2010-11 Roster

[Quickzips]

Ok, with yesterdays news the 2010-11 Roster seems to be shaping up.

PG's: McNees, Hitchens, Abreu

SG's: Roberts, McClanahan, Diggs

SF's: McKnight, Green

PF's: Cvetinovic, Egner, Euton

C's: Bardo, Zeke

So now the questions. Who starts? Who comes off the bench? Who redshirts?

[g-mann17]

Ok, with yesterdays news the 2010-11 Roster seems to be shaping up.

PG's: McNees, Hitchens, Abreu

SG's: Roberts, McClanahan, Diggs

SF's: McKnight, Green

PF's: Cvetinovic, Egner, Euton

C's: Bardo, Zeke

So now the questions. Who starts? Who comes off the bench? Who redshirts?

PG's: McNees, Hitchens, Abreu

SG's: Roberts, McClanahan

SF's: McKnight, Green, Diggs

PF's: Cvetinovic, Egner, Euton

C's: Zeke, Bardo

Starters in the first spot. The forwards will be interesting, Egner can slash quite a bit so he could play some small.

[vmd9]

Ok, with yesterdays news the 2010-11 Roster seems to be shaping up.

PG's: McNees, Hitchens, Abreu

SG's: Roberts, McClanahan, Diggs

SF's: McKnight, Green

PF's: Cvetinovic, Egner, Euton

C's: Bardo, Zeke

So now the questions. Who starts? Who comes off the bench? Who redshirts?

PG's: McNees, Hitchens, Abreu

SG's: Roberts, McClanahan

SF's: McKnight, Green, Diggs

PF's: Cvetinovic, Egner, Euton

C's: Zeke, Bardo

Starters in the first spot. The forwards will be interesting, Egner can slash quite a bit so he could play some small.

I'd like to see

Hitchens, McNees, McKnight, Cvetinovic, and Zeke start

[Quickzips]

For my money this is how things would stack up:

Starters:

PG-Alex Abreu: KD is making a statement with the defections and the additions of Abreu and Diggs. That statement is that the backcourt play last year was not acceptable. If you are going to make that statement, you have to go all the way. Abreu has the prep and international experience to be able to throw him into the fire from day one. Judging by his assist numbers against relatively good competition to date he will probably get to campus as our best facilitator off the dribble anyways. Give the kid a shot.

SG-Steve McNees: Everyone knows by now that KD loves him some Steve McNees. It has been hashed out here over and over again that Steve really is more of a SG than a PG (in actuality he is a combo-guard, but whatever). Moving McNees off the ball and putting him next to a passing PG like Abreu would fit his talents very well.

SF-Brett McKnight: Easily our biggest returning offensive threat. Brett has a lot of holes in his game (defense, passing) but he's the only known commodity as a bulk scorer for us. Add to that the fact that all of our other SF options are either true freshman with little experience at this level (Green) or guys playing out of position (Cvetinovic, Egner, McClanahan) and Brett is the obvious choice.

PF-Nikola Cvetionovic: Experience is a big issue here as neither Euton or Egner have played at this level before. I expect both to be good in time, but Nik has shown that he deserves the opportunity to start. He's solid on defense and has some tricky post moves on the offensive end. If he improves his free throw shooting and comes into the preseason with his head on straight he should be the starting PF.

C-Zeke Marshall: Does anyone really expect Bardo to push Zeke for the starting spot? Didn't think so. Zeke started to pick his game up at the end of the season and will be given every opportunity to build on that to start the new year.

Primary Backups:

PG-Anthony "Humpty" Hitchens: At this point in his career I really think the best fit for Humpty would be to take over the Cedrick Middleton role of sparkplug coming off the bench. His raw speed from baseline to baseline makes him tough to defend. He's more of a scoring PG than a facilitator, and he will always have the propensity for maddening mistakes, but sometimes you need to just put the ball in your most electric players hands and watch the results.

SG-Daryl Roberts: Even despite the injuries and inconsistent play last year KD stuck by Roberts, and I don't think that will change in his senior year. Daryl started coming back around to his 2008-2009 form in the conference tournament. Some time to let the injuries heal up and I think he will be just fine.

SG/SF-Quincy Diggs: Again, you can't make the kind of statement that yesterdays news makes and not have Diggs play. I would like to see him play more SG for matchup reasons, but his size and our glaring lack of experience and depth at the SF position means he will probably play more 3 than 2.

PF/C-Dakotah Euton: I envision Euton as something of a Rob Preston type for us. A big guy who can come in and bang around on the glass but has the ability to step out and knock down the 3. Euton on the floor will open things up big time for Zeke, Nik and Brett to work their magic down low.

End of the bench:

SG/SF-Brett McClanahan: Brett regressed quite noticeably (which is ironic b/c he wasn't all that good as a freshman) last year. Unless he has a major breakthrough over the summer and picks it up I don't expect to see a lot of minutes for him next year.

C-Mike Bardo: At this point in his career we all know exactly what Mike is and what he brings to the team. He's an unskilled big body to take up a few minutes in the middle, give our primary bigs a breather and make things tougher on opposing bigs by distributing hard fouls.

Redshirts:

SF-Michael Green: Easily the least heralded of our incoming freshmen. Hard to imagine him getting a lot of playing time unless Brett McKnight just can't make the transition to SF or injuries arise.

SF/PF-Josh Egner: I know this is going to cause some controversy on here, but I really think Egner would be a nice candidate for a redshirt. He has a lot of potential, but is still very raw as a player. He's a kid who could probably benefit the most from a year of intense coaching to hone his skills more than anything before letting him loose on the MAC.

[Dave in Green]

As always, appreciate your thoughtful analysis, Quickzips. The only thing I'll say about your redshirt scenario is that the Zips graduated 2 key forwards who between them played lots of minutes. The team is not deep in forwards, and redshirting 2 of the 3 incoming forwards leaves the Zips a little thin up front.

Conyers and C McKnight were not just scorers, but were strong rebounders as well. I just can't see the Zips relying on a tall but skinny incoming guard (Quincy Diggs) to be an adequate replacement for either of those 2 graduating senior forwards. I think they can only afford to redshirt 1 of the 3 incoming forwards, and my guess would be Green, not Egner.

[mes102]

As always, appreciate your thoughtful analysis, Quickzips. The only thing I'll say about your redshirt scenario is that the Zips graduated 2 key forwards who between them played lots of minutes. The team is not deep in forwards, and redshirting 2 of the 3 incoming forwards leaves the Zips a little thin up front.

Conyers and C McKnight were not just scorers, but were strong rebounders as well. I just can't see the Zips relying on a tall but skinny incoming guard (Quincy Diggs) to be an adequate replacement for either of those 2 graduating senior forwards. I think they can only afford to redshirt 1 of the 3 incoming forwards, and my guess would be Green, not Egner.

+1

[zip37]

Quick--you gotta remembersome of those 'moves' of Nik were done shuffling th e feet first, then putting the ball on the floor, and you know what that's called.

[UAZip0510]

Beginning of the year:

PG: Abreu/Hitchens

SG: McNees/Roberts/McClanahan

SF: McKnight/Diggs

PF: Cvetinovic/Euton/Egner

C: Zeke/Bardo

Redshirt: Green

Tourney Time:

PG: Abreu/Hitchens

SG: McNees/Roberts/McClanahan

SF: McKnight/Diggs

PF: Egner/Euton

C: Zeke/Cvetinovic/Bardo

KD didn't bring Abreu and Diggs here to sit...they will play major minutes

[Blue & Gold]

I like how UAZip0510 distinguished between the beginning of the year lineup and the tourney-time lineup. I'm lazy, so I'll just toss this out. Nothing revolutionary here.

PG: Abreu, Humpty

2G: McNees, Roberts

3F: McKnight, Diggs

4F: Euton, Egner

5C: Zeke, Nik

I know, I know. That's awfully young @ the 4-spot.

[Quickzips]

After seeing Dambrot's quote regarding Diggs in Rasor's blog, have to modify some things a bit.

Starters:

PG-Alex Abreu

SG-Steve McNees

SF-Quincy Diggs

PF-Brett McKnight

C-Zeke Marshall

Primary Backups:

PG-Humpty Hitchens

SG-Daryl Roberts

SF/PF-Nikola Cvetinovic

PF/C-Dakotah Euton

[Dave in Green]

I've seen no explanation yet about how a 6-6, 195-lb guard at UNO suddenly becomes a forward at UA. Quincy Diggs has been listed as a guard in every reference from his high school days through prep school through college.

[Blue & Gold]

I've seen no explanation yet about how a 6-6, 195-lb guard at UNO suddenly becomes a forward at UA. Quincy Diggs has been listed as a guard in every reference from his high school days through prep school through college.

+1. I was thinking the same thing. He was a guard @ UNO. He should be a guard for us too. Enough w/ the 6' backcourts. Let's put a lineup on the floor that is more physically imposing.

