KD Suggestion Thread

[Dave in Green]

Suggestions are being made in other threads about changes we'd like to see KD make for next season. How about a thread devoted exclusively to that subject. Let's try to stay focused on productive suggestions for next year's program and not go off on tangents.

I'll start off with an unusual suggestion: Do not try to make Josh Egner lose his mohawk or Dakotah Euton shave his beard. Do not treat them like freshmen. Do not jerk them off the floor everytime they make a mistake. From all I can tell, these two guys have great attitudes, and they're both team players and not me-first. They do not need attitude adjustments. They already fit the KD team play philosophy. But let them express themselves a little bit individually, and let that attitude spread among the other players. It's always team first, but not to the exclusion of expressing individuality where it doesn't compromise team play.

I want next season's Zips to look different, walk different, talk different and play different. I want them all to have swagger. I want them all to suck it up when there's a bad call and not get distracted whining to the refs. I want them to be wide-eyed and intense at all times. I want them to run, not jog, back to the defensive end every time they score, and not relax and be lulled into thinking that the other team will also play the game at half speed. I want to see crisp, accurate passing and no lame ducks.

One thing I hope I never see again in my life is a Zips player carrying on an extended discussion with KD resulting in an out-of-bounds pass or steal. That happens way too often, and makes me want to puke. Teach these guys how to play during practice, and trust them to execute in the game. Don't make them keep looking over their shoulders all game to see what the coach wants and distract them from the flow of the game. If they didn't learn it in practice, change the way you teach them. Tell them to keep their undivided focus on the players and not on the coach. Let them make mistakes and deal with it during timeouts.

Another thing I don't want to see from any Zips player is a love-tap foul. The worst thing you can do on defense is to allow an opponent to get an easy bucket, and add a free throw because you touched him without altering the shot. Either do not touch the other player, or touch him in a way that the shot is not likely to go in, but not result in a flagrant foul. This is a teachable skill, and some of the Zips players need remedial lessons.

Accept the fact that allowing players to stay on the floor after they make mistakes may cost a win or two early in the season, but result in building more player confidence and team performance at the end of the season when it really counts.

[Quickzips]

Let's try to stay focused on productive suggestions for next year's program and not go off on tangents.

Good luck with that one. Anyways. A few suggestions.

Humpty needs to play PG more. He isn't an off guard. I understand that he's a home run or nothing kind of guy and that KD's system is predicated more on basehits, but trying to make him play the off guard is handcuffing him. I don't have a problem with McNees starting at PG, but he needs to get a rest a little earlier and a little more often. When he's not on the floor, and even at times when he is, we need to have Humpty at PG.

Free throw shooting has to improve. We have been a bad free throw shooting team up and down the roster for years. When it has gone on this long and with this many players you have to look at it as a coaching thing. I don't know if we need to get a coach in here just to work with the guys on free throws or what it is, but this has to improve.

I would like to see less emphasis in warmups on jump shots. One thing I noticed throughout the year and particularly in the tournament was the Zips running through the layup line once, maybe twice and then everyone is shooting jumpshots while on the other end our opponents were working on getting to the rim and finishing. I can't handle another season of watching blown layups, especially from our post players. Take some emphasis off the jump shooting and teach these guys how to finish inside.

Please do not open the season by playing your walk-ons major minutes over younger players just because they have been with the program longer and you feel safer with them. This kind of gets back to the point about trusting in your players. You recruited the scholarship players for a reason. Trust what you saw in these guys when you offered them a scholarship.

I hate to say it, but we need to work more on adding a zone defense into our system. We threw it at some people at times this year, but usually we were quick to back out of it and go back to man to man. The thing that impressed me most with OU in the tournament was their ability to throw multiple defensive looks at you and confuse you into long scoring droughts. I think if the Zips have the ability to go zone for 4-5 minutes a game and play it at a high level, and throw in some full court pressure a few times a game it would really help a lot.

Please cut back on some of the self-deprication. I know you like to use it as a motivating tool. Telling everyone who will listen that we aren't that good a team yet is a way to keep guys focused on getting better, but I feel like after a while guys start to tune it out. I think that started to happen to us at a few points throughout the year. Call it the Stan Van Gundy syndrome. Sometimes it is ok to say, "you know what, we played some damn good ball today and our guys are looking pretty good." You just have to know what buttons to push and when to push them.

[Akron1]

I just want all of the players to respect Dambrot. It seemed like every time someone is taken out of the game or walking to the locker room at the half, a player was barking at KD. Nikola Cvetinovic was the most common offender. KD is a great coach and these young men need to learn to understand, he is the boss and the players need to do their assigned jobs during the games. I'm sure he is open to discussion about things concerning the flow of the game, but enough is enough. It felt like the Hipsher days.

