Zeke is Trying to Adjust to College Basketball

[mivid12]

Sorry guys. I just don't agree that Gonzaga is a great program or even a Top 20 program. I will admit they are a great mid-major program though. Here are their 2008 results. 25-5 looks good on the surface, but they started out the season 9-4. Whenever they play a Top 20 team, they get beaten badly. Wins against Akron and W. Kentucky in the Tournament do not really impress me much either.Back to the main point. The Zips are a good mid-major program. We have a long way to go before being considered a great mid-major program. The proof will be what the Zips do on the court. Not their rankings or their opponents rankings.

you dont think oklahoma state is a good team? or #12 tennessee, who which the beat twice last season, or #8 st marys, who which they beat 3 times last season, or Indiana, (i know indiana wasnt great but its still a Major conferance team being beat by a mid major). they only lost to UCONN and arizona by 5. i dont see any blow outs there.

I'd venture to say any sound of mind zips fan would be pleased to replicate gonzaga's success....Duke, North Carolina, Michigan State are a few examples of great programs....

[skip-zip]

My thoughts....1) Absolutely agree that winning NCAA tourney games is, without a doubt, the best way to get national attention.2) I'm not absolutely sure what to expect this year. Yes, high expectations. But, for a team that wandered into the MAC tourney as the #5 seed, with recent losses to a horrible Valpo team, and BG and Can't (minus Singletary), we have to at least be reasonable about the fact that we overachieved.3) Losing an all-the-intangibles guy like Nate will have some effect.4) Having a ton of experienced guys will certainly help.5) Zeke is what he is, a young kid who may, or may not, be an immediate impact. But as I have said previously, just his presence in the game changes how opponents will attack us. And that's never a bad thing. 6) Our shooting in the MAC tourney, and the Gonzaga game (for 30 min) carried us. 7) I've said this before....I like Humpty as an offensive spark plug, but like McNees and Roberts running the show when the game is on the line, as we saw so many times in the 2nd part of the season. And I really believe that had a lot to do with our semi and championship game performances.8) We should be the best team in the MAC this year. And I hope we become good enough to win an NCAA tourney game. 9) As always, I wish we'd do something to put ourselves in position to get an at-large should things not work out. Two of the best teams we've ever had did not get to the NCAA tourney. We can't continue to let that happen.

[Quickzips]

7) I've said this before....I like Humpty as an offensive spark plug, but like McNees and Roberts running the show when the game is on the line, as we saw so many times in the 2nd part of the season. And I really believe that had a lot to do with our semi and championship game performances.

This is all I can really take issue with. McNees and Roberts, on their best days are combo guards. Neither is a great ballhandler or distributor. Though Humpty struggled with some Freshman mistakes last year, he's shown enough of an ability to "run the show" that he should absolutely have the ball in his hand at crunch time. Do I need to bring up the Toledo game again? Without his performance shooting and distributing, in crunch time, we don't even make it out of the first round. McNees is what he is. He's a streaky shooter who can light a team up from the outside if he gets hot, but if he's not he really doesn't offer much. Roberts offers a little more in terms of his FT shooting and is a little better at creating his own shot, but he's not a floor general. He's really an off guard in the sense of the word and the only time I want the ball in his hands at crunch time is on a catch and shoot or if we are trying to draw fouls and ice the game with his FT shooting. Humpty is a lot more than just a sparkplug off the bench for us. The only other player who has shown the ability to give us his ballhandling, distributing, shooting, slashing, scoring from the PG spot is maybe Ronnie Steward and he's always hurt. I want Humpty on the floor with the ball in his hands at the end of the game. He's our most dangerous player in those situations. He proved it in High School. He proved it a couple times last year and, given the opportunity he will prove it again this year.

[Sergeant Zip]

7) I've said this before....I like Humpty as an offensive spark plug, but like McNees and Roberts running the show when the game is on the line, as we saw so many times in the 2nd part of the season. And I really believe that had a lot to do with our semi and championship game performances.

I want Humpty on the floor with the ball in his hands at the end of the game. He's our most dangerous player in those situations.

Hitchens or McKnight are pretty much clutch.

[skip-zip]

7) I've said this before....I like Humpty as an offensive spark plug, but like McNees and Roberts running the show when the game is on the line, as we saw so many times in the 2nd part of the season. And I really believe that had a lot to do with our semi and championship game performances.