[Dave in Green]

I'm perplexed by Mike Rasor's latest blog comments about the Zips 2010-11 roster. He suggests that Michael Green may back up Zeke Marshall and Mike Bardo at center. Green is 6-6 and 200 pounds. I believe most everyone else sees 6-8, 230-pound Dakotah Euton as more likely to fill this role if needed than the smaller, thinner Green.

In the past, I might have thought that Rasor had some special insight on this. But after his recent blog statement about Darryl Roberts playing as a walk-on this past season when he was actually a scholarship player, I wondered if maybe Rasor's mind was more on politics these days than basketball.

His latest statement putting Green at center next season makes me wonder even more.

Rasor's Blog Link

[GoZips]

Dave, I agree with you. Rasor is some where out in left field.

Abreu was recruited specifically to play point guard. He already has a year of prep school which

is roughly equivalent to being a JUCO transfer with one year of junior college.

To speculate that the coaches like having McNees at the point is pure personal feeling and not fact.

Steve is a great competitor. He leaves it all out on the floor. The point is not his strong suit. Having

a player stand at the top of the key and dribble for 20-25 seconds is not good basketball.

None of the guards, other than Steve, manned up and took control of the point. That is why two of

them are no longer here. Abreu, from what I have been told, is a true point guard, and plays the

position well.

Steve can be far more productive as a shooting guard. Now, where does that leave Darryl Roberts?

I don't know. My speculation would be that Darryl backs up Steve at the two hole.

I was told, by a coach, that Diggs will play the small forward. He can be dropped into the two hole

in some configurations. Supposedly, Diggs is a pretty good player.

Green is never going to be shoved into the post. At six-six he would get eaten alive. That

said, could he be part of a three forward configuration? That is a possibility. Such a rotation would

not have Green posting up.

This is a major overhaul of the team. Oddly, a 24-11 season was not a good season. Frankly, it

sucked and was way below expectations and abilities. Something had to give. One has to wonder

if the chemistry of the team ever jelled. I think not.

At first I was shocked by the huge changes. As I ponder them I see how much benifit this can produce.

I expect next season to be a better year than this past rather disappointing year.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Dave, I agree with you. Rasor is some where out in left field.

Abreu was recruited specifically to play point guard. He already has a year of prep school which

is roughly equivalent to being a JUCO transfer with one year of junior college.

To speculate that the coaches like having McNees at the point is pure personal feeling and not fact.

Steve is a great competitor. He leaves it all out on the floor. The point is not his strong suit. Having

a player stand at the top of the key and dribble for 20-25 seconds is not good basketball.

None of the guards, other than Steve, manned up and took control of the point. That is why two of

them are no longer here. Abreu, from what I have been told, is a true point guard, and plays the

position well.

Steve can be far more productive as a shooting guard. Now, where does that leave Darryl Roberts?

I don't know. My speculation would be that Darryl backs up Steve at the two hole.

I was told, by a coach, that Diggs will play the small forward. He can be dropped into the two hole

in some configurations. Supposedly, Diggs is a pretty good player.

Green is never going to be shoved into the post. At six-six he would get eaten alive. That

said, could he be part of a three forward configuration? That is a possibility. Such a rotation would

not have Green posting up.

This is a major overhaul of the team. Oddly, a 24-11 season was not a good season. Frankly, it

sucked and was way below expectations and abilities. Something had to give. One has to wonder

if the chemistry of the team ever jelled. I think not.

At first I was shocked by the huge changes. As I ponder them I see how much benifit this can produce.

I expect next season to be a better year than this past rather disappointing year.

Coming back to the board after three weeks of being out-of-town, I grade this one:

[Quickzips]

At this point we really don't know anything for sure. This is going to be a very different offseason than last year. Last year the only real questions in the roster were who replaces Linhart at SF and how many minutes does Zeke earn/when does he take the starting C spot over? This year we are going to have question marks up and down the roster. There are certain guys (Zeke, McNees, Roberts, McKnight, Cvetinovic, Humpty) that I think it is safe to say will be in the rotation. The bigger question marks for a lot of them is what position do they play and for how many minutes (McNees at PG or SG? McKnight at SF or PF, Humpty starting or coming off the bench?) The real big question is what happens with all the newcomers. KD's history suggests that freshman don't always get an opportunity to produce over returning, known commodities. But KD's history also doesn't suggest that three players walk away from the program and get replaced by prep-schoolers and transfers. Something is obviously changing here. I can't imagine that KD carves out playing time for 5 newcomers when he has 6-8 returning, contributing players, but you never know. I do know one thing, fall camp is going to be VERY interesting.

