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and what is happening with ced and dials on top of that? i heard at the office today that ced was falling apart and wasn't likely to play either at Ball St.

and they have been putting pressure on our wings, making it hard to get the ball entered to start the play. i would like to see some kind of dribble entry or something to take the pressure off of making that initial pass. we have had a lot of them deflected lately and that is where the majority of the TOs have came from. its not so much bringing the ball up the court.skip-zip, i think you are right. dials has been taking a pounding and 1) it is wearing on him or 2) he is hurting with an injury. by looks of it he is trying to do too much out there. heck, i think he was the only sr. out there at one point in the game and linhart was the only other upper classman. and spending energy getting after people to be in the right spot (like he did with lil'mcknight and roberts the other night) is appearing to wear on him. i just think that he is key because he has proven that when he is healthy he is the most consistant player we have had. but it is tricky because we need him on the floor as much as possible. the good thing with dials is that he can play nearly any position on the court, so it is easy to find spots for him to be out there the majority of the time.

wood is just not getting it done at all. he has missed numorus 'bunnies' inside the past few weeks. and zippy 5 is right, he keeps running off the block when he posts up. this puts very little pressure on the defense in my mind. and in fairness to him, i dont think that his knee is cooperating with him either. he just looks dead legged out there. he isnt going by anyone out there and he is not as explosive to get up in the air and get his shot off the much taller opponents. lets not forget he is only around 6'5'', he needs that to be a major factor down low. and lately he has not drawn any double teams in the post (and def. not any triple teams) because of his inability to finish as of late. everything has been contested at the rim, something our D needs to get a hold of. i think everything will be fine if our guards can take care of the ball and hit shots. we will win if they do that. now, they havent been able to do that lately and we have had 2 losses and a butt whippen in the first half of our previous game. our guards will win us ball games, but our post presence will determine how dominating we can be.

I would like to know what the injury report for this game is. Wood? Middleton? Conyers? Dials? Does anyone have the word on these guys? This could play a major factor in the game on saturday.

You know, it seemed as if everyone was gassed the other night. There was not one person out there that wasnt tired from the get go. I wonder if that had something to do with a tough week of practice after back-to-back mac loses? I have heard that KD likes to go heavy during the week and on game day, and if that is true, I think it is catching up to some of the players.

i believe that next year wont be a rebuilding year the zips, but a year of growing pains. we will have talent next year without question, but we will not have a leader outside of linhart. i wont expect as many wins, but they will be talented and could beat anyone on any given night. but like it was said by lilroodude, lets focus on this year. we have a darn good team right in front of us and as the ability and mentality to win the MAC this year. I am excited for this team and I wish them well.

maggiemoo, that is what i heard as well. although the buckeye faithful tried to make an incredible story out of him wanting to wear the scarlet and grey, he actually had the idea that he was on scholly. then we he had to sign for the following year (as every student-athlete in DI has to do these days as there is no guarenteed 4 year schollys) he told them no. i dont know his reasoning for that decision, but there was a lot of termoil going on with Obrien and the NCAA and a possible probation. that is speculation on my part, but that did all happen at the same time. and he has made it known that he wants to go to the Dance. so a possible probation would hinder that chance. maggiemoo, do you know if any of this is true? it is just what i have heard from my buckeye buddies that were very upset that he left.

Hipsher didnt care much for D either, and it got him far huh?

zipboy....3. If we want more offense, B. McKnight needs more minutes. He is a liability on D, but a line up of Dials, Wood, Linhart and McNees/Ced with B McKnight gives us a lot of spacing.i agree with you 100%... but he isnt as much as a liability as wood on D... give BMcKnight more min.

it just doesnt make any scense.... put in for a crazy wild 26ft 3-pointer from a cold legged walk-on and for a guarentee bucket on the other end. maybe in rec ball, but this is the NCAA

he did indeed receive the scholly and told them no thanks... i know he entered the program without one, but he was ensured one for the following years... at least that is what i have heard from buckeye faithful... would be a great interview question for frenchy and dunn.

