Grading out the Zips first half

[Quickzips]

Ok, so I think it's time to move on from the debacle that was Tuesday night. There isn't anything that any of us can do about it at this point, and all of the negatives and positives have been sufficiently hashed out. As much as it still stings, this is the halfway point of the season. The OOC schedule is over (besides the bracketbuster) and MAC play is beginning. Now seems like an appropriate time to hand out some individual grades to the Zips and look ahead to conference play.Steve McNees-Starting PG:B+McNees has improved this season. His shooting percentage is up. His scoring is up. His turnovers are down. He has even been better on the defensive end where he has nearly doubled his steal numbers from last year. All of this while playing practically the same amount of minutes as he did last year. Probably most impressive with Steve is the significant jump in his 3 point percentage. He has become more consistent with his most dangerous offensive weapon. He isn't a prototypical PG, but he does an adequate job running the offense and has earned his starting position.What we need from him in conference play: Continue to protect the ball. Even more consistency from the three point line. Work in more of his mid-range game to keep defenses honest. Needs to use screens better to initiate offense.Darryl Roberts-Starting SG:A-Roberts has been the most consistent of our guards all season. He is never going to be elite in any one area of the game, save maybe FT shooting, but he does just about everything well. What has impressed me most about Darryl has been the addition of his midrange game. He has shown the ability to come off of picks and pull up for the little 12-15 foot jump shot which he hits with regularity. That has a lot to do with why his FG% is up from 40.5% last season to 47.3% so far this season. This is only an A- because of his uncharacteristically missed FT's early in the season that contributed to at least one loss (Austin Peay).What we need from him in conference play: Darryl needs to look for his shot a little more. He's one of our most consistent shooters, but he defers to others too often at times. He also needs to look to get to the line more often, particularly late in games.Jimmy Conyers-Starting SF:AWhat more can you say about Conyers? He is the feel good story of the year. The kid who was burried on KD's bench for the last three years who is making good on his last chance at college hoops glory. He has been a monster on the boards, an efficient scorer and a shutdown defender for us since being given more minutes starting against Arkansas Pine-Bluff. I don't think anyone could have accuratly predicted that we would see this kind of performance from Jimmy this year.What we need from him in conference play: Jimmy needs to work on his jump shot as teams will try to cut off his driving lanes and force him to shoot over the top. He is also going to have to take on the Nate Linhart role of shutting down the opponents best perimeter player every night. Brett McKnight-Starting PF:B-I am always pretty hard on Brett. Truth be told, he has the tools to be an absolutely dominating player at this level. When he is healthy, focused and playing hard he can be an elite scorer and a suffocating rebounder. The problem this year has been that he either hasn't been healthy (early in the season) or has lost sight of his role on the team. He went through a 5 or 6 game stretch starting against Malone where he showed the player he can be. Working within the offense, dominating the low post, playing adequate defense and staying aggressive on the boards. Then he lost his focus against Rhode Island, dominating the ball at the expense of his teamates and breaking down on the defensive end. Brett is equally the most exciting and most frustrating player on this team.What we need from him in conference play: Consistency is the name of the game here. If he can play every game the way he did against UIC and Valpo the Zips will be tough to beat and he will be a first team all-MAC selection. If Rhode Island is a sign of things to come...well I just don't want to think about that. Zeke Marshall-Starting C:C+Don't get me wrong, I like what Zeke brings to this team, and to date he has been about what I would have expected. flushes of talent mixed in with reminders of just how raw and unpolished a player he is. Tendenitis in both knees and the simple fact that his frame has yet to adequatly fill out are holding him back in a lot of ways. Still, there are a lot of things he needs to work on. Free throw shooting, shot selection, receiving passes in the lane and at times, rebounding have all been problems for Zeke. Still, he is an impact player for this team if for no other reason than his defense around the basket.What we need from him in conference play: Get healthy and continue to defend the basket. Concentrate on the glass and work on receiving the ball cleanly in the post and finishing at the rim.Anthony "Humpty" Hitchens-Backup PG:B-Humpty has improved in a lot of areas. His turnovers are way down from a year ago, while his assist numbers are up. Those are both good things for the Zips. The problem is that the improvement hasn't been that drastic. Humpty is still a dynamic and exciting player on the court, but he can still be quite frustrating at times. He started off the season very well, scoring in double figures each of the first five games, but since then... Extended battles with illness may have held him back a little, but he honestly hasn't seemd like the same player since the skirmish at the end of the Arkansas-Pine Bluff game. His shot hasn't been falling, and he often tries to force things off the dribble, getting himself too far under the basket for his size and not leaving himself an outlet other than forcing up a bad layup attempt. The battle with Humpty will always be trying to keep him under control while not handcuffing him so much that he becomes completely ineffective.What we need from him in conference play: Work on shot selection. Continue to be a hounding defender on the ball. Free throw shooting can be better. Also needs to become a better passer, particularly in traffic around the rim.Ronnie Steward-Backup PG:B-Honestly, this grade mostly reflects the miracle that it is that he is even on the court. He hasn't done much of anything special to this point, but he has been alright. He is capable of running the offense and getting things set up. His shot is as flat as anything I have ever seen, but he's shown the ability to get to the basket and finish. There is still a lot of rust to be knocked off, but the fact that he is even out there is a positive sign for the Zips.What we need from him in conference play: If he can give us 10-15 minutes a night of solid PG play, running the offense efficiently and staying with his man on defense I will be perfectly fine with it.Brett McClanahan-Backup SG:DMcClanahan had his redshirt burned mid-way through last season to add depth to the Zips guard rotation and spur his development for this season. Consider the second part of that equation a failure. Brett has done nothing significant of note so far this season, and at this point is all but out of the rotation. He hasn't shot well from anywhere on the court and seems so amped up when he is on the floor that he just makes mistake after mistake. I think part of the problem is that he is being asked to play more SF than SG to make up for the absence of Nate Linhart. Still, the decision to burn that red shirt has to come into question after his performance to date this season.What we need from him in conference play: I'm honestly not sure if we even need him in conference play. Until he calms down and learns what his role on this team is he really isn't good for more than giving guys a breather every now and then.Chris McKnight-Backup PF:DI hate to say it, but a D is kind of generous for Chris right now. He has been the exact opposite of Conyers this year. Instead of stepping up his senior year and playing hard he has rolled over and taken a step back. Across the board his numbers are down. He continues to regress, seemingly by the day when it comes to shooting FT's. His ability to step out from the PF spot and hit 3's has apparently left the building. He isn't rebounding, isn't finishing around the rim and his defense remains suspect at best. He has fallen from the starting lineup, and his minutes, stats and overall impact on the game have decreased all year long.What we need from him in conference play: Man up. This is your senior year Chris. There is no more after this. You've shown in the past that you can be a very strong player and a team leader. Get your head on straight and start acting like it.Nikola Cvetinovic-Backup PF:BNik has been pretty solid all year for us. He's worked on not letting his emotions get the best of him while still playing with energy and toughness. He's seen an uptick in production across the board and seems to be KD's most trusted big guy off the bench. At his best he frustrates opponents on the defensive end with his deceptive quickness and strength while displaying a fine array of drives to the basket and post moves on offense. His baseline spin move is a thing of beauty. Still, his game isn't without holes. Particularly at the free throw line where he has been horrible. We have also seen the emotion overcome him once or twice this season.What we need from him in conference play: Work on his free throws and continue to play under control. Otherwise, continue doing what he's been doing.Mike Bardo-Backup C:C+Bardo is who he is. He's a 10 minute a game backup C who can get our other guys a few minutes of rest and bang around with opponents big guys. He will never be a scorer, and contrary to what others might have you believe, he isn't an elite defender. He is alright on the glass, and has actually shown better awareness this season on the offensive boards with a few putbacks off of misses. You can't argue with him getting his minutes, but if he has to play 20-30 minutes a night, we're in trouble.What we need from him in conference play: Come in for his 10 minutes a game, rebound the ball, clog up the lane on defense and have enough awareness to score every now and then on putbacks and when defenses cheat off of him.Tim Carroll, Steve Swiech, Alex Sullivan, Kyle Petterson-The Bench:BThese guys do just fine for what they are. It is still disappointing that Swiech can't get on the floor afer all the hype when we signed him, but Jimmy Conyers performance this year has to at least give him hope. Tim Carroll has been a decent fill in at SF for a few minutes here and there. Sullivan and Petterson really only play when games are already out of hand.What we need from them in conference play: Hopefully each of these guys is getting 4-5 minutes a night at the end of each game. Realistically, they just need to be ready in case of injuries.Coaching Staff:B-Let me first state that I love KD. He is an excellent coach for this program. However, there have been some holes this season. The scheduling has been hashed to death over and over on here, so I won't get into that again. KD's constant lineup meddling early in the season was a bit of a problem this year. It seemed like everyone had such a short leash that nobody was really comfortable out on the floor. It contributed to us losing some games. I also feel that Zeke should have sat for a week or two when it became obvious that his knee injuries were hampering his development. The constant struggles from the free throw line by most of our players is also troubling. That said, the team is almost always in games and usually plays fundamentally sound. The team has gotten much better against different types of defenses, particularly against the zone that so many teams like to play against us and the full court pressure. They have shown some grit by going on the road to Wyoming and overcoming a fast paced team at altitude for a win and giving #22 Texas A&M a good scare. Outside of the opener they have taken care of business, eating up the cupcakes on their schedule.What we need from them in conference play: Continue to tighten up the rotation. We must utilize our depth, but we also need some cohesiveness. Conference PredicitionsBG-W@Ohio-W@Buffalo-LMiami-W@Can't-L@WMU-WToledo-WEMU-WNIU-W@Ball St.-W@CMU-LOhio-W@Miami-WBuffalo-W@BG-WCan't-WOverall conference record: 13-3 and at least a first round bye in the tournament.