[Dr Z]

Abreu was recruited specifically to play point guard. He already has a year of prep school which is roughly equivalent to being a JUCO transfer with one year of junior college. To speculate that the coaches like having McNees at the point is pure personal feeling and not fact. Steve is a great competitor. He leaves it all out on the floor. The point is not his strong suit. Having a player stand at the top of the key and dribble for 20-25 seconds is not good basketball.

The fact that the staff addressed the point guard position pleases me more than anything. I was going to have a hard time getting excited for next year if nothing happened. Now, I am intrigued for next season. My favorite quote from KD about Alex "ability to make others better around him". THAT's what we need at PG. I hope it pans out that way.

[ZachTheZip]

Bardo had transformed himself into a decent MAC-level center by the end of the MAC Championship year. If he still has it, he should get be on the court maybe 8 minutes a game. He should be out there whenever Zeke is resting. There should never not be a center on the court for the Zips, except when we go small which shouldn't be often any more. This past season we showed that we didn't really know how to take advantage of having a center on offense. Playing with one constantly on the floor will allow the players and coaches some level of comfort by the time MAC play starts.

[Quickzips]

Bardo had transformed himself into a decent MAC-level center by the end of the MAC Championship year. If he still has it, he should get be on the court maybe 8 minutes a game. He should be out there whenever Zeke is resting. There should never not be a center on the court for the Zips, except when we go small which shouldn't be often any more. This past season we showed that we didn't really know how to take advantage of having a center on offense. Playing with one constantly on the floor will allow the players and coaches some level of comfort by the time MAC play starts.

I don't know what Bardo you were watching, but it wasn't the same one I saw. By the end of the championship seasons his minutes had been cut back (from high teens to low 20's to start the season to barely getting 10 minutes a lot of nights in the stretch run) and Cvetinovic was our primary C. I don't know why we have to keep going over the Bardo situation on here so much. He is who he is. He can give you 5-10 minutes here and there where all he does is eat up space on the interior and dish out some hard fouls. Nothing more, nothing less. He is the classic example of a guy who is big, but lacks anything close to solid basketball skills. That doesn't mean he doesn't have a place on this team, but to say that we need to have him on the court any time Zeke isn't is an overstatement. If we can get more than just some hard fouls and taking up space inside out of moving a guy like Cvetinovic or Euton over to the C spot when Zeke needs a blow then Mike won't be seeing a lot of playing time.

[mes102]

I just don't see Nik as a center on defense...he just seems to small...I could see as a PF, not a C...

Here's my lineup with the starters in blue, and red for redshirt:

PG: Abreu, McNees, Hitchens

SG: Hitchens, Roberts, Green, Petersen

SF: Egner, B. McKnight, Diggs, Oldham

PF: Bardo, Euton, Cvetinovic

C: Marshall, Bardo, Euton

[Dave in Green]

I just don't see Nik as a center on defense...he just seems to small...I could see as a PF, not a C...

Here's my lineup with the starters in blue, and red for redshirt:

PG: Abreu, McNees, Hitchens

SG: Hitchens, Roberts, Green, Petersen

SF: Egner, B. McKnight, Diggs, Oldham

PF: Bardo, Euton, Cvetinovic

C: Marshall, Bardo, Euton

Cvetinovic and Euton are both listed at 6-8, 230 pounds, so they couldn't be any closer in size. As far as backup time for Zeke, it really depends on which one of them is more skilled at playing the center position, and it may even change depending on who they're matching up against.

Many teams don't even have true centers listed on their rosters, just forwards and guards. So many teams simply play 3 forwards and 2 guards or 2 forwards and 3 guards. While it isn't absolutely necessary for the Zips to have a true center on the floor at all times, sometimes it can be an advantage depending on matchups. At 6-10, 240, Bardo has a little extra beef to handle big opposing centers, while Cvetinovic and Euton may match up better against smaller opposing centers or big forwards playing the center position.

Personally, I'd like to see KD experiment in certain situations with a single guard playing the point and 4 frontcourt players 6-6 or taller. We already know that the 6-6 Diggs can play wing guard, and perhaps the 6-6 Green might also be able to swing from wing forward to wing guard.

This big Zips lineup would require either that Abreu turns out to be really good at bringing the ball upcourt by himself as well as distributing the ball, or one of the returning point guards makes major improvements in the area of ball handling and distribution. In that case, having the other 4 Zips on the court all being 6-6 or taller could cause a lot of matchup problems for opposing teams, especially if all the taller Zips players on the floor are capable of attacking the basket.