This is all I can really take issue with. McNees and Roberts, on their best days are combo guards. Neither is a great ballhandler or distributor. Though Humpty struggled with some Freshman mistakes last year, he's shown enough of an ability to "run the show" that he should absolutely have the ball in his hand at crunch time. Do I need to bring up the Toledo game again? Without his performance shooting and distributing, in crunch time, we don't even make it out of the first round. McNees is what he is. He's a streaky shooter who can light a team up from the outside if he gets hot, but if he's not he really doesn't offer much. Roberts offers a little more in terms of his FT shooting and is a little better at creating his own shot, but he's not a floor general. He's really an off guard in the sense of the word and the only time I want the ball in his hands at crunch time is on a catch and shoot or if we are trying to draw fouls and ice the game with his FT shooting. Humpty is a lot more than just a sparkplug off the bench for us. The only other player who has shown the ability to give us his ballhandling, distributing, shooting, slashing, scoring from the PG spot is maybe Ronnie Steward and he's always hurt. I want Humpty on the floor with the ball in his hands at the end of the game. He's our most dangerous player in those situations. He proved it in High School. He proved it a couple times last year and, given the opportunity he will prove it again this year.

Are you referring to his first successful 3-pointer in something like his last 24 attempts?The biggest problem I have is with his carelessness with the ball, and I hope he grows and cleans that up. But, Roberts and McNees were starting to see the crucial late-game minutes in the 2nd half of the season, and I think it paid dividends for us.

[deacon33]

Sorry guys. I just don't agree that Gonzaga is a great program or even a Top 20 program. I will admit they are a great mid-major program though. Here are their 2008 results. 25-5 looks good on the surface, but they started out the season 9-4. Whenever they play a Top 20 team, they get beaten badly. Wins against Akron and W. Kentucky in the Tournament do not really impress me much either.Back to the main point. The Zips are a good mid-major program. We have a long way to go before being considered a great mid-major program. The proof will be what the Zips do on the court. Not their rankings or their opponents rankings.

What are you smoking, So what you are saying is that Gonzaga went 9-4 vs top 20 competition, and then lost 1 game when they got into league play and tournament time. They played teams like Ok St, Tennessee twice, UConn, Maryland, Utah, and St. Mary's. This looks a little tougher than Akron's schedule, and to win 25 games with that schedule is quite an accomplishment. People on here need to give teams their credit when its due. there is a reason why Gonzaga gets more exposure than Akron, its because they are much better, deal with it. You are making Akron fans look stupid.

[Dave in Green]

Lots of good thoughts there, skip-zip. We had some good discussions about Hitchens last season, and I look forward to more as this season unfolds. He made some freshman mistakes that made us all cringe. But he steadily improved as the season went on, and his performance at the end of the season on a bad ankle was really inspiring. If the ankle sprain never happened, there's no telling what might have happened in the Gonzaga game, where McNees unfortunately went cold after being such a big factor in winning the MAC tournament.Hitchens is a risk taker, and taking risks can have both positive and negative consequences, so he will continue to make some mistakes this season. But I fully expect him to continue to cut down on the mistakes, keep growing as an all-around PG and allow the Zips combo and shooting guards to focus more on what they do best. Having Hitchens and Steward share the point might be the best situation. But with Steward out again, we are fortunate indeed to have players like McNees and Roberts who can step forward and do a nice job of playing the point.Along with a deep bench, the overall flexibility of the players to fill in at multiple positions is a big strength of this Zips team.

[Quickzips]

7) I've said this before....I like Humpty as an offensive spark plug, but like McNees and Roberts running the show when the game is on the line, as we saw so many times in the 2nd part of the season. And I really believe that had a lot to do with our semi and championship game performances.

This is all I can really take issue with. McNees and Roberts, on their best days are combo guards. Neither is a great ballhandler or distributor. Though Humpty struggled with some Freshman mistakes last year, he's shown enough of an ability to "run the show" that he should absolutely have the ball in his hand at crunch time. Do I need to bring up the Toledo game again? Without his performance shooting and distributing, in crunch time, we don't even make it out of the first round. McNees is what he is. He's a streaky shooter who can light a team up from the outside if he gets hot, but if he's not he really doesn't offer much. Roberts offers a little more in terms of his FT shooting and is a little better at creating his own shot, but he's not a floor general. He's really an off guard in the sense of the word and the only time I want the ball in his hands at crunch time is on a catch and shoot or if we are trying to draw fouls and ice the game with his FT shooting. Humpty is a lot more than just a sparkplug off the bench for us. The only other player who has shown the ability to give us his ballhandling, distributing, shooting, slashing, scoring from the PG spot is maybe Ronnie Steward and he's always hurt. I want Humpty on the floor with the ball in his hands at the end of the game. He's our most dangerous player in those situations. He proved it in High School. He proved it a couple times last year and, given the opportunity he will prove it again this year.

Are you referring to his first successful 3-pointer in something like his last 24 attempts?The biggest problem I have is with his carelessness with the ball, and I hope he grows and cleans that up. But, Roberts and McNees were starting to see the crucial late-game minutes in the 2nd half of the season, and I think it paid dividends for us.

This argument would carry a lot more weight if you weren't arguing that McNees should be the one taking those shots instead of Humpty. McNees is the definition of a streaky shooter. Heck he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn the majority of last season. He heated up in the MAC tournament, but that was really about it. And really, outside of his streaky three point shooting, he doesn't offer us much. Last year he only took 47 shots that WEREN'T three's (compare that to Humpty who took 134 non-three point attempts and unlike McNees actually has a better shooting percentage when he isn't taking 3's) He's been known to make careless mistakes with the ball the same way Humpty has (68 turnovers in 21.5 minutes played last season to Humpty's 78 in 22.5 minutes played) and, unlike Humpty he's not really able to penetrate to the hoop and create his own shot (see 47 non-3 point shots to 134). If anyone, Steve should be playing that "sparkplug" off the bench role. When he does get hot it's a role that really fits him. Don't get me wrong, I like McNees. When he's hot from beyond that 3 point line he's probably the most exciting player on our team and he can single handedly win a game for you. I just don't think he's who a guy who we want to put the game in his hands when it is on the line (forgot to mention his puzzling 62.5 Free Throw percentage).

[Dave in Green]

Here's my personal theory on guards: Point guards are generally at their best when they're thinking and shooting guards are generally at their best when they're not.To expand on that, PGs are the team QBs. They are primarily responsible for seeing everything on the floor and getting everyone involved in the offense. They also have to shoot at the appropriate time. But getting assists is more important for a PG than scoring points.SG's are primarily responsible for scoring points. Shooting the ball should not require much thought for someone with a good stroke and rhythm. Thinking too much about something that should come automatically is a hindrance. You see it a lot when a streak shooter loses confidence and hesitates or alters his motion.These are all generalities. There are some PGs who can score in bunches, and some SGs who are as good as PGs at finding and feeding the open man.But what happens when you ask a guard who's primarily a shooter to run the point? He has to think a lot more, and I think that can have a negative effect on his shooting. Again, this is a generality. But I think we saw this happen with Dials as his shooting percentage went down when he moved from SG to PG, and I think the same thing has happened with McNees.I still believe that McNees has the potential to shoot the lights out if he wasn't forced to think about running the team. Make him a pure SG with no point responsibilities, and let him focus on getting open and pulling the trigger.

[skip-zip]

7) I've said this before....I like Humpty as an offensive spark plug, but like McNees and Roberts running the show when the game is on the line, as we saw so many times in the 2nd part of the season. And I really believe that had a lot to do with our semi and championship game performances.

This is all I can really take issue with. McNees and Roberts, on their best days are combo guards. Neither is a great ballhandler or distributor. Though Humpty struggled with some Freshman mistakes last year, he's shown enough of an ability to "run the show" that he should absolutely have the ball in his hand at crunch time. Do I need to bring up the Toledo game again? Without his performance shooting and distributing, in crunch time, we don't even make it out of the first round. McNees is what he is. He's a streaky shooter who can light a team up from the outside if he gets hot, but if he's not he really doesn't offer much. Roberts offers a little more in terms of his FT shooting and is a little better at creating his own shot, but he's not a floor general. He's really an off guard in the sense of the word and the only time I want the ball in his hands at crunch time is on a catch and shoot or if we are trying to draw fouls and ice the game with his FT shooting. Humpty is a lot more than just a sparkplug off the bench for us. The only other player who has shown the ability to give us his ballhandling, distributing, shooting, slashing, scoring from the PG spot is maybe Ronnie Steward and he's always hurt. I want Humpty on the floor with the ball in his hands at the end of the game. He's our most dangerous player in those situations. He proved it in High School. He proved it a couple times last year and, given the opportunity he will prove it again this year.

