Captain Kangaroo

Here is a bizarre one...the Orlando Sentinel writer thinks Bowden is still the Zips head coach. Not Terry either...it's Tommy. Time to hang up the typewriter old man... Peter Hayes-Patrick article and video

Dr. Z and I were able to attend the Signing Day press conference held earlier today. I think this is the 20th one I've attended, dating back to the Lee Owens days. There were no player videos...I guess there's not much need for those anymore, with all the information that's available on the internet. But it would have been nice to hear the coach walk through each individual player and provide thoughts. Only Coach Arth was present. None of the other staff members attended. Nor were there any players. No TV cameras. Nor was Elton Alexander present. I jotted down some of the comments from the Coach that I thought were interesting - Regarding the difficulty of recruiting on such a short time frame, he said: In the past (pre-2018 class), if you were hired in December every potential player was, in theory, still available. Now, more than half of them are committed. I believe the actual number is around 70%? It was easy to find great kids who weren't at the FBS talent level...and it was easy to find kids with FBS talent, who had issues with grades or other problems, but it was tough finding great kids with FBS-level talent. He said the turning point where the staff knew they could assemble a great class was after the first official visit weekend. The way he described it, it was the equivalent of holding a party, with no idea if anyone would show up. It ended up they received eight or nine commitments that weekend, and that was really the first time the staff thought "I think we're gonna be alright." He also mentioned that the kids who committed from that first weekend were instrumental in getting the remainder of the class signed. They really helped in the recruiting process. He specifically mentioned Zach Gibson stepping up and leading the "recruit-recruiting" process, as you'd hope a 4-year high school starter quarterback would. Coach Arth mentioned Peter Hayes-Patrick would be expected to vie for playing time immediately. I thought this was interesting, as Hayes-Patrick's commitment tweet mentioned playing for the Zips for "3-4 years." You could have taken the "3" to mean grades might be an issue. Apparently not. The Spring Game will be held April 13th at noon. Not all 2019 scholarships were used. There are a few "reserved for future use." On Xavior Gray, he loved the fact that he was never knocked down in any of the film he viewed. That was really impressive for someone so tall (6' 9"). On Demetrick Watts, he gave a neat story - - Humboldt State apparently disbanded their football team. Demetrick needed a team, and one of the present Zips player's father (I'll guess Bryce Peterson's, but I could be wrong) tipped the staff off regarding his availability. He came highly recommended. The staff originally thought he was a little on the small side and wasn't going to offer him. Apparently when a couple Zips coaches were recruiting other players in California, Demetrick tracked them down and introduced himself. In real life he was a lot bigger than they saw from his tape...and they ultimately offered him. They're very high on his potential. The strong presence of kids from the south in Arth's initial class, specifically Georgia, is a result of relationships the staff has in that region, and recruiting there will not be a one-shot deal. They expect to take advantage of those relationships in the future, especially when it comes to recruiting skill position players. That's the best I could do. I'm guessing UA will probably put the presser YouTube at some point?

Michael Mathison Article

I've watched Wadsworth football a little over the past 4 seasons. They're a good program with tough kids. I'm sure Mason will be a good one. Wish we'd have gone after Joey Baughman last season.

Do we finally get the full road colonoscopy?

Man against boy drive by Ivey!

They need to feed Utomi! He’s on!

But it will be tough to do if he’s on the bench.

Utomi is streaky...hitting his first 3 bodes well for a big 1st half.

It will be interesting to see if the recently resurgent Eman and Roscoe continue to make an impact. If they continue to play well, I think we’ll have a nice finish to the season.

Not if the program is disbanded.

So we get full colonoscopies at home?

To be fair, we usually play a good first half.

It can be difficult for any student athlete to get motivated to go through the grind of classes, practices and those long winter bus rides. After you get beaten into unconsciousness, I have to assume it’s even tougher.

We can solve the problem by listing Christian-Jackson as a center.

He was injured.

Without Scarborough we'd never have had the chance to have a renaissance. God bless that guy.

Good to see Robbie Kelly back for his senior season. We really could have used him last year when Kato went down.

There seemed to be a big recruiting night orchestrated on campus last night. InfoCision was blasting music and the scoreboard was showing the Northwestern game highlights when I was returning to my car after the bb game. Probably 12 black Chevy Suburbans lined up inside the stadium, underneath the home stands. Appeared to be a rocking party

Good to see the Zips terrible offense didn’t affect their effort on the defensive side. They need to find some way to score in the second half. Hardly any open looks in the first half.

Woo hoo! I'm young!!

You ain’t kidding. I stopped in and watched the last 4 minutes. It was awful. Hudson was up 30-29 with 1:12 to go and tried to run the clock down. With 20 seconds left Mayfield stole the ball and got an and-1 off the fast break. Game over. There are some good players in Hudson, but few want to play for the coach. Most play rec ball instead.

In his last 4 games, he's shooting 14.8% from behind the arc (4-27).

Watts Up Story Roster Info

I'm going to take the unpopular side of GT on this one. Riak is a great passer. Maybe the best-passing player over 6' 10" in Zips history. He sees the floor unbelievably well for a big. But Groce needs to empower the kid to score. Riak gets a rebound 2 feet from the rim, and he's looking to kick it out for one of our 28% marksman to clang another three-ball. Just freaking dunk the ball. You're going up against MAC centers who'll be lucky warm the bench in the Holland Pro League one day. Dominate!! If you can't dunk, just give a head fake and go up for the shot. You'll get fouled and go to the line, where you're actually a pretty decent free throw shooter. I think Riak has the tools to be WAY better than what he's shown statistically thus far. He just needs to amp up his offensive aggression big time. Quit waiting for everyone else to carry the offensive load, and start throwing a few down yourself.