So my suggestion to KD is to get our players to grow up, keep their mouths shut and continue to make defense our main focus. Also, for the players to have some pride and play like you want to win a tournament (CBI). Those seniors had one last chance at making some history and the Zips looked like that was the last place they wanted to be. I understand how emotional the MAC Tournament was, but the CBI could have helped heal those wounds, it would have helped the MAC and sent our seniors out the right way.

[GP1]

So my suggestion to KD is to get our players to grow up, keep their mouths shut and continue to make defense our main focus.

The players aren't going to change and exhausting time trying to change them is a waste. He needs to treat them like adults and demand performance on the court. It is a different generation, and let's face it, KD is a coach at an average mid major program....not exactly John Wooden. That's the kind of respect a coach at his level gets.

How can they focus more on defense? Are we going to become a Coles coached Miami? Good luck filling the seats with that style and getting good players who want to play that style.

If KD really wants to take it to another level, he needs to loosen up a little and be a little creative.

[Akron1]

So my suggestion to KD is to get our players to grow up, keep their mouths shut and continue to make defense our main focus.

The players aren't going to change and exhausting time trying to change them is a waste. He needs to treat them like adults and demand performance on the court. It is a different generation, and let's face it, KD is a coach at an average mid major program....not exactly John Wooden. That's the kind of respect a coach at his level gets.

How can they focus more on defense? Are we going to become a Coles coached Miami? Good luck filling the seats with that style and getting good players who want to play that style.

If KD really wants to take it to another level, he needs to loosen up a little and be a little creative.

I stand corrected...Cotton, Kool, Bassett and Medlock were shut down.

[Dave in Green]

There should be no debate here that the Zips could use work on both their offense AND defense. In the end it's all about scoring more points than you allow and having more wins and fewer losses.

But given the same number of wins and losses, an exciting, high-scoring offensive team will sell more tickets to Joe Akron than a dull, plodding defensive team.

[GoZips]

If KD really wants to take it to another level, he needs to loosen up a little and be a little creative.

Actually, KD needs to get a lot more creative.

Now this will sound like an oxymoron, but less offensive plays. The Zips have more offensive plays

than the rest of the MAC combined. More with less. More pick 'n roll (almost never run by Akron),

more ball screens, oh, wait, that would require Steve McNees to play his natural position. My bad.

Pound the ball inside more. Having McNees dribbling at the top for twenty-five seconds is not good

offense. Zeke needs to keep the ball high. Zeke needs to learn the ball is a rock, not an egg.

Teach the kids to go hard to the basket. Kill the SOB standing in your way. You might get an

offensive charging call, but that sucker wont get in your way again.

Get rid of the lame "pockets" defense. Anyone notice Green Bay using the classic defensive stance

the entire game? Works, doesn't it? I am so sick of yelling to the kids to get their hands up.

If KD needs a reason to give a kid some bench time ... start with this. If you get beat on the ball,

because your hands are down ... enjoy the pine.

Oh, what's a "pockets" defense, you ask? That's where the defenders look like their hands are in

their shorts pockets. i.e. at their sides instead of in the opponent's face.

Develop all three of the true point guards and play them all every game. Teach them to drive the lane.

Nicola and Darryl are currently our best go to the basket guys. Unfortunately they almost never

get the chance. Steve can dribble drive decently as well.

Forgive me, I am stuck on having a true point guard and converting McNees into rangy, three ball

shooting, lane driving guard. Oh, oh, he'd have to play the two guard slot.

I guess I can't get it through my thick, stupid fan, head that the four hundred grand and arrogant

head coach knows more than me. Well, over all he sure does. I admit that. Now will he admit

that his stubbornness and unwillingness give his kids a chance wrecked this season?

Get a big man (hint: Rick McFadden) to work with the "bigs". Currently a coach who is five foot

tall coaches the "bigs" and the "littles" and sells popcorn during the game. Delegate and trust your

staff more. You have some darn talented coaches and players.

My big beef I saved for last. When a kid is thrown into the dog house his stay should be thirty.

Yes, thirty, not thirty months, not thirty weeks, not thirty games, not thirty days, not thirty hours,

not thirty minutes, but thirty seconds.

[Blue & Gold]

Here watching the Tennessee - San Diego State game & the analyst was speaking of Bruce Pearl. He said Pearl is a master motivator who instills confidence in his player because he sticks with them. Even if a player is not playing particularly well, Bruce has faith in them and sticks with them during the game. This really makes the confidence of his players bloom.

I thought that was a pertinent observation, as I see our players always looking over to the bench to either get chewed out or yanked anytime they make a mistake. Now, I was far from a D-1 college athlete, but I was a good high school athlete. And I know I could never have played for a coach like KD. I would have been crushed. I was always my own worst critic and the last thing in the world my athletic psyche needed was a coach yelling at me. I think this was the biggest problem Jimmy had throughout his UA career.

But, frankly, I can't pretend to understand KD's substitution patterns at all. He also seems to consistently pull players after they've just made a good play - at precisely the time in a game that I'd have my confidence peeking and be ready to get on a roll.

So, in the spirit of this thread, lighten up on the players. Free them up to make mistakes and take chances. There's enough pressure out there without a coach adding to it. If a player makes a mistake, pat them on the butt & teach them what they did wrong. Unless they're total boneheads they don't need to be yelled at so much or put on short, confidence-shaking leashes.

[Dave in Green]

KD says thanks but no thanks on the proposition that the offense needs as much work as the defense. I do like some of what he has to say, such as focusing on championships rather than 20 wins. But if the offense suffers as much as the defense improves, you still end up losing, just by lower overall scores.

I continue to believe that too much focus on improving the defense at the expense of offense could lead to a very unexciting team that will have little appeal to casual spectators. But if the end result is winning big games, that may be enough to please the old hardcore fans as well as potential new fans who like to ride any winner.

KD Interview in ABJ

[Blue & Gold]

Quote from Tom Gaffney's article:

"The more Dambrot talked, the more emotional he got, even suggesting the Zips might become the new Miami of the MAC."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Say it ain't SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My worst nightmares, the nightmares which wake me up with a cold, clamy sweat in the middle of the night, sound like they may come true!

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

[bigzipguy]

Amazing comment from KD: "We should have played in the NCAAs if we guarded"

Hey KD, I do not care how good a defense your team plays, there are sometimes games in which one or more of the other team's guys just completely "go off" in scoring. In thoses cases, your team hs to respond with offense enough to at least stem the tide!!!!

[Blue & Gold]

Amazing comment from KD: "We should have played in the NCAAs if we guarded"

Hey KD, I do not care how good a defense your team plays, there are sometimes games in which one or more of the other team's guys just completely "go off" in scoring. In thoses cases, your team hs to respond with offense enough to at least stem the tide!!!!

Correct. It doesn't sound like the lesson has been learned. The quote should have been, "We should have played in the NCAAs if we hit a big shot," or "We should have played in the NCAAs if we had players to go toe to toe with OU's guards."

Defense isn't the foundational issue. Put me in coach - I'll bust my balls! I'll leave it all on the court!!! I'll give you blood, sweat and tears!!! But you know what? The better teams will still score on me because I'm not a good enough athlete. The foundational issue is that we need a higher caliber of baller!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not more yelling and screaming and stomping of the feet to play more defense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! The proper lesson was not learned!!!!!!! I'm discouraged, demoralized, pissed and, now reading these quotes, becoming without hope in the world!!!!!!

I'm glad I'm not near a bridge.

[bigzipguy]

And another way to look at "guarding" How about slowing them down by making THEM HAVE TO PLAY TOUGH D AGAINST YOUR TEAM BECAUSE YOUR TEAM IS SCORING TOO!!!!!!

[Blue & Gold]

I said in another thread I'd still be getting season tickets, but, honestly, if our idea is to become the new Miami of the MAC, I'll will probably save my money & just hit the few games @ the JAR where the visiting team plays exciting, up-tempo, basketball.

I love the Miami rivalry because I am one of the very few Akron diehards that love to watch the Zips play. I'd pay to watch the Zips scrimmage @ a playground. But I AM IN THE VAST MINORITY OF AKRON-AREA RESIDENTS!!!!! I quit bringing friends to the Miami game a few years ago BECAUSE IT IS NOT FUN TO WATCH! IT IS NOT ENTERTAINING! IT IS BORING! MY FRIENDS HATED IT!!! IT WAS EMBARRASSING TO ME!!!

KD's gotta clarify himself. Like I said elsewhere, I'm no fan of defenseless Pheonix Suns-style ball. But Defense-defense-defense, Miami Redhawks-style ball?!?!?! For the love of all that is decent and holy, please, NO!!!

I hope that what he really means is he's trying to build a tough, Big East style of ballclub. That's cool. That's what I'm going to tell myself so that I don't throw my laptop against the wall.

But BOOOOOOORING, BOOOOOORING, BOOOOOORING Miami-style basketball?!?!?! No thanks, coach! I want to see the JAR fill up. Not become the next Millet Hall.

For crying out loud.

[BirdZip]

It's the culmination of bad perimeter defense and bad post help.

Bad post help was a huge issue--I agree. It was most apparent against UW-GB. Guards will get beat on D or see picks they can't bust through. It was double digits how many times that turned into an uncontested layup with the bigs just watching.

[Dave in Green]

MEMO TO KD:

The "Defense First, Last, and Only" philosophy of the beloved Charlie Coles produced the following results on Friday, March 12, at the Q:

Team ............... 1st Half ... 2nd Half ... Final Score

Ohio Bobcats ........ 21 ............. 33 ............ 54

Miami Redhawks ... 12 ............. 30 ............ 42

Great job of holding the high-powered Ohio offense to just 54 points!

But still a 12-point loss, and a virtually unwatchable game for the fans to boot. With 2 minutes to go in the first half, Miami had collected 9 fouls and scored only 7 points. But boy were they playing great defense.

[meatwad]

MEMO TO KD:

The "Defense First, Last, and Only" philosophy of the beloved Charlie Coles produced the following results on Friday, March 12, at the Q:

Team ............... 1st Half ... 2nd Half ... Final Score

Ohio Bobcats ........ 21 ............. 33 ............ 54

Miami Redhawks ... 12 ............. 30 ............ 42

Great job of holding the high-powered Ohio offense to just 54 points!

But still a 12-point loss, and a virtually unwatchable game for the fans to boot. With 2 minutes to go in the first half, Miami had collected 9 fouls and scored only 7 points. But boy were they playing great defense.

I left at halftime laughing at how miserable both teams (but especially Miami) looked. That was some of the worst basketball I had ever seen.

[Blue & Gold]

MEMO TO KD:

The "Defense First, Last, and Only" philosophy of the beloved Charlie Coles produced the following results on Friday, March 12, at the Q:

Team ............... 1st Half ... 2nd Half ... Final Score

Ohio Bobcats ........ 21 ............. 33 ............ 54

Miami Redhawks ... 12 ............. 30 ............ 42

Great job of holding the high-powered Ohio offense to just 54 points!

But still a 12-point loss, and a virtually unwatchable game for the fans to boot. With 2 minutes to go in the first half, Miami had collected 9 fouls and scored only 7 points. But boy were they playing great defense.

Thank you. I'm saying this tongue in cheek, so nobody freak out, but I'd rather lose an exciting, fun, fast, high-tempo, up & down score-fest-of-a-game than win a game like Miami does. B-ball like that is not worth my $10 ticket. I'd rather watch a movie or read a book or go for a jog or take a nap or watch the Cavs or get a bit to eat or............

[Dr Z]

I think KD is saying it as a threat. "Except my style or I'll play Charlie ball." He is expecting the exact reaction he is getting, than he plays his old style and you guys feel better.

GoZips got it right.

[UA Fan]

MEMO TO KD:

The "Defense First, Last, and Only" philosophy of the beloved Charlie Coles produced the following results on Friday, March 12, at the Q:

Team ............... 1st Half ... 2nd Half ... Final Score

Ohio Bobcats ........ 21 ............. 33 ............ 54

Miami Redhawks ... 12 ............. 30 ............ 42

Great job of holding the high-powered Ohio offense to just 54 points!

But still a 12-point loss, and a virtually unwatchable game for the fans to boot. With 2 minutes to go in the first half, Miami had collected 9 fouls and scored only 7 points. But boy were they playing great defense.

The bloggers were having a hard time watching it..

http://ncaabbs.com/showthread.php?tid=425333

[Dr Z]

I have a KD suggestion. I have seen this done by other teams, so I understand that it is an accepted defensive move....but I HATE it. Guard has the ball at the top of the three point line, Zeke comes up top to double team the guard. Stop doing it Keith. One, I have never seen it create a turnover, two, it gets Zeke out of position to defend the paint, and three, IMO you are taking away what I think is our best defensive weapon...Zeke blocking an inside shot. Like I said, I've seen it done before. Example; Zydrunas Ilgauskas did it all the time with the Cavs, I have never seen it work for him either.

[Dave in Green]

I agree it's a bad idea to bring the center out high to harass a guard when used frequently and predictably. The purpose is to disrupt the offense. But consistent and predictable moves are less disruptive than intermittent and unpredictable moves.

On defense, Zeke's value is highest when he's closest to the bucket. The further out Zeke gets, the more it opens up the lane for the offense. A good offense will usually burn this defensive move by hitting a cutter to the open basket.

I think it's a move that should be used only rarely when the offense is least expecting it, and even more rarely against a quality ball handler who's likely to beat it almost every time.

[Dr Z]

Another suggestion for KD. Teach more "touching" next year.

Scientific study proves, the touchiest teams are the best teams.

More high fives next year!