Are you referring to his first successful 3-pointer in something like his last 24 attempts?The biggest problem I have is with his carelessness with the ball, and I hope he grows and cleans that up. But, Roberts and McNees were starting to see the crucial late-game minutes in the 2nd half of the season, and I think it paid dividends for us.

This argument would carry a lot more weight if you weren't arguing that McNees should be the one taking those shots instead of Humpty. McNees is the definition of a streaky shooter. Heck he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn the majority of last season. He heated up in the MAC tournament, but that was really about it. And really, outside of his streaky three point shooting, he doesn't offer us much. Last year he only took 47 shots that WEREN'T three's (compare that to Humpty who took 134 non-three point attempts and unlike McNees actually has a better shooting percentage when he isn't taking 3's) He's been known to make careless mistakes with the ball the same way Humpty has (68 turnovers in 21.5 minutes played last season to Humpty's 78 in 22.5 minutes played) and, unlike Humpty he's not really able to penetrate to the hoop and create his own shot (see 47 non-3 point shots to 134). If anyone, Steve should be playing that "sparkplug" off the bench role. When he does get hot it's a role that really fits him. Don't get me wrong, I like McNees. When he's hot from beyond that 3 point line he's probably the most exciting player on our team and he can single handedly win a game for you. I just don't think he's who a guy who we want to put the game in his hands when it is on the line (forgot to mention his puzzling 62.5 Free Throw percentage).

I'm not making that argument at all. In fact, Steve has dissappointed me as a shooter as well. I thought we'd truly see more of what we saw in that Miami game at home two years ago, and it never happened. I'm simply supporting the idea that our guys performed well in crucial parts of games when Keith started going to the Roberts/McNees combo. Maybe it's a combination of them making good decisions, Roberts' free throw shooting, Steve's hustle, etc. I'll be interested to see if we go to that combo again this year in similar situations.

[skip-zip]

Lots of good thoughts there, skip-zip. We had some good discussions about Hitchens last season, and I look forward to more as this season unfolds. He made some freshman mistakes that made us all cringe. But he steadily improved as the season went on, and his performance at the end of the season on a bad ankle was really inspiring. If the ankle sprain never happened, there's no telling what might have happened in the Gonzaga game, where McNees unfortunately went cold after being such a big factor in winning the MAC tournament.Hitchens is a risk taker, and taking risks can have both positive and negative consequences, so he will continue to make some mistakes this season. But I fully expect him to continue to cut down on the mistakes, keep growing as an all-around PG and allow the Zips combo and shooting guards to focus more on what they do best. Having Hitchens and Steward share the point might be the best situation. But with Steward out again, we are fortunate indeed to have players like McNees and Roberts who can step forward and do a nice job of playing the point.Along with a deep bench, the overall flexibility of the players to fill in at multiple positions is a big strength of this Zips team.

Good thoughts from you as well. I'll look forward to the discussions again. And lets hope we see some growth from ALL of our players this year.

[zippy_ua_00]

Lots of good thoughts there, skip-zip. We had some good discussions about Hitchens last season, and I look forward to more as this season unfolds. He made some freshman mistakes that made us all cringe. But he steadily improved as the season went on, and his performance at the end of the season on a bad ankle was really inspiring. If the ankle sprain never happened, there's no telling what might have happened in the Gonzaga game, where McNees unfortunately went cold after being such a big factor in winning the MAC tournament.Hitchens is a risk taker, and taking risks can have both positive and negative consequences, so he will continue to make some mistakes this season. But I fully expect him to continue to cut down on the mistakes, keep growing as an all-around PG and allow the Zips combo and shooting guards to focus more on what they do best. Having Hitchens and Steward share the point might be the best situation. But with Steward out again, we are fortunate indeed to have players like McNees and Roberts who can step forward and do a nice job of playing the point.Along with a deep bench, the overall flexibility of the players to fill in at multiple positions is a big strength of this Zips team.

