johnnyzip84

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Absolutely! His threeballs stemmed the tide at the darkest moment and helped give Alex and Brian the confidence to hit their daggers in crunch time. Plus he was willing to guard K.E.N.T.'s small forward (position 3) when Harney fouled out, even though he was giving up a few inches. It was a perfect example that he values team play and will do whatever is asked to help the team win.

+1

I'll preface this by fully admitting that I have had some doubt over the last few years regarding Zeke's core motivation on the basketball court. It was never completely obvious to me whether he was playing the game for himself or for others. I once characterized former Buffalo Bull Mitchell Watt as a 6'10" basketball player and Zeke as a 7'1" guy who plays basketball. Now it's time for me to publicly retract my misperceptions. It is clear to me that Zeke has turned a corner as a basketball player. If anyone questions his dedication as it pertains to physical conditioning, just take a look at today's ABJ sports cover photo (photo #2) of him blocking Kris Brewer's shot yesterday. It's ample evidence that KD is not blowing smoke up anyone's ass when he says Zeke is "the strongest player on the team". But I see an even bigger, and far more significant, change in Zeke this year. His body language tells me this: he has fallen in love with the game. I guess, in retrospect, it's not too suprising that it took a little while for this to occur given his relatively late introduction to the sport. I think it explains his composure on the court this year. I am really excited to see how the rest of the year plays out for him. Go Zeke and Go Zips!!!

Who, me? I'd say Microwave330 is aptly named.

Consecutive road wins at K.E.N.T. will do that to you

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I'm not a Scout "insider", but the "teaser" first sentence to this article makes it sound like Jerome wants to try to play both football and basketball at UA. I realize that's highly unlikely in the end, but thought it was interesting nonetheless.

Touché. Allow me to rephrase. Have the Zips ever won consecutive games at K.E.N.T. since UA went D1 in the early 80's?

Excellent, Keener! Due to prior evening plans, I hope to catch most of this on ESPNU before I head out. Hopefully the Zip's talented front court will click much better than the last few games, because I think we'll need to use those matchups to our advantage. Otherwise, this game could go either way. I was trying to think today if UA has EVER defeated K.E.N.T. on the road two years in a row. If I had to guess, I don't think so. Maybe another old timer can help me out with that? It looks like the Zips are 2 point favorites.

Apparently, there's been a change in plans and Robby is playing at UA after all.

His Scout Profile lists Toledo and Washington as schools that "offered".

Can the running game improve? Sure. Is Chisholm a perfect fit for the offense? Probably not. Do I wish he would lower his shoulder and hit the DB more often instead of heading for the sidelines? You bet. But for the life of me, I can't understand how a guy with THESE STATISTICS over the last two years of less than ideal conditions (even by UA standards) gets derided as much as he does on this board. If you take TB at his word, Jawon is one of the hardest workers on the team and he (TB) was pleasantly surprised in how Jawon was able to adjust his game for the spread last year. 1250+ total yards and a 5.3 yards/carry average is nothing to sneeze at, and he missed the CMU game entirely and portions of others. I do expect a smaller back to get a shot this year, but I believe Chisholm will continue to put up good numbers n 2013.

EXCELLENT!!! I was really hoping we would land Jerome. When TB played at WVU, the 'eers had a DE from Firestone by the name of Jeff "Bone" Merrow who would later go on to have a successful NFL career with the Atlanta Falcons. With Grice already here, Tommy Brown reportedly in the fold and Jerome signed for 2013, I'd say TB has done a great job of using his familiarity with Firestone HS to the benefit of the Zips. Granted, Cody was already here but he wasn't being fully utlilzed. You can tell by Cody's interviews last year that he REALLY likes playing for this staff, and I have to believe Cody's opinion was instrumental in landing these other guys. Nice job, TB and Cody! Go Zips!!!!

As I've stated ad nauseum, a lot also depends on how many of last year's "non-qualifiers" suit up for the Zips in 2013. Both lines stand to gain if some of these guys are available. I know the O-Line lost some key performers, but I'm still not overly concerned about the offense. The O-Line clearly benefits by TB's scheme. Plus, Tank seems to be as good of a position coach as we have on the team. I've seen enough of KP16 that, with the proven ability coming back at the other skill positions, we should move the ball and score plenty. If we're looking for hopeful spots on defense, I'd start with these guys: 1) Caponi - a high character guy who, although undersized in the interior, showed ability to play with a high motor in 2012 and should be only better in 2013 IF he can stay healthy. 2) Grice - I believe Cody could take BIG steps this year, considering he was playing a new collegiate position as a freshmen last year. 3) James - CSU Ram transfer will need to hopefully take the place of JD Griggs at one starting end spot 4) Presley - showed a big upside before injuries took him out of action. 5) Jamal Turner - assuming he can totally "buy in" (may be questionable, since he missed the Toledo game for unknown reasons), he definitely showed "one of a kind" skills on this side of the ball. The best news we might conceivably hear this off-season is that JT55 is hitting the weights hard and looks to be fully recovered. We can only hope. 6) Jatavis Brown - JB53 was clearly playing better towards the end of the season, highlighted by a couple of big plays against UT. He is another who could benefit greatly by hitting the weights. 7) Justin March - the Alpha Dog should be primed take another step as a leader on this team. If he can avoid injury and pick up 10 or 15 LBS without losing a step, look out! Notice I left out the DBs, because this is the group that concerns me the most. I suspect that some of last year's non-qualifiers will step in as quality depth for the front 7 (especially Arlington McClinton). But the secondary seems really up in the air, beyond Malachi Freeman. Maybe we'll see some JUCOS in this area as well.

I knew Reggie had an awesome offensive, breakout against NIU, but I never realized it was THIS GOOD! That's approaching Jonas' early season scoring average of 240 pts/game

It's great to see Deji play well so close to home also While I'm at it, kudos to Zeke for playing THROUGH what had to be a lot of pain today. It was a little ugly, but the Zips took over when needed. Go Zips!

A huge thanks to Reggie McAdams for today's performance! We could be in trouble without him.

Can we get a defensive rebound off a missed FT in the 2nd half, please!

Now THAT looks strangely familiar

The benefit of seeing these defenses in practice is a good point, Dave. I think it's also important to separate the full court press from the mid-court trap the Zips have been experimenting with lately. I've seen much more success with the former, albeit in mostly in garbage time against an outmannned foe like UAPB or Coppin (Floppin') St, than the latter. I think some of the problem has been the personnel on the court when the trap has been been attempted. That second defender has to be sneaky and quick for this to work, and I have yet to see much of either. I'm not saying I'd give up entirely on it, but I would reiterate that it doesn't bode well that it hasn't worked well (IMHO) against a team like WMU. I think OU would carve this strategy to pieces at this point.

Now I should have spotted that right away. Well done. This should make for one interesting time in Lot 9 the next time WMU comes calling!

Nice summary, QZ But I think there might be a few, minor oversights. It was NIU who upset Miami in Oxford, not CMU. And with Ball St winning at EMU in the MAC opener, maybe Billy Taylor has a little life left in him as BSU coach after all. They'll need to make a run in the West this season, I'll grant you that. You're general conclusion is spot on. The MAC's good season in football is being tempered by a lousy season in hoops.

Is that beer or Old Grand Dad?

No problem, Cap'n Actually, I usually work with a safety net when posting something that is relatively long: