Josh Egner

[Hilltopper]

Jackson High School plays at Green High on Tuesday the 23rd. I will be attending this game(my daughter is a Green cheerleader) and would love to see some of the ZN faithful help me cheer for Josh. I have to be real careful about not cheering for Jackson, but I can still cheer for Josh. I will buy tickets for the first 5 ZN members who send me a PM. The Game starts at 7:30.

[ZachTheZip]

You can cheer for Egner, but you need to cheer extra hard against his teammate Mark Henniger.

[Dave in Green]

I'm in. I've been posting a lot about Dakotah Euton, and haven't been looking as much for info on the other two forwards coming in next year. So it will be great to have a chance to actually see one of them play instead of just reading about them.Egner is rated in the second 12 of Rick Bolus' list of the top 75+ seniors in Ohio HS basketball, which puts him among about the top dozen senior frontcourt players in the state, while Michael Green is rated in the second 25:Rick Bolus OH RatingsBy comparison, Bolus ranks Euton in the top 12 of the 75+ top seniors in Kentucky, which puts him among the top half dozen senior frontcourt players in that state:Rick Bolus KY RatingsThe more I learn about these three players, the better I like the Zips' 2010 recruiting class.

[deacon33]

I hope that recruits do not come here see us butchering their names and want to leave. This is the second time we have mispelled this kids name. It is Josh Egner, for god sakes. Not John, not Enger. Save your money and stay as far away from this game as possible, our luck you will go up to a 5'7'' African American kid, call him John Enger and Josh will hear you.

[Dr Z]

Ease up Rugby, "g" and the "n" are pretty close on the keyboard. Seems like a harmless mistake. I bet Josh is tough and can take it. I fixed it just in case, I would hate to see all the coaching staff's hard recruiting work go to waste.

[Quickzips]

[Hilltopper]

Ease up Rugby, "g" and the "n" are pretty close on the keyboard. Seems like a harmless mistake. I bet Josh is tough and can take it. I fixed it just in case, I would hate to see all the coaching staff's hard recruiting work go to waste.

Thanks for the help Doc. I will give a report after the game. I don't think Green will give Jackson much of a game, but I'm sure it will be entertaining.

[Dave in Green]

I have good new for Zips fans. I went to a high school basketball game and saw a bunch of high school kids play, and one man. Seriously. There were a lot of baby faces out there, and one guy who looked like he was in his 20s. However you spell his name, Josh Egner is an impressive young player. I'll try to put down all my observations and thoughts.First, Egner was playing hurt. Both his ankles were wrapped, and he was clearly limping. But he played every minute of the game. Mark Henniger, his talented teammate who is going to Can't, spent a few minutes on the bench each half resting. Egner looked like he had enough energy to play back-to-back games without a breather on broken ankles. He is one intense dude. He was by far the best athlete on the floor. In warmups he was way above the rim on his layups.The next sign of his athleticism was when he took center court for the tipoff instead of his taller teammate, Henniger. Egner is a huge leaper, and easily controlled the tip. The Jackson offense was pretty basic: Henniger sets up inside, the ball is lobbed to him and he hits 3-footer after 3-footer over the shorter opponents. Henniger has a nice soft touch and good moves for a big man. I just don't know how well that will translate to D1 against players his own size. There's no question that Henniger is good. But he's not as intense as Egner, and my impression is that Egner would be more the kind of player that the Zips really need.Egner's outside shot was off tonight, probably affected by his sore wheels. But he has a nice looking stroke, and I suspect he'd be good for the occasional 3. His real strength is inside, where he's a beast. He fought for the ball like a warrior, and when he got his hands on it, it went down hard. Real hard. On one breakaway, they hit Egner with a pass and he went up over the rim and slammed it so hard that the backboard was rocking. It was an NBA quality slam.Egner also plays good defense. He's quick on his feet, and with his leaping ability, he's a devastating blocker. He really embarassed a couple of Green HS players with his perfectly timed blocks. And speaking of his feet, they're big. From way up in the stands you could see his feet were several sizes larger than anyone else on the court, including the larger Henniger. Don't know if that means that he has any growth spurts left or not. But even if he doesn't grow another inch, he plays taller than his height. He also has quick hands and got a few steals that reminded me of Linhart and Conyers. In fact, Egner strikes me as having a lot of the positive qualities of both Linhart and Conyers -- intensity, athleticism and smarts -- rolled into one package. Discussing Egner's intensity with one of the Jackson fans, he said that Egner had quite a temper. So he may have a little Cvetinovic in him, as well.Coming back to reality, this was my first HS basketball game in more than 40 years. It's hard to tell how a player who looked so good against HS competition will be in D1. But Egner clearly made a good impression on me. He's kind of thin and wiry, so he's going to have to spend time in the weight room. But he strikes me as really tough. He not only plays above his height but above his weight. He's wiry strong, and had no problem moving heavier players around under the basket.He definitely has a presence. The way he walks and carries himself was clearly different from anyone else on the court. He is a tough, hard-nosed player. The word intensity keeps coming back to me. He has that kind of intensity that was so obvious in Tyler Hansbrough. I'm not saying he's a Tyler Hansbrough, but he does have a little of that psycho look in his eyes.I don't think I'm the only one who thinks that the Zips could use a good injection of this type of attitude. I'm really hoping that Egner will hit the JAR running and start contributing right away. I think that all Zips fans are going to really like this guy.

