College Hoops Dot Net Top 144

[Zip Watcher]

OK Review .. but not much about Cvetinovic or McClanahan.

[bUAkronG]

Wow, I'm surprised to not see McClanahan's name mentioned at all. I hope he steps up this year.I liked the article. I thought it was well written. I'm excited about our depth this year.

[Quickzips]

Pretty good article. Couple of complaints:The article still has Andrew Parrish suiting up for us this year, even after he transfered out a few weeks back. I don't necessarily think Chris McKnight will be our interior scorer. Chris has always seemed to favor the midrange game a little more. I think Cvetinovic is going to develop into more of our interior scorer as the year progresses.I don't think you will see Brett McKnight in the starting lineup. We have seen it for the last couple years that Brett is better coming off of the bench. Combine that with his back problems that are probably going to limit his minutes, KD's emphasis on defense and Conyers better defensive game and I think you will see Jimmy starting at SF with Brett staying in his more comfortable 6th man position.The complete lack of Brett McClanahan mentions is puzzling. More than likely just an oversight on the part of the author.Personally, I'm really looking forward to hoops season. This team has all the makings of a team that can make a very nice run. Experience, talent, depth. Heck our depth alone is going to be a nightmare for the rest of the MAC. When you can run out 11 guys (Humpty, Steward, McNees, McClanahan, Roberts, Conyers, B.McKnight, C.McKnight, Cvetinovic, Bardo and Zeke) with the kind of talent and experience that we've got you can really wear a team down. Just think of all the possible lineup combinations in there. Want to shut down a team on defense? Humpty, Roberts, Conyers, Cvetinovic and Bardo/Zeke. Need some instant offense? Humpty, McNees, B.McKnight, C.McKnight, Cvetinovic. Want to play small ball? Any three of Humpty/Steward/McNees/Roberts and the McKnight brothers. Want to match up with some bigger teams? McNees, McClanahan, B.McKnight, C.McKnight, Zeke. The possibilities are endless. Not to mention you've still got he untapped potential of guys like Sullivan and Swiech. Man it is going to be a great season.

[Let'sGoZips94]

If everyone can stay healthy, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Akron gets ranked at one point during the season. We have the talent, depth, and height this year. GO ZIPS!

[Dave in Green]

Pretty decent overall. But another thing they missed is thinking that McNees is primarily a point guard rather than a shooting guard who was forced to play point due to injuries to the true point guards.

[skip-zip]

Pretty decent overall. But another thing they missed is thinking that McNees is primarily a point guard rather than a shooting guard who was forced to play point due to injuries to the true point guards.

I caught that too. McNees at the point, and Humpty playing 2-guard, which they are suggesting.....I don't see that ever happening.I agree with Quick about Chris M. I'm not seeing him as a low-post scorer. I think Brett is actually more effective scoring close to the hoop, but he does often get more favorable matchups. I think over time, Nik will become our best option there, and Brett will spend more time facing the basket.The McClanahan situation is interesting. In the last several games last year, when we were down to basically 3 healthy active guards, his playing time was very limited. Actually, the whole guard situation is going to get really, really interesting this year. If Ronnie can stay healthy, and with a big-time scorer like Sullivan becoming active, I'll be curious to see how it all shakes out.

[Blue & Gold]

...and with a big-time scorer like Sullivan...

I hope you're right about that.

[Dave in Green]

The competition for playing time among this year's guards is going to be outrageous.If Hitchens and Steward are both healthy, that doesn't leave many minutes available to a third PG. Hitchens proved himself last season, and many believe that Steward is capable of at least matching Hitchens' overall performance.I'm still curious how McNees would perform at SG without primary responsibility for distributing the ball. I still think he has the potential to hit lots of 3s if shooting is his focus.Roberts is the guy you want on the floor while nursing a lead at the end of a game and the other team being forced to deliberately foul. He's an all-star caliber free throw shooter.As the tallest of the six guards, McClanahan should have an advantage on both offense and defense at SG, especially against teams with taller guards. But he'll have to demonstrate that his learning curve has gone up after the kind of early freshman errors that Hitchens overcame last season. I'm sure it wasn't easy for McClanahan to adjust to losing his redshirt after the season was well underway.Sullivan is still a mystery until we see how he adapts to college competition. If he's really good and a quick learner, he could be the surprise of the season. Otherwise he'll be insurance for the future.

