Good News & Bad News from First Team Scrimmage

[Dave in Green]

More bad news about Ronnie Steward and some good news about Alex Sullivan and Jimmy Conyers. EA reports that Steward is going to have surgery on his other leg for compartment syndrome, and that Sullivan and Conyers both looked good in practice.EA Story Link

[MDZip]

Interesting snippet at the end of that article. Meanwhile the topic of huddled conversation between coaches and players at the end of the scrimmage was the performance of 7-0 Zeke Marshall. The final numbers kept by Akron's staff spoke volumes; 2 points, 2 rebounds, 0 blocks after the five eight-minute scrimmages for the freshman center from Pennsylvania.When Elton tells you he's not ready, then he's not ready, darn it!

[Blue & Gold]

Really too bad about Ronnie. Maybe we should simply start rooting for him to merely get healthy and live a normal life? His injuries seem to be chronic. We need to be keeping him in our prayers.Any word on how Nitro & Sweich played?

[Z.I.P.]

Really too bad about Ronnie. Maybe we should simply start rooting for him to merely get healthy and live a normal life? His injuries seem to be chronic. We need to be keeping him in our prayers.Any word on how Nitro & Sweich played?

Word on the street is Sweich isn't ready yet. Does he have a redshirt left? edit -- for those who can't tell sarcasm:

[ziptrumpet87]

Really too bad about Ronnie. Maybe we should simply start rooting for him to merely get healthy and live a normal life? His injuries seem to be chronic. We need to be keeping him in our prayers.Any word on how Nitro & Sweich played?

Word on the street is Sweich isn't ready yet. Does he have a redshirt left?

I don't believe so. He used one his first year.

[Quickzips]

So sorry to hear about Ronnie's situation. You start to wonder with him if/when the point will come that he starts thinking less about getting back to playing basketball and more about just getting healthy, getting his degree and making something out of his life. So tough to see a kid who had so much potential have this many problems.Great news to hear about Conyers. It sounds like the light may really be starting to turn on. I know some on here are going to disagree with me, but if Jimmy can start to live up to his pre-Zips hype I think he should start this year over B.McKnight. Brett has always seemed more effective coming off the bench for us, and having Conyers defense in there would go a long way towards easing the blow from losing Linhart.Also very good to hear about Alex Sullivan. Especially with Ronnie going down, again, it would be nice to have Alex in there to back up Humpty at PG. Having another weapon like him on the floor is a big plus.

[RACER]

the zips need jimmy to step up this year.he is one of the few guys we have that can play on ball defense with some size.i agree it would be better if he starts,and brett can come off the bench.we need guys that can come off the bench that can score.i am not worried about zeke.akron needs him to play defense and block shots.whatever offense we get out of him is a plus.

[Quickzips]

As far as Zeke goes. It is far from time to push the panic button. The kids been in practice for 1 week. He's got a lot of information being thrown his way for sure and you can imagine he's doing a little more thinking right now than just playing naturally. If he's still struggling at midseason it might be time to worry, but not one week into practice. Still 2 more weeks until the first exhibition game.Any early guesses on what the starting lineup is going to look like?My guess:PG-Hitchens SG-McClanahanSF-ConyersPF-C.McKnightC-CvetinovicFirst Five off the Bench (in alpha order)MarshallB.McKnightMcNeesRobertsSullivan

[Dave in Green]

One problem I see with that rotation is that it has 5 frontcourt and 5 backcourt players rather than 2 x 3 frontcourt and 2 backcourt players (6 and 4). That would result in a 3-guard lineup about half of the time. Maybe that will work, maybe not. But it does leave two true centers buried deep on the bench. I think we need to see who has made progress between seasons and not just base it on where things ended last season.

[Quickzips]

One problem I see with that rotation is that it has 5 frontcourt and 5 backcourt players rather than 2 x 3 frontcourt and 2 backcourt players (6 and 4). That would result in a 3-guard lineup about half of the time. Maybe that will work, maybe not. But it does leave two true centers buried deep on the bench. I think we need to see who has made progress between seasons and not just base it on where things ended last season.

I noticed the same thing, but I'm just not sure which of the guards wouldn't get more minutes and/or which of our remaining frontcourt players would get more minutes. As it is Ronnie Steward's injury makes things a little easier in terms of the backcourt rotation. I assume based on history and what I've heard from this offseason that Humpty, Sullivan, Roberts, McNees and McClanahan will all get playing time in the backcourt. I also assume that the McKnights, Cvetinovic, Conyers and Zeke will get them in the backcourt. I guess Bardo will still get minutes as well so maybe that helps equal things out. Noone has really said anything about Sweich's progress so for the moment I have to assume that he still won't be seeing many minutes. As far as the guard who do you cut out? The first name that comes to mind is Sullivan, but he's supposedly been looking good in practices. I don't know. Maybe we do play more small and have McClanahan as our biggest guard playing the 3? I don't really know. All just speculation on my part.