Blue & Gold

You've hit on something (lack of recognizable offense) we've been wondering about / complaining about for years. We've said in the past, the offense consists of perimeter pass - pass - pass - pass - pass - pass - pass - pass - launch a contested three. Now that we've got legit bigs, our offense has changed, but I still don't see much resembling traditional basketball offensive movement. A few years ago an assistant coach (IIRC) posted on ZNO about the offense we run & tried to explain it, but it was so complex it was hilarious - like reading Greek. Basketball should really be a relatively simple game.

Agreed. I was, unfortunately, unable to attend last night's game, but saw a glimpse of pre game team intros @gozips.com & was pretty underwhelmed. I thought the excitement surrounding the new lighting system was in large part due to the fact we could now turn the lights off during pre game intros. Whatever. Looked like a great crowd for an opener & they got to see a Zips win. Go Zips!

I don't think anyone's posted THIS yet. It's George Thomas' breakdown of the Bluffton scrimmage. GT mentions something I noticed - the starting 5's lack of outside shooting ability. The starting 5 for the Bluffton scrimmage were Pat, Tree, Harney, Q & Melo. I didn't like that combo. Only Q presented a real outside threat so Bluffton just packed it in on D. IF Melo is running the point we really need to replace either Harney with Reggie or Tree with Kretzer. Thusly, I think Nyles will win the starting PG job; maybe not against CC, but sooner rather than later. To make the defense play honest, we need our PG to at least be a threat from the outside & Nyles looked to be a legit shooter. PG....Nyles..........Q 2G....Q...............Reggie W.....Harney.......Kretzer PF.....Tree..........Harney C......Pat............Big Dog Toss in a little Deji & Melo once in a while & there's my predicted rotation. I love Kwan, but I still think KD's gonna redshirt him (I appear to be in the minority position on that).

I also like the Zipper stripe. Looks great on t.v. If anyone from UA Athletics reads ZNO, I vote to bring the Zipper stripe back; at least get it into a more regular rotation. But I don't believe they removed the wording (yet) in the front of it. The wording is pretty cheesy. Get rid of the wording & put that stripe back on the helmet.

One amazing thing about Cheatham is that he just turned 18 a month or two ago. He's still very young. Because of that, and in spite of how good he seems to be already (I have to watch myself; we were playing Bluffton after all) I'm thinking KD will redshirt him if at all possible. Kwan will probably come back next year at 6'10" & definitely be stronger and more developed as a player if we just give him a year to watch, eat, lift & practice.

All good questions from George Thomas. Ohio.com

Looked great! But I'd like to see us wear the Zipper stripe more often. It really makes for an extremely sharp look.

Excellent! Welcome to ZipsNation and thank you for the insight. Go Zips!

I'm hoping, for their own sakes, we're able to redshirt BJ, AJ & Cheatham (who just turned 18). Give them a pressure-free year to mature, watch, learn & develop. It's a luxurious position to be able to redshirt very real talent. We're there. Winning is primary, but if we're able to avoid wasting a redshirt year for nothing but 5-minutes a game I think we should.

Part of Friday's scrimmage pitted the newbies plus Kretzer against the "Varsity." The newbies hung right in there. IIRC maybe lost the quarter by 3 points.

Lehigh Valley dot com.

I was @ the scrimmage today. KD had Big Dog switch teams, so Isaiah took off his jersey & turned it inside out. If you see Big Dog without his shirt on you realize this guy is not fat. He's just simply huge. My $0.02 - I was incredibly impressed with the freshmen. Big Dog, Kwan, BJ & AJ held their own against Forsythe, Tree, Harney & Q. They are all tall, can move, handle the rock, shoot from the outside and have pogo sticks for legs. Crazy good recruiting class. I'm guessing BJ & Big Dog will not be redshirted. Redshirts will go to Kwan & AJ. Edit: As I look at the numbers, I guess BJ will probably get a redshirt too. There's just a numbers crunch & too many good players. The only freshman we'll really need is Big Dog to provide minutes at the 5.

3-and-Out: Ball State. By George Thomas.

Akron Beacon.

Akron Beacon Journal.

Akron Beacon Journal.

At the JAR or Central-Hower? What time? Thanks.

Thanks, George.

I've never personally met either JD or Steve French, but I love both. We're lucky to have guys in those positions who are as passionate about the Zips as we are. Listening to the Big Time Sports show right now & Joe's pimping the Zips -vs- Coastal Carolina game.

My $0.02: I much prefer the Z to the A-Roo logo. But I do miss the Zipper stripe. Haven't seen that in a few weeks. I do appreciate how they are alternating the uniforms. However, I'd say my favorite combo has been the all whites we wore @ Michigan & @ BGSU. I like the gold pants as well, but I thought the white pants w/ blue jerseys we wore @ home vs. UL-La. were great. Very sharp.

is pretty sweet. Gave me goosebumps. It's Terry Bowden in the locker room after the Miami win.

GT Courtesy of the ABJ. I appreciate how George begins his article: "The score of UA’s 43-3 loss to Ohio speaks volumes. It says that the offense stunk, the defense played wretchedly and the special teams followed suit. Time to compartmentalize, forget, blow it off and move on." It's so refreshing to have a Zips' beat writer who tells it like it is and holds the team accountable. For 20 years Terry Pluto would write, "Hey, it's just the Zips. They tried hard. Nobody cares anyway. Now, about those Cleveland Browns/Ohio State Buckeyes..."

Well, he's no Dri Archer, but I like how DJ Jones looks carrying the rock. He may not have the home run potential of Chisholm, but he hits the hole more quickly and harder and more determined and runs north-south. DJ seems okay if he only gets 5 yards, whereas Chisholm tries to dance around & hit the home run every time. Consequently, he never hits it.

Great Homecoming weekend @ UA. Football - L Soccer - L Volleyball - L Women's Soccer - L When's Rifle season begin?

Agreed and agreed. ESPN3 is great. The games have sucked.