I just looked on CBS Sportsline early today and saw that he now stands at 1001. I didnt know if the Rowdies were aware of this for Wednesday's game. Would be neat to show are appriciation. I am thankful he said no to a schollarship from the Buckeyes to join the Zips. Nick, you have been a great role model for my kids and every other youngster in the area. Congratulations on your milestone and I hope that this team can get you a trip to the dance.

skipzip, i dont think that was the problem last night with the minutes to dials and wood. i think dials makes things happen all over the floor, and wood is an obvious threat on the offensive end. but i think that middleton's minutes need to be reduced just for the time being. he is obviously hurting or something. something is just not right with him lately. he is hitting shots, but he doesnt seem to have the explosiveness that we have been accustomed to from him through the past few years. so temporarly i think that reducing his minutes for the time being (until he is healthy) would be a good choice in my mind. wood gets tired out there a lot too and gets sloppy on D and with the ball, but this was a big game and you would think you would want to go down with your best men out on the floor. but any other game I would like to see around 28 minutes for wood. dials will be fine with his minutes. heck, he played the whole game last year if i remember right and 40 plus in the dayton game and was just as well off with his game. but the biggest key to me is getting middleton more rest until he gets healthy. good point skipzip, i was thinking that same thing last night when the game was going on. middleton just doesnt look himself out there lately.

zipfan81, come on now... goddard does it during mop up time when even the other team throws no effort out there. there is no scout or prep for those people. goddard is an issue that doesnt ever need to be brought up again. the olny way that we could talk about it is if 2 of our guards go down.the issues that need to be addressed in my mind is the t/o and post defense... we cant go through the whole year guarding post players with our guards can we?

Treeoman13:"Amen. You should take some of the blame here ZipsNation. First of all, there was no need for McNees to foul Q that hard. That was the start of it. However, Q should've responded in much more civil manner, no question. What escalated it was Milum coming over to Q and bumping him. Sure, he was sticking up for his teammate, but you can't do that - just ask the Phoenix Suns last year. Milum was ulimately responsible for the escalation of the fight and everyone was lucky that this incident didn't get waaay out control. Could've been extremely ugly." This is not at all how everything went down. I was not a hard foul at all by McNees. Not as hard as some of the no calls during the course of the game. Q escallated the whole thing and then Milum came over and got face to face with Q. Then it was Mincy for Can't that came over and started to swing at Milum. Dials pulled him away and then the ref took him out of the pile in a headlock. Then some of the students started to come out of the stands. That is what happend. Mincy should have been Ted up as well for starting the 'escalation' of the event. It was a foul on McNees and then a T on Q then a T on Quade. That is the order of the fouls/Ts called on the floor. Its amazing how pp can get the nerve to talk on here when they dont even know what they are talking about. Especially when the integrity of young individuals are involved, speek only when you know what really happend.

i would have to put in another vote for dials or linhart... dials is the best pt. guard on the team with his first year playin the position. i dont know his a/to ratio is currently but it was the top in the league, he is one of the best shooters in the league, and he manages the game like a vet. without that we would be a little above .500 now. and then he plays great D... i dont have to mention the miami game, but i will note the many other games where he has handled the other teams best player (although lately it has been linhart) and he is the warrior that keeps this team playing hard and together. he is and has been impressive thus farlinhart, with a tuff couple of weeks to open the season, has been playing outstanding. he got his boost of confidence and has been excellent. he is one of our best rebounders and is arguably our best defender. i think that he has been able to find is 'spot' on this team and has found a confort level and has flourished. i think that he can play nearly any position on the floor and give us that A+ effort and produce every time. i hope that he continues to improve this season. if he does then this team could be as special or more special than last years squad.