[zip37]

Zeke: D-, bad hands.

[Dr Z]

Ronnie Steward-Backup PG:B-What we need from him in conference play: If he can give us 10-15 minutes a night of solid PG play, running the offense efficiently and staying with his man on defense I will be perfectly fine with it.

Tuesday was the first time I got to see Ronnie play. His footwork on defense impressed me. I'm rooting for him to work hard and take over the PG position. I haven't seen enough to know if this can be true or not.

[g-mann17]

Zeke: D-, bad hands.

Zip37 F

[RowdyZip]

I was HIGHLY impressed w/Ronnie's defense vs URI. There was a point where the crowd recognized him for great D on the URI PG. He's gonna be a big help as the season progresses. Stay healthy, Ronnie!

[Let'sGoZips94]

Zeke: D-, bad hands.

... and has missed multiple 2 handed dunks, but I'll give him the BOD and give him a C+.

[jupitertoo]

Conference PredicitionsBG-W@Ohio-W@Buffalo-LMiami-W@Can't-L@WMU-WToledo-WEMU-WNIU-W@Ball St.-W@CMU-LOhio-W@Miami-WBuffalo-W@BG-WCan't-WOverall conference record: 13-3 and at least a first round bye in the tournament.

You predicted 10-2 for the football team, right? I've got $10 says the MAC East champ finishes the league season with 10 wins max.

[Quickzips]

Conference PredicitionsBG-W@Ohio-W@Buffalo-LMiami-W@Can't-L@WMU-WToledo-WEMU-WNIU-W@Ball St.-W@CMU-LOhio-W@Miami-WBuffalo-W@BG-WCan't-WOverall conference record: 13-3 and at least a first round bye in the tournament.

You predicted 10-2 for the football team, right? I've got $10 says the MAC East champ finishes the league season with 10 wins max.

I made no such predictions when it came to the football team, and I'll take that bet. In fact if you care to make it $100 I'll take that bet too. History is on my side on that one.

[g-mann17]

Conference PredicitionsBG-W@Ohio-W@Buffalo-LMiami-W@Can't-L@WMU-WToledo-WEMU-WNIU-W@Ball St.-W@CMU-LOhio-W@Miami-WBuffalo-W@BG-WCan't-WOverall conference record: 13-3 and at least a first round bye in the tournament.

You predicted 10-2 for the football team, right? I've got $10 says the MAC East champ finishes the league season with 10 wins max.

And we all predicted that your annoying butt would be back too, so who pays all of us. I only take cash.