Good thoughts from you as well. I'll look forward to the discussions again. And lets hope we see some growth from ALL of our players this year.

ok, first of all, there is no way mcnees should ever play the point. he has horrible mechanics when it comes to ball handling. his dribble is to far away from his body and bounces near his shoulders. Also, he looks terrified when dribbling against a bigger, more athletic defender. Hence the turnovers. If you know anything about this league, it is a guard dominated league and mcnees should be no where running the point. he had 10 less turnovers than a true freshman, and he was a junior last season. Id expect those high turnovers with a true freshman starting at guard. 2nd, the PG position needs a player that can slash to the basket and pop it out to the wing for and open shot. We have that with roberts and humpty. Like i said before mcnees' dribble is way too far from his body and to high to slash to the hole. mcnees should be coming off the bench and standing outside hitting the 3 consistantly but except for 2 games last year we havent seen it.

[Zip Watcher]

Every time I watch the MAC tournament games vs. Miami and Buffalo, which is a lot .. I'm quite thankful that McNees was playing the point.If he's not on the team to step into that role on Thursday, the Zips are done against Miami .. not just from a shooting perspective, but distribution .. etc. Steve was CLUTCH at the Q that weekend, as a PG.Go Zips! B) B)

[zippy_ua_00]

Every time I watch the MAC tournament games vs. Miami and Buffalo, which is a lot .. I'm quite thankful that McNees was playing the point.If he's not on the team to step into that role on Thursday, the Zips are done against Miami .. not just from a shooting perspective, but distribution .. etc. Steve was CLUTCH at the Q that weekend, as a PG.Go Zips! B) B)

like i said, 2 games in 3 seasons.

[skip-zip]

Lots of good thoughts there, skip-zip. We had some good discussions about Hitchens last season, and I look forward to more as this season unfolds. He made some freshman mistakes that made us all cringe. But he steadily improved as the season went on, and his performance at the end of the season on a bad ankle was really inspiring. If the ankle sprain never happened, there's no telling what might have happened in the Gonzaga game, where McNees unfortunately went cold after being such a big factor in winning the MAC tournament.Hitchens is a risk taker, and taking risks can have both positive and negative consequences, so he will continue to make some mistakes this season. But I fully expect him to continue to cut down on the mistakes, keep growing as an all-around PG and allow the Zips combo and shooting guards to focus more on what they do best. Having Hitchens and Steward share the point might be the best situation. But with Steward out again, we are fortunate indeed to have players like McNees and Roberts who can step forward and do a nice job of playing the point.Along with a deep bench, the overall flexibility of the players to fill in at multiple positions is a big strength of this Zips team.

Good thoughts from you as well. I'll look forward to the discussions again. And lets hope we see some growth from ALL of our players this year.

ok, first of all, there is no way mcnees should ever play the point. he has horrible mechanics when it comes to ball handling. his dribble is to far away from his body and bounces near his shoulders. Also, he looks terrified when dribbling against a bigger, more athletic defender. Hence the turnovers. If you know anything about this league, it is a guard dominated league and mcnees should be no where running the point. he had 10 less turnovers than a true freshman, and he was a junior last season. Id expect those high turnovers with a true freshman starting at guard. 2nd, the PG position needs a player that can slash to the basket and pop it out to the wing for and open shot. We have that with roberts and humpty. Like i said before mcnees' dribble is way too far from his body and to high to slash to the hole. mcnees should be coming off the bench and standing outside hitting the 3 consistantly but except for 2 games last year we havent seen it.

I'm not at all starting a campaign for Steve to be a 30 min. p/game PG. And I don't want to get into a technical debate over his dribbling method. But the bottom line is...IT WORKED for us. The numbers tell the story too. The Roberts/McNees combo dealt out 19 assists vs. 7 turnovers during those last couple of games in Cleveland, and against a very good Gonzaga team...certainly one of the best teams we played against all year, and our most challening stretch of consecutive games. That's pretty darn efficient. And Steve alone was 9 and 4 during that period. Not the greatest, but pretty darn effective. Will that trend continue this year? Who knows. Zip Watcher...nice additional comments. It's nice when we can agree on something from time to time