Zips Win seems to have a grudge against our best players... how can you say that quade and dials need less minutes. i think that they need more. dials needs to be on the floor as much as possible. the offense goes when he is in there. he has one of the best assist/turnover ratios in the league while learning a whole new possition. remarkable if you ask me. and quade needs to be on the floor for the simple fact that he changes shots around the rim. it is very difficult to score around the rim with quade being a rejector. yesterday was a great exaple of that. as uic coach jimmy collins quoted in the post game interview... “We knew they were a good transition team. Transition defense is what killed us. (Nick) Dials drove from end to end two or three times all the way to the hoop. They were obviously just more aggressive. I just believe that they beat us in transition and that was the difference.”i will have to add that he made some terrific passes on the break as well. i remember one to a running wood that started the second half. and i dont have to mention the oop to quade.linhart has improved a lot. but i dont know if it is improvemet as much as it is him playing with more confidence. he did this more often in fr. year. he has always been capable of playing real well like this. while i say linhart is plaing with more confidence, conyers is playing with much less confidence. his shot is awful right now and he is now starting to pass up wide open shots because of it. it will be interesting to see how the lineup changes because of this if it does at all... maybe another siting of a consistant 3 guard lineup?i am going to repeat what someone else said in this topic.... quades dunk was the best i have seen. amazing.

if it isnt obvious between the difference in ability with wood and bardo, then this convo is over. ha. bardo has no cordination or quickness. his chance to play is to play hard. that is it.

well dont you think that the players would know what each of their teamates have? back when i played and as my son is being tought is if the guy has a problem catching the ball then you cant throw him the ball. to me it is PG play 101. but like i said in an earlier post and someone else has said it as well... bardo will provide hustle and a little bit of sweat. but if you want proof on his ability to put the ball in the hoop then watch the man with his touch at the line. it is like a broken sling shot. our only hope for a post presence on the O end is Q and a falling CM. other than that we have nothing.agreed with the guard position, but i think dials is doing well there (someone said 3rd best assist/turnover ratio in the league). i think that the more min. he gets there the better for him to warm up to the position. -not saying anyone thinks he isnt doing well- . to go along with your comment skip-zip, taking dials off the point probably would allow him to accept more min. and would allow him to not use so much energy at that position. not excusing his bad fg%, but that may be a reason for the downfall in the %.dials is a leader, ced is a leader. we all know that. but my point was that everyone is blaming leadership with this team after a loss. you cant just shout out leadership. and the way i listened to the game the other night, he didnt make a mistake in the end of the game. so why is his 'learning curve' hurting our team? especially last night? i think that we are looking in unrealistic places for blame and answers all around. not just with this subject. lets just let these guys grow and remember we are a MAC team, it is really a 30 game warm up for a 4 (possibly 3) game season.

just to elaborate a little bit on what has been said so far...1. forget about ronnie coming back. from what frenchy said last night he was in uniform but couldnt even go through warmups (layup lines and such). he isnt close to coming back. you have to consider how bad of shape he is in. his timing. amoungst many other factors. you cant miss all that stuff and still be a solid pt guard.2. fan support. has nothing to do with the loss last night. just another excuse for people not to show up. look at last year... 26 wins and no one shows up to the games. nevada? just to name one. embarrassing support. 3. jimmy conyers. he should play more. but nate is not all that bad. granted, he hasnt been hitting shots, but neither has jimmy. i would consider moving one of the two to the 4 spot. when Q isnt playing well (last night) having those two in wouldnt be a bad thing. nate plays solid D and i bet that is what KD is thinking when he decides who is playing. because you arent getting any offensive production out of those two. 4. no leadership. are you kidding me? we have the best 2 guards in the league and you want to throw that out there. ced is the ultimate teammate and dials is like bill belicheck out there... always knows whats going on it seems. we just didnt play well guys. period. dont blame leadership for the lack of production. two different things. 5. ced and minutes. i agree to a point. he is hurting and it isnt that hard to see at times. we need to get him healthy. i dont know if taking some minutes away is the answer, but he needs to be healthy. because i know that KD, the team, and us fans want to win every game and see our fav. players play, we have to keep in mind that we need ced healthy for the tourny in march. 6. bardo and the frontcourt. bardo isnt going to take any pressure off of anyone. lets be honest. in everygame this year i dont think that i have seen 1 post move from him yet. if you cant make a simple post move you are lucky to be on the floor much less taking pressure off of someone. the only thing bardo can do is provide hustle. and that is where he is going to get his playing time from. hustle, rebounding, and D. but he brings no threat on the O side of things and wont. i just think that we cant win if ced and dials are off... i have noticed that when dials is in the 10+ range we win... that dates back to last year. we need him to get on track as we know and seen that he can. he is the difference and he needs to find his touch and fast. the last two outings have been lackluster for his standards at best. he has always played a great floor game, but he needs to be a hugh priortity for this offense and this team to be successful.