I'm really looking forward to next season because there are so many new players with interesting possibilities, because Zeke should be closer to showing his full true potential, and because KD appears to be open to change.

[Quickzips]

The more I think about this, the more I expect our starting lineup to look something like this:

PG-Abreu

SG-McNees

SF-Diggs

PF-McKnight

C-Marshall

I think the comment about Diggs giving us a true SF tells us as just as much about what the coaching staff thinks of Brett McKnight as it does what they think of Diggs. I think they really want to keep Brett at PF as opposed to trying to make him switch to SF. I still think the coaching staff likes Steve too much to fully take him out of the starting lineup, but the recruitment of Abreu is a clear indication that they realize Steve is limited as a PG. Zeke is probably the only obvious starter. Your backups would then look as such:

PG-Hitchens/McNees

SG-Roberts/Hitchens

SF-Egner/McClanahan

PF-Cvetinovic/Egner/Euton

C-Cvetinovic/Euton/Bardo

[Dave in Green]

One of my concerns with any Zips lineup is rebounding, as they've lost their two leading rebounders from this season -- Conyers and C. McKnight. I hope there are players willing to step up, become more focused on rebounding, and fill the gap left by the departure of those two.

B. McKnight was actually the 3rd leading rebounder for the Zips this season, slightly ahead of the taller Cvetinovic. If McKnight can be convinced that he will have greater value to the team as a rebounder than a shooter, he has the beef (245 pounds) to establish his presence closer to the basket.

I'd really like to see more balanced shooting next season as opposed to having McKnight among the national leaders in percentage of his team's shots taken while he's on the floor.

[fja5007]

The more I think about this, the more I expect our starting lineup to look something like this:

PG-Abreu

SG-McNees

SF-Diggs

PF-McKnight

C-Marshall

I think the comment about Diggs giving us a true SF tells us as just as much about what the coaching staff thinks of Brett McKnight as it does what they think of Diggs. I think they really want to keep Brett at PF as opposed to trying to make him switch to SF. I still think the coaching staff likes Steve too much to fully take him out of the starting lineup, but the recruitment of Abreu is a clear indication that they realize Steve is limited as a PG. Zeke is probably the only obvious starter. Your backups would then look as such:

PG-Hitchens/McNees

SG-Roberts/Hitchens

SF-Egner/McClanahan

PF-Cvetinovic/Egner/Euton

C-Cvetinovic/Euton/Bardo

Are you serious with that quote that the addition of Abreu is a clear indication that they realize Steve is limited as a PG. I think its an EXTREMELY CLEAR indication that Steve is a senior and someone has to be the PG once he graduates. That comment was just silly

[Quickzips]

The more I think about this, the more I expect our starting lineup to look something like this:

PG-Abreu

SG-McNees

SF-Diggs

PF-McKnight

C-Marshall

I think the comment about Diggs giving us a true SF tells us as just as much about what the coaching staff thinks of Brett McKnight as it does what they think of Diggs. I think they really want to keep Brett at PF as opposed to trying to make him switch to SF. I still think the coaching staff likes Steve too much to fully take him out of the starting lineup, but the recruitment of Abreu is a clear indication that they realize Steve is limited as a PG. Zeke is probably the only obvious starter. Your backups would then look as such:

PG-Hitchens/McNees

SG-Roberts/Hitchens

SF-Egner/McClanahan

PF-Cvetinovic/Egner/Euton

C-Cvetinovic/Euton/Bardo

Are you serious with that quote that the addition of Abreu is a clear indication that they realize Steve is limited as a PG. I think its an EXTREMELY CLEAR indication that Steve is a senior and someone has to be the PG once he graduates. That comment was just silly

You're new to the board, so I'm not going to rip you too much for that. Suffice it to say that Steve IS a very limited PG. This debate has been hashed to death here for most of two seasons. Yes, Steve doesn't turn the ball over much, but his assist numbers are well below what you would expect out of a D-I point and he struggles to set up the offense. Far too often you can find him still frantically dribbling near the time line when the shot clock is inside 20 seconds. As a point he is almost a liability when it comes to running a fast break. Probably his biggest liability is trying to bring the ball up against quicker defensive PG (as well as trying to defend quicker PG's himself) Steve is a good player for us, but he is not enough of a facilitator to be a full-time PG. He is a combo guard that should be playing mostly at the two and playing backup minutes at PG.

If you don't believe that the addition of Abreu has anything to do with Steve's limitations you need to check out some of the comments from the Basketball Banquet about Alex starting at PG with Steve sliding over to SG. You can find them here:

http://zipsnation.org/forums//index.php?showtopic=18239