Captain Kangaroo

Yeah. That St Marys' game was great.

BC has been terrible by ACC standards. Toledo has been terrible by MAC standards. Kudos to the Rockets. Looks like they are officially no longer a cupcake?

Heck, there's a lot of Zips fans that would have been happy to lose to BC by 20.

I don't advocate adding PG to Q's plate. I advocate making it his plate. Would it diminish his points? Sure. Would it increase his assists? Yes. And, it would free-up McAdams and Kretzer for the open looks they are struggling to get in the post-AA era. You play the season to win as many games as possible, not to develop players for the next season. If Q at the point gives us a better chance to win games, he should play the point. Evans can work on the role in practice and over the summer. Again - if Evans can play the position, by all means he should be the man. But if he can't, the PG should be the best option for us to win at The Q. And that's Q.

There are many who consider you to be acting like an entitled whiner.

Man...the Celtics win a couple games and the Laker fans go off the deep end! If Evans can handle the point, I'm all for it. But thus far I don't see it happening. Very early in the voting, but the first precincts are reporting he has a lot of work to do to be a real point. And our up-front schedule is pretty tough. I am with you, brother! But I see a pass-first Diggs at PG as our best chance to make any noise in Hawai'i.

Not too shabby.

But that's just life in Akron... We lost CJ Mizell early in the season...arguably our most notable 2013 recruit...and his absence was a complete mystery for multiple weeks. Could you imagine at Ohio State if their #1 recruit disappeared for weeks and his whereabouts were never mentioned? Years ago I used to meet with Brookhart's staff. They were very open to discuss anything. Ianello - the polar opposite. Maybe I'll start that back up again. Bowden's guys seem to be foreword-thinking enough to understand our site can be a plus to the program.

The assertion that we're in some sort of recruiting peril is laughable. Bowden didn't get the HC job at UA until late December, and had a solid Year #1 recruiting class. Year #2 added a ton more talent. Now he has 7 kids committed in early November of Year #3, and people fret? Seriously? And the people that whine about the local HS kids...give me a break. We have Grice, Bickley, Brumbaugh, Pratt...Lane, Pittman and Moore will be playing next year...we do fine locally. And the kids from Florida and southern Ohio are panning out just fine. Pennsylvania too. Fretting over Zips recruiting in November is flat-out insane. Fretting over not getting local kids is worse. What has Bowden done, or not done recruiting-wise, to not have faith in the guy? The internet recruiting sites generate nothing but a sea of Chicken Littles.

The latter. Also - getting the ball up the court quickly and not letting the offense stagnate is a problem with a sub-par PG. A great point guard is unselfish and pass-first, but he's a threat to score if the defense slacks-off. With a great point guard, the remainder of the offense works to get open because they know he'll get them the rock. Our present "true" point guards are not a threat to score. And the opposing D can clog the paint in the half-court. And when the ball is tossed down low, there's no threat of kicking it back to the PG for a 3. That was a real strength/threat of Abreu. He kept the D honest. You contend that our roster has no high-major talent. True. But we are as loaded and anyone with high mid-major talent. Except at point guard. That is hurting us against teams like VCU and St Marys. Teams we should not be getting rolled by 20 - 40 points as we complete decade #1 of the KD Era. How would I address this issue? I make Diggs THE point guard, immediately. Give him 25...maybe even 30 minutes per game exclusively at the point. Diggs is our best ball handler, and he is a legit threat to drain the three if left open. He's also our most creative passer. What needs to change is - Diggs needs to put his wing mentality in the garbage can for the remainder of the season. He can't be the isolation guy that relies on dribble-penetration so heavily. There, he simply turns the ball over too much. Every time down the court he needs to think "pass first." If he can embrace that mentality, things will open up everywhere. The crappy Boston Celtics, who jettisoned hall of famers Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, have now won 4 straight. They beat Miami, in Miami, a couple nights ago. They are winning because Brad Stevens handed the point guard reins to Jordan Crawford, a guy with a career reputation as an out-of-control gunner But Stevens recognized he was the team's best passer. He's longer than most point guards. And his ability to drain an open outside look keeps the opposing team's D honest. [side Note - I realize most of you don't follow the Celtics, but if you click on the link and read the embedded column from a Zips/Abreu/Diggs point of view, I think the correlation between that, and the Celtics/Rondo/Crawford situation makes it applicable and interesting.] The Zips need Diggs as their #1 point guard. Not as a "hobby," but as his primary position. Diggs needs to eschew a few shots per game in lieu a few assists, for the overall team good. There is no other PG option with the upside such a move offers.

NIU 48 BSU 23

How'd it go against VCU? @BigDog and @Momager can split the point guard duties against MAC teams and the Zips still win. This thread is about upper-tier competition.

Then who is our point guard? I haven't seen enough of Evans to know one way or the other if he can run the point. I hope he can. But if he can't, our situation is way closer to "West Virginia Part II" than you might like to admit.

After watching the Coastal Carolina game, the St Mary's match up is definitely a concern. Point guard may be worse than I feared. Diggs? His return was exciting on many levels, but any new-found ability to run the point was conspicuously absent. Anything beyond spot duty (maybe 5-8 minutes per game) does not bode well. Evans? Meh. We'll see if he gets acclimated to the D1 game soon. He's our best chance. But he didn't show much in his D-1 debut. Betancourt? He improved his conditioning and tattoos in the off-season, but not much else. Shaky defense, shaky ball handling, and no offense. Ibitayo? He's the same guy as year 1 and 2. The Conyers Award can be placed back in the closet. Harney? I'm sure he tears up Betancourt and Ibitayo in practice (when running the point), but St Marys is a different story. Also - I'd like him a lot better if he'd quit shooting the three. Stay around the glass, Nick. There were times Saturday when I thought this Zips team was as good as I'd ever seen. They reminded me of the old K.e.n.t. teams of the early 2000's. But those spurts came from the pressure D and fast breaks. Once the Zips tired, then Coastal would rally hard. And as deep as our bench appears to be...without any significant production and leadership from the point we will struggle against the elite opponents. How ugly was it when Coastal pressed us? And their press wasn't anything special. Hope KD can figure it out. Hope Evans' improvement is on a fast track. We're 80% of the way towards being a legit tournament-advancing team.

We never win at Buffalo.

My favorite was Leikeim Dunkle Weisse. Every sip was better than the previous one. Keener: You've drank around 200 different beers in the last 8 weeks alone! You're a Casanova of Fermentation...there's NO WAY you'd ever settle down and "marry" 1 beer!

Did any Rowdies steal the Penn State uniforms prior to the game?

Next year there will be roughly 32 minutes/game freed-up based upon Diggs' graduation. But, Dambrot will likely use his one available scholarship to bring in a point guard, and that kid will likely eat into a good chunk of those 32 minutes. So...add in Ibitayo's 4 minutes per game...and we'll have three redshirts vying for a handful of those newly-available minutes against a boatload of Juniors and Seniors. I don't see the 2013-14 redshirt kids getting appreciable court time until 2015-16. Unless of course, someone really underachieves this season. The 2014-15 Cheatham/Forsythe "battle" for PT will be interesting. Depending upon Pat's early motor, it might even occur this November? We'll just have to sit back and watch how it all plays-out.

Coastal Message Board If you have 31 free seconds, go ahead and check it out in it's entirety.

Edit completed. Which beer did everyone like the best?

Please not 10am, please not 10am, please not 10am....

He's the healthiest guy in the history of college football ever to have needed to sit out an entire season, yet played in every quarter of every game for an entire season. Dalton Easton's loss is our gain.

Bowden has signed some great recruits despite a selling point of "Three Consecutive 1-win seasons." And in year one, he had all of maybe 5 weeks to recruit? Now that we are officially out of the "dregs" column, I can't wait to see his Signing Day commits!

+1 I've seen QB's play hurt. Pohl may be dinged-up, but no more so than any other QB's in week 10. He had several strong runs...designed runs...over the last two games. You don't draw up such plays if your QB is seriously injured. Paraphrasing Bowden on this week's Coach's Show - "Jordan Lynch gets hit harder and more often than anyone in the nation. And he doesn't complain. It's football. You're always going to be a little hurt."

It's not like he'd be a non-qualifier. He still practices with the team. I doubt he'd do anything but dramatically improve his physical condition.