[Hilltopper]

Who says white men can't jump? When Jackson came out on the floor for warmups, there were two big guys. One guy was a clean cut and uninspiring physical specimen, the other was sporting a Mohawk and was bouncing all over the place. After the game started, one was soaring above the rim and playing very physical around the rim. The other powered the ball up against a bunch of short white guys. How about a couple of Lebron like rejections from behind, where the shooter looked around and thought where in the heck did that guy come from? Want to guess which one was the Zips recruit? The guy with the mohawk and the attitude. The best athlete on the floor this evening was Josh Egner by far. This guy has got serious hops. He threw down a breakaway dunk that had the whole backboard standard shaking for a few seconds. The Jackson fans seated near us said he seemed a little subdued and we should have seem him last weekend against Hoover! He did not show much of an outside shot tonight, but I don't think that will be a big part of game with the Zips. To my eye, Egner has way more upside than Henniger. Mark Henniger may be getting all the press on Jacksons team this season, but I wasn't that impressed. The whole Jackson offense is designed to get the ball down low to the center, which was played by Henniger most of the game. Quite a few Zips fans have been complaining about the lack of passion displayed by this years team, Egner oozes passion. I look forward to seeing him in blue and gold for four years.

[GoZips]

John Enger better have an outside shot as the Zips have him penciled in at the three spot.Josh Egner is the coming Nate Linhart/Jimmy Conyers replacement and will start as a Freshman.

[Hilltopper]

John Enger better have an outside shot as the Zips have him penciled in at the three spot.Josh Egner is the coming Nate Linhart/Jimmy Conyers replacement and will start as a Freshman.

What about Green? Where does he fit in? I don't know that I would call J. Conyers an outside shooter, more of a slasher and offensive rebounder.

[GoZips]

John Enger better have an outside shot as the Zips have him penciled in at the three spot.Josh Egner is the coming Nate Linhart/Jimmy Conyers replacement and will start as a Freshman.

What about Green? Where does he fit in? I don't know that I would call J. Conyers an outside shooter, more of a slasher and offensive rebounder.

Jimmy, like Nate and Josh are swing men ... that is, they play the small forward. Some, like Jimmy crashthe boards while others, like Nate, tend to be more on the perimeter. Josh will fill a need at the three.Where do you want Dave Green, Dakotah Euton and Brett McKnight to play? Zeke has the post alongwith Nik Cvetinovic.Oh, I heard a rumbling that the Zips just might be getting a fourth incoming freshman. Details later.

[Dave in Green]

I wouldn't try to judge Egner's outside shooting ability from last night's game. As I said, he had a good stroke but just appeared a little off. Maybe someone can find Egner's season shooting percentage stats. But I've found that detailed HS stats are hard to come by.After seeing him in person, I can easily envision Egner as a defensive stopper. He has the quick feet, speed and leaping ability to stay on top of other team's forwards. If he focuses his intensity on defense, he could earn a lot of PT from KD, and make life miserable for a lot of opposing MAC forwards.Euton definitely has an outside shot. He's one of the better 3-point shooting 6-8 HS forwards in the country. Euton admitted before this season that he needed work on D. Without having seen him play, I can't say how good he is on D this year. But offense has never been a question for Euton. He has range from in the paint to deep 3s, and I believe he hits 3s at a 40%+ rate.The Zips lose 2 key forwards next year in Conyers and C. McKnight, who between them average 46.2 minutes per game and a major percentage of the Zips' frontcourt scoring and rebounding. That's more than half of the 80 minutes that the two forward positions average per game. So there will be a lot of PT to replace, and it's going to be important for at least 2 of the 3 incoming freshmen to adapt quickly to D1.

[Dave in Green]

..... Zeke has the post along with Nik Cvetinovic. .....

Zeke really need to be playing long minutes starting next season for the Zips to go to the next level. A player of his abilities should be on the floor at least 30 minutes per game. Nik deserves a lot more PT than just 10 minutes per game as Zeke's backup. The Zips would be a stronger team with Zeke and Nik on the floor together for more than a couple of minutes a game.

[ZachTheZip]

I only see one of the freshmen playing in their first year. The rest will redshirt. The real question is who transfers to make room? Or does Darryl Robers only have his scholarship for this year and he becomes a walk-on next year?