1. all i hear from the 'rowdies' is excuses here. there is not 1 good reason on here why there is not more rowdies at the games. cause its raining? haha. joke. its basketball, there is a roor over our head. 2. you have the same cheers for the starting 5 + some bench players. do you not understand the word of creative?right now the rowdies have been more than disappointing... but even more disappointing than them is admin. that doesnt do more to attract pp. to the stands. the team is doing their part.

ya they do help a little bit on the D end. but there is a couple things i would like to add. middleton, dials, and conyers were the ones on those two most of the night. and the for #13, he didnt score because we got him into foul trouble. he played most of the game with 4 fouls. nearly all of the second half. we cant take credit for his lack of production on the offensive end.

Sorry to all, but I have been absent to the forum for the beginning of the season. But from what I have seen so far.....PG - McNees is doing well for a redshirt Fr. Things are either going good for him or they are going bad. Not as consistent as we would hope, but like I said, not bad for a redshirt Fr. The positive with this situation is that he has the opportunity to learn from Dials and grow. SG – Dials and Middleton is the backbones of the team. They have been amazing and what they do on the floor will make or break our season. They play hard and they play together. You see Dials getting excited when Ced makes a shot and the same the other way around. But you also see them getting on each other respectfully. It is a privilege to see these two work the way they do night in and night out with the kind of weight that is being put on their shoulders. I take this combo over any other in the MAC hands down.SF – It is getting better, but we need more. Linhart is falling off of the map a little bit, but I don’t think that it is because of the excellent play of Conyers either. Linhart seems to be unsure out there and is not letting the game come to him. Not to mention that the mental game seems to be affecting his shot bad. He cant throw it into the ocean right now. Conyers, on the other hand, is improving. He needs to hit down shots around 17ft. I think that this position is our weak point. We don’t get much here unless we play small, and we all know that it is not possible to play small all the time. Conyers is showing the most promise so far through the first part of the season. But we need to be better here.PF – Another “weak” spot for us in my mind. Milum plays well at times, but like McNees, it is either good or bad. I think that he has improved in vast amounts compared to previous years. I think that consistency is the key here. He doesn’t have to score points either, just play D, block shots, and get us up with a hustle play and a dunk. McKnight has been very disappointing. I thought that he would be much better. But he is playing scared out there. A deer in headlights so to speak. Settle down big fella. His effort has been fair as of late. But he needs to give us a couple of post moves a game for us to be as successful as we can be. It would help take eyes off Wood a little bit.C – Wood is Wood. If he gets it going he can be great, but if he doesn’t early, then he is just fair. But that isn’t what you do if you are the MAC POY. (not saying he is, just that he isn’t showing he is deserving). He misses many “bunnies” and is full of laziness out there. Bardo gives us good minutes off the bench. He doesn’t seem to be a scoring threat, but he plays his role well and hustles all over the floor. He does battle on the glass as well. Solid contribution from him so far.I think someone else already said it, but this team has improved with every game played. (with the 2nd game in question). They are beginning to play harder and better on D and they are playing better together (assists are going up). I think that this team has a chance to be great and to be as successful as last years team. But we need to keep improving. One thing that I am embarrassed about and disappointed is attendance. The Rowdies are horrific so far and I really don’t want to hear another complaint from them about moving the student section. (Haven’t heard it this year, but it has been thrown out there many times before). And we need to get more people there. This team is very exciting to watch under the leadership of our guards. It is as good of basketball as you will find. Get people in the doors. As the $40,000 sign says on the back of the rec, This is Our Team!!!

Has anyone seen the returning players for the '07-'08 season? sometimes it is evident on how hard they have been working in the offseason by seeing a body-type change. Now that Dru and Romeo are gone, will we have a more uptempo style of play?

well from what i have heard from one of the coaches themselves is that gonzaga is going to be on the schedule as well as teams like wyoming and boise st. dont know when you heard your news but i got that word 4 days ago from the office.