[Quickzips]

Personally I see the guard rotation working out like this. Humpty and Roberts start. They made up a good, although undersized backcourt last year and it would be foolish to break that up at this point. McNees comes off the bench. I'm not 100% certain if he replaces Humpty or Roberts. I hear the debate all the time whether he is a PG or a SG to me he's a Combo Guard. He's certainly not the best ball handler and distributor on the team, but at the same time he's more effective when the ball is in his hands than he is playing off the ball. If Steward is healthy and isn't too rusty from missing the last two years he will backup Humpty and McNees plays the 2. McClanahan is probably going to split his time between the 2 and the 3. When we want to play a little smaller he'll slide to the 3, if we want a bigger lineup on the floor he'll play the 2. Probably only sees 10-15 minutes of game action a night. If that. Sullivan's playing time is going to depend mostly on Stewards health and ability. If Ronnie is hurting or just not capable of playing at a high level anymore after all the injuries then Alex will get more playing time as the primary backup at PG. If Ronnie can make a good comeback then Alex may be limited to garbage minutes.

[skip-zip]

...and with a big-time scorer like Sullivan...

I hope you're right about that.

A mid-20's per game scoring average in high school in both his junior and senior year, and I know people who've seen him play many times. I hope it coverts to the college hardwood myself.

[Quickzips]

For those that didn't see apparently Sporting News ranks the Zips #50 in the country heading into the season. http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/zips/2009/09/s...o-50-in-nation/Lot of excitement heading into this season of Zips hoops. Let's hope it doesn't crash and burn the way the pre-season excitement for football has.

[GP1]

I don't care about rankings, but I do believe this. On January 1, 2010, the Zips will be a minimum 10 win team with RI and the MAC schedule ahead of them.Anything can happen in sports, but this team has enough talent and depth to overcome any problems they may have during the season. I fully expect them to repeat as MAC Champions again this season.Maybe someone can help, but is there even a MAC school out there with our talent level or even close to us?

[Captain Kangaroo]

Maybe someone can help, but is there even a MAC school out there with our talent level or even close to us?

Since we finished 5th in the regular season in 2009, I have to think there are a few teams @ our level. BG comes to mind. OU will be back. Miami had a good recruiting year. K.e.n.t. ... they suck.

[GP1]

Maybe someone can help, but is there even a MAC school out there with our talent level or even close to us?

Since we finished 5th in the regular season in 2009, I have to think there are a few teams @ our level. BG comes to mind. OU will be back. Miami had a good recruiting year. K.e.n.t. ... they suck.

Thanks for your response CK.I also wanted to let you know I received another note from the QB at CMU reminding me to be on the look out for a note he wants me to forward to you after the game Saturday. I don't know what it is, but he must be composing a book....

[Quickzips]

I have to respectfully disagree with CK on this one. The question was whether there is another team in the MAC that stacks up to us talent wise. I don't think there is a team in the conference right now that can make that claim. Did we finish 5th in the MAC regular season last year? Yeah. Did we have the youngest team top to bottom in the MAC last year? Yeah. I really believe that inexperience had more to do with that 5th place finish than talent did. I wouldn't count BG as having the same kind of talent that we have. To me they are in the same kind of place we were during the early Dambrot years. They have a few good MAC-level players that are pretty talented but they lack depth and for the most part are winning games on good coaching and not beating themselves. It's tough to say what is going on down at OU as there has been a lot of turnover down there lately. Can't is watching what is left of their glory years ride off into the sunset as they continue to rely on their backcourt (which isn't nearly as good as it once was) to make up for their complete lack of any relevant big men. Miami had a good recruiting class on paper this year. They may be in a similar situation to us last year, but it's tough to say right now. The MAC West is, well, the MAC West.So after that long winded response the quick answer is, no. Noone in the MAC has the kind of talent we have right now.