[Dr Z]

The Zips would be a stronger team with Zeke and Nik on the floor together for more than a couple of minutes a game.

That will happen when they figure out how to stay out of foul trouble.

[Dave in Green]

I only see one of the freshmen playing in their first year. The rest will redshirt. .....

Who gets all of Conyers' and C McKnight's PT?

[ZachTheZip]

I only see one of the freshmen playing in their first year. The rest will redshirt. .....

Who gets all of Conyers' and C McKnight's PT?

All of their playing time? Combined they play just 45 minutes per game thanks to KD's frantic substitution policy.Nikola is now officially listed as a forward on gozips.com. He'll see more playing time with Zeke and Bardo at C. If he averages just 25 minutes a game, that's more than half of the minutes opened up by graduation. The rest can go to the freshman that doesn't get redshirted.

[Quickzips]

Who, if anyone redshirts will likely be based on how well these guys play when they show up, particularly on defense. We certainly will have minutes available in our frontcourt with the loss of Conyers and C.McKnight. Any one or all of these three guys will probably have an opportunity to earn playing time. Personally, my guess would be that Egner and Euton will see some minutes. Egner may eventually earn the chance to start as he will probably be the only pure SF on the roster. I'm really hoping that we aren't going to rely on McClanahan as our primary SF next year. It isn't his natural position and he really doesn't seem to be adjusting well to it right now.

[Dave in Green]

I'd agree that the Zips cannot afford to redshirt 2 of the 3 freshman forwards when they're graduating 2 senior forwards who represent a significant chunk of the Zips frontcourt scoring and rebounding. I'd also agree that Egner and Euton may be the ones who are a little more advanced and prepared for D1 minutes. But then I don't know as much about Green. It will be interesting to see how this plays out next season.

[zip37]

Thanks for the report, it was well written and informative. Mr. Green is doing well also as is Mr. Euton' AND THIS YEAR'S ZIPS, although the APSU & EMU games STILL bother me, but I will get over them, just not real soon

[Quickzips]

For whatever it is worth, my depth chart for next year would look something like this.PG: McNees(with a lot of time at SG as well), Steward with a little bit of HumptySG: Roberts, Humpty, McClanahanSF: Egner, B.McKnight w/ a little bit of McClanahanPF: B.McKnight, Cvetinovic w/ a few minutes for EutonC: Zeke, Cvetinovic and a few minutes for BardoGarbage minutes to Sullivan(if he sticks around), Sweich, Patterson, Oldham and whatever walkon we get to presumably replace Tim Carroll.Redshirt for Green.

[Dave in Green]

Following is a little regular season statistical comparison between Egner and Henniger. Keep in mind that Henniger is the focal point of the Jackson offense and plays mostly a few feet from the bucket, while Egner plays mostly on the wing except when Henniger is on the bench. So Henniger gets more close-in, high-percentage shots as well as more opportunities for rebounds:Player .................... Pts .......... FG % ..... RebJosh Egner ............ 13.3 ........ .568 ....... 7.5Mark Henniger ....... 20.6 ........ .620 ...... 8.9Neither player has a high enough number of assists, free throw percentage or 3-point shooting to appear on the list of top players in these categories.In most of the discussions about the abilities of these two players, the following points are generally mentioned:Henniger is more polished, steady and even-tempered, and is a better overall HS performer with good D1 potential.Egner has more raw athleticism, explosiveness and volatility, and has more potential D1 upside if he has good coaching to polish his skills and channel his emotional energy.Kind of ironic that Can't is getting the preacher's son and UA is getting the volatile one. Canton Rep ArticleJackson plays Massillon in a sectional tournament game Friday, March 5, at 6:15 pm at the Canton Memorial Civic Center.Special note: For those who are concerned about properly spelling players' names, even those going to Can't, Henniger is widely misspelled as Henninger. I had picked up the wrong spelling from a bad source, and have now corrected it in all of my previous posts.EDIT: Rebounds were transposed and are now corrected.

[Quickzips]

So if I am reading all of this correctly these two recruits should help even out this great disparity in athleticism between the Zips and the flushes?

[Dave in Green]

I think it does help even out the perceived "athleticism gap." Egner is said to play above the rim and Henniger below the rim. It also helps even out the "thugism gap" to replace a certain graduating Can't senior with a preacher's son. But reducing things to too simplistic a level can be misleading. What really matters more is how all the players gel and work together as a team. I think Can't will benefit from having a cool, calm, stable player like Henniger to anchor the team, and the Zips will benefit from adding a more volatile, athletic player. But who benefits most will depend on how quickly each of the new players develops, and how they mesh with the rest of the team.I really think it takes a good balance of solid, stable players with good fundamentals along with highly athletic players to make a good team. The most recent U.S. Olympic basketball team benefitted tremendously by having a good mix of athletic superstars and low-key role players. I believe that's a good model for assembling a winning college basketball team.