Alexander Sees a Repeat for the Zips

[Captain Kangaroo]

He picked the Derrick Tarver-led Zips to finish 27-3 and win the MAC several years ago, so he could...maybe...be wrong.Elton's Preview

[Zipmeister]

A fairly insightful piece. Would have appreciated hearing his reason for picking NIU 1st in the West.

[skip-zip]

Interesting. I guess it tells us the questions that will be answered this year...1) Are we as bad as we played the last few weeks of the regular season?2) Or...are we as good as we played on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Cleveland?3) How much did Nate mean to that team?4) How much have the other guys improved in the off season?

[Valpo Zip]

What does Elton have against Zeke?Am i the only one who finds it odd to totally ignore the addition of the most touted recruit in the history of the conference?

[Quickzips]

Read this piece earlier. It really feels a lot like Elton just trying to be contrarian. It's hard to argue Buffalo being in good shape this year, but Miami lost their glue guy in Bramos. They are going to be rellying a lot on some freshman to make big contributions (nothing wrong with this, we did it last year, but it is a bit dangerous) and their top player has been off the court for almost a year. I don't buy that they are a better team than us, though I don't doubt Charlie will have them ready to play and competitive.

[Captain Kangaroo]

What does Elton have against Zeke?Am i the only one who finds it odd to totally ignore the addition of the most touted recruit in the history of the conference?

I think he spent sufficient time on Zeke over the past few weeks.Based upon his writings, he doesn't see Zeke contributing all that much in 2009-10, so why mention him?

[Dave in Green]

Isn't it interesting that the national sports writers are generally ranking the Zips + Zeke so high and one of the local sports writers is so tepid?I admire EA for continuing to state his honest opinion, as the easy route for a local sportswriter would be to simply feed the "extremely high expectations" of local fans. It's certainly not popular for a local sportswriter to be so pessimistic, as evidenced by the backlash right here on ZN. Like everyone else here, I look forward to EA being proven wrong.If the Zips + Zeke perform at a high level and do better than EA predicts, I fully expect him to admit in print that he was wrong and give credit where credit is due.

[zippy_ua_00]

A fairly insightful piece. Would have appreciated hearing his reason for picking NIU 1st in the West.

my guess is that he didnt do much research on on the teams besides their stat lines. he saw that NIU has the highest scoring front court in the league so in his mind he thinks that translates into the best team in the west. however, with the teams that are i the west, it doesnt take much to finish first. You dont even need a winning record

[Dr Z]

Isn't it interesting that the national sports writers are generally ranking the Zips + Zeke so high and one of the local sports writers is so tepid?

Maybe EA has seen some practices and is basing his opinion on what he is actually seeing, as opposed to a national guy who only goes by what he reads (top ranked recruit at Akron).

[zipboy]

He was on last year when he picked us. I imagine that he has seen a few practices and talked to a few people around the league. The lack of rebounding support by losing Linhart is a concern. And Hayes returning to Miami helps them a lot. If we had lost to Toledo in round 1, everyone would be a little more nervous now. Personally I like us a lot this year and Elton is right about as much as the rest of us. Didn't he pick the Zips to go to a bowl this year after all in football? Glad to see artcles coming from him even with his expanded CSU coverage.

[Roo]

Isn't it interesting that the national sports writers are generally ranking the Zips + Zeke so high and one of the local sports writers is so tepid?

Maybe EA has seen some practices and is basing his opinion on what he is actually seeing, as opposed to a national guy who only goes by what he reads (top ranked recruit at Akron).

Im going to agree with this.People expecting big things out of Zeke are in way over their heads. All you people see is #9 big man recruit, highest ranking player to come into the MAC. Well folks, those numbers dont mean jack. What numbers do, would be his actually stats. He averaged, what?, 12 PPG 9 RPG against HS kids? What in the world makes you think he is going to translate right away against college kids at the DI level?Look, he is probably going to be a GREAT player for us. His potential is through the roof. But you people are expecting entirely way too much out of this kid. I don't see him starting, I certainly don't see him making a huge impact right away. I think he has the potential to help us out on the defensive side of the ball, but to ask him to come in and be a difference maker as a freshman when he wasn't even a star in HS, I mean....we got to be honest with ourselves here.I know Im off the subject a little bit, but the point I am making is that maybe EA has seen this with his own eyes and people are over emphasizing his role with us because of a ranking. I don't think that is off-base. I think putting Miami above us is. Buffalo is going to be a strong team. We weren't world beaters last year, we got hot at the right time. We also play a very weak schedule that is pretty useless other than ensuring 20 wins. Can this team gel, grow, and come together in time to make a hot run at the end and repeat last year's story? Or will we struggle to find a replacement for our best defender and play down a level because our OOC schedule was too weak to prepare us for a NCAA run??? This team can really go either way, but Im inclined to think we will be right where we need to be come time for conference tourney.