[MDZip]

Maybe someone can help, but is there even a MAC school out there with our talent level or even close to us?

Since we finished 5th in the regular season in 2009, I have to think there are a few teams @ our level. BG comes to mind. OU will be back. Miami had a good recruiting year. K.e.n.t. ... they suck.

We were seeded fifth, but finished the regular season tied for third. I think the point was that several teams were very close in talent level (hopefully Zeke is our missing piece to take us up over the top in talent level), so we can't take anything for granted, especially in a one-bid league. I think our main threat is still going to be Buffalo, they return quite a few players and most of their inside game. Ohio is very much an unknown, they are going to be young this year, same for Miami and BG (I am looking forward to Zeke matching up against Otis Polk). Guess that leaves Can't for the three spot. I'll rank them this way.1. Zips2. Buffalo3. Can't4. Miami5. BGSU6. Ohio7. Everybody in the West

[ziptrumpet87]

Maybe someone can help, but is there even a MAC school out there with our talent level or even close to us?

Since we finished 5th in the regular season in 2009, I have to think there are a few teams @ our level. BG comes to mind. OU will be back. Miami had a good recruiting year. K.e.n.t. ... they suck.

We were seeded fifth, but finished the regular season tied for third. I think the point was that several teams were very close in talent level (hopefully Zeke is our missing piece to take us up over the top in talent level), so we can't take anything for granted, especially in a one-bid league. I think our main threat is still going to be Buffalo, they return quite a few players and most of their inside game. Ohio is very much an unknown, they are going to be young this year, same for Miami and BG (I am looking forward to Zeke matching up against Otis Polk). Guess that leaves Can't for the three spot. I'll rank them this way.1. Zips2. Buffalo3. Can't4. Miami5. BGSU6. Ohio7. Everybody in the West

Otis is a tree and I expect they will plant him in the key... Zeke should have no problem going over him though!

[GP1]

Otis is a tree and I expect they will plant him in the key

Who in the heck names their kid Otis these days? Are we back in the 1950s?

[Zip Watcher]

I don't care about rankings, but I do believe this. On January 1, 2010, the Zips will be a minimum 10 win team with RI and the MAC schedule ahead of them.Anything can happen in sports, but this team has enough talent and depth to overcome any problems they may have during the season. I fully expect them to repeat as MAC Champions again this season.Maybe someone can help, but is there even a MAC school out there with our talent level or even close to us?

I think that there may be schools with similar talent through the first 3 or 4 guys. Miami always has talent. OU has brought in some strong classes lately. What can separate the Zips from the league is the depth. For the first time in the history of UA hoops, KD has a team that goes 12 legit D1 guys deep. Not 3-4 good MAC players and some hard working role players from 5-12. He's got 10-12 guys that would play on any team in the league, and a few guys that could probably play on teams upstream of UA and the MAC. His ability to go 10 deep the whole season made the difference at the Q. Miami just had no chance to stay with the Zips in the second half. Their tank was empty.Take Parrish for example. Just 4 or 5 years ago, he'd have played 10+ minutes a game on the Zips as a Freshman. Now, he apparently felt the numbers worked against him and he's transferred out. A loss for the Zips in my opinion, but understandable.The depth of talent on the roster is what may separate the Zips from the conference.

[RACER]

if are frontline players stay healthy i think we should dominate the mac this year.i am not one to usually give props before a game is played.i know we lost nate,but people forget humpty was playing injured at the end of the season.we also did not have steward last year for many games.even if we have some injuries in the backcourt it should not matter.i wonder if kd will play a little more up tempo with so many guys now.i would like to see more frontcourt pressure this year.we have alott of guards plus teams will think twice with zeke standing at the basket.