several and all the players for sloppiness, give a crap attitude, and lazy play. KD was on the war path. These kids know they are talented. They still need to bond and knock that silly pudding face off their mugs. Leaders are emerging. Not time to say who they are; so, don't ask me. Positions are also shaping up. Again, don't ask. Come see for yourself. Monday's practice begins at 9:30 AM. There might be an intra-squad scrimmage; take the hint.

Thanks, Zack, your report on today's scrimmage is indeed accurate. The Ladies seem to have difficulty moving the ball into CSU's end. Once they got to CSU's defensive line the Ladies fired in three wide open shots. CSU never got back to defend. Overall I thought that CSU showed a lot more aggression and ball handling skills. The Lady Zips seemed slow and unsure of themselves. Often a defender would return the ball to midfield and cough it over to a CSU player with a poor pass or get tangled by a pair of CSU players. Looked like the defenders have been taught to bring the ball to mid field and stop. Did not look pretty. Both teams played most if not all their players in a hockey line manner. The three thirty minute periods helped with the heat. Both squads wore dark colored road uniforms. CSU was obviously in better physical condition while the Zips clearly had superior athletes. A fun day walking around checking out the construction progress. A lot of foundational work under way. Could not tell what was actually being built. Expecting more seating and real restrooms. CSU had a much larger contingent of fans than the Lady Zips enjoyed. Player of the game was Akron's number 7. She fired in two rocket goals.

Sunday practice begins at 9:30 AM. Stop by; you will enjoy the treat. Today, Saturday, the kids had their sixth day of ever tougher drills. This team is so athletic and skilled they will be a tough out on any team's schedule. Forget the nonsense of criticizing Zeke or any other Zips player. Open your mouth after you see them work out. This team is talented and deep at every position. They will be a joy to watch and even travel to away games to watch. These Summer practice sessions are giving the coaches time to weld together one damn tough team. They have it all in size, speed, athleticism, attitude, experience, desire, comraderie. This is a unique team of special players who are bonding and developing. I do not expect any flat spots this coming season. I think now that those of you watched Saturday's practice understand now why I am so high on this team. All of you were all smiles and I could see the excitement in your eyes. Best of all, potential future players are learning what is happening and interest in being a part of the future is on a